Guess What?!?!?

Yep, that is exactly what it looks like...8 positive pregnancy tests! There are 8 because I didn't believe the first seven.

I had a really difficult time getting pregnant with Handley, but thanks to the help of a fertility specialist in Florida we have our beautiful little girl. I was ready to be pregnant again and just assumed we'd go down that path again. I even had an appointment scheduled with a doctor here, but about a week before discovered I was pregnant.

I'm 11 weeks now and am due on April 18th! I had a second ultrasound today and everything looks great. The baby has a great heart rate and was bouncing around everywhere. We are so thrilled to think that Handley will have a constant playmate for the rest of her life and I really feel like this baby is the answer to so many prayers.

Happy Birthday Annablle!

Today was the last of our 1st birthday parties for the month of September. One of Handley's best friends and neighbors turned one this week. We met Annabelle and her mom, Carrie, when Annabelle was only about a month old. I feel like I've watched her grow up this past year, so it was fun to be there as she celebrated her big day today. Annabelle had a cupcake themed party and everything was pink and white...so cute!

Handley with her friends Annabelle and Addyson.

Handley loves the ball pit that Annabelle has. She likes to get a running start and then dive right in head first.

Mommy's Little Helper

I had a post titled the same thing a few months ago, but it is so true. Handley loves to help me out around the house.

Here she is helping me plant our fall flowers:

And here she is helping me put away the dishes. I give her the tupperware (since that is the only cabinet on her level that doesn't have a child lock on it) and she goes straight to the tupperware cabinet, opens it up, puts in the tupperware, then closes the cabinet.

She's gotten really good a picking up her toys. Every time we leave the room to go do something else all I have to say is, "clean up your toys...put them in the basket" and she starts cleaning them up! I can't believe it, but I LOVE it. Her cleaning up and putting things in their place has spilled over to other things as well. Every evening we spread a big sheet out in the front yard and we sit and play. Well, I guess I sit and she plays. Anytime a piece of pine straw or a leaf gets onto the blanket she is very particular to pick it up and put it back in the yard. I wish I had the video camera out when she was trying to get a leaf off the driveway. It blew onto the driveway from the yard, so she picked it up and put it back in the yard. However, it was a windy evening and it kept blowing onto the driveway. She kept putting it back in the yard and was starting to get frustrated when it wouldn't stay there. It was really funny to watch.

Just because, here is a cute picture of Handley and her friend Avery (who she calls "A-dey"). They had a blast playing in the balls together!

Dress Up

Handley has recently started to enjoy dressing up. She has a few things in the playroom that she likes to put on. She'll bring them to me and I'll help her get dressed. She walks around, looks in the mirror to admire herself, and then goes on to something else.

Today she had a dress-up session and I ran to get my camera really quick. Here were a few of her fashion combinations.

And my personal favorite:

Happy Birthday Finnan and Landon

On Saturday, we went to two more first birthday parties. Finnan and Landon were both celebrating their birthdays and we were able to work it out to make it to both parties.

Landon's party had a big bounce house and Handley couldn't get enough. This isn't the best picture of the two of them, but proof that we were there to help Landon celebrate his big day!

Finnan had a really neat antique fire-truck toy that Handley was fascinated with.

As you can see here, she was also really fascinated by the cupcake Finnan was eating and couldn't wait to get her hands on one!

Handley with Brian and Lisa at Finnan's party.

On Sunday we went to the Sandy Springs Arts Festival and had a great time. There were lots of vendors selling neat things and an entire children's area with puppet shows, petting zoos, and arts and crafts. Handley even got a Home Depot Kids Workshop apron (even though she was too young to complete the project).

She had fun chasing the bubbles around and thought she was so big playing with the older kids.

Zoo Atlanta

Today my friend Tiara and I took our girls on a fun field trip to the zoo! I couldn't wait for Handley to see all of the animals she's seen and read about in books. At first she seemed very confused, but fascinated by the animals. I think it was because so many of them were far away and/or so still. However, as soon as they started walking and moving around, she got a huge smile on her face and was really excited to see the real thing in person. I think her favorites were the elephants and the tigers.

Here she is at the petting zoo area. She was curious about the sheep and goats, but didn't really care touch or pet them.

And here she is checking out the statues of the elephant and the famous "Willie B" gorilla.

Feels like Fall

I love this time of year. The weather has really cooled off this week and it has made me really look forward to the season change. I love seeing the leaves turn beautiful shades of red, yellow, and orange. I also love that it is the beginning of the holidays with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Earlier this week I got out all of our fall decorations and now our house is full of pumpkins, deep orange candles, scents of cinnamon and spice. Handley keeps running around the house, pointing to all of the pumpkins and I can tell she's excited about the fall too.

I found an idea for making these cute fabric pumpkins and decided to give it a try. I love the way they turned out.

If anyone is interested, the instructions are on another blog I read on a regular basis. http://bloggingwithholly.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html (about 1/2 way down, the post is titled "Passionate about Pumpkins."

One funny story...I put a long sleeve shirt on Handley yesterday morning and she did not like it. I really didn't think about the fact that she hadn't worn long sleeves in about 5 months. She kept pulling the sleeves and saying "off, off!" Who knows what she'll do when I try to put a coat on her?!?!?

Happy Birthday Makinley!!!

September is a very busy month for birthdays and we have 4 1st birthday parties to attend over the next few weeks. Saturday started the tour of 1-year-old-birthdays for my friend Stacey's little girl. Makinley had a ladybug themed party and it was super cute.

I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because we were too busy chasing Handley around. She had so much fun playing outside with the other kids and eating yummy cake!

Happy Birthday Makinley!!!

So Pretty!

Handley is such a girl and she loves to to dress up and wear jewelry. A few weeks ago I made the mistake of giving her my box of beaded necklaces to play with. Now, every time she is in my room she heads right for my dresser and asks for that box of necklaces. I decided to pull it down for her yesterday morning while I was getting ready. She came around the corner with several of the necklaces on and had the biggest smile on her face. I told her she looked "so pretty" and she just beamed.

Centennial Olympic Park

Today, my friend and I took our girls on a "field trip" to Centennial Olympic Park. It was such fun way to spend our day and it was all free! We spent the first part of the morning letting the girls swing, slide, and explore the playground areas.

Handley was really interested in a few pigeons that were near the playground. She followed one around for a few minutes and kept getting closer and closer. I thought she was going to try to pick it up or pet it, but eventually it got away and she was disappointed.

Then we had a nice picnic lunch under the shade of a big tree before changing the girls into their bathing suits and heading to the famous fountain of rings. As the fountains came into view Handley was squealing and shaking with excitement. As soon as I got her out of the stroller and her feet hit the ground, she took off running to the water. Everyone around us couldn't believe how excited and brave she was to be running right through the fountains with no hesitation.

The Mushoom

When we moved into our neighborhood and took a look at the pool, Robby and I were really excited about the fountain. It is shaped like a mushroom and so we call it, "The Mushroom." Handley's first experience with the mushroom at the beginning of the summer was fine. She liked reaching out for the water and had fun if we held her and put her legs under the water, but she wasn't about to run under it and get drenched.

The mushroom is kind of temperamental. It has been working on and off all summer, but more off than on. I took her to the pool yesterday and it finally seemed to be working properly. Handley thought it was the greatest thing ever. She had so much fun running under the water, filling up her bucket and even just standing as it poured on her head. It's amazing the difference a few months will make!

Game Day

Because Robby is still recovering from his surgery and we knew he wouldn't feel like going anywhere on Saturday, we invited friends over to watch the first UGA game. We were all decked out in our red and black and ready to cheer for the DAWGS!

Since UGA was winning by so much, Handley got bored watching the game and decided to find something much more important to focus her attention to. What can I say...she has great taste!

A friend of ours came over on his Harley Davidson later in the day, and Handley had fun getting to sit on it!

Justen wanted his turn on the bike too!