About Me

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hey, we're the ballards! kevin, annie, rhet, and i are loving the southern life here in atlanta, georgia. kevin has a great job as a busy orthopedic physician assistant and i have put my speech-language pathology career on hold for now so i can be at home with my little miss and little man. enjoy our blog, ya'll!

November 30, 2011

XY and wattles

first things first....we're having a BOY!!!! kev and i were a bit surprised with this news but are excited as ever. annie has told us on different occasions that it was going to be a boy and then it was going to be a girl. i guess she was just preparing herself either way.

our family was able to head over to arizona to spend thanksgiving with kevin's family. the days were packed with taking walks to see animals, cooking, eating, playing games, hiding behind orange trees (annie, not us) going to parks, pinning the wattles on the turkey, running in the stake 5k, and staying outside as long as possible until we were dragged in by the calls of the sandman. enjoy some of our festivities...











November 14, 2011

did you know?


  • did you know that we moved into our house? did you know that i am loving every bit of it (besides the tempermental water heater, the broken microwave, the broken garage door, the water leak in our bedroom and the fact that our next door neighbor plays for the Georgia Bulldogs and caught the winning touchdown against the gators)? where's the landlord? oh wait...

  • did you know that little miss made the cutest little insect again this year? last year she sported the bumble bee, this year the lady bug. we've got a good thing going with insect-themed costumes that next year i'm thinking maybe the tarantula hawk wasp. i'll get started on the outfit.

  • did you know that grandma jules (as annie calls her) and papa came to visit? our first visitors! and we kindly greet them with a first rate stay on a box spring (the blow up mattress deflated half-way through the night). at least there was a sheet on the box spring. who wants to come visit next?
  • did you know ballard baby # 2 is making his/her appearance next april? you can't see my belly but the proof is in the cheeks (the ones on my face)...my cheeks have grown cheeks.
  • and most importantly, did you know i cut my hair? maybe not blog worthy but here's a picture anyways.

October 11, 2011

we like to eat, eat, eat

apples, and apple dumplings, and apple bread, and apple cider, and....i'll stop there.

last weekend we took a trip up to a little town called Ellijay where the locals hold a very popular apple festival. we have finally made it back to living in a place that actually experiences weather changes (besides changing from hot to warm) so we took full advantage of the perfect Fall weather and hit the apple festivities. the food was fabulous, the entertainment was...well entertaining (you haven't seen a cake walk until you've been to Ellijay), and i thoroughly enjoyed sporting a scarf that was actually appropriate for the weather.



September 6, 2011

mixing business with pleasure

I thought I'd share a few of my little creations with you... to see more, check out my etsy listings at http://www.etsy.com/shop/loopdelou82?ref=pr_shop_more. there's not a ton, but these are just a couple of halloween things that I've come up with for myself and thought maybe there's someone else out there who would like one or some as well.








July 31, 2011

trash talk

so i was going to play the sympathy card and tell you that this last move to georgia was our 7th move in 7 years of marriage. i was also going to tell you that we moved 75% of our belongings into a storage unit and 20% of our belongings into a hotel and the trunks of our cars (like you, i would like to know where the remaining 5% of my things are). i was also going to tell you that annie has been sleeping in a bathroom for the past week. i was also going to tell you that we finally found a place that would allow us to sign a short-term lease for 3-months and last friday, spur of the moment, we decided to move from the hotel into an apartment (i guess we can put another tally on the moving count). then, in 99* temps, 99% humidity, and with annie in a hiking pack, kevin and i (ok, mostly kevin) moved 60% of our stuff from the storage unit down flights of stairs into our apartment. So...we now have 15% still in storage, 75% in our apartment, and we are up to 10% now missing. i was also going to tell you that my all-time favorite possession--an awesome platter from crate and barrel--was shattered to pieces and our nice bedroom furniture was scratched and dented in the moving process. i was also going to tell you that we don't have a microwave because we got rid of ours 2 years ago and now this apartment doesn't have one. i was also going to tell you that my iron is somewhere in storage (or perhaps missing) and that today at church i was one big ball of wrinkles (and i didn't pull it off).
i was going to tell you all of these things to draw some sort of sympathy from you...but i won't.

during our 2nd round of unpacking kevin thought we should just keep everything wrapped up and protected--mainly the kitchen table and chairs (towels, blankets, bubble wrap and all, tightly held together by layers of saran wrap). i told kevin that we were officially white-trash. kevin hurried to my side, looked deeply into my eyes and comforted me with "baby, we're just transitional-trash, and our day will come" (kevin is the lemonade maker in our family). then our moment was over and we went back to reinforcing our plastic-wrapped furniture.

So! for those still reading...i say
"who cares that we squeak when we eat, and sweat when we sit?"
"who cares that i've smelled and sweated like a man for the past week because my deodorant is part of the 10% of missing items?"
"who cares that we eat our applesauce and yogurt with our fingers, and we strip annie down to her diaper every time she eats because we can't find a bib?"
"who cares that we had to bring home and wash one cheap plastic knife and spork from our church bbq just so we had something to eat with (and pass the spork back and forth during dinner because we only thought to get 1)?"
and "who cares that we conveniently go to costco right around lunch time just to get the free samples and call it lunch?"
why? because our trash status is temporary and we get to do this all over again in a few months.
despite the non-complaining that i am doing and the sizzling temps here in hot-lanta, we are cool as ice (see pic. below), happy, and loving this beautiful part of the country.
i'm happy because today i have returned to my femine smelling ways.
kevin is happy because he no longer has to pee in a bottle.
annie is happy because her sleeping arrangements have upgraded from the bathroom to a closet.
peace and love from atl.

July 29, 2011

nothing says bernhisel reunion like...

sleep deprivation and a round robin of vomiting.
fortunately for us, however, the sleep deprivation part came as a result of small-town parades, birthday bashes, hikes, alpine slides, late night funny videos, a zoo trip, failed fireworks, sprints down the driveway, and much much more.


thanks for coming to see us uncle benj!




grandma and grandpa great with all the kiddos





pizza always tastes better shirtless.



unfortunately for us...nothing good came out of the vomiting part.