The last two weeks of July were super busy for me. I was so excited that my sister, Amy, was able to visit from Germany with my two nieces. (Last summer she tried to fly military space available, going to the airport every day with the two girls, but she was not able to get a flight. She finally got here with her husband, although it was two days before they needed to fly to Texas for a wedding.) This year, they bought tickets so that she could be sure to get here, and she was here for two weeks. It was so great to hang out with her, to see how grown up my 6-year-old niece, Jordan, is getting, and to see my 21-month-old niece, Ava, and how her personality is developing.

In addition to Amy and the girls being here, I also had my 4-D sonogram, my maternity photo shoot, and a baby shower, all back-to-back. I was absolutely exhausted after that weekend, but it was such a great time! Here are some of my favorite pictures of each of these.

When these ultrasound pictures were taken, I was 30 weeks. We had both of our moms there, and Amy got to come, too. It's so cool to get this glimpse of what the baby looks like. So much better than the traditional sonogram (although those are exciting, too). We thought that Emery is going to look a lot like Ava. But I am starting to see a combination of the two of us, which is what I would want, anyway. Of course, until we see her in person, I guess we still won't know for sure. I love this last picture, where she's smiling. Jason is hoping that means that she will be lighthearted. I guess we'll see.

My maternity photos were taken by Jason's brother, Justin. I think they're awesome. I wanted to go to University of Tampa to take them, because it has such a great building. He also suggested taking some in Emery's room with his backdrop. I'm glad we were able to do both. As you can see, it was raining when we were at UT, but it really didn't affect our pictures at all. This last one is one of my favorites, and we were pretty much finished. Justin asked me was there anything else that I wanted. The only thing we hadn't taken a picture of was the minarets in the background. When I told Justin that was the only other thing I really wanted, he walked out into the park to find a good shot. I think this was perfect! Here is a link to Justin's website (he lives in Orlando). www.jmikl.com

The next day was my family baby shower at my in-laws' house. It was great, and we got a lot of stuff. I was absolutely exhausted after that, though. I was trying to get more pictures of that shower up, but at the rate I'm going, I'm afraid I'll have the baby before I post my next entry, so I'm going to have to wait. At least here are some of the family from that day.