Home at Last

Wow - we are loving having a new little Herring in the house. Clayton is just the best!


We enjoyed having several hospital visitors that welcomed Clayton into the world.

The proud Uncle Cameron

Clayton meeting Aunt Vicki and cousin Camen for the fist time.

Aaron's parents - meeting their 1st grandchild.

My mother - meeting her 10th grandchild.

Packed up and ready to leave the hospital.

We brought him home late Sunday afternoon.

His first night at home in the Moses Basket. Clayton slept really good - Aaron and I did not since we kept checking on him. :-)

We took him to his first pediatrician visit yesterday and the doctor said all is well - we are so blessed and grateful for a healthy little boy.

My mother gave him his first bath.

He didn't seem to mind a bath at all.

I just love hooded towels!

Click here to view his hospital picture. It's hard to believe he will be a week old tomorrow.

Baby Herring

Details:

Name: Clayton Christopher Herring
Born: Thursday, October 9 at 9:37 PM by C-Section
Weight: 7 lbs. 1 oz.
Length: 20 1/2 inches

Mom, Dad, and Baby all doing well! More pictures to follow (of course)!

Saying Goodbye to GBS

Yesterday was a sad day for me as it was my last day of work at GBS. (Ironically, I had to give a talk in chapel about being positive and happy - so maybe I was "preaching" to myself.)

I enjoyed working at GBS and with the great people there so much. For the last five years I was very privileged to work for and learn from President Avery. I will certainly miss everyone, but of course I'm excited about what's to come as well. My due date is tomorrow, but they will let me go a week over if nothing happens by then. We shall see.

Here's a few "saying goodbye" pictures... I only cried a little (OK - make that a lot).

The ones I worked closely with: Maria Stetler, Pres. Avery, and Mandy Buckland...

. . . and my "across the hall" friend, Teresa Cravens.

A beautiful album for a beautiful couple!

Wow! I absolutely love the wedding album for Jennifer & Wesley Gray's wedding. It arrived last week and I shipped it right to them. Each image below (except the first and last) is a double spread page in their album. I was so happy with the design of the pages and just wanted to share. Their wedding was so much fun to photograph!

It's officially Fall!

I absolutely love Fall - the weather is just the right temperature, the leaves are so colorful, it's a great time to take outdoor pictures, and there are so many neat fall decorations! I love mums and scarecrows and was anxious to get these out this year. These are on the front porch:

and this little guy is on the back porch:

Since I could not sleep this afternoon (which is nothing new these days (but I only have 12 more days to go until my due date!), I decided to make caramel apple dip. That's another thing I love about Fall - all the incredible fall foods and caramel apples have to rank right up there at the top! This is a super easy recipe (thanks, Jana) that is the absolute best! I even like to eat the caramel plain too, right Dana! :-)


Caramel Apple Dip
8 T butter
1/2 cup corn syrup
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Bring the first 3 ingredients to a boil, then add the can of sweetened condensed milk. Transfer to a small crockpot and let simmer. It will thicken and turn a darker brown. Serve warm over sliced apples. Delicious!

(I think I've always doubled the recipe - it doesn't last long around our house!)

Fun at the Museum!

We recently enjoyed the "free day" at the Museum Center with my brother, Jeff and his children (except for Emme who was out of town with her mommy). It's too bad that we had never been there before since it's nearly in our back yard. They have some really neat exhibits - and we didn't even get to see them all.

The biggest tree I've ever seen!

Camen was a little scared in the Ice Age area. No wonder - it was cold and dark in there!

He did a little better once he could see all of us!

These animals looked a little too real for me, but Caleb and Kaley sure enjoyed them...

...but Camen wasn't too sure.

Camen was fascinated by the sand/water exhibit.

Have you hugged your refrigerator today?

We are STILL in the dark! I have never gone this long without electricity before and sure will be glad when the power comes back on. Who would have thought that here in Ohio we would experience part of the hurricane??!!

We took out 5 bags of trash from our refrigerator. It was so sad to simply throw your good food away, but of course you can't keep it without a way to keep it cold. Our dear friends Ron and Jennee did let us put some of our food in their freezer since they have power, and I was so thankful to be able to save the 3 full bags of chicken and 2 roasts I had just bought.

I am REALLY thankful for the hot water that we do have. I also have found a new appreciation for Downy spray. It's this handy little bottle that you can use to smooth out wrinkles from your clothes. It has actually worked quite well on Aaron's clothes this week since he still has to go to work and I can't iron.

I was having withdrawals from the internet and not being able to check my email for 5 days, so I headed out for the library today (glad they have power). So, this is probably my first post without pictures (gasp!). It feels so good to type! :-)

Church Kids

I haven't been blogging recently because I've been working very diligently on a directory for our church. I had no idea it would take this many hours and this long to do, but hopefully the end is in sight!

I loved taking all the photos of the great families in our church, although it was hard to track some of them down. In fact, a couple simply refused to be photographed, which makes me very sad. Pictures are wonderful - and such a great piece of history! Oh well, you can lead a horse to water, but . . .

We also have some really cute kids in our church and of course I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get some individual photographs of them as well. This is certainly not all the kids in our church, but here's a few . . .

Zachary Waits

Lauren Lambeth

Michael Lambeth

Caleb Lambeth

Emily Durkee

Kerianna & Parker Brown (inseparable brother/sister)

Nicholas Cassity

The Frederick kids - not really "kids" anymore - but still very cute siblings!

Hannah Welch