Happy Birthday, Corabelle!

On Sunday, we celebrated Corabelle's first birthday at Chelsey and Trevor's house. Her birthday is actually May 4th, but the party was on the 3rd. It was so fun to see friends and family and celebrate the special day! Someone had made a beautiful photo board, and Cora loved checking out the pictures of herself:

Chelsey had her dressed so adorably in her "one" onesie and tutu!

Aunt Halley with Eden (the next birthday girl!)

Cora looking beautiful and smiling for the camera:

The girls are soo cute together:

Being silly:

Eden's first ponytail (a close up shot):

We love these two babies so much!

Oh, and on Sunday I also turned 30 - minor detail :)

I was trying to keep in on the down low, but Chelsey surprised me with a cake which was very sweet! What a great day. 

Eden's First Easter

We had so much fun celebrating Eden's first Easter!

On Saturday, we went to Hudson to celebrate 3 birthdays and Easter with the Stith group. Shawn, Laura and Chelsey all have birthdays in early(ish) April so we celebrated all at once.

Laura got the girls the CUTEST bunny Easter baskets! I was trying to get a picture of Eden and Cora together but Cora crawled away.

The next day, we went to Dad's to celebrate on Easter Sunday. We took some family pictures before we went. We actually got changed into casual clothes before going to Dad's, but wanted to get some pictures in our Easter outfits! Especially since Eden and I matched! 

Eden's dress was actually a baby shower gift from a friend at work. It's a size 2T and it already fits her! She looked adorable.

What a special weekend!

A Couple of Fun Things That Happened While I was Still Pregnant..

I have a little catching up to do with things I want to remember from the last weeks before Eden's birth. 

On May 9th, I was a model in the Goodwill Fashion Show in Cleveland. My friend Jessica was styling a "Bohemian" Collection and I was one of her models along with some other girls. This was the same fashion show that I styled a collection for last year (read more here). It was so much fun and I can't wait to tell Eden that she was in a fashion show before she was even born.

A few days later, I was honored to be part of the "Women & Baseball" event at the Rubber Ducks Game. The Rubber Ducks are Akron's Minor League Baseball Team, formerly the Akron Aero's. Earlier this year, my boss (kindly) nominated me for one of the Summit County Historical Society's Woman of the Year Awards.. surprisingly, I actually won for "creativity" for one of my special projects at the Battered Women's Shelter - such an honor! Anyway, the Rubber Ducks asked some of us award winners to throw a first pitch at the special "Women & Baseball" game on Saturday. It was really fun and I loved that they focused the evening on celebrating local women and their achievements. 

Throwing a pitch from the actual pitcher's mound to the home plate 2 weeks before my due date was a stretch, but I'm so glad I did it! I almost threw the ball all the way to the catcher.. but not quite. RJ was proud that I threw it straight and overhand.

That same weekend, I had the opportunity to be part of a Goodwill Style Contest. We had 30 minutes to style an outfit under $20. I went just over at $21.33, but my whole outfit was found that day, even shoes (some people wore their own). 3 of us got Goodwill gift cards for getting the most votes from the audience. Surprisingly (and flatteringly), I was one of them! The group of us is pictured below.

My strategy (being 38 weeks pregnant at the time) was to find a big dress and belt it. I found some of those, but also found a great,  black and white, Vintage, cityscape dress. I didn't think the Black Vintage dress would actually fit, but I brought it into the fitting room anyway. Shockingly, I was able to zip it! Once I knew I had my dress, I went back out and found a beige blazer, necklace and shoes to match. 

The style of this look is "work to evening". I love the idea of being able to wear something like this to work, and then simply removing the blazer for more of a "fun evening out" look. I just love the print of the dress - with the birds on top and the city scene on the bottom.. it's so unique! 

Here it is all together:

We got to keep the outfits, which is great!

The story was even picked up in the Akron Beacon Journal, which is so cool! You can read that here. 

Maternity Pictures

One thing I really wanted to do before this baby decides to come is take some maternity pictures together. We went to the same spot we took our Baby Announcement Photos (here) which is such a beautiful, open space. 

I love seeing the difference between the fall pictures and spring pictures.. mother nature really provides the perfect backdrop during those two seasons especially. (Spring is my favorite, I love it so much!)

I have some frames hanging in the nursery that need some pictures.. and I think some of these will be perfect for those frames. I'm hoping it will add the perfect personal touch to the special space. 

 RJ was a good sport about taking more pictures. I know we will love showing them to "the baby" someday! 

Welcome to the World, Baby Corabelle!

Chelsey and Trevor welcomed their beautiful daughter (our first niece!!) into the world on  May 4th around 10:05pm.

Corabelle Truth Cain

8lbs 14oz and 21 inches long

She is so cute and we all love her so much already!

We can't wait to introduce the two cousins :)

Baby Bump!

As of Sunday, I'm at 35 weeks! I try to have RJ take my picture every couple of weeks to document the growth of the baby bump. The first one (18 weeks, when I first started to actually show) was taken in December and the last one (34 weeks) was taken last week, on April 16th. 

We love watching this baby grow!

Spring Break / Baby Shower 2014

We had such a great time in Daytona Beach and in Atlanta a few weeks ago!

RJ and I left on Friday the 21st after we both worked for a few hours and packed up the car. We drove about 8 hours and stopped in South Carolina. The next morning we started the morning off with breakfast from Waffle House, as you do in the south.

RJ did most of the driving because he likes driving more than riding and I like riding more than driving - perfect right? On the way home, I did drive for a few hours so he could do work emails and phone calls since he was technically not on vacation anymore by then!

We got to Florida on Saturday afternoon and immediately got changed into our beach clothes for a walk on the beach! When the sun set, we drove around DB checking out the area and deciding where to eat (we ended up at a great Indian restaurant!).

Drew flew in on Sunday afternoon and we went out for Mexican. The rest of the time in Daytona Beach, Drew and RJ golfed and I sat by the pool and went for walks. Lindsay got there on Tuesday afternoon and we immediately went for a walk on the beach. Lindsay took this picture of me during our walk. It was chilly by the beach especially because it was so windy!

On Tuesday night we went to this great Italian place. The staff there was hilarious (it was a family - father in law and son cooks and mother in law and daughter in law waitresses). 

We didn't have the best weather after Tuesday - Wednesday was barely 60 degrees!! At least the sun was shining and it wasn't snowing :) The guys still went golfing and Lindsay and I went for a long walk down to the board walk. The guys picked us up after their golf outing and we went to a great local restaurant that was right on the beach. We even got a window seat with a beautiful view.

On Thursday morning it was time to head to out to Atlanta. It was about a 6.5 hour drive and we wanted to stop at the Allman Brother's Museum in Macon on the way. The Museum was a tour or the Big House that the Allman Brother's stayed in . Checking out the memorabilia, pictures and talking to the museum staff was great.

After dropping Lindsay off at her mom's house, we had dinner with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Sheri and then played Tripoly (of course!). 

On Friday, it was too rainy to golf so we played pool and phase ten inside (Aunt Sheri is too good!). Friday night we all met Lindsay at Monterrey for some Mexican. 

On Saturday (shower day!), the guys wanted to play golf, but hadn't really packed warm enough clothes. We were optimistically hoping for sunshine and it was rainy that day. Luckily, Grandpa had some jackets they were able to borrow:

<Drew didn't actually wear his on the course, it was just for the photo opp. RJ did though!>

Grandma and Mary set up for the shower while I got ready and everything looked great!

Sue made these adorable napkin diapers stuffed with raisonettes!

The flowers and cake also turned out really nice:

Lindsay came with her mom, Hannah and to my surprise - our cousin Diana!

Me with Linds (above) and me with Diana (below):

I was so surprised and happy to see Diana, who had come to surprise me. It was so great to see her and have her there! 

Some other family friends and loved ones:

Lindsay set up the cutest activity.. she got a beautiful box and decorated special cards for people to write words of advice or encouragement for us and/or the baby:

Such a sweet idea that we will definitely treasure having!

So happy to see Sue, she's been a special friend of the family for literally as long as I can remember, She made a beautiful quilt for the baby that I know she will just love!

Family pics:

 Breece (Stith/Arehart) ladies:

Breece kids (just missing David!)

We are so thankful for all of the special gifts we received. Sue, Grandma and Lindsay all made beautiful blankets that I know we will always treasure. Lindsay also made a set of beautiful hats for the baby, I can't wait to see her in them!

Lindsay's above and Grandma's below:

And this picture just makes me laugh. Grandma found a pillow exactly like the one I carried around for years, now our baby can have one too!

So as you can tell, the shower was great (and thanks to Linds for taking the pictures for our memories!). On Saturday night, Drew and RJ and I met Lindsay and Diana at a local Atlanta bar/restaurant to hang out a little bit more before everyone had to leave on Sunday. The place they chose had fried pickles, which has been one of my cravings, so I was happy!

On Sunday, Drew, Dad and Mary took off around 6am and RJ and I left around 10. Our plan was to stop mid way and finish our drive on Monday morning. We stopped in Cincinnati and found a hotel with an indoor pool, I really wanted to do some swimming after sitting in the car all day! We had fun. 

We got home on Monday afternoon and Harvey was thrilled!  

Big thanks to everyone who came to the shower and brought a wonderful gift for the baby - we really got spoiled! Also to Grandma and Mary for setting up such a wonderful shower and to Lindsay and Diana for surprising me! We loved getting to visit with everyone, even if it did go by too quickly. 

Just think, the next time we are in Atlanta to see everyone, we will be a family of 3!