The Gentrys

So about a year and a half ago, I decided to start posting exclusively on my photography website to save time...lets be honest, I wasn't really posting much anyway! But after our sweet little man was born in March of 2012, I really did not have time to continue my photography business. I thought I would keep up the website since it was easier to post there and I had already pre-paid for it, but I never posted there either :) So the plan is to try to do one long catch up post to bring this blog up to date (yeah, I know it will probably be awhile before I actually do it!) and close the photography site. If anyone is still reading here, stay tuned! Hopefully I'll get a new post up here soon and start posting a little more faithfully...we have lots to catch up on!

I think I mentioned this before, but I am officially stopping posting here and soley posting on my new site www.ashleygentryphotography.com. Please follow us there! I will still post about our life in addition to my photography. It's just too much for me to try to post on both. And this one will not have passwords or make you login to view...it's open to everyone.

Thanks for following us!

This past Sunday was very special for our family. Phil was elected as a deacon in our church and they had a wonderful service ordaining him. Brant and Brittany and Chris and Mary Lindsey all came as did Jared and Selena. Jared is like a brother to Phil and he actually married us. He closed the service with a prayer and Selena sang one of Phil's favorite songs, "My Redeemer Lives" during the service - which was absolutely beautiful. Our pastor preached a wonderful sermon and then the service was closed with all the deacons laying hands on Phil and praying for him and for our family.

We did get a quick family picture before lunch, but wish we had gotten one with everyone who came to support Phil!





In other news, I am thinking I am going to stop posting on this blog as I have purchased a new site for my photography and it is just too much to try to post on both...and lets be honest, I don't post very much here anyway! I was thinking I would just include our personal updates on the photography site since most of what you are interested in from this blog is pictures of Emma Cate anyway. Any thoughts? My photography site is not password protected so you would be able to go to it anytime. My very talented sister is going to help me start getting it fixed up in the coming weeks so stay tuned! www.ashleygentryphotography.com.

I'm posting about our pumpkin patch picking trip on that site so check it out!

I just posted a slideshow of a few new hats and my little cutie modeling hers on my new photography site Ashley Gentry Photography The site is still a work in progress. My very talented graphic designer sister is coming to visit next week and I'm hoping she will have time to spruce it up some. I'll let you know!

Jake's typical position while Emma Cate (or anyone) eats.



Enjoying one of the cooler mornings from last week!

Things have been busy the last few weeks! I've finally started feeling better and am officially a week out of the first trimester. Starting to get my energy back which is wonderful because I've felt so useless the last few months! Emma Cate went with me to the doctor today for my 2nd appointment. She said everything seemed great - heart rate was 158. It seems like Emma Cate's was still in the 170s at this point...maybe this is a boy? I really have no idea and it looks like it will be the first week of November until we have another ultrasound so we've got awhile to wait.

I wanted to post an update on Emma Cate too mostly so I will have some record of all the new things she's doing since I've been terrible about writing in her baby book since she turned one! She is 18 months now and so much has changed recently. She is talking ALL the time saying new words every day. Just in the last few days she's started repeating a lot of what we say. Tonight Phil picked her up out of the tub and said something about "shake shake shake" to shake the water off and then I said "shake shake shake, shake your booty" and she repeated "shake your booty" as clear as I said it. It was hilarious, but we quickly realized we've got to start really being careful what we say! At her 18 month check she weighed just under 23 pounds so she's on the tiny side, but her doctor said she's very healthy and just petite. She loves to eat any meat with ketchup...especially chicken fingers and breaded baked fish. She LOVES Chick-fil-a and calls it "chick chick." We have fun stopping there when we are in Tuscaloosa. We are working on drinking more milk as she really only drinks one 4 ounce cup a day and her doctor says she needs 16-20 ounces. She just doesn't love it. The main foods she eats well are grilled ham and cheese, chicken, fish, mandarin oranges, strawberries, grapes, apples, peanut butter on anything, bread, broccoli, goldfish and cheerios. She also loves sweets and chips and coke and will tell you her favorite things are cookies, cake, chips and coke (I only let her have a sip of my coke every now and then but somehow she's learned exactly what it is!) I won't list all her words, because they are too many to keep up with now, but she still calls me "Ba Ba" instead of mama. Funny, but I'll answer to whatever she wants to call me as long as she is calling for me :)

Ok, here are some recent snapshots of Emma Cate. Sorry, no real order to these and they aren't great pictures, but this is what was on my camera. One is of some of the hats I've been making for gifts and/or photography props. More to come.

















Hope everyone had a great Labor Day! We are thankful for the rain and for my parent's coming to visit and helping us work in the yard and put in a drain in the backyard before the rain started. It worked great!

Emma Cate loves her rocking horse one of our sweet friends made for her. Isn't it beautiful! Since the weather has been so nice the last few mornings, we took advantage of it and brought horsey outside to ride in the cool breeze! She loved it!









We've been playing a lot outside the last few days. If it weren't for the nasty mosquitoes that for some reason love me and Emma Cate, it would be perfect!





Emma Cate has always loved babies, but she is getting more and more interested in taking care of them...her latest is changing their diapers and giving them a bottle. Getting ready to be a great big sister!



When my mom was here last week, she let Emma Cate wear her nightgown around the house and the left it for her when she went home so it's her new favorite thing to wear!



Ok that's all for now. I've sacrificed two nap times (meaning two naps for me) this week to blog...I haven't been quite as sleepy this week so maybe my energy level is slowly coming back. I'm now 10 weeks along so only 2 more until this first trimester is behind me and hopefully all nausea and tiredness will go with it!

Getting great photos of my little stinker have been a little difficult lately. You see, she won't EVER sit still. I'm adjusting and trying to keep a super fast shutter speed to compensate, but I hate to use a flash so indoor shots aren't working out so well for us lately! See what I mean:



Little goose! She loves her muffins! The next one she managed to stay still for a second for me.



We have fallen into a good summer routine. We walk with my friend and her two little ones every morning and then come back to take a shower before playing. Her favorite part of this little daily routine is wrapping up in a towel and playing with my jewelry on the bathroom counter while I put on makeup or dry my hair (don't worry, I'm standing right next to her so she won't fall off). She LOVES jewelry!







Notice how her hair is straight in the above pictures because I comb it out when its wet. By the time she finishes playing, it's dry and back to ringlets!



I want to get some good pictures of her outside, but it's just been too hot and we've been staying indoors except for our early morning walks. And every time I get my camera out, she comes over and sits in my lap making it just a little difficult! I often wonder how I can get good pictures of other people's children for them, but can't manage to get my own little one to cooperate with me and the camera these days! Oh well! Maybe it's just a stage!

I'm a little embarrassed to even tell you this, but thought I would share out little ordeal in case it could prevent someone else from going through the same thing. Read the fine print, especially when it's something important like insurance! I've only had one doctors appointment for baby #2, but I had bloodwork done a few weeks prior right after I found out I was pregnant and wondered why our insurance didn't pay for any of it. I dismissed it thinking we hadn't met our deductible yet or something like that. But then on one of my morning walks with sweet friend, we got to talking about it and she told me I probably wasn't covered under our new insurance. WHAT? We had switched from a group plan to an individual plan in April when Phil started working in Aliceville more than York, but it was all Blue Cross and we never thought anything about it. Why would we have a waiting period when we had been with the same company for 6 years? Never crossed our minds. Well, we did. Long story short, after multiple phone calls to Blue Cross and a weekend of stressing (and adding up all the claims from Emma Cate's birth to get an idea of out of pocket costs of a pregnancy and delivery...totaling to $25,000) I was thinking I was going to have to delivery this baby at home with no meds! Just kidding, but I was thinking probably no meds since the epidural was almost $1,000. Thank the Lord, we realized we could join a group plan through the Alabama Pharmacy Association that had no waiting period on maternity. The monthly premiums are a good deal more expensive, but in the long run, a lot cheaper than paying cash for the pregnancy! So, everything is ok now, but we felt a little foolish!

Ok that's my embarrassing story for the day. Maybe it helps someone though! Have a great weekend!