Growing, growing, growing!

Here are the three prego ladies from TCC's CH division at around 18 weeks, 21 or 22 weeks, and Hilary is obviously about to pop! I think she is at 35 or 36 weeks, so she'll be meeting the little one very soon! This was taken last week at Hilary's baby shower.

And although I like to blame the stretchy dress for making me look like I'm further along than the lovely Shelly next to me (when I'm actually 3 weeks behind)- there is no denying that Baby Mitchell is growing!

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I've been noticing the baby kicks for a couple weeks now, although it took me awhile to figure out what they were! Now I can predict when the kicks will come- when I sit down at a computer after breakfast or lunch and when I'm falling asleep at night or just waking up in the morning. I just really want Andrew to be able to feel them on the outside and I know we're still a few weeks away from that.

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Hopefully we will have some big news at the end of this week!

...and baby makes three

I haven't had a chance to breathe- let alone blog- since the onset of the Spring semester of my 2nd full year of teaching college. Okay, I am being a little dramatic, but this was certainly the most challenging semester I've ever been faced with. And that was due in part to our wonderful (albeit surprising) news that we can expect a little one this October! Unfortunately my first trimester was pretty miserable (morning sickness), but now that I am in the second trimester, I am feeling MUCH better. I've only taken a couple profile shots to track the bump growth, but here is a picture from my birthday when I was about 15 weeks along:

And here I am at almost 17 weeks:

This is the month when the little one starts to grow like a weed! So in another two weeks I should expect an even bigger bump- right around the time we learn if the nugget is a boy or a girl.

Oh, and all the Indians gear was a surprise from Drew for our tentative trip to Tampa to see Jason play (he may not be playing for the Indians due to an injury) but we're Donald fans no matter what! Although the boys' size jersey probably won't fit much longer because as Andrew says to me "You're growing by the day!"

The Adorable Stillwell Family

So when I got my camera, I told Hilary that I would learn more about it and once I got better at taking photos, I would snap some shots of their super-cute family. Well, it's been over 3 months since I made that promise, and have I learned anything about photography in that time? No. Haven't even cracked the Canon booklet...sigh. But the Stillwells are such a fun and lovely family, I really didn't need any talent to capture their beauty.

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We had a lot of fun at Dorothy B. Oven Park today. Here are some of my favorites:

Some kisses!

For Daddy

And Mommy, too

I can't get over how beautiful this kid is!

Whoops the dress got a little wet. Time for a wardrobe change!

"I'm not sure how I feel about this baby..."

Sierra is a nature girl already!

And a few shots of Mom & Dad

And we even had time for a little treat afterward:

Thanks for being patient with me, folks!

They gave her a camera?!

So I've been waiting 3/4 of 2010 for my new DSLR camera and on Christmas, I got it! Now, let me preface this post by saying I know nothing about photography. I hope to take a class sometime to learn all about the crazy features on this camera in hopes of getting better...

...but for now, I just sort play with the dials and buttons and snap snap away and hope for the best! Can anyone give me any photography tips?

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Here are some pics from Christmas day- and yes, there are a lot of dog pics, but let's face it- they are more tolerant of me snapping away in their faces than humans are.

This is Elgar- he's very sophisticated

Bailey is my parents' beagle. She is 8.

Love when these two play together

After photographing Lady, I am even more convinced she should be a doggie model- she really does seem to pose

These next pics aren't particularly good in quality, but they are too cute to pass up posting.

And a little Sawyer series

A sleeping puppy is a good puppy.

One golden afternoon

Sometimes I take my camera places and I don't pull it out once. Other times, I leave my camera at home and regret it. Every now and again, photo ops align with the proximity of my camera, and I feel like the shots I snap are almost as good as the moments in which I'm taking them. This was the case today.

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Let me back up a little. A lot has happened since my last post, and although much of it is not worth posting, Drew's new career as a high school teacher and coach began late August. While he is so thankful to have work, he (and I) had no idea he would be working 75-80 hours a week, including Sundays. So Saturdays have become very precious to us- and today was no exception. After we finished our errands for the day, we decided to grab two beers, two of our favorite pups, and walk over to the park down the street from our new house. The air has finally cooled and the light was really lovely as it was setting- so we ran around the field and snapped away (Drew did the bulk of this).

No more captions necessary.

Happy Fall, everyone.