4th of July

Another three weeks has come and gone since my last post :-/ Gosh, when I made my "promise" to try to post once a week at New Year's, I had no idea how insanely busy our life would become this year! Not just with keeping up with Alexa and preparing for Baby Boy, but also with making new friends and continuing to spend so much time traveling!

Regardless, since Baby Boy Ritchey decided to wake Mommy up with his acrobatics at 4:45 am, I figured I would take this time to be productive and write a quick blog about our 4th of July weekend and the few days leading up to our vacation...

Saturday, July 3rd
So I realize that Daddy & I are probably going to get "yelled at" by someone, but we thought it was hilarious that Alexa was walking around & trying to drink from my empty mini-wine bottle so I had to capture it on camera ;-) This was the first time Alexa was up late enough to see fireflies come out - she LOVED them, of course!









We enjoyed watching the Dublin fireworks with a few of our friends that we hadn't seen in a long time, like Jamie and Rachel.










Sunday, July 4th
We had our 3rd Annual 4th of July Cookout in the afternoon/evening. Although the "crowd" has changed over the past three years, it was still an excellent time! Alexa had so much fun playing with friends, Kyla, Leylynn, & Avery (not pictured), and cousins, David & Natalie.









Me at 27.5 weeks and Michelle at 36.5 weeks (both pregnant with Baby #2 and they are both boys!). Alexa really enjoyed her "red, white, and blue popsicle" (she can tell you that's what it is!). Thanks to our amazing, ever-supportive friends for continuing to celebrate our Nation's Independence with us each year!!









Due to the hot & humid weather, my cake did not turn out like I wanted it to... it was supposed to be blue with a red shell border, red letters, and one red, one white, & one blue star. Obviously, only my blue icing was cooperating :-)~










Monday, July 5th
We spent the morning at Pat & Becky's house to have a little extra time with Andy, Cathy, & the kids. The Daddys worked on an art project with the kids: a stepping stone with fingerprints for their grandparents.









In the evening, we went to Brian & Anne's house (Dan's uncle & aunt) for a small cookout. Along with discovering that she actually likes corn but prefers to "Alexa do it herself" (a sentence I hear 100s of times a day!), we learned that she likes watermelon when it is cut into wedges. Her Highness is certainly independent!!









Here are the kiddos playing in the pool.









An attempt to get a picture of Great-Grandma Ritchey with five (of her nine) great-grandchildren. Pictured here: Alexa, David & Natalie (Andy & Cathy's kids), and Aidan & Addison (Erin & Miles' kids). Baby Boy is going to be great-grandchild #10!!










Tuesday, July 6th
Alexa and I returned to our normal routine for a few days before we left for vacation - So we went to Babytime in the morning. Mrs. Jenny always greets Alexa by name when we walk into the Story Garden and lets her help a lot throughout Babytime. She says Alexa is "showing the ropes" to the younger kids because it is almost time for her to move up to Tales for Twos & Threes! I must tell you though, that on this particular day, we tried T for T & T (because we had plans that prevented us from going to Babytime later in the day), and those kiddos are w-i-l-d! Alexa held her own among the older children, but I think we'll be attending storytime with younger friends for a little longer :-)









Thought I would share with you the progression of the belly... left (8 weeks), center (24 weeks), and right (28 weeks). My appointment with Dr. Davy was uneventful. I haven't had a phone call from them, which I'm assuming means my glucose levels are fine. She said that at this point she typically starts the bi-weekly appointments, and when I groaned she said that since I had a great pregnancy with Alexa & since I've had a great pregnancy and been so active thus far with B.B. that she would let me go a month one last time before we begin bi-weekly visits. Bi-weekly visits are going to be a P.I.T.A. with trying to entertain Alexa during the inevitably long waits for uneventfulness, but on the positive side, they mean (to me) that the baby is going to be here in the blink of an eye!!!









In the evening, we went for our first maternity photo shoot at Homestead Park. Our photographer, John Caputo took engagement, wedding, maternity, & newborn photos for his friend Jen & her hubby George (who is one of Dan's co-workers/friends). Based off of Jen & George's photos, he was hired to do Tiffanie & Ben's engagement & wedding pictures. And now we have hired him to take maternity (and eventually newborn) photos for us. Shows just how important networking is when trying to start a business! Our maternity photo shoot was an awesome experience!! I'm still waiting to get the DVD with all the images from that first session, but here is a sneak peek at John's awesomeness...












We are actually going this evening to attempt to get some family photos of the three of us because Alexa was not smiling during our first session. In her defense, it was 92* and humid - plus we took Francesca with us to help but I think she ended up being a bit of a distraction too. Most of the good photos of that night are of just me, me & Dan, or me & Alexa - none of the three of us. That's why we are going to re-attempt family photos (and one pose we forgot to shoot last time of Dan & me) tonight. And then next week, I am going to do some more artistic/studio type shots of just me to help John "complete the traditional maternity photo set" for his portfolio.

Well, that catches you up on The Ritchey's until before we left for vacation. I will post about our vacation soon, I promise! I have 315 pictures uploaded to Snapfish and ready to share. Now I just need to find the time to select a few to post as teasers on the blog and to write my commentary (i.e. stories) about our wonderful Family Vacation 2010. No idea when that blog will be posted though because tomorrow Alexa & I are headed to Kentucky for an overnight visit with Aunt Janine & Uncle Ken! Then, on Saturday we are taking Alexa halfway to Perry because she is having a "sleepover at Noni & Papa's house" (she's uber excited!) so that we can attend Kelly & Jarrod's wedding kid-free and not pay Francesca an arm & a leg. Which means, I'll head to Perry on Sunday for a few days of Perry-cation :-) Ciao.