5 years ago today

5 years ago today, our house was a little fuller than it is today...with 9 puppies that is!  Polly started delivering puppies the morning of December 19 and finished sometime in the afternoon.  I don't think either of us could believe it!

Here are a few of the posts from that day and the day after:

Birth day

First day pics and videos

Mike and I discussed the possibility of keeping a puppy and both of us were very determined not to keep one...until we met Blue!  We just fell in love with him and were not wanting him to leave us...here we are 5 years later and we've never regretted it.  We do joke though that he is our most expensive "free" dog we will ever have.

He keeps us laughing though and brings so much joy to our home.  I can't imagine life without him and look forward to many years ahead!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is probably my most favorite holiday.  Not only does it bring out the decorations and ornaments that remind me of Christmases gone by and point to fun family time ahead but it reminds me of the original reason for the first Christmas...when Jesus was born on this earth to become the Savior of the world.  How lost we would be without that first Christmas!  I can't help but imagine what it was like to be Mary - with all the kicks and jabs - and not knowing what the future days would hold but being confident that the Lord would carry me through!

This year as I decorated our house for Christmas, I began thinking ahead to next year when we will have a 9 month old moving around.  I have a feeling that our Christmas will be just a little bit different next year!

Here are a few pictures of Polly and Blue as they are getting in the Christmas spirit.

And, I'm not sure if Blue is already looking for Santa or if he's looking for snow...either way, I think he might have to wait just a few more weeks!

Merry Christmas from our family!

Family Shower

The weekend before Thanksgiving, the ladies in my family got together for a baby shower for me.  Since we were already in the Dublin area for a 50th anniversary tea for my aunt and uncle, it was decided to meet together at a local Italian restaurant.  It was a nice time to be together and I was surprised with many hand-made and other special items.  Many of my aunts and cousins are so talented!

For some reason, we didn't get many good pictures of everyone at the shower and I never even got one of me and my mom or the girls together!  This picture taking HAS to get better in the next few months!

 My sisters - Rebecca (due the end of April!), Deborah, and me

Yes, I look and felt huge!  It was the end of a LONG day...and I always seem to look bigger at night.

 One of the many hand-made items given to me.  My aunt did this blanket and it will join a few others that she has previously given me.  Special treasures from family!

My UGA loving cousins gave this outfit to me...it was the closest they could come to buying something "Auburn". 

BUT, other cousins who are now living in Alabama knew how to make this expecting mom HAPPY!!  We'll be raising our little guy right with this AU football!!

 A sweet prayer blanket given to me by another aunt.

 And, another favorite gift was BOOKS!!!  I can't wait to be able to read to our little guy.

These books are the "Golden Book" series books that we grew up reading.  Classics like Jack and Jill, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, Hey, Diddle Diddle, The Three Bears, and The Ten Little Monkeys.

My mom and sisters gave me a lot of books too, including some in Spanish!  So, our little guy (and us!) will be able to start learning words in Spanish and English (and maybe translate for us when we go visit Mom and Dad in Guatemala!)

 My cousin, Debbie, wrote a children's book a few years ago and gave me a copy for our baby.  The book is called The Ketchup Boy.

She even signed it for him and included a tee-shirt and pencil with the book cover.

Thanksgiving and Family Time

This year, our whole family was able to get together in GA for Thanksgiving.  Mom and Dad were home from Guatemala for a few weeks and all of the siblings and their spouses were able to have the day off.  Some may not understand why this is so unusual but my 2 brother-in-laws are both in law enforcement and Mike was out of the country last year for his job.

We had a good time together, wonderful food, and went ahead with our family Christmas exchange.  This year we did a gift card exchange.  Everyone brought a gift card and we did the "White Elephant" game where you picked a number and were able to switch around.  Everyone was pretty tame with the game since all the gift cards were good!  It is a fun way to still do gifts but not put too much emphasis on the gift itself.   For Mom and Dad's gift from the kids, we had coffee mugs that we all signed and then baked in the ink (yep, pinterest idea!).  I think they were a hit!

We didn't get a whole family (with spouses) picture for some reason...we may have been a little preoccupied between the food, games, and Thanksgiving/Christmas movies...but we did get pictures of the original 6.

Mike and I were able to get in a few pictures too for our Christmas card and to document 25.5 weeks.

And, a sister/cousin picture...me at 25.5 weeks and Bec at 17.5 weeks

Mini-Getaway

As you know, we have been quite busy in the past few months.  Mike got home in June, we moved to VA in August, and are selling our home in NC...not to mention a little boy on the way!  We decided now was the best time, if any, to get away for a few days.

We talked about where to go, what to do, and we both ended up just wanting something relaxing with not a lot of fuss.  What we didn't count on was a super storm coming in about the time we were planning to head out!  We decided to go ahead with plans and left on that Sunday to go to Gettysburg for the night - who knew it was SO close to us?!  We had dinner in town and stayed at The Lodges at Gettysburg which we highly recommend!  We did not have any meals there but had a mini kitchen in the suite so just brought our own breakfast foods.  

We woke up to rain on Monday so we decided to go ahead to our next destination, Uniontown, PA, not knowing what the drive would bring.  It actually turned out not to be that bad, just a lot of rain and fog, and since we had plenty of time before check-in, we stopped along the way.  One of the places we stopped was Penn Alps which had a little shop and an artisan village.  Unfortunately, the village had closed early for the storm but we still got a couple of pictures and jam while there.

We finally arrived in Uniontown, PA, at our home for the next two nights - the Inne at Watson's Choice.  What a nice little getaway!  The innkeepers were friendly but not overly talkative, which I always fear at a B&B!  There were a few other couples there too so it felt more like an inn than if we were staying in someone's house.   Our room was upstairs too, which gave a little more privacy feel too.

We made our way into town that evening for dinner, and then went to bed hoping for decent weather through the night and electricity in the morning!  We woke up to a great breakfast, plenty of electricity, and SNOW!  I never would have imagined that!!

 We stayed inside most of the morning to let the roads clear up and for the temperature to rise and then headed out to Falling Water, one of the reasons that drew us to this town in the first place.  Falling Water is a home that was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Kaufmann family in the 1930s.  It was built over a waterfall and its main draw was to the outdoors that surrounded the home.  We really enjoyed the hour+ tour of the home and thought it was worth it to do the tour.  Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed during the tour so we can't share what the inside looked like.  But, here are some pictures of our drive there and of the outside of the house.

After a 2nd night at Watson's Choice, we left the next morning heading back to Virginia.  Since a stretch of one of the interstates was closed due to the weather, we took a different route which led us through some beautiful scenery (between the snow and then the fall leaves) on our way back.  We stayed one last night at another B&B on our way back and finally arrived home on Thursday morning.

It was one of the more relaxing vacations we have had and it was nice to get the added surprise of a little wintery weather!  Who knows, maybe living a little further north isn't too bad afterall!  It is nice to be able to drive only a few hours and see these beautiful places.  We might be having some more weekend getaways soon...