family of four

We had an amazing newborn photo session with an amazing photographer, Callie Linsdey http://callielindsey.com/.  She took some adorable shots of Emma and some great family photo's of us four.  Callie was so awesome to work with and so unbelievably nice and not to mention talented.  Below are a couple of my favorite photos from the shoot as well as Emma's birth announcement.

fall is here!

Goodbye summer and hello fall!  As the cooler temperatures arrive we took to the outdoors to enjoy the wonderful autumn weather.  One of our favorite outdoor places to go to is Coopers Rock State Forest.  It has some awesome hiking trails and a breathtaking overlook of the Cheat River Gorge.  Logan had a fun time hiking the trail and finding "A-nuts" aka acorns, especially the ones with the "hats" on top.  I am sad to see the warm weather go but fall is one of my favorite seasons.  So happy fall y'all!!

 Collecting rocks

 Logan with his "A-Nuts"

fishy.

Well we finally got our first family pet....a much loved goldfish that Logan endearingly named "Fishy."  We have been meaning to buy a fish since Logan's birthday when he received the aquarium as a gift from Grandmama and Keypa, but just never got around to it.  So once Emma arrived, Mikey and Logan headed off to the pet store to purchase the Higginbotham's first pet.  Mikey said that the pet store clerk laughed at the amount of stuff he was purchasing for one measly goldfish!  Let's just say that this is fish is certainly living in style.  Logan loves to feed fishy and desperately wants to take him out of his tank to "hold" him.  So far we have managed to keep Fishy alive, which I consider a major accomplishment.  Maybe if we can keep Fishy around for an extended period of time we might move onto a bigger pet, say a puppy! (I can already hear Mikey's groan and protests of "No" haha)

miss emma kathryn.

On August 26th we welcomed our daughter, Emma Kathryn, into this world at 6lb 10oz and 20" long (pretty good size for being a month early!).  Words honestly cannot describe the love and overall feeling of blessing for our little miracle baby.  After everything that happened with Devan, it is so surreal to actually go through a pregnancy and have this perfect baby-love to swoon over.  We are so thankful to God for this amazing blessing!  She is such a good baby, I am still pinching myself.  Not that Logan was a difficult baby by any means, but I think with him being our first child and me being a new Mom it was just hard to traverse the unknown.  I had trouble breastfeeding him and he was what we call a "happy puker" not missing a feed without lots of throwing up (my best friends husband endearingly nicknamed him "vomit-tron").  Overall it was just slightly stressful for this OCD planner to understand that life doesn't always go according to plan.  In hindsight, I'm sure this was God's way of telling me to let go and just go with the flow.  So this little lady is honestly a breeze.  She breastfeeds like a champ, hardly cries and is a great sleeper.  I understand now that every child is different with their own temperament and personality.  Logan is such a good big brother!  He is so sweet with her, giving her a kiss first thing when walking in the door and constantly asking to hold her and love on her.  We are so in love with our newest addition to the family and are enjoying our new family of four status.

Baby Sprinkle.

This past Sunday my Mom and Sisters put together a baby sprinkle for me.  We held the party at my house and it was a beautiful day spent celebrating the little lady on her way.   We got the majority of our ideas for the sprinkle from Jess at http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/.  She has an amazing blog with tons of free printables and ideas so check it out!   It was so wonderful to get my family and friends together.  We had a "bow making" table where everyone had the chance to make a handmade headband or bow for the baby.  I cannot wait for her to get here so that she can wear all of the gorgeous bows and headbands everyone made! It is still somewhat surreal to me that this is actually happening.  Mikey and I are so grateful and blessed to be having another baby and the fact that everything has been going so well is a huge relief and answered prayer. She is one lucky and very loved little girl already.  We are looking forward to the day of her arrival and now thanks to everyone we are a little more prepared.  I can't believe she will be here in less than 3 weeks!  eeekk! So excited! <3

Me and My sister, Krista, who is expecting a baby boy this November:

deck reno.

When we first bought our new home the house inspector told us that the deck was unsafe and would need to be completely replaced. Fast forward almost one year later and we are finally making the repairs. Our deck is in an okay condition but the floorboards have splinters and cracks, the railing is just plain hideous and the stairs and underneath the deck area are not up to code. Luckily our good friend Mike Callen who is a contractor,building WV was willing to help us out with the repairs. Mike is a wonderful contractor and an even better friend! A huge THANK YOU to Mike and all of our friends who came to help us with this project! 
At first we were thinking of just using a product to "renew" the deck boards but after researching the product we choose to just go ahead and replace the old deck boards with new ones. This ended up being a blessing in disguise because after ripping out the first deck board we realized that the joists that support the deck boards were almost completely rotted through. So back to Lowes Mikey went to buy more lumbar to reinforce the rotting joists. Underneath the deck they solidified the foundation of the deck by adding larger posts and moving them further in. Mikey and I made a couple trips to Lowes to pick out railing and were at a loss. So thank you to Mike Callen for coming with us and dealing with our indecisiveness. We finally chose a white composite railing with white posts and black balusters. I love it and am so excited we chose that combination. Since we went with the pressure -treated lumber for the deck boards we cannot stain the deck until next year, but in a way I am sort of glad as it will give us time to really think about what color we want the deck to be. Mike and Mikey built a much needed new set of stairs for the deck and all thats left to do is put up the stair railing and build the stairs underneath the deck (who knew one could get so excited over stairs and railing).  Now the only thing left to do is decorate! Thank you again to everyone who helped out on our deck renovation! We are in LOVE with our new outdoor living space and can't wait to have everyone over for a huge party! (now that it's safe!)

Before (so awful):

During:

putting down the new deck boards

putting up the new railing system

Finished product (well mostly finished):

I'll post more photos once it's 100% done :)

fourth of july.

Happy Fourth of July!  This year we had a pretty low key holiday weekend with family and friends.  Mikey's brother Beau, his wife Sarah and our adorable Godson William came to stay with us.  Logan enjoyed playing with his baby cousin and we had a wonderful time grilling out on our almost completed new deck and spending time with them.  We watched the fireworks over Cheat Lake at Mike's lake house with friends.  Logan was a little nervous about fireworks or "thunderworks" as his friend Presley calls them, but he got over his fear and I think he really enjoyed them.  Saturday we went over to one of Mikey's co-workers homes for a cook out and we enjoyed meeting and making new friends.  It was a long weekend but a good one.  We are so lucky to live in a country where we are free and independent.  Thank you to all who serve or have served our country to protect our freedom.  God bless America!