call me martha

guess the baby food

candy bar poopy-diapers (that's just sick and wrong)
each person at the shower had a baby trivia question along with a bag of jelly beans.
they asked jilb a question, and if she got it right, she won the bag of jelly beans
and poured it into the "ready-to-be-a-mom meter". if she answered incorrectly,
the person got to keep the bag for themselves. the levels on the "meter" were:
1. do you even know where babies come from?
2. maybe we should delay the stork for a little while.
3. your baby has a good chance of surviving the first night.
4. you're ready to bring the baby home
5. bring on baby #2!
Thankfully, she reached level 4.

the shower crew.

camie, one of my best friends from childhood and most importantly, partner in crime

there must be something in the water

a few weeks ago brooke and I put on a fabulous baby shower (if we say so ourselves) for jenny leigh. as my childhood friend, camie, can attest, my domestic skills (and aspirations to have such) fall short (way short) of any marks to be dubbed or likened to martha stewart or even that sweet little lady on pbs who makes puppets out of lunch sacks. in the world of tiramisu and creme brulee, i am proudly the boxed cake mix and pillsbury cream cheese frosting (there have been WAY too many merry miss/young women's craft projects that have gone awry...burnt/unedible bakings, cake decorations that couldn't even pass as a nursery kids creation, abandoned sewing projects, and yes, even the simple, can't-go-wrong puffy paint and applique projects). SO...having said all that, i am quite proud of the way things turned out..... (of course there was adult supervision at all times).

do you see those cute "d" (for david) sugar cookies? of course if you grab it the wrong way

it is a "p", but never mind that.

while the picture may resemble a little surprise left by a dog, it was actually an
incredibly delish cream cheese, caramel, and chocolate dip.

snips and snails or sugar n' spice?

sorry...no "puppy dog tails" here. it looks like it's gonna be "everything nice"!

meet ballard baby. i think she has my nose.

sorry charley...

5 years ago hurricane charley decided to bust through florida and attempt to wreak havoc on our wedding. while he succeeded in creating a sweating bride rather than a blushing bride (no air-conditioning during the ceremony); making us wait 6 hours in traffic back to tampa; not necessarily making, but definitely influencing my brother-in-law (not to mention any names...mike) to take a "short cut" only to be turned around half-way back, running out of gas and having kevin and i turn around for the rescue (what's another hour added on to the 6?); making us late for our own reception; and completely ameliorating the island we were supposed to go to for our honeymoon...he couldn't stop love in the end, baby! they say rain on your wedding day brings good luck...well we had a hurricane, so here's to the lucky years ahead. let the good times roll!

we went over to st. augustine and stayed at a cute little bed & breakfast

overlooking the bay. we enjoyed some great eating, shopping, and sight seeing.

casablanca inn. highly recommended.

the spanish fort.

as if we needed a reminder of our wedding day.

happy 4th!

for the past 5 or 6 years, our 4th of july has involved going to small, americana towns such as lewiston, ut or snowflake, az and enjoying parades, rodeos, bbq picnics, etc. this year, however, we did things florida style (whatever that means...i haven't had a 4th here since highschool). since my parents bailed on the heat and humidity (and us:) and flew to ut, it was left to jenny leigh, kevin and me to do our own little bbq during the day. exciting, i know. kev and i then went with brooke and her family out to the beach in the late afternoon/evening time to catch some waves and fireworks. by the time the fireworks really got going, andee was asleep and leila was pouting because she wanted to do her own fireworks. needless to say, it was time to go. i think we actually saw the best fireworks from the car. oh well, happy 4th.

the florida trail

goodbye, phoenix!

with bitter-sweet emotions, kev and i just said good-bye to our dear family and friends in arizona and said hello to our other dear family and friends in florida. our new little world couldn't be more different than our last. its not better or worse...just different. we are excited to be here but we will truly miss our az clan.

moving day......

the moving crew

gainesville or bust.....

pit stop in dallas to see preston and his family (sorry...no pics)

sorry alabama...we'll get you the next drive through

35 hours (not counting the few days in dallas),

a plethora of DPs, and 4 numb bum cheeks later...

hello, florida!

just in case any of you were wondering where g-town is....

rock on!

a few months ago my brother introduced me to a fairly new and upcoming band called 'the airborne toxic event' and i have since fallen for them... quite easily. they performed in scottsdale last night so kevin and i headed to the show to rock out. besides being exposed to extrememely high levels of noise resulting in a temporary threshold shift and replying to all statements and questions with "WHAT???" (even once we were home), we had a great time. kevin even asked to take my cd to work with him today. i think he's hooked.

ready to rock....

lead singer mikel jollett

the band

ready to drop...

we're just not cut out for this late night stuff anymore!
yes, 11:00 is late for us.

lots of love....

lots of love to these 2 lovely ladies...

Florida House Hunting

more appropriately, it should be titled "still hunting for our 5th and hopefully last apartment". in anticipation for our big move to Gatorville come June, Kevin and I thought it wise to fly to Florida and go look for a place to live while he attends school. Condensed version: red-eye flight, immediate 2-hour drive to Gainesville, apartment hunting in really scary, creepy places, over-night visit with old family friends, nothin' but southern hospitality, grits for breakfast, tempting offer to "go chase them gators in the pond" (seriously), not-so-funny joke of "there's tim tebow"!, almost multi-car accident due to some crazy girl looking for tim tebow, last second find of our "to be" apartment, back to tampa to see the fam (most important part).

can't have a trip to fla. without a little sushi

jenny leigh's husband, lance, pitches for the tampa yankees,

so we went to the ballpark to watch him pitch. and get some peanuts and cracker-jacks.

my neice leila was making her big acting debut as a fairy in the community production of sleeping beauty, so the fam went to support her on her opening night. no one has ever flittered and fluttered (or whatever fairies do) as well as she did that night. we arrived a little early to the show and well, we just got a little bored. kev came up with the idea for each person to take the camera and make their ugliest face. we had one shot, and one shot only. meet my very cultivated and refined family:

here's the newest little bean to the Walden pod. meet andee.

here's the big star herself...oh, and leila, too.