October in Review

October, you came and went in the blink of an eye! 

I literally feel like you were only here for maybe a week. It has been great seeing everyone's Halloween and Trick or Treating pictures popping up on my feeds as a great farewell to October. I am not going to lie, I am kind of ready, okay extremely ready, for a little bit of a slow down. During the month of October I shot two weddings plus a handful of other mini sessions, we threw our gender reveal party, and even pulled off a little mini vaca/babymoon (that I still need to share about on here).

All in all it was a great month, especially finding out that Small Fry is going to be a sweet baby girl. So I am going to leave everyone with a nice little photo dump from the month of October. Enjoy.

At the beginning of the month we fell in love with this farmhouse, went through the process of figuring out the financing for it and were disappointed that it was going to be more of a "as is" sale because the house would not pass inspection for the type of loan we were approved for. As sad as we were we resolved that it was just not meant to be and realized it would have been a little more work than what we should be jumping into. God will provide for us down the road and we will find our dream home eventually. Most likely after Rowan is born.

 Breakfast Date. We decided to hit up this cute little cafe that my cousin opened up a few months ago, The Bridge Cafe. This was prior to going to our follow up appointment for our anatomy scan.

Did some pumpkin carving which also substituted as decorations for our gender reveal party.

Announced to all our family and closest friends that Small Fry is a little girl!!!

My cousin Maddy and I shot our first wedding together, which also happened to be our other cousin's wedding. Jed and Jackie's wedding day was nothing short of amazing and such a beautiful day!

Had a couple Girls Days. It was great to hang out with some of my girl friends a couple different times this month since we are all so darn busy and don't nearly find that much time to get together. I hosted an Ohio State wreath making party and it was so much fun but took sooooo long! Aubrey was able to get out of the house for a whole afternoon and helped me second shoot a wedding. Jesie, Julie Shannon and I and a couple other girls we went to high school with hit up The Cheesecake Factory followed by some shopping at Easton and catching up. A couple weekends ago Jesie and I went to the a craft show early one morning before I was spending the whole afternoon and evening shooting a wedding and she had to study. 

We got our maternity pictures back and I am still struggling with which ones to hang on the wall. I don't want to go overboard because I know that as soon as Rowan gets here pictures of her will be filling up the frames.

Fun little purchases for Miss Rowan! 

First visit to the new dog park. Anthony and I took Tyson to check out the new dog park in town. It is only 5 minutes from our house and there is so much room for him to run and play. Only thing is this people person of a dog would rather get all the lovin's from the pet owners and running isn't much of his thing either.

Shooting Date Night. Friday night Anthony and I were able to sneak out to the farm before the sun went down and fire off some rounds. He got me signed up for a conceal carry class on Saturday and I wanted to shoot my gun a few rounds before going to the class. I am comfortable shooting but whenever I go it is always with Anthony and if I have questions I don't hesitate to ask him. The class was great on Saturday and I learned so much about protecting myself when it comes to gun laws and I got my certificate so as soon as I send the application and my background check comes back this momma is going to be packin!

Harper Drive Trick or Treat. I have been attending trick or treat at my Grandma's for as long as I can remember and this year wasn't different. Molly was the cutest little scarecrow and I could not resist dressing up my baby bump.

I am sure November is sure going to surprise us as my belly grows bigger by the day, we prepare more for Rowan's arrival, decorate for Christmas and celebrate Thanksgiving. Tonight is also the first night of this little Bible study group I have joined that I am excited to participate in, so more time spent with some of my best friends! 

Palmetto Snapshots || Maternity Pictures

A few weeks ago when we went to Charleston, South Carolina for my Uncle Brad's retirement from the Air Force I got in touch with Michelle with Palmetto Snapshots to schedule a maternity session on the beach. We ended up taking Tyson on this mini vaca/babymoon with us so I knew family pictures were a must and getting to incorporate my maternity pictures into the same session was perfect.

Michelle did amazing capturing this special moment in our lives at our most favorite place to vacation. After having to really work around the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, we set the location for Folly Beach. We met Michelle and her fiance out on the beach super early Sunday morning so we could catch the sunrise. Our whole experience was nothing short of amazing!! And Michelle's turn around time was just as amazing.

This part was the best because once we got Tyson to sit where he was needed he threw his paw across me and it landed just like this. He held it there like that for quite some time!

We scoped out this little area that the waves weren't quite hitting on the beach and as soon as I sat down in came a wave and I was soaked. It made for the best pictures at the end and the warm was pretty warm so it wasn't too bad at all and totally worth it for these pictures!

I cannot say enough how thankful we are that Michelle was able to capture this time in our lives for us and how beautiful these pictures turned out. We definitely plan on getting in touch with her next year when we get to take Rowan to Charleston and for future beach family pictures. 

We cannot wait to meet our sweet little girl and these pictures will forever be a keepsake of our first pregnancy and Tyson's first trip to the beach. 

Please check out Palmetto Snapshots if you are ever in the Charleston area. Michelle will not disappoint! Feel free to follow her on Facebook and Instagram as well!

Bump Day || Week 23

I am trying to play catch up. I had this all saved in my phone but never got around to posting it, I am currently 24.5 weeks but I wanted to get this on her for documentation purposes. 

photo credit:: Palmetto Snapshots

How far along: 23 weeks

Baby size: a grapefruit

Baby's progress: Rowan is listening to our voices now and my heartbeat. She can even hear Tyson barking.

Weight gain: I have officially gained 6 lbs. and hit the 190 mark. I have a doctor appointment next week so I will know for sure if that number is accurate.

Maternity clothes: I finally splurged on some maternity jeans from Old Navy and a couple tops. With the weather right now I have been able to wear some longer tanks with a cute cardigan and a scarf. I am going to start shopping for a winter coat because I am definitely going to need it here in a couple months. I also have some maternity leggings or yoga pants on my wishlist right now.

Stretch marks: I think there might be a couple on the sides of my thigh but those might have been there from before Rowan took up occupancy.

Belly Button in or out: getting flatter, soon enough it will be popped out

Sleep: For the most part I am still sleeping through the night, I still haven't really had to consistently get up to pee throughout the night but I also cut back on the fluids around 8:00 and pee before going to bed.

Gender: GIRL! We are both so thrilled and excited to be having a little lady.

Movement: lots of movement going on. Every time she flips around or gives a little kick I find myself stopping whatever I am doing and just sitting there frozen, waiting for her to do it again. Anthony just started feeling her little flutters.

Best moment this week: Going on our mini vaca/babymoon down to Charleston, SC and getting our maternity pictures on Folly Beach.

Looking forward to: getting the rest of our maternity pictures back from the photographer and starting Rowan's nursery.

Food cravings: Fudge popsicles and Wendy's chili soup

Weirdest food I ate this week: Didn't really adventure out and try anything super new or different.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nothing at all, being nauseous free has been amazing!

Labor signs: nada, thankfully

What I miss: a cold cut sandwich and big glass of wine

Symptoms: Swollen feet and ankles, I contributed this to riding in the car for our trip and not drinking enough water followed by lots of walking. I finally got them in check once we got home after wearing compression socks the whole ride home.

Workouts: I have been walking and much more active since the tiredness has subsided and just keeping busy has kept me moving pretty much nonstop. This week I am getting back into some intentional walking and picking up some maternity yoga classes on youtube.

Things that suck: Just the little aches and pains, but I know that is to be expected. Oh and not being able to do the physical things that I would normally just do myself.

Nursery? We started cleaning out her little nursery nook area in our bedroom. We were originally going to overhaul the spare bedroom that was turned into a laundry room but decided that was not a wise decision since we don't plan on staying much longer after this winter.

Nesting? Just anxious to get our house fully cleaned after I started purging a bunch of stuff and now it is spread all over the house. For some reason I have also had this urge to repaint our kitchen, hallway and bathroom.

Gender Reveal

Life has been extremely busy and I feel like all we have been doing is run to this, run to that. With no time in between. Yesterday I was back to work after having 5 days off that we spent together in Charleston, South Carolina. All of that I can just share in another post because the last time I blogged on here was before we made our big announcement of what Small Fry would be and I said I would update you all after we had our gender reveal.

Well that Gender Reveal came and went, we shared on social media and that is pretty much where I left off. So for all of you who do not follow us on social media and for this little blog's sake I wanted to make a post announcing Small Fry's gender and the party we threw for the announcement.

You see that pink up there?! That is right, Small Fry is a little girl!!! and this Momma's heart could just explode (either way it would have) but Anthony was and is so excited that we are having a little girl that it just gives me all the feel goods as well!

Little girl is going to go by Rowan Christine. 

Her Daddy heard the name a few years ago and shared it with Momma and we both just fell in love with it. Christine is my middle name as well as my Mom's middle name so we are just carrying on that tradition with our little family. 

Since finding out that our baby was a little Rowan we have done some work around our house to get ready for her arrival but we are no where where we want to be. I will share some progress once there is enough to share.

I am going to leave you with some pictures from our party. It got dark pretty fast so the pictures are not the best quality but we were surrounded by some of the best people in our lives!

I told you we had lots of people there! So much love for a little girl that no one has met yet, it literally makes my heart want to burst!!!!

Gender Reveal :: What will Small Fry Be?

Boy or Girl? What do you think?

(a couple people on instagram thought this was an announcement that we were having twins, we are not having twins. We would be thoroughly excited to have two little babies at once but I want to assure everyone that there is only one little Small Fry in my belly)

We went to our appointment on Monday and Small Fry cooperated this time around so we are hosting our little gender reveal party tonight with all of our closest friends and family. We cannot wait to let the whole world know. 

I plan to take lots of pictures and post on Monday, however if you just cannot wait until Monday to find out please follow us along on our other social media outlets. 

Instagram: @mrsfry26 & @that_mrfry

A Run for Our Money

Tonight we would have been hosting our gender reveal party and celebrating with all of our friends on the surprise if Small Fry is a boy or girl. However, little one decided to not cooperate at our appointment on Monday and now we have to go back in two weeks because they were not able to get the proper measurements. But that is all okay... 

Soon enough we will know what he or she is. Whether it be in two weeks or in February lol We did reschedule our party for that Friday in two weeks so here is hoping that it shows it's goods (that is the only time I will telling you that little one!)

Either way, we were able to spend a good 45 minutes looking at our little small fry on the big screen and hear that amazing little heartbeat (most amazing sound ever) and a couple little pictures to take home with us to hold us over until next time. 

Graduation Mini Session || Maddy & Kirstyn

My cousin Maddy and her best friend Kirstyn are planning their graduation party and wanted to get some pictures taken together for their save-the-dates and to display at their party. 

We ended up meeting in downtown Zanesville last week and had a blast shooting this mini session. 

Maddy & Kirstyn, enjoy every single minute of your senior year from the dances, to football games and everything in between. All too soon you will be walking across the stage getting that diploma and then off to college. Life is about to start speeding up real fast. Have fun and create lots of memories.