Pictures!!!

Elyana turns 6 months old on Sunday! I'll do a "what she's doing now" then, but for now, here are some wonderful pictures of the past few weeks....

We are not starting her on solids until she's officially 6-months old, but we give her little "tastes" of things. I let her suck on frozen blueberries we picked, since Jonathan had been feeding them to her (skins off) and she adores them so.


Push-ups!


Snuggled down in Aunt Catherine's robe


Swinging.... they both look happy!

Elyana screeched for joy when we would swing with her in our laps.

Jonathan and I put her to bed, and went out to our first romantic night-out alone since she's been born. His parents kept watch over her, and we were glad to know she would be in good hands were she to wake. We had an amazingly fun evening and loved, loved, loved being together!

Here is my beautiful sister Karen, and little 2 1/2 week old Michael Stuart. He is so precious! And, like usual, Karen just seems to effortlessly and gracefully slide into role of "mother of three" while being a loving wife, sister, daughter, and friend. And she's exercising with weights already - talk about disciplined! I hope I can be this self-motivated and joyful.

Elyana adored this little push-car we found at Nana & Papa's (apparently, Seth & Karen bought it years ago for Katrina). We are getting one for here!

Can you tell the girls loved pushing their cousin all over the courtyard?! They did it for almost an hour! I love to see them playing already.

My wonderful father with his 3rd grandchild. Three granddaughters, and now a 4th, the first grandson. Just like how he had 3 girls before he had a son.

Look at them all playing... I hope and pray these cousins can grow up and be the best of friends.

Elyana again, in the kiddie-car. Lucy (the german shepherd) faithfully followed. Elyana went nuts over her, she loves all animals so far.

She swam in Nana and Papa's hot tub for Two Hours (only mildly heated to bath-like-water for her)! She is a little mermaid! She got splashed in the face a bunch of times, and never cried! See how her feet are like prunes?!

Another shot of Michael Stuart.

July Happenings

The lack of updates has been directly related to the amount of activity in the Wilson household. As usual, we've traveled around a lot. Sometimes I've had my camera, other times I have simply been satisfied to live the moment rather than capture it.

I continue to be deeply touched at how many of the people I've gotten to see face-to-face since our IVF decision have honestly desired to talk about it. I expected a lot more of the "elephant in the room" syndrome and frankly, some censure too. But I've really just had kind, curious, interested people. Thank You - all of you - for your genuine love so far! It still seems so far away (over a month until my 1st appt), and yet I'm glad for this time to reflect and continue to enjoy this honeymoon-like state I find myself in with Jonathan and his current Air Force schedule. I purchased my 1st ticket out for an initial appointment, and it cost $5 because I was able to use Delta miles. Over a year ago, Jonathan realized how much travel we were doing and wisely switched us to a credit card that rewards with miles. His foresight has allowed 4 free tickets so far!

I continue to try my hand at another step in domesticity as I'm sewing curtains for the living room. Crystal helped a lot reading the pattern and teaching things I was "expected" to know. It's been joyful to productively spend time each day on a project so gratifying!

The garden has been pouring in produce each day. Our biggest producers are yellow squash, okra, and tomatoes. The beets' growth are stunted, and the watermelons have but a week or two more to ripeness! The 2nd corn planting hasn't happened yet. Because of the heavy tomato volume, at Crystal's encouragement, we bought 2 lbs of buffalo mozzarella at Sam's and have nightly been serving "Salad Caprese". You simply slice the tomatoes and mozarella into rounds, layering it alternately on a plate. Then drizzle on extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh basil shreds, fresh-ground pepper and sea salt. Truly delicious with all fresh ingredients!

Now, because I have little to add at the time, I shall conclude with a picture update of the last 2 weeks. I shall attempt more regular updates!!!

The Fourth Of July - Graydons, Wilsons, Robinsons, O'Malleys.
Girls Jumping in the pool, then Christopher & Sarah. She is SO cute.

Suzanne had a broken toe, so she couldn't walk much. Here's Cath & Suz talking, then Steph & Mary in the pool.


Katrina Joy! Crystal outside the aircraft that took us back to Georgia. Jonathan let her fly for about 30 minutes, & she liked it.


Seth & Carter... love the bald head.... Then Jonathan cooking up Injera (Ethiopian flat bread). What a good meal!


This is the runway at Robins... And Jonathan bringing us in for a landing. His landings honestly are better than I've ever experienced - very smooth!


Crystal & me at the Atlanta Acquarium... Jonathan & me at a South African restaurant we took Crystal to, called 10 Degrees South. Truly delicious.


Crystal playing with my kitty Peaches, then her and I at our Daily Starbucks trip! How many wonderful talks we had there!

Travels & Pics!

Back home now! What a trip! Marvelous, fun, enjoyable, and so worth it! I've got some pictures to capture some highlights!

I left Tuesday morning at 5:05 and had a terrific drive down. Listened to a MP3 disc Jonathan burned for me AND C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce (twice) - awesome! Met Daddy for lunch at Cracker Barrell outside of Charlotte, and arrived at Seth & Karen's around 4 after a stop at my parents'. After giving the girls' their birthday presents it started to storm. Katrina excitedly looks at me and says, "Oh goodie! We get to make cookies!" Apparently Karen always makes chocoalte chip cookies with Katrina when it storms - what a sweet tradition! So I made chocolate chocolate-chip with her. We had steaks Seth cooked, squash casserole, and broccoli. Shiona had a really scary apple-choking inicdent, and Crystal stayed for dinner. Unfortunately, she went to take my car home & it wouldn't stay started! :( Thank God it got me there safely. We got it towed Wednesday morn & fixed at the dealership that day, they said it wasn't a big problem. (It did act up on my drive back, 3 hrs from home - not sure it was fixed!)

Wednesday morning Suzanne, Crystal & I headed to the Howells to see Susi & Violet. Violet is a beautful baby, especially in purple. So adorable! It was SO GOOD to see Susi - I hadn't since her wedding in June '05! The Howell girls all visited with us and it was just like old times! They had us for lunch and we had this magnificent venison chili with homemade bread and salad from their garden. I've never had a meal I wouldn't want to recreate at the Howells (which I did this Saturday, actually!)! Yum! They served us hot tea, although it was sad I didn't think ahead of time to make scones or something to make it an official "tea party."

Susi took me to get the car & I headed back to my parents' house for the Mexican meal Aunt Tammy was fixing for the Graydons, Dienstfreis, Robinsons, and O'Malleys (brave women!): Chicken & Beef Fajitas, Enchiladas, Fiesta Rice, and I made Strawberry & Original Margaritas. Aunt Tammy had even bought Mexican cookies & soda. So good! Seeing Christen & Michelle was so much fun! We had a blast!!! I think the only differences in us now are we're more mature! :)

Thursday morning a bunch of us Graydons went into Danville together. I took the girls out to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch & we pigged out on wings, potato skins, and mozzarella sticks! So good - they'd never been. We then got Noah from lessons & went to STARBUCKS! Yes, my 1st time in the Danville one. Not too shabby! Mary then left for work & we went to buy stuff from her. :) Well, I did. Then I visited with the O'Malleys the rest of the afternoon.

That night I took Christen, Michelle & Stephanie (their younger sister) to Danville to meet up with Karen & her girls. We bought more stuff from Mary at Lancome, met the family for dinner, Karen treated us to Starbucks, and we girls saw a late showing of Oceans 13 (lame). We bought tons of popcorn and candy and were throwing it at each other in the theatre. If these 3 boys hadn't been present, we'd have had the theatre to ourselves!!! I think we stayed up til 2 trying to delay our goodbyes. :(

Then, I haded home the next morning. I stopped in Charlotte to visit Jeanie & Alathea, who is just such a fun little cutie! I brought us all Starbucks (even though Alathea likes chai lattes, Jeanie keeps her orders limited to chocoate milk! *grin*) Rebecca stopped by for a while to chat, and I left after a 3 hour visit & some yummy lunch! I had so much fun and was SO GLAD I stopped by to see them! Jeanie makes such a natural mom, she just really enjoys Alathea. I turned my camera's display out so Alathea could see herself & she LOVED making faces and sticking her tongue out....

Fun Travels Coming Up!

Meet my wonderful husband's gift to me!

And this was SUCH a fun night this past Monday. It was our fourth hog hunt & we'd never even seen ones the other times. We hadn't sighted in the rifle since our first time out, but assumed it was ok. This time we saw 4 around 5:00pm and 5 around 9:00pm! And I missed both times! When I haded the rifle off to Jonathan (thinking it was me), he missed too! Yeah, the scope was off! I know because at 50 and 100 yds at the range I always hit the bulls eye, as does Jonathan. Plus, the next day I shot a rabbit at about 40 yds with a single shot to the head with a bb-rifle! Not propped up, just free-hand (or whatever you call it). A little frustrating, but I definitely want to go out again! We had a lot of fun, even though it was really hot and lots of bugs!

Now I'm headed back to NC Tuesday to Friday to see my dear friends the O'Malley girls visiting from Chicago (friends for 18 years!). When we moved to Chicago & I was in 2nd grade & the school year had started a few weeks before, Michelle was assigned to show me around and be my "friend". A friendship that lasted! Her sister Christen happened to be in Karen & Stuart's kindergarten class and she & Karen became friends! So fun!

And Susi Forshey is in town, a girl I really love too! She did the flowers so incredibly at my wedding and I did the cake at hers! She is wise, patient, gentle, godly and an Army wife to boot! She got married & moved from everything she knew in VA all the way across the country to Washington state!! Her husband is currently in Iraq serving 15 months. They have a baby daughter only 6 months old! She serves the military ladies around her and has started leading a weekly prayer group for ladies that don't even know the Lord - just to minister to them! My sisters & I loved the 4 girls in their family! We had numerous tea parties, stringed music sessions, sleepovers, berry picking, showers for one another, wedding gigs! Such sweet times... I can't wait to see her!

Busy Times!

Just had a terrific weekend with Stuart and Haley visiting us! Although I never got any pictures! Was too busy having fun! We went to the Coke Museum in Atlanta and sampled 70 different drinks Coke makes, from all over ths world. It was fabulous!

I didn't post any pics from the two weekends previous of graduations. We had marvelous times and I'm so so very proud of both my brothers. Stuart, from graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 3 years with a bachelor's in Political Science. Carter, for graduating high school with incredible skills in writing (books!), medieval studies, expert in chain-mail making, dabbling photographer... I love my brothers so much and who they've turned out to be as men is exciting to see!

So without further adieu, from the 2nd weekend in May, Stuart's graduation weekend:

Stuart & Haley


Dad & Mom looking Charming!!!


Carter, Stuart, Noah - Lookin Good! Amazing how grown up they are!

After the graduation, we all had a blast chillin in the Courtyard. We played chase w/Katrina, ate my fab Molten Lava Cakes, and laughed a LOT. Oh and enjoyed a bottle of wine together!

And of course, pics would never be complete without adorable ones of the cutie-pie Robinson girls, my very own nieces! Here's Katrina lookin like a baby doll!

And here's little Shiona & Mommy.... she watches Aunt Crystal play piano and trys to play herself! May be a little child prodigy in the making!

I love this of Suzanne. A bunch of us "kids" took a mid-morning walk and got hot & sticky, but still had a blast. I think she was laughing at Jonathan "scaring" the girls with frogs. Well, Haley really was scared!

And now the 3rd weekend in May, Carter's Graduation weekend:

Dad & Mom, talking about Carter! 4 stinkin' minutes, boo! :( Still good though!


Jay & Carter - they do everything together! Even graduate. :)

PAYBACK!!!! First Carter's friends from Chicago threw him in the pool! Then, it was Stuart's turn! Notice how gleeful Jonathan is! Ryan McMahon - beware!!!

This was Stuart & Carter in the pool. I bet it was no warmer than 65 degrees! They took it well!