Father's Day

"Two Girls"

I started to title this post Happy Father's Day, but you don't see a lot of "happy" in these pictures. Oh, these holidays on Sundays are just not much fun for the preacher's family. Sunday morning just about wipe us out as it is, much less to come home and take pictures. I guess you're getting to see the real us and not just our picture perfect blog life.

Daddy and Avery

Jenae and Daddy

Reading Daddy's new book, "I'd Be Your Princess"

Jenae gave to him.

Look! Glass Slippers

When we went to Disney World at Christmas last year we tried and tried to find a Disney souvenier that Jenae would like. We showed her every set of mouse ears we saw but she could have cared less. We showed her stuffed animals galore...everything from Mickey to Pooh to Ariel. She thought they were nice but never anything she had to have. We were getting a little disappointed. You come expecting your child to beg for everything they see and Jenae would just look at it all and move on. (Maybe she didn't know they were for sale and we could take the stuff with us.) :o) Not a bad tactic!
On our very last night, at Epcot of all places, we went into a gift shop looking for a certain shirt we'd seen earlier in the day. Jenae was exhausted, barely keeping her eyes open as we pushed her along in the stroller. I parked the stroller as I started to look at some shirts only to find out I had parked right by all the Princess stuff. They had each princesses dress, tiara, wand, gloves, wigs--you name it, they had it. And, right at Jenae's eye level were all the shoes. Aurora's shoes, Belle's shoes, Snow White's shoes. All the Princess shoes. I turned around from my t-shirt shopping to find Jenae sitting in the floor underneath all of Cinderella's stuff. She had her shoes and socks off, and was grabbing some of Cinderella's shoes. "Look! Glass slippers!" Finally, we had discovered what Jenae wanted for her Disney souvenier. Glass Slippers.
I've had this post in my mind for a long time. And, I 'd wanted to take some pictures for a long time. (Ahh, such good intentions!) Because, you see, Jenae LOVES her glass slippers. She wears them all the time. When she first got them they were the last thing she took off each night and the first thing she put on in the mornings. In fact, we knew she was up because we could hear the 'clack, clack' of her shoes coming down the hallway. She has worn them with her nightgowns, she wears them to church, she goes to the store. She loves those shoes. The reason for the post is that we are about to outgrow the glass slippers. I don't know what we are going to do. I guess go back to DisneyWorld! :o)

My Breakfast Buddies

I Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for ICE CREAM!! Here are some fun shots from the DQ last night. (Can you tell I'm enjoying my new camera?!)




Jenae must have had a brain freeze because she was flashing smiles I'd never seen before:
Poor Avery knew she was missing out on some yummy treats.
Notice her fuzzy hair! She hasn't lost any of her hair since birth. In fact, it's growing really quickly. She's going to end up needing a haircut before Jenae :o) I don't care how long it grows, I just hope it will learn to lay flat--soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

I'm so thankful today to wear the name "Momma" for these two precious little girls.

Avery Joy - 2 1/2 Weeks

Christa Jenae - 2 1/2 Years

Also, thankful today for these two ladies who've taught me what being "Momma" is all about. Happy Mother's Day!

Off to Church!

Sunday, May 4, was Avery's debut at the Winters Church of Christ. There is no doubt she is going to be well loved. We may end up seeing the worst in some of these "grandmas" as they fight over who gets to hold her. One lady even showed up early on Sunday evening hoping to be the first to hold Avery. She was disappointed to see Avery in someone else's arms already. :o)

Sunshine & Rainbows

We were all hanging out on the back porch yesterday afternoon when Jenae created this masterpiece. She's been drawing rainbows for a while now, but this was the first time she added sunshine. I thought she did a pretty awesome job!

Keeping up

Okay, so my house isn't the only thing that I'm getting behind in keeping up. Avery will be two weeks old tomorrow. Wow. There's lots to be said there, but I hope to get some pictures and post about these last two weeks tomorrow. Yeah...right! I still haven't put up pictures of Avery's nursery. And, as I've worked to fill out her baby book, I've looked back at Jenae's and know that my good intentions are "often" only that.

So, to get the most up-to-date events on the blog, here are pictures from Mayfest this past Saturday:

Avery's First Day

Check out this slideshow...and grab your kleenex's! :o)

http://www.marcelainphotography.com/

Thanks to Shasha and Bappa for this precious gift.

Avery Joy Hubbard

Avery Joy arrived on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 at 4:22 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 9 oz and was 19.5 inches long. We are all at home now and learning how to be a family of 4. Thanks for all the prayers.

We are blessed!

Stay tuned...

The day we've been waiting for is almost here. We went for my check-up this morning and got scheduled for an induction tomorrow morning! Yeah! We were hoping this would happen and now that it is we're running around trying to make sure we really have everything ready. I had progressed to a 3 this week and effaced even more, plus my blood pressure was up just a little so our doctor mentioned the idea of inducing next week. Then we started our sad story of how this week would really be better for us for several reasons...and he's on call tomorrow anyway, so we were scheduled!

We report at 5:30 am so hopefully we'll have our little girl in our arms by early afternoon! Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow. We'll try to get the news posted as soon as we can!

Big Sister is Ready

Jenae loves the idea of being the big sister. She has been playing with "Baby Sister" doll for weeks now. She loves to take care of her, put her down for naps, read books to her, and feed her. There have been many sweet, sweet moments watching Jenae love her baby sister. I can't wait for her to meet the real thing. However, this has also been a good learning experience for Momma, too. Like watching Jenae put the doll in the car seat and then sitting in the dolls lap. Or the time I walked in to find the doll lathered up in Germ-X only to receive the explanation that "I give sister a bath." Oh, Okay! I guess all together it is a good semi-dose of reality for both of us. There will be sweet moments, but don't take your eye off the big sister. :o) Fun times are ahead!

Enjoying the flowers that we've been watching and waiting to bloom.

Chutes and Ladders is basically a counting game, right?! Jenae can count to about 12 or 13 on her own, so we thought it was a great time to introduce her to the world of board games. Well, there are some other spacial and sequntial skills that are needed for this game, that we don't yet have mastery over. So, for Jenae, is more like "paperdoll playground." The little people love to go up the ladders and down the slides. And, Jenae loves to have her friends, ie Pooh and friends, play with her. Pooh got in trouble the other day for not doing the spinner the right way. I love to hear her conversations with her "friends."

They always seem to work out their differences and are still best friends at the end of the day!

Baby Shower

Last Sunday afternoon (April 13) the sweet ladies at the Winters church hosted a baby shower for us. It was so much fun and we received lots of new goodies for our little girl.

Some of the hostesses with Jenae and me
(Sondra, Pat, Billie, me, Kay, Kaylene, Brenda and Lauren)

Mimommie, Gaylene, me, Denecia and Jenae

Who Loves Baby?

Matching outfits from Gaylene! :o)

Jenae received her "Big Sister" necklace at the shower. She was so proud of it. If you ask her now what it says though, she will say, "Baby sister had a party."

They even made a special cake for Jenae. They know how to make the big sister feel special, too!

Some of the goodies!

Big Belly, 38-39 Weeks

I can't believe I'm posting these pictures, but here goes. I kind of like this top one of Jenae and me, but I'm afraid it makes me look a bit larger than reality. So, I've included the one below for a different perspective and angle. The truth is that I have a big ole belly right now, and I'm ready for it to stop growing.

We went last Monday for a check-up and were given the kind of good news that isn't really good news, just something to hold on to for hope that this pregnancy will end soon. I was already at a 2 and 50% effaced, but obviously that hasn't done anything this week to make our little girl arrive. I was excited to learn I had lost 3 pounds from 2 weeks before! Although I'm certain that had a lot more to do with the food poisoning I got the night before than any healthy lifestyle I'm leading right now. We go back to the doctor in the morning and here's to hoping for an accidental breaking of the waters or a discussion about inducing soon. I'll keep you posted!

A Zoo "Trip"

This was the damage after an exciting day at the zoo. Jenae was perhaps a bit more excited than the rest of us, because she couldn't seem to keep her feet under her. About 50 yards inside the main entrance she tripped on her own feet and landed face first. OUCH! She toughened up about the time to feed the giraffes. Poor thing!
This picture was actually taken a couple of days after the "trip" and within a week the scabs were gone. These kids sure are resiliant!

I Haven't Forgotten...

that I still have a blog. I've just been so busy (and tired) trying to get everything ready for our new little girl. We're almost there and have lots to catch up on before her arrival. Be checking back this weekend for pictures of the nursery, big belly shots and our baby shower. It's getting close and we can't wait. Actually all we're doing is waiting...we're ready to meet her!