Guest Blogging @ Alabama Bloggers

Check out Alabama Bloggers to read all about my first Bama game and see more pics!!


(Look! Lucas even wore an Alabama shirt and cheered along with me! Miracles do happen!)

I'll Be Here Tomorrow

Bryant-Denny Stadium

I'll be here tomorrow (in the rain)! If you will be there, too, leave me a comment! If not - leave me a comment anyways.... prefaced with a Roll Tide!!!

In My Mind...

I was a much cuter kid.

Mom is digging through old photos trying to find a decent shot of baby me. In the mean time, she sent me these two photos. In my mind, I was a much cuter kid.

Lucas's mom sent over a gorgeous photo of him as a baby. I was trying to find a similar photo of myself so that we could frame both and hang in the nursery. I've got to find one of myself that can compete with his cuteness, though. At least the beautiful photo of Lucas is good news for Baby Lily Ann! I hope she has a little Colombian charm! Haha!

Sewing Seeds

That's what we did this weekend. You see, when we bought our home almost two years ago we fell in love with the big trees and crawling ivy.


What we didn't realize is that ivy keeps growing and growing and growing and eventually kills the big trees we first fell in love with. Also, these big trees mean lots of leaves during the Fall and getting leaves out of thirty years worth of ivy growth is not easy. Big trees also mean very sparse grass, which is probably why the ivy was put there in the first place.

So, for the past year we have been ripping out ivy..... little..... by..... little. We still have some ivy growth in the side lawn, but we have finally won the battle against ivy in our front yard! Late August / Early September is the best time to sow grass seed in the South so that is what we did on our Labor Day!

We tilled the yard and started with some fresh dirt.


Then Lucas took our grass seed made specifically for shady lawns in our area and spread them with our new handy, dandy seed spreader.


Then we spread the wheat straw over the lawn and started the sprinkling.

We're going to put mulch and a border around the trees for the time being. Eventually we'll plant some shade plants around the trees. For now, we are focused on eradicating what is left of the ivy on the side and growing some nice fescue!

Grow, Grass, Grow!!!

(Ahhh! Just to remember those days when home
ownership was a fun and exciting new adventure.
So glad we got rid of that orange, by the way!)

It's almost Fall in the South...

and you know what that means:

FOOTBALL SEASON!!!

College football 'officially' starts tomorrow when the Crimson Wave will hit the field against VA Tech in this year's home opener at the Georgia Dome.

ROLL TIDE!!!!!

I'll be writing a review over at Alabama Bloggers, to feature some game highlights and how we party for football. ** Note: my definition of 'party' has changed somewhat over the last few months - ahem - being that I am with child. **

And next week, we'll be traveling to Tuscaloosa for the first home game of the season and my first live college football game! So excited!!!

Now, go visit Alabama Bloggers and 'score' for your team in the Football Carnival. Alabama is kicking tail, as if there was ever any doubt.

Welcome to the world,

Landon Cole!

August 24, 2009

5:41 p.m.
7 lb. 8 oz.
20"

Congratulations, Chris and Aida!

(Can you believe she just gave birth? Amazing.)

Landon is so lucky to have two such wonderful parents (and not just because he obviously inherited your amazing good looks).

Thank you so much for letting me be there and be a part of Landon's birthday. I am so honored to say I have known him since his first breath of air. I truly love him so much already! I can't wait to raise our children together and grow even closer as friends ~ no, family. Who would've thought five years ago when we were drinking 'three legged ducks', going to 'white trash bashes' and toga parties, and molding the young minds at college orientation that we would be forever friends and raising our children together. (Though I did know you and Chris would be together forever. Recall the bonfire where you two were fighting and I sat in the front yard sobbing because my friends were going to break up. Yeah. I knew it was meant to be.) ..... one day I'll break out photos of these old memories for you all to see. That will be a fun day. :)

All that to say: Landon, your Aunt Ashley loves you very much.


Uncle Lucas has even become quite attached already.

We can't wait to watch you grow!!

And one last photo of a precious baby...

Isn't he the cutest baby you have ever seen??
You better say yes. At least for another 5 months. ;)

"Surreal, but Nice"

"Surreal, but nice." A quote from one of my very favorite movies ~ Notting Hill. And it describes that moment perfectly.

We drove with my parents to a prenatal imaging center in Nashville. Lucas and I had been there once before with our friends Chris and Aida for their 30 week 4D ultrasound, so we sort of knew what to expect. What we ~ or at least I ~ didn't expect was the news we would receive a few moments later.

Throughout the entire pregnancy I have felt like this was a boy. I don't know why. Call it a guess. Call it a motherly instinct (though if that is the case, I certainly hope mine gets better). I just knew it would be a boy. You see - I have this nightmare of having three boys. Don't get me wrong - I like boys. It is just that I really would at some point like a girl and have feared ~ irrationally, for quite some time ~ that that may not happen. Lucas is one of three boys. My dad is one of three boys. One of his brothers has three boys. I don't know. Just felt like that may be my destiny. So I felt pretty confident that my little baby was a boy, and I had sold myself on the positives of having a boy. Almost so much so that I woke up that morning and thought - "you know, self. it might really be fun to have a little boy. i think i'll enjoy this. he and landon (chris and aida's baby) will have so much fun together."

All the while, I carried on this tiny little glimmer of hope that perhaps this little being inside of me might be a girl. I tried not to get too caught up in that possibility. But oh what fun I would have with all the lacey outfits and the ruffle butt diaper covers! The sewing and the dresses and the monogramming and the appliqueing!! And the perfect name we already had picked out for her (more on that later). But I didn't dwell on that too much. I knew it was a boy.

Lucas, on the other hand, firmly believed it was a girl. In fact, at our previous doctor's appointment we heard the heartbeat and Lucas said, "Yep! That's a little girl's heartbeat!" Uh, huh. Whatever, Lucas.

Well......
I was laying there on the ultrasound table as Lisa ~ the nice technician lady ~ was performing the ultrasound. We were gazing at the screen and at each other, and ooing and awwing over the cute little baby we saw (who now actually looks somewhat like a baby and not like a little worm as on the initial ultrasound 9 weeks prior).



I was looking over at Lucas and at my parent's reaction to all of the baby excitement when all of the sudden I heard my mom let out a big gasp. I immediately looked at the screen and Lisa had typed "girl!!!" on the screen next to a little arrow that was pointing to her lady parts.

GIRL!!!!!

Oh, my goodness! Let me just tell you ~ I about fell apart. The room was spinning. I was crying. Lucas was crying. My parents were crying. Heck, Lisa and her daughter (who was answering the phone in the lobby and could obviously hear us) were almost crying, too!



The blood rushed from my head quickly and, I promise you, didn't return for quite some time. You will notice this light headedness because I don't think my hand leaves my head in any of the photos for a good hour!

(Sharing the good news with my grandparents who had planned on being there but, due to a health issue with my granddaddy, were unable to come with us. Thankfully, he is much better now.)

It was surreal, to say the least.

(Phone Call to Colombia!)

(And, of course, you know my mom can't do anything small. She had leis and carriage signs in pink and blue to celebrate whatever news we would hear. She also had presents for the baby ~ boy or girl.)
After some pictures and more celebration, we headed to Opry Mills to do some serious shopping. Can't wait to show you all what we bought her! Stay tuned.

And now, I leave you with beautiful photos of my baby girl.