Our little Liddy...

With the imminent arrival of our baby boy, Andy and I have been doing our best to show lots of love to little Liddy and we've both made promises to her that we'll continue to show her lots of love even after baby boy arrives. Of course, we know that is easier said than done...

Having said all that, I felt a blog dedicated to our little 'puddin head poppins' (just one of our many random nicknames for her) was in order.

So in no particular order, here are some of the things we LOVE LOVE LOVE about our little Liddy:
*How she tilts her head when she hears funny sounds
*How much she LOVES to swim--she'll go all day if you let her
*Her curls
*How she loves to cuddle
*How much she loves her "Biggums" (big blue stuffed dog)
*How friendly she is (though some don't appreciate her kisses) ;)
*How she already knows baby boys name and runs to his room when we ask where he is

We love you Lid Pop!

Baby Boy's Nursery...

While we still have a few more minor things to do in the nursery, we are pretty much all set! Now we just need Baby Boy to arrive...








(**This rocking chair actually came from my granddad's house. It used to be yellow--though my mom thinks it was actually white at some point--but Andy made a project of it and sanded it down and repainted it--I was very impressed! It's nice to have some nostalgia in baby boy's room**)


(**Pardon my pj's**)

We've also got his bathroom all set up for him. I can't get enough of his little bath robe--so adorable!







Ok baby boy...whenever you're ready...we're uh, well, as ready as we can be! ha :)

A WGA Shower

On Saturday, the ladies from the WGA (Women's Golf Association) threw me my 6th, and I believe final, baby shower!

It was held at the club after the annual Founder's Cup tournament. Sadly, due to doctor's orders, I am not able to golf until after baby boy arrives, so I spent the morning doing some errands and treating myself to a manicure and pedicure! (Not a bad substitute for golf!) I then met up around 2:00 when the ladies were finishing the tournament.

The room was set up so nicely with a nice spread of afternoon snacks, a festive cake, and a diaper cake! It was so cute! They also had really pretty flower arrangements and the favors were mini baby bottles filled with blue M&M's and blue golf tees that say "It's a boy!" How cute is that?






We played one shower game, a baby trivia game which had everyone in heated debate! Who knew that babies were born without knee caps!? I'll have to be sure to check that out myself when baby boy arrives.




As always, baby boy was spoiled rotten with tons of fabulous gifts! He got quite a few new outfits (though a lot were in the 9 month range so that was good) and he also got the most adorable socks that look like they are little golf shoes--too cute! He also got a book that teaches ABC's using golf as a theme--very appropriate. Best of all, I had a room full of experienced moms (and some grandmoms as well) letting me know that they are all available for babysitting duty when Andy and I want to hit the links together---what could be better than that!?





So thanks to my golfing friends for putting on such a great shower! Andy and I have been so spoiled by everyone and I think we are now sufficiently "showered" and ready for baby boy to arrive! :)

Honeymoon Chronicles: Ah Paris!

Having finally arrived in the "City of Lights," we were ready to start seeing the sites. Sadly we were stuck in our traveling outfits as we weren't able to check in yet, but aside from our footwear, we were all set for the chilly weather.

Not having much idea of where we were headed, we just started walking and figured if we kept looking up, we'd see the Eiffel Tower at some point! Of course as we were walking and searching, and as my toes were starting to go numb (again, didn't have my insulated walking shoes on) I started to question why we decided on a European Honeymoon when we could have been on a beach with a pina colada in hand...but just as that thought crossed my mind, sure enough we spotted the top of the Eiffel Tower, and at that moment I realized this was in fact the perfect honeymoon!

Having spotted the Eiffel Tower, we kept it in our view, so we could walk to it. All along, as our stomach's were growling, we realized that stopping somewhere for coffee and breakfast was probably a good idea--though we were both too intimidated to enter a Cafe and actually order food. Finally we got the courage (I think it was mostly brought on by a desire to use a restroom) and we enjoyed our first cafe' and chocolate croissant. Mmmm, the "coffee" there is to die for!

After breakfast we found our way to the Eiffel Tower, snapped some photos and did some more wandering. On our way back to the hotel, hunger struck again and so we found a little sandwich shop and shared a tomato, basil and mozzarella panini which we still look back on as one of the best food experiences on the whole trip!

At long last we were able to get into our hotel room and after warm showers we took a quick nap and woke up to a late afternoon snow shower! We had heard all along that it NEVER snows in Paris and not to get all romantic thinking we'd see snow...well we had two days of snow thank you very much, and it was the perfect addition to what is already a gorgeous city.

We bundled up and headed back out into the snow (it was a light snow-just enough to provide great atmosphere) and we decided to walk back towards the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up at night. It was quite a sight!

We then found a nice little restaurant for dinner (though we fear we ended up at more of touristy place, but that's ok, the food was good and the wine was much needed after a day of touring around.) Afterwards we walked back to our hotel, stopping at a grocery store to buy a bottle of wine using leftover Euros that our friends Megan and Chris had given us (they had just been to Ireland on their honeymoon). We got back to our room, enjoyed some more wine and were happy to finally call it a day!

Next up: Day 2 in Paris--more snow, shopping, and escargot!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Last week was my brother Mark's birthday, so we celebrated on Saturday night. Sadly my folks were out of town, so we had to celebrate without them.

We had everyone over to our house on Saturday night and we quickly realized that we really hadn't entertained almost all year! Fortunately, we got back into the swing of things pretty quickly.





We had a nice spread of shrimp cocktail and cheese and crackers. Then for dinner we had bacon wrapped scallops, mashed potatoes, fresh tomato salad (thanks to Andy's dad for growing them fresh in his garden), and prime rib with sauteed mushrooms and a horseradish whipping cream to top it off. Not too shabby!

For dessert I made Mark's favorite cake--I think he's been requesting it since he was 6! You take an angel food cake and "ice" it with sherbet. It is a tad bit messy but definitely a refreshing dessert in the middle of summer.




Mark got some nice gifts, including a cast iron grill pan from Kathleen and Lee (something he'd been asking for for awhile) and a new VT shirt and a VT shaped cake pan from Andy and myself. Mark is the quintessential Hokie fan, so these are great gifts to add to his collection! We're hoping to benefit from the cake pan at some point. :)




Was fun to have the family together, we realized also that they hadn't been to our house since the holidays--oops!!

Happy birthday Mark!

A Doggie Happy Hour Shower

Last Friday night our amazing Doggie Happy Hour (DHH) crew threw us a baby shower. We haven't seen our DHH crew as much lately (doesn't help that half of the original crew moved away and the other half have had babies) so it was great to get everyone together.

Liddy was most excited as she doesn't see her old friends as much anymore. Sadly, Casper and Wasaki were not there, but she had fun catching up with Layla and Zibby. Liddy was also thrilled to see Carlyn and spent much of the night seeking her attention.

The food (as with all DHH gatherings) was great! Fiona went above and beyond (especially considering she's got a baby to deal with) and mde her famous chicken and some awesome mac 'n cheese! Amanda and Logan (who hosted, thanks guys!) grilled up some burgers and Melissa brought her famous Texas Caviar (my fav!). For dessert, Amanda had bought an ice cream cake which is the best kind of cake in my opinion!

Baby boy, yet again, got spoiled with lots of great gifts, including some adorable onsies that Larry made (I realized I haven't taken pictures of those yet, so will do so and post later).

It was a great night and we can't wait for baby boy to meet our DHH friends and become another member of the group--besides, he does have two adorable young ladies (Lilly and Marley) that he can start cozying up to! :)

Road trip. Detour-Blacksburg...

On our drive home from Charlotte, we decided to take a slight detour and have lunch in Blacksburg. While it was a little out of the way, it was still a great break from our drive and a good excuse to check out campus and eat at one of our favorite restaurants.

We drove around campus for a bit and even got some photos on the drill field and in front of Burruss. I feel that baby boy is now officially betrothed to Virginia Tech! :)



Campus looked fantastic--amazing the difference between November (when we were last there) and the middle of summer. Everything was so green and the landscaping looked great! Just another reminder of why it is the best school around! :)





After snapping some photos we headed over to the bookstore and loaded up on some new hokie gear for the upcoming football season (less than a month away folks!) I was also hoping to buy some stuff for baby boy, but it was all so expensive, so we figured we'd save the money and put it towards his Va Tech tuition! :)

We then headed to Macados for lunch and enjoyed every second of it! We had fun reminiscing and of course devoured our sandwiches as well!



After lunch we decided to grab a few things for the car ride home (a soda for Andy and ice cream for me). We settled on "Deets Place" as the stopping point (a coffee shop on campus that we frequented quite often when we were in college and dating) and quickly parked nearby to run in and get our goodies. Sadly, it was closed, and in the three minutes we were away from the car we were given the wonderful (and yet not unexpected) gift of a VT parking ticket. Ah the memories...I think we both received our fair share of tickets during our time at Tech, and we're happy to donate the $30 back to our beloved Alma Mater.



Still laughing about the ticket, we headed to TCBY to indulge my ice cream craving and then it was back to 81 for the drive home.

Looking forward to our next trip when we can actually show baby boy our Alma Mater (and his future school!) :) Go Hokies (old and new) :)