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.