We're BAAAAAAAACK :-)

WOOHOO! It only took me about 9 months to figure out how to get back into our blog! Having a baby really does make you brain-dead!

Soooo... to catch everyone up on where we are....

Emma turned 8 months old on December 26th :-O I can't believe my baby is almost 3/4 of a year old! Where has the time gone?! She is growing up so quickly, but we only seem to love her more the older she gets! Just when it doesn't seem possible to love someone any more, then you do! She is a hoot too. Constantly making us laugh. She has personality AND looks... what a combo! Right now she likes to clap her hands to the music that her toys make (mommy taught her that) and she gives kisses (mommy taught her that too!) She still is not crawling, although she usually can manage to get somewhere if she wants to badly enough. We think she may skip the whole crawling thing though and just start walking. She has been standing (holding her own body weight) since she was about 2 months old, with just the aid of our fingers. Then a couple of months after that she started pulling herself to a stand-up position by herself, and now she constantly wants to be standing up and wants to hold on to our fingers and have us walk around the room behind her! She's going to be cruising the house before we know it!

In addition to Classic, I am now a small business owner (very small!) as well! My mom and I have started our own company called "Amazing Grace Designs" (Emma's middle name is Grace). Right now it's basically an internet company. Our web address is http://www.amazing-grace-designs.com/. We are selling embroidered specialty and children's items as well as handbags, hairbows, etc. We are still in the process of determining our final product list, so the website doesn't have all of our products yet. It has been a very time consuming (not to mention expensive!) process getting the business and the website up and running, but hopefully it will be worth it when all is said and done. Please pass the web address on to anyone that you think might be interested. Also, if you are looking for something specific to be embroidered or monogrammed, please email us and ask (you can email us from the website). There is a good chance we can find what you're looking for. Also, if you have any suggestions on website changes, products we should offer, etc. please let us know! We want lots of feedback!

Here's something that most of you don't know yet. Chad found out this past weekend that he is definitely going to Arizona for 6 weeks for additional flight training. To make a long story short, the Apache he was trained to fly at Ft. Rucker is a more advanced version, which his unit in Columbia was supposed to be getting early this year (all they have now are the old versions.) Well, they found out that they're not not getting them until the end of the year at the earliest (gee, the army not knowing what they're doing/talking about.... what a shocker!) It's already been since like July since Chad (and several others) have flown, so now they have to go to Arizona to learn how to fly the old Apache model, which his unit has. OK, so that wasn't completely a short version, but shorter than if Chad explained it! So, it looks like he will be leaving on Feb. 18th and coming back home on March 29th. Honestly, 6 weeks is not that bad for Chad and I (sadly, we're used to it by now), but now that Emma is here it is going to be a lot harder on all of us. We've decided that Emma and I will try to go to Arizona for a long weekend in the middle of the 6 weeks so that we can see daddy!

I fully intend on trying to post on a more general basis now than I used to, but we'll see how that goes.... keep checking back to see if i'm able to stick to that one!

Emma's Room!

Chad and I finished Emma's room this past weekend and we love it! Here's a sneak peak!

Our last outing before the baby comes!

Chad and I spent a weekend in Atlanta before my official "no travel" date arrived. We'd never been to the Atlanta Zoo so that's what we decided to do. Our favorite part of the zoo was the Gorillas (apes?). There were 4 babies that were adorable and two of them were twins! We stayed around long enough to watch feeding time which was hilarious. One of the mommy's kept stealing food from her baby! Let's hope I never get like that!

It was a nice weekend so the zoo was a perfect choice! Good thing they didn't catch Chad escaping when we left!

Gizmo's Christmas Picture!

For those of you who don't know, Chad and I talked about it a lot and decided we weren't able to give Foxy the amount of attention she deserved, especially since i've been pregnant. It was becoming increasingly harder taking care of both of the dogs by myself and I knew it would only get harder over the next several months. Chad's cousin Barron and his wife Chesley were looking for a dog and after Chesley visited Foxy she decided they were perfect for each other! Foxy has been with Chesley and Barron for a couple of weeks now and the three of them absolutely adore each other! I know we made the right decision!

Gizmo got groomed last weekend and looked so cute I had to take his Christmas pictures! They cut off a little too much of his mane, but he still looks adorable! And he even got his teeth brushed while he was there!

So anyways, here is a picture of Giz after getting groomed and a picture of him in front of the Christmas tree.

As you all know, Chad and I are expecting a baby on May 8th! We are super excited and counting down the days.

I've had 3 OBGYN appts. so far and all have gone well. My last ultrasound was done on Oct. 2nd and showed the tiny face of our 2mm length baby! CRAZY! Not sure how big the baby is now since no ultrasound was done at my last appt., but the baby had a strong heartbeat at 150 bpm.

I'm attaching one of the last ultrasound pictures. I think it's the cutest one!

My Husband the Pilot!

As some of you know, I went and spent a week in Alabama with Chad. Not exactly a hoppin town, but it was a relaxing week and we got to spend it together! This was the first time since April that we got to spend more than 2 days together.

On Friday I got to go to an airport that he was flying into and see him fly! I took like 100
pictures, but i'll just post the best here. :-)

I spent 5 days, including the 4th of July, in San Diego mainly for a co-workers wedding. We do the majority of our business for work in San Diego, so I have many staff members there and Classic's owners, Ray and Donnine, spend a lot of time there. I've been wanting to go for 4 years and this was finally my chance! I had no idea what it would be like or how beautiful it would be! I figured it would be a bit of a culture shock for me, but in different ways I guess.

I flew into the San Diego airport at night, and was first stunned by how big and busy the city looked from the air. Once I got on the ground I was surprised that the city seemed much more urban chic than I expected! Honestly, I thought San Diego was full of PETA, hemp wearing people, not people driving luxury sports cars and SUV's. The city is full of houses sitting high on cliffs and beautiful views of the ocean and the lower parts of the city. There are tons of huge beautiful parks near the beaches and the marinas and they're so neat because they are huge and full of people enjoying full days there with their families and friends.

If my family wasn't all so close to me here, I could honestly probably live in San Diego. Well, except for the fact that an 800 square foot house there is in the $600,000 price range! CRAZY! It is an awesome place to visit though and i'm hoping to take Chad there soon! After all, Ray and Donnine own a condo there, so we have a place to stay! :-)