Kevin & Brooke

28 Weeks - 7 Months!

2012-02-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

That's right! 7 Months down, another hopefully 11-12 weeks to go! We're in the home stretch now, the third trimester!

Little man weighs just over 2lbs and is almost 15 inches long (if you stretched him out!). He can now blink his eyes and is even growing eyelashes (just like his aunt Christy ;) haha.

We're gearing up for the end now - I'm sure that belly's gonna really shoot out there in the next few weeks. Thankfully I'm still feeling really good - other than the usual rib pain.

There's still lots to do before Bennett arrives. Please keep praying for a healthy delivery and for a healthy baby!!

In 6 years...

2012-01-31T07:58:00.000-08:00

I'm realizing that a whole lot can happen in 6 years. Take this photo for example that Leigh recently sent me. This was taken 6 years ago the day after her daughter Ava was born when Kevin and I went to visit her at the hospital. Leigh and Jon were still living in Wake Forest at the time, and Kevin and I were both still in college at State. And Amy, Jon's twin sister, was also taking classes at Southeastern in WF and was discipling me that year.

It's amazing to me to realize how many changes can happen by looking at just one picture. Amy is now in India, Kevin and I are married with a baby on the way, Leigh now has 2 other kids, and they live in Boston! Crazy!!

Also, Ava was born on May 2nd, my due date!! How ironic is it that possibly 6 years later to the day Kevin and I will be at a hospital doing the exact same thing! Ahh!

26 Weeks

2012-01-29T12:07:00.000-08:00

Well, technically this was taken a few days late - but here's a photo update of the belly at close to 26 weeks! Grow baby, grow!

How Pregnant is Tony?

2012-01-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

Tony and I have been joking since we found out I was pregnant that we would see how long it took before our bellies were the same size so he would know "how pregnant he is".

Well, we've decided that he's about 6 months ;)

Love my in-laws and that we can have this much fun with each other.

Bennett is going to have the best grandparents!

Choosing Joy

2012-01-17T08:28:00.000-08:00

I have this pregnancy devotional book/journal I received as a gift, and it has some really neat nuggets of truth that I have been reading through. Today's "nugget" really applies to all of us, not just pregnant people, so I thought I would share. I'll just type it as it appears and you can read over the pregnancy references ;)

"One of the most positive choices you can make during this pregnancy is to choose joy. Yes, Joy is a choice. You can choose to be joyful, even when nausea hits. You can choose joy when you're facing challenges at work. And you can choose joy when you think about the changes ahead.

Funny thing about joy: It brings strength and it instills hope. Did you ever think about that? When you're joyful, you're excited about what lies ahead, even if you're unable to see clearly around the next bend. And you're strengthened for the journey. Joy gives you the wherewithal to make it.

So how do you choose joy? Where does it come from anyway?

Joy isn't simply an emotion, something you conjure up. It's something that arises from a deep, abiding relationship with God. Being in His presence brings joy. Staying in His Word brings joy. A simple act of kindness to a friend brings joy.

Choosing joy means choosing Christ - every minute of every day. He will strengthen you from the inside out and put a smile on your face, too."

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. - Romans 15:13

6 Months!

2012-01-11T07:25:00.000-08:00

All I can say is wow, the time is really flying by! We're getting super excited to meet this little guy.
Here's a 6 month belly shot for you - that thing is really getting out there!

And just for comparison:

Updates from this month:

I have to pee all the time! I'm getting pretty good at the night time bathroom routine though - there are some nights I can't even remember if I got up or not ;)
He is kicking me a lot now, which is pretty awesome. I can even feel him kicking on the sides of my stomach now, so I know he's getting bigger in there! (According to my phone app, he's the length of an ear of corn). When I am sitting on the couch I can see him move and sometimes my stomach will even have a little bulge somewhere (like maybe his head or butt?). It looks really weird but is also pretty cool he's that big! Anyone else experience this?
I'm sleeping pretty good these days, which is a praise. I think my body is finally weaning itself of my tummy-sleeping habits and giving in to being a side sleeper.
I have to say, it's getting a little harder to get down to my toes (ie - putting on socks and shoes or removing my skinny jeans) -- Enter loving husband to help with these tasks ;) You think I could convince him to paint my toenails? They have been color-less for at least a month now ;)

Something Practical

2012-01-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

Any fellow readers out there that are tired of your bookmark falling out of your book and losing your place? I feel like this happens to me all the time because I usually carry around the book I am reading in my purse and the bookmark gets jumbled around and falls out in my bag. Very frustrating!

Lately I had been using sticky notes as my bookmark since they have a better chance of staying in place. But once you move it several times it tends to lose it's sticky-ness and it eventually falls out too.

However, I have a suggestion. Rubber bands! That's right, just put a rubber band around your book on the page you leave off on, and it stays on even when tumbling around in your purse or bookbag. I thought of this one all on my own, believe it or not. I bet someone else out there has been doing this for years and I am the last to find out. But just in case you haven't seen this, let me help you out because this has been a good practical fix! (AND you don't have to bend your book pages down this way, for those of you who are page benders ;)

Name Reveal!

2011-12-30T06:51:00.000-08:00

So, after much debate and many weeks of throwing names around, we have finally named our little guy. And his name is...........

His full name will be Bennett Russell (Russell is Kevin's dad and grandpa's middle name, and I always thought it was cute). And Bennet means "blessed" in Latin. I have to give my hubby the credit on this one, this name was totally his idea, but I love it. It's been nice to have something to call him now, instead of "little man" ;)

So excited for him to be here!

Toy Drive

2011-12-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the annual Toy Drive at our church where we reach out to needy families in the community and help them provide Christmas gifts for their families. I love helping out with this each year and meeting some of the sweet people that live around us.

As you can see, we had tons and tons of gifts, but even more people showed up this year than last year. We had over 300 people show up, and even had to turn some people away because we ran out of presents!

I only snapped one shot on my phone, but you get the idea ;)

And here's one from last year's toy drive just for good measure :)

20 weeks - Half Way!

2011-12-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

Wow, our little guy is half way done in there! Its hard to believe how fast this seems to be going by, yet at the same time another 20 weeks seems like so long before we get to meet our baby.

Not too much has changed recently, but here are some highlights and a pic:

Highlights:

-I can feel the baby moving a lot more now, which is such a cool feeling!

-Nausea seems to be under control now and I am officially off the anti-nausea medicine (whoo hoo!). Don't get me wrong, a wiff of the wrong thing can still send me running for the trash can, but that's nothing compared to what is has been, so that's definitely a praise!

-I'm also sleeping a little better these days - getting used to the soreness and training myself not to roll over has been a challenge though

-I'm bracing myself for the next few months... I hear that's when this belly is really going to explode (gasp!)

Thanks again for all the prayers and support!!

Cookie Face

2011-12-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

I just had to share this video because it makes me laugh every time I watch it.

Sarah, if you read our blog - I love you and you are too cute!!

If you have seen the show "Minute to Win It" you may have seen this before - you have 1 minute to get a cookie from your forehead into your mouth. This is the game we played in youth last night and Sarah was practicing before it started. Love this!

It's harder than it looks -- go ahead, try this at home ;)

Phoebo

2011-12-05T10:04:00.000-08:00

So for all you "Friends" fans, you probably guessed from the title that we are having a BOY!!!!

Our Dr apt this morning was so much fun and we got to see our little guy moving around lots! Not to mention, his dad was super excited that he is a boy :)

We got to see our first 4D images of the baby, which is just so amazing to me. All the little details we were able to see are just so amazing and reminds me every time what an awesome creator we have!

Here's a few shots from this morning:

And here's the proof -- definitely a boy ;)

And now the name war begins!! ;)

Charles Woodsworth

2011-11-28T06:19:00.000-08:00

The great Christmas tree debate comes up every year in the Blalock house. Kevin comes from a "real tree colored lights" kind of family and I come from an "artificial tree white lights" kind of family. The past few Christmases we have solved the debate by going with "real tree, white lights". But that frugal bone in my body keeps tugging at me saying "$60 for a Christmas tree?!?! That artificial tree would have paid for itself by now!" Call me Scrouge, I know, but it just kills me that they are so expensive and you just throw them out a few weeks later.

This year I came up with a new idea/compromise... We could pick out a tree from the woods and chop it down, and put colored lights on it. That way Kevin still gets his "real" tree with colored lights and I get the frugalness of an artificial tree. Made perfect sense in my head ;)

So it was off to the forest we went! We dicided for the first year we would at least steal a tree from the property of someone we know, so we went hunting in Kev's parents back yard.

Hmmm... will this one do??

YES it will!! It only took Kevin 5 seconds to saw it down!

Meet our Charlie Brown tree - his full name is Charles Woodsworth ;)

All this time off from work has also gotten us in the mood to cook, so Kevin looked up this recipe for cornbread stuffing and did the grocery shopping and cooking all himself. It smelled amazing while he was cooking!

After a yummy dinner, we turned on the Christmas music and started trimming Charles. Kevin put on a pot of coffee and it was starting to feel like Christmas inside.

He cleaned up pretty well, don't you think?

The smell of coffee was making me want some cookies, but we didn't have any so thus ensued Blalock baking round 2 - sugar cookies from scratch. We're talking flour, sugar, baking powder, etc!

Kevin helped me mix and roll the dough and waalah - yummy cookies to go with that coffee.

(BTW - I wear the Santa hat and apron every year we decorate the tree. I did it the first year we were married just to be goofy, but it has now somehow become a tradition :)

Speaking of Christmas decorating, I also decided to spice up our outside decorations this year. And by spice up I mean having anything at all!

I wanted to put some wreaths on our bay windows but was not crazy about paying $40 a wreath for those pretty ones in the store. I found these plain garland wreaths for $2.50 each at Ollies, fluffed them out and made a homemade bow out of some wrapping ribbon I had lying around. I also inherited these silver/gold pine cone decorations from a lady I work with, and they went perfectly in the rest of the wreath. I bought some of those giant suction cups to stick them on the windows for $2 each, so the finished product only cost $9 total. Not bad!

I changed the bow color after hanging them on the house because the gold was hard to see from the road, but here is what they look like :)

I also have to give Kevin some yard props from this weekend. The whole time I was shopping and working on the wreaths, he was slaving away over our yard. He raked up all our leaves (a huge undertaking), mowed, and also put out pine straw in the natural areas. It was a beastly job and took him all day (especially since we don't have a wheelbarrow!) but he is awesome and makes our yard look really good :) Love you babe!

Thankful

2011-11-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have ever graced this blog with my presence...except as a reader of my wife's awesome posts of course.

I am sitting on the couch with my beautiful bride watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and running through my mind are just so many things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving:

1. Life - I am simply thankful for life; all of the beauty evident in creation (it is a gorgeous day outside), air to breathe, the creativity and talent of people (fully on display on the parade we are watching), and just life in general - it is truly a gift of God. Life is something that I am starting to see differently these days as well as our little one continues to grow and prepare to enter the world. What an amazing process pregnancy is!

2. New life - even more importantly, I am thankful for new life in Christ. I am thankful for a glorious Savior, who for reasons I will never comprehend, saw fit to rescue me from sin, hell, and eternal separation from him. It is only through him that in this life I have has meaning, purpose, and true fulfillment; so I am thankful for new life in Christ. It is only through his life, death, and resurrection that I have new life and the promise of eternal life with Him showering Him with thanksgiving, praise, and worship forever that He alone is due.

3. Brooke - I am incredibly thankful for my wife. I am thankful that she loves Christ and treasures him more than she does me. I am thankful for the incredible blessing she is in my life on a daily basis. She is a wonderful life partner, help-mate, and spouse. Brooke, I love you and thanks for being a great wife and already a great mom!

4. Family - I have been blessed with an incredible family of which I am so thankful. The best thing I could say about my family is that they love me and would do anything for me. I couldn't ask for more than that. I love my family.

5. Friends - I am so thankful for the friendships God has allowed me to develop over the years. I have had friends who not only were great to hang out with and laugh with, but also who were great influences in my life and a couple of which really discipled me and helped lead me to more maturity in Christ. I love my friends.

The list could go on and on. I have literally had about another 10 things run through my head I could write on here as I wrote this sentence. I truly am a blessed man. I also recognize that life is short, fleeting, and know there will be many times in life where thanksgiving in my heart may be harder for me to muster. I will conclude my first (and who knows, perhaps my last!) post on this blog with a Puritan prayer that I am praying today - I pray that this would be your heart's cry as well - that whether in good or bad, may our contentment be found in Christ and in Him alone!

Heavenly Father, if I should suffer need, and go unclothed, and be in poverty, make my heart prize Thy love, know it, be constrained by it, though I be denied all blessings. It is Thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants, for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them. Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to Thee, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of Thy love.

When thy Son, Jesus, came into my soul instead of sin He became more dear to me than sin had formerly been; His kindly rule replaced sin's tyranny. Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin subdued I must not only labour to overcome it, but must invite Christ to abide in the place of it, and He must become to me more than vile lust had been; that His sweetness, power, life may be there. Thus I must seek a grace from Him contrary to sin, but must not claim it apart from Himself.

When I am afraid of evils to come, comfort me by showing me that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch, but in Christ I am reconciled and live; that in myself I find insufficiency and no rest, but in Christ there is satisfaction and peace; that in myself I am feeble and unable to do good, but in Christ I have ability to do all things. Though now I have His graces in part, I shall shortly have them perfectly in that state where Thou wilt show Thyself fully reconciled, and alone sufficient, efficient, loving me completely, with sin abolished. O Lord, hasten that day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

BUMMED!

2011-11-21T10:20:00.000-08:00

So, we were supposed to have an ultrasound appointment today to find out the sex of our baby! Exciting, right? We were super excited....

Until I just got a call from my Dr's office saying "We just checked our schedule and it appears that someone scheduled this appointment in error. We don't do this ultrasound until 18 weeks and since you are only about 17 we will need to reschedule. Oh, and by the way, we are now really booked up so we can't bring you in until Dec 5th when you will be 19 weeks" UGHHHH! Who calls the day of the appointment to burst your bubble like that! That's like saying 'Hey, Santa comes tonight!' and then waking the kid up in the middle of the night and saying 'Just kidding! He doesn't come for another 2 weeks!"

So trying to look on the bright side -- at least they caught it before I came in for the appointment because if I had to have the ultrasound twice it would have cost us $650 out of pocket (no, no!). At least I have the option of finding out at all! (All these older moms keep telling me "they didn't do ultrasounds unless something was wrong back in my day"). And I also heard that the farther along you are the more accurate they can be about telling what the sex is. So those are going to be my happy thoughts for the next 2 weeks.

In the meantime, how about a little guessing game - what do you think we're having??

16 weeks

2011-11-16T05:31:00.000-08:00

Whoa, where did that belly come from? Our baby has now been in there 4 months! It's hard to believe how quickly this is going by.

Some highlights from week 16 -
I'm starting to feel little flutters every now and then - they're subtle, but so cool! And the nausea is also getting better. Although, I learned earlier this week that mixing exercise with Taco Bell was not the best combo (don't think I'll be eating there again for a while). But other than that I am feeling much better than I did the first few weeks.

Energy level is better now too, although I can still zonk out at 9:30 with no problem ;) And I have to say I am really missing sleeping on my stomach -- anyone else a tummy sleeper? It has been such a challenge to make myself stay on my side all night. Talk about sore hips!

We are so thankful for this little one and your prayers for the baby and for us!

An Epic Weekend

2011-11-14T05:30:00.000-08:00

I got to spend this past weekend with an AWESOME group of high school girls. The weekend began on Friday night where we all met at the Terry's house and rode up to church to hear some great preaching from Matt Orth.

Once we got back to the house, the craziness began. There was singing, dancing, snacking, and even some scarry movie watching (we all screamed). I don't know what these girls did to me, but I was even able to stay up to 2am with them Friday night!! (I think my 4 hour nap on Sunday afternoon made up for that!)

Saturday was a special day where we got to do some yardwork for a sweet lady in our church. Her yard was huge and it took us almost 3 hours, but it was all worth it in the end. We even got to spend some time talking to her and learning about her life. She was a sweet special lady that touched all of us and she was so thankful for everything we did. These girls were beasts.

Check out some of the yard action:

Kayla beasting the mower

And Stephanie tearing up the blower

Crazy girls!

Love them!

What an EPIC weekend!

Dinner w A&A

2011-11-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

So, this is clearly the month of dinner with friends :)

This weekend we met our friends Adam and Ashley at Summit to go to church with them, and then we all went to dinner afterwards. It was such a fun time to hang out with them since we don't see them very often.

Christy -- we were joking that you are our Monica (the glue that holds this group together) and since you have been gone we have all struggled to make plans and hang out with each other! We thought you would be proud of our outing :)

After dinner, Adam and Ashley introduced us to the amazing Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory apples. Kevin and I have never had one, so it was quite the decision. We ended up getting the Apple Pie apple and boy was it good! Tasted exactly like apple pie :)

Thanks for a fun night!! Can't wait to hang out again soon.

Ah-dorable

2011-11-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

This week we got our very first baby gift from a sweet couple in our church. They are also huge Duke fans and ~~suffer~~ I mean, go to all the Duke football games with us. All this stuff is SO adorable, I just can't believe we will have something to put it on pretty soon. Crazy!

In other pregnancy news, I think I'm starting to feel better (thankful for the second trimester!). I had awful nausea (I won't call it morning sickness since it was all day!) starting around 5 weeks. I tried everything until my Dr finally had to put me on anti-nausea pills. They have been a life saver! I started out having to take 3 a day, but recently I have gotten down to just 1! Whenever I try to go without the 1, I wake up in the middle of the night feeling sick. But I think in a few more weeks I will be able to go without it. I'm like Phoebe, I get my morning sickness at night ;)

Thanks to everyone for praying for us and the baby. We SO appreciate it. This has definitely been a time of growth for me (in my faith, not just around my waist ;), but I am totally enjoying the ride. I can't imagine what other lessons the Lord has in store for us as parents!

14 weeks as of yesterday! It is flying by already :)

Reverse Trick-or-Treating

2011-11-01T06:16:00.000-07:00

Well, to start off the Halloween festivities at the Blalock house, I was in the mood to cook something (spooky, I know - must have been a full moon). I think it was actually because I was browsing through Pinterest yesterday and came across this yummy recipe for meatloaf.

Here's what it looked like before it went in the oven - wrapped in bacon and slathered in homemade sauce. Yummm

Then after the meatloaf was in the oven, we started working on our Halloween cookies. We have been wanting to meet our neighbors ever since we moved in, but they never seem to be around. I thought if we went trick or treating to their houses and took them freshly baked cookies it would be a good way to introduce ourselves. (aka - reverse trick or treating where we go to their houses with food instead of showing up asking for candy)

Sounds like a good idea in theory, only as soon as the cookies were done and we looked outside, all but one of our neighbors had all their lights off! Such a bummer. But we hiked over to the one house with a full plate of cookies and rang the doorbell... and rang the doorbell... and stood there.... until finally we decided they weren't coming to the door. So sad :( We were super bummed.

Although the night was not a total loss!! We did have a trick-or-treater come by:

And after she left, we did had a for real trick-or-treater! A little girl dressed like a vampire. I wanted to take her picture but Kevin said that would be weird so I refrained. You can use your imagination though :)

Happy Halloween!!

Dinner with R&M

2011-11-01T05:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we got to see Rachel and Marshall! They were in town from Che-raw and met us for dinner at Red Robin (we were told they don't have one there so they were looking forward to it!)

It was such fun to catch up with friends - there just wasn't enough time to fit in all the catching up. I thought of a million things I meant to ask Rachel after dinner :)

And what blog post is complete without photos??

We miss you guys!! Come back to the dirty D again soon :)

Dinner with Rachael

2011-10-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

Last night I had dinner with Rachael for her birthday (that was this past Sunday). We decided to go to the Cheesecake Factory (yum!). I hadn't been in a long time so I was super excited to go.

In the spirit of fall, I decided to try the pumpkin cheesecake - very good!

I found this cute purse for Rachael (I so wanted to keep this for myself :)

After dinner we went back to my house to watch a movie (it's kind of become our routine). Only this time, we had Micah to entertain us. We are babysitting him for my parents until Sunday because they are going out of town to a wedding. (Yes, I said babysit and not dog-sit because he is treated like a human).

Micah LOOOOVES Rachael

I think he's in love

Happy Birthday Rachael!! Love you and so thankful for our friendship!

Evita

2011-10-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I were given tickets to go see the play Evita at Raleigh Memorial Auditorium. My mom's first cousin Jeff is on the board at the NC Theatre and was kind enough to give us the tickets. It was a huge treat!

Since Jeff is a member of the board, we were able to go down to the Backers Club before the show and enjoy this nice buffet of free food and drinks. It was quite a treat.

Here's the stage set for the opening act - we had to turn off everything after the show started. The play was SO good, and all the actors were so talented. I had never heard of the play before, but I would highly recommend you check it out. Really neat story - true story - about Eva Peron, the first lady of Argentina.

Thanks to my hubby for going to a play with your wife!!

3 Months!

2011-10-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

So this post is technically a few days late, but better late that never! I have been taking these belly shots from the beginning when we found out I was pregnant, so for your viewing pleasure here are the first three months of belly growth!

Just found out - about 4 weeks

8 weeks - 2 months! - a little pooch

3 months! - definitely getting chubby now :)

And here's a look at what the baby looked like at about 11 weeks. So amazing how much it has grown already!! Truly a testament to our Creator.

Thanks again for everyone's prayers and support. We really appreciate it!!

May 2, 2012

2011-10-10T14:27:00.000-07:00

That's right!! That's the date that Kevin and I are going to be parents!

We are super excited, a little nervous, but enjoying the ride so far.

Just in the past few weeks I have been learning to give up control and fully surrender to God. We know that this is His child and He already knows the plan for it's life. When we first found out, my immediate reaction of course was to worry - I'm a worrier - not one of my best qualities for sure. I think in other situations I have said "I'm giving full control to God", but somehow I always managed to have some of the control while telling myself I had surrendered. I'm realizing now that this is the first time I am truly surrendering. It's awesome, but a little scary at the same time. But He is constantly teaching and growing me - thankful for that!!

We assume our little one (that's right, there's only ONE in there!) will look like some combination of these two :)

So how did it all go down you may ask?? Well, I knew it was a possibility I might be pregnant, so I anxiously took a pregnancy test... and it was negative. I went about my normal activities - running, Insanity, Zumba, but several days had passed and my 'monthly visitor' still had not arrived. I had somehow convinced myself I was not though, so I didn't think much of it. Until I woke up in the middle of the night (like 1 AM) thinking about it. I thought, 'I'll just settle this now and take another test'. Well, wouldn't you know that there were TWO lines that time!! I crawled back into bed - wide awake at this point - next to Kevin who was sleeping soundly of course. I kept debating on whether to wake him up, but decided I wanted to do something special to tell him.

Later that day I went to the grocery store and bought strawberry cake mix (pink for a girl) and blue icing (blue for a boy) and made these cupcakes below. When Kevin came home from playing basketball I asked him if he wanted a cupcake... He took a long look at them and then turned to me and said "Not-uhh". I was like YES, and he was super excited!!

Jennifer & Colin

2011-10-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

This weekend one of my best friends, Jennifer, got married to her (now) hubby Colin. Jennifer and I have been friends for as long as I can remember. Our parents were all friends before we were even born, so we have been around each other since we were babies! We have shared tons of fun memories together, and it was so special to be a part of her wedding day.

The wedding was really sweet. The ceremony was in an old country church, and it was such a beautiful fall day! I had Kevin on camera duty since I was in the wedding and didn't have as many opportunities as usual to snap photos. Here's one he caught from their first dance - so sweet :)

Actually, all these pics - except for the one he is in, and the last one (which I took), all these photos are courtesy of Kevin :) - I'm proud babe, your skills are improving!

Jennifer was SUCH a beautiful bride!

Love you Jenny!

We'll Miss You, Pop

2011-09-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

As many of you saw on Facebook, my grandpa Pop died on Tuesday. This was my dad's dad that lived in Statesville, NC (where all the Clendenin's are from). He definitely lived a long life (he was 90 years old!), and I have some great memories with him. We used to go to Statesville all the time when I was little. This picture was taken in Pop's house

My dad's parents divorced when my dad was 3 years old, and Pop remarried Ruth (in the picture below). She died when I was 9 from an annurism. If you can see in the far left of the picture, the A-Model (or Model T) car that my dad and Pop loved to work on together. Old cars were their thing. They would spend hours out in the garage beside Pop's house fixing up these cars to look so nice. Then they would enter them in car shows.

I remember one time my dad and Pop took me to a car show, just the 3 of us. I sat in the rumble seat (the pop-up seat in the back of the A-Model) for hours and hours in the hot sun. Of course neither of them thought to put sunscreen on me, and I got burnt so bad that all these blisters popped up on my face! My mom was less than thrilled ;)

And here's the last picture me and Pop took together at mine & Kevin's wedding. He rode all the way up to Durham and back at 87 years old - so sweet. My dad said that when they went down to Pop's house he has this picture by his bed :)

One thing I have to say that has been heavy on my heart since hearing about Pop, is just the reminder that we will all face death one day. It is inevitable. We will all die. This just renews the importance and the urgency of the gospel:

We are sinners that deserve the punishment of death and eternal separation from God. But God, being rich in mercy, provided a way for us to be forgiven of our sins - through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God that came to earth and lived a perfect sinless life. He paid the ultimate price - a painful death on a cross where he bore the burden of all our sins. He died in our place! If we believe this to be true, and pursue a relationship and knowledge of Jesus, our sins are covered by his blood and we are able to have a relationship with God. This is awesome news! This should not sound routine or boring to us! This is the hope and the promise that we have to live each and every day. Can you imagine how depressing life would be if you knew that when you died you were DEFINITELY going to suffer in Hell for eternity? But no, to those who believe, we have the hope and the promise that when we die we will get to spend eternity in heaven worshiping our awesome God. I pray that this news would never get old.

We don't get a second chance to make things right with God - we are living our second chance right now, and there is no guarantee of when our lives here will end. It could be today, it could be when we are 90. If you aren't sure where you stand, I would beg you to pursue finding that out now! Don't wait until you are older, when life slows down, when you aren't so busy. DO IT NOW. You aren't promised tomorrow, and your eternity is at stake. If you seek answers and seek God, he will meet you where you are. It's pretty cool how God works, actually :)

I didn't know my Pop well enough to say with 100% certainty where he will spend eternity. This is a terrifying thought. I'm not saying that Pop was not saved - he very well may have been. I just never got to have any deep spiritual conversations with him. I know that he attended church (which, by the way, doesn't mean you are saved just because you go to church). And I know that after my dad accepted Christ, they had some really great spiritual conversations together. These things are definitely comforting. But the bottom line is, and the thing I want to stress the most - get it right now! Jesus loves and cares about each one of us, and desires to know us and have a relationship with him. Don't be afraid to take that leap of faith.

Our New Deck

2011-09-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been MIA for a few weeks. I have been busy busy at work, and not up to much out of the ordinary outside of work, which equals a lack of blogging! Anyway, over labor day weekend we did have some action going on at the Blalock house. Our deck needed some serious TLC. This has been one of those projects on our list since we bought our house (coming up on 3 years soon!), but one we just hadn't gotten around do doing yet.

Lucky for us, Kevin's grandpa has the hookups and found us a pressure washer to use. Not to mention, he got in on the action at the spry age of 86. He's a beast. Sadly, he is probably in better shape than Big Spence... seriously.

Just using the pressure washer made such a big difference! Our deck was instantly transformed from dull and rotting to this wonderful wood color! It was like it was brand new all over again.

(side note: i love how photogenic Tony is ;)

Step three was to let it dry, and then the guys came back another day to paint the stain/protectant on the wood. We picked a neutral color so it would still look like the natural wood. It was quite a long process, but when they were finished it looked AMAZING! Props to everyone who helped - Tony, Kevin, PaPa, and Troy. Yall are awesome.

"Oh Baby Baby"

2011-08-25T05:21:00.000-07:00

Don't act like you don't recognize the lyrics to Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" - it's a classic ;)

That's right people, I got to go to the Britney Spears concert last night with Kayla. She called and invited me a few weeks ago, and I was really looking forward to spending some time with her. It was lots of fun!! Even if I am partially def today ;)

It was a really cool show, and the first major concert I have been to -- I did see Britney Spears one other time in concert when I was little (like 9 or 10 maybe?) when my friend Rachael W's older sister thought it would be fun to take us. We were at Walnut Creek sitting on the lawn, and she left me and Rachael on the lawn while she went to get us all some food and drinks. Only, before she made it back to our seats, the lights went out to start the concert and she couldn't find us!! She had the security guards looking for us and everything. They even took her down to the front row to stand with them until the lights came back on -- she said she could see the sweat on Britney's face! I bet that was cool, but she said she couldn't even enjoy it because she was worried about us the whole time. And Rachael and I were just as freaked out... we thought something happened to her sister! (Thankfully we ended up being reunited at the end of the concert).

Needless to say, last night's experience was much more enjoyable!

FYI...

2011-08-23T07:04:00.000-07:00

"FYI"... That's the name of our new Sunday School program in the youth group. We are changing things up this year, and I am super excited to be a part of it. I'm just excited to work with the youth in general. I have been so blessed this past year to work in the children's ministry as a sunday school teacher and as a cubbies leader, but I am eager to start this new chapter working with the youth - especially the sweet girls we have in our youth group. I have been praying about where God wants to use me, and working with the youth seems to be a pretty clear answer. I think it will be challenging for me - spiritually because I will be leading a small group and setting an example for these girls, and also challenging to push me out of my comfort zone and be bold about what I believe.

This past year, the students were given a "test" if you will, of their spiritual knowledge, and it was surprising to find out that many of them do not know a lot of the basic biblical truths. This was an eye opener for things we need to be teaching and focusing on, so this year we will be going through The Westminster Shorter Catechism. When I first heard the title of this book, it was a little overwhelming... lots of big words! But what it really boils down to are 107 questions and answers of solid biblical truths that every Christian should know.

For example, here's the first one:
Question: "What is the chief end of man"
Answer: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever"

(Then our book gives us lots of verses and material to show how this is the answer, and also follow-up questions to help think through the answer. It's really great stuff.)

I'm also glad to be a part of this, because I need to know this stuff too! Just thumbing through the book, there are several questions that I wouldn't have known the answers to. I'm glad that being a leader will hold me accountable to learning this material, and I hope that we are all able to grow spiritually over this next year. What could be better than learning more and growing closer to our creator? I'm just sayin.

One more!

2011-08-22T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have one more crochet project I wanted to share with you - these little booties were made for Amber's baby shower... and as some of you know she is having TWINS for the SECOND time! That's right, babies #5 and #6 are on the way. She is actually scheduled for a c-section on the 30th, so if you are reading this then say a quick prayer that everything goes smoothly!

These booties were so fun to make, and also pretty quick

If you unroll them, they actually look like little baby Uggs, which I think is super cute!

Recent Crochet Projects

2011-08-13T20:42:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting for a while to post this baby blanket I finished for Jason and Charity. I was saving it to give to them at their shower, and I knew if I posted a pic ahead of time she would definitely see it! I tried a new stitch this time, and also tried a new scalloped border. For the final touches, I also added some pink satin ribbon around the border and a bow in one of the corners. I was pleased with how it turned out.

This cute little guy I just made yesterday for Tera's birthday. She LOVES owl's recently, so it was only fitting to crochet her an owl! He was a lot of fun to make, and Kevin named him "Patches" since I used a patch for his tummy.

Charity Maternity Shoot

2011-07-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

While we were in Slovakia this past week, I had the opportunity to take some maternity pictures for Charity. It was a lot of fun and she is so stinkin cute! Here are a few of my favorites, but I'm sure she will post her fave's later too :)

We're Back!

2011-07-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

Just a quick hello to say we are back from Slovakia and it was a great trip! If you have been following us on the RBC blog, you already know all about it! I'll post a few highlights here later, but most of my pictures are already posted there so go check it out!

http://rbc-slovakia2011.blogspot.com/

Leaving Soon!

2011-07-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that we leave TOMORROW for Slovakia! I think these trips always sneak up on me, but I am so excited it's here. I will be posting all updates and pics throughout the week on the RBC Slovakia blog located here:

http://rbc-slovakia2011.blogspot.com/

I'll also try to share all the posts on Facebook since I know a lot of you check that more often.

Please pray for a safe trip for our team and that the gospel would be advanced in Slovakia!

Family Photos - A Few More

2011-07-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Myrtle BEACH Week 2011

2011-07-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

This past week was our annual Blalock family beach trip. I was soooo looking forward to this week as I do every year. It's actually quite depressing that it's over now, but it was so much fun and relaxing and I am mentally still there!

We stayed in a new place this year, so it was fun to explore the new room. Here's a little tour:

Our room (with our own half bath!):

Kitchen:

Living room:

Screened in Porch:

The first night there we unloaded all our luggage and hit the beach for a quick walk

Here's a view of our place from the beach

We walked down to the pier right at sunset and I snapped this

gorgeous shot right at the sun was going down.

we also found this huge hole someone had dug - I think my toes were touching China! lol

Some classis Blalock beach traditions include Par-3 golf as well as Putt-Putt. We also have a favorite Putt Putt place that we play at every year - Mt Atlanticus. One of our favorite things about this place is that they have a 19th hole at the end that is SOOO hard, and if you happen to make the putt, you get a free LIFETIME pass!! Check out Kevin't attempt:

We also love to play par 3 (and make it a competition of course!) It was a heated battle as usual, but team Kevin, Amber, Brooke took the victory =)

On the 4th of July they were setting off tons of fireworks on the pier. Ben and Tera were also at the beach near Oak Island and drove up to meet us one night. We enjoyed hanging out and watching the fireworks with them.

While we were sitting on the pier, there was a little boy and his dad watching the fireworks together, and the little boy got a little chilly and his dad let him crawl up in his t-shirt to get warm. It was the most precious thing ever and I just had to sneak a picture of them. (I am SO submitting this pic in the photo contest we have at my work!)

One of the top things we look forward to at the beach is the eating (yes, we are now old people)! My personal favorite is the night Bev makes shrimp and grits in the room. They are SO stinkin good. I think I ate at least a pound of shrimp all by myself.

The remains ;)

Ok, so it may appear that me and Amber planned to dress alike, but I will have you know that we both came out of our rooms looking like this totally on our own! And the funny thing is, the same thing happened last year, only with orange dresses. All I can say is, great minds think alike. You can't make this stuff up :)

I capured a little pool time - the pool was full (of children, teenage girls, and Kevin, Troy and Tony :) lol

We also did a little beach photo shoot on the last day - I think this was the highlight of the trip for Tony ;) I knew it was bad when he was begging to go to the outlets and saying "I love Tanger!" He was a good sport tho and suffered through it (and offered to pay Kevin if my camera "happend to disappear by next year's beach trip", haha!

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Amber also took a lot of great shots on her camera, so I posted a few of her highlights here too :)

Woodland Creatures

2011-06-30T06:11:00.000-07:00

When I left my house for work this morning, there were two huge deer right in our front yard. I didn't see them until I had already opened the door and made a lot of noise, so they are in the process of running away when I grabbed my camera, but I did manage to get a quick shot of them.

I love that he has his tongue out. - Christy... doesn't this remind you of the horse pictures ;) haha

So speaking of wildlife, some of you know that a mommy bird decided to lay her eggs in the wreath on the office doors of our church building. They started out as little eggs in there, but they have now hatched and the babies are growing like crazy. I snapped these shots of them on Sunday as we were leaving church - I think it was lunch time for them too ;)

And what wildlife post would be complete without a little squirrel action?

This little guy loves our front yard tree. He's always in there!

Kids Fishing Tourney

2011-06-27T08:47:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, our church has a fishing tournament for the kids every year which is a lot of fun and draws in lots of families from the community. Kevin and I were there to help out/hang out and I of course had to take picutres of all the adorable kids that were there. I posted lots of these on Facebook, but just to make it blog official, here are the highlights:

The cute pregnant ladies -- can you guess which one is having twins?? ;)

WhiteWater Rafting Pics

2011-06-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Rach for the great photos!

She posted lots more on Facebook too so make sure to check them out :)

Carrowinds/WhiteWater Center

2011-06-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

***Disclaimer - I did not take my camera this past weekend for fear of messing it up or losing it, but Rachel stayed on the sidelines and took lots of great pics that I will post as soon as they get back from Vegas and move to SC and I can get them from her :)***
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This past weekend was SO much fun going with the youth to Carrowinds on Friday and then the National White Water Rafting Center on Saturday. After the youth served all week doing mission projects in Durham it was quite a long weekend, but so worth it!

It was the perfect day to go to Carrowinds - there were hardly any lines, and the weather was nice too. Everyone's favorite coaster seemed to be the "Intimidator". I think I personally rode it 8 times! The climb to the top is the worst... an 85 degree angle!! Here's a visual for you:

Then we spent Friday night at Nathan Smith's church where we had a HEATED game of Foosball. Here's a shout out to my teammates Morgan and Kelsey, and coach Blalock - you would have won it all had it not been for Johnny the defender ;)

On Saturday morning we were off to the National Whitewater Center where more fun ensued. Here's a visual for what this place looks like. It was really neat to see a man-made river - it was quite realistic! Plus there are tons of other things to do there such as kyaking, rock climbing, mountain biking, zipline, mega drop, and more!

Our guide for whitewater rafting was really cool. He had been all over the world rafting and had lots of cool stories to share with us - including one about the time he was trapped behind a waterfall for 14 hours and was finally rescued. OMG!

My rafting experience was going great until my loving husband decided it would be a good idea to get his brother thrown out of the boat. What he was forgetting is that his loving wife was on the same side as his brother, so when we hit the drop sideways Troy was able to hold on, but my luck was not so good. Here's a hint as to what happened to me...

As my fortune would have it, Rachel was on the sidelines with her camera aimed at our raft at the exact moment I was ejected from the boat, so I have an actual picture of me being thrown out that I will post later. Needless to say, my ride down half of the olympic training route on my bum was not quite as enjoyable as the first half in the raft! Plus I have a lovely bruise to show for it :)

And apparently what goes around comes around because Kevin was thrown out on the next trip down :) hehehe

Weekend Festivities

2011-06-13T06:44:00.000-07:00

This was yet another busy weekend for us - starting with some VBS help at the Blalock's on Friday night. The theme this year is NY/big city, so we were tracing all kinds of "city people" and cutting them out.

We also traced and colored some pigions because hey, what big city is without pigions? Duh!

Then right as we were on the way home, there was a huge lightning storm! We pulled over on the side of the road for me to snap this - yikes!

Then on Saturday we started the day with tons of yardwork! No pics, oops, but I can sum it up this way - I was in the back yard having words with the hedge trimmer while Kevin was in the front yard yelling at the weedeater. Our bushes in the back yard were threatning to take over our deck, so I was hacking them off and it was not pretty. They do look nice now though!

Then it was a quick shower and we were off to the Blalock family reunion - this is the first year I have been since knowing Kevin, so it was quite the experience. Everyone had to wear a nametag with the relative they "came from". Check out some of these names! Ulys?? Really? (My name was "Johnny")

Just a little fun in the car thrown in here (we did spend a lot of the weekend in the car too!)

Then Sat night we were off to the fish fry (to eat again - ugh!) which was also a lot of fun.

Me & Tera :) love her

Then after the fish fry, some of the boys decided to see if they could lift each other (yeah, I know, please don't ask because I haven't the slightest explanation). They kind-of look like one of those ice-skating couples if you ask me ;)

The ice-dancers

Then Dillon and Brad decided to get in on the action, although they look more like male cheerleaders. Nice hight on that Russian, Dillon ;)

The Cheerleaders

Dinner w Friends

2011-06-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Last night we had dinner with our friends the Colclough's. Crystal fixed a yummy spaghetti dinner that we all enjoyed (note the empty plates!). (Not to mention the amazing strawberry cupcakes we ate for dessert -- no evidence left from those either!). We really enjoyed spending time with them, and also with their two sweet boys Rhys and Addison.

Here's Addy coming down the slide (well, Rhys is attempting to pull him down at least)

Rhys - such a sweet smile!

Learning how to slam dunk!

Thank you Adam and Crystal for having us over!!

We love spending time with you and your family :)

Amber & JD's Wedding

2011-06-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we went to my cousin Amber's wedding.

It took place in the Historic District in Raleigh called Mordecai Historic Park.

The church was really tiny and cute - the perfect place for a small wedding.

It only held about 50 people.

Right across from the church was this other cute little house, and guess what?! This was the home of President Andrew Johnson. How neat!

My cousin Amber, the bride :)

The bride's sister, April and her new baby Mia

My MiMi (right) and her sister Christine (left)

Happy B-day Dad!

2011-05-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

This past Thursday was my Dad's b-day (the big 64 for Big Spence). We went to one of his favorite restaurants, Squids in Chapel Hill. It was such a beautiful evening, we decided to eat outside. They have the best seafood ever, plus my mom's favorite desert - Oreo Mud Slide (oreo crust, coffee ice cream, and whipped cream, topped with almond flakes and a chocolate drizzle - YUM). We took some pics on Kevin's phone but had some issues emailing them, so here is the lesser quality text-message version :)

HAPPY B-DAY DAD! We love you!!

Amber's Shower

2011-05-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend!! I had so much going on, and took so many pictures and am just now getting around to posting all of them. So make sure to keep scrolling down becuase I just added 3 separate posts :)

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On Saturday afternoon, we went to a wedding shower for my cousin Amber. Some of my other cousins/family members were throwing the shower and they went all out!! Check out the spread:

Amber got lots of neat gifts for her home. I gave her this brownie pan and threw in some brownie mix -- (hey, the pan is nothing without the brownies to go in it!)

She also had this GORGEOUS cake. Wanna know where it came from?.....

Whole Foods!! -- I know! I was impressed too.

Her wedding is only 3 weeks away, so she is really excited.

Love my sweet cousins - Cecelia and Christy

Fancy Brunch

2011-05-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, my sweet grandma, MeMe (yes, she prefers it be spelled this way) invited me to a brunch at her church. This was a fancy brunch, and the ladies decorated the tables with the fine china and everything looked so beautiful! You were also required to wear a hat to this party...

Here's my grandma's best friend in the whole world... who also happens to be Pastor Marc's mom for those of you who read this that go to my church =)

Here are all the sweet ladies I got to sit with. The lady on the end, Mrs June is one of the sweetest people I know. She used to teach my Sunday-school class when I was little. She's also Coach D's mother-in-law for those of you who went to Carrington.

In case you're wondering... I borrowed my hat from my mom, and my dress is compliments of Goodwill :)

I also ran into my friend Brandy when I was there, so it was neat to catch up with her too :) (Just when I thought there would be no evidence of me appearing in public like this!! haha)

It was a really cute event, and I was glad I got to go and share a sweet memory with my MeMe :)

Cook-IN

2011-05-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday night, our sweet friends the Stewarts had us over for dinner. We were going to have a cook-out, but because the weather was calling for rain, we decided to make it a cook-in. (Smart choice, because it definitely poured rain while were were there!)

If you don't know Kim, she is a mother of 5 precious kids, and one of the sweetest people you will meet. Not to mention, she managed to pull off an amazing dinner (and dessert!!). I don't know how she does it, but I am definitely impressed!

Our sweet friends the Reyners & Ferrells were there too - what a fun bunch!!

We had lots of laughs around the dinner table :)

Later in the evening, the family dog Mindy decided to make an appearance. The kids LOVE Mindy, but I think Mindy may love them more. She was SOO excited and was jumping all over everyone. As you can see here, she assumed the best seat in the house... right on top of Lydia :) All you can see of her is her pretty green panties :)

We also brought the kids some hula-hoops to play with.

Even the big kids got in on the action (cough... Tucker)

Jackson loved coloring with Christy.

I played my fair share of house, barbies, hot potato, hide & go seek, among other things! It was so much fun to spend time with these sweet kids that I usually only see for an hour each week at Awanas. And got a slight glimps into the life of a mom of 5. Kim - I SO admire you :)

Thank you Stewarts for having us over and letting us spend time with your sweet family. We LOVE you and LOVE your kids!! :)

BEACH 2011

2011-05-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to take a much needed trip to the beach. Thanks to Rach's family connection to an amazing ocean front beach house in Oak Island. We could not have asked for a better view! Christy, Rachel and myself (and our hubbies of course) were able to go down Thursday morning and spend the whole day on the beach until the rest of our gang could get there on Friday and Saturday. We took a little photo-op on the first night (a special thanks to our personal photographers Kevin, Chad, and Marshall :)

I just had to include some bloopers along the way :)

Love this one - Christy and I are kicking each other in mid air, and Rachel is "backing it up"

Classic

The guys couldn't resist getting in on the action, and loved our jumping shots so much

they decided to take one of their own ;)

This is pretty much where the guys spent the weekend - except for Kevin who after the first day out on the beach got a massive sunburn on the tops of his feet. It was pretty bad... if you have a weak stomach then you might want to skip the picture coming up ;)

The "old man" look. Complete with Chad's "old man" chair in the picture above (2nd from the left)

OWWWWWWWCCCCHHHHHH!!!!!!!

He has his personal nurse that has been attending to his wounds the past 4 days, but he IS going to the doctor today to get them looked at since they still hurt pretty bad and he is having trouble walking.

All the girls!! From left to right: Rachel, Ashley, Erin, Christy, Me

All the guys. From left to right: Chad, Tyler, Adam, Kevin, Marshall

It was such a fun weekend, and sadly it will be the last time this whole group is together again for a while so we were really thankful to get this weekend to spend with each other. Also, check out Christy's blog for even more beach photos (my personal photographer was a bit out of comission after the sunburn incident! :)

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I had to throw this one in here too - after we got back from the beach we had an awesome Mother's Day dinner at the Blalock's house. My parents came over to join Kevin's family and Bev cooked all kinds of food. It was like Thanksgiving!! Happy Mother's day to two wonderful mothers that are so special to us!! We love you both very much.

Jordan's Shower

2011-05-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we had a wedding shower for Jordan and Blair. I have to say, this was my first time co-organizing a shower and I learned that it is more work than you think! Thanks to much help from some sweet ladies at church, everything went great and we had a fun afternoon celebrating with Jordan.

The grub:

Some of my partners in crime ;)

The guest of honor

Thanks again to all the sweet ladies for your help coordinating the shower!

We couldn't have done it without you!

CONGRATULATIONS Jordan and Blair!!

Cookout Fun

2011-04-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

On Easter Sunday, my aunt invited our family over to her house for a cookout. We had hamburgers, fries, mac & cheese, baked beans, string beans, and of course - strawberry shortcake for dessert! It was such a beautiful day to be outside!

Me & MeMe

Sweet girls - we had lots of fun swinging in the hammock (and playing a little soccer)

Easter Festivities

2011-04-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend was full of Easter festivities. To start, we had our Good Friday/communion service at church and I got to dance in one of the songs from our Easter performance. Then on Saturday we had the annual Easter egg hunt at church. It was really wet outside from all the rain, so we hid all the eggs inside - which was organized chaos of course ;)

Some of the hiders:

I love, love, love this picture!

Rach and her nephew Logan (who sometimes calls me Rachel too :)

Me & Terrrr

One special treat this year is that Dan the Animal Man came to present several of his exotic animals to the kids. I was also super excited about him coming. Here are a few of his critters he brought to share with us:

African Porcupine - her name was Barby (haha)

An owl - he was a hoot ;) (I know, I'm such a dork)

Lemur - sooo cute. Dan was brushing him and he lifted up his arm so he would brush his armpit.

A 7ft Alligator...

...Which, by the way, I learned after the show that alligators are much different than crocodiles. Alligators can go a while without eating and are less likely to seek you out and eat you just to be mean... unlike the crocodile which does just that!! I was showing Dan the picture we took in Peru petting what I thought was an alligator and turns out it was a crocodile!! OMG. He said I was lucky to still have my arms and that the only reason he didn't eat us is because he looked obese. WOW - and here I was thinking that swimming with the pirhana was the most dangerous thing we did ;)

(Remember this pic from Peru?)

Needless to say, I was much safer while taking this picture below :)

My latest obsession

2011-04-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would post my random thought for the day - seeing as I haven't updated the blog in a while (sorry!). This is a food obsession... by the way. So lately I have really started liking avocados! I never liked them before (nor did I like guacamole or anything else with avocado in it), but apparently that thing about your taste buds changing every 7 years must be true. (I say that with the disclaimer that I will NEVER like mayonaise. Taste bud changing or not. It groses me out).

Anyone have any good recipe's with avocado or a good guacomole recipe? Please share!

An update to my "Frame Updates" Post...

2011-04-11T12:00:00.000-07:00

To update -- I was looking at my masterpiece after getting everything on the wall yesterday, and I was not digging the scrapbook thing by the end of the day. I think it might have been too busy. I'm not sure, but it came down and I started mulling over other ideas for that wall....

This is what I decided on - one of those stick on wall decals. There were SO many choices, not to mention you could even design your own on Etsy. Sometimes too many choices can be overwhelming, so I decided to keep it simple and pick one of the pre-made ones off Amazon. (Not to mention I had $7 credit from a gift card still remaining!) I'll make sure to post it on the wall after it arrives.

I also decided to add a little more detail to the wall collage - note the plates and vase full of (fake) red flowers. Just a little punch of color to go with the blue/yellow.

Thanks for letting me bore you with my office decor dilemma's ;)

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Original Post-

**please forgive my camera phone pictures**

So to update my previous post, I now have the empty frame collage hung in my office at work. I hate that the walls here are so white, but I think it turned out pretty good considering :)

I also realized that the scrapbook paper I bought to make my collage didn't match the frame color that well (the collage turned out to be a lot darker blue than I was expecting) so I bought a lighter aqua blue color to re-paint the poster frame with. I think they accent each other.

Empty Frame Collage

2011-04-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at empty frame collages for a while, but I have been really itching to do one since Melanie posted about her DIY project and they turned out so good! So finally this weekend I went to Lowes for spray paint and got the job done. I started by pulling the backs out of a bunch of old frames. Plus I scored those two giant poster frames from a lady I work with who was giving them away!

Next, I sprayed two coats of spraypaint on all the frames, making sure to get all the cracks and crevices =)
Then I let them dry in the sun for about an hour...

And presto! Empty frame collage!

You may be wondering what I am going to do with the two poster frames... I have been thinking about that too, and they are too big to be part of the collage. So I bought some scrapbook paper and I'm thinking of making a collage of my favorite pieces in the pack.

This also made me think whether I should take some of the same paper I use in the collage and put it in the empty frames. (It's all going to be hanging in my office together, so maybe that will make it coordinate?) Thoughts? Suggestions?

Saturday Fun

2011-03-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

The weather was SO nice this past weekend, we just couldn't resist being outside in the sun. We went over to the Blalock's house to hang out with Troy and Amber and spent most of the time playing outside. We played a little "horse" on the basketball goal, and then progressed to golf, and then disc-golf. (Why yes, we are amazing wives and girlfriends :)

Classic

Apparently it's helpful to stick out your tongue :)

There's the tongue again!

No comment on these next three.... just wow.

These next two aren't really part of the fun Saturday in the sun action, but I just couldn't resist taking these. This little guy kept climbing circles around the tree and then popping his head out to look at me.

It was too cute.

Little peeker :)

An Important Day

2011-03-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

Today is definitely an important day. I's my mom's birthday!! Why is it important you may ask? Well, if it weren't for my mom then I wouldn't be here - duh! :) lol. But seriously, I am thankful for my mom and I hope she has a wonderful day today!

For her birthday, we took her out to dinner last night at Kurama - yummy Japanese. They were supposed to meet us after church and we were all going to ride together. Well, I knew we were in for a ride (literally) when I heard the "uuuuuuggggaaaaaa" horn of Dad's A-Model and then saw it coming around the corner.

It's like his love child

And here's where we were holding on for dear life about to get on the interstate (ahhhhhh)

Thankfully we made it alive and enjoyed a great dinner. The waitress cought wind it was my mom's birthday, so the drummer boy came to our table beating the thing as loud as he could and was chanting a bunch of Japenese stuff. They also brought her a piece of cheesecake :)

Clapping to the bongo

Probably even scarrier was the ride home on the interstate in the dark. Not to mention we stalled out once which is when I was sure I had taken my last breath. Thankfully we survived to tell the story :)

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you :)

Metamorphosis 2011

2011-03-07T12:27:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was Metamorphosis - an in town retreat every year where students invade host homes and college/young adult leaders lead bible study sessions and hang out with the students. We also enjoyed some great music from Seth Condry and great preaching from Nathan Smith.

I really liked the curriculum this year - it was themed "The Event" and focused on the main event that changed the whole world - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I really liked how it focused on the gospel, and took a deeper look into things that the students hadn't learned before surrounding the gospel story. There were some great conversations and we were all challenged by what we learned this weekend.

Not to mention we had a wonderful host home - Bobby and Kim Salmon. And we had some really fun times at all the games on Saturday (despite coming in last place overall!). I loved spending my weekend with these sweet girls.

Me, Kim, Bobby, Tera

Michelle, Micala, Carly, Gracie

Lauren, Brittany

Christy also posted a lot of pics from her group this weekend, and you can see some of the fun games we got to play. It was an awesome weekend.

1,095 days ago...

2011-03-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

That's right people. We have been married 1,095 days (or 3 years) today! Is that not crazy? It really doesn't seem like it has been that long. I think it has gone by so fast becuase it has been so much fun. I mean, I get to see my best friend every day, have sleep-overs every night, and do tons of fun stuff together. Being married is awesome!

Thanks to my hubby for being my best friend, and awesome spouse, always being there for me and making me smile every day. It is so cool to see how far God has brought us since we first met into who we are as a couple today. Not to mention that he is still working on us, and I am excited to see what the future holds.

I love you!!

Here's a little walk down memory lane to that day three years ago...

My girls!

The fellas

Just to put it in perspective... look how tiny Ava was the day we got married...

and Leigh was still pregnant with Emet!

Love this one

And just a little reminiscing from the honeymoon in Jamaica.

I SO wish we could go back there again!

Jewelry & a Bag

2011-02-17T06:52:00.000-08:00

I just had to share, because I am so excited about this new item my mom got me for my birthday. It's a jewelry organizer!!! I'm always digging through my jewelry box looking for the match to an earring, or forgetting I even had things becuase they were burried at the bottom.

Well, I was like a kid in a candy shop getting to put my stuff in this :) I think it's technically ment to hang in a closet because it has pockets on both sides, but I put it on the back of my door for easy access (and because the only things I put on the other side were a few bracelets).

I really should have taken a before shot of the tornado that was formerly my dresser, but I am happy to say that it is completely cleaned off now. Just a picture and a candle remaining :)

Thanks Mom!

I also got in a crochet-ing mood yesterday, and found the cutest pattern for a small bag. I also tried out a rose pattern that I have been wanting to make, so it was a good excuse! I found the pattern here after blog hopping from one of Kim's friends. lol

Next, I want to make a headband that I found on the same blog, so stay tuned for that coming up soon!

Joey & Janice's Day of Fun

2011-02-15T07:28:00.000-08:00

Have I mentioned that I have an amazing husband? Well, in case I haven't, let me tell you about the fun day he planned for me for my birthday. From what I hear, I can be picky when it comes to gifts, so he never knows what to get me (or is terrified I will return it!). He also likes to get me surprises rather than me telling him what to buy, so we have a dilemma when it comes to Christmas/Birthdays/etc.

SO - instead of getting me a random gift this year, he planned a super fun day of shopping at my favorite places, eating at my favorite places, and other fun activities. The whole day I kept chanting "Joey and Janice's Day of Fun, ahahahahaha". (For those of you not up to date on your friend references, this is where Joey & Janice plan a fun day to try and get along for Chandler's sake. Joey was miserable the whole time, as Kevin probably was too, but he didn't show it one bit!)

We started the day at Plato's Close - this was my first time going there btw - because Kevin heard about a sale they were having on the radio and thought I would like it (how sweet). So we went, but it was INSANE. It was like a mad house of people shoving and yelling at each other, and the line to check out was seriously 2 hrs long..... needless to say we left!! But it's the thought that counts!

Then it was off to the "good" Goodwill that is my favorite, and there was success! I got several tops and sweaters (and even found some Keens for Tera!).

Lunch at Panera Bread - YUM

Then we went to the Bowling Challenge Kevin planned (ohh yes, in case you were wondering, there was an itenerary we followed). I realized by the time we got to bowling that I hadn't taken any pictures!! (I seriously should have taken one of the mob in Plato's Closet).

Ohh yeah, that was a strike :)

I promised I would post this - a definite victory for my hubby because (as he will tell you),

I usually beat him at bowling.

We also rented a movie and had a nice dinner together at home. I was SUCH a fun day for me, and I appreciate my sweet husband for making it special. Thanks babe!!

As if my day of fun wasn't enough, Valentines Day is right after my birthday! I came home to these lovely flowers on the kitchen table after work yesterday, along with a homemade card (my favorite) with a sweet note, and some Twizzlers. They are now on my desk at work!

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday or Valentines!!

Volleyball Battle Wounds

2011-02-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday was the start of the Ridgecrest volleyball season, and it was LOTS of fun. I've never played volleyball before (it overlapped with other sports I played), so I was excited to try somehting new. I had great intentions of taking pictures while the other teams were playing, but I totally forgot and only snapped this one with Rae (we were twins :)

Did I also mention that volleyball is a bit rough on the hands? Check out this bruise on my thumb - (unfortunately both hands look like this)!! I also have a bruise on my leg from diving on the floor, but for obvious reasons I am not posting a pic of that :) Apparently I need to toughen up for next week. This sport is brutal!

Craft Night

2011-02-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

This past Friday we had a craft night at church, which was lots of fun! We had all kinds of crafters show up - from knitting & crochet to scrapbookers to cross stitchers to blanket makers. You name it, it was there. Tera was getting acquainted with her new Cricuit (a scrapbooking machine if you are not familiar), and if you can't tell from the look of pure joy on her face, she was having a great time.

I also got to spend a little personal time with the Cricket - my absolute favorite cartridge is the card making one. It will literally cut out the envelope, card, liner, and all the decorations you need to make the cutest cards ever. I was a big fan. I made several cards, but here is just one example so you can see how cool!

I also did a little crocheting at the craft night - I hadn't picked up my hooks since Christmas when I was in present making over-drive and got a little burnt out with it. So this was a great opportunity for me to get back on the yarn and get to it again. Kevin picked out the colors - didn't he do a good job?? ;)

Ben won the coin flip for male hat model, as you can see here in exhibit A

Dear Cricuit,
Can we have a play date again soon? I pretty much love you.
Love,
Brooke

I take it back

2011-02-03T08:50:00.000-08:00

Ok, I just wanted to say that I take back what I said about the camera bag in the previous post. After seeing it in person, it just wasn't what I was expecting from the pictures. It's a lot bigger than it looks, and the padded box that the camera goes in takes up a lot of space in the bag. Plus, since it is so big, it doesn't slouch around my waist like you would think. It just sticks out and is awkward.

I'm a little bummed because I had high hopes I was going to like it, but at least I can keep looking for something else I like better! Just wanted to share my opinion so no one else purchased this off my recommendation.

Birthday Wishlist

2011-01-31T07:05:00.000-08:00

One of the hardest parts about my birthday is coming up with things to ask for, because it is so close to Christmas. Most everything I wanted I either asked for already, or bought later with my Christmas money. However, there are a few things I have my eye on this year that made the list.

First up, this is the "Lowepro Passport Sling" camera bag. I love that it doesn't look like a camera bag. It has tons of pockets both inside and out, and has this awesome cradle for your camera and lenses. I love that it is big enough to carry around all my camera gear, but is also stylish and functional.

You can see in this pic that it has an extra pouch you can expand for extra storage, and you can remove the camera box if you need to. It's great that you can use this both as a purse as well as a camera bag. I'm thinking I will love using this in Slovakia this summer :)

Next up, a "create your own tumbler" coffee mug. I'm always drawn to the coffee mugs whenever I am out shopping, but I am always changing my mind about what I like. I don't want 20 coffee mugs, so this is the perfect option for me. I can create my own designs, probably using scrapbook paper or a template online, and change it up whever I get bored with the current design. Thanks Melanie, for this awesome idea :)

I'm also contemplating asking for an ESV journaling bible. This was on my Christmas list, but I took it off. I just can't decide if I want this or not. In one way, it would be nice to write notes directly in my bible, but I'm also not sure if I would use this as much as having a separate notebook to take notes in. I dunno.

If I do get this, these are the two I like...

the brown leather

Or, (this one is new), the raspberry and chocolate. This one is only available for pre-order, and says the cover is "paper". Does this mean the flimsy paper that creases? Or is it paper like cardboard? I can't tell.

Anything else cool I should add to my list??

Ice Skating

2011-01-25T06:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had a typical hangout with friends -- you know, dinner and ICE SKATING!! How many years has it been since we last went ice skating you may ask?? Well, we figured out it was definitely 8th grade for me (9th grade for Christy and Rachel, and 10th grade for Kevin, Chad, and Marshall). Needless to say we were a bit rusty! But after a few warm-up laps we were good to go.

Our little ballerinas

The video is a little fuzzy, but you get the idea :)

I think Christy was right - I think the guys had more fun than we did... especially Kevin :)

Bradley & Caitlin

2011-01-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

So an official blogger shout out to Bradley & Caitlin on their recent engagement!! I had the pleasure of taking some engagement photos for this cute couple last weekend, which was lots of fun. I don't want to spoil anything because I know they are planning to send out announcements, but I just couldn't help but share a few shots.

Aren't they so cute!?!?!

Hurricanes and Duke games

2011-01-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, I gave Kevin tickets to the Carolina Hurricanes game. I got the tickets from work, so they were box seats, and the best part - they were free!

My friend Katherine from work was also able to snag a few tickets, so she was there with her husband.

It was a really good game - the Hurricanes scored 6 goals! There was lots of action... and even a fist fight!

This was our view from the suite

This is the lounge area - our seats for the game are below (and the chairs were soooo comfy)

The grill and snack area

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As if all that sports action wasn't enough, we also got some free tickets to the Duke vs Miami game! Kevin's uncle had 4 tickets, and Troy and Amber also had tickets, so all 6 of us piled up in Tony's van and headed to the game :)

I had lots of fun playing with the zoom lens!

What a sporty 2 days!!

Christmas with the Blalock's

2011-01-03T10:58:00.000-08:00

So to preface this post, if this is the first of the Christmas posts you are reading. I totally slacked over the break and didn't post anything, so here are about 4 posts worth of Christmas pictures!

I also have to admit that I forgot to take my camera to the Blalock's Christmas Eve festivities, so I have limited "evidence" of those events. But let me assure you they were filled with lots of good food, lots of laughs, and lots of present opening.

We still have a date to make the last batch of ginger bread cookies, so I'll make sure to take extra pictures then to make up for it :)

I did, however, capture these few treasures while we were there:

It just doesn't get much cozier than this people. We actually got snowed in at the Blalock's on Christmas day and the day after, so we saw a lot of this living room :)

And Bev's tree, always decked out in fancy treasures!

Before getting snowed in, we went to Kevin's family's traditional Christmas day lunch out in Roxboro. We eat in this big wearhouse building next to tons of open field. It had just started showing right after we ate, so our 24-7 photographer (aka Troy) saw a great photo op, and started snapping. There wasn't a lot on the ground yet when this was taken, but it was starting to come down pretty hard.

This is from day 2 of our snowed in vegitation state - I went to the back of the house to see what the guys were up to and this is what I found:

Classic Kev & Troy

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's! I know we did :)

Christmas with Mom & Dad

2011-01-03T10:45:00.000-08:00

Micah is totally part of our Christmas tradition. He has his own stocking and my mom even wraps his presents. He's really good at unwraping them too... he's just not as good at knowing which ones are his and which ones belong to other people!

My dad has a "Grinch" stocking, and Micah's not too sure what to think of it. You can tell by his expression... he walked by it and gave him a growl.

Micah also likes to show off whenever they have company over. Nice.

We love him anyway :)

He's always sticking his nose in other people's presents!

After tearing away the paper, he found a new bone inside!

My mom likes to cheer while he's opening the presents :)

Big Spence and Micah... what a pair.

My mom got these super soft fleece pajamas she had been wanting.

And this scarf I crocheted her

I was kind-of a bad picture taker and didn't capture all the other gifts, but we had lots of fun opening everything. It was definitely a great Christmas :)

Christmas at MeMe's

2011-01-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

Christmas at MeMe & PaPa's house is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I rememer being a little girl and looking forward to it so much... especially when we used to have it on Christmas Eve because we would go home afterwards and put out our cookies for Santa. But I still love it, even now being older.

MeMe starts cooking early that morning, and boy does she cook. It is never less than a feast.

Papa doing his honors of carving the turkey.

Amazing chocolate pie

Me with the head chef

The whole Lawson gang

Ok, so let me explain. After we get done eating, MeMe likes to take a few minutes to put up food and clear out the living room before we start opening presants. The girls were getting anxious and really wanted to open the presents, so Kevin and I were trying to entertain/distract them. I know how much they love their gymnastics class, so we tried to get them to show us some moves. They seemed to really love the idea of us participating, so here you go!

I know it appear that I am kicking Kevin right in the face... I'm not though - promise :)

This is Kevin's attempt at a scorpion - lol.

The girls giving it a try... Kevin has already retired to the couch :)

Arabesque

Kevin was also given the task of putting together one of the girl's Barbie pool's...

I soooo hope we have a girl :)

Me & Big Spence. Gotta love him.

College Class Christmas Party

2011-01-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

So there was talk of making the college Christmas party a "tacky sweater" party this year, but we didn't think of it until the last minute and figured it wasn't enough time to get the word out. Christy brought over one of her mom's old sweaters to throw on (just in case), and you see what happened to it...

Yes, I'll still claim him :)

Yeah, I'm going with "A picture says 1000 words" on this one

This is how we really felt...

... just kidding!!

Tyler came a little late, but still got to get in on the gift-action. We played our traditional dirty santa game, and some of last year's gifts made a repeat appearance. He went home with this treasure :)

And Christy went home with Hug-and-Love... I think... unless it got stolen again!

I ended up with some WONDERFUL homemade cookies from Whitney. They were delicious!!

Good times! Maybe Hug-and-Love will be back next year ;)

And Christmas Begins!

2010-12-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are 2 weeks until Christmas and it really feels like Chrsitams has already started! We had the first of my family get together's yesterday afternoon, the Christmas Pageant is this coming weekend, all the Christmas week get-together's are after that, my Christmas parties at work (2), Christmas Eve Eve at my Grandma's house, Eve at Kevin's grandma's family and then at his grandma's house and then to the Blalock's house. Phew, I'm tired just typing all of that.

Anyway, here's a little recap of my family get together from yesterday... and maybe an introduction to those of you who don't know my grandpa's side of the family:

This is my cousin Kari (who I only see once a year - sad!)

And I think you may know these two stinkers - my twin cousins:

Bristol

...and Baylor

This is PaPa's sister, Ruth. If any of you have ever seen pictures of my Great Grandma, Nanny (their mom) you would know how Ruth looks EXACTLY the same. It's crazy to me. Sorry I don't have a digital pic of Nanny to post. She passed away before the era of digital photography and I don't have on on me to scan.

And of course, MeMe and PaPa (my mom and Britt's parents)

I believe you've met me and my mom already too ;)

My mom's sister Britt and her girls

The girls opening all their presents - you see those hats they have on? That was their gift from us - they're teddy bear hats. I posted another picture below so you can see what they look like better. Sorry I don't have any shots of Colton or Nolan - Colton kept hiding from the camera and Nolan was at a birthday party!

And this was the hat I made for Kari:

Gifts...and Toys

2010-12-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

So, I have been quite busy lately with Christmas shopping as I'm sure most of you have been too. However, I also had a long list of crafty gifts I wanted to make. I think my list was a little too optimistic given how much time I gave myself to make everything, so I might end up being one of those people who is at the mall on Christmas Eve finishing their shopping! I hope not though, so fingers crossed!

One of the gifts on my "make" list was for the 4 ladies at my office that I am closest with. Now before you start wondering what a "KJAK" is, you should know that these are their first name initials ;) I wanted to make them all the same thing, but for them each to be a little different, so I spiced it up with the different colors. None of them are avid blog readers, so I figured I could post this without revealing their gifts.

I just bought some clear glass ornaments at AC Moore, some puff paint in different colors, ribbon, and some fake snow. Let me tell you, it was quite a challenge getting the fake snow into the glass balls. Needless to say there is snow EVERYWHERE. There was even a piece on Kevin's face yesterday and I put the snow up a week ago (sigh).

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In other news, we were also at the Ridgecrest Toy drive last night, which is a really fun event to be a part of. We have been collecting lots of toys over the past few weeks, and we give them away to needy families in the community. Charity posted some great pictures from the toy drive.

Here's a few "God moments" from last night:

Last year (the first year Kevin and I had a Christmas tree) we got everything out to decorate and realized we didn't have ornament hooks (of all things!). It was 5 minutes till 9:00 (when the dollar general closes), so we rushed down to get hooks. They were just locking the door when we got there, but the lady decided to let me in after I told her why we came. I ended up talking to her about the Toy Drive, Ridgecrest, church, her family, etc. and I invited her to come. I was so hopeful and looked for her the whole night but she never showed up :( But this year, guess who was here? YEP! She came!! I got to talk to her for a minute and say hello. She said she remembered me from last year and our conversation and that she had a rough year and lost her job, etc. but she was trying to have a good Christmas with her daughter. I invited her to come back to church sometime, so please pray for Dawn. How exciting!

Also, this was the first year Kevin could be at the Toy Drive (because of his previous job), and he helped out with talking to some of the families while they were waiting to shop. He said he had one really great conversation with a guy who was really seeking for Christ and had been reading the bible, but didn't fully understand the gospel. He said he knew he didn't want to go to hell but wasn't sure if he was saved or not. Kevin got to share the full gospel with him and help him understand better what he had been reading. The guy said he was so thankful he came becuase he knew that was what God wanted him to hear.

I love it! This really is what Christmas is about - God saw that we were in need of a savior, and he gave us the greates gift of all, which is Christ!

Happy Turkey Day

2010-11-29T07:42:00.000-08:00

Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving this weekend! If you're tired of turkey, or just eating in general, then I am right there with ya! Here's a re-cap of all the eating we did, so you will understand why I feel the way I do!

Day 1 - the Blalock's

Tony's first plate... the "before", if you will:

...aaaaand the after :)

We also played Mexican train with the dominos, but before we played I made this tribute to our Thanksgiving turkey, Carl. (Don't ask me why, I think the Turkey was getting to my brain)

Then Day 2, the Clendenin's:

(BS sporting his hot suspenders we gave him for Christmas last year)

Yummmm

Look who I cought under the table beside my mom eating off the fine china! If you know my mom, or Micah, this shouldn't come as a shock ;)

MeMe (Mom's mom)

Mischevious...

As soon as Kevin got up to get seconds, he was quickly replaced :)

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful too! Now is everyone ready for Christmas???.......

Shutterfly 2010 Holiday Card Promotion

2010-11-23T10:47:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of Christmas, a lot of people have the tradition of sending out holiday cards. This is something we have been saying for a long time now that we want to start doing. So that naturally raises the question - where to get them from? Well, look no further because Shutterfly has some really great choices and it is so easy to create them online. Just upload your pictures and you are ready to go. Not to mention they will ship them right to your door OR straight to your recipients, so you can do it all from home. I'm a big fan. This year they have tons of options to choose from. I love the variety of layouts and colors. The best part too, is if you’re a blogger then you may be able to win 50 free cards just for posting about Shutterfly. You can learn more about the free cards by visiting the Shutterfly site, or click here: http://bit.ly/sfly2010. I also have this link on my Facebook page. Here are links to some of my favorite Shutterfly items:

Christmas photo cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

Christmas cards to http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

wall calendars to http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars/wall-calendars

*This post is part of Shutterfly's 2010 Holiday Card promotion

Christmas Cards

2010-11-22T06:25:00.000-08:00

This weekend, we met the Ferrell's at the Eno for a homemade photo shoot to get some pictures for Christmas Cards. And by homemade photo shoot I mean "We'll take pictures of yall and yall take pictures of us." What a great idea Christy! :) I think several of them are keepers - despite the fact that my husband can be a blinker!

So there you go! You just might see one of these in your mailbox ;)

Thanks again to our wonderful photographer, Christy!!
And thanks to Char for the cool sign idea ;) And the dress!! XOXOXO

Ear Flaps

2010-11-19T06:24:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know you guys are getting tired of me blogging about my crochet stuff, but I couldn't resis posting this ear flap hat. I think I'm still going to add some ribbon to the flaps so it can be tied in a bow under your chin, but this is what it looks like right now :)

Puff Hats

2010-11-16T06:26:00.000-08:00

These two hats were made by special request - all Carolina blue for Rae, and all chocolate brown for Caitlin. Ladies - I hope you like them :) These were a lot of fun to make, and are quite thick. I showed them to a few ladies I work with and ended up taking some more custom orders!

I also decided to add a crochet tab to my blog to keep track of all my creations. That way if I ever take custom orders, I will have photos that people can shop from. After I get more projects under my belt, I think I am going to split out tabs for "blankets", "hats", "scarves", and "other" separately. We'll see what happens :)

Once Upon a Time...

2010-11-08T06:15:00.000-08:00

So if you have ever heard the story about how Kevin and I met and when we started dating, you would be familiar with the part about how he asked me out in Haiti on the roof of Walls Guest House (which sadly is no longer there after the earthquake).

Anyway, this memory has always existed only in my head, but little did I know that someone snapped a picture of this epic moment - 8 YEARS AGO. (omg, where did all that time go??!!?!)

Isn't that crazy?? We look so little! Kevin looks like he is 12 (although, he was actually a junior in high-school)

And as they say, the rest is history :)

NCSU vs FSU

2010-11-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

So, this post is a little out of order (the State game was last Thursday), but I forgot about these pictures - whoops! Anyway, Troy was able to get us tickets to the NCSU vs FSU game as a late b-day present. If you don't know already, it was an AWESOME game. We sat in the student section (good times), and it was crazy as usual.

(FYI - all these pics were taken with the playsport because it was raining and there is no way I was lugging the Nikon on the hike to the stadium :)

It was packed! Look at all those people! (Something a Duke football fan rarely sees on their home turf ;)

Check out these crazy boys who painted their bodies for the game - "Welcome to the Carter"

Right after we won, all the players ran over to the student section to celebrate the victory.

Ooo, and another cool fact - apparently we made it on TV! I haven't seen it yet, so I hope I wasn't picking my nose or something, but Tony has the game recorded so we are gonna check it out :)

Thanks again for the tickets Troy!! We had lots of fun.

Summerville

2010-11-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we all packed in grandma's Crown Victoria and headed down to see Beverly's parents near Charleston, SC. When I say we all packed in, I mean all 6 of us - 3 in the front and 3 in the back. We were smooshed in, but we made it!

One of Kevin's cousins, Trevor, was playing his last home football game for this season. So we all went to watch. It was soooo cold. Luckily we had some hot chocolate to warm us up.

The fam - That's Bev's dad on the far left, then Bev's mom is beside her, and her brother Steve is the one right in front of Tony. And Steve's girlfriend is sitting beside Bev's mom.

Trevor is a guard, #54. I couldn't get a good pic of him by himself, but he is out there :)

On Saturday we had a small feast at the grandparent's house. Don't you love the candid shots ;) -- Sorry these pics are kind-of dark. They keep the lights off in their house during the day so my flash was the only source here!

Cute little chocolate covered mice that Steve's girlfriend made.

And no trip to Summerville is complete without a game of Guesstures (like charades). Here are some highlights:

Tony's were really funny, so I posted several of him :)

I believe this one was - "heart attack"

I'm drawing a blank on this one, but his face is too funny. I'll ask Kevin to remind me and I will update later.

And this one takes the cake -- the word was "flirt", so he walks over to Bev and starts pushing her arm over and over. We were guessing "punch", "beat", "shove" -- I guess their relationship was love at first fight ;) HAHA -- I know, I know, I'm sooooo corny.

This is funny too - we split up in teams of 3 to play "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader", and Tony ended up with Me & Amber for partners. This happened for a game at the beach this year too, so we adopted our old team name of "Big D and the Ladies". Doesn't he look just thrilled to be our partner?? ;)