Anna Ellise Fowlkes

Welcome Anna!!

We are so happy to announce the birth of our daughter Anna Ellise Fowlkes. She was born Friday, February 29th (yes, leap year), 2008, weighed 6 lbs, 13.5 oz, has beautiful blue yes and strawberry blonde hair.

She is the most perfect little nugget in the universe, and we are sooooo happy she's finally here.

Mom, Dad and baby are doing well after a good 12 hour labor and delivery, and 2 days in the hospital. We are home now and all are welcome to come visit any time!!

Below are images of the big morning, afternoon, evening, and next three days.

Mama upon arrival to the hospital - she has no idea what's about to happen over the next 11 hours.

First picture - getting cleaned up. She didn't cry for the first 5 minutes... finally got one!

Our little girl - several minutes old - what a knockout!

The first offical weigh-in!

Dad and daughter... love at first sight!

Mom and the little one - two gorgeous ladies!

Closeup!

Mommy loves her soooo much. And tries to get some rest.

Anna and Grandpa Cart Cart.

Anna and her grandmother.

The most beautiful girl in the world!


More images to be posted on Flickr by mom in the coming days. Love to all and thanks to everyone's support and well wishes.

i'm so freakin huge

So, I've been at 3 cm for nearly a month, and I've been having contractions since Thursday. And all I can say is, she just ain't comin. I'm completely convinced that she has just decided that the outside world seems like it's going to be too much, and so she's happy staying put. Of course, it doesn't bother her at all that mama is starting to resemble a child's bouncy ball. Now, I ask you, am I just holding one of those balls while chillin' in shopping cart?

I will, however, say that some hope has returned to my life since the ear piercing, cheesy, dated, Mary Poppins-esque songs from "Enchanted" did not win an Oscar tonight, but rather the award went to the amazingly touching and simply gorgeous sounds of Once. I will also jump up and down a bit for Diablo Cody and Mr. Day-Lewis.

Baby's room is ready

Just thought I'd share our little baby room with everyone! We're anxiously waiting its resident! But, although I keep showing her the cute little room that's waiting for her, so far she's happy hangin' with mama.

Her due date is Tuesday. Not "in a couple weeks" or "at the end of the month", no, we're at Tuesday. It makes me think of a particular card from a nerd game I played in college (Magic: The Gathering.....yes, jokes are expected).

Too many posts and no pix!

While waiting not so patiently for our little bundle of joy, I promise we've been doing other stuff. How about a few fun pix?

We celebrated Pete's birthday and annihilated that cookie!

But the night was certainly not without some super cute papa moments!

We've discovered kitty-in-the-box.

And we've gone to the ballet to be entertained by Thomas in tights. Managed to snap a couple of belly shots in the process :)

3cm - Part II: V-Day

Ok, so we're still at 3cm... we've decided to go back to our due date to expect rather than 'today'. Still healthy, still active, and still waiting.

We went to MF Sushi for dinner last night for Saint Van Halentine's Day, and yes, we ate sushi - they say pregnant women shouldn't eat sushi. We say that pregnant women shouldn't eat sushi every day. I mean really, how can hundreds of thousands of generations of pregnant Japanese women be wrong. We had a great time.

We'll see if we make it through the weekend and keep giving updates. Hoping to post some pics of the finished nursery soon.

Big Day Tomorrow

We are heading to the doc tomorrow for our weekly visit, at which point we will find out if Ash has dilated further than the 3 cm from last week. She can easily still be at 3cm, but she could easily be more, so we are looking to forward to this visit!

We've decided that since we have dinner reservations for Valentine's Day, that it would be the perfect night for our daughter to decided it's time to be born. This is something that would happen to us.

We are doing great, and Ash is working from home, so we are both close to each other and the hospital. The nursery is set up and ready to go... we have strollers and car seats constructed, and are set to pop, so to speak.

So wish us luck and you'll be informed!!

3cm????

Sooooo, for the second part of yesterday's update, I thought I'd let fowlkes (hee) know about our doctor visit yesterday. After reporting some symptoms, my doc decided to go ahead and check my "progress" and it seems that I am already dilated to 3cm and that Baby Fowlkes has her head below my pelvis in "position".

ACK!!!!!!

Okay, yes, I could walk around like this for weeks, and still deliver on time around Feb 26th. But then again...........................................ack!!!!!

So, as a little added precaution these days, I'm working from home (~1/2 mile from Park and ~2 miles from the hospital). So far, it seems our little bundle of joy is taking after her mamma in the patience department.

Update

We've been extremely busy with getting the nursery ready and getting ourselves ready for our little girl (Ashley is still only 90% convinced it's a girl)! Therefore, posts have been lacking lately.

So I thought I'd just give an update that we are still healthy and ready for the nugget to get here. We are on weekly doctor visits now, and things are progressing smoothly. Besides Ash having some aches and swells recently, it's been a fairly smooth pregnancy.

We've completed our pre-natal classes, as well as the very crowded breastfeeding class... and we have our labor and delivery class this weekend (let's hope we make it till then)!

Anyway, more info to come as things get down to the wire!

Pensacola Baby Shower

Over the MLK weekend, we traveled to Pensacola for the second easy installment of Baby Showers 08. It was hosted by Angie and Allen's good friends Bob and Helen Sprowles, who have become friends of ours as well. We had a great time with a fun bunch of friends and relatives. And we received so many great gifts! Below are some images of the gathering.








Thanks to everyone who made it and especially the Sprowles for hosting. All the loot will be used wisely, and um... very soon!

Away for MLK

So for the second installment of Baby Showers 08, we're heading down to Pensacola to celebrate with friends and family on the coast. We are heading out this afternoon and staying through Monday (for the holiday). We're excited to see the Pensacola crew and should have some pictures to post when we return.

I also want to wish my Mom a Happy Birthday, which was Wednesday, but hadn't posted it here yet. So, Happy Birthday Mom!

And I'd just like to share a great scene from the show 30Rock. Funny stuff:

Find more videos on www.findinternettv.com.

Couple's Shower

We had a couple's shower this weekend over at Thomas and Elizabeth's. I think the way we did it was highly innovative and I would recommend it to any couple in the market for a baby shower.

Here's how it works. Have the shower on day where there are NFL playoffs happening. Then coordinate the times with when the first game kicks off. Ladies meet at the designated showering location at 4pm. Because this is a couple's shower, any babysitters have already been secured, so this leaves the guys with some free time. As the ladies gather and begin showering the showeree, the fellas meet at a nearby sports bar to watch the first half of the 4:30pm game. The guy gets showered with bar food and drinks.

As the first half is over, wouldn't you know it, the gift giving has subsided over at the designated showering location - around 6 or 6:30pm. The guys then make their way over to the designated showering area for mixing and mingling, drinks and chili, good friends and family, all just in time for the second half of the first game. The ladies have the option of leaving at that time (for those whose guys could not make it).

After the guys have checked out the gifts that the showeree received, and by that I mean watched the second half, another break in the action and possible time to leave arises. Those who need to go, go and those who don't, stay. Staying means more mixing and mingling, drinks and chili, good friends and family, as well as the start of the second playoff game at 8pm. During this game, more fun is had and the shower has become a straight-up party. First half is over, and those who need to go, go and the rest of us stay. We watch the end of the game while scrapbooking and generally chatting it up. At that time, the last few stragglers take off, and because of the fact that this is a baby shower, the showeree designated drives her husband home.

I think it worked well and all participants were happy in the end. I deem it a success, and a successful formula for future showers.

Thanks so much to Thomas and Elizabeth for hosting us from around 3pm to Midnight. We really enjoyed ourselves and owe them big time. Some images were posted over on T&E's blog, so check them out.

N Y E 2007 - Part 2

Part 2 of the New Orleans trip includes our night at the Bonfire. Kind of a wacky tradition down there, where the neighborhood burns their Christmas trees, shoots off firecrackers and generally just gathers around to watch. I'd call it controlled chaos as the cops and fire engines were there, but letting everyone do their thing. Complete with drum circles, fire dancing and a saxophone, it was really cool being there ... we all toasted Champagne at midnight and had a great time... thanks to Ash for designated driving!

Here are some pics:

The bonfire and crowd:

Abby and Ash:

Eric and Beth:

At midnight:

Happy New Year!
And just so you can get a feel for it, here is a video I shot - please excuse the unsteadiness.... I was trying to show everything - the area, the people, the fireworks, the police, who we were with - and I had some Champagne.

Be sure to check out other videos on YouTube (much better than mine) to get a gist of the Mid-City Bonfire.

N Y E 2007 - Part 1

So we headed down to New Orleans to spend New Year's Eve with Abby, Neil, Sullivan, Jack, and as luck would have it, Eric, Beth and Madeline. In addition, we saw Kat and Torrey and their triplets, yes triplets Ronan, Blythe and Gretchen.

Here are some shots from the trip:

Abby with two-month-old Jack... he was a bit under the weather, but still cute as ever.

And big man Sullivan. His favorite words are 'Mommy!' and 'Eat!' as far as I could hear.

And here I am with Jack, trying to put back on a shoe he'd kicked off... just a small glimpse of what is to come for Ash and me.

Here is a shot of a random brass band we encountered while strolling around the French Quarter... this is not uncommon in NOLA.

We stopped by to see Kat and Torrey Theall as well... as you can see, they have their hands full. The Threalls, as they are known, were so cute, and thanks to Kat for loading us up on girl's clothing!!!

See Part 2 for more!

Christmas Pictures - Finally!

We had a great Christmas this year - as promised, here are some photos.

We consider this one our best Christmas tree to date! Light shedding, sustained color and moisture, nice posture and enticingly fragrant. Ladies and Gentleman, the 2007 Fowlkes Fraser Fir:

As mentioned, we had nice Saturday-Before-Christmas dinner (which is a bit of a tradition - is two years in a row considered a tradition?) Regardless, participants included Angie, Allen, Joyce, Guy, Thomas, Elizabeth, Wee Carter, Carter the Eldest, Donna, Ashley and myself. Couple of shots of the crew:

And below is an image of the meat we ate. I was happy with the outcome and it's always nice to know people enjoy your grilling - at least they told me they liked it.

A nice time was had by all.

Xmas and New Year's

Yes, we've been slacking on the posting front... now that we are back in the groove, we should get back on track in the blogging world.

Don't have images to post yet (soon), but we had great holidays. Angie and Allen stayed with us through Christmas, where we visited with Thomas, Elizabeth, my Dad and Donna, as well with Joyce and Guy.

For New Years, Ash, baby girl and I headed to New Orleans to visit Abby and Neal McClure and their two boys Sullivan (2 yrs.) and Jack (2 mos.). We got some good infant practice as well as great food and great times.

New Year's Eve was fun, as we also hung out with Eric, Beth and their daughter Madeline.

Promised to post up images soon!