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Visit with the Lowry Grandparents

Christmas Morning...

Ellie loves all her books.  She tasted each one just to make sure ;-)

A little ketchup

These were a few of my favorite pictures from our 

Lowry Family Reunion this past July.

All the Lowry men together (Keith, John, Jim, Rob) in order by age.

Jim's mother, Janet, with her four grandchildren. All girls of course!

Family photo with my parents, August 2011.

 

       My mom flew out the week before Halloween to help out while Jim 

recovered after getting his gallbladder removed.  It was Ellie's first 

Halloween and pumpkinpatch.  Not the most excited we've seen her, 

but she had fun playing in the dirt.

Love that look, so serious.  If she could talk I bet she would say, 

"put me down and let me eat a few bugs.  Just a few."

Ellie's first birthday.  It was on a Wednesday so we only had 

a few friends over for lunch before Jim headed off to work.

I made funfetti cupcakes since they are Jim's favorite.  

I think the frosting was the bigger hit!

Ellie received lots of presents from her aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  We gave her a leapfrog musical learning table and a few smaller things.  All in all it was a good time.  Love you baby girl!

Life and all that stuff in between

Okay, I know it has been a little while since my last post.  We have been busy with Ellie's birthday, Grandma & Grandpa Mac's visit, and our trip to Atlanta, Ga.  With the impending move, I feel like life is whirling by in a flash.  It has been very stressful the past few weeks with looking for a home in Atlanta, finding tenets to move in here (since we are leaving half-way through our rental contract), and getting a release date at work for Jim to move.

I guess I should back up by starting with we found a great 3 bedroom home to rent in Woodstock, GA.  Everyone we talked to said to stay north of the city.  All the nice family neighborhoods are in the north and Woodstock is the next up and coming place.  Lots of new housing developments mixed with homes that sit on a couple acres of land.  With all the traffic, I was looking for something a little out of the hustle and bustle. It took the rental agency a week to process our application so they should be sending up the contract Monday and finally have a move-in date. It looks like we are shooting for a January 7th move in date.  It is a little earlier than we would have liked, but we are trying to accommodate the friends that will be moving into our current townhouse in Raleigh, NC.  They are currently staying in corporate housing and need to find a place by the end of the month.  Thankfully we will not have to pay rent in two places for the whole month.  Unfortunately, Jim's boss needs him to stay through the 13th. Now the plan is to move on the 7th, but Jim will fly back and stay in a hotel for a week.  I am not looking forward to sending up or home with baby-in-tow by myself.  Thankfully my mom is going to fly out to stay with us.  In the meantime I need to start packing everything up and making to-do lists (rental truck, boxes, electric, water, and cable cancellations, airline flights, hotel reservations, buy washer & dryer, etc.).

I promise to get back to my blog just as soon as I can.  Please be patient with me.

First Haircut

When Eliza was born, she had a full head of hair.  I remember at her ultrasounds we could see her hair floating around.  After she was born everyone told us her hair would most likely fall out.  Well it didn't.  I finally broke down last week and decided it was time to get a trim.  She had stands that when wet, reached half way down her back.  Most of the time it looked like a curly rat's nest that formed lots of little knots. We found an adorable kids hair salon, Snip-its.  It was a little pricey for a baby's haircut but the hairdresser was a pro at working with wiggly-whinny kids.  Since it was her first haircut, they put some of her hair in a baggy and filled out a little certificate for us to keep.  Very cute.  Here are a few pics of the experience and her new do!

Odds & Ends

Ellie's first oreo cookie.

Stood up by herself for the first time this morning.  So exciting! Oh wait, now I need to move everything out of her reach.  Better start hanging stuff from the ceiling.

CT’s, Endoscopies, Gallbladders... oh my

This month has been crazy, to say the least.  Many of you know that Jim has been sick for weeks.  He has been working with a surgeon and GI specialist to figure out what is causing his chronic stomach cramping.  At first we thought that scare tissue had built up from his previous surgery causing pain when food moved through his intestine.  The doctors have not ruled that out, but they discovered that Jim’s gallbladder was not acting normally.  He has surgery scheduled this Wednesday, on the 19^th, to have it removed.  This will be a laparoscopic outpatient surgery, however, they will poke around in there to see if anything else doesn’t look right.  His GI specialist is concerned that his symptoms seem like more than just the gallbladder.  Jim underwent an endoscopy yesterday to look for ulcers or anything else that might explain some of his symptoms.  The GI specialist found two areas that looked suspicious and were biopsied.  The first site is where the esophagus meets the intestine.  There is an area that is red and swollen.  This usually appears in patients that have reflux.  The second site has little red bumps in the small intestine.  It may be nothing or it could be an infection of some kind.

While all this is going on, Jim has only missed a few days of work; usually for medical tests and appointments.  He has kept up with his schoolwork, earning an A on his statistics midterm, and preparing for his accounting midterm this Monday.  If that has not been enough, he is interviewing for a different type of position within his company.  He has been up all night working and left early this morning for the three-hour interview.   He doesn’t expect to get the position since it is highly coveted in the IT support center, but it is a great opportunity to practice his interview skills and learn more about the position for future opportunities.  It has surely been the hand of God helping us through this time.  Thank you to our family and friends for all the support.

My mom will be flying out the day before the surgery to watch Ellie while I stay at the hospital with Jim.  She will also be staying with us for a week to help while Jim is recovering.  Please continue to keep our little family in your prayers!

Sewing (Brandi - don't show your girls)

While my mom was here in August, she taught me how to sew with some basic projects.  I made curtains for Ellie's room.  It was a little tricky since they had two layers of material (to make the room really dark).  I picked royal blue for one side (so it didn't look too kiddish for guests staying over) and a cute children's print with a border for the other side.  The children's print only peaks out when the curtains are tied back.  It was a fun project but next time I will not pick a print with a border (much more of a challenge).

I made them a little short so Ellie will not pull them down when she starts walking.


My next project was making Kenzie and Kate's Christmas presents.  While in Charleston, SC with my parents, we found a really cute reversible child's handkerchief apron.  I used it as a prototype to make my own.  Since the girls are Tinkerbell fans, I found some material that had her in it and glued fabric jewels to all the flowers for some extra bling.  On the opposite side I sprayed the material with fabric sparkles (aka fairy dust) to continue the fairy theme.  It was a little tricky making the aprons without a pattern but I'm happy with how they turned out for my first time. 

Please don't look too closely.  It was around midnight when I took these pictures.