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We had a fun day today!

Ben's little brother, Boaz, got baptized in the ocean.

Then we went back to my parents' house and Ben and Georgia swam in

the pool for a while.  She has become much more of a water baby than we

would've anticipated a year ago.  She loves it!

And when we got home, Ben helped Georgia try and figure out her new

tricycle (that she got from Memaw and Papaw for her birthday)!

She loves it, and I'm kind of sad because of how grown up she looks on it.

256/109

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Georgia had a great time at her simple, Minnie Mouse birthday party on Saturday!

We went to the springs like we did for her 1st birthday party, and we just kept decor/prep to a

minimum.  I'm not up for a whole lot lately, but I did not want to skip celebrating her birthday.

It was a hot day, but I think everyone had a good time and most people went swimming!

250/115

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Had to take a hospital selfie with my amazing man.  He's so loving and supportive.  I don't

know what I'd do without him!  Or without the support of our families, praying for us and

helping with Georgia.  Thank you all so much!!!

249/116

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Saturday was an eventful day.

My dear friend, Jean Marie, came over for most of the day to take our family/maternity

pictures.  We had such a great time.  We just chilled around the house, experimenting with

different photo ideas.  We even took a nap!  Then we headed to our local train station for

some outdoor pictures, got rained out, and headed to dinner.

After dinner, Jean went home, and then everything changed.

I went to the bathroom and noticed some spotting.  After texting with my midwife some,

and spotting a little more, we decided it would be best if we went to the hospital.  We'd much

rather be safe than sorry.

Long story-short: I was dehydrated, causing contractions, which likely caused irritation to

my cervix, which caused the spotting.  My water had not broken (praise the Lord) and Phoenix

was totally fine.  I convinced them I could drink enough water and they didn't feel the need

to give me an IV (if you know me, you know how happy that made me, and how willing I was

to CHUG water if necessary).  They gave me some meds to stop the contractions, and after

about 3 hours of being there I was free to go home!

So now, as you can imagine, I'm keeping track of my water intake and watching my caffeine

intake as well.  I absolutely do not want to go through that again.  I'm looking forward to at

least 3 more weeks with this baby inside me!!  Hopefully longer, if that's what she needs.

~

Jean has been posting pictures on her facebook photography page, and I will definitely

be sharing more on my blog when I have them!!!

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Blurry phone picture, I'm sorry... but I mean come on... how sweet are they!?

We were all worn out from our weekend in Atlanta (on top of being gone the previous

two weekends as well)!  We're very happy to be home for a while and getting ready for

Phoenix's arrival next month!!!

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Ben did a jiu jitsu tournament up in Atlanta recently!

Georgia loves her Daddy.

I took Georgia back to the hotel for some swimming and a nap, and I just

soaked up every minute of being there next to her sleeping.  There's just

something about a sleeping baby/toddler!!

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I have the cutest nephews!!!  Ryan and I took a bathroom selfie :D  I know

firsthand how wonderful it is to have someone with you to hold your child when

you need to use a public restroom.

We managed to get a family picture back at the cabin!  It wasn't easy, that's for

sure.  But we got one with everyone looking and no one crying!  Haha!

226/139

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We drove through the night to Tennessee, making it there after almost 10 hours.

My parents, my brother and his family were already at the cabin, and they watched

Georgia after we got some breakfast so that Ben and I could get some sleep!

After we got a nice nap, we just chilled around the cabin.  We love to play Uno

(or any game, for that matter) and enjoyed playing it outside on the beautiful porch!

223/142

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Georgia and I got to visit Ben at work recently!  He and Brandon (his brother) are

building a treehouse, and it's looking really awesome.  Georgia definitely approved ;)

That butterfly, along with 3 or 4 others, kept hanging around the trees in the area.

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We celebrated our niece's birthday on Monday (and Tuesday, actually!) and the

three of us ended up snuggled on the couch together :)  I love them so much.

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We had dinner at my parents' house on Sunday - I always love watching

Georgia play with her cousins.  And Ben is an awesome uncle :)

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We had our families over to celebrate Independence Day on the 5th!

My Dad and brother are fire fighters and they were both on duty on the

4th, so we took the next day as our opportunity to hang out with our

families! :)  It was a fun day, despite the rain keeping us mostly inside.

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I gave Georgia a haircut on Sunday.  If you're one of my hairdresser friends, just look

away... I'm sure it could be better!  But I'm pretty happy with it and she seems unfazed :)

I felt like her hair was getting kind of scraggly and weird again, so I just figured I'd go

ahead and cut it.  I love the short bob haircut on little girls!  Still waiting for her hair to

stop growing forwards, then maybe we can stop putting bows and clips in it all the time.

~

Later that day, Ben and I had a date night (more like afternoon).  We went and played

putt putt after an early dinner, then got some ice cream and just sat on the beach in the

perfect weather.  The ocean was totally flat again and the air was ideal.

I love him so much!!

172/193

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We had a great "first day of summer" this year!!

Back in May, I had mentioned to Ben that I really wanted to plan a surprise

something for Jean's birthday, but since I had time, I didn't act on it right away.

Not even 2 weeks later, Becca messages me with the exact same idea.  Fantastic!

So, we got to planning... and long story-short, we pulled it off!  We surprised Jean

with some of her best friends at the beach, went for pizza, went back to the beach,

and then got ice cream to top it all off.  It really was a great day.

I fully intended on getting a lot more pictures, but the water and conditions were

so perfect, I just had to get in.  And I don't normally get in the water.  It was great

to enjoy the (very unusually-flat) ocean with our friends.

~

Leah and I are only 2 weeks apart!  She's due with their first baby (also a girl)

15 days before I'm due with Phoenix.  It has been fun being pregnant with friends

through both of my pregnancies so far!  I can't wait to see Phoenix and their baby

grow up together.  Too fun!!

~

Thankfully, Jean asked to get a picture before we ALL went home (we really

should've gotten a group shot earlier).  I just adore these girls and had so much

fun planning this whole thing with Becca!!!  LtoR: me, Jean Marie and Becca

166/199

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Happy Father's Day to the amazing man in our lives!  Georgia and I love
you so much, Ben, and I know Phoenix will just adore you as well.

Georgia and I went out in the morning before Ben woke up to get him
some donuts :D  Georgia was just as excited about them as Ben was ;)

Then we went to the beach with Ben's family, but I didn't bring my camera
down on the beach because the skies were threatening rain the whole time.
I took a few phone pictures though, and posted on instagram.

We took the last two pictures at home after showers :) I love them so much.
I can't wait to see Phoenix with them in next year's picture!!!

165/200

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We attended my cousin's beach wedding this Saturday!

I love the way Georgia looks at Ben sometimes.  It's so sweet to

watch them together, and I can't wait to see him with Phoenix.

And I just adore this shot of Georgia and her cousin David.

They're adorable playing together, sharing (more or less) their

toys with each other!

158/207

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On Saturday, we painted Georgia's new bed!

While Ben was cleaning the bed before painting, Georgia ended up

getting all wet, so we just brought her little pool out for a while.

To see more pictures and read about G's transition from crib

to toddler bed, you can click here!

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Ben had another fight on Saturday!  We have an awesome group of

friends (like-family) and family that came out to support Ben and our

friend, Calli, who was also fighting!  We're all so proud of them!

Many thanks to Calli's dad for these two pictures!

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Meet Samwise!!!

Brandon and Amanda (Ben's brother and our sister-in-law) found Sam and

two other kittens hiding under some pallets on their property!  So, Brandon

asked Ben if we wanted one, and to my surprise, Ben was ok with it.  And

obviously, I was more than ok with it... so we now have four cats!

Is he not the cutest, most beautiful little kitten you've ever seen?  It's taking

everything in me not to post a million pictures of him.  For every picture I

post, there are probably 20 pictures I'm not posting :P

As far as appearances go, he is my dream cat.  I am so happy.

We'll see how his personality evolves over time!

So far, the other animals are doing fairly well with him.  Runt is doing

the best.  It won't be long before they'll all live in harmony ;)

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I'm just going to make a long story short.

Basically, Ben got a spider bite, didn't realize it at first, and then it ended up getting infected.

He went to the ER on Wednesday morning and they gave him some antibiotics and told him

to rest until it's better.  He's been home from work since Wednesday and we're hoping (sort of)

that he'll be well enough to go back to work on Monday.

Of course, I'm always thrilled to have him home, but he does need to work, and we really

want him to feel better!!!

I took this picture the day he went to the ER.  He was exhausted.  And Gus was very much

enjoying having him home (as were we all)!