Welcome Gabriella Elise Bristow!!

Nana and Gabby

Proud Daddy

Welcome Gabriella (Gabby) Elise Bristow! My niece was born this afternoon at 4:43 pm. She is 6.2lbs and 19 1/2 inches. She is adorable and so sweet! My sister-in-law is doing well after a "not planned" c-section. I have already fallen in love with little Gabby and can't wait for Tuesday to come so I can go and hold the little angel again! Congrats Kia and Ray on your new beautiful baby girl!!

Visit with Oma and Opa

Opening her early birthday present from Oma and Opa

We spent memorial day weekend up at Joel's parents lake house. We had a wonderful time visiting with them. Savannah enjoyed playing with their puppy Casey and riding on the boat. We also celebrated an early birthday with them and let Savannah open her present from her Oma and Opa. She loved it! We hope to go see them again soon!

Visiting Friends...

Savannah and I went to visit my friend Margaret and her family for a few days this past week. She lives down in South Carolina about 4 hours from us. Savannah and I had never traveled that far by ourselves and Savannah had never traveled that far being potty trained. But, everything went great! We had no melt downs and only had to stop once. We had a great time! Margaret and I got to visit a lot and the children got along so well. They played and played together! They were so cute! Unfortunately, the weather was cold and rainy most of the time we were there so we were not able to go to the beach. But, that was ok, we had a great time just hanging out! I hope we are able to visit again soon!!

1st Belly Pic....and some...

Hamming it up for the camera

Savannah wanted a picture with me..she is saying "cheese"

my little bump at 16 weeks

Since I took a belly picture almost every week while pregnant with Savannah, I decided it was finally time to take my first picture while pregnant with peanut # 2. I am now 16 weeks. I have started feeling him/her move. That is a lot of fun! We go to the dr. June 1st to have our big ultrasound and find out the sex of our little peanut. Daddy thinks it's a girl...but I am leaning more toward a boy. I can't wait to find out.
When I asked Joel to take a picture of me this morning Savannah immediately piped in "me too...cheese". She is such a little ham and loves to have her picture taken. So here are also a few of her that we snapped this morning while she was posing for the camera.
We are headed in the morning to visit a friend of mine, whom I went to high school with, and her family. She lives down in South Carolina about 4 hours from us. She has a little boy, a little girl (only 5 days older than Savannah), and is also pregnant again. We haven't gotten to see them since September so I am very excited to go and visit. This will be the furthest that Savannah and I have traveled alone and also the furthest Savannah has traveled while being potty trained. I am curious to see how smoothly our car ride goes. I will be sure to take lots of pictures to post when we return.

Happy Mother's Day!

Fun Day at the Park

After a long, fun day at the park

sifting for "pretty rocks"

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There is this park about 30 minutes from our house that I have wanted to go check out. It was so much fun. We needed a whole day to discover all it had to offer. Savannah got to ride a little train, a carousel, see some animals in a little zoo (her favorite were the black bear and the rooster), play on a huge playground, and sift for "pretty rocks". We did not get to do the petting zoo, splash pad, miniature golf, or paddle boats. We are hoping to go back again in the near future, pack a lunch, and spend the day there. We had a BLAST though! Even though it was very hot today!!

Cutie Pie!

Savannah's New Play Set

We recently bought a play set off of craigslist.com for a great deal! Joel fixed it up and changed a few things to make it a little better. He still isn't quite finished. He needs to add 2 more hooks so we can add a regular swing and a teeter-totter swing. We are getting rid of the family swing because Joel thinks the wood is bad on it. Savannah is LOVING it! We spent hours a day outside playing on it and with some other new toys we recently got from a yard sale. Her favorite things to do outside is play on her new play set, her sandbox, her little tikes basketball hoop, her lawn mower that blows bubbles, and her bubble machine. I will try and post more pictures of her playing outside later this week! Here are a few of her playing on her new play set with a little neighbor girl.