Savannah, GA

We have been wanting to make a trip to Savannah, Georgia, for quite a while (especially considering it's only 2 hours away). Well, we finally did, on our way home from our Florida trip.  We had a lot of fun, got to see some cool sites, ate lunch at a delicious Southern buffet, and stopped at Bass Pro Shops (one of Mike's favorite places).
We stopped to look at this amazing cathedral.

 The inside was so intricate and beautiful

 Along the Riverwalk

 In front of the Capital Building

War Memorial

 "Occupy Wall Street" protesters

 At the restaurant, called "The Pirates' House"

 Making our Pirate faces

 This is the buffet, though you can't see much.  They had, as Mike put it, the MOST AMAZING FRIED CHICKEN EVER!!  It was pretty darn good.  Their mashed potatoes were awesome, as well as their biscuits, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese, etc.  There was so much food I can't remember it all.  But it was well worth the stop.

 They had some pretty sweet decor

 More along the riverwalk

 Go Navy!

 And, amazingly, Anabelle slept the entire way home :)

 So cute

We had a fun vacation and really enjoyed seeing Savannah and its history.  We have been able to tour a lot of cities along the east coast this past year, and it has been so neat.  Each place is different and has its own unique feel and history.  We sure do live in an amazing country.

Baby's room and our cute little Ani-Bear!

I have finally completed our baby boy's room.  I've been working on getting it all put together for a while now.    It took me so long because of many different factors.  First, I had to find fabric that I liked, which proved to be nearly impossible!  I know this sounds sad, but Hancocks and Walmart, you do not satisfy my fabric palate.  I found the fabric at Joann's when we visited Florida last month.  I coordinated the colors and paintings around the fabrics (all displayed in the curtains and bedskirt).   So, in conjunction with announcing our baby's name to those who don't already know, here are the paintings I created for his room:

 I had a lot of fun creating these.  Maybe I'll do some more sometime.

 Here are the curtains.  They did not end up how I originally intended them to be.  I found upon getting home from our Florida trip and beginning the project that I only had about half as much as I really needed.  So I had to get creative and piece it all together.  I do like how it turned out though.

 A little closer up

 I even painted the knobs of the tie-backs to match :)

 Here is the coordinating bedskirt I sewed.

 And the completed room, all ready for baby Declan, whenever he may choose to join us.  Hopefully soon :)

And just because she is so fun and cute (and I haven't been posting enough about her lately),

Having so much fun playing in the leaves!!

Quilting

I have recently started quilting a bit.  I made this first blanket for my wonderful friend Jessica, who's having a baby girl about a month after I'm due.  I finished it off with a brown binding (and then forgot to take pics).  I like it :)  It was a fun one to make.  I used old receiving blankets (that I don't think I even used) from when Ani was a baby.

 This one is for some friends of ours from Florida, having their 5th baby, and first girl!  I love how it turned out, especially with the blue satin binding.  It's non-traditional girl colors are so cute!

 Some more detail, with the back of the quilt showing

 This one is for my sister Laura's baby.  I made it out of receiving blankets.  It turned out so soft and cuddly.  I'm so glad I could learn how to quilt a little bit :)

Maternity Shots

I have always wanted to have some really sweet maternity shots taken.  My belly never really gets big enough to feel justified in paying someone else to do it.  Well, yesterday I decided to just take some myself, so at least I have something.  I like how they turned out.  Now, I am no photographer, but I did have fun.  Here they are :)

More Florida pics, Savannah on the way home

The city of Ocala is well known for its horses.  Downtown, it had several different horses painted with different scenes.  They were pretty neat

 This one was covered in quarters

We also visited Silver Springs, with 99.8% pure artisan springs.  They were beautiful.  

 We were able to ride in glass-bottomed boats, through which we could see the several underwater springs and the many fish and wildlife that live there. Anabelle was even able to feed the fish (which she loved, of course)

 The water was so clear and beautiful. The pictures really don't do it justice.

 Our view from up high on one of the rides

 Check out this cool tree that wrapped itself all around the deck

 This giraffe got so close to our faces!  Only about a foot away.  Mike caught the pic as he was pulling away. It spooked Anabelle to be so close to him, but I thought it was pretty awesome.

 They had a petting zoo

 And about a million alligators!  These are the 2 albino gators they had, but seriously, I'd never seen so many gators in my life.  It was pretty terrifying to be so close to them. They're so creepy

 The water was just gorgeous, so clear and reflective.

 Anabelle got to ride on the carousel twice, she loved it so much!

This was a pretty fun stop on our trip.  They even had a little "bear world" area, cougars, flamingos, a huge play area, and more.  Fun stuff.