Seriously . . .

I stink at blogging. Big time. I’d be amazed if anyone actually still stops by and checks this site but, just in case, I’ll catch you up on the happenings ‘round the Jowers’ place. In a nutshell, things are non-stop. Since the post in August, we’ve been on several more trips to visit with family and we’ve been doing tons of stuff around the house to make room for baby number two.

We spent the Labor Day holiday in St. Simons with Gracie and Nana. It’s become an annual tradition for our family, and it was a great weekend as always. The trip ended with a bigger bang (literally) than expected when Ryan had an accident at Nana’s pool, busted his forehead and nose while entertaining his daughter in the shallow end and we ended up at the Emergent Care Clinic for a couple hours before driving back to Atlanta. Thanks to steri-strips and a week’s worth of wearing a hat as often as possible, he healed up quite nicely!

September also means ASC being in full-swing, so work has certainly picked back up for me. Can’t believe I’m starting my fifth season with this amazing group. I LOVE singing with them and working for them has been such a blessing, allowing me to be home with Little Miss (and now the Littler Miss on the way!). Ryan is settling into his new job at Winship and is working to start lots of great new programs so we’re excited to see where those might lead. He was also recently selected to serve on the DeKalb County Grand Jury, so super fun times ahead for him in the next two months!

Hannah Claire has started going to ‘school’ twice a week and she LOVES it! I’ll admit, I never thought sending my child to preschool would have a great effect on me emotionally. Um, apparently I need to re-introduce my brain to my emotions. I completely lost it in the carpool line the first morning I dropped her off, and I cried the whole way home. Granted the whole way home is only 4 miles, but still… Hannah Claire, however, wasn’t fazed in the least! She’s taken to her teachers and all the fun activities like a champ. To no one’s surprise music class is her favorite part, followed closely by going to the playground. I’m enjoying having a few quiet hours a week to get some good work done, and I’m looking forward to having some one-on-one time with baby Caroline once she arrives. A few pictures from her first day:






As for Caroline (that is princess II’s name, for those who don’t know), her due date is swiftly approaching! I’m 34 weeks, so only 6 more to go before we are officially a family of four. According to the doctors, she’s currently weighing in around 5 pounds and looks great. She is still quite active in the belly and definitely keeps us all entertained with her kicking and whatnot. We can’t believe how quickly the time has passed but we’re super excited about welcoming her into our lives. Several of her most recent portraits are below. And no, that is not hair in the 3D shot, just shadows! The first two are at 28 weeks and the last is 34 weeks.





Hannah Claire still seems nothing but excited about having a sibling, which we are very thankful for. We’ve moved her into her ‘big girl’ room and she’s taken to it easily. HUGE thanks go to the grandparents, Gracie, Gigi, and Baba, for all the help with making her new room so awesome. Her bedding is fab and pretty much makes me want to move in with her. I’ll post pictures as soon as we have some. Caroline will be using the nursery, of course, and we’re grateful that another little girl will get to enjoy the beautiful mural Gigi painted 3 years ago. What lucky girls we have!!

Whew! There’s more but I’m tapped out for now. Next post will include pictures from our family reunion and trip to the mountains!

It's a . . .

. . . 'nother GIRL!!!



That's right, y'all, another little princess is soon to be in our midst. Any and all prayers on our behalf (especially those geared toward the teenage years) are welcome!

All joking aside, we are thrilled that Hannah Claire is going to have a sister. I did find it funny when Little Miss argued with the ultrasound tech about the baby actually being a girl; she insisted for a few seconds that the baby had to be a boy. Never mind the image on the screen that proved otherwise! Perhaps she's already sensing that another baby girl may severely hamper the level of spoilage she currently receives. Either way she was excited about seeing 'her baby' in Mommy's belly.

In general, the pregnancy is kicking (literally) along well. I'll be 21 weeks this Sunday, and I'm definitely nice and round these days. I've been diagnosed with gestational diabetes again, so I've started the new diet and finger-pricking this week. Not much fun, but we managed it well with Hannah Claire so I'm not expecting any problems this go 'round either. Baby girl is moving a bunch and Ryan has finally been able to feel her a few times! We're looking forward to Hannah Claire being able to feel her kick too. Based on the picture below, we're wondering if this little one might be a gymnast.

Zoo Time

While every day at our house consists of what some might call zoo time ;), we actually went to Zoo Atlanta this past weekend. It was Hannah Claire's first visit and, seeing as she'd been cooped up in the house for almost a week with strep, she (and we) were eager to get out and do something fun. It was hot, but we had a great time!

I relived a bit of my childhood by riding the train with Hannah Claire. Somehow that track seemed much longer when I was little. My favorite part was when we went to see the lions one more time at the end of the day and the big daddy spent 2 solid minutes roaring up a storm. I think Ryan liked the rhinos the best and Hannah Claire had a thing for zebras. All in all, it was a fab day!

We Heart Nature

For those who don't know, our lot is bordered on two sides by a county park so most of our backyard is surrounded by woods. Minus the few trees that have fallen from the county property into our yard, we've enjoyed the privacy the park affords. It's quite pretty and during the spring and summer, when all the trees are in bloom, we often feel like we're in the mountains somewhere rather than in our own backyard. Of course, woods equal animals so we've seen our fair share of turtles, bunnies, opossums and even an owl over the years. They're cute and all, but not nearly as rad as the hawks that now visit us daily. That's right, I said hawks. We had a family of them flying around about a year ago and now we seem to have two regulars that live behind our house. They're beautiful, and they seem super fond of our backyard.






We get to see and hear these bad boys in our yard at least once a day. Wildlife is awesome!

Aunts and Uncles are Awesome!

A couple weeks ago, Gracie swung through town, picked up Hannah Claire and I and we headed off to visit my Aunt Julie and Uncle Dennis in Clarkesville, GA and then my Uncle Mark near Waynesville, NC. At Julie and Dennis' house we got to play golf on the mini putting green in their backyard and took a quick hike up to a beautiful waterfall called Minihaha. On the way to Uncle Mark's, we also stopped by the cutest place called Goats on the Roof. You'll just have to see it.



Mark's house is at the top of a gorgeous mountain, and there Hannah Claire experienced her very first campfire and smores! Funny thing was, the smores were planned for after dinner the night we arrived but some unexpected rain showed up and stuck around until well after bedtime. So, Uncle Mark mentioned having smores for breakfast. Hannah Claire woke up the next morning, crawled into bed with me and said "Mommy, the sun is out, it's not raining. Can we have a fire and smores now?" So we did just that!! It was great fun and we're looking forward to going back soon.

The Beach In Pictures

As always, we made our annual Jowers/Milton family trek to the beach over the July 4th holiday. We spent an awesome week in Garden City, SC soaking up some sun, digging in the sand, eating WAY too much food and generally just relaxing. Poppie, Pearlie and Aunt Jan were able to join us for part of the week so we were able to squeeze in even more great family time.

We headed out curious to see how our first road trip and stay away from home with a newly potty-trained toddler would go. Much to our surprise and excitement, we didn't have to make even one unplanned potty stop along the way. In fact, Hannah Claire did great the entire week. No accidents even though there were plenty of things to be distracted by - cousins, playing in the sand, playing in the ocean...
Boy is it nice to officially be done with diapers! Wonder how Little Miss will feel when she gets old enough to read our blog and realizes we discussed her bathroom habits on the world-wide web?! Probably as happy as all of you are right about now. :)

Ryan took some fabulous pictures so enjoy the slide show!



Okay, so these last two pictures are not from the beach trip, but apparently this is what happens when a girl's been off her normal schedule for a week. She didn't even make it through lunch our first day home!

Summer Fun

Despite the heat and crazy rainless weeks, we've certainly been enjoying the summer months. With Ryan being finished with school and his current job winding down, we've been fortunate to have lots of family time.

Hannah Claire recently spent a week at Vacation Bible School. The theme was African Safari and she was in the flamingo class. It's been a month since VBS and we still listen to our VBS CD at least once a day!! Our girl seriously loves music. Ryan and I joke about having our very own walking juke box. I'm determined to get some good footage of her giving us a "concert" and, as soon as I can figure out how, I'll post it to the site for all to enjoy.

For now, here are some pics from VBS and front yard pool time with her best bud, Henry.



Up next: pictures of our week in Garden City, SC!