norah: relatives, outings, and milestones

now it's hard to imagine our life without norah. what did we do before she came?! over the past few weeks, both sets of her grandparents came to visit. it was great to have the extra help!

grammy & pop came when she was two weeks old. she also got to meet her uncle andy:nana & grandpa came when she was four weeks old.
and no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. there are two babies there; mrs. cathy is holding daniel, our friends' newborn. they came to bring us dinner that week. the husband, adam, plays on the church softball team with christopher. his wife sarah beth & i are enjoying taking the babies to games. this was norah's first outing (other than pediatrician visits)!
norah's second outing was her very first sunday at church, which happened to be easter sunday. she wore a sweet little dress from one of christopher's parents' friends.last weekend, norah got to meet her great-grandparents on my side, grandmother & daddy buck. this was so special and warmed my heart to see! i had been praying they would live to meet their great-grandchildren. God is so good!
norah has already reached some notable milestones. of course, as her parents we are amazed at anything she does! every sneeze, every yawn, every coo seems like a miracle. she started smiling at four weeks old. here she's doing it in her sleep; we thought she must be having sweet dreams!
at four weeks, she also started reaching for things: my hair (she has quite the grip!), christopher's fingers, hanging toys on her activity mat. we have also started doing "tummy time" so she has the opportunity to strengthen her upper body & neck muscles. she is working hard at lifting that heavy little head! one of the most significant milestones (to a sleep deprived mama, anyway!) is that norah slept through the night last night! we hope this will become a regular thing.

we are so excited for christopher's brother kevin & his fiance andra's wedding later this month. this will be our first big outing/trip with norah, and her first time meeting extended family on christopher's side. we hope everything goes smoothly (for them and for us!).

our daughter

after a very short labor (less than 8 hours!), norah christy golden was born on wednesday, march 7, 2012 at 1:08pm, weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and measuring 19 1/4 inches. we were in love with her immediately, and our lives will never be the same!

one of her first pictures with daddy in the delivery room:
cuddling with mama:first family photo:meeting grammy & pop for the first time:meeting nana & grandpa for the first time:going home:we had several visitors while we were in the hospital, and we have been so grateful for people bringing us meals since we've been home. we have been eating very well! norah & eva (the dog) meeting each other went better than i expected. norah doesn't seem to mind her bark, and eva hasn't been as jealous or acted out like i thought she might. i'm sure as norah gets bigger, they will become good friends! hanging out with daddy & eva:looking sweet:meeting uncle kevin & aunt andra for the first time:i am (sort of) getting used to getting up 2-3 times a night with norah. it is exhausting, but so very sweet. we feel very blessed!

overdue

the title of this post refers to my (lack of) blogging, not my pregnancy status! we got smart phones for christmas, and i have just now learned how to transfer pictures from it directly onto my computer. i will try to give a brief overview of events since thanksgiving...

here is us at church at christmas:
we enjoyed celebrating our first christmas in our new house. here is our very first (live!) christmas tree:we got to visit both sides of the family over christmas, and of course both nana & papa (christopher's parents) and grammy & pop (my parents) couldn't resist getting norah a little something.

work has been a whirlwind since i got back from vacation. i recently finished my supervision hours for my counseling license, which has taken 2 1/2 years to complete. i am very thankful to be getting this done before our baby arrives!

in the month of january, my friends from sunday school- meg (left) & lori (right)- hosted a beautiful baby shower themed "cute as a button." both grammy (left) & nana (right) got to come up for it, which was special.later in january, i got to go to a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law, andra. i didn't get a picture of the two of us on my camera, but here she is modeling her new apron.christopher has also been working very hard on the nursery. he got the furniture set up, and i have been enjoying finding places for all the baby things. i love resting in this most comfortable chair. it gives me a chance to daydream and pray for norah! i am almost 36 weeks, and it is so hard to believe she will be here so soon.my mom came up to greenville recently, and we enjoyed a mother-daughter shopping day together. we had lunch at one of my favorite bakeries, strossner's, and spent a considerable amount of time looking at baby things.
eva is doing well. we think she may be suspecting some upcoming changes. i took her to the vet last month b/c she was having some accidents in her crate. it was most likely behavioral. poor thing, i hate to think how she will be once norah is here and eva is really on the back burner! i think once she gets over her sibling rivalry, she will love having a little (soon-to-be big) sister to play with!

recent happenings

i do intend to blog more often than once every six weeks or so...it has been a busy fall for us between weekends away for football games, church activities, christopher under a work deadline right now, and me trying to finish my professional license before the baby comes.

i think "nesting" has begun as i started to realize that there are many projects i would like to get done to my house over the next few months. one thing that was long overdue (mostly because i took my time deciding what i wanted!) was finding some kind of window treatment for our master bedroom. i finally settled on thick white (faux-)wood blinds. i have to commend my sweet husband for installing these the same day we bought them, despite his having to work 60+ hour weeks lately.
i also picked a paint color for our guest bedroom. it is called easy green and is sort of seafoamy. i just liked the shade but loved it even more when i realized it goes perfectly with a great picture my photographer friend liz took at a random (defunct) gas station somewhere in the SC countryside. my picture doesn't do it justice, but it hopefully shows how the wall color brings out the photo color.
i had been waiting to start thinking about the nursery until we found out the baby's gender...we are having a girl!!! so i'd like to do the walls in a shade of brown and the room in pink and green, since i was inspired by this precious bedding.

so far i have only had one intense food craving: for fried chicken. on the bone. nothing else would satisfy, so fortunately chris had no problem with us getting bojangles that night.here is my most recent "belly shot" around the end of 18 weeks. this past weekend was a special one since christopher was ordained as a deacon in our church. both sets of parents came for the ceremony, and we had a great time as a family.here are the men: and us:

holidays continued...to 2011!

we have enjoyed a whole week off for christmas & new year's. for the first time ever, christopher & i had our own christmas eve and christmas day celebration before visiting family. i wanted to make a special dinner and use our china, but i didn't want the traditional menu. i made chicken fettuccine alfredo with salad and garlic bread: our church's christmas eve service wasn't until 11pm, so after dinner we had plenty of time to drive around and look at lights. on christmas morning, we made banana pancakes and opened presents from each other. one of the things we got were study bibles. i am hoping this will help us understand the bible better and give us insights into some of the historical contexts. later in the morning we drove to augusta to visit our parrents. apparently, we missed a white christmas in greenville, but we had a beautiful drive to alabama the next day- there was snow on the ground and in the trees. we had a nice visit with grandmother and daddy buck. we also got to see my cousin ashley and her fiance, patrick. they got engaged last month and will be getting married in june! we came back to augusta and got to visit with some of chris' high school friends, the boxes and jessica...and some of mine- lindsey & gerrit. (check out the dogs- they were playing at our feet and i didn't realize it would show in the picture!) 2010 has been a great year: we celebrated our third anniversary in charleston. we traveled to chicago for tori's wedding. we celebrated milestones with family- my grandmother's 80th birthday and our brother's & cousin's engagements. we continued to be active in our church, christopher with playing softball & coaching upward basketball and me with the women's ministry. we also started serving as AWANA leaders for third grade girls & boys. God is showing us new ways to use our resources to serve Him. one amazing thing that happened in 2010 was paying off my student loans and being 100% debt free! we have grown in the Lord through our bible studies. i prayed for God to reveal His character to me, and through a study of the patriarchs i was reminded that God is absolutely trustworthy, He is faithful even when we are not, His love is unconditional, and He pursues us because he wants us to have closer relationships with Him. i have many hopes for 2011, and i am eager to see what God will do in our lives over the next year!

march update

chris & i have been staying busy this month! he just started softball season with the church league again. i'm looking forward to watching his games and getting to hang out with the other wives. chris is entering his busiest season at work, with a yearly design review coming up. my work has been pretty exhausting lately. my outlet has been getting together with my friend lori every week to work on various craft projects. she's into making jewelry, and i'm working on another decoupage to decorate my office.

chris & i visited augusta weekend before last, for my friend tori's wedding shower. she & ron are getting married near chicago in july. the shower was quite a reunion! here's the trio of high school best friends: tori, jessie, & me. and the three of us with carrie. this group goes all the way back to middle school!old roommates from atlanta: tori, meghan, nidhi, me. we had a nice visit with both sets of parents and then returned to greenville for a celebration of the end of our forty days of community campaign at church. our sunday school class has grown (i.e., doubled) over the last several weeks!

holidays 2009

if you're my friend on facebook, you've probably seen most of the following pictures. but read on for more details of our christmas vacation!

tori & ron, my best friend from high school & her fiance, came to greenville where tori's parents relocated when we were in college. we got to show them downtown and take them to one of our favorite pizza places, barley's. we're looking forward to celebrating their wedding near chicago on july 4th weekend this year! we went to augusta for the first part of christmas week. there i got to see my other high school best friend, jessie. we had lunch at one of my favorites, french market grille. here we are making snickerdoodles at her parents' house afterward.we got to see chris' high school best friend, patrick, and his wife brooke. they moved to iowa this summer and returned to the south for christmas. we hung out with them the night they arrived in augusta- which was also brooke's birthday!we spent the first part of the week with my family. we enjoyed going to see a christmas carol and spending christmas eve together. here we are during an early christmas dinner on wednesday with my dad, mom, and brother andy. christmas day we drove to chris' grandparents house in south georgia. there we enjoyed lots of time with his extended family. he has 11 cousins on that side...compare that to the 1 i have on my dad's side. i'd say i've adjusted to his BIG family. unfortunately, i didn't get a good picture of everybody. eva loved chasing chris' aunt & uncle's dog, jojo, who is a jack russell mix. i forget that even though eva is an inside dog, she LOVES having the freedom to run wherever she wants - not on a leash - out in the country.

my favorite gift of the year: the vest we got eva. i think chris thinks these types of things are mildly ridiculous, but he is a good sport and i promise she's needed it. this week has been quite cold in greenville! chris reminds me that dogs are bred for the cold weather, but he humors me and puts it on her when he takes her outside.we rung in 2010 with friends from church, tim & blaire. i never seem to remember to get a picture of the four of us, but here chris & i are in their living room. the holidays got to stretch on a little later this year. my grandparents from alabama came to visit my parents the week of new year's, and they all drove to greenville for the day saturday. it was wonderful to see them, and it was a nice not to have to drive anywhere. we enjoyed showing them our home and going to lunch.

weekend with the goldens

chris' parents came to visit us in greenville for the first time last weekend. on friday night, we showed them around downtown and went to dinner at the lazy goat.on saturday, we went to the biltmore - mr. chris & mrs. cathy got to see it for the first time, and christopher & i enjoyed one last use of our annual passes before they expired. we decided to take a specialty tour and got to explore some balconies and rooftop terraces.
the gardens are always exquisite, and the weather was gorgeous. i can't imagine a family calling all of this home.our last stop on the estate was the farm, where mrs. cathy & i held baby chicks at the petting zoo.
the goldens came to church with us on sunday and left in the afternoon. it was a wonderful visit!