time flies...

Check out the above pictures!

On the top, is me and two of my favorite girls - my cousins, sisters Emily Witham (on the left) and Abby Witham (on the right) about 11 years ago.

On the bottom is me with Miss North Muskegon High School 2009 Graduate and soon-to-be Alma College freshman - Abby.

Where have the years gone?

I look back to the first picture, and I was around 21 - a senior in college, traveling, interning at Disney, studying and just living life. I cherished the moments that I spent with the girls and their brother, Richard. I was fortunate enough to live just a few blocks from them and spent many Friday and Saturday nights babysitting for the three of them growing up. I remember rocking all of them when they were babies and cuddling on the couch with all three of them watching our favorite Disney movies. As I was sitting/playing/rocking/etc. them, I used to imagine what my life would be like when I was married and had children of my own.

They have grown up before my eyes.

And, of course I have aged as well... now 32 and my dream of becoming a mom is getting closer everyday. It is still surreal. Just last night I was rocking my nephew, Luke, to sleep and I realized that in just a few short months I will soon be holding my own baby in my arms... unbelievable. Where has the time gone?

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. Kevin has stained our deck and started working in the baby's room. I am at the height of calligraphy season - with about 20 wedding clients in the last six weeks and a few thousand envelopes for some late summer/fall brides. At work, we had graduation in late May, and then Kevin and I made a quick trip to Chicago to celebrate my niece Lindsay's fourth birthday over the Memorial holiday weekend. The following weekend brought a wedding at chuch (I am a part-time wedding coordinator there), and this past weekend was Abby's open house - which was the most amazing open house I have ever been to! Abby wanted "carnival food" so they had Gretchen's Kitchen out of Spring Lake come in and set up their trailer and you could go and order whatever you wanted - elephant ears, french fries, snow cones, carmel corn. On top of that, she had a photo booth - everyone was encouraged to get their picture taken and one copy went in Abby's guest/memory book and one was for the guest to keep. So, we got our pictures taken. Look closely and you will see the 27 week baby bump and my silly husband (is there some type of unwritten rule that you have to do something silly in a photo booth? my goodness, I just wanted a nice picture!) Sunday it was raining so so much for the hair. Oh well, part of soon-to-be motherhood, right?

Congratulations, Abigail Marie! I am so proud of you... now it is your turn to travel, study and have some fun living your new life...
and it's also your turn to babysit in a few months!

One last thing - I could not resist sharing a picture of my niece, Emma (my sister, Annie's daughter) - she danced at Festival last weekend and a picture of her and her little ballerina friends was in the Grand Rapids Press! (Emma Sue is the third one on the left...)