mila matchell

hey guys! 

meet my daughter mila faye matchell! this isn't the newborn pic of her but it's one of my favorites.  it was taken by anna gavrilov at tessa's 5th bday party

she decided to show up on 10/29 and it's been a whole new world since then.  she's a perfect little soul and we're so excited to have her join our little fam bam.  i have to keep it kinda short unfortch (15 minutes till her nap is over and it's time to eat!) but i'll try to make up for it with pictures - mostly from my phone since it's always with me and my finger is on the camera icon like 90% of the time ;)

when she was born we decided to allow all who wanted to visit to come and visit. i know there are "rules" about these things sometimes...i.e. no visitors other than close close fam and maybe a couple of friends - and i totally respect that...but we realized she will have all these people in her life loving on her why not meet them now! it just blows my mind the joy a newborn infant brings to peoples faces.  she's so innocent and literally counts on us for everything (other than breathing!), but yeah, i snapped pics of the family and friends who came to say hello to mila. (btw pronounced meela, not milah like miley - some folks get that confused. already)

 this pic is probably a little tmi but this is mila progressing towards her arrival. kind of not the time for pics but somehow we ended up with a couple, lol.

the moment i met her face to face was so surreal.  i thought i would be in tears and her face would be somehow familiar to me, but it was a little different.  when she came out and they placed her on my chest right away she had this angry little old lady face with one open eye and she was looking right at me. we had to stare at each other for a good minute to let it sink in and to grasp what seriously just happened.

wes's (almost)  first time holding a baby.

exhibit a (about babies making people happy) - my brother doesn't normally smile for pictures

and then we brought her home at which point wes gave her the whole tour including specific details about all the renovations we did around the house.  we bought it with her in mind after all.

she got to meet the tyannikovs and her "sisters".  it melts my heart that tessa considers herself as mila's big sister


and she met my ma (who will never be convinced that everyone is warm enough)

and wes's ma

this is the latest pic of her and i'm baffled by how quickly her features are coming in.  the receding hairline might take a minute but somehow it works on her :) 

that is all for now! thanks for checking back :) mommy hood definitely took me by storm in the best way possible.  definitely not without its challenges - which is a very loaded statement, but at the end of the day, this period is so short i always tell myself despite the tough moments/hours/nights, etc, it won't last and one day i'll miss this time.  i think.  lol.

ok, thanks again! sorry this is a bit of a sloppy post, but....you get what you get and you don't get upset (is that how the saying goes?)

flower potluck baby shower

my sweet friends olga, la ray, and jessie threw me a baby shower - it was like the baby shower i always envisioned i would have if/when i finally came around to having a babe.   they did a flower potluck theme and that was the main activity - simple! delicious finger foods, cock(mock)tails, and just all/most of my friends.  there, for me.  it was so overwhelming all the love seeping out of these women i could barely handle it.  granted, wes and i were thrown several showers - one by his work, my work, and one by my mama-in-law - and we couldn't be more appreciative of people coming around to pour out their love towards our "incoming".

anyway, here are some pics from the flower potluck.  all of the flowers made for some beautiful pictures.  my friend liska assumed the role of documenting everything with my camera which i couldn't be more thankful for.

these clowns put together my dream flower crown.

amazing bill murray onesie from truly sanctuary  included in my gift from aglassjar.

christine making her bouquet

that's about it - this was three weeks ago and i'm now full term - just awaiting our babe's arrival - not due till october 27th but we don't mind if she shows up any day now even though we're around 80% ready for her arrival.  we're still working on the name - sounds pretty sad that we don't have one picked out but whatever it'll be, it'll be so her.

peace out!

it's been some time but i'm back! and i'm 30 now. AND 8 and a half months pregnant 0_o

we finally finished the house and it's been feeling more like home with every project we knocked out of the way.  when we moved in about two months ago, it still felt pretty construction site-y.  luckily we've had reasons to get moving on these projects - like house guests who stayed over the weekend for a friend's wedding (we had to finish the guest bathroom) and also a big 30th birthday bash that wes put together for me.  let's just say we've had fire under our butts to get things done. it was hectic and stressful, and so many of our friends lent helping hands, but so worth it! and all throughout, the camera has been stowed away and sadly we have very little documented that i can put up here.  we've been so preoccupied with finishing this house i think the whole process demotivated my creative/journalistic wheel a little bit.

BUT, we did photograph some of my party.  although it was a bday party, because we had folks from every corner of my life, it also served as a bit of a house warming.  it's not often we throw such big bashes, but when life calls for them - they are definitely a must and super fun ;-)

these two drove up all the way from fresno too and liska helped me with some of the food prep :-*

we had a little taco bar with all the fixings - cuz who doesn't like a taco! a bunch of my friends contributed on the fixings and it made it extra special.

anyway - that's all folks.  thanks for checking in! now that it's mellowing out a little bit i'll be sure to update more ;-)

six months (and two weeks) along

and getting bigger!  a good friend reminded me that despite how often opposed i am to taking pictures while pregnant, it truly is a special time and documenting it is pretty important.  my body is growing a human being - and the (lately not so) gradual transformation is kind of insane!  i often go between extremes of feeling like a gross beer-bellied man and feeling actually pretty decent and lovely.  sometimes for a split second i'll forget i'm pregnant only to look down at my growing gut and freak myself out a little bit.  and to think, i have three more months of growth - yikes! she's going to be a big girl :)

also, it's been a busy few weeks with our new place - we're making some changes to it before moving in.  at this point it's pretty overwhelming but i know when it's all done it will have so much more value to us knowing we put our own sweat into it. wes is doing most of the sweating of course, but i can do a job or two ;)

that's a wrap! good night peeps :)