So the count down begins....

Less then 24 hours until the opening of Sex and the City.

I'm hoping to be able to go and see the new Sex and the City movie tomorrow night when it premiers. I'm not sure if it will be in little ole MHC tomorrow, but if it's not I hope to see it as soon as it comes in. Fitz's sister Chrissie will be here tomorrow for a visit for the weekend. We are looking forward to introducing her to Lilly and showing her around. She was in MHC for our wedding in 2003, but has not seen our new house or anything. I think the weather should hold, but if not we can show her the indoor sights of MHC (hopefully including the Sex and the City movie). Hope all of you ladies (and men too) out there have the chance to get to and get all dressed up with your best girl friends and head out to this movie. I know I wish I could head to Raleigh for a viewing with my girls there, but I'll be there in spirit!!

Camera Play!

Nothing really new here, just letting Little Lilly grow, and grow. We spent a great Memorial Day morning at the beach with Lilly. She had no trouble sleeping in her pop-up tent with the sounds of the ocean lulling her to sweet dreams. We even managed to not get sunburned (any of us). Fitz is back on the road to GA for a few days and then Aunt Chrissie comes to visit for the weekend, we are thinking of taking her to the PKS aquarium. We have not been since the renovations, but I hear that it is wonderful. And if anyone is looking for a "new school" wedding location, the aquarium does parties. I wish I would have known that when we got married, but I don't think they were set up for that kind of thing then in 2003.

I have been able to work out for the past 3 days in a row?! I got to swim in the outdoor pool at the Sports Center. It's nice to swim long course, even though I think it wares me out. Oh, well it's a nice change of scenery. I can't wait to do some surfing this summer. I hope everyone has a great hump day!

It turned into a pretty nice day!

Although it rained most of the morning in MHC, the afternoon/evening was perfect for strolling in Beaufort. We spent the morning amusing ourselves with the camera and Lilly (see first two photos). I think we still need to work on the idea of background....one day soon we will get it right. Then we went for a stroll down Front Street in Beaufort, and found alittle gazebo to take some artistic photos (thanks Fitz-ie). I am really laughing in the second gazebo photo because Fitz was basicly standing behind this bush snapping shots, and it was like being stalked by the paparazzi. Well, not really, but I can pretend. The weather ended up being in the low 70's with very little wind. It was perfect for walking and eating ice cream cones from the General Store. The last photos is a bit of a "pun"....it's a flower bed! Hahahaha! Get it!!! We are hoping to head to the beach early tomorrow morning and perhaps catch a few waves! Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend!

How do I look?

Thanks Miss Katie...I love my "Naked" outfit!!

Just in case anyone needed their Lilly "fix," here she is being as cute as can be.

Perfect Weather......

It has been perfect weather for three out of the last three days here in the MHC, if I could only take Lilly to the beach for an extended period of time. The temperatures have been in the mid 70's with lows in the high 50's, low 60's with nary a cloud in the sky. And the gorgeous weather is suppose to continue in to the long weekend. Yah for living at the beach!!

Not much here has changed; Lilly is just growing away and still only sleeping about 2-3 hours at a time. I heard that the magic number is 11-12 pounds for the babies to start sleeping through the night. I think we still have some sleepless night ahead of us. Bob-O is safely in Panama City, and doing hours upon hours of PT training to become an Army Diver. I think we will be able to visit him in 6-8 weeks, and it will be quite a trip down there with the little one. I actually got to talk to him the other day and he sounded really good; I think he really likes all of the physical activity that he gets to do. I have been doing some physical activity of my own; I managed to run 2x so far and swim and bike once. I have started my training for returning to St. Croix for the 1/2 ironman in 2010. Boy, was that a great trip and I can't wait to go back. Guess, I better get to training again!!

Nelson Bay Challenge 2008!!

It use to be on the first Saturday of May, starting at noon, with a beer wagon, funny hat division, first Carteret County finisher award, and the buzzard award for the person "who left it all on the course" (aka Last place). But that was then, now it starts at 10am, and is lacking some of the "original" flare, but then again it's not the same race. Our friends Richard and Melanie made the trip down on Friday to stay with us and then head out to the race on Saturday morning. Both my dad and Richard were doing the race, but at times it does not seem like they were doing the same race. Richard easily won in 1.00.08 (he did not wear a watch so he did not know he was so close to making it under an hour), followed by Paul Quinn (a local who is also a Judge) in third place. My dad has some mechanical failure with his bike and ended up on the sag wagon/mech truck and DNF-ed. We then got to enjoy the "down east" clam bake and some time visiting with other tri-friends. It was Lilly's first experience at a race, and she did really well. All in all a very fun day. The photos are as follows: Richard on the bike (he was second out of the water, but caught first place really quickly); me, my mom and dad before the race; can you believe that guy is pushing 60 and is my dad?!; My dad on the bike (before the mechanical failure), and Paul Quinn and his son Ben.

I kind of missed racing, but not enough to get in to the cold water on Nelson Bay!!! St. Croix 2010; here I come!!!

Look it's a bird, it's a plane...nope it's a SMILEY BABY!!

So, it's yet another rainy day in Morehead City (at least it's not the weekend) and I'm starting to clean the house since we are having some friends come into town for the weekend. The other night I got try out the new camera with Fitz home and we managed to get a smiling photo of Lilly. With the fast shutter speed, I just waited until she was fed (and therefore happy) and then sat next to her with the camera and starting snapping. I am hoping to get really good with the new camera so we don't have to spend tons of money on professional photo (like we will for her newborn photos).

Our dear friends 'chard and Mel are heading into town tonight for a small local triathlon tomorrow in Nelson Bay, NC. In past years I have competed in this race, but not this year. Lilly and I will be on the sidelines being a cheering squad for my Dad, all the locals, and 'Chard. We are looking forward to the 'clam bake' after the race; they take a mesh bag and put in clams, potato, corn on the cob, carrots, and some other things, then they steam it all together. It's a down east delicacy. Hope everyone survives what's left of the week.

It's my Due Date!!

Although the ticker says I have one more day....today is the day that I would have been induced had Lilly not come already. It very crazy for me to think that she should still be inside me and I would not be as sleep deprived as I am now. The photos above are of the wonderful decorations that our neighbors put up when Lilly was born nearly 6 weeks ago. The decorations have remained up, but they are coming down today. I have started taking photos with my new camera; the last photo is one of these with the new camera. I need to work on the background to make the photos look more professional. The weather is finally cooperating and it is nearly time to head to the beach. We are looking forward to spending sometime outside. Speaking of outside.....tell me what you think of this experience we had this morning.....

Lilly was a little fussy-wussy this morning so I decided to take her for a walk around the neighborhood to let her breath the fresh air, and at least have her scream outside where there is not much of an echo. It's around 10:30am, so figured I was safe to let her just scream (now she is fed with a clean diaper, but was not going to sleep and that's what she really needed-so don't think I'm a bad mommy). We are heading out and this older lady is out getting her exercise (I have not seen her in the area before, but she looked harmless) and asked to peek in and see the baby. "Sure" I say. Then we head our separate ways. Later in the walk Lilly has stared up her fussing again, and we re-pass the same lady. This time she begins to reach into the stroller saying that she can calm her down if I would just let her hold Lilly......WOW....Hold up....I don't know you from Fran, and you feel that you can reach into the stroller and try to get her out and ask to hold her...YEAH RIGHT!!! Keep dreaming lady...get your own baby to hold. So I kindly said that Lilly is hungry so I should just go home. All is well now....but a word to the wise...IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME DON'T ASK TO HOLD MY BABY; CAUSE I'M GONNA HAVE TO GET OVER PROTECTIVE ON YOUR ASS!! But do get out and enjoy the weather :)

Photos from the weekend!

Lilly did really well at the professional photo shoot on Saturday morning; she managed to be super cute even when she was pooping and peeing on me (she only did this on me...guess she can relax with me more then Fitz). Also on Saturday, we took little Lilly to the beach for the first time...we had an experience let me tell you. It started off as a typical trip to the beach, we unfolded our pea-pod tent for Lilly. It was a little windy but nothing out of the ordinary...then out of the blue the wind kicked up from an "off shore breeze" to a full on sand storm with dragonflies being forced off shore with winds up to near 30-40mph. We had to do a quick retreat to get Lilly off the beach and out of the weather. But overall it was a good experience. Then the second photo is from Mother's Day at my parents house. It really shows Lilly in all her length, she's getting so big.

Today, I got my new camera (a gift for mother's day and my birthday). A Canon Rebel XT with two lenses to use; a 18-55mm, and a 75-300mm. I have started testing it out on Lilly, and I like that I don't have to be right on top of her to get a good photo. I just have to learn how to get photos off of the camera and on to the computer and the blog will be full of photos of all sorts of thing. Thanks to everyone who's imput helped me to choose a camera, hope you like to see photos of Lilly :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

Well, it's my first Mother's Day as a mother, and so far it's pretty cool. I was up all night with a fussy-wussy baby, then I got to do some dishes, the laundry and tidy up the house while Lilly and Fitz slept. Then I got to feed Lilly again and then boil her bottles and such. All this and it's only 10am. What a day, what a day!!

We have decided to try and "flip" Lilly over the next few days since it is now the week that Lilly should have been due. This means that we are only letting her nap for 45min to 1 hour during the day in hopes her her being so tired at night that she will sleep for 4 hours straight. I can't wait to see if it works. If not, it will be me, Lilly and some late-night/early-morning TV again.

We are off around lunch to our friends Preston and Amy's for a mother's day lunch with the neighborhood gang. And then dinner is at my folks house for mother's day and the survivor finally party. Hopefully, Lilly will cooperate for us at each location. To all the mother's and mother's to be, to the daughters and grandmothers may this mother's day be full all all things loving!!

Baby shower, complete with the "Baby of Honor."

It was a great weekend in the Morehead City. Lilly turned 1 month old, we got to attend a baby shower, Fitz got to go fishing for the first time with the neighbors, we got to spend time outside with Lilly, and we got to have dinner with 2 couples who were in our birthing class (and are still pregnant). Lilly and I got to be the guests of honor at a baby shower that was planned for before Lilly was born, but she came so early that she got to attend the shower too. The food was great, the cake was perfect, and Lilly got to meet her "boyfriend." My friend Amy Quinn, had a baby boy (Ben) 2 weeks before Lilly, but he was full term. And Amy was able to being Ben to the shower, he was 23 inches at birth so putting then two babies next to each other was a funny sight (the photo does not do the size difference justice). By the end of the party Lilly had passed out in my arms, and was ready to head home. Fitz got to got fishing for Blues on Saturday afternoon/evening and then he learned how to fillet the fish, and fry them in flour. The boys (Nick, Jeremiah, and Fitz) managed to catch so many fish that we had fried Blues for lunch the next day too. Then finally on Sunday evening we heading to PKS for a cook out with some friends from our birthing class. It was funny (at least to me) to watch the husbands to see Lilly and know that soon they will have little ones to deal with. I made sure to give them my number in case they needed anything, and I for sure want to bring them lunch/dinner sometime because that was the biggest help for us after Lilly was born. As we were leaving last night, Katie was having contractions, and though she might be heading to the hospital soon. Both Katie and Missy are pass 36 weeks, so they are in the clear for delivering at CGH without any cause for concern. It was a simply beautiful weekend, both weather and entertainment wise. Then today it's cloudy and rainy....guess it's time to nap.....but only after I pack up Fitz's suitcase for his travel this week (and yes he will be done all week).

Already 4 weeks old, and feeling SL-eep-IE!

Lilly is 4 weeks old today and is getting cuter and cuter by the day. She is not so cute when she's up early, early in the morning; she was up from 11pm to 3am last night/this morning. I wish she would sleep as soundly as she is sleeping in the above photo. Last night I heard a rumor from St. Louis that Bob-o might be coming home on leave soon and be able to meet Lilly and see everyone before he ships off to Panama City, FL. I have not seen him since Christmas break so it would be great to see him.

On a different note, Fitz had an interesting experience last night on his way home from CT. He ended up under a bus...literally. Somehow while getting on to the Hertz bus after returning his rental car he stepped off the curb wrong and ended up looking at the bottom of the bus. Luckily, the bus was not moving or the phone call I got later in the evening would have been alot worse then the "how do I get blood out of a shirt?" He escaped with only a bump on his head, a bruised and swollen elbow, and a sore ego. He did say the security guard was giving him the hairy eye ball, thinking that he had been in a fight. We are hoping that this weekend is not as exciting as Fitz's home coming last night, but you never know. It is suppose to be nice weather, and the crazies always come out when the weather gets nice!!!

CONGRATS to BOB-O!!! He's in the Army Dive program....YEAH!!!!

My folks got the call last night from Bobby that he had passed all of his tests both physical and written to enter the army dive program in Panama City, FL. He will be shipping out to FL May 18th to join his class to train with the Navy Seals for scuba and deep sea diving. Finally, my folks can sleep through the night and not worry so much about Bobby. Now they will worry more about me and Lilly; at least until Bobby is moving to FL. We as a family are planning a trip down to FL to visit Bobby at the end of June to beginning of July when Lilly is alittle older. But it all depends on when Bobby is allowed to have leave for the weekend. I have not seen Bobby since the Christmas holiday, and he had never met Lilly. So we are all very excited to start planning this trip to see him.

Nothing else new here, Lilly is back to her old tricks of staying up most of the night last night, but not before we made a trip out with some neighborhood friends (Carole and Matt) to the 31 cent night at Baskin Robins. We even got to take photos in fire trucks that were parked behind BR...can't wait to see them. Both Lilly and I are looking forward to Fitz being home tonight and through the weekend...we might even go to the beach and let Lilly put her toes in the sand!!