St. George Island

We spent a FABULOUS week at the beach with some of our dear friends & neighbors last week. All in all there were 5 couples & 4 kiddos--ALL 5 couples are expecting babies some time in the next several months!

Our good friends, Cori & Phil, invited us to come to their family's beach house in St. George Island and it was absolute paradise! Cori & Phil braved an entire week with 4 toddlers and "Aunt Cori" & "Uncle Phil" were absolutely AWESOME (not that we expected anything different!) with them :) They are expecting their first son in October and little Cooper is gonna be one blessed & well loved little boy!

We spent the majority of our days beachside, but when we weren't playing in the sand we were swimming in the pool, riding all over the island in the golf cart (Owen referred to it as the tractor), playing games, going on walks, getting shaved ice, eating delicious meals, and enjoying time with sweet friends. We even found time to have a night out without kids--the first night the ladies headed out while the fellas kept the kids and the next night we switched & the guys headed out while the ladies stayed at home. The guys even managed to squeeze in a little fishing too.

Thank you again Cori & Phil for inviting us to come to your beautiful beach house! We had an absolutely AMAZING time!!! I had way too many pictures to post so I created a sideshow instead...

Maternity Pictures

A few weeks ago, my sweet friend & business partner, who is also a professional photographer, Karen Baker of Karen Baker Photography did a maternity photo shoot with our family. We went to a local park nearby and had a great session with absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather! Karen really got some AMAZING shots of our family & we are so thankful that she once again shared her talents with us to capture such a sweet time of expectation as we await Evan's arrival. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart Karen, there are no words to describe how grateful I am for this amazing gift you've given us! I apologize in advance for the amount of pictures I've posted, but it's just so hard to narrow it down! Here are some of our favorites...

Stomach Bug :(

Yep, this picture pretty much sums up our past week :(

Owen has been battling a stomach bug & it has been NO fun at all! We were woken up in the wee hours of the morning on Monday and well...I'll spare the details, but let's just say Tony & I were up for several hours...um, cleaning. Thankfully Owen's gotten progressively better over the week, but he's still not back at 100%. At this point, I'm not sure if Owen is more "sick" of being sick or of being cooped up inside with me all week, but either way, we're both EQUALLY ready to be rid of this nasty bug. Nothing worse than when your little guy is feeling bad & there's nothing you can do to make um "peel better" {translation: feel better} as Owen would say. Here's to hoping the weekend brings with it a healthy little guy with all his energy back!

Mother's Day

I had an absolutely, perfectly, wonderful Mother's Day with a whole lotta thanks to my two AMAZING fellas for making me feel extra special :) Started off the day by Tony getting up with Owen so I could sleep a little longer. I woke up a short while later to a super yummy smell coming from the kitchen so I wandered downstairs to be greeted by some delicious croissant french toast with homemade strawberry syrup & the perfect cup of coffee. No words for how scrumptious this breakfast was. For real. After breakfast we all headed to church where our pastor delivered a very special & inspiring message & Owen made me an extra special Mother's Day magnet with his cute little thumbprint on it in Sunday School :) Then it was home for lunch & naps before we headed out on a family hike in the park behind our house. Hands down, this time was the highlight of my entire day. Surrounded by God's amazing beauty, the three of us spent some special family time just walking, talking & enjoying each others' company. It is moments like this that I know I will absolutely treasure forever.
I am grateful beyond words to my Lord & Savior who has blessed me & charged me with the role of motherhood. As children, some people aspire to be teachers, doctors, or lawyers when they are older, but as long as I can remember, I have always known God was calling me to motherhood. It is a lifelong dream that I get to live out every single day & I am so thankful that He's selected me to carry out His work through raising my children--HIS children--that he has chosen to bless me with.

It is a privileged & honor to be the mother of such an amazingly wonderful little boy & I have no words to describe the excitement I have at meeting his little brother in just a few short months!!!

...And speaking of thankful...
I am forever thankful & blessed by two very important mothers in my life--my mother & my mother in law--who are a constant source of support, encouragement, & advice. They have taught me more about motherhood that I could ever learn from anywhere else & I thank God for the blessings that they are in my life every single day.
Happy Mother's Day to you both & I love you very much!!!

Race for the Cure

On Saturday, a group of my sweet neighbor girls & I participated in the Susan G. Komen Atlanta 5K Race for the Cure.

Team Timbaladies (as we named our team) met bright & early & headed down to Atlanta for our big race together. We had a great time visiting and chatting as we walked our 3.1 miles on a crisp, cool Atlanta morning (and Praise God for the great weather--it was almost 100 degrees the day before!!!) though as Brianne put it, "this race would be better named 'Crawl for the Cure' with all these people!" With the 15,000+ participants that were there, it wasn't quite the vigorous power walking session we'd envisioned, but we had a great time and it was all for a great cause! I also might add that 4 out of the 5 women on our team are pregnant so we got quite a few stares & remarks, all in good fun of course, but that paired with our pink tie dyed t-shirts, we must have stuck out a little bit ;)

Team Timbaladies
Melissa, Brianne, Hannah, Sara & Elisabeth
*missing our faithful captain Coco & Sara's SIL, Michele!*

Almost race time!

Mid-race "traffic jam"

Preggo Pink Ladies & their baby bumps :)

Checking in at the 7 month mark :)

Good grief, 28 weeks...already?! How can that even be?! I still can't believe how fast this pregnancy is flying by! I don't really have any new updates to report...I am still just so blessed & grateful that God has blessed me with a wonderful pregnancy thus far. Aside from occasionally not sleeping well, I'm feeling so great with plenty of energy. Good thing too because Owen isn't slowing down for anything ;) that little man keeps me busy, busy running after him all day long!

I love, love feeling Evan kicking & moving around in there. He's pretty predicable with his most active time typically being in the late evening before I head to bed, but I do feel him periodically throughout the day as well. Evan is especially active when I'm tucking Owen into bed for the night as I sing to him. Being right there with my two precious boys and having that sweet quiet time is something I will absolutely treasure forever.

With this growing belly there's no mistaking I'm pregnant now & people often stop to ask me when I'm due and other questions about my pregnancy. I still feel smaller than I did when I was pregnant with Owen, but don't misunderstand...I definitely do feel & look pregnant for sure :) Here are a few pics of my officially third trimester belly...

Zoo Trip

While Tony was on Spring Break, we took Owen on his first trip to the zoo! He is really into animals these days so we knew he would love it...and he really did! He lasted a good solid 2 hours before he ran out of steam & was ready for lunch :) It was Spring Break for Beebee {my mom} too so she came with us as well. After the zoo we had a picnic in a nearby park where Owen enjoyed "blowing out" the dandelions & running around a little more. Here are some cute pictures from our zoo trip... In the petting zoo

Hey, whatcha doin' pig?

What a hard life!

Checking out the rhinos with Beebee

Those gorillas are pretty cool!

Watching more gorillas with Daddy

Looking for flowers on our picnic

Getting a little help from Beebee

I found a good one!

Ready!...Set!...

...Blow it out!

Play Group

We are BEYOND blessed to have absolutely wonderful neighbors who have become some of the greatest friends we could ever ask for...and as an added bonus, many of the ladies are stay at home mamas like myself who have children right around the same age as Owen. Put that all together & what do you get...a FANTASTIC PLAY GROUP!!!!!

God is so good to have put these people in our lives and not only I am grateful to have other mamas to talk to & get advice from who are going through the same season in their lives as me but, as a parent, I am so grateful to have these amazing, precious children as friends for Owen to grow up with.

We have so, so much fun with our play group! Especially now that it's getting warmer, we are soaking up the sunshine, playing on the playground, going on picnics, watching the kiddos play in the sprinklers, and so many more fun outdoor activities!
Our sweet play group kiddos
Jack, Austyn, Hunter, Owen, Xan & Luke
(missing Molly!)

Play group mamas
Brianne, Melanie, Sara, Hannah, Nicole, & Karen
(missing Elisabeth!)

Austyn, Hunter, Owen & Molly
Enjoying the warm weather in the kiddie pool

Owen & Austyn
playing in the sprinkler
Owen, Austyn & Hunter
thinking about taking a run through the sprinkler

Our Savior Has Risen!

We had a very blessed Easter this year. We started out our morning with a great service at church. It was so wonderful & humbling to reflect on how much God loves us & how grateful we are that He send His son, our Redeemer, to die for our sins. Church was followed by lunch at my parents' house with both sides of the family. Tony's brother, Chris, & his girlfriend, Lauren joined us as well so the only people missing were Matt & Lindsey (who are slowly making their way back from CO for the summer so we're super excited to see them soon!) Here are some pictures from our wonderful Easter Sunday... So excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought!

Little cutie in his Easter best :)