The Power of Jowers

What? You’ve quit coming here?

2010-04-29T15:04:00.000-07:00

But, it’s time for our bi-annual update! I’m done making (sorry) excuses for why I don’t write more often. Not only am I letting down the three fans of our blog, I’m doing myself an even greater injustice by having to organize six months worth of information and pictures at one time. Heck, I can barely remember what happened last week, much less last year, so you think I’d get my act together! I really do intend to learn how blogging should actually work but, for now, it is what it is…

Where shall we start? I believe I left off with early fall preparations for the expansion of our family. Since then we’ve had a family reunion, Halloween, home renovations, Thanksgiving, Hannah Claire’s 3rd birthday, the birth of Caroline, Christmas and now life with TWO little girls. Just typing that sentence made me tired!! To say the very least, things around here stay busy. But it is a busy that we love and wouldn’t trade for anything.

I’m still working from home and, other than that, spend most of my time carting the girls around to appointments, school, church, etc. Ryan is still enjoying his work at Emory and has also managed to take on like 43 ‘side jobs’ as well. He’s writing a business plan for a new company, researching and writing a white paper for another company, and still working on his own little BBQ venture. How he manages all that plus a house full of women, I’ll never know!

Now on to all the fun stuff* that has gone on in the Jowers’ world for the last six months; fasten your seat belts, it’s a bumpy ride!

*If you’d like to read about our stuff in chronological order, scroll down to the “Room(s) for Two” post and start from there.

Life in the Fast Lane

2010-04-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

That is what I feel like Caroline’s little life is...in the fast lane! Didn’t she just get here? How in the world is she already 20 weeks?? Sigh.

Here are her first few months in pictures and stats:

1 month old
9 pounds, 3 ounces
21”

2 months old
11 pounds, 9 ounces
22 3/8”

3 months old

4 months old
14 pounds, 5 ounces
24 ¼”

She eats like a champ (as evidenced by the pictures) and is sleeping 10 to 12 hours at a time every night. She’s rolling from her belly to back constantly and is working hard to go the other way, back to belly. She LOVES her big sister and is all smiles when Hannah Claire plays with her. The sisterly love is super sweet, but I wonder if they’ll still be so smitten with each other when they’re 13 and 16!!

Easter

2010-04-29T14:19:00.000-07:00

We had a low-key Easter this year. The bunny visited and left goodies for both the girls and we spent the day at church and with Ryan’s family.

My first major holiday (Christmas notwithstanding) with two little girls and, no, I didn’t dress them in matching dresses. I suppose I’ve already failed as a mother to girls. I just couldn’t bring myself to buy more dresses when they each had such pretty ones that they’d been given on separate occasions. Thanks to Gracie for Hannah Claire’s gorgeous get-up and to Gigi for Caroline’s precious dress and bonnet! I’m pretty sure I’ll have plenty of other chances to dress (read: torture) them alike as they get older.

Every Girl Needs to Accessorize

2010-04-29T14:08:00.002-07:00

And this cute girl is now accessorizing with glasses!

We found out in February that Hannah Claire needed glasses. We’d noticed that her left eye was pulling in every so often and at her three year old well visit the pediatrician asked us to have her seen by a pediatric ophthalmologist. Based on other people we knew who had similar symptoms, we thought we were dealing with a muscular issue and that Hannah Claire would likely be treated with a patch or maybe even surgery. Turns out she is far-sighted, and they think her left eye is pulling in because it’s the weaker eye and has to work harder to focus. So, rather than treating the muscle, she will wear glasses with the hope that when she is seeing correctly the left eye will quit turning in. She has adjusted to her frames wonderfully and (not that I’m biased or anything) looks like a doll in them! We went back for a follow-up last month and the doctor says she’s doing great. Since the left eye learned to focus “incorrectly”, she’s still relying more on her right eye to see so we will need to do some patching for a couple hours a day at home. Hannah Claire picked out a cute patch with a fairy on it and, so far, she loves wearing it. I’ll try to get a picture of her sporting the patch sometime soon!

Christmas

2010-04-29T14:08:00.001-07:00

We had a lovely Christmas, spent with both sides of the family, that included the usual presents and way too much food. I’ll let you enjoy it via pictures:

Sweet Caroline

2010-04-29T13:55:00.000-07:00

Princess Jowers II’s official due date was December 17 and, given that I had gestational diabetes (again), we knew the doctors wouldn’t let me go past that date. Knowing that we could have the baby and be home well in time for Christmas was comforting considering we had a three year old who wasn’t going to let something as minor as a new baby sister interfere with Santa making a stop at our house. Plus, my mom, aka Gracie, already had her travel-to-Atlanta-in-time-for-my-ASC-Christmas-concert-then-stay-for-baby’s-arrival-and-through-Christmas plans all set. Ah, the best laid plans…

I had a regular 39 week appointment the morning of December 8, where the doctor made it clear that I was ‘ready to go’ at any time. No big deal, right? Women walk around for weeks ‘ready to go’, often sailing right past their actual due date. I had stuff to accomplish before this baby got here…hair appointment on the 11th, ASC Christmas concert to sing in on the 13th, pedicure over the weekend, a few Christmas presents to finish wrapping, etc. Baby girl and I were chatting regularly about her impending arrival, and I had made it clear to her that she was not allowed to arrive prior to 11 PM, December 13. Clearly, she doesn’t listen well. I woke up running a fever in the wee morning hours of December 9 so by 5:30 AM we had packed up Hannah Claire, dropped her off at Gigi and Baba’s house and were checked in to the hospital. Thinking maybe I had an infection of some sort brewing and with baby already making progress on her own, the doctors decided they would admit me and just help things along. That was at 8:30 AM and at 1:53 PM Caroline Rose Jowers entered the world. Us Jowers girls, we don’t mess around! She weighed in at 6 pounds, 14.9 ounces (just 1/10th of an ounce more than Hannah Claire when she was born) and measured 18.75 inches.

Caroline was sweet from moment one. And she’s still sweet. She eats well and sleeps well and is a happy, content little girl. Hannah Claire has loved her from the get-go. We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well she has adjusted to being a big sister. We figured she’d do well but, in all fairness, she IS only three. So far she is nothing but loving towards Caroline and super helpful when Mommy and Daddy need her to be. We’ll just see what happens when Caroline is old enough and mobile enough to get into Hannah Claire’s stuff. Might be a different story then…

All in all, life with two little princesses is going well. We adore our girls and we seem to have settled in well to being an official family of four!

Seriously, Santa, enough already!

2010-04-29T13:50:00.000-07:00

December is always crazy busy but we figured things with a newborn and a three year old had the potential to be insanity, so we took Hannah Claire to visit Santa and ride the Pink Pig early in the month, before Caroline arrived. This was the first year Hannah Claire seemed willing to sit on Santa’s lap by herself, and she and Daddy had rehearsed the questions Santa was likely to ask. Hannah Claire had her answers down: “Yes, I’ve been a good girl,” “I’d like you to bring me a kitchen”. You know the usual stuff. And then we get to Santa, who apparently has it out for parents of unsuspecting toddlers.

Santa: Hannah Claire, have you been a good girl this year?
HC: Yes, I have been a good girl!
Santa: So, what would you like for Santa to bring you?
HC: I’d like a kitchen! So I can cook like Mommy and Daddy.
Santa: And what else would you like?
HC: Um, a bouncy ball.
Santa: And what else?
HC: Oh, a yo-yo!
Santa: And what else?
HC: (looking at Daddy like “we didn’t rehearse more than this, did we?”) I like movies.
Mommy: Okay, sweetie, big smile for your picture!

Really, Santa, what is your problem? Do you not see Mommy trying to give you the universal “cut it out” signal by running her fingers across her throat?? The girl said she wanted a kitchen, bouncy ball and yo-yo. There’s truly no need to make her think of more things she would like to have. Granted, it was probably the first Tuesday evening in December and there were like two people in line behind us so I’m sure Santa thought he was just being nice…but the twinkle in his eye seemed a bit devious, if you ask me.

Having successfully let Santa in on her wish list, Hannah Claire was ready to ride the Pink Pig. For those of you not from Atlanta, I don’t know how to explain this Christmas tradition but a tradition it is, and Hannah Claire was more excited about this than anything else that evening. We convinced her to eat dinner first since the Pig was near where we had parked the car and eating first meant not having to traipse back and forth through the mall four times. Being the awesome parents that we are, we purchased our Pig tickets before going to see Santa so we were set to ride as soon as we finished dinner. Being the not-so-awesome parents that we are, we failed to check out what time the Pig quit running for the evening. When we arrived back at the tent, Hannah Claire excitedly pulling us all the way, it was locked down tight. Oh the sadness on our little girl’s face. We promised we’d bring her back ASAP. She took it like a champ, and even posed for a few pictures with the Pig paraphernalia. We made it back a few days later and all was right in her world.

The Good News and the Bad News

2010-04-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Which do you want first? Let’s go with the bad news: our home renovation project. Due to its unhappy ending, this story will be brief. We hired a company to convert our existing screened-in porch to a four-season sunroom, build a deck off the sunroom, and replace the countertops, sink and flooring in our kitchen. We’ve talked about taking this project on for years and, with our family growing, now was the time to make some additional space. With the hope of being finished before the baby arrived, we started the project in October. It’s March. And we still have no deck and no new kitchen sink or countertops. Suffice it to say, our contractor turned out to be a bit shady and hasn’t been back to our house since mid-December. We’re in the process of taking him to court, but until the case is settled we can’t hire another contractor to finish the work. So I look at my deckless backyard (where my hubby’s and my daughter’s toys should be) and my ugly old countertops and I fume. Daily. Once the legal dust has settled, I’ll be sure to update.

On to the good news: The day after Thanksgiving, Hannah Claire turned 3!! How my baby is three years old, I have no idea. It blows my mind to think she’s already that old, and the glimpses we see of her even older self come much too often. She’s 3 going on 15 most days!

In the past, we’ve had Hannah Claire’s parties at our house. But, with the baby due just weeks later and our house in disarray from the renovations, we decided to let someone else do all the work this year. We celebrated her big day at Greene’s Fine Foods in Decatur and, I must say, it was well worth it! Greene’s is an adorable little candy store where the kids get to make their own treats. Hannah Claire had a blast with all her friends and family and scored some serious loot.

With Thanksgiving and Hannah Claire’s birthday behind us, it was time for the countdown to Caroline. We had three weeks until her due date, December 17. Little did we know we wouldn’t be counting down as long as we thought!

Fall Family Fun

2010-04-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

In early October, we traveled back to St. Simons for a reunion with my mom’s entire side of the family. It was great to spend time with cousins, aunts and uncles that we rarely get to see. Ryan impressed the family with his awesome BBQ. Hannah Claire became fast friends with her second cousins Lizzie, Janie and Maggie. They had a fabulous time playing on the beach and fighting for lap time with their uncles. And Ryan and I got a quick glimpse of our soon-to-be reality: a family full of girls!!

A couple weeks later, we made our way up to Coon Creek for “Coonstock” at my aunt and uncle’s place in the North Carolina Mountains. Thank goodness I was eight months pregnant ‘cause it meant I got a warm bed instead of having to sleep outside in a tent. It was freezing outside, but we still had a fabulous time.

We, of course, rounded out October with some Halloween fun. There was the Fall Festival at church and the traditional trick-or-treating with Noah and Carter. Hannah Claire dressed up as one of her then favorite book characters, Poodlena – a sassy poodle that adorns herself in pink and lives in a New York high-rise.

Room(s) for Two

2010-04-14T08:49:00.000-07:00

I’m pretty sure I promised pictures of Hannah Claire’s big girl room, so here are a few:

The inspiration for the feel and colors all started with a mirror we found during a shopping trip while in St. Simons. Note to anyone thinking about redecorating a room: re-doing a room around an accent piece is a big old pain in the tush! Finding bedding and a wall color took more time and effort than we’d counted on, but it came together well. Ryan and our brother-in-law, Jonathan, put up the woodwork and then Ryan and I painted everything. Gigi and Baba helped pick out the awesome new bedding (that I intend to send her to college with!) and Gracie helped sew all the fun bed pillows and the valence for her windows. Hannah Claire adores her new space and still, six months after ‘moving in’, invites anyone that walks through our door to come see her cool new room!

Caroline (Yeah, she’s here. Has been for months, but that’s a whole other post) has successfully taken over the nursery. For those who weren’t around when Hannah Claire was born, here a few pictures of the mural Gigi painted over three years ago. How awesome is it that two sweet girls have gotten to use this special room?

Seriously . . .

2009-11-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

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 . . .

2009-08-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

. . . '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

2009-08-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-05T11:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T08:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-07-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

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!

All We Want for Christmas...

2009-06-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

Will probably be a nap, or a medically induced coma. Ryan and I spend two years working our way back to averaging about 7 to 8 hours of good sleep, with maybe one or two quick interruptions a night… and then what do we go and do?

Sleepless nights, here we come. Again! We are so excited that Baby Jowers II is on the way. I’m 14 weeks today, and we’re due December 17. Needless to say, the holidays will be super exciting at the Jowers home this year. Hannah Claire will turn three (GASP!) November 27 and the little one should arrive shortly thereafter. Little miss is talking about the baby coming when Santa comes (wonder if she’ll think differently of Santa when she realizes the baby will be here to stay!). She’s already listing off all the helpful things she’s going to do for her baby brother or sister. Most importantly, she’s planning to name the baby either JoJo or Elmo. Ryan and I are working on that. For now, we're pumped that Hannah Claire seems just as happy about our growing family as we feel!

See, Ryan DOES have fun!

2009-06-18T08:53:00.000-07:00

Alright, so a few big things have happened to me over the last two months. First, as a final hoorah for grad school, I went to Brazil along with 50 of my classmates to meet our international requirement. Our first stop was in Sao Paulo, which is an amazingly enormous city to the tune of 21+ million people (note: this is over 2x the size of New York and about 5x the size of Atlanta!). It is a very poorly maintained city with a significant amount of poverty. The trip was highlighted by a visit to Bovespa, which is the Brazilian stock exchange, as well as to the manufacturing plant for Natura, the Brazilian equivalent to our Mary Kay. While in downtown, we had an opportunity to go to the roof top viewing platform of the tallest bank in the city. The view was unreal as you could not see where the high-rise buildings ended. Three things really stick out to me when I think about Sao Paulo: 1) Graffiti, 2) Traffic, 3) The Market. The graffiti problem is so bad in the city that the government has started sponsoring graffiti art classes at local libraries and art institutes. This is really one of those "If you can't beat them, join them" scenarios. As for the traffic, Sao Paulo has over 9 million registered vehicles. It's so many, in fact, that the government has started a program where, depending on the day of the week and your license plate number, you can or cannot drive your vehicle. Lastly, I had a chance to walk through the outdoor street market and then into the main food market. The food market was great, culturally interesting, and vibrant! The street market however was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. Street vendors ran six deep across the road with barely enough room to walk. They were selling everything from bootleg pornography to mops. I was told that this market was very similar to what you might find in China or India. As a 6'3, white Caucasian, I stuck out like a sore thumb. While I'm thrilled I had a chance to experience that, I'm in no hurry to do it again. I guess that is also true for Sao Paulo; it was fascinating to see but I would not go back unless I had a very specific reason.

After Sao Paulo, the entire group flew to Rio de Janiero. Rio lives up to its billing as one beautiful city, nestled between some low lying mountains and the ocean. The water is crystal blue and you can find people on the beaches at all hours of the day. It was fascinating seeing how many people were out playing soccer and volleyball, although the most interesting was a game called footvolley which is a combination of the two if you can imagine that! Our time in Rio was relaxing and included visits to H. Stern, a large semi-precious stone company, and other companies that focused on telecommunications and the like. In Rio I got to show off my adventurous side as I went hang gliding over the city and also went on a zip line obstacle course in the jungle canopy. Hang gliding was amazing; we took off from over 1200 feet up on a local mountain, glided out over the jungle, the city, and finally the ocean before landing on the beach. Other highlights of this trip were eating at the restaurant where "The Girl from Impanema" was written, taking the cable cars up to Sugar Loaf Mountain, taking a 3 hour boat tour of the inlet and neighboring islands, and taking the train up to Christ the Redeemer. The statue of Christ the Redeemer is truly magical for a Christian because anywhere you go in Rio, you turn around and there is the statue high on this mountain. The statue has a very omni-present feel throughout the city. The statue itself is one of the new modern wonders of the world and is nearly 150 feet tall and 100 feet wide. The food in Rio was great but I will have to say that the Fogo de Chau in Atlanta tops the Brazilian steakhouse where we ate that was called Por Cao. My roomate in Brazil, Aneel, and I both became hooked on Guarana which is the local soda of choice. Since my return, I have been able to find a knock off version at the Dekalb Farmer's Market which is really good. My overall assessment of Rio is that it is a beautiful city with lots to do as long as you watch your back; the crime rate is astronomical.

And finally (drum roll, please), I graduated with my MBA! As for the graduation ceremony, it was like most graduations - the highlight being that I am done with three long years of school. I truly enjoyed my experience and meeting some outstanding people along the way. Grad school taught me a lot about balancing life and work. While having a full-time job, I was able to finish my degree and start my family. Hannah Claire, as we know, is 2 1/2 (going on 10, I swear!) and I have not known life with her without school. So graduating is truly a sweet experience as it means I have more time to spend with my family. My family and friends have been amazing during the last few years. Kelly has been a constant support of my aspirations and I could not have completed this degree without her love and encouragement. My parents and other friends have also been so helpful in encouraging me and helping with the small things like keeping HC while I was in class. You all don't know how big of a help that was!! I love you all for what you have done for me and my family. Now with this wonderful degree in hand from a top 25 university, I am out to try and find a job in the worst economic climate of my lifetime. Somehow I keep getting this wrong. I graduated from undergrad in 2001 right after the dot.com bust and right before 9/11. And now this!!!! One day I'll figure out the best time to go job hunting.

Remember us?

2009-06-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

So, I don’t even know where to begin. I suppose I should start with the usual apologies for being so lame when it comes to keeping up with our blog. Um, sorry…one day I’m going to realize that it really is easier to just post things as they happen rather than try to sit down and remember what we’ve done for the last six months!! But, since it appears that is my current MO, I’ll attempt to catch y’all up on our recent adventures.

Way back in March, Hannah Claire and I made the trek to Raleigh, NC to visit Erin, Jason and their new (well, he was new then!) baby boy, Aidan. We stopped in Charlotte to pick up Katie so she could join in the fun. Aidan is adorable, and we had tons of fun getting to know him. Hannah Claire was quick to remind me that Aidan was Erin’s baby and I didn’t need to hold him. Hmm, wonder if we may have jealousy issues in our future! I was apparently so distracted with playing with a three-month old that I didn’t feel the need to take any pictures - too bad because Aidan is a doll. I did manage to snap this really awesome shot of Aunt Katie, Hannah Claire’s new BFF, wearing every last one of Hannah Claire’s hair accessories!

We weren’t home very long before little miss and I packed up again and headed off to Gracie’s house in St. Simons. We spent almost a week playing with Gracie and Nana and even got to celebrate Easter with them. Hannah Claire was quite relieved to know the Easter Bunny would be able to find her at Gracie’s house. We enjoyed gardening, a quick trip to the beach and an egg hunt on Jekyll Island! Prior to leaving town, Hannah Claire participated in the Easter festivities at our church so there are some shots of that included in the pictures below.

Lest you think only Hannah Claire and I have fun adventures, stay tuned for the excitement that has been Ryan’s life the last couple months!

Snow Day!!

2009-03-04T13:55:00.001-08:00

Wonder of all wonders, it snowed more than 1/2 an inch in Atlanta! In fact, I'm pretty sure we ended up with between 3 and 4 awesome inches of the white stuff. Crazy enough, this was Hannah Claire's first experience with snow. Last year, when Atlanta got a dusting, we were in South Carolina. It was quite ironic since Atlanta was supposed to get rain and South Carolina was supposed to get snow and ice. So we drove to the snow only to sit inside and watch it rain all weekend. Sad...

But this year certainly made up for it; the snow was beautiful! And Hannah Claire loved playing in it. Since it started melting yesterday, she's taken to staring longingly out the front window asking where the snow went. I'm sure she wishes it would have stayed around a little longer.

Personally, I enjoyed the brief winter wonderland but I am SO ready for Spring!

Dancing Queen

2009-03-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

I work from home, and I usually try to spend a couple hours each morning in the "office" (I use that term loosely seeing as the room is our office/guest room/Ryan's closet/catch-all) because Hannah Claire is pretty content to play on her own for a bit after breakfast. The other day she walks into the office and says "Mommy, I'm ready to go to dance class. I have my dance bag. Help me with my dance skirt." This was the result of getting dressed for dance class...

By the way, she's never been to a dance class, nor have we talked about one. I have no idea what prompted her sudden urge to don a tutu, but it was darn cute!

Me & Mommy at the GA Aquarium

2009-03-04T09:39:00.000-08:00

If you live in the Atlanta area and have children, you should totally take advantage of the current Me & Mommy deal at the aquarium. $20 pays for you, your kids (up to 4, 5 and under) and parking. Laurie and I took Hannah Claire and Henry last Friday, and we had a BLAST!

Hannah Claire especially loved Deepo, the aquarium mascot, and she’s still talking about the beluga whales. We had a near tragedy when we realized the penguin exhibit was closed for renovation, but thank goodness for behind-the-scene tours! All in all, it was a fabulous day. Enjoy the pics!

Feeling the love...

2009-03-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

Happily Ever Laughter… I swear, some days this could be the official motto of the Jowers household. Probably so for most families with a toddler! But, I can’t take credit for the creative phrase since it was actually the title of the mini-marriage retreat Ryan and I attended a couple weekends ago. Thanks to some great gals at SRBC, we were able to have a night away at Simpsonwood Retreat. We thoroughly enjoyed the couple-only time and loved getting to know other couples from our church better. Friday night included a bonfire and Saturday included renewing our vows in the sweetest little chapel. We even celebrated with punch and wedding cake petit fours! Never thought I’d be able to claim being part of a group wedding ceremony…

We celebrated the universal day of love by taking Hannah Claire to the Big Apple Circus at Stone Mountain. Nothing says “I love you” like front row seats at the circus! Our friends, the Boltins, joined us and Hannah Claire and Henry seemed quite pleased with their Valentine’s Day date. In fact, Hannah Claire spent the majority of the show sitting in either Laurie’s or Chris’ lap. We’re sure she was just trying to get closer to Henry, so Ryan and I pretended our feelings weren’t hurt. I think my favorite part of the day was during the picture taking before we went into the circus tent. Hannah Claire stuck one finger out and asked Henry to hold her hand. Ah, the fickleness of a female!

Horsin' around!

2009-03-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, so if you bet that I wouldn’t be able to update our blog regularly, cash in your chips now. Sad, I know, but I always seem to be playing catch up! Oh well, better late than never.

Those of you who know me well know I spent the majority of my adolescence in a pool, swimming competitively. What you might not know is that I also had a love for horses and secretly always wanted a horse of my own to ride. Perhaps this is a common wish for little girls because I remember my friends and I spending hours on the play ground ‘playing horses’ – trotting around and such. I even attended horse camp for a week where I had my very own horse, Dolly. But, I digress…

At the tender age of two (and a couple months), Hannah Claire has already ridden a horse! My brother, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Kristina, live in Gaffney, SC and have a horse named Cricket. We visited them about a month ago and took Hannah Claire to see the stables and to ride Cricket. I fully expected her to enjoy the horses from a distance, but was prepared for her to pitch a fit if we got too close or, God forbid, tried to get her to ride. Boy was I wrong! Once she got comfortable being around the horses and rode Cricket for the first time, she didn’t want to get off. Every time someone else would try to ride, she’d tell us it was still her turn. I think Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kristina are going to have to add a pony to their stable. Maybe I’ll get to live out my horse dreams vicariously through Hannah Claire!

A quick game of catch-up!

2009-02-13T12:23:00.000-08:00

Let's play catch-up via pictures, shall we?

We enjoyed the Game Ranch, Fall Festival at Stone Mountain and our first-ever Falcons game this fall.

Our holiday season was busy, as always. Amidst all the running around and time spent with family, we were able to snap a few photos.

Can we do it? Place your bets now...

2009-02-07T09:57:00.000-08:00

So, when Ryan and I were expecting Hannah Claire a dear friend of ours created a rockin' little website for us that we used to keep people up to date during the pregnancy and after Hannah Claire's birth. Since the website went down in September, I've had great intentions of creating a Jowers family blog. Um, as you can see, the execution of that plan has been less than speedy. But better late than never, right? Whether or not I can actually keep a blog going is still up for debate. Go ahead and place your bets now - is the life of Ryan, Kelly and Hannah Claire truly exciting enough to read about regularly? Guess we'll find out...

That said, settle in for my first official post - a general update on our lives.

Hannah Claire turned two on November 27; it's hard to believe we are the parents of a toddler instead of a baby, but it's true. She is a smart little cookie and she's so much fun these days. Personally, I'd like to freeze her at this age but I think, even if today's technology could help me with that, it's like unethical or something. Oh well... She still adores music and sings all the time! Her current title tracks are "This is the Day that the Lord Has Made", "Jesus Love the Little Children" and the Sesame Street and Little Einsteins theme songs. As soon as she's strapped into the car seat, she's shouting instructions for someone to put in the Veggie Tales CD. I'm pumped that she seems to love music and singing so much, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we have a musical genius on our hands. Doubtful, I know, but a mom can dream! Anyone know how early you can start a kid in piano lessons? She is, of course, your average sassy two-year-old. We get so tickled at some of the comments she makes and even more tickled when we realize that she's usually repeating something she heard mommy or daddy say. Her imagination has kicked into high gear lately and we enjoy watching her play with her toys in her own little world.

Ryan is officially taking the LAST class towards his MBA!!! We are stoked that he is so close to graduation but, at the same time, it's hard to believe he's been in school for three years. Seeing as he's the one who has sat through (how many?) classes and has done all the work, Ryan may tell you differently! Given that graduation is right around the corner, he's officially started a new job search - specifically in Greenville, SC. Ryan and I have been talking about moving back to Greenville since we left after college, and it seems that the time has finally come. If anyone has good job contacts in G'vegas, let Ryan know. Needless to say, with the current condition of the economy/market, we'll need all the help we can get finding jobs and selling our house.

Other than that, we're up to our usual schedule of work, school, church and tying to fit in some fun too! I'll try to catch up on pictures from the Fall and the holidays next. You're excited and you know it.