Christmas is Here!

We are in Augusta right now for Christmas and it's been so nice and relaxing. We got here late Wednesday night and will be here through Christmas Eve. Last night we went on a hayride to look at a big Christmas lights display. One problem is that it started raining on our ride and we all got pretty wet. It was a fun experience though. We had a nice dinner afterwards of country fried steak, rice and gravy, green beans, and biscuits. It was delicious! Then Allen and I went out to see the new Will Smith movie, The Pursuit of Happyness. It was very sad and hard to watch at times because of the struggle of the movie but it was very good too. I think it was especially touching thinking about Everett.

Here are a few photos of us before the hayride...before getting drenched:

Here we are after the rain...very soaked!

Lindsay's Wedding

Lindsay's wedding was wonderful this weekend. Everything went really well. The ceremony was beautiful and so was Lindsay. We had a lot of fun at the reception too. Allen and I are exhausted after all of the events though! Since we were both in the wedding and had Everett tagging along with us we were running around a lot. It was fun though and we're so happy for Michael and Lindsay. They will make an incredible team! Here are a few photos:

Thanksgiving

We had a great time at Thanksgiving in Augusta. We went to Allen's grandmother's house for lunch with about 35 of his relatives. It's a big group! The day after Thanksgiving Allen and his sister's finace, Michael, left for Michael's bachelor weekend. They went caving and rock climbing and saw the new 007 movie! The day after Thanksgiving Allen's mom (Deb), his sister (Lindsay) and I all went shopping at 7am! We had an adventure of our own, a more girlie adventure though. We found some good deals at Target and at the mall. It was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday we had a family wedding shower for Lindsay. Afterwards Everett and I drove back to Atlanta to meet up with Allen.

On Sunday we started hanging up our Christmas decorations and more than half of our lights weren't working. Major frustration. Today I went to Target to buy more and one of the strands I bought wasn't working. More frustration. Needless to say, the house is looking good and we're planning to get our Christmas tree tonight. Hopefully this will make it feel more like Christmas because right now I'm not really into it. Could be because it's still November?

Christmas is getting more and more rushed each year. What's up with that? While Allen was stringing up the lights on our trees outside he said, "I'm only doing this for Jesus." It was funny, but it did make me wonder why we really do all of this. I picked up our Advent devotional from Church on Sunday and hopefully Allen and I can go through it together so it can give us some perspective.

The Park

We had a great time at the park today despite the cold weather. We went with our neighbor Rasa and her daugther, Aura, who is almost 1 year old. She and Everett get along great and always have a lot of fun together. It's nice because they live in our neighborhood, just up the street. Everett is sleeping very soundly now after playing so much this afternoon. It was a lot of fun and I got some pretty cute photos...




We are heading to Augusta this week for Thanksgiving...I'm really looking forward to the break.

Our Weekend

We had a very busy, fun-filled weekend. We went to visit Santa at Lenox Mall Friday night and we also rode the Pink Pig. Everett did suprisingly well with Santa. He cried when we first handed him over but calmed down very quickly. It was fun. I know it was early to visit Santa, but it was so nice because there was no line whatsoever. We went with a big group of friends, which made it a lot of fun.

Saturday we were up early to run the Children's Healthcare of Atlanta 5K. It started and ended at Turner Field, which was really cool. We ran with a lot of folks from our Young Couples class at church. We had a team of 24 runners. This was Everett's first race. Allen pushed him in the stroller. Neither Allen nor I trained whatsoever for the race so we were a little nervous. It wasn't too bad though. Allen finished in 35 min. with the stroller and with staying with me for the 1st mile and I finished in 39 min. Sad that I used to run 5Ks in around 27-28 min., but I was still happy with my post-baby time. :)

We then drove down to Columbus, GA, for my nephew's 2nd birthday party. It was a fun party and we stayed in Columbus for the day. We got back late that night. It was a long day and Allen and I were pretty sore getting out of the car after we got home. I guess that's the price we pay for not training for the race.

There are tons of new photos on our flickr page of all of these events...but here are some of my favorites:

Happy Halloween

Everett's 2nd Halloween was much more eventful than his first. :) He was a lion this year which was adorable! We were surprised that he really didn't mind wearing his costume, although he did not enjoy having his face painted. We went to our neighborhood party and he actually won the ribbon for the best costume. He did look pretty cute and since he was the youngest one dressed up, I think he was a shoe-in. We discovered that he really likes m&m's...but what kid doesn't? He had chocolate dripping down his costume by the end of the night. We took him trick or treating to two houses and that about did him in. I think he had the most fun watching the other kids run around at the party. We all joked about how tame of a lion he was because most of the time he sat there sucking his thumb just taking it all in. We should have made him a lamb. :)

Here are some photos:

Pumpkins

Allen's sister, Lindsay and her finance, Michael, came over yesterday to visit. Allen and I were working out in the yard...mowing, planting panies, weeding, transplanting day lilies...etc. when they arrived. The yard looked incredibly better once we were done. I'm so glad to get that out of the way. Afterwards we ordered pizza and did some pumpkin carving. I thought the pumpkins turned out pretty well. It was fun, but by the end we were all glad we were done. I roasted some seeds this morning. None of them liked the thought of eating pumpkin seeds, but we always did that growing up and I love the tradition of it. If you're interested, here's what you do:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Rinse and drain pumpkin seeds. Dry on paper towels. Spread onto an ungreased cookie sheet and salt. Roast for 2 hours stirring every 30 minutes.

Here are a few photos of our pumpkins:

Joiner News

We went to Columbus this past Saturday. It was a good visit. This was one of the pictures we took on a playground there. It was a beautiful day and a good visit with my mom.

Everett has started taking more and more steps on his own...finally! On Sunday he took the most consecutive steps ever, across the kitchen with Allen and me both watching. It was about 5-6 steps. Since then he's been doing about the same. This morning he had his eye surgery, for his blocked tear ducts. While we were in the waiting area another mom asked Allen, "How long has he been walking?" It was pretty funny, because we still don't consider him a walker. It's a lot less paramount than I thought it would be. Even though many of my friends have told me this, I still expected him to take his first step and then no longer crawl from that point on. I don't know why this was my expectation...everything else with babies is a progression, especially with my son. So, I guess Everett is walking now, although he's still also crawling a lot too. :)

His eye surgery went really well. It was tough watching him go under anesthesia, but everything was fine. I'm glad it's over. He's taking a good nap this morning and should be since we had to get him up at 5:30am this morning!

Boys will be Boys

I know boys and girls are different, but it sure is funny once you have your own. My two friends with girls Everett's age were talking about how they are just now having to use the word "no." I was suprised because that's a word Everett is quite aquainted with. Like now for instance, as he pulls all our books and cds off the bookshelf while I type this blog. :) I think boys are just more exploratory and like to test limits a little more. Like today at playgroup as my son climbs in and begins to stand up in a bouncy seat to which my friend (who has a girl) says, "Wow, he's such a climber...my daughter would never try anything like that."

Everett and I were just playing outside and I snapped some cute photos that I think demonstrate what boys this age are like.

Preparing my attack...

On guard...

On the move

Everett has really started to love his walker the past two days. Once I get him going he takes off until he hits a wall or the coffee table or a toy, etc and I redirect him. He will go back and forth across the room at least 10 or more times. Hopefully this will help him in the walking department. Our friends lent us an outdoor ride on toy that he is really loving too.

Even though he's not walking yet, we just put a pair of overalls on him and let him crawl around outside. He's got the cutest crawl, with his left knee tucked in and dragging, he uses is right leg and left hand to scoot around. We sure that the left knee in his overalls will be completely worn out very soon, but they were only $3 at a consignment sale...so who cares! We've been putting shoes on him a lot more now that the weather is getting cooler. He's still not too fond of them, but they sure look cute. He spends all his time trying to get them off and once they're off, he loves chewing on them. He's very interested in shoes in general now.

This weekend was great. We went to the Duluth Fall Festival. We all split a funnel cake...yum. You just can't beat it. Then we went to Eats in Midtown for dinner. All that good food for cheap...you can't beat that either. Sunday we spent the whole day mowing, fertilizing and reseeding our yard, as well as planting some hostas. It was a lot of work, but Everett cooperated and slept almost the whole time. It felt really good to get all of that done.

Everett and his Toys

Everett kept climbing into his toy basket this morning. I guess he wanted a more close up view of what was in there. It was too cute, so I thought I would share some photos...

Look...no hands!

Everett is now standing up on his own, but hasn't quite taken any steps yet. He's 13 months old so we're hoping he'll be walking any day now. It will be so nice to get out and enjoy this nice weather without him scraping up his knees crawling around. He just got a really short haircut, compliments of his daddy. It sticks up a little in the back now, but it's pretty cute. It has had several edits over the past couple of days. I've learned that it's better to cut one's hair in the daylight. :) He can say four words now...ball, balloon, more, and mama/dada. He's a cutie, huh?

We had our two huge pine trees taken down last week and it was amazing to watch. It took them almost two full days 7am-7pm to get them down. They were really big trees. I had my first ever migraine the first day they were here...what luck! Now we are clearing away the debris, which is taking a long time and getting ready to plant some grass seed where they were. It will be so nice to have grass growing there soon! Now we have no more pine straw on our roof and clogging up our gutters. Yippee!!

Allen's summer league softball finishes up tonight but they are playing right on through to the fall season. Last week they beat the #1 team in their division 9-8. It was very exciting. It's been a fun summer but we're looking forward to fall.

The Two Trees

Here are some photos before and after the first of our two huge pine trees was taken out...

Here is one of them chopping up the first tree...

New Photos

We have a ton of new photos of Everett and our family. These were taken when Everett was 10 months old. They are on our flickr site beginning on the bottom of page 7. All of them were taken by Kathryn McElvy, who has done several photo sessions for us. Enjoy!

Latest News

Everett and I had a wonderful visit last week to Wilmington, NC. We went to see our dear friends Sam and Trevor and their little girl, Maddie. They all just moved to Wilmington a month or so ago. It was a 7 hour drive with Everett, but he actually did remarkably well. I was very thankful for my new "snack trap" which you can see Everett holding in the photo with Maddie to the left. It was a lifesaver in the car. We snacked our way through many hours of driving. :) Sam and I went to Wrightsville Beach which was only about 15 minutes from their house on Wednesday. Tropical storm Ernesto hit Thursday, the day before we left. It was pretty scary and very loud. Parts of Sam and Trevor's neighborhood were flooded. Luckily their house was fine. On our way home last Friday we didn't experience a drop of rain. It was a blast and great to see them and their new house.

Although we had a great trip, it was sad to be away from Allen for so many days. It was great to come home and have the long weekend together though. We are heading to Augusta next weekend for a visit.

Everett is now great at climbing up and down the stairs...yeah! He's getting very tall...able to reach the doorknobs now...hopefully it will be a while before he figures out how to turn them. He can also say ball...his first word. He's eating anything and everything. It's a fun, yet exploratory age. Yesterday he pulled two outlet covers out and started chewing on them. Then he ripped the cable out of the wall. Then this morning he knocked over our torchere lamp and shattered the plastic top part. (Haven't told Allen about that one yet.) We'll see where he takes us next.

Everett is one!

Everett turned 1 on August 9. We had his party on Saturday, August 12. It was a tropical themed party, forced indoors due to humidity and rain. We had a really great time though. We had about 20 or so friends and family over and celebrated with bar-b-que and cake. My mom and I made a palm tree cake, which turned out really cute (see flickr for a picture). Everett didn't dive into his cake much at all...he was much more tentative, as he is with most things. He seemed to like it when he tried it though. I think everyone huddled in the kitchen singing and staring at him threw him off a bit. He got a lot of wonderful gifts and has really enjoyed having some new toys to play with. We gave out a prize (a pineapple) for the best dressed...which went to our neigbors, the Wu's. They both were decked out in tropical prints and thier little baby girl was too. She was too cute!

It's nice that Everett's 1 now, mainly because we are done with formula and baby food. It's sometimes hard figuring out the next phase, but at least it won't be so costly. Maybe we can even get our budget back on track. Ha! Ha!

Now that our summer travels and Everett's birthday are over, we feel like life will calm down a little bit. We're still plenty busy though. I've got a list a mile long of things I want to get done, but mostly everything on it is constrained by time or money. Allen also has his list, in his mind. Sometimes it seems neither of our lists get shorter. I guess that's life though.

Summer Travels

We're finally back from all of our travels. It started a few weekends ago with a trip to the beach (Seagrove, FL) with Allen's family. Seagrove was beautiful and we had a great time. We were there Thursday to Sunday and stayed at the Beachside Villas. Our villa had a view of the beach and we were just a short walk away from the water. We were able to take our monitor out the beach while Everett slept. It was wonderful! Everett loved being in the ocean and the pool.

Then on July 28 we headed on a long trip through Indiana and Ohio, to visit friends and family. We drove from Atlanta to Lafayette, IN, to visit my Uncle Pete and Aunt Sue. While we were there we also saw my other Uncle Joe and his wife along with my cousin's three kids and my mom's cousin and her husband. It was fun. From there we headed to Columbus, OH, to visit my two childhood friends, Trisha, and Becky. We stayed with Becky's parents in Millersport, OH, just east of Columbus. They have a beautiful old farm house and Glenda is an amazing Italian cook. It was great. Then we took off to Dayton, OH, to visit my other aunt, Sue, and two of her kids. My dad and Karin met us there too. The photo to the left is of a beautiful sunset we caught driving home from Sue's farm one night. We went from there to my dad's family reunion in Cold Spring, KY. We ended our trip there and drove back to Atlanta, driving a total of 1900 miles. It was a long trip, but a lot of fun too.

Everett Update

Everett was 11 months old yesterday and now has two top teeth coming in. What's funny is it's his two side front teeth, rather than the two middle front teeth. I can tell the other two top teeth won't be far behind. I'm glad he'll be able to eat more foods now that he's getting his top teeth. He's also now able to crawl up our stairs, which is fun but also a scary proposition considering he can't yet go down. He surprises me how easily he can stand up now and how quickly he gets around.

This morning we were rolling a golf ball back and forth and he could actually throw it to me, which surprised me. When I say throw it, I mean the ball got a little air and it generally went in my direction. He definitely favors his right hand, but he could throw farther with his left. Perfect since we're training him to be the first major league switch pitcher. :) He also can finally wave although not always on command. He's eating more and more and getting so tall. His summer clothes are getting kind of small. Luckily I bought a wide range of sizes because I felt like this would happen. He's wearing some 12 month clothes, but mostly 18 months or 24 months.

We're going to be doing a lot of traveling coming up. We're heading to Augusta this Fri-Sat for Allen's sister's (Lindsay) engagement party. Then we're going to the beach with Allen's family next weekend. Then the following two weekends we'll be on a long trip through Indiana and Ohio visiting various relatives and childhood friends of mine and attending my dad's family reunion. It's going to be a busy July!

Our Pet Deer

I thought after leaving Berry, where the deer to student ratio was 4 to 1, that I would never again come into such close contact with deer again. Little did I know that I would one day live in Peachtree Corners, where the deer roam free. We have evidenced deer being on our property many times due to things like all of our winter annuals being eaten and dug up throughout the winter. Also, this spring, our lilies and hostas were completely devoured down to the nubs. It was a sad morning that day. We also often spot them at night crossing our street. But today took the cake. I was doing dishes and looked out our kitchen window to our backyard. There, about 20 feet away was a huge doe. It startled me at first. We have a fenced in backyard, so it was especially odd. Allen urged me to take some photos. So, I thought it would also be worthy of a blog.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July this year. We spent the day around our house, finishing the repair job on our garage door. Then we met up with friends from church, and new Peachtree Corners residents, Chad & Tracey, and their son Landon. We went to the top Tracey's office building's parking deck that overlooks Lenox. We met up with several other friends there and had a picnic and played games until the fireworks. Turns out that a big thunderstorm came and they didn't start the fireworks until we were already in our car and were heading home. We did get to see some through the back window though. Everett did well considering we were out until almost 10pm.

Everett is really moving around now and while his cousins were here he started really pulling up on things and also started clapping. It's so cute. We've been going to the pool (Best Friend Park pool on Jimmy Carter) a lot lately and it's been really fun. This summer has been great so far. We are in the process of planning Everett's 1st Birthday Party which will be August 12. He'll be a year old on August 9. I can hardly believe he's almost 11 months now.

Pulling Up

Everett just pulled up for the first time in his crib. He woke up from his nap this morning and when I went in there to get him he was standing up. It seemed normal at first and then I was like, wait a minute, you're standing up. He's so cute. Maybe soon he'll start pulling up on other things. He seems like the type that will enjoy walking a lot more than crawling. He doesn't like to crawl too much because I think he's got sensitive knees. :)

Our family arrives today (my sister and her husband and 3 kids). I can't wait to see Everett interact with his cousins.

A Very Warm Day

It feels like summer! Today topped out at 91 degrees. We spent the morning spreading pine straw in our beds in the front yard and then decided to cool off in our new baby pool. It was cold at first, but we all enjoyed it after the sun warmed it up. It was a good investment off of Craig's List. We bought it for only $10. Everett loved the little slide and the sprinkler action it has. I think it will really be fun to have this summer.

10 Months Tomorrow

Everett is all over the place now. It's fun. The other day Allen and I were in the kitchen and Everett was all of the way in the living room when all of the sudden we see his little head popping into the kitchen. It was so cute. He's not too fast yet. He crawls to one spot and sits up and looks around to see what he can grab and chew on. Then he crawls a bit more. So we're not having to baby proof everything quite yet, but it's coming soon!

We finished our downstairs bathroom remodel, minus a few decorative touches. We just finished painting and rearranging our den. It's looks really fresh and clean. We painted it a gold color that took the guy at Sherwin Williams over an hour to match. It looks pretty good. We didn't paint either of the paneled walls or wood trim though, because I'm hoping we'll be able to take the wall down between our den and kitchen when we remodel our kitchen, which I'm praying will happen one day. Although in our home to-do box, the kitchen remodel is in the "dream" section.

We had a wonderful time over Memorial Day Weekend going to Georgetown, SC, to Sam Mohlenhoff's parent's house. They live right on the bay and very close to Pawley's Island, where we went to the beach. Sam's parent's house is so beautiful and we got to stay in their cute little guest cottage. It was fun hanging out with Sam and Trevor and Maddie, who is getting so old now! Also, Sam and Trevor's friends, Mark and Stephanie came along. They were great.

Our awesome neighbors, Tim and Alayna, just had their baby girl, Jae Anna Wu. She's so sweet! They seem to be holding up well. I'm excited that Alayna will be home with Jae so we can hang out together. Hopefully Jae and Everett will be good buddies! Here is a link to their Flickr pictures if you want to see some pictures of their cutie pie: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22413757@N00/

We're hoping to work out in the yard this weekend. The weeds seem to quickly get away from us. Hopefully we can spread some pine straw to keep them away for the rest of the summer at least. Our friend Chris is staying with us right now because he just sold his house and is looking for a new one. Then my sister and her clan will be here next Thursday and stay until the following Saturday. Life is busy, but good!

Everett is 9 months old

We decided to upgrade our Flickr account to the pro status, so we now have tons of new photos uploaded to our Flickr page. There are pictures from Everett's first haircut as well as photos of him at 9 months, which he just turned yesterday. He had his well visit yesterday and was 20 lbs. 2 oz., which puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and he was 30" long, which puts him in the 98th percentile for height. He's tall and skinny, just like his dad! I can hardly believe he's 9 months old now! He's gotten so big. He's happy and healthy and such a joy.

Everett can scoot around on his bottom and when he's on his belly he can move backwards, but he's not crawling yet, which is fine by mom! It's so nice to sit him down in one place and have him still be there when I get back. He has recently started spitting, which is so attractive and he's still constantly drooling although there are no signs of any new teeth. He's only got his two bottom teeth, which he's had for awhile. He loves tags on things and anything made out of paper. His favorite activity is to open the mail with daddy. He is starting to grab for anything, and is even willing to dive out of our arms. He loves to be tickled under his arms and has the cutest laugh. He's so much fun.

We finished painting our living room and dining room and it looks really great. We've still got to finish our playroom and downstairs bathroom and I'm hoping to also paint the den (a gold color). We've got to get all of this done before Everett really starts moving and getting into everything. We're heading to the beach with our friends, Sam and Trevor, for Memorial Day Weekend. We're staying with Sam's parents in Georgetown, SC. We were also there with them last year in April and it's beautiful there. I'm really looking forward to seeing Everett's first reaction to the sand and the waves. Hopefully it will be warm enough for us to go for a swim!

Enjoy all the new photos!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year and it was fun celebrating with Everett. He loved his Easter basket, especially the grass! :) He got some bunny ears and two stuffed animals. Allen and I got a lot of candy that we don't need. My mom was in town to celebrate with us and it was really fun to have her here. She was such a big help to me, especially since I've been feeling a little under the weather with sinus issues. Allen's been feeling it too, probably due to all the pollen. We went to church Easter morning and then over to a friend's house for Easter brunch, with our Young Couples
class at church. It was a good day!

It's amazing to think about how much Jesus has done for us. Easter is such a wonderful holiday to put things in perspective. Allen and I have been reading through the end of 1 Chronicles and into the Psalms. It's been really good to be in God's word together. It's gives me such an assurance that there is a plan for our lives. That we do have a purpose. That God is so much bigger than time and space. I'm so thankful for all God has blessed us with.

We are almost finished painting our living room and dining room. It's looking fabulous. The upstairs toilet is repaired. And now we're about to finish the downstairs bathroom and office/playroom. As Allen says at each step, "All we lack is finishing up." Allen's parents are stopping by this weekend and it will be really good to have them here.

House Projects

Right now we have two toilets out of commission, both from our guest bathrooms. Allen is still working on our downstairs bathroom, trying his best to put up new baseboards and molding. He's doing this for the first time, so there is a bit of a learning curve. Our other toilet broke last week due to a bad gasket. We've got the part to fix it but haven't been able to make time for it yet. Our dining room has 1 coat of primer on the trim and I just went to go get the wall color for our living and dining room today. We've already painted the trim in the living room. The wall color is called Fenland, which is from Duron. Our friends have the same color in their bedroom and I liked it so much I'm copying it. It's sort of a light sage green.

We are making progress though. My lofty goal is to have the living room, dining room, downstairs bathroom and our office/playroom all done by June, when my family will be here staying with us. I would also like to paint just the walls in the den and kitchen. The outside is still keeping us very busy as well though, with weeding and tending to the grass and plants. I feel like we'll be spending the next several weekends working, but I enjoy it. Allen was just joking with me last night about how at the beginning of our marriage he would always be the one getting me motivated to work and now it's usually the other way around. Funny how roles sometimes change.

Everett is just getting over a bad cold. It was tough last week dealing with it, mainly because he was coughing so much he would gag and then throw up. Nasty stuff. He's doing much better now, except for a runny nose. He just celebrated his 8 month birthday yesterday. I can hardly believe it. He's definitely growing up. I'm still finding much more joy in being a mom. My 29th birthday is coming up soon! I can't believe that either. Allen and I have both created our own websites through Google Pages. You can check them out through the links to the right. I've put several of my recipes on my site. Enjoy!

Spring Cleaning

The past two years it has seemed to happen that we get back from our anniversary trip and find that things have crowded our lives. It's interesting that our anniversary is the first day of Spring. It's kind of like a second New Year's Day for us, a chance to start over. Last year weeds invaded our landscaping beds and yard and we had to come home and attack them. This year it was the clutter inside our house, mostly mail and papers. I woke up this morning really wanting to clean things out and get things in order.

It's interesting too that I've also really felt a need to clean out my heart this week. Last weekend I went on a Women's Retreat with our church and it really impacted my life. Our speaker, Jill Hooper, the wife of one of our pastors at Intown, was incredible. She was so vulnerable about her life and her struggles and how she came to find joy even through pain and suffering. I really feel like I have a renewed sense of purpose and I am finally experiencing real joy like I haven't experienced in a long time. It was such an encouraging weekend for me. I think the thing I walked away with is that it's not about what I need to do differently, but how I need to think differently. It's so simple, but it was so big for me.

It's kind of like taking God with me throughout my day (that sounds cheesy, but I can't think of a better way to put it). One thing Jill said that really impacted me is that Satan's lie to us is that we have to spend an hour or more praying and reading the bible to spend time with God. In reality it's doing what we can to get in the word throughout the day (meditating on one scripture and putting it all through our house or reading just one Psalm a day) and thanking God as we go about our day. It really changes my attitude as I go about doing things that seem insignificant, like emptying the dishwasher. I know God is glorified through everything I do if I do it for him. I want to listen to Jill's talks again and again to really soak it all in because I know God really spoke through her that weekend. They are supposed to be up on Intown's website soon.

The warmer weather this week has been so great too. I'm really looking forward to this weekend. Springing forward it so exciting. I love the extra hours of daylight and YIPPEE that starting in 2007 it will be extended to March-November instead of April-October. We are hoping to continue to clean out our house and work on our endless projects...painting and remodeling our downstairs bathroom. Here's to Spring!

San Francisco

Allen and I had a great time in San Francisco. We got there on Sunday afternoon (March 19) and it was a beautiful day. This picture is one of us on the Marin County side of the bay and behind us is the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. On Sunday, we left Everett with my sister and her 3 kids and we drove from San Jose North to San Francisco. We first drove through the Golden Gate Park and over the bridge and then went to Muir Woods, which is a Redwood Forest. We then drove up to the point in this picture, looking out over the bay. It was beautiful!

We left there, driving through the Presidio, to our hotel, The King George. It's a great little hotel in the Union Square area. We checked in and then headed to dinner at a Mexican Tapas restaurant. It was a fun day! The next day (Our Anniversary-March 20), we walked around in the rain to Fisherman's Wharf, Coit Tower, and Ghirradeli Square. We also visited the Cable Car Museum and China Town. It cleared up during the afternoon and we drove back to San Jose along the coast. We even went down to a beach in Half Moon Bay and dipped our hands into the Pacific Ocean. It was freezing!

We've had such a great time here and we're sad to leave. California is such a beautiful place and it's amazing all there is to see and do here. We're really going to miss my sister and her family. The kids are all so cute and are changing and growing up so quickly. We've got to gear up for our long flight home and changing back to our time zone. Here goes!

California Trip

We are here in sunny and chilly California. We have had such a wonderful time so far. Little E did amazing on the flight over. He slept completely through his first take off and landing. He was a little worn out on the second flight after our layover in Dallas, but we couldn't have asked for a better day of traveling across the country with a teething 7 month old! The first day we were here we went for a walk around my sister (Katie) & brother-in-law's (Brian's) neighborhood where they live in Mountian View, CA. We went to their local park then came back for dinner. Allen and I were pretty exhausted.

Thursday we went on a drive to look at the neighboring town of Palo Alto and we got to take a tour of Google with one of the members of Grace Presbyterian Church, where my brother-in-law is now an associate pastor. All of the tech industries here are pretty amazing. Allen fits in well! My wonderful sister hired a babysitter for us that night and we went to an awesome Spanish tapas restaurant in downtown Mountain View. The wine and food were so delicious and the atmosphere was really cool.

Friday we went to Monterey, along the coast, to the Monterey Aquarium. It was a really nice aquarium, right on the ocean. Then we took a drive down the coast to the Carmel area, which is where the picture above was taken. It was so amazingly beautiful. We ate dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Carmel. We were all pretty exhausted by then and all 4 kids fell asleep on the drive back to Mountain View.

Today my nephew (Nick) has his first baseball game. My brother-in-law is the assistant coach. We are going to have a little more of a relaxing day today. We will go to church tomorrow morning and then Allen and I will head to San Francisco by ourselves for two days to celebrate our 2 year anniversary.

Despite the fact that Everett and I both came down with colds the day we left, it's been a great trip so far!!

Young Couples Service Project

Today we volunteered at the Clarkston Community Center in their community garden doing some landscaping and gardening. It was a beautiful day and a lot of fun. Everett even came along and enjoyed being outside and watching everyone work. We're so thankful to have such a great group from our church where we can be involved. It was a really great day. There are other fun pictures on flickr of the day. Enjoy!

Spring is almost here!

Everett was 7 months old on March 9, 2006. He's had some major milestones since 6 months. The week of February 27, he really began to sit up on his own. It's so much fun to have him be able to sit up and reach for toys around him. He's getting a little more independent every day.

Then on March 6, I noticed his first tooth coming in. I could feel it but not really see it, mainly because he will not open his mouth or move his tounge. It's his bottom left tooth. It's taking it's time coming in, but it's definitely there. It hasn't seemed to affect him too much, but it's funny that his first teething session is coming right as we're about to travel to California.

We leave on Wednesday to travel to San Jose to visit my sister and her husband and 3 kids. We can't wait to see them all. We are going to be with them in the San Jose area until Sunday and then Allen and I are going to head into San Francisco for a few days to celebrate our 2nd anniversary, which is March 20! It seems to me that we've been married more than just 2 years. It's definitely been a great time together. We return from San Jose on March 21. We're really praying that Everett will do well on the flights and that we'll all be able to somewhat adjust to the time change while we're there.

The warmer weather we've had lately has really lifted my spirits and I'm just feeling wonderful. Everett has gotten so big that he's grown out of all of his winter clothes. Some of them I can't even snap. I've been going to consignment sales like crazy to get him ready for spring. He has the cutest spring/summer outfits now and I can't wait to try them all out. I took the picture above on his 7 month birthday. He's in the double stroller with Grace, the little girl I babysit for twice a week. It was a beautiful day!

Having this trip to look forward to has really be fun too. I'm also going to a Women's Retreat with our church to Amicalola Falls the last weekend in March. I'm really looking forward to it. Allen's softball games start Tuesday and into Spring we go...

Family Weekend

Allen's family is here for the weekend. Last night his parents and Allen and I went to the Martini's & Imax at the Fernbank Museum. We saw the Amazon Imax movie and it was pretty cool, although it made me a little motion sick. It was a good night out.

Today we've been doing all sorts of things. Allen's sister, Lindsay just got here tonight and is newly engaged (as of last Saturday)!! The picture above is one of them taken on their spring break trip last year. She and her fiance, Michael, are getting married December 9, 2006 in Augusta. We are super excited for them. Michael is such a great guy and we couldn't ask for a better future brother-in-law! Lindsay is 21 and an accountant major and cheerleader at Georgia College and State University. She met Michael there who is getting an education degree. He will be 22 next Friday. They will both graduate in May and Michael is going to teach for a year while Lindsay gets her masters degree.

Tonight I made a Chicken Parmesan recipe that I got from Sam Mohlenhoff, which I've modified just a little bit. It's super easy. Everyone seemed to like it and Lindsay asked me to put it on our blog so that Michael will cook it for her...so here goes:

Chicken Parmesan
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded flat
1 cup italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 egg whites
2 jars spaghetti sauce (or about that, depending on how much sauce you like)
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese
1 package spaghetti noodles (cooked and drained)

Preheat the oven to 350°. Mix bread crumbs and 2 tablespoons of parmesan cheese in a bowl. Dip chicken in bread crumb mixture, in egg white, and then back into the bread crumb mixture and place in a lightly greased oven safe casserole dish. Cook chicken in oven for 35 minutes (or until chicken is fully cooked). Pour spaghetti sauce into a sauce pan and heat it on the stove. Once chicken is done, remove it from the oven and cover it with sauce (to taste) and mozzarella and remaining parmesan cheese (sprinklethymee or basil on top for color). Put chicken back into the oven and cook for 5 more minutes (or until cheese is melted). Serve with spaghetti noodles and extra spaghetti sauce.

Working on the House

We spent all of last weekend painting all of the trim in our living room white. I thought this was so cute of Allen feeding Everett with the paint all over his jeans. Feeding Everett was about all we took a break for but we got it all done. It was a very productive weekend. Allen's still working on remodeling our downstairs bathroom. He's got all the drywall done and is about to start working on putting up the new molding. Then we can start painting and put in the new cabinet/sink, light fixture, towel bars, etc. I can't wait to get that finished. Then we'll start painting the trim in the dining room. It seems like we're definitely making progress on the house. I can't wait until everything is painted. I think it will really seem like a whole new house. Getting all the trim painted in the living room in one weekend really gave us hope that things can all get done...one day. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, as always, and next weekend, Allen's parents are coming to visit. It's going to be really good to see them again and I know they are so excited to see Everett. He's changed so much since they saw him at Christmas. It feels like time is really flying by. I'm really looking forward to the warmer weather though.