made: pre-baby-book for Charlie

You know Charlie didn't get left out! We blogged through his pregnancy, too (this time with a better camera, and better fashion sense for Mama... or at least some styled hair and less sweatpants). Because it was such a hard pregnancy, I found I had to really push myself to write about it so I could rediscover the sweet, lovely parts. I am so glad I did--I love having this documentation of the wait for Charlie, and looking back to see that getting him here safe and ready for the world was well worth the nausea and physical pain of the pregnancy (oh... and the labor).

I also really love how Charlie's book turned out! If you see any more Blurb groupons (that's the company we used to print these) let me know!

The cover photo was taken by my friend Michelle, who also took family photos for us when we went to California in April. I have no idea how he stayed asleep while we did this, but how cute is he?!

Title page. On our bed.

Sorry I realized I didn't take a ton of pictures of things we wrote about (renting our house, Steve being at AF training for 5 weeks) but rest assured that we did a good job chronicling the 9 months of Charlie-waiting. AND I was a pain in the you-know-what about getting cute weekly photos for as long as possible. After church (when I was already dressed cute) I would not let Steve change into comfy clothes until we'd snapped a photo on the porch. I like this one because you can see grass in our yard but snow across the street! It was fun to have changing seasons in this series.

It got kind of ridiculous looking toward the end there...

I blogged from labor this time, too--using a laptop instead of a cell phone... oh how technology has advanced! So we have Charlie's birth story in there, and his first day in the hospital. His Dad is so cute.

As with Gracie's, I did his book a while after we finished the blog, so I added in some extra pages to share what his first days at home were like... Love from Gracie... Steve having to study for a test he missed because of when I went into labor... and a white Christmas!

I also added the text of his baby blessing, which we'd recorded and transcribed for him. Wish I'd remembered to put Gracie's in her book, too, but I forgot. It is written down, though. We blessed him in my parent's back yard, because it was Conference weekend. Perfect day.

And I did a little wrap up for him, too, about being 6 months old. And how we love him. So much.

His whole book can be previewed here.