Birmingham!

The baby girl is asleep, taking a nap in her crib. This is a big deal because she never does this....she never takes naps in her crib. She sleeps in there great at night (10:30 until 6:30 last night, that's the first 8 hours of uniterrrupted sleep I've had in almost 9 weeks!) but naps have been a different story. So, needless to say I'm soaking it up this morning. I've vaccumed, done laundry, organized my desk and have been catching up on my blog duties! Thank you Hannah Cate! Perfect timing considering it's back to work for me on Monday and we've got to get all of this figured out so that I can get some work done with a baby in the house...should be interesting, please pray for me!

Before I get on to our exciting and fun filled trip to Birmingham last week, I must mention the week we have had. The runny-poopy diaper filled week we have had. Yep, she had her first stomach virus at eight weeks old.....yikes! I must say it was much more uneventful than I expected, thank goodness! Just lots and lots of yucky diapers. No temperature, throw up, medicine and she was still very much her normal self. Just lots of terrible diapers (are you getting the picture about what I've been doing this week!) and a little less appetite and more sleep than normal. All of the diaper changes (at least 15 a day, sometimes 20) did result in a not so good case of the diaper rash, so we tried out our Arbonne diaper rash cream and it's amazing. It has my stamp of approval! She seems to be getting better today and hopefully we'll get a clean bill of health at the pediatrician on Monday (we have to go back anyway for our 2 month appointment).

So, on to a much more appealing topic....our trip to Birmingham! We had a great time introducing Hannah Cate to family and friends in our hometown. It feels strange to us that Birmingham is our hometown, but Fairhope is her hometown. We love Fairhope and we have certainly established a home here, but Birmingham will always feel like home too. I think Matt and I both thought we would raise a family in Birmingham, but the Lord obviously had a different plan for us. So, we'll settle for lots of visits and cherish every one!

Here's a summary of our week:

We spent lots of time at Granddaddy's house just visiting. I was so glad to have helpers around so that I could take nice, long showers and dry my hair without a constant interruption! Aunt Emily was able to get the sweetest smile out of Hannah Cate and I know it made her day!

Here's the close-up

Uncle Mick got lots of practicing in and I think we were all amazed at how good he was with Hannah Cate.(no offense Mick!) He was like the baby whisperer, everytime he held her she fell right to sleep! He's going to be a great Daddy come October!

We went to my office to introduce her to all of my work friends. Here she is with Suzie and Lynda

We went to meet Ginny and Caroline. Ginny was my saving grace during pregnancy and I am so thankful to have her as my sounding board! Caroline was so sweet to love on Hannah Cate.

We got to go see the Baxley's at their new home.

We sure do miss them in Fairhope!

We went out to eat....a lot! One night we went to Carraba's and Hannah Cate got lots of lovin' from Aunt Janet!

We snuck in naps where we could

One of the highlights of the trip was taking Hannah Cate to meet my Grandmother (my Dad's Mom).

She doesn't really know us anymore, but she loved seeing the baby

And she especially loved touching her tiny hands and feet. We love you Grandmother!

Mimi came into town from her house at the lake on Thursday and we were so glad to see her at Aunt Shashi's house!

Ginny was so great to have an open house of sorts for us so that we could see lots of friends at once! Me, Jami, Hannah Cate, Emily, Isabella, Christy, Laura, Claire

It was so fun to be pregnant at the same time with a good friend, Christy. Isabella was born just three weeks after Hannah Cate. This was our attempt at their first picture together....Hopefully they will like each other more as they get older!

Isn't she so cute!

Getting to meet the other "Aunt" Emily!

We had a family dinner at my Aunt Helen and Uncle Richard's house. Copeland (on left, my cousin Betsy's baby) is about a month older than Hannah Cate, which is fitting because Betsy and I are also the same age and only a few months apart.

Mary Caroline is such a pro!

We had a baby shower for Emily and baby AJ! He got lots of fun stuff!
Katherine came over for a visit and we were so glad to see her! She's having baby boy Echerd in November and we can't wait to meet him!

And this was our last day, so we were all sad to say goodbye But we can't wait for October when we will see them again....and baby AJ!

Saying bye-bye to Granddaddy. I'm thinking he was telling her that it was time for us to go home and she didn't like it......

because it sure does look like she's about to rare back and punch him in the face!

It was a great week and we loved seeing everyone. If we didn't get to see you on this trip, we hope to see you next time! In case you haven't seen enough pictures, click here for more (I took 200 while we were there!)