She's here!  7 pounds and 10 ounces of perfect.

All I want to do for the rest of my life is kiss and smell my baby.  I never guessed how cool this would be.

Welcome to the world my little love.

oh hey, in case anybody was wondering what was going on in january and february of this year, i can tell you what was going on.  people were doing it.  and they must have been doing it a lot.  and now there are pregnant women and babies everywhere. over the last few weeks, multiple friends, a co-worker, and my own brother! have all had babies.  they were all due before me, so until now i've felt like we've had a good amount of time left.  but now... we are next.  um...WHAT DID WE DO?!  that runs through my mind about once a day when i look down at my stomach and continually ask her "wait, how will you be getting out of there again?"  because no.

sigh.

in the meantime, eric and i are trying our best to do things we won't be able to do in a few weeks.  things that are harder to do with a baby outside of your body than inside of your body.  like sleeping and going to the movies.  it's a little sad that everything we really want to do, like camping or some real traveling with diving and other fun crazy stuff, is pretty much physically impossible at this point.  it seems obvious, but i didn't realize how mentally difficult it would be to be physically limited.  right now i miss feeling normal.  and i really miss being the big spoon.

a while back we planned to take a baby-moon.  we wanted to do something easy that was still exciting and new, and realized that neither of us had ever been out to assateague island in the 6/7 years we've lived here.  so last weekend we packed up the girls and headed to the outer banks.

assateague is a barrier island that's broken up into sections managed by different groups, and we spent most of our time in the national park on the northern part of the island.  in this area, about 150 feral horses roam freely and are easily seen throughout the park from your car, on the beaches, or on trails.  we've heard that in summertime the horses will frolic in the ocean to cool off.  that's something i'd like to see!  last weekend was a bit rainy and cold, so the horses were mostly on the more protected bay side.  we think the rain must have kept away tourists.  it was like we had the park to ourselves and the horses were out everywhere.  eric kept telling me i was getting too close, but i can't help it if a horse comes my way :)

 they definitely had a wild quality about them.  messy hair and attitudes.  they kept ramming each other and showing their teeth.  it was comical and at the same time cute.

there were no horses to be found on our beach walks, but it's just not possible to ever get enough of that salt air so we kept going back for more.  as always, bella wasn't having much fun while belle couldn't resist running into the water, especially after the sun came out.

we woke up to sunshine and had two quick stops on the way back to the beach: a visit with a goat, and the dog park!  goats are just the best.  he's smiling for the picture.

 yay, the sun!  let's run and roll!

one night we made it over to ocean city and took a stroll along the board walk.  the arcade was amazing.  so much stimulation.

off the island we were just lazy.  sleeping, movies, games, snuggling the girls, and eating were about all we did.  every meal was a date.  so mission accomplished.  babymoon complete. we'll try our bests to maintain this babymoon attitude until it's go time.  

go time? wait how is this happening again? how do babies get here?!  oh crap!

the weather has been beautiful lately as we transition into fall.  the windows are open and the air is nice and cool. now's the time to take advantage of the quiet, spend time outdoors, and savor the last bits of our last summer as just dog parents.

baby girl's room is so close to being ready for her.  i couldn't resist posting a few pics of her bed.  her room has such a chill vibe that we are loving, and i'll confess we have slept in there a few nights just for fun.

 we're also trying to get as much out of the summer veggies as possible before they stop producing.  a new, amazingly delicious recipe we've discovered is habanero carrot pepper jelly.  it's easy and so tasty with some cream cheese on a cracker.  the two of us have already eaten an entire jar!  it's just the habanero gold recipe out of the ball book, but with carrots substituted for the apricots.  so good.

 i've gotten a new pottery mug every september for three years now.  i'm thinking it's a good tradition to keep going, so here is this year's pick.

 great falls!  eric shows belle some kayakers.  look at that little butt roll!  god she's adorable.

 my man from the mountains is looking very mountain man lately.

 do anything and everything outside while you can.  that's our motto.  we met up with some friends for an outdoor artjamz painting session.  eric went with an aboriginal painting, while i did a zebra.  it was a lot of fun, and now we have two more paintings to store in our basement :)

 these two are heading to iceland soon (beyond jealous over here), so mark painted a volcano.  hope you guys get to see an eruption!

i celebrated turning thirty-one over the weekend with some quality garden time, farmers markets, good food, friends, and crafting.  and as a special gift, the pools closing coincided with my birthday weekend, meaning that saturday was dog days of summer!  (we go every year, here are last year and the year before)

the markets are vibrant and lively - you can feel summer coming to an end.

 bella helps with the harvests and then the sowing of cool weather veggies.  it looks like we're going to be eating a lot of pesto this winter.

^^a cross stitch i made for our new nephew, emil.^^  we got out to colorado for a couple of days to meet the adorable new addition to the family, and this project was so perfect for relieving flight anxiety.  i think i'll do one on every trip from now on.

 dog days was a blast, as usual, though belle didn't do a lot of leaping into the water like she normally does.  it's hard to believe she's almost ten.

 ^^my pick for best in show this year^^  must. eat. all of the water!

 we even managed to get some swim time in, ourselves!

 a few nights ago we were lucky enough to spot this cicada molting in our back yard.  its wings came out in ridiculously vibrant colors.  i've always loves collecting their shed exoskeletons, but have never been able to see it happening.  really cool.  a few days later a praying mantis kept following me and trying to land on me.  i'm taking both of these encounters as signs of positive transformation, rebirth, and inner calmness/inner strength.  all things that will be very helpful in the coming months ;)

while 30 was a fantastic year, 31 is shaping up to be miraculous!