Baby Shower, Birthday, and New Year's

Jam packed - that's how this holiday season has been! But I wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Saturday (12/28), my family had a shower for me at my Grandma's house in Cana, VA. I think it had been at least 2 years since I had seen some of them. That's just too long! We used that as a good opportunity to take some family pictures.

It's hard to fit us all in ..

Cousin Hope and Aunt Nannette

Uncle Jason, Cousin Aiden, and Uncle Donnie

Cousins Cara, Ila, and Leslie

Cousins David, Solomon, Ananias, and Carrie

Cousins Darlene, Cariah, and Cooper

Lots of nuts ... too many to list :)

Daddy with Grandma and some of Daddy's brothers and sisters ... too many to list!

Daddy, Grandma, and me

Daddy and Momma with the grand kids

 Sunday was my birthday. I needed that time to relax!

The first thing Josh has bought for Peanut on his own - an Appalachian State shirt - how sweet! 

The coolest "Mommy and Me" bag. Mom holds the orange handles and the little one holds the blue handle. Pretty cool and Josh found it all on his own! 

The best picture I could get of the two of us on my bday ... 

My birthday treats - a cake made by Josh and a K&W chocolate cream pie from Ingrid.

Flowers from Josh - I came home after the shower to a clean house, clean laundry, grocery shopping complete, a cake baked, and fresh flowers. He is quite the Trophyhus! I'm one lucky girl!

 For New Year's we went to dinner with Amber and Sam then went to Carrie's for some games. We had a great time and actually made it to midnight. Probably the last time I'll be able to do that!

And, what have I been eating (since I'm no longer running) ... 

O'Dell's dog basket! Had to get one on the way home from the shower. You can't beat two hot dogs and crinkle cut FF for so cheap!

Amber loves them too!

I reach 32 weeks on Friday (1/3/14) - so stay tuned!

Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Saturday we celebrated Christmas with Josh's family. We ate dinner at Village Inn Pizza and I couldn't have been happier! The food was fantastic and the company was even better! I didn't get many pictures, but here's one of the boys. All my iPhone pics were blurry. That irritates me to no end!

And here's a pic from their Christmas card with one of my Christmas mustache magnets :)

When we returned from NC, my sister from Maine was in town. Yesterday, Christmas Day, my family spent the day at Mom's eating and playing games. We had a great time. Here's a few pics since they say it better than I could.

What our Christmas Card might have looked like .... if we made one this year!

The whole family together for once!

Christmas Eve Presents (Chaos)

More Christmas Eve

Papa and the kids being silly!

Christmas Day Fun

More Christmas Day Fun

 I'll be 31 weeks along tomorrow so next week I hope to have another update. 

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!

Almost forgot these ... here's our tree scouting :)

We crossed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, ... kidding! We went to Kroger!

And here's a sneak peak of the Nursery ... it's starting to come together!  

Faith Night 2013 at the Diamond

Saturday night was Faith Night at the Diamond for the Richmond Flying Squirrels. I joined Carrie, Amber, and the kiddos ... it was packed! Overall, I think it was a really fun time though. The kids did pretty good. We had cotton candy, fried pickles, Twizzlers ... that's why you go to baseball games - for the food! We stayed for the fireworks and Katie and Elijah even ran the bases after the game. Here's few pics of the night:

Carrie and baby Luke

Elijah - clapping?

Me and Lij

Silly Lij

Katie and her "soder"

Lij watching the fireworks

Amber and Katie watching the fireworks

with the visiting mascot

with Nutzy the Flying Squirrel

 So if I was running it would be for the pancakes Josh made for dinner! They were fantastic! Buttery, crispy edges - just perfection!

Jeremy, Heather, and Boston Visit May 2013

Jeremy, Heather, and Boston came to town for a visit and we did lots of fun stuff! We went to Bass Pro shops, Short Pump mall, Genghis Grill, Hobby Lobby, Johnny Rockets, Maymont, and Chipotle. Heather and I also played Bingo twice and Josh and Jeremy went to see Iron Man 3. All in all - not to bad of a visit! Here are some pics of the fun:

At Bass Pro 

Boston: Riding around the neighborhood, having fun in Hobby Lobby, and asleep on the way home from Maymont.

Heather and Boston hanging out on the porch.

Boston and Josh saying bye for now.

Bingo night #1 - American Legion

Bingo night #2 - VFW

The first night of Bingo we were bored as we didn't have enough cards and the second night we were overwhelmed. We know what we are doing now. Next time, they better watch out! On the lookout for a sexy bingo bag now :)

What am I running for? Well, I did have a brownie sundae from Bruster's which had chocolate peanut butter buckeye ice cream - delish! I probably need to run an extra 1/2 marathon for that sundae alone ...

Feb/April/May - Catch Up

I've been collecting ideas on Pinterest. I love the idea of being crafty, I'm just not that great at it. I have bins of fabric, ribbons, etc but I never really put them to good use. With the coming of spring, I got really inspired and made a wreath! 

Finished Product March 3rd

These floral pins are my new best friend!

I'm very proud of the finished product. It even outlasted the crazy winds we had this week - even though my flag didn't. It blew away and I can't find it. One of my neighbors got a free flag! I'm just glad I buy them cheap at AC Moore.

What else have I been up to since February?

I discovered the joys of Spray Paint! I have to say, I really liked it. This could be addicting ...

First, Boris and Doris got new coats.

Then I updated an old mirror from Carrie so it would match my dining room.

It didn't take me since February to complete these projects - just to write about them!

Here's a few more pics to show where the time has gone ...

Snow 3/6/13

Beautiful - but long - hike around Belle Isle 3/9/13

Smiling Luke :)

Painting for work - Before

Masterpiece! Richmond skyline ... love it!

Snow again 3/25/13 - This one was pretty deep too.

I met Sadie on 4-1-13! Caroline, Chad, and Sadie came for their first visit .

Riding bikes with Katie and Elijah in April

Visited NC the last weekend of April. Josh and Boston having a good time.

Me and Boston - and no, he wasn't trying to escape! He tried to get me to give him a bath but I deferred to more experienced bathers. He really likes bath time!

Stopped to see Danielle that same visit but I didn't take a picture!

Lij with his mustache - he did this unprovoked ...it's tape. What's even funnier is he wanted to give it Baby Luke ...

Baby Luke couple days shy of his 4 month bday.

All Things Possible tour with Trophyhus

 I don't know about ya'll, but I'm pretty disappointed in the photo quality lately with iPhone. They seem to get blurrier and grainier each time ... any who, you get the point of the above pics.

 Looking forward to upcoming visits with the Casey's again next week! Ingrid and Samson are coming in for a few days too! I hope to have some good pics to share :)

What have I been, um .. running ... for these days? Well, I did some couch to 5k workouts in April as part of a work challenge to get in steps. The challenge ended Sunday and I haven't really moved much since! I know, I know! I have a strong desire for a snickers blizzard in chocolate ice cream from DQ so I just might have to do some extra exercising this weekend ...