Go Tigers!

Harper's excited to cheer on the Tigers for her first Clemson-Carolina game tonight!
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HARPER!!

Okay, so I'm a lot behind, but.....

She's here! Harper Elizabeth Childress arrived on Friday, October 15, 2010 at 2:35pm weighing 7lbs 4ozs and 19.25 inches long. She looks exactly like her Daddy, but with Mommy's eyes. Thankfully it looks like she's going to rock her Dad's awesome eyelashes too (I've always been seriously jealous of those)!

Here's a picture from the weekend she was born:

The following couple of weeks have blown by! We've enjoyed each day of getting to know our sweet daughter. The transition has been pretty smooth. Harper is super snuggley and loves to be around Mom and Dad. She follows our voices and responds when she hears one of us nearby. It is just amazing to be able to calm her with our presence. She is a good sleeper and is starting to steadily gain weight now that we've worked through the whole eating thing. She has deep blue eyes that she looks intently at us with. At three weeks she shared her first smile and has been smiling more and more each day. Last week she started cooing on occasion. I love hearing her sweet voice and can't wait for that to increase.

We have had a bunch of visitors since Harper arrived. At birth she was greeted by all of her grandparents, Uncle Brad, Aunt Megan, Lillie, Aunt Laura, Uncle Mike and Sophie. We were so thankful to have our family with us despite the distance we live from each of them. Both Gram (my mom) and Grandma (John's mom) were able to stay a week each with us too! We are so thankful for the help they gave us with Harper, the home cooked meals, stocked freezer, clean house and clean clothes. Harper has also gotten to meet her "aunt's" Sabrina, Emily and Jessica. So, so grateful to these dear friends for making the trip!! I loved every minute with each of them!

Here are some pictures from the last month of our life:

First Snuggle with Daddy

Aunt Megan, Uncle Brad, Lillie, us, and The Sheriff

1 Week Old

Bat Girl! - First Halloween

Sweet snuggles with Gram

"Ooooh"

Hanging with Grandma

Smiley - 5 weeks old

Waiting for Harper

So after my doctor's appointment last week where the doctor said he wouldn't be surprised if my water broke before my appointment this week, we have gone into overdrive getting ready for Harper's arrival. I spent the next couple of days washing everything, cleaning the house, praying for our last minute orders to arrive and setting up the "nursery" (I use quotes because living in corporate housing has limited what we can do). I guess the nesting/panic stage hit hard. I think we are now finally ready. The carseat has even been installed in the car...might have been 10pm the night we installed it, but at least it's in!!

Now that everything is ready, we can't wait for her arrival. The doctor should have never told us she may come early because now she can't come fast enough!

Here is the current belly picture and some shots of our attempts at creating a special place for her:

38 Weeks. Come out Harper!!

DC Living

Since we moved to the D.C. area at the beginning of September, John and I have tried to do our best to soak in the local scenery. Over Labor Day, John and I spent the day around the Mall area and checking out the Museum of Natural History. Here are a couple pictures from that day:

John's first visit to the Lincoln Memorial

34 Weeks

We then had a great visit with John's parents a few weeks later. They drove up from South Carolina with a truck full of the goodies we received at our baby showers back in July. It was like Christmas rediscovering all the fun gifts everyone had given us! We also spent more time visiting the city.

Randee and Bobby at the Big House

The view from Mount Vernon. (36 weeks)

33 Weeks

For those of you who have asked, here's the current belly picture.

A lot bigger than a month ago!!

So I'm feeling pretty great these days. I feel Harper move all the time which is really fun and she gets the hiccups almost daily. Apparently I had the hiccups a lot, so my mom is pretty excited that I'm getting paid back:) I regularly see a butt, arm or leg push out to the side and John loves that he can feel her move from one place to another. He really likes to try to make her move.

We are currently settling into our new place in Silver Spring, MD. The move went very smoothly. I mostly opened doors, held elevators and carried light bags. It was pretty hilarious to be this big and moving. I will post pictures of the apt and neighborhood soon. We're just outside of DC and are excited to spend some time exploring the city. Just another adventure:)

Ironman

So if you know my husband at all, you know he has a thing for superheros. He pretty much likes any of them, but for the past few months, each time we have visited Target, he has taken me to look at specific helmet. John also loves toys so this doesn't surprise me. A trip down the toy aisle is routine for us. He cannot wait for Harper to be as excited about them as he is...and she doesn't really have a choice, she will be playing with superheros with her dad one day soon.

Well, last month John celebrated his birthday...I'll keep the number a secret, but let's just say he's not 25 anymore. My sister-in-law, Megan, remembered seeing John posted about this certain superhero helmet and decided it was the perfect gift for him. And here are the results of our fun...

Doesn't he look like he can save the world:)

Iron Brad

Iron Lillie

Iron Logan

Greenville Visit

Wow, was the last thing I posted about seriously in May?! Definitely there have been some changes since then. The biggest being that we no longer live in Charleston. On June 1st John and I were moved up to Baltimore, MD for John's new Chick-fil-A assignment. I've really enjoyed the time back here where I grew up and we've been able to catch up with lots of childhood friends.

At the end of July we were able to take a long weekend trip back to Greenville. It was the best visit!! We had the joy of spending time with John's parents and extended family, my mom, aunt, Brad, Megan and Lillie! Everyone came to town to celebrate Harper's coming with baby showers and John's birthday. It was certainly a packed weekend and we loved every minute of it.

To start our time in Greenville, my dear friend and fabulous photographer, Sabrina, spent time taking maternity pictures of me. These are seriously some of the best pictures that I've ever been in. Here are a couple of our favorites! (these are taken at 28 weeks of pregnancy)

I was so lucky to have my sweet friends host a wonderful shower for me! There were so many thoughtful details, I seriously now think I have failed in my attempts to host showers for them in the past! It was the best time of catching up with friends that I am not able to see as often as I'd like and learning tips for being a new mom. I'm so glad I have great friends to call when I'm lost with what to do in a couple of months!

The Hostesses - Ashlyn, Lindsay, Emily, Sabrina, Allison, Mary Beth

Have you ever seen a cuter cake!!

There were so many cute gifts! I can't wait to cover Harper's bum with these:)

The next day the showering continued with a sweet shower full of Childress family and friends. It is always so fun to see the people who had an impact on John's childhood. I'm continually floored by how generous everyone is with us. We had a great time visiting with aunts and uncles who we don't see as much as we would like. A special moment was when John's Grandma Childress gave us a quilt she made just like the one she made for John when he was a baby. We think Harper will treasure it as much as John treasures his.

Our great hostesses - Aunt Sherry and Randee (John's mom)

Such generous gifts! It's always great to have John share in the unwrapping fun.

We also had a cookout one night to celebrate John's birthday. We were grateful to visit with our Greenville family of friends. We couldn't miss them more and are always so encouraged by our time with everyone! One fun moment during the party was when we surprised our close friends Garrett and Allison Reed with a little shower for their little boy who is scheduled to arrive in October too.

Allison, Garrett and big sister Emerson

And here's one last shot from the weekend, just because they are too cute!

Don't you love Lillie's shirt!

May Visitors

May has been full of visitors already! We started the month with our good friend Joe staying for a couple of days. He left and that same afternoon we met the McGowans on the beach. They came down for a quick over night. It was so fun to see them! Here are a couple of pics of Cort and Cohen having fun. (Unfortunately we never remember to take pictures of the adults!)

Cort and John

Cohen and Emily

A couple of days later I was able to head down to Seabrook to hang out with my college roommate, Lucy, her mom and little boy, Maclaren. Sadly it rained, but we still had a great time catching up!

Maclaren and me

The next weekend our cousins Ann, Jon, Logan and Cooper came up for a visit. We've been trying to make this happen for a long time and it was well worth the wait! We crammed a lot into a couple of days -spent time on the beach, played in the pool, had some girl time, checked out local yard sales, went to an awesome park and took out a paddle boat and of course got ice cream! We're so grateful they made the long trip up from Atlanta!

Jon and Cooper

John and Logan feeding turtles.

Ann and Logan

Sweet Cooper

5 Years of the Childress Life

On April 2nd John and I celebrated 5 years of marriage with a trip to Beaufort, SC. This was the first time we've taken a real anniversary trip, where we actually went out of town and relaxed for a whole weekend. It was awesome! John surprised me by booking us a couple of nights at this super cute bed and breakfast right on Bay St. We had a great view of the harbor and even our own private porch off our room.  On Saturday we went on a great walking tour of the town. It was seriously one of the best tours I have ever taken. Below is picture of one of the amazing house and Live Oak trees we saw.

The rest of the weekend was spent eating at great restaurants, reading good books, and taking walks. We even took a drive out to Hunting Beach.

So here we are after 5 years together! They've been the best of my life and I'm so grateful for my incredible husband who is about to become the best dad ever!

And here we are on our wedding day...doesn't seem like it could be 5 years already!

Changes

That seems to be the theme around the Childress household these day! The biggest and most exciting is...Speck (at least that his/her name for now)! Scheduled to arrive around October 16th, Speck has brought great joy, shock and excitment to our home. As some of you know, we were actually in the process of adoption when we found out we are expecting, so it took a couple weeks for the reality to sink in. Here are a few pictures of our little one:

As you can see Speck comes by his/her name honestly!

To add to the craziness of a growing family, John and I both had changes in our careers that began with the new year. John moved on from managing a Chick-fil-A in Charleston to working as a CFA, Inc Interim Manager. In this role he runs CFA's that are corporately held rather than a franchised location. It was been incredible to watch him grow into running the business and developing his leadership. I couldn't be more proud of him. With John's new role, our family is set to move wherever CFA needs us. Our first assignment happened to be here in Charleston, so the only move we had to make was from our cute beach cottage to a coporate apartment. For those of you who were never able to visit, here's a pic of our little beach home:

Our current place isn't quite as charming and unfortunately is a 10 minute drive from the beach rather than a 2 minute walk (sad I know:)), but we are grateful for the accomodations CFA has provided for us. It looks like we will be in Charleston until the end of May. Where we are headed to next, we don't know yet.

Just before learning of our pregnancy, I also took a new job with CFA, Inc. I now work as a Grand Opening Marketing Consultant, which is a long title meaning that I travel around the country (mostly the mid-atlantic) and work with Operators who are opening new CFA locations on developing their marketing strategy. When I'm not on the road, I get to work from home so I look forward to continuing in this role even after the little one arrives.

So let's see, any other changes...baby, jobs, move...yup, I think that's enough for now!