I am 12 weeks old!

I LOVE this face! She amazes me everyday with what she is learning. Last week she got a play mat from her Grandad ad plays on it everyday. She is learning to reach for things and has master kicking and pushing off with her legs and feet. We have tried putting her in the nursery at night and it is tough for mom and dad! Last night was the first night and somehow mom turned the volume OFF for the baby monitor!!! Luckily I woke up, that mommy instincts, just as she began screaming for her early morning meal.

Abigail has already had her first trip to Disney World too! Grandpa J turned 60 last month and we had a family gathering to celebrate! She did great!

I am 3 weeks old!

It is absolutely amazing to think the only three weeks ago Abigail Lynne made her appearance into the world! This weekend will bring in three weeks that we have had her at home! Each day has brought a new challenge for us. Just when Shawn and I think we might have something figured out Abigail changes her mind or we really did not have it figured out after all. Within these three weeks we have watched her eyes open wider and wider as she begins to observe and soak in her vast surroundings. We love watching her learn! We have had adventures to a couple local parks in her stroller, she has made two trips the the University of Tennessee with Granny and I so all my classmates could meet her and we survived a couple trips to Target. best of all.....Shawn and I were able to enjoy a wonderful lunch together, along with Abigail, to celebrate Mother's Day and our new bundle of joy together. Mom is definitely suffering from lack of sleep and has not yet mastered the art of napping during the day. I have learned to sleep sitting up in the rocking chair in the middle of the night while nursing and usually wake up a little nervous that she may have fallen off my lap. That has not been the case yet, she is usually asleep as well.

Abigail Lynne Knapp

I forget to keep this blog up. Sorry to those folks who rely on this for updates on the growing Knapp family. Abigail was born Friday morning, 12:36 am, weighing 7 pounds 15 ounces and 20-1/2" long. She is a solid little girl. Here we are on her first "outing" to a park close by. Her eyes were wide as she soaked up a little sun, all of us needed to get out of the house really. I will try to be better about getting a new picture up every so often. You can bet we are taking pictures of her EVERY DAY!

Baby Girl Knapp's Name......Jumble

Just waiting now.....

I guess we can officially be parents now. We have taken our Child Birthing class (and passed I guess). We would leave class with our heads full or more information then we needed most nights. They do well to tell you EVERYTHING that MIGHT happen, the good bad and ugly truths of labor. Just about two months to go, and I hope she takes full advantage of having two more months to go. We have had one shower and it was great! THANK YOU to our South-Doyle football coaching family. Slowly filling up the nursery with little baby things, cute clothes, toys.....all kinds of good stuff. I think we are still feeling both excited and nervous at the same time.

Nursery News

So here is what we have been up to. Our front spare bedroom has been transformed into a nursery! Shawn and I are getting very excited, it has been fun putting this room together for her. Yep, purple......for those of you who know me really well would assume purple was my choice. Not the case, Shawn picked purple, the room is actually two shades of purple. In natural daylight the lighter color does well reflecting light back into the room through the one window. I found the most adorable ceiling fan online (Target) that matches perfectly with our color scheme. You will see some stars on the ceiling too, that is Marcy's doing from when this was her room years ago...thanks Marcy. We have about three months to go, seems like it should go fast. We will try and get a good shot of me and my ever growing belly to put on here as well.

I am in school, will go as long as I can until our little girl makes her appearance into the world. School helps to get me out of the house and out of the stores. We are trying hard NOT to buy up everything we see in sight for the baby. With upcoming showers and grandparents ready to spoil our child we have an idea of what is coming.

Halloween 2009

So here we are....Mrs. Bun in the Oven and Mr. Chef. Hint: Bun is due the end of April. I have not been good about keeping up with the blog. I have been busy in school and Shawn is busy working 7 days a week to make up for my lack of a job.

Marcy is married!!!! She had a beautiful wedding back on October 10th and then she and hubby Andrew spent 10 days on a Mediterranean Cruise, yep we all were jealous.

Where did summer go?!

So here is what happens to your front yard while you are in Graduate school. Kind of ironic that I am going for landscape architecture and my landscaping looks like this! If you look real close to just right of center of the picture you might see Goofy's head trying to pop out from behind the weeds. I am shocked that we have not received any nasty letters from neighbors of the home owner's association regarding our lack of flower bed maintenance. I guess it is all green and maybe hard to tell that is has all gone to weeds, choking out all evidence of my hard work planning and planting flowers in past years.

Shawn and I survived my two months of summer session hell, he had to take on a second job to support his now non-working, broke college student of a wife. Right now I have a weeks vacation between my summer classes and my first fall semester. I was surprised and honored to receive a $1,000 Zuckerman Family Scholarship, it is awarded to students by faculty member(s), there is not application process. Awesome! I am hoping to land a Graduate Assistant job that will actually waive my tuition AND give me a stipend! Interview is Thursday, fingers crossed! Today was Shawn's fist day back to school, he has a week of nonsense in-service days and meetings before the students arrive in a week. Summer is gone........bummer.

Hopefully I will be able to updare more now that I am headed into a "normal" school semester!!

Have not fallen off the face of the Earth yet.....close

What has happened in the past month or two?  Well, I got accepted to graduate school for a Masters in Landscape Architecture.  Now I am an unemployed licensed architect in graduate school (meaning broke) and it all started June 1st.  It is a two month summer session, June being one semester and July the second semester.  I was told (after accepting) that each day of summer school actually represents a WEEK of a regular semester.  Holy %#^$!  I have gone home every night (early morning) and quit....and get up the following morning to repeat the pattern.  I guess that really sums it up.  Shawn has the usual summer football practice every morning and he has done a great job keeping the house together while I am practically living in the architecture building.  We are both looking forward to August, I think I will have a month off (hopefully).

Not an April Fool's joke

It is true, I passed ALL nine of my architectural registration exams. Feels good to be done! This is my last PASS letter, it is not to see all the passes together on the bottom of the page. Of course I have to write another check in order to get the official license and stamp.....never ending fees!

New Hampshire Winter '09

So I got in trouble for putting a picture up of the new car before a picture of Shawn with his snowboard gear. For spring break we took a trip up north to see dad and his new house. Shawn decided that it is now or never if he were ever to try and learn to snowboard. Had a beautiful day at Wells Beach too. Looks a whole lot warmer in the picture than it actually was.

New Car!!!

I am happy and sad at the same time. Like every vehicle I have ever owned I LOVED my 4 Runner. A couple weeks ago my hours got cut in half at work and the 4 Runner had to go. Now I have this little gem, A 2005 "Salsa Red" Toyota Camry. For those that know me well, I am not a car person, but this is one heck of a car. I will morn the 4 Runner, along with the Tacoma, Shadow and my first love......the Olds Cutlass Supreme. Yep, that is Mac chilling in the background.

Tennessee Norwich Alumni Club

All six of us! We plan on meeting up a few more times this year and I am in charge of hosting the group towards the end of the year. Eldest graduate was Class of '71, followed by '90, '92, '01,'05 and most recent grad in '08. We had a great time at Sam's Sports Bar in Nashville!

Winter in Knoxville!

Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow and the snow started flying here in Tennessee! I am actually surprised to see the snow stick. Started out as rain around 8 this morning and by 10 am this is what it looked like outside! What I would give to have it amount to at least 6 inches of snow to play in!
Here is the parking lot 15 minutes later! I can only imagine how folks are freaking out. Schools have already started sending kids home!

Happy New Year

Good picture of Marcy, Dad and me at the Knoxville Zoo, got up to 70 so Dad was loving it!
Dad was able to come down for Christmas. Since he is in the middle of building ANOTHER house we were not sure he would be bale to swing it. Luckily they arrived just in time for Christmas dinner and presents. I was able to take an entire two weeks off that coincided with Shawn's vacation. That ruined his plans of doing nothing......he had to spend it with me instead. We had a great vacation, did not get into too much, mostly relaxed and enjoyed the holidays and a slower pace for a while. I have not had such a long vacation since college and the first day back to work was a tough one. It took both Shawn and I the whole week to adjust back to reality.

Fantasy of Trees 2008

Here is my little tree I decorated on my own this year to donate to Fantasy of Trees which benefits Children's Hospital. In years past I have lead a group effort at my office to donate trees but this year I was able to do one on my own. The theme was "Fly Away Christmas" and I had a blast putting it all together! With a red and gold theme the tree is covered in butterflies, dragonflies, birds, planes and helicopters.

Thanks Bridgette

Okay, so I was checking up on our friends' blogs and saw that I had been "tagged". Not one to let others down I will do as the instructions say.

1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer.

2. Choose the 4th picture in that folder.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people to do the same.

So the picture above was taken while we were on a Duck tour in Boston back in June. I guess you can tell that I took it since it is focused on architectural "things". In a historic part of Boston the street lamps are real gas lamps. I thought that to be a pretty cool fact, and the building in the back was neat as well. Shawn and I were in Boston on our way up north to Vermont for Pa's memorial service.

I can not complete the last task. Do not know 4 other bloggers to 'tag' and carry this on any further.

Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Shawn and I fly down to Florida for Epcot's Food and Wine Festival. I will scan and post everything we tried. Shawn checked of everything we tried, it is amazing! The best part was spending the day with Granny at the festival. Sunday we spent with Mom and John and I BEAT THEM ALL at mini-golf at the most difficult course at Disney, or anywhere really. I will also post the scorecard soos as proof. It was a great mini-vacation for us!

The Flash and The Punisher

Shawn finally got a boat!

Here is Shawn and his brand new boat! He is also sporting his new Transformers Autobot watch. Two of his birthday gifts this year. The new boat is even red, his favorite color!