maternity photos in an endless field of sunflowers

during my pregnancy, we never got around to taking official maternity photos.  on the friday before baby boy arrived, we took a drive out to brown hill farms after work to admire their endless fields of sunflowers and take some photos of our own.  we took our phone and tripod and were amazed at how great some of the photos turned out.

walking through acres and acres of sunflowers was nothing short of magical.  it was so peaceful and i'm so glad that we decided to do it on friday because the last day that the sunflower fields were open to the public was saturday, and then baby boy arrived on sunday night!  talk about timing, somehow we just knew to go do this with about 48 hours to spare!

we took a ton of photos.  some turned out better than others.  here are a few of them.  of course i intended to share these photos before baby boy was born, but we never got to that point!

i'm so grateful that we have these photos to look back on to remember this special time in our lives.  

you were allowed to cut your own sunflowers to purchase, so we took home three: two large mommy and daddy sunflowers, and one small baby sunflower.  on our way out, ryan looked down and found a four-leaf clover as we were leaving . . . talk about signs.

love, laurie

happy due date!

today is august 30th which is a pretty special day in our house . . . it was the day ryan and i started dating back in 2004 and it was also my due date this year!  

we didn’t know if baby boy would come before, on, or after my due date.  since he came a little early at 38 weeks 5 days, i thought it would be nice to share some photos from the hospital today in honor of his due date!

love, laurie

he's here!

we're thrilled to announce that baby houser is here!  

introducing . . . noah jeffrey houser!

born: sunday, august 21, 2022

10:58pm

6 lbs. 15 oz.

20.5 inches

. . .

wow!  where do i even start?  everything has been such a blur and i feel like i've been living in some type of time warp for the past week.  i can't believe that i'm even typing this post right now.  it brings a tear to my eye to announce that we welcomed our little bundle of joy to the world last sunday late at night. 

of course we had no idea when our little peanut was going to be born so i started preparing some blog posts about two weeks ago just in case.  i'm glad i did, because i had no idea when i went to bed last saturday night that i would wake up in the middle of the night to find out that my water broke.  since then, everything has whirled past at a dizzying pace.  the blog has been running on auto pilot for the past week and i'm just now getting a chance to sit down and open up my laptop for the very first time in over a week to say that baby boy is here!  it's a week late, but here's his birth announcement on this little blog of mine.

my brain is spinning and my mind keeps wandering back to the night of his birth and our time in the labor/delivery room.  it was such a wild experience that nothing could have prepared me for, even though we took the classes, read the books, watched the videos, and talked to the people.  in the end it was our own experience and those moments are ones i will hold on to forever in my memory and in my heart.

the past week has been filled with ups and downs, and all of the emotions.  i'm trying my best to hold it together and i'm beyond grateful for ryan who is so incredible.  words cannot even begin to describe how amazing he has been.  we're also so grateful to have four supportive parents who are now proud grandparents and who have been helping out so much.

i can't wait to share so many photos of noah along with many photos that i have from before he was born that i still need to share.  i'll do my best to keep things somewhat in order.

love, laurie

our best helper

leko can't resist "helping" us whenever he sees paperwork out on the table or the bed.  we always appreciate his help!

love, laurie

such a pretty sunset

even though the car windshield was dirty, i couldn't resist taking a photo of this gorgeous sunset while we were driving home a few weeks ago.  so pretty!

love, laurie

lap kitten

i'll never turn down a leko lap.  he is such a lover and we can't resist his cuddles!

love, laurie

filming at the tv studio

over the past several years, i've had the opportunity to go to the wbre tv station to promote upcoming events on their "pa live" segment.  

i feel like i could get a hosting job there because i've been on that show so much (feb 2019 / jan 2019 / oct 2018 / may 2018 / june 2017 / june 2016). 

we have two specific shows coming up at the theatre this fall that we wanted to advertise, so we contacted the station about scheduling the dates to feature each show.  each time i've been on the segment in the past, we've filmed it live.  much to my surprise, i found out that they now pre-film a lot of content to air on later dates.  it just so happened that this worked out perfectly for me, so i could film both segments while still pregnant in the summer instead of having to go to the station two separate times in the fall with baby boy!

while i was at the station, we filmed a segment to promote our upcoming motown tribute show in september as well as another segment to promote our upcoming barbra streisand tribute show in october.  

you can check out these segments when they air this fall!

love, laurie

back to school!

it's the first day of classes for the fall semester at the university where where ryan and i work and it's so hard to believe that it's time to start the school year already.

i snapped these photos of ryan last summer at the university when he started his new job, and i love them so much!

best of luck to everyone as they start the fall semester!

love, laurie

birthday veggie burgers!

we popped by red robin over the weekend for lunch because ryan had his free birthday burger coupon.  we always love using all of the free birthday promotions for our birthdays!  it was a tasty lunch date!

love, laurie

hiking around ice lake

the weather was gorgeous on saturday, so after we ran some errands we met up with my parents to walk around ice lake.  it's always such a pretty view on that trail.

love, laurie