One Month To Go...

Only 31 days until Labor Day....

I'm going to state the obvious and say time flies when you're preparing for a baby. I'm sure it has something to do with extra weight and extreme temperatures, but it definitely takes longer to accomplish things these days!

Despite my sluggishness, the nursery is almost finished, we have completed one childbirth class and we are halfway through the other one, and we are steadily checking items off our to-do list. I feel fairly certain he won't come before his due date (I think he's going to take after his mom in this department), but even if he did, we have the necessities all lined up and ready to go -- car seat, clothes, pack n play, crib...only diapers are missing. We want to cloth diaper, but we can't decide if we should start out that way or if we should transition from disposable to cloth after six weeks. Ah, decisions...So many decisions.

This week I'm sharing photos of my adorable husband with his siblings. He was the world's best big brother, and he's going to be such an amazing dad. 

P.S. Happy (early) 30th Birthday, Julie (and Gerald too)!

The Pie Girl

Wasn't Jonathan's grandmother Sadie the cutest pie girl in the world? She was only seventeen when she married Jonathan's grandfather and started working in Memphis. Serving pie was one of the few jobs she was allowed to do, and she fit the bill perfectly! Who wouldn't want a slice of  pie from her cart? I love the photos of her posing with her coworkers. They are too fun.

If you know Sadie, you'll agree that she hasn't changed a bit -- she looks exactly the same and she still works just as hard as she did at seventeen! 

Old Family Photo: Before and After

It's probably obvious, but I love old family photos and feel passionately that they should be preserved for future generations. For that reason, I decided to offer preservation as a Gerald & Joan service line in September 2013. In addition to creating photo books, I also scan and edit photographs and film slides. My scanner isn't the fanciest machine on the planet, but it does a great job when coupled with Adobe Photoshop and an observant eye. It can be painstaking work, but it's fun and rewarding. Once these images become digital files, they can be shared with family and friends to ensure family stories live on forever. I love keeping those stories alive.

Here's a great example of the sort of work I can do.

My mother-in-law has very few photos of her father Clovis Geno, and I'm pretty sure this is the only one she has of him as a boy. The photo is in decent shape when you consider it is almost 100 years old (Clovis would have been 100 on October 3, 2014), but it had a couple of bend marks that I knew I could remove. 

Clovis Yates (before preservation services)

Clovis Yates (after preservation services)

I love digitizing these old photos, and when I can help restore a photo to its former glory, it totally makes my day! Learn more about preservation services by contacting me here.

Ready and Waiting

In the very near future, our family will be expanding as we welcome my sister's son Hudson. On September 24th, 29 years will have passed since she joined our family. I have been present for all 29 of those years. I don't really have memories before that day, but I remember the morning of her birthday and meeting her at the hospital. I vividly remember life after her arrival, so I think it's pretty safe to say she changed my life forever.

Almost 29 years later, I suspect this next generation will have a similar effect on our lives. We are ready, waiting and very excited. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers over the next days, weeks and months. They will be greatly appreciated!

Lauren and her grandma Joan.

Me, my mother and Lauren as a baby bump in front of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Windsor, England where we were both welcomed into the world.

Meeting my sister for the first time. 

me, my dad and my sister in the hospital on Lauren's birthday. Notice my LA Dodgers hat in the foreground.

My grandma Joan and my mother Julie shortly after her birth in Anchorage, Alaska.