Category Archives: 365

October 18: first time to the beach… last day with Gramzi… 🙁

October 19: kisses for dad

October 20: my new view in the car- on our way to Muscat

October 21: “autumn” popcorn with some friends… perfect taste of fall

October 22: our drive home

October 23: Kg trying to get Liddy to wake up and play…

October 24: 3 weeks old

October 25: not sure if it is because I haven’t had strawberries in forever or not, but these tasted amazing!

Wow! I can’t believe I am OVER a month behind in posting my 365- well, actually I can believe it- lots has happened this past month! Heres to catching up…

September 24: raspberry leaf tea – trying to get labor started…

September 25: at doctor apt-  2 days from due date!

September 26: 40 weeks- last chalkboard preggo picture

September 27: due date… nursery ready, baby not

September 28: love getting to introduce my mom to my local friends and their kids

September 29: mom getting to know the camels on the side of the road…

September 30: 40 weeks + 3 days… still waiting

October 1: al kaas- a local coffee shop for men only where Chase has spent many nights hanging out with his local buddies

October 2: Starting the induction… wasn’t sure how long we would be staring at these green curtains…

October 3: the birthday of our sweet Lydia May McGough! Overjoyed.

October 4: bath time… brrr its cold in the outside world!

October 5: Eskimo kisses for Gramzi

October 6: First manicure

October 7: visit to the hospital for Lydia’s heel prick

October 8: first restaurant- Fuddruckers in Adu Dhabi

October 9: tour of the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

October 10: 1 week old… love this face!

October 11: home sweet home for daddy’s birthday!

October 12: getting some fresh air

October 13: Go TECH!

October 14: newborn photo shoot

October 15: hanging out with dad

October 16: sleepin with dad

October 17: 2 weeks old… Lydia and Gramzi- makes my heart happy

September 13: making hair bows for Lydia!

September 14: Breakfast with one of my local friends: beans, tortillas & tea!

September 15: Matzos (unleavened bread) with butter… I grew up eating this stuff… I know it is strange, but it tastes like home!

September 16: our bags are packed for the hospital… can’t wait to use them!

September 17: last date night with my baby daddy before Lydia comes… Chinese food & flowers- love him! 

September 18: Chili’s for lunch after a great doctor’s appointment!

September 19: it rained!! Chase thought Lydia would come this day since it rained on our first best day of our lives…. but Lydia had other plans 🙂

September 20: my mom is here!!

September 21: pedicure + Starbucks coconut tea + window shopping with my mom & hubby in Dubai = perfect day

September 22: hospital survival kit from nurse/Auntie Aubs! so thoughtful & practical…stuff I would have never thought of- thanks sis!

September 23: Frist local visit complete with dates & Omani coffee with mom- so fun to share our everyday life out here with her

A few weeks ago my friends threw me an adorable “Cute as a Button” baby shower! Lydia and I felt so blessed and loved by all the hard work, friends that showed up and the gifts she was showered with. What a blessing it is to have great community out here- super helpful since we live so far away from our fiends & family back home.

Now for some pictures of the shower! (all picture & creative credit goes to Jord)

The food table- which included “button” mushrooms stuffed with yummy stuff (not exactly sure what), chicken salad & egg salad sandwiches made to look like buttons, veggie buttons, fruit skewers with button tops, Oreos dipped in chocolate & decorated like buttons…

Traci made a delicious apple cinnamon cake and Jord made homemade petifores for dessert

Fruit Sangria iced tea served in mason jars decorated with buttons (one of my favorite details!)

My lovely hostesses! Love you girls!

One of my Arabic teachers came- my old (in my heart the are still my neighbors) neighbors came as well, it was so fun to see how excited they were to come to a baby shower.. they had never been to such a thing! They thought it was a great idea and want one for their next babies!

Fun fact: We are both named Brittany and both due with girls within 11 days of each other! Can’t wait for our girls to be friends!

Jord has been God’s grace to me this pregnancy… being so far from family during my first pregnancy hasn’t been easy or fun, but having Jord here makes it not only better, but great! She has been supportive and excited through every step, my personal photographer, a listening ear, great advice giver & shopping buddy, cooked me food I was craving, gave me a pedicure… I could go on. Thanks so much dear… now I just hope Lydia waits for you to get back here!

There was also a button jewelry making station! Now I have cute clips for Lydia to wear.

Button Sugar cookies for the favor!

Can’t wait to see our little baby girl… I know she will be “cute as a button“! (Ha I know I am a dork)

September 2: Girls day in Dubai to see this sweet friend during her travels back to America!

September 3: Hanging out at a new stand-alone Starbucks (all the rest are inside malls) “on the other side” after a my first hair cut in the ME and before our last birthing class

September 4: nursery in progress…

September 5: Happy 4th Birthday Sayla Grace! I still remember the day you were born…

September 6: another great party thrown by Jord: Sayla’s puppy party!

September 7: lots of little PINK laundry to do!

September 8: My new favorite morning spot- the rocker in Lydia’s room.. can’t wait to be holding a baby in this chair…

September 9: Thank you cards from my button shower

September 10: Getting our freezer ready!

September 11: Lydia’s future b.f.f…. or boyfriend- whichever 🙂

September 12: Had been wanting chocolate chip cookies all day… finally decided to make some at 10:30 pm! they were worth it! 

I just realized today that I am almost a month behind on posting my pics for the 365! Oops… figured I better get caught up in case little miss decides to come early (or even if she is late.. I still need to get caught up). I am not going to lie to you lately I have felt uninspired to take pictures… I am thinking that once Lydia makes her appearance I will be re-inspired with an adorable subject 🙂

But for now, I will share with you at bit about what we have been up to…

August 18: scrapbooking… I had been wanting to make one of the local families I hang out with a scrapbook of all the pictures I have with them for a long time, but of course I waited till the day before I wanted to give it to them to make it! At least it forced me to sit for a few hours!

August 19: End of Ramadan= lots of Eid visits… Chase enjoying some haluwa (Omani sweets) with a friend

August 20: Mexican night with some fellow Texan friends… first time to see homemade tortillas made… I used to be super intimidated by them, but they are super easy- hope to make them again soon.

August 21: Gilmore Girls & Brownies… great way to end the day

August 22: More haluwa with my language helper

August 23: celebrated this sweet boy’s birthday with a super fun piñata party! Happy 5th Joey!

August 24: the boys were on a surf trip so Jord set up a “spa” and spoiled us with pedicures…

August 25: Chase brought these back for me from his surf trip… love them

August 26: Mas Salama (good-bye) midnight rider… we do not miss you! We were super blessed to have the opportunity to trade our car in for a less broken car– lets just say Chase become good friends with the mechanic in our town with this bad girl- ha

August 27: Our authenticated marriage certificate came! Now Lydia can get a birth certificate and passport when she is born! Apparently you have to get a bunch of official stamps out here to prove that you are married in order to have a baby

August 28: Build-a-bear & Rainforest Cafe for miss Sayla Grace’s 4th birthday! It was so fun seeing these girls pick out the perfect outfits for their bears… Lydia even got a bear because we had a buy one- get one coupon

August 29: still too hott in the kitchen to keep fruit out on the counter overnight and I don’t like my bananas refrigerated… so they came to bed with us! ha

August 30: my “Cute as a Button” baby shower! Loved all the adorable button details… hope to post more pics soon! This was a delicious apple cinnamon cake- perfect fall flavors

August 31: the gift I gave my wonderful hostesses for my shower… ingredients for a Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Bread in a mason jar with a chalkboard painted top to be reused for other storage later & some earrings

September 1: Jord & I deemed this day the first day of fall out here… even if there is no sign of it outside, my house feels like it inside 🙂

August 2: Enjoying pear/apple crisp with some sweet friends during a weekend movie marathon

August 3: Midnight snack

August 4: Hanging curtains in Lydia’s room! special thanks to my models 🙂

August 5: drive to Abu Dabai

August 6: kinda blurry, but loving my view!

August 7: belly pic! 33 weeks

August 8: good lil’ dishwashers

August 9: Ramadan visit at 11 pm

August 10: had a bit of a fire with our A/C… not huge, just a few sparks and then it stopped working, but we got our fix-it man to come out and he got the A/C to work without the plug

August 11: future daddy working on some possible art work for his baby girls nursery

August 12: my “new” laundry room! yey! my washing machine is out of my kitchen!!

August 13: my sweet roommate, Traci, made me fresh squeezed lemonade! yum

August 14: Dubai at Iftar, the time when everyone breaks their fast during Ramadan at sunset

August 15: Frist birthing class at Oasis Hospital! 34 weeks!

August 16: had a local family over for dinner… they were supposed to come at 9 pm, but showed up at 11 pm… totally normal! Love these girls playing “tea party”

August 17: sweet hubby painting my toes since I can’t reach them anymore!

July 26: Yup, thats right our town has a Domino’s in it now…we are moving up in the world!

July 27: He is gonna be such a great daddy!

July 28: Princess tea party followed by a dance party… the girls begged Chase to dance with them… it didn’t take much for him to say yes

July 29: “camping” with Kead & Sayla… complete with hot chocolate, marshmallows to roast over the fire, and campfire stories

July 30: LuLu’s- our new grocery store with lots of hallways like this with the potential for more shops (maybe a coffee shop!) to open… for now its just colorful walls and a great place to walk around with A/C

July 31: date balls to take to some local freinds

August 1: finally got to meet our friend’s sweet new baby boy

July 18: thank you Jord for craving this and pintrest for the recipe– homemade toffee= delicious

July 19: Happy 4 years to us! Chinese food & coffee! Gosh I love that boy.

July 20: ICE an essential for us Americans here in the heat… (or anytime really) all our friends (other than Americans) always look at me strangely & make comments about my ice drinks

July 21: game night with some freinds

July 22: Turkish coffee with some friends after we got our eyebrows threaded. Since it’s Ramadan things open later and stay open later- this was at 11:30pm…

July 23: dates and a visit with my old neighbor, she was fasting, but still severed us… felt bad to eat in front of her, but she insisted

July 24: Baby Back Ribs in Dubai at Billy Blues with Drew & Jord on our double date… delcious

July 25: We are watching these sweet girls for the next 5 days while Drew & Jord get some much needed “them” time. We are super excited! Called the girls down for lunch and this is how they came dressed! love them

July 10: had some friends over for Chicken Parmesan- this is their sweet girl

July 11: the results of “cooking from scratch” … believe it or not the kitchen was super clean before I started cooking- ha

July 12: Trip to Dubai which included a movie… trying to fit in as many as we can before little miss joins us!

July 13: sleeping in till 11:30 am on a Saturday= breakfast for lunch and an episode of 24… also trying to take advantage of sleeping in while we can!

July 14: Photo School- learning how lighting effects your pictures… also learning how lighting is KEY to great photography… don’t you love my model?

July 15: getting stuff put together for the nursery…

July 16: enjoying some fruit at a local friends house… had to leave after an hour even though they insisted I stay for dinner at 11:30 pm! because of heartburn…

July 17: Mimi’s (my grandmother) vase and sunflowers… working on lightening and composition for photo school