isabella marie

Born July 18th @ 11:19 pm, Isabella Marie Rich!!! She weighed 7 lb. 11.4 oz. and was 19.5" long, a big baby for 37 weeks!

congrats to my brother and sister-in-law and a warm welcome to isabella! we can't wait to meet you!

"blueberry sorbet...the kind you find..."

last week one of aaron's patients brought him a huge box of blueberries. i'm talking HUGE! we love fresh fruit but we both knew there was no way we were gonna be able to finish them off before spoilage. so i went to my handy-dandy phone and looked up a recipe using the epicurious application. (if you have a smart phone, i highly recommend this free app.) unfortunately aaron's not a big cheesecake fan and i'm not a big pie fan so that nixed about 75% of the recipes. i was able to find a sorbet recipe that used six cups of blueberries, which is about half of what we have. i actually had all of the ingredients in house. score.

i got everything ready and we opened up the ice cream maker. (yes, we actually own an ice cream maker, it's the only thing aaron put on our wedding registry.)

me: i have to put an egg white in there about 3 minutes before it's done so that it can emulsify.
awes: what's emulsify?
me: i'm not sure, i know they do it on "top chef" all the time so it must be some fancy cooking term.
awes: eww, nice

emulsify: combining two liquids together which normally don't mix easily.

30 minutes later we were dining on some fresh sorbet. aaron laughed when i put them our martini glasses and made it look all fancy. i didn't strain the blueberries mixture so it has a bit of a pulpy taste. but it's good otherwise.

let's march

watching the Boone parade, if you can call it that. more like the politician parade. we had fun regardless. perfect weather, watermelon and happy baby!

asian baby. anyone? anyone?

seriously, i don't think this kid has an asian trait in him.

bella on board

this past weekend we had irina's baby shower. (she's due august 7th, so baby bella's arrival is just around the corner.) i just wanted to share some of the craftiness i did for the shower.

the invites:
it was decided we'd do a beach-themed shower. (if you couldn't tell by the decor in the first pic.) i was able to find a hibiscus image that sorta seemed girly but not too girly. and since the colors of the invites were brown and pink, my first diaper cake followed suit.

diaper cake:
ideally i would have loved to have used brown hibiscus flowers but i don't think there is such a thing. in the end i had to settle for these gerber daisies. i used about 70 size 2 diapers and one bottle to make the innards of the cake. tissue paper, 2 different ribbons, a feathery boa and gerber daisies contribute to the "icing" on the cake. all in all i was really happy end result of my first diaper cake!

the shower was a great success and my brother and sister-in-law are very well equipped for bella's arrival.

my dad went to NYC...

...and all I got was this lousy t-shirt! lol! but I do look pretty darn cute in it.

if you build it

some of the latest construction going on around the house. nothing like a baby to get you motivated to get stuff done. above is a flagstone staircase being installed. it's currently getting rocked and i'll have finished photos next week.

below is a bump-out to our deck. we decided since we can't use much of the back yard anyways, we'll make our own flat land via more decking. it's amazing how increasing it a few feet gives you a ton more space. eventually i plan on staining it black or a dark walnut so it's not so mismatch.

got to finish packing for our trek up to maryland for my sister-in-law's baby shower. we've got a jam-packed weekend but i thought i'd update the blog while i had a minute.

a little help from my friend

if you're wondering if the dogs are getting accustomed to having the wee one around, here's your answer.

oh petunia

a few months ago, katie's sister asked me if i had heard of the petunia picklebottom diaper bag. (she too has a infant a few months older than avery) she told me they were the cadillac of diaper bags. i had never heard of them and had forgotten about them til we went shopping in charlotte a few weeks later. when i saw them, i was instantly infatuated. yes, i couldn't believe i was ga-ga over a diaper bag either. when i saw the price tag, i cringed. no way was i paying that much for something that's sole purpose was to carry diapers, bottles and anything poopy.

i got home and looked on ebay, hoping i'd find a gently used one in a color/style i liked. i had decided i wanted the glazed boxy backpack in a somewhat gender neutral color. (i did consider aaron might be carrying this thing around) i had set my maximum price i'd be willing to pay...and i pretty much got outbid every single time. i felt like if i was going to spend that kind of money i might as well get exactly what i want. my birthday was coming up, so i decided this was gonna be a great birthday present to myself. my logic...since this was pretty much gonna be my "purse" for the next couple of years, i can indulge. yes, my reasoning is somewhat skewed when it comes to anything avery.

so when my bag arrived, i was surprisingly giddy with excitement. you would have thought it was christmas morning at our house.

now, a few months later, do i regret getting it? heck no! i absolutely love it! i take it with me pretty much everywhere. and it's been perfect for all the traveling we've been doing lately. added bonus: i've gotten so many compliments on it. yes, i love a diaper bag! (the one pictured above is the one i got)

vier monate

he's 14 lbs. 14.5 oz. and still growing.

today we're leaving on his first plane ride. of course, i have a million things to do before we leave and he's not able to entertain himself for one second. so far i've done his laundry, packed his suitcase, fed him, burped him, played with him, rocked him to sleep (slept for half an hour) and now he's mad at me for leaving him on his playmat. how come on the the day i have things to get done he becomes so high maintenance?! ;)

boy, you got a purrrty mouth

sometimes when mama has too much time on her hands, little man get's a make over. lol!

jerome came over a few weeks ago to borrow our mullet wig for an 80s party (yes, we own a kentucky waterfall wig) and since i had the box out anyways... avery and i played a little dress-up. more him than me. i'm tempted to put him in a dress just to see how purrrty he'd be. i've had three people ask me if he's a boy or girl. apparently his long lashes make people second guess his gender.

i am beginning to think avery's looking more like aaron than me. at least that's the comment i'm hearing these days. his hair is starting to lighten up and i'm pretty sure he's gonna keep his eye color...blue! who knew my asian traits would be dominated by daddy's blonde hair, blue eyes. my dad told me that my grandfather had blue eyes, so i may be carrying that gene. we'll see if they stay blue in the upcoming months. so far, it looks like it could be a possibility.

tomorrow i'll post his four month photo.

westphal warriors strike again

"our ALS fund-raising walk in winston-salem was great fun and very successful. we had a fantastic turnout and the boone dermatology crew raised over $3000 for a worthy charity. in fact, the walkers took home the reward for most money raised by a corporate team! a big thank you to all of those who helped out! let's do it even bigger and better next year!"

this is the update from aaron's work website. as you can see the team has doubled since we first started walking in nc. thanks again to all those who walked, donated and contributed in any way to help us fight this disease. and especially thanks for sporting those ultra-brite t-shirts!! ;) and yes, little man also participated!

club tres

it's hard to believe the little guy is already three months old, soon to be four. above is his month marker shot. i actually took a little time and messed with the levels and whatnot in this pic. i muted down the colors to give it a somewhat aged look. below are two more versions of the same photo. the first being the original, the second a super saturated version and the third a color highlight.

i quickly threw these together, just imagine how stunning my pics could actually be if i took/had some time. but for now these will have to do! yes, i know, my kid is really, really, ridiculously good looking. :) lol! if you've seen zoolander then you'll get this reference.

taste the rainbow

Friday Avery and I attended a mommy and me class. the activity of the morning: painting. Avery was no joke, got down and dirty with the big kids. we both had a good time playing in the paint and meeting new friends.

blogging from my phone as I'm feeding little man. way to multitask. got an iTunes giftcard last christmas so I thought I'd go ahead and use it for the blogging app.

i love it when you call me big papa

since i did progression shots with my pregnancy, i've decided to also capture the first year of avery's life in the same way. here are a few shots from his first photo sessions. i've decided to go ahead and add a watermark since this blog is public and i don't want anyone claiming my little man as their own. i know it's hard to believe but i know of two people who've had this problem. insane, i know!

the picture below is his two month photo. when i showed it to some family members the first thing they said was he looked like notorious b.i.g. and that's exactly what i thought when i was scanning through the pics. i'm sure it's the hat. tomorrow we'll be taking his three month photo. hopefully we get a little sunshine. yes, we actually got more snow yesterday and it stuck! blah. i'm so over winter. spring get and stay here already!

this is a test

I downloaded a free version of an iphone blog updater. it's pretty limited. not sure if it will be worth the deniro to get the full version.

we haven't figured it out yet. but one of the dogs has decided ripping up dirty diapers is his/her new past time. I have my suspicions. a little newspaper toy sitting by the wastebasket has me thinking it's the one of the female persuasion. but I have yet to catch her in the act. hmmm maybe it's time to install a nanny cam.

living mobile

if you're a friend of mine via facebook then you've probably already seen these pics. the first three months of avery's life, i've pretty much had to do everything via my cell phone. lucky for me, my cell phone can just about do anything. i haven't had the time to figure out if i can update the blog through my phone so that's why posts have been few and far between. little bugger is now entertaining himself on his playmat so i have a second to update the blog. still a short post but with lots of personality. yep, little man is getting to be so big!

a conversation between two friends

neglected, i know. with the weather being the way it has, (got another 4 inches of snow yesterday.) avery and i have become big-time home bodies. what's the best way to cure cabin fever? fill your days with lots of activities. one of those activities has been our countless photo sessions. although most of the time avery is an indifferent participant.

i've been gravitating towards black and white lately. no particular reason. just love how it captures the moment, particularly the one below. i think if it was in color it'd be a cluttered mess.

"happy chaos"

kate and natie

this weekend we'll be making our way back to illinois to celebrate the nuptials of nate and katie westphal. they were married a little over a month ago in jamaica. unfortunately, with the birth of avery, i was unable to attend. so i'm looking forward to seeing everyone and introducing the little man to friends and family.

if i get a chance tomorrow i'll post some pics of what a cabin-feverish mom does when she's snowed in. yep...still snowing in the mountains.

the photo above was taken by my youngest brother-in-law's talented girlfriend, karla jensen.

snow baby

so this has pretty much been our winter so far. snow, snow, snow! of course it's nothing like the record breaking snowfall the rest of the east coast got this past weekend, but it's been pretty consistent for us. there was probably a day, maybe two that we haven't had snow on the ground since avery's arrival. so we are getting a little stir crazy waiting the arrival of spring.

yes, i started this post about 3 hours ago and am just now posting it. someone asked me what i do all day and it's pretty much the same thing avery does. eat, sleep, poop! lol! avery is starting to nap on his own so it frees me up to get a little housework done. so blogging has taken a backseat to other duties. i would like to get back into it, mainly so i can document the goings-ons in the westphal house. it's hard to believe it's already been six weeks since avery's arrival. time is definitely flying by!