Happy...

You've heard the saying "happy wife, happy life" well, what rhymes with husband? 

Traditionally, the day after Christmas, my family has a big breakfast. This year we met together and everyone contributed a little something which usually ends up being a huge amount of goodness! My cousin brought pancakes and homemade chocolate syrup. Mike fell in love!

I grew up eating this stuff! When I was little, I remember having the "day after" breakfast at my aunt's house which was right next door to my grandmother's house where we usually stayed. Between the blueberry syrup and chocolate syrup, we were set! 

Although my aunt passed away many years ago, the chocolate syrup lives on. I just never had the recipe for some reason. After the breakfast this year, Mike begged me to get the recipe from my cousin. On Saturday, we finally had a chance to try it out and boy was it just as delicious as I remember it always being. I think the recipe my cousin gave me was her mom's (my aunt that always made it).

In case your mouth is watering and you're wanting to try it too...

In a saucepan, mix:
1 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1 tablespoon of cornstarch

Then add 2 1/2 - 3 cups of water. (It's important to add the water after you've added these first ingredients or they won't mix well! Lesson learned..)

Bring to a boil and then add a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of vanilla and simmer. Then add 1 tablespoon of butter. 

The syrup should be pretty thin. Serve over pancakes. 

Fence Building

You may remember that I helped Mike's dad build a fence at our house in NC last year around this time. It was FREEZING when we built that fence and we had a pretty big yard there... 1 acre. But it was SO worth it to see the happiness on Blue's face when he got to go outside and chase birds and run free! 

When we were looking for houses in VA, a fence was one of the things we knew we wanted/needed. Well, rentals here were going pretty quickly and we settled on one that didn't have a fence with the agreement that we would be able, with Mike's dad's help as our contractor, to install a fence. The homeowners were planning to do it anyways but scheduling wouldn't permit until the Fall. So, we moved in in August with the hope, and assumption, that we would have a fence definitely before the Fall. 

After MANY months of frustration and waiting for signatures, decisions, HOA approval, etc., we FINALLY got the go-ahead at the first of February. Yeah, so much for the Fall, huh?! And, at 38 weeks pregnant...definitely timely...the taking the dogs outside on a leash multiple times a day up and down the stairs was getting old!

So on Friday after Valentine's Day, Mike's parents came up and Mike and his Dad started the construction. It involved building the front and back portions and then tearing down our neighbors' existing fences and re-building those sides. Friday wasn't too bad weather-wise. But, Saturday through Tuesday were COLD and we had a few flurries and sprinkles and sleet showers. They were troopers and built a beautiful fence. I have to say after building the fence in NC, I can appreciate their work even more! I know first hand the hard work that went into it.

As you can see, Blue is already loving it!

Simplifying

As we near the end of this pregnancy, I started thinking of ways that I can simplify things.  This blog being one of them!  I'd love to use it as a way for family and close friends to be able to stay in touch and see what's going on in our lives and would like to have a little more secure place to post pictures of our little guy once he arrives.  Also, I started this blog before I had a gmail account so it requires me to have multiple sign ins and takes a bit more time to keep it up.

SO...I decided to start a new blog that is more linked with my current gmail address so it will make things a little easier!

I am restricting the access to this new blog, at least for now, so if you'd like to follow, please let me know (either in the comments or email me directly) and I'd be glad to pass along the new address to you.  I hope you understand and don't mind this little inconvenience!

I will keep this blog open and may from time to time post something on it as well...so if you don't make the jump over to the new blog, keep checking back here!

Showers of Blessings

Last weekend, we took our last road trip until the baby arrives.  It was a packed weekend but full of fun and blessings.  On Saturday, I had 2 baby showers - a brunch with girl friends from the Raleigh area and a family/family friends shower with Mike's family.  We were overwhelmed by the generosity of friends and family!

In the morning, the girls met at Laura's house for a mix and mingle brunch.  It was so good to catch up with so many friends whom I haven't seen in a few months since moving to VA.  Abby and Laura did a fantastic job of hosting and providing so many yummy treats for the brunch.

Bianca put together a book of encouragement for me.  Each of the women had the opportunity to write an encouraging note or some words of wisdom for me as I am on this journey.  I've already enjoyed reading through some of the notes and know this will be a HUGE lifesaver when I'm in the midst of newborn life!

Sweet friends for MANY years!  It's so great to walk through life together with these special ladies.

  

 The sweet hostesses and bestest of friends!  

All of these ladies have known each other through our Young Married class - beginning when we were all NEWly married and now with kids!

Friends that I worked with at the bank for many years also came!

Below is my BWF (best work friend) and partner in crime - Shelia

A few hours later in the afternoon, we met together with Mike's family and some close family friends to be showered once again.  This one was a little more relaxed with the husband's and kids invited too.  The warm weather last weekend allowed us to even get outside too.

Mike even learned a few techniques to use when having boys...

Actually, I think he and Seth were trying to get leaves out of Reed's hair!  The boys had a GREAT time throwing leaves at each other, running around the yard, and playing in the mud.

Dirty boys = Happy boys!

And, finally on Saturday night, we ended with a "Family" Dinner.  We are blessed to have so many wonderful friends from Raleigh but two families are like our family.  It isn't too often where both the men and women of three families are all really close and the kids all get along so well!  We try to get together for family dinner every time we are back, even if it is a crazy last minute kind of thing.  I can't wait to get our little guy in the mix and introduce him to the kids who I'm sure will be like cousins to him!  Maybe one day we will get a picture with everyone...usually the kids are upstairs playing the whole time and the adults are chatting away at the table.

These are the kind of special friends that are lifetime friends.  They are the kind who don't mind if you drop in or come to the dinner alone when your husband is overseas.  They are also the kind that plan an early Thanksgiving dinner (pictured below) - like in June - when they know said husband will miss Thanksgiving because he is overseas.  We are so blessed to have them in our lives!

Picture: June 2011

This week has been a fun week of sorting through all of our gifts and "shopping for free" with the gift cards and money we received.  It is amazing to be encouraged and blessed by the generosity of our friends and family!  We truly were overwhelmed by the love that was poured out to us.  I think we are closer to being ready for our new addition to arrive!  It's crazy to think we only have about 6 more weeks!!

A Bald Head New Years

I know what you're thinking...Bald Head?!?  Did someone shave their head or something?  Nope, that is the name of the island that we spent New Years this year.  Our friends asked a few months back if we wanted to join them and some friends at a house they were renting and we jumped at the idea, knowing it would possibly be our last "non-kid" vacation.

After dropping Polly off at Mike's parents and Blue off at camp for a few days, we hit the road once again to Southport, NC to the catch the passenger ferry over to Bald Head Island.  (Side note: the island does not allow cars, only golf carts and bikes.  So, you take a passenger ferry over and then get shuttled to your home which usually has a golf cart or you can rent one at a local shop.)  The ride over was a WINDY one but still a beautiful view of the water and other neighboring islands.

When we arrived on the island, our friends were waiting on us and took us to our home away from home.  We enjoyed hanging out with our friends, Kim and Dedrick, and meeting new friends, Adam and Aaron, taking golf cart rides around the island, visiting the local shops, playing a lot of games and watching a lot of games (football bowl games!!), eating, and enjoying the sounds from DJ Jazzy Adam and the lovely Kim.  It was such a relaxed few days away and much needed down-time after all of our travels.

Our golf cart was possibly the SLOWEST cart on the island.  We would get passed all the time, even by bikers...yeah, embarrassing!!  There is one particular hill that we all love to go to the top of and we couldn't make it up so Aaron and Adam helped us by pushing us the rest of the way.

Mike rented a bike one day and went out one afternoon to take a few pictures.  He got these amazing pictures of the sunset and a few "dream" houses!

We also got a few pictures of us together while there and also a couple to remember me at 31 weeks and closing out the year.

And, I remembered a ridiculous self-picture (I always make fun of them!!) that I had taken around 20 weeks and since I had on the same shirt, I decided to do a before/after picture to see how much we've grown.  And, boy, have we!!  Not much longer now...

Week 20                  Week 31