Goodbye, Mr. President

I just ran across this when I was reading through the blogs I subscribe to... thought it was a good reminder that every President is just a man, trying to lead the best he can. Leave it to SCC to say the things that some of us think.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Big Sister, Little Sister

Nana worked really hard to get these shirts made for the girls so I wanted to show off the little pictures we snapped this morning. I don't think Marin is too happy with those reindeer ears, but they look cute in their shirts.

Not sure about those ears...


Doesn't Lia look so big next to her little sister?!?!

We're Back!!

Our Blonde Beauty...


I know I have the most patient readers, because no one has sent ugly messages about no new pictures on the blog :)

So, I'm posting lots of pictures from the past weeks. As you can imagine, we have been busy, feeding, loving, fighting and sleeping! Lia is doing great with her little sister and always wants to check on baby Marin when she wakes up in the morning or from her nap. We have enjoyed having G- Mommy, Nana and Papa B here for visits and to help out. Thanks to everyone!

Also, Marin's bilirubin levels are great now and we don't have to go back to the doctor until her 1 month check up. She is such a sweet baby and I can't wait to see what her little personality blossoms into. So, let's get to some more pictures...

First Bath with G- Mommy (a tradition for our girls)


Checking on Baby Marin in the crib...


Getting a closer look...
Daddy helping out with drying Lia's hair...


Here's Lia giving Marin a kiss...

Sweet Sisters!
Hanging out with Daddy


Thanksgiving with Nana and Papa B...


Our Family of 4...

Marin's First Thanksgiving...


Helping to decorate the Christmas Tree...

Fall at the Farm and Apple Trees

I didn't post about Fall at the Farm, but it's a church staff event that we so enjoy going to each year. The staff of North Point, Buckhead and Brownsbridge all bring their families for a great time of food, music, fun and the kids have a blast. There are pony rides, inflateables, music, face painting and plenty of room to run around.

Here is a picture of Lia getting her face painted. The clown asked her if she wanted to be a princess or a butterfly and she said - "I want to be a monkey!" The clown was eager to get a break from the many butterflies she had painted and came up with a fun looking monkey.


When we got home, Lia wanted to put on her monkey costume from Halloween and show off her face...


At the end of October, Lia's class recited a poem for all the parents, and I got to go and see her...it was so cute!!


Bundled up for a walk...

Words from Mom...

Just wanted to hop onto the computer myself and say hi! Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement and the sweet congrats. We are so happy to be home with our two girls and starting life as a family of 4.

Friday was such a fun day and I had a wonderful delivery. My midwife took great care of me and it was a smooth and pretty easy delivery - of course, an epidural helps me say that! Anyway, Marin continues to amaze us and is such a sweet little one. I have to say I was a little shocked to see blond hair... the hospital staff checks the numbers on your wrist when they give back the baby, but I checked the hair under her cap.

Anyway, we got home Monday after a little stay in the hospital and have been settling in ever since. Lia was not sure about her little sister at first, but she is warming up to her and very excited to help as she can. Pray that we continue to know how to give her attention and manage all the fun 2 year old behavior.

We went in today to the doctor and Marin is a little jaundice, but not as much as Lia was. We will take her back tomorrow to get a reading so please pray she continues to feed and that it will be lower tomorrow. Of course, we have our experience with Lia in the back of our mind, but I'm hoping not to have to get that bad over the week. We'll let you know!

Oh, and I am sure I am being random, but a friend did set up a meal calendar for us, but I can't remember everyone who told me to send it to them so if you haven't gotten that information and want it... please email me. I have lost a lot of sleep over the past month and my brain is mush!

I promise I will take and send some pictures tomorrow so check back then for more of Blondie!

Day One

Rachel & Marin are both rockstars! Everything's going really well. We should be going home early tomorrow afternoon. Until then here are some more pics....

hanging out with mom....

showing off for the camera...

with Papa B and Nana before they headed back home (thanks for coming!)...

love from Miss Shae Shae!!

our FANTASTIC midwife Mary...

rockin' with G-Mommy..

Introducing Marin Anne Petty!!

Hey All. I finally found an internet connection. Thought you might enjoy some stats and a few pics!
Marin Anne Petty born 11/14/2008 @ 3:37pm - 7lbs.4oz.20in. All is well in Atlanta, GA.

Yum-O!

It's a really good thing that I didn't know about this throughout my pregnancy....


(Chick-Fil-A's new Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshake)

But it was a yummy treat today!

Only a matter of time...

Well, my 5 faithful readers, here's the update from the midwife yesterday....because I am dialated we have decided to set an induction date for Friday if I don't go into labor earlier.

So, we will be meeting the little girl tomorrow if not sooner! Woohoo!!!!

My question to you is.... any guess on the name? how big? how long? Winner of this poll could win a little something, I'm sure! Closest but not going over on the weight and height... and a BIG prize if you guess the name!!!

Stats for comparison....
Lia was 7lbs and 21.5inches long

Last Peek

This week has been a little crazy. Tuesday I was having contractions and thought my water might have broken and that resulted in a not so quick trip to the hospital to check things out. Since I don't have baby news, you might imagine that we came home without a little one. The baby is healthy and doing great... just hanging out a little longer.

I had a lot of time to think about all the things that weren't done while I was @ Northside so I spent most of the end of the week taking care of some loose ends.

One of those was to take a picture of me and me with Lia...my sweet friend Holly took a few and here are my favorites....enjoy your last peek at my pregnant belly! It won't be there much longer....

By Request Only

I know I haven't posted in way too long and I'm going to try and play catch up this week, but life has been a little crazy to say the least. But, I have had one too many people ask to see a picture of the growing belly so, here are some pictures to satisfy the masses. Well, probably just moms and sisters really :)

Yesterday a few friends got together to celebrate this new life and gave me a sweet shower. It was fun to spend the morning celebrating the little girl inside. I am so blessed to be walking through life with such wonderful friends!

So, here is the whole group....

L to R (top) - Holly, Karin, Mary, Jill, Amanda, Christin and Shae
(on couch) - Amy, Rachel, and Lisa

and me with the hostesses with the mostestess...

Thanks ladies! I had a great time - you are wonderful.

"Twins?"

Yep, that's in quotes...as in someone said that to me today...

We went to Chick-Fil-A and I was taking all of our trash to throw away and a guy sitting right next to the trash can looked at me and asked.... "Twins?"
I was a little stunned and just answered - "Nope, just one..."

Then I noticed he was sitting with his family and his wife who in the international language of marriage gave him the *mortified* look and said... "Honey?!?!?!"
She put her head in her hands and he said in international innocent man-speak "What?!?!"

At that point I thought of three things....
1) That was the funniest look I could have imagined.
2) He will be hearing about that through the rest of their dinner *and* the way home.
and
3) Maybe he should take my brother-in-law's advice to NEVER ask a women about her pregnancy/due date/impending child unless she is actually giving birth and asking for your help :)

Anyway, funny story for today. I will work on a belly picture so you can decide...
I hope there is only one though - we only have one carseat!

Ladies, what's the craziest thing you were asked when pregnant?

Life, Loans and no much Wisdom

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted anything. For the loyal 3 readers I have, please accept my humble apologies. I will soon return to the land of cute pig tails and toddlers. We have had a crazy month and October is shaping up to be as crazy as September.

Brendon got his wisdom teeth out yesterday so we have been changing out ice packs and trying to keep a two year old from knocking into Daddy's mouth. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and help.

Last night after our munchkin finally laid her head down on her pillow, we did see the President talking about his bailout plan. I don't know if I was the only one thinking this, but did anyone else think that this bailout could take 30 years to recover from if the government is that involved. And *please* remember that it's OUR money they are giving to these companies. I want the problem fixed too, but I want to know other alternatives.

One I read about is from Dave Ramsey, who I respect greatly on money matters. His plan has helped Brendon and I move toward getting out of debt (we are closer and closer) and consequently have the freedom to have choices along the way. Check out his plan and write your senator and congressman to let them know what you think. If you have $700 million dollars laying around to buy bad investments and credit - then stay silent. But just like paying off debt has done for the Pettys, we as a nation need to stay out of more debt and this is one way to do it.

Well, better go change out Brendon's ice...
I'll leave you with a cute picture to appease the grandmother's reading.

Have you ever heard of a bubble beard?

A Day with the Boys

Here are a few more pictures of our day with the boys....

time at the "park" aka backyard swingset


taking out all the toys and books...

and learning that boys DO play harder than girls (that's an icepack)...

Happy Birthday Carson!

Our new friends, the Parkers, just had their third son - Carson Randall - today. We kept the two older boys for the day and even got to make birthday cupcakes for Carson. Here is the video of us singing happy birthday - ok, I'm singing and that's pretty bad but it's cute of the kids...

Play-Doh Time

Did your mom ever make home-made play-dough? Yep, that's right... my mom used to make it and I'm pretty sure the smell is still in my nose 25 + years later. Brendon made me promise I would stick with baking sweet smelling things and not to EVER make that stinky stuff.
(I love you mom! and I loved the play-dough too!)

We had run out of fun things to do with the two small things of play-doh Lia picked up along the way - here is the play-doh Lia (complete with pigtails)


So I went to the store and bought a fun little kit of play-doh....Now we started having some serious fun...

Miss Shae-Shae

I feel so blessed to open our door each week as Lia yells... "It's Miss SHAE-SHAE!!!!"
She get so excited to play ball and hang out with one of her favorite people... and ours!

We got to hang out at the pool a few weeks ago and here is a picture...



hard to believe Shae has been keeping Lia for 2 year now! Are you ready for #2, Shae?

Chugga-Chugga

Let's build a train, Mommy!

Choo... Choo....

Lookout, Mountain! Here we come!!!

We took a *quick* trip to Nashvegas this past weekend. We were pointing out "Lookout Mountain" to Lia and she turned the phrase right away! She had us cracking up over her emphasis on the making sure the mountain knew we were coming its way!

So here are few pictures of our weekend...

hanging out with the Mooneys and Biggs...


swingin' with Papa and G-Mommy....


riding on the "little horse" @ G-Mommy's


and giving G-Mommy a little love...


4 generations....

We also got to hang out with them and missed too many people to count. It was a busy 48 hours, but it was great to be in TN for even a bit.
I will miss my favorite time of year - the fall - but probably won't be travelling as much this fall....hmmm... wonder why?

Feel free to come visit us any time, though! We'll be here :).

What's in a Name?

Now that we know that we are having a little girl, the next question people have been asking is... "So, what's the name?"

Brendon and I have been talking baby names pretty much non-stop since we found out and haven't settled on anything. So, faithful readers (of which there are 3 or 4) - got any suggestions?
I can't promise we will like them or use them, but I'm curious. What do you think we should name this little one?

Oh, and it might be a LONG time before you know the name... we are in the habit of keeping this info top-secret until the birth-day. It just seems like something should be a surprise, right?!?!