where even a grown up can be a kid

For the long weekend, David and I headed up to Ohio to help celebrate Brianna's birthday, and to just hang out with the fam. It had been far too long.

Our Saturday started off with a lovely breakfast with the Pechan family, who we just adore. I hate that we didn't take any pictures because we had a lovely time catching up. Hannah is getting ready to move to Colorado to start her MBA, and we are looking forward to finding a time to go visit!

After breakfast, the party literally got started. Brianna chose Chuck E. Cheese for her birthday party location, and boy was David excited! He was determined to break some records, and he achieved his goal on every (adult-ish) game but skee ball. Quite an accomplishment! Ha! We had a great time with the Johnsons, Geyers and Brianna's cute little friends. I can't believe she is 6.

the birthday girl, David's brother Mike and his son Matthias

 she's started calling me "Emmy" and I LOVE it, the cute Johnson family- see the babies??

 

 

pizza, Uncle David and the main man- Chuck E. Cheese

 

 mid-party headache, super cute little girl

 

She got to take a turn in the wind tunnel thing to try and collect extra tickets. It was SO cute!

 

siblings. love them!

Brianna and her twin siblings will be the same distance apart in age as Beth and David, and I think that is so fun. They are close enough that they love each other, but not so close that they ever really fought (I mean, they fought, but nothing like me and my 2-year-and-a-day-a-part sister :) ). The Lord knows what he's doing when he plans our families, huh?!

The rest of our Memorial Day weekend in Ohio is to be continued...

lots of fun with baby Ella

Since my weekend plans were out the window, I had time to hang out with David and continue celebrating baby Ella! We visited with them in the hospital Saturday (David hung out with them most of the night on Friday too), and we wanted to do something special to welcome them home on Sunday. Inspired by this post and tutorial, we made a balloon banner (but a much, much smaller one).

My cute husband was super into it, and we had a lot of fun working together! It makes me excited to think that one day we'll be planning our (future) kids' birthday parties, and D will be so great at that!

Later Sunday night, we brought a cake and hung out with Jodi's parents who were visiting from Michigan.

I've been loving taking pictures of Ella. I'm still learning my way around my camera, especially when a flash in a newborn's face isn't much of an option, and I occasionally get a picture I'm happy with (out of hundreds). I'm shooting mostly with my 50mm, which adds another element to the learning curve!

This picture had us rolling on the floor laughing. It was just a random face she made, and I happened to have the camera ready to capture it. Hilarious!

lots more pictures here

40 miles in 7 hours

Last weekend, after reveling the excitement of baby Ella's birth, I jumped in the car and headed south. Several of my college girlfriends had planned a weekend getaway to the Orange Beach area, and I was so excited to catch up with them and lounge on the beach. I knew it was going to be a super short trip, but it was going to be worth it to spend time in the car with some of my besties.

So, I met Kara at her apartment, we fearlessly braved downtown Birmingham and picked Jen up from the Greyhound station (yes, Greyhound station), and we were off!

Fast forward lots of hours: we were parked on 65 south about 40 miles south of Birmingham. We later learned (when the mood shifted from slap happy to stir crazy) that a gas truck of some sort had flipped on 65, and the cleanup was literally taking all day. We got off on the first exit possible, which was unfortunately not soon enough. In the end, we spent seven hours driving to and from Kara's house in Birmingham. We ended up spending the night there, and Kara and Jen made it to the beach Saturday morning. I decided not to spend three straight days in the car for a few hours at the beach with the girls, which was an excruciating decision to make... but the right one for sure.

The plus side? Seven uninterrupted hours in the car with these two:

passing the time by steering with heads, feet

I had an amazing college experience, and I made some wonderful friends. Kara and Jen are two of these girls, and I love, love, love both of them.

So, it wasn't all for naught :)

Baby Bo is...

a GIRL!

Ella Dorothy Bogensberger arrived this morning at 2:59am, weighing 6lbs, 2oz and 18 inches long. She is PERFECT, and Jodi did so, so well! Greg has not stopped smiling for the past 24 hours, and they couldn't be a happier little family. Praise the Lord!

more pics here

it's almost time!

Jodi and I just had our "last supper" before baby Bo comes tomorrow!! I can not wait to meet this precious addition to our "family"!

*Becca and I did the same thing the day before she was induced with KJ!

small group

love. this. group!

project for baby Bo

Several months ago we started a big project for Greg and Jodi's baby. Jodi and I found a great glider rocker at Goodwill for $30, but the cushions had all seen better days. We figured we could tackle recovering them

before

Greg and David worked on peeling the wallpaper in the kitchen while we did rocker stuff.

We also thought this would be a good opportunity to teach Jodi how to sew. Turns out, a project like this really isn't the right time for a sewing lesson... we'll have to come back to that. 

So, the project took a little longer than planned, but the good news is: it is finished! And, in time for baby Bo to arrive (he/she isn't here yet... TODAY is the due date!)!

I wanted to make the arm covers removable because, well, they will probably get projectile vomit/poop/spit up/etc. on them at some point. Let's be honest. 

Finished!

besties

take one

take two

take three

take four

baby Lawhorn, pizza and Mother's Day

Sarah's shower Saturday marked three baby showers in seven days for me!

It was so fun to celebrate baby L's upcoming arrival with friends and Sarah's family!

After Sarah's shower I had just enough time to change and rest for a few minutes before heading to church (we still LOVE Saturday night church). We had planned to go to the Chattanooga FC game, but church was longish so we all decided against it. Instead, we went to Hill City Pizza (thanks, LivingSocial!) with the Bogs and the Ehingers. It was a great evening to sit outside and enjoy our friends (but most people didn't enjoy their food so much... oh well.)

you can hardly tell Jodi is pregnant!!

Sunday was Mother's Day, but other than phone calls to our moms we didn't do much to celebrate. Their gifts were mailed on time (for once), but we seriously missed being together. My whole family was together (Greg is home for the summer!), and I was feeling very sad all weekend. Four hours isn't very far, but when every weekend is packed full of stuff, it's too far away to be together as regularly as I would like.

I spent most of the day at the Rock City Southern Blooms Festival selling JL Cookbooks. It was party fine and partly super annoying, but whatever. Two shifts down, three to go! Because our book club (and every other one in America) read Water for Elephants, we went with Greg and Jodi to see the movie. David was the only one of us who hadn't read the book (surprise, surprise), and he LOVED the movie! We all really did.

David made shredded beef and mashed potatoes as we enjoyed probably our last night dinner with the Bogensbergers before Baby Bo makes his/her debut! This should be an exciting week :)