Tan babies, houses and party vans

The weeks are flying by around here, I am starting to feel like I'd like my next present from someone to be a time turner like Hermione has in Harry Potter - anyone?? We spent the past weekend at the beach with my mom and family thanks to a great 'end of the year present' from one of her students - which was a week at their beach house at Sunset Beach! I can't remember the last time we were all at the beach together, so it was great. My skin is a little more sensitive than I anticipated and I got seriously 'redneck red' the first day there! As Becky said, maybe now our babe will come out tan!

[Sidenote: some of you may not know this story. Our great friend John Kessler, who you saw knocking at our door in a picture several months ago, relayed this story to us from his sister who is a labor & delivery nurse. A rather ...redneck... white couple from eastern NC came into the hospital and were having their baby - 9 months after their wedding, a total honeymoon baby. When the baby was delivered, he was mixed. The father looked around and wanted to know what in the world was going on. To which the mother replied, "Baby, Baby, don't you remember on our honeymoon when we were both so tan???" (insert silence from doctors and nurses in the room) AND HE FELL FOR IT. "Oh yeah, oh yeah..." Can you imagine? Do you think she had been planning to use that line or did she just come up with it on the fly? I still don't know whether to feel bad for that guy or to just be amazed at how well that defines eastern NC in my mind...]

Well other than tanning this baby girl, much has been going on at the house but I haven't been able to capture it because the flash in my camera is broken and it's been after dark when I've been able to get over there the past few weeks.

But, things look much different with no dumpster out front, landscaping has gone in, and we have part of our front steps finished!

Can't wait for everything to grow and mature - it all seems so little right now!

We're kind of obsessed with our sink - which we found on ebay and was such a steal of a deal...well that is until you factor in freight shipping for a 160lb cast iron sink. Details, details...But, we can't wait to do some of this with our own little pea in this sink!

Meanwhile we're also fighting SIDS one fan at a time! The electrician was out yesterday and started putting in all of our lighting and fans - apparently it was a big job because only the upstairs got finished; but here is the fan in 'her' room (stop complaining that she doesn't have a name, she'll have one soon...or at least once she's born!) A fan. VERY exciting, I know!

But something that is very exciting are these little signs of life sprouting up around the house - let's just hope they don't all get washed away in these crazy downpours!

This weekend, we are headed off to Richmond, VA for an intern reunion...oh, and Pat's wedding - once again with the fabulous group of interns I worked with at Windy Gap in 2004. And this time, we're getting serious and bringing back the party van. Michael had his parents mini-van at camp the summer we all worked together and we would all 12 pile in anytime we went somewhere and it was the official party van. To bring it back, this time around we are renting a 15 passenger van and making the drive all together (minus 2 slackers who are flying straight to Richmond but plus 2 kiddos in carseats) - should be TOTAL hilarity! Pictures and stories to come next time!

The 4th and Beyond

We headed to Emory for the weekend of the 4th to spend the most redneck 4th of July ever with my dad, Adam (+family) and Laura. As evidenced by the picture to the left. [To get the full effect, you should know that the shirt I'm wearing, from Ashley, says 'knocked up.']

We even got the BB shotgun out and had a competition to see who had the best shot. I won with 8/12 (six of those shots were in a row!) - I knew that riflery class at Crestridge was worth more than just all the letters and notes I wrote in between my turns laying on the mats! I don't think I've touched a gun since then, but clearly it stuck with me :) We lit up the night sky with our own fireworks show that night in the front yard supplied with fireworks from Blackbeard's Firework shop in Gaffney, SC. It was mostly successful minus the times that the girls hid behind the stone wall as Terry & Adam were debating on which way they should be pointing some of the rockets they were holding (already lit!) We took an intermission during which I taught Laura how to control the shutter speed on her camera and she got some great pictures from the sparklers!

Got to see lots of this cute little man who is growing up so fast, and we are headed to his 'baby' dedication at church in Raleigh this coming weekend and will get to snuggle him some more. Before we go, we're doing the dreaded baby registry, let's pray we don't get totally overwhelmed!

When we got home, we had lots of new updates to share from the house - kitchen cabinets as promised, paint colors, built in shelves, cabinets in our bathroom, stained front porch! Enjoy!