What's in a name?!

Its almost time for baby girl to make an appearance (well, I've been ready for a while now, but seriously, she should be coming any day!!). And I think we might finally have her name...

what...you thought I'd share it here?! Not going to happen...

We learned the hard way with our first. Abbi was named before there ever was an Abbi. Before there was a plan to HAVE an Abbi! We chose a girl name and a boy name before we even married. It just happened... y'know... we were talking one day and said, "If we have a boy, his name would be (no, I can't share it! Even though we think we're done...you never know!). And if we have a girl, it will be Abbi." So, from the time we found out we were having a girl, my belly was known as Abbi. I felt like it took the mystique away from her... and it was weird when people would address my belly by name. So, with Lexi, we neither decided on, nor shared, her name ahead of time. I think we finalized her name early in the third trimester, but never let on that we had done so.

This time around, I had the name picked out from the get-go... and Russ was set too. Set AGAINST my name! I love the name Avery...but unless Russ comes to his senses, baby girl will not be called Avery. And, no... we never meant for all A's... but when you start in the front of the alphabet in a baby name book, sometimes its hard to get past the first letter! Russ countered with Aubrey, thinking it would appease me. It did not. So, for the past 3 months, we've basically been at a standstill... Abbi threw out her suggestion - Ella. Beautiful name... but not for my kid. I have to give credit to Abbi, though. When we first told her about her new sibling-to-be, her name choices were Brett Favre and Aurora Sleeping Beauty. Well, Brett's not a good name for a little girl (although I might have been easily persuaded!) and Aurora Sleeping Beauty is kind of wordy... Lexi names all her baby dolls Annie (or at least we think that's what she's saying around that ever-present pacifier). So, that's a "no" as well...

Anyway, we think we have the name...now we just need the baby!!!

So, I was reading a blog the other day where the dad listed all his kids' names and their meanings and I thought maybe it would be interesting to see what my girls' names mean...and how true those meanings are.

Abigail Kae - hmmmm... a hebrew name meaning Exalted Father (??). Kae means Happy!! (And for the record, Kae is a combo of my sisters' middle names - Rae & Kristel).

Alexis Renee - Protector reborn. Well, I like the protector part... don't know about the reborn....

and finally, baby sister's name means - work. Uh, maybe I picked the wrong website to find these meanings. What kind of name means WORK?! Does this mean she's gonna be a lot of work for ME?! Because, to be honest, her sisters are a lot of work...is she going to be MORE WORK?! Argh!!!

(that website, by the way, is www.babynamer.com... maybe not so good on the meanings, but I got a kick out of their "drawbacks" list for each name - potential nicknames people may call your child. If I ever feel the immature need to tease someone about his or her name, I now know where to look!!)

Before I go... I posted some photos of the girls on my photography blog... if you like what you see, let me know!! Comments are always appreciated!

http://photografour.blogspot.com/2009/04/photographers-kids.html

Party time...

Lexi is turning two, and despite her little sister's impending arrival, I'm not going to rob her of the opportunity to have a party. So, we're having a small get together the day before her birthday. I thought I'd share the invitations...

For the record... no - Lexi never smiles for pictures.

Project Time: Coloring Easter Eggs

Yesterday, I was not in the mood to combine eggs, dye, stickers and my two children. But, a promise is a promise, so we set out to color 18 eggs anyway. And I'm glad we did! It was much more fun - and much less mess - than I'd imagined. I was able to play paparazzi while the girls dyed the eggs, and other than a few blue fingers, there was no mess afterwards! Easy cleanup! Great results, too. Abbi loved it. And I guess that's what really matters...

I have a ton of pics to share, but I had to narrow it down.... so, enjoy.

Our first Easter Egg hunt

This was the first year we've attempted a community Easter Egg hunt. We almost passed on it (I'm kinda tired, ya know), but the weather was so beautiful and I wanted to do something fun with the girls, so we chose the smaller of the two hunts in our community. Good thing, too! Smaller still meant hundreds of kids! The Village of South Elgin had A Zoo to You (a traveling petting zoo), a live DJ, the local police with their DARE car, and of course, the egg hunt. The Easter Bunny was also there, but after standing in line for 10 minutes, Abbi informed me that she met him last year, so a visit with him this year was unnecessary.

The girls seemed to have fun and were sufficiently buzzed on chocolate for the remainder of the day. And we got to enjoy the nice April day outside. Here are my favorite pictures from the day (posted in reverse...sorry!).

Abbi showing off her loot!

Abbi & Lexi checking out their haul!

Looking for eggs...

Lexi was cranky in the time leading up to the hunt, but she found something to occupy herself.

Abbi, showing surprising patience...

Waiting for the hunt to start!

Meeting the animals...very up close and personal.

Abbi feeding the animals.

Before I forget...

I wanted to post the end result of the shower on Saturday... Lexi partied herself into a deep sleep... This was just moments after the guests had departed.

A welcome celebration! WARNING - Picture overload!

I'm very lucky that my closest family & friends agree with me; that each baby - whether your first, your second, your fifth, your final - and each pregnant mama needs a celebration party. Call it a shower, a sprinkle, a get-together... its important to me to be celebrated and pampered as I approach my baby's arrival. So, my sister arranged a small party, in my honor, and invited my closest friends and family. The theme was books - in honor of my love of reading (to myself and to my kiddos), each guest was asked to bring a book for the baby. I have to chuckle at the number of turtle books that my baby received!

My sister did the decorating and made the invitations. Mom supplied the food. And my friends supplied the entertainment (who knew that my husband could accurately draw a nursing bra/nursing pads for a close game of Pictionary?! or that our former nanny didn't know many nursery rhymes?!). We had an amazing time and it was so wonderful to celebrate baby's impending arrival.

I tried to take a lot of pictures, so here are some of my favorites... THANK YOU to those who came, and of course, those who planned the shindig.

The food! YUM!!



Flowers from my mother-in-law. Beautiful!


Diapers...part of a game. Y'know...the one where you closely examine the contents and identify which candy bar "filled" the diaper?! Fun stuff!

The cake pops that my sister made. YUMMMMY!!! (they were made to look like rattles with our last initial on them, since baby doesn't have a first name yet!)


The baby swing almost collapsed under the weight of the prizes for the games we played.

The favors my sister made... flowers from mom & sister in the background.

The favors & flowers...

My sister's first crack at a diaper cake! Not too shabby, huh?! Topped with baby's first doll...which my two older girls also have. I just wonder if this one will match the hair color of her doll - the other two have not!

Our game of Pictionary was quite entertaining... even for those who didn't think they could draw well enough. I saved all the pictures because they were so comical!!! (or surprising!!)

My guests examining the contents of the afore-mentioned diapers... don't they look enthralled?!

Another blog full of photos...but this one is for my family!

Up until now, I have shared some personal information on my photography blog, but I have decided its time to start a personal blog. A friend of mine said she uses her personal blog as a way to journal her kids' lives, which is something I have always intended to do, but have never done. So, I figured I would share my "snapshots" of the girls here and leave the other blog to my more professional work! And then I can share personal stories and updates here as well...

So, welcome. Thanks for stopping by... hopefully I can keep up on this during this busy time (baby is due in 5 weeks!). Stop back soon for pics of our March snow day & my recent baby shower.