Yes, we are STILL alive...

Its been such a long time since I have been able to sit without a child crawling up my leg, my husband wanting to stare longingly into my eyes, writing a paper for work, or driving to or from Indy!

Last time I wrote, Nathan was just leaving for the Winter Jam tour. It went well, but was a LONG, Long tour - 12 weeks. Of those 12 weeks, he was usually home Monday morning through Wednesday evening. It was such a blessing to working from home during that time because I could take my "weekend" when Nathan was home, versus Saturday and Sunday.

During that time, I became very close with another band wife, Dede, who was pregnant (congrats on Baby Boston being born last night!!) with two other bubbies at home. At the same time, my other two dear friends, Kathryn and Paisley helped me as often as they could by taking Jude when I was sick, leaving treats on my doorstep or providing adult conversation over a glass of wine and Dutch Blitz! So the tour finally ended the last day in March and we quickly turned around, packed up and headed to Destin with Nathan's family.

It was SO wonderful to get away from work, be together and have the best built-in babysitters! It was such a special time - it was the FIRST time (in my 11 years with Nathan) that the WHOLE family went; Matthew, Natalie, her BF Eric and Matt's friend Quinn. Not to mention Mamaw and Papaw!

Our days were spent trying to teach Jude to walk, getting sun burned, playing scrabble and eating lots of fried fish. My most memorable meal was the oreos dipped in peanut butter. Oh sweet mercy.

After Florida, I hit the ground running, sprinting, with a nitro pack strapped to me. As most of you know, its been a long and exhausting spring. We have so much for which to be thankful, but it's still so exhausting to be going at the pace we are! I finally had the real taste of a commuting mother - since April, I have been home a total of 4 weeks, of which, none were 7 days or consecutive.

So, as of last Sunday, I returned to my sanctuary in Georgia. During my escapades to Indy, I managed to make it to 3 baby showers, 1 wedding shower, 1 wedding, mother's day with our moms, fathers day with our dads, Joan's birthday, my dad's birthday, Carb day and the Indy 500. And I almost made it to Chicago to see my darling Christin's baby Griffin. I tell you what.

Jude is now 16 months old, which is hard to even process! He is so hilarious and has more personality than I can even conceive! Its quite often that Nathan and I find ourselves sitting, watching and laughing as he puts on a show for us. He is so smart and verbal. He isn't walking yet, but he is very, VERY close as you can see in the video below which I filmed last Saturday before driving home.

This weekend is the 4th of July and I am really looking forward to the neighborhood parade. We get to dress up in red, white and blue and decorate the wagon with crape paper and balloons! We could even decorate the dogs and walk them along with us, but I don't suspect that would go too well... ;-). They are still enjoying the new house too. The backyard is their "happy place", where they run and chase rabbits or Lucy and Jack next door. Well, I should turn in. I've been on the computer for 14 hours now today and I need a break!

Love you all dearly!

Don't forget to check back a lot at our online image gallery. There are HUNDREDS of new photos there: http://gallery.me.com/bonnie.ehman

Jude Turns One!!

Hello Friends and Family!

Lots of things happening in our world! Nathan has been on the road since the beginning of the year. I am spending most of my time working, playing with Jude, and hanging out with friends here in Georgia. In February, Jude and I ventured to California to visit my parents who are wintering in Del Mar. It was a wonderful time and Jude visited the San Diego Zoo - quite a way to start out!

Our Little Angel turned one on February 21. It was a glorious day - Nathan had a show in Nashville, so Jude and I drove up to spend the day with him. After the show, we spent the evening with Jude's God Parents (and our best friends) Ashley and Jimmy. Since then, Jude has been pulling up on everything (although not walking yet), eating a lot more sweets and even had his first haircut!

I have posted images of California, his 1st Birthday Party and his 1st Hair Cut on Facebook. Please follow this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=405028&id=804750231&l=3d3765fdbd

Lastly, instead of finding a photographer in the area and spending all our money on portraits, we bought a fancy camera and now I am the family photorgapher! Enjoy Jude's 1 Year Portraits below.

LOVE YOU ALL!

January-Shanuary

Good day.

All is quiet in the house. After a long span of time in Indy, Jude and I are back in Atlanta. Nathan's grandfather, Jack (Granddad) Ehman passed away and we spent the last two weeks celebrating his life and then adjusting to life back at home. Nathan has been traveling with the Winter Jam

tour so I have been keeping myself busy with play dates, dinner dates, working out (can you believe it!?), and work.

Jude had begun pulling up a fair amount, but I think he was slightly deterred during all our travel. Now that we are home and in his familiar living room, he is exploring and climbing. He has also cut 5 teeth in 30 days. Literally - since the day after Christmas (a month ago today), his fangs, two bottom teeth and right top front tooth have cut. We are just waiting for one more top front tooth to cut and he will have a darling toothy grin. Right now, he looks like the Child of Dracula. Then maybe I'll get a break from the middle of the night Motrin doses!

Nathan and I spent a lot of time this week decorating the house. Jude's 1st Birthday is only a few weeks away, so I am trying to get the house somewhat prepared for its first "official" unveiling. During the redecorating process, I managed to use one of Nathan's guitars as a corner piece.

Jude has since discovered it and makes a break through the foyer any chance he gets! I snuck up on him the other day and recorded a darling video of him "strumming" his first tune... I will post that below. I am currently between projects and have taken advantage of the daytime to get healthy and plan Jude's first birthday party. Its so bizarre to imagine that we have been holding Jude in our arms for nearly a year. What a year it has been!

In the last several weeks, I have learned about the pregnancies of FOUR dear friends! It definitely gives me a tinge of the "baby flu", but that is quickly remedied by the 5 weeks of teething, colds, diarrhea (Jude's, not mine!!) - and nights where a 4 hour stretch of sleep is promptly celebrated.

Right now, Jude is napping (although it is late in the evening) and I am waiting for my deep dish veggie (no onion) pizza from pizza hut to be delivered. Niles is standing statuesque at feet, awaiting my inevitable migration to the couch where he will keep my lap warm. Fiona is already perched on her "throne", also known as Nathan's spot - which they frequently battle over.

As for the weather, it is most often 50 degrees and sunny. Although we do have days of high-volume rains, its RAIN and not SNOW!

Well, my pizza has arrived and I suspect I should wake Jude, if I have any intentions of getting sleep tonight...

Love you all. Here are some fun pics of our new decor and (suprise!) some art I created!

The Holidays in a Nuthouse - I mean Nutshell!

Hi Everybody!

I hope everyone had a blessed holiday season with friends and family. We had a WONDERFUL time celebrating Jude's first Turkey Day and Christmas in the world outside my womb. For both holidays, we traveled to Indianapolis to celebrate the season with our family.

For Thanksgiving, we drove to Indy with the two of us, Jude, AND Niles and Fiona. We found a vet in town (who I love), so he gave us some awesome sedatives. They knocked the dogs out for the entire 9 hour drive. It was a riot. Fiona woke up a bit here and there, but was by no means coherent.

We visited with Jude's Great Grandparents and had some very special moments. We played lots of games, cooked and ate GOBS of delectable goodies.

Jude was not yet eating much table food, so he didn't enjoy much of the Thanksgiving feast but he didn't seem to mind. We stayed for a few extra days so I could spend some time in the office and then traveled to Columbus to pay a much-overdue visit to the Miller family - our dear friends that God blessed us with when Nathan was with his former band.

We spent the first few weeks of December at home in Georgia and enjoyed Nathan's time off the road by getting the whole inside of the house painted, christening our new mantel with stockings, and shopping at too many malls to keep track of.

Jude's God Parents, Jimmy and Ashley, came down from Nashville for a whole weekend. It was the longest period of time we had seen and spent with them since April of 2008 (before I was even pregnant!?), so it was a LONG overdue slumber party.

The week before Christmas, Nathan went out to play "Santa" and called me around 6 to meet him for dinner. Like any other evening, I through my hair back in a pony tail, switched out of my sweats and threw Jude in the car seat. After about 15 minutes of waiting at the restaurant, Nathan came into the small Italian joint and said "come here, I have something to show you". I'm thinking that maybe he has something big in the car, something he won't be able to disguise, so he has to give it to me now.

I walk out, Jude on my hip and walk to where my car was parked. We stop in the parking lot and he pulls a key out of his back pocket. The early gift wasn't IN the car... it WAS the car. A new car!! Nathan had spent the last 4 hours at the local Toyota mall, wheeling and dealing, to buy me a sexy, black certified Toyota 4Runner. I mean, really?! For ME!?

So, needless to say, my Christmas started off with a bang. I mean, BANG.

We celebrated our Christmas on Saturday, December 21st by waking up, drinking coffee and opening our gifts in our jammers. Jude quickly learned how to rip the paper off and enjoyed eating the tags and bows over playing with his new loot. It had been so odd going up in down the aisles of Toys R Us with a cart full of toys - but not toys for me (it had been at LEAST 15 years for both of us)! Eventually, Jude realized that the items IN the boxes were fun too, so our toy store splurge had not been in vain.

Nathan's big gift this year was a PS3. With our new big tv and sound system, he had managed to "tell" me about it since at least Halloween, so I decided to play dumb and reiterate how we "didn't need a gaming system", despite knowing that it also had a Blue Ray player, Internet access, and a 160GB hard drive (for all our media storing needs).

Jude also received a car from Santa...!

We wrapped up the day (no pun intended) with an afternoon next door with our new neighbors (the Phillips' - no relation) eating yummy soup and playing games.

We drove to Indy on Monday and spend several days with the Ehmans, playing games, eating, seeing movies and visiting with family. On Christmas Eve, after dinner, we went to my parents' home for the remainder of the visit, opening more gifts, eating more food and playing more games! We are truly blessed.

Among some of our other gifts from family was a bread maker, a doggie septic tank (yes, really, google it), clothes, Beatles Rock Band for PS3, a Le Crueset dutch oven and a college fund for Jude!!

We headed home a week after we arrived and drove through the snow and freezing rain to get back home to warm Georgia.

Over the holidays, Jude started many new things. He turned 10 months on December 21 and is crawling like a pro. He only army crawls and I am beginning to think that he is never going to do the hands/knees crawl - but oh well!

The day after Christmas, his first tooth broke through the gum. Within the 4 day period following that, three more teeth have erupted. He is working on his two upper eye teeth (like Dracula) and his two bottom teeth. I will be sure to post photos as soon as I can get a shot of his toothy grin; you can't really see them yet...!

The last milestone was his sudden ability to pull up! While playing on the floor the other night with Nathan, me and the dogs, he crawled right over to the mantle and pulled right up! Here is a video to prove it (this was the second time he pulled up):

And here we are! Nathan begins Winter Jam, a three month tour, this week. It should be a great show and may be coming to a city near you - check it out!

As always, family photos have been posted to our Mobile Me site: CLICK HERE!

Love y'all!
B, N, J, N, & F

Hey Y'all!

Based on the new blog name, you can guess that we have moved to Georgia!

It has been a long time since I last updated you all and so many wonderful things have occurred. Since there are so many happenings, I am going to provide a brief synopsis in an oh-so-fancy bulleted list:

• August 13 - Celebrated our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary and Marie/Zach's Rehearsal Dinner!
• August 14 - Marie and Zach become Mr. and Mrs!!
• August 16 - Hit the road for Georgia with two cars, two dogs, a 6 month old and Nathan's mom (to help us survive the trip!)
• August 21 - FINALLY close on the house and begin moving in (4 days late and after staying at a hotel with the "clan" listed above...)
• September 1 - Jude is sitting up on his own!
• September 5 - My first trip back to Indy for work and Jude's first airplane ride!
• September - Nathan was home and working in the Studio. I worked from home during the day and learned to make my own baby food. Jude was introduced to mixed veggies, mangoes, yogurt, sweet potatoes, squash, and avocado. Jude also visited his first pumpkin patch!
• October 2 - Back to Indy again with Jude to work and visit family
• October 15 - Traveled to Destin, FL with Granny (Phillips) and Auntie Marie for a long weekend of sun and rest. In the mean time, Nathan began the second run of Revelation Tour with Third Day through the southeast and Texas. Jude is now sitting in highchairs at restaurants and eats like a big boy!
• October 31 - Jude's first Halloween spent with Mama and Aunt Ashley (Jude's Godmother). Nathan traveled with the band to Brazil and South Africa!! Jude was introduced to whole grains and fun combinations of other fruits and veggies.

So, that takes us to now... I have not traveled back to Indy for work and have been blessed with 6 weeks at home. Jude and I have a regular daily routine and Nathan quickly adapts and helps out when he is home. Nathan has finished the tour and is done traveling until after the first of the year! In the mean time, we have made LOTS of new friends. A friend of Nathan's from high school lives here with his darling wife (Justin and Paisley) and we spend many evenings eating dinner and playing games. Paisley is an interior designer and is helping Nathan (and me) transform the house into our dream "shabby chic" home. Currently, there are several paint swatches on the walls, no dining room furniture and mismatched styles, but we are getting closer! Today we are getting a gorgeous fence around the back yard so we can finally just open the door and let the dogs run!

Jude has also made friends with Lucy and Levi Wilbanks. Lucy a darling brunette who belongs to Scotty and Dede and is a few months older than Jude. Levi is her older brother and Jude thinks he is the Bee's Knees. Scotty works for TD, so Dede and I spend lots of time visiting and eating mexican food while our men are on the road.

Although it is a small thing, a huge development is Jude's new napping routine!! We actually get close to 4 hours a day with him asleep - 2 hours late morning and 2 hours mid-day. He loves watching Sesame Street and has starting eating a lot of new foods, all of which I am making from organic produce. Who would have ever thought I would be into that?! This month's introductions included: CHEERIOS!!, asparagus, kiwi, cantaloupe, watermelon, kale and soon meat...

The biggest news this month is Jude's crawling and first REAL word - DADA!!! He said Dada last week when Nathan returned home from South Africa and last Thursday the light bulb came on and he decided to crawl (a cheerio was his inspiration of course). He has been saying Mama since he was 4 months old, but is only occasionally "tying" it to me. He knows I'm Mama, but he doesn't call me by name. He tends to make chirping noises - like a pterodactyl or he clicks his tongue until I respond. I guess its our own little family language.

This weekend we will be traveling back to Indy in one car, with the baby and two dogs. The week will be spent jumping from bed to bed, house to house, making the rounds and eating until our pants don't fit (which won't take much eating for me since my pants don't fit now)!

Well, back to work and playing with Juju (aka Bobo, Jujubee, Jubobo, Stink Pot, Home Slice, or "Joe" when he acts like a grown up). Below are some pictures for you to enjoy. There are HUNDREDS more on our MobileMe site. Feel free to bookmark that page and check back periodically. Sometimes I have time to upload pictures but not the blog. I'll try to do better ;-)

LOVE YOU ALL!

EHMAN MobileMe Website of Photos