December pictures

A few new pictures are uploaded in the December 2008 album here:

December 2008

Pictures anyone?

Hello all! Well it's taken me a very long time to get pictures uploaded but I've finally done it! Rather than posting them all here on the blog I'll point you to my Picasa Web Albums.

You can see pictures from October here:

October 2008

And November is here:

November 2008

We are all doing very well - Evie has already grown and changed so much! She'll be six weeks old tomorrow which is just really hard to believe. Her last weight check had her at 9 pounds and 1 ounce but that was almost two weeks ago so I bet she's over 10 pounds by now. We have moved out of newborn diapers and are in size one now. And she's outgrown all of her newborn clothes.

Love to all - I can't wait for you all to meet our little scoop of sunshine.

Welcome Evie!

A very Happy Birthday is in order today for a very special young lady. Evie Sue Shockley made her way into this world on October 20, 2008 at 11:17 a.m. She weighed 7 pounds 8 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long at birth.

To say we were a bit surprised to find ourselves at the hospital at 3:00 this morning is an understatement! She's two and a half weeks early but definitely ready to be here. (And for anyone worrying if I was ready or not, based on my note on October 5, we spent the weekend nesting at home and now understand where all of that energy came from!)

I'm doing really well and so is Jay. We're supposed to be napping right now but I don't think I've quite gotten the hang of that. I'm sure it will come. :-) We both are feeling so happy and overwhelmed with what's ahead for us. What a journey this has been and will continue to be.

My sincere apologies that there are not any pictures - I promise that Jay and I will get organized tomorrow and find where in our bag I stuck the camera cord for the computer. I can promise you all without any bias whatsoever that she is a doll.

Oh - and a special shout out to all of the doctors and nurses we've had the good fortune of working with - I didn't know there were so many angels right here on this earth in one place.

One Month

One month from today is our due date! And while it feels like I have been pregnant forever (since February!!) I am not quite ready for our little one to make her appearance. I am thankful for and looking forward to every weekend and every quiet moment between now and her birthday. Don't get me wrong, she's welcome anytime she gets ready. I just mean that I'm not to that "get this baby out of me I am done being pregnant" place yet that I have heard happens at some point late in pregnancy. I'm sure I will be letting you all know when that time comes. :-)

You know you're pregnant when...

I'm sure there are 100 ways to finish that sentence but for me, today, it goes like this.

You know you're pregnant when you eat a McDonald's cheeseburger, a Filet-O-Fish, and a chocolate milkshake from Amy's Ice Cream for lunch. !!!????!!! I know, I know, terrible. But it's what I wanted!

I need to offer a special thanks to the lady at McDonalds for not taking my french fry order which led me to realize that since I didn't get my fries I definitely needed a milkshake. And a very special thanks to my new friend at Amy's Ice Cream for making "his special" chocolate milkshake for me. That would be mexican vanilla ice cream & hot fudge sauce all milk-shaked together topped with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. Yes, it is as good as you are imagining right now. "Liquid brownie" he called it.

It was my most pregnant lunch ever.

Baby’s Room

Well it isn’t completely finished but it’s getting close! And it’s starting to look like a baby might one day live in there. We couldn’t have pulled this all together without the help of so many of our family members and friends – so a special thank you to everyone who pitched in to make it such a special nursery.

Here are a couple of pictures plus a short video of the room. Since the room is on the small side the video helps you get an idea of how it all fits together better than the pictures do.






Velcro quickly found her favorite spot in the room!

Off to Class!

Tonight is our third week to attend Bradley childbirth classes. Overall we really like the class and always leave feeling like we’ve learned something that will help us out down the road. I thought that those of you who haven’t seen me lately might get a kick out of a pregnant Carmen picture from when we were leaving for our first class – two pillows in hand!

Baby Showers

A few weeks ago I went to Conway for a long weekend and two baby showers! They were planned late in my second trimester to save this growing body from having to travel in the third trimester. I had an absolutely wonderful weekend and both showers were lovely, full of laughter and a lot of fun. All of my family and friends really went above and beyond to shower this little baby and her excited parents with love.

And while I didn't do the best job of getting all the pictures I should have - thanks to everyone who did take pictures I have a few to share.

The first shower was hosted by my dear friends Christine, Bren, Shannon and Lindsey and we partied at Mom's house. Here I am with most of the hostesses, the cutest diaper cake and the delicious food spread.



Gramie (Carm's Mom) showered baby with new clothes and a fabulous stoller!

Nanna and PaPa (Jay's parents) showered baby with new clothes a new washing machine. This is the miniature of the washing machine that Nanna made for Carm to open.

Thanks to all of our friends who were able to be there!




The next day my cousins, Kristen, Mandy, Amanda, Bridget and Stephanie, hosted a fun-filled shower for us at Kristen's house. Kristen made the cake to look just like the rug that will be in the baby's room. We were all super impressed!

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful gifts!

Here we have a fabulous diaper cake surrounded by the first shower game we played. The hostesses melted chocolate candy in the diapers. We had to sniff them and guess which candy was in which diaper. Looks really appetizing, doesn't it? Christine won this game - girlfriend knows her candy bars!


Farrah trying out the new Bumbo chair from Aunt Redia.

I heart my family...

Our Other Baby

If you know Velcro you know she loves to find her own little spots to sleep - usually in or on something new in the house. A recent favorite was this box. I thought this picture that Jay took was pretty cute.



And of course when we set up the pack and play (to make sure we knew how) she thought that was fabulous.

It's a Girl!

That's right - we found out at our 20 week ultrasound on June 20 that we have a little girl on the way. We were pretty surprised with the news because we were pretty sure it was a boy based on an "unofficial" ultrasound we did with a friend two weeks earlier. Our ultransound technician got a real kick out of the situation. (And small world - she has a little girl due on October 16 - my birthday!)

Here are her beautiful pictures (with all modesty set aside - sorry, baby girl!)

Happy Father's Day!

We've had a really nice Father's Day - the highlight being when Jay felt the baby kick for the first time this morning!

Earlier today Jay was in the back yard watering the grass. I asked him to spray down the highchair we inherited from our nephew.

Here he is getting the chair cleaned up, listening to his ipod.



And here's what I found 15 minutes later. He rigged the highchair into a sprinkler!

Puerto Morelos, Mexico

I recently travelled with my book club to beautiful Puerto Morelos, Mexico. The get-away was just what I needed. I actually quit worrying about what time it was after awhile! And anyone who knows me knows that is saying something.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the trip.

This is the old lighthouse in town. It is no longer in use but has become the icon most identifiable to Puerto Morelos.




This is the view from our back porch of the pool and ocean.




This is the gate off of our porch to the beach.




Rachel taught a crochet class. Everyone caught on very quickly - making book marks, blankets, and scarves. Look at that gorgeous ocean behind them! (L to R - Gwen, Rachel, Jeni, Cathy)




Leticia and I sat in the ocean while the others learned to crochet.




We stopped by the public beach closer to town which was gorgeous. (L to R - Cathy, Leticia, Adeline, Jeni)




Roommates! Gwen, Carm, and Rachel




And finally, our view during lunch on Friday.




Thank you Puerto Morelos for being the lovely spot you are! And thank you to my wonderful friends for being the strong and beautiful women that they are.

Baby's First Picture

I had an ultrasound at my doctor's appointment on Friday and she printed out a snapshot of it for me. I know that is normally what they do but I felt like she'd bestowed a precious gift on me. It's been proudly displayed on our refrigerator ever since.

What you are looking at is the gestational sac (the black area) and the yolk sac (the white dot inside the black area that the doctor put little marks around). Baby is there but too small to see.


Looks like a beautiful and intelligent baby to us! :-)

Our Big News

It's official! We are five weeks and three days pregnant. I saw the doctor yesterday and she confirmed that the three home pregnancy tests didn't lie.

For the record here they are.

The first test -


The third test - this one helped convince Jay more than the others -

And here they all are together. We finally moved this off the counter before his poker night last week -