Big Ron....

Do you know my dad? If you do, then you know that he is HILARIOUSLY funny, down to earth, humble and quirky! I am a daddy’s girl (yet, I do love my mom because we are A LOT alike) and I think he is a wonderful human. Guess what? He has worked long and hard (so has my mom and she ain't leaving yet!) his whole life and today is his ETERNAL FRIDAY!!! As of 4 p.m. today we’ll be seeing nothing but his taillights as he flies out of Alabama Power’s parking deck for the FINAL time. He is going to be SO missed and he doesn’t even know it. He is the highlight of SO many people’s day and is their salt in this drab place, I can assure you. Anyway, HAPPY RETIREMENT DAD!! I love you and will miss you being 5 floors above me! P.S. He doesn’t read my blog..does he even know I have one? Hmm….

A little stroll back from lunch. GOSH, how I will miss these days! Yes, thanks for noticing, I WAS 7 months pregnant in this picture.

Obviously this wasn't a Halloween party, but my wedding. Big Ron is a dancer (behind the scenes) and all we used to do growing up was dance and sing..dance and sing..dance and sing.

Bring on the steak…maybe not

So, I got this email the other day and its title was “Is your baby ready for baby food?” Hmm, interesting title thought I would take a look. It proceeds to give a bulleted list of “hints to notice” whether your baby is ready or not…..

Time out…let me preface this… While I don’t like to be called dramatic, I LOVE to analyze an article like this and apply it to our lives. I mean, it could be about something that only lives in Africa and I could “create” related symptoms, but, remember, I’m not AT ALL dramatic. HA!

With that being said, I start scanning the bulleted points and my eyebrows start to raise- mixed emotions b/c I REALLY don’t want Evie Black to get big (I use the term loosely)- she has A LOT of these things going on. She was supposed to have her 4 month appt today and we were gonna discuss food, but her funk got in the way. One bullet that stuck out to me and made me laugh hysterically wonder was this:
 If your child has doubled her birth weight….

DOUBLED? Are you joking? Have you seen my happy, healthy, sweet Heavy Evie??? Um…we are a few pounds shy of tripling it. Thank you VERY much. I decided to do a little photo session, let’s see if the “doubling” is at ALL obvious:

Evie, please smile this once for the camera.... or I'll make you blurry (my photography skills are NOTHING short of breathtaking)!

Perhaps this face is deserved since I'm discussing your weight on a public site. Girl, I wouldn't trade anything for those thighs, wrists and belly!

"Really? I've had enough and if I flare my nostrils and bow up, maybe you'll give me the bath I'm waiting for."

So, what do you think? She's ready for a meat and three. THAT'S OUR GIRL!!

In the words of Gloria Gaynor

We will survive…Our sweet EB has come down with some funk. We have worked hard (and been successful, might I add) at keeping this sweet baby healthy as a horse….UNTIL LAST WEEK. Through all of my babysitting and nannying I have seen my share of sick babies, but it never quite hit home until you're up all night with a screaming baby, sleep deprived and battling nasty gunky snot it was MY precious baby and it truly does break my heart. Yes, I am FULLY aware that there are really sick babies amongst us fighting HORRIBLE things, and they ONLY wish all they had to worry about was an upper respiratory infection. With that being said, I’m very thankful that’s all we have going on, but it is so very sad for my little Evie (of course, I’m a new mom,first-timer and it appears to be exasperated a bit… I get all of that). Our days have been long and a bit tiring and I’m sorry to my faithful 3 readers that I haven’t kept you up to speed on my "edge-of-your-seat, can’t-take-your-eyes-off-my-blog" life. I’m sure somewhere in my inbox and call log, I also have calls and e-mails to return…. Hmmmm, I’ll work on that.



Her "resting place" until the funk leaves. This bouncy seat has truly been our saving grace on MANY occasions. So pitiful. You wouldn't believe if I told you I'm not much of a "pink" person, would you?!

Ohhh, how I miss that chunky, mischievous little face. MELTS MY HEART!!!

Weekend drool!

AHHH… the weekend! OHHH, how I love the weekend! HAPPY FRIDAY!

So, a slobbery love bucket -pictured below- is moving in for the weekend. Dudley looks like he could rip your arm off, but really he would just love the opportunity to slime you. His prefect scenario for said opportunity would be if you were dressed nicely and didn’t want a nice slobbery wet mark on your favorite black pants--insert Dudley running at you with those wet jowls (probably not the correct term, but it creates the perfect picture in your mind) and ramming your leg. Really, he is SO sweet that you would QUICKLY forgive and forget…until you wanted to wear them again next week.

My parents are away this weekend and ol’ Dud will find himself with Cousin Gus for a few days. You just wait until Gus realizes I have an extra “person” in the car, what a sweet reunion it will be! I shouldn’t even share this, but after Jason and I got married, I missed Dudley so much. He is an AWESOME dog. So my tail might be wagging as much as GB’s when he sees “the Dud.”



Look at that face...... Do you not like Christmas presents?

The boys at the lake.. they are just playing, it's ok! I like to think that they are best buds.

So fortunate….

…to have these folks in my life. I love my grandparents so much and we have such a special relationship. I am so thankful for all of our special memories. Over a year ago they started getting up at the crack of dawn EVERY Thursday morning to drive down to the power company and eat breakfast with me (great accountability for me to be on time every Thursday). I LOVE IT! I LOVE riding down the escalator to meet them and seeing my sweet g’dad’s big ol’ smile the minute he sees me riding down. He goes through the line and hands all of the sweet workers a peppermint. It just makes my whole day! Anyway, they LOVE us and we (all of us) truly are their pride and joy (bless their hearts. hee hee), and they look forward to b’fast as much I do…maybe more.

They are on “Evie Duty” this week (I’ll go into more detail later about how generous my family has been to keep EB the month of March. Jason and I are SO blessed and thankful). SO, it was ONLY fitting that baby girl take part in our breakfast ritual this morning. She, of course, slept through the whole breakfast, but they were like little birds with puffed chests every time someone walked up to see Evie. This morning was definitely a special morning. Normally my dad joins us as well, but he is off today. I really do look so forward to Thursday morning breakfast. It’s a GREAT way to start my day….with some of my MOST favorite people. Plus, we are making GREAT memories!

We got to work early this morning, so EB hung out in PR for a little while. I loved looking down and seeing her fat and happy little self. She is SO happy (not that you can tell) in the mornings. It just thrills my soul to hear her cooing and see her smiling in the mornings. DEFINITELY makes getting up early MUCH easier when i can see that sweet face!

The Great Grands with Miss Black-Attack. How cute are they?! It just makes me smile seeing them. Evie LOVES LOVES LOVES her Grand Nan. NO ONE can get her laughing and cooing like Nannie can. It is WAY too cute!

The bearded one....

We had a visit from Uncle Clay on Saturday night. Jason was out of town, so we enjoyed his company. Evie is in awe of Clay and I think it's his beard- I'm in "awe" of it too sometimes (ha). Clay is SO great with Evie and they share a mutual love for each other and it is so sweet.



NOW, for those of you who REALLY know Clay, he is QUITE a character and you won't be surprised with these pics. He keeps us entertained 99% of the time. He has the BEST personality and is a walking comedy routine. He is in his second year at Alabama and I miss him being around so much. He can pull some shenanigans, I tell ya:
The "Evie hold." Clearly, she enjoys it and he is strong enough to hold heavy Evie like this. I tried last night...FAILURE.

Clay is so ready for EB to become mobile (the things she'll learn from him...), so he is starting her out early and working on that leg strength. If she appears to be in a vice, that's because she is! He wedged her, oh yes he did, between the sofa cushions so she would be standing up to his satisfaction.

"Seriously?!" How funny. She just hung (no pun intended) out...we laughed.

We're green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Evie B! Thanks to her sweet Uncle Bill, EB is stylin' today at the great grands. Guess who got up at 2:30 a.m. today?? These pictures should be a GOOD hint:


Typical "Evie look" when the camera is pulled out mixed with a little 2:30 a.m. wake up call.



Please note the green bumbo along with the green paci coordinating shamrock outfit and lastly, yes, our kitchen is a shade of green. I planned this at 2:30 this morning while trying to coerce her back to sleep.

Lastly, would the outfit be complete without a shamrock on the bum?! Of course not!

Happy Tuesday!

Born a river rat, always a river rat...

I love nice people. So, this weekend was a wash in Birmingham. It rained ALLLLL weekend. Jason was out of town so Evie and I started our wet weekend off at Costco. We're cruising through Costco waiting for our-really MY-pizza to get done (ever had their pizza? YUM) and I spy lifejackets out of the corner of my eye. We desperately need a lifejacket for little EB because we spend lots of time here..... (my personal piece of heaven on earth)

So, we mosey on over. YES! They do have infant lifejackets for $20.99! AWESOME PRICE! BUT...they are all gone. I was SO sad. So, we go up to get our pizza and I just happened to ask if there were anymore infant lifejackets. They ask me to please wait and they'll get a forklift out and check the warehouse. To make a long story short, we waited for a WHILE. Finally a man asks if I need help (I'm sure I had my typical "what's going on" face). I told him we were waiting for a lifejacket and he said they thought I had left so they put it back. He felt so bad that he gave it to me for $10!! HOW AWESOME! Things like that happen to JB all the time, but never to me. SO, I was SUPER SUPER pumped. We had a dry run Friday night... Is she ready or what?

That man made my day and started off our weekend on the right note! Thanks, Costco man!! She'll be a river rat in NO time!!

What's in a first post???

I could not be more excited at this moment…. my emotions are running the gamut, as you can imagine- fear, anxiety, excitement…. I mean, the expectations are THROUGH THE ROOF! Now, like everything I will start out strong, let’s just hope I don’t falter. If I do, I have plenty of accountability to keep me going… I’ll protect the “innocent” and allow you to remain nameless.

Ok, with that said, let’s just dive right in. I am a HUGE blog fan and they have been known to fulfill many dull, boring and even late night hours. Some blogs are so informative with recipes, interior designing, arts and crafts, etc., but I can ASSURE you that if that’s what you are looking for go ahead and type in a different URL. You may get a recipe occasionally, but I am NO Betty Crocker. So, I’m on here-against Jason’s wishes, I’m sure- to just blog about our boring lives. In December our lives were forever changed and blessed with the birth of Evie. Like every mom, I want to capture these moments that are QUICKLY fleeting. She is our biggest joy and I’m amazed every day, all day at what a miracle a baby is- we’ll get into that later.

Jason and I have been married almost three years. He is wonderfully serious and high strung and keeps our little family afloat. We laugh at him constantly with the antics he pulls, but he balances me out perfectly and, I THINK, we compliment each other to an art…maybe?! I, too, am high strung, but we are OCD about different things and it usually works out perfectly. He is incredibly smart and challenges me daily, whether I particularly like it or not.

So, we got engaged, started new jobs, broke ground on a house all before we shared a last name. It was an INTENSE pre-wedding time. We walked through our front door as Jason and Holly Black and soon adopted our “first born,” Gus. Gus is our mutt whom we love DEARLY and he IS part of our family. He is spoiled to the core, but we love his mutty self!

Right before our second anniversary (literally about a week before) we found out I was pregnant--DEFINITELY a jolt to our system and an adjustment that took a wee bit. However, on Dec. 1 Evelyn “Evie” (it’s like “heavy” without the “h”) Virginia Black was born and forever changed our perceptions, plans.. our lives. For two people that weren’t “ready” for children, she has stolen and matured our hearts and lives. Our faith has taken steps that I would have never imagined, thankfully. So, we are in a special place right now and life is good. I went back to work just 2 weeks ago. I’m learning the balance of work, home, baby (a dog, yes it exists), exercise and so on. As I’m sure you will be reading about very soon.

So, that’s us! Here we go on this little journey………..

Compliments of Laine Williams Photography