Baby Shower in Nashville

I have an AWESOME sister! I don't know how she managed to pull this shower off. She got home from a 10 day trip to Europe on Sunday and by Saturday her house was beautifully decorated for Christmas and my sweet baby shower. I was overwhelmed with love from her and all of the people who made this shower and day possible. I know Em worked her tail off and I appreciate it more than ever.

Here are some pictures from the shower - thank you titty - I love you so much and can't wait to return the favor some day!

Moses basket and rocker from Bebe and Mister - I can't wait to let Brooklyn take naps in this!Mom, me and Em

Me and Sara - my sweet friend who helped hostess who also had her first baby seven weeks ago - doesn't she look awesome!

Perfect gift! Scrubs from Wes and D'Arcy!

Aunt Rochelle made a beautiful wall hanging for Brooklyn!

A very appropriate gift from Gigi - a pop-up purse book!

This is the last hand sewn quilt made by my aunt Ellen Claire. She has had to stop because of her carpel tunnel and I'm more than honored to have this quilt passed down to Brooklyn. It was completed in 1996 and Ellen Claire gave it to Gee Gee for her first great-granddaughter.Somehow Em and Jonas managed to get their Christmas tree the week of my shower and if you look closely you can tell she decorated it with these...Baby GIRL decorations! How cute! These are some of the booties I wore when I was a baby!And this is dad's silver cup! I doubt he ever drank out of it!

Thanks to everyone who came and made this a very special time for me. I'm humbled by everyone's love and support!

Thanksgiving a little late

Thanksgiving was a great time this year! I woke up and wrote this fun post about my top ten list of things I'm thankful for...it was really great...then I went to hit "post" and it all deleted. I was immediately NOT thankful to blog world for losing this post that I had worked at least 30 minutes on. Ugh...anyway, I was thankful - and I still am for so many things.

I spent Thanksgiving in Birmingham for the first time in a very long time, maybe ever...yeah, I think the first time ever. Matt was on call so I spent a lot of time with the Grimm family. Meredith and Lee were so sweet to open up their home to me and other residents plus Mere's parents were SO sweet to help with the food. Mr. Ellis made an awesome fried turkey and we had all the veggies to make the perfect Thanksgiving meal.

Matt got off work on Friday so we decided we'd do our first turkey that day. William and Marlee came over to help us eat our 15 pound turkey and watch the Iron Bowl. Here are a few pictures of what I had to go through (keep in mind alone b/c Matt didn't get home until later) in order to get this turkey thing going...

Nasty process of "brining" the turkey - I can't explain in words how nasty this was - thankfully Matt had cleaned the turkey out (barf) but the brine smelled horrible and the turkey was 15 pounds!!!!! A very heavy bird flopping all over my kitchen!

Um gross - I am proud to say I stuff the turkey's butt w/ apple, onion, lemon, and herbs per Matt's instructions...last time I will ever do that.

Checking the turkey...Matt was home for this part.

Sweet Eleanor was practicing her standing up while waiting on the food to get ready!

Finished product...it looked better than this prior to carving...the other side was cut at this point. It turned out better than I expected. To be honest, I had low expectations but it was very moist!

Matt had to go back to work that weekend and Jesse and Levi were having their second birthday so I went home on Saturday to celebrate with them! Here are some pictures of their second birthday:

Hurry up dad!!!!

They LOVE this guitar!

So, then I got to welcome home these two...

from their Europe trip! We were the obnoxious family taking pictures, ok I was the only one taking pictures...in the Nashville airport. We were so glad to welcome them home from a 10 day trip to Europe. They were both very glad to be home and going to their own shower and bed!

I have the best husband

I have to brag on Matt. Yesterday we were supposed to receive our crib between 10 - 2 so I was at home anxiously awaiting its arrival ALL DAY...it didn't come until 7. I was none too happy about that but in hindsight...oh well. The most frustrating part was that it interrupted Matt's sleep time. He got home yesterday at 2:00 from being at work for almost 35 hours with little sleep! All afternoon he was waiting w/ me for the crib so he could put it together then go to bed and it didn't show until 7.

I had to leave for a dinner at 5:30 so when I got back home I figured the crib would be in the garage in several parts and Matt would be snoozing. This is what I found...

Yes, Elle was assisting!

She isn't too sure what she thinks about her new room...ha ha February is going to be tough for Elle!

Focus Friends

This is going to be a funny one...a couple of weekends ago I got together with my good friends that I met at Focus on the Family Institute in fall of 2002. We all came out to Focus not knowing a soul and spent a semester learning about how to raise families, be Godly mothers and wives, and how to influence the workplace and culture around us for Jesus. It was scary going out to Colorado by myself, but looking back, its probably the best thing I did during college (other than start dating Matt).

We have made it a tradition to get together every 2 years without husbands and babies to catch up on life and give each other advice and wisdom that we have learned or heard. It amazes me how much we have to talk to every two years - you would think that we'd grow apart and not have much to talk about but not us! We don't really DO anything - we sit around and eat and talk over a long weekend - that is pretty much it!

Here's the only two good pictures from our time in Naples two years ago...

Em, Caroline, me, Ash

Caroline, Ash, Em, me

This year we convened in Nashville at mom and dad's house. They were infiltrated with chatty girls and lots of snacks we made! This is pathetic...but these are the only pictures I have! Caroline's camera has a couple of good ones of us actually looking at the camera, but I'll be shocked if I ever see those pictures! :) Love you Caroline!!!!We started out our camera conversations in the kitchen...but I needed some fresh air!

Caroline being her typical self!

Em and Ash discussing something like aperture or ISO or something...

I am so thankful for the presence of these ladies in my life! They are truly a blessing and a rare find in friendship! Until 2011...

Estes Park, Colorado Part 2

Ok - I got some sleep and can post about the rest of our trip now...we had a great time seeing the Rocky Mountain National Park - it was only 5 minutes from our house so we got to explore that park and see TONS of elk. They told us that this time of year the male elks are basically recruiting thier "harem" (elk term for band 'o ladies). You could see groups of elk with one large male and tons of females. They would buggle to call thier lady friends and me and mom joked that we would run if we were them! :) Here are some elk pics...
We had so much fun watching these huge animals - they were everywhere including our yard and the grocery store! Makes publix back home look a little lame with no elk lying in the parking lot!Em and Jonas came out and joined us on Thursday and we had a few great days with them, they are so fun! We spent Friday in Colorado Springs going up the cog railway to Pikes Peak and then hiking around Garden of the Gods. Here are a few pics from our trip up to Pikes Peak...This was a beautiful lake we saw on the way up to the peak - I never think of lakes being tucked away in the mountain peaks but we saw several. It was surrounded by evergreens - isn't God just beautiful?View from the top with my new super duper zoom lens! These mountains were miles away.

Em, me, and mom on the top - it was VERY cold - but not as windy as it could have been so we got lucky. Don't worry - we all filled up with hot chocolate and donuts for the trip back down the mountain!

Here are some pictures from Garden of the GodsMatt, me, Em and J in front of balancing rockJonas getting adventurous in a no tresspassing zone!

Em made us do this trying to get cheesy prego pics, I actually thought this was cute.

We also had a couple of hikes in the Rocky Mountain park that were much more snowy than we thought they would be. The first day we went everything was COVERED in snow and ice - we were at about 10,000 feet elevation so the snow had really come into the mountain already. Once Em and J got there a lot of it had melted but we did find one lake that was already 1/2 way frozen!

Em and Jonas pondering the half frozen lake.Winter wonderland!

Thanks mom and dad for getting an incredible house for us to vacation in this fall. It was a great trip and I'm so thankful I got to visit Colroado with Matt before little girl gets here!

Estes Park, Colorado Part 1

Oooooooooooo how I LOVE the mountains! I am so thankful for the week we had enjoying God's creation out west. It was so fun seeing a new part of Colorado and visiting old familiar places that I love. Matt and I rode out there with mom and dad who were staying a few days longer then flew back - after we FINALLY got to Colorado, we were very thankful to be flying back!

Our trip started off like any trip should...

men packing:

and the necessary pitstops before getting on I-65...

After we made sure everyone was sufficiently hydrated we started our trek across the country. The first three states went by quickly (TN, KY, IL) then they started slowing down! We stopped in St. Louis to have a longer lunch and stretch our legs. We really enjoyed our lunch at this cute little Italian Village...well...the first time around it was enjoyable...more on that in a sec.

After lunch Matt kept driving us through MO and through most of KS. We stopped for dinner in po-dunk Kansas then Matt drove another 2 hours to our final destination for the day - Hays, KS. I'll spare the details but let's just say lunch came back around to bite me and mom around 1:00 AM. After an hour in the bathroom and kicking mom outside the room to see her lunch again in the hallway I proudly exited and announced, "ok men - we are SICK". Matt and dad jumped into action.

Ok, ok so I'll spare the rest of the details, we'll just say I don't throw up unless its food poisoning so thank you Mama Campissi's in St. Louis for the adventure. I told Matt the next morning that I wanted to find a clinic in Hays to get some fluids b/c I for sure didn't want to spend a day in the ER in Denver. We found a great hospital with an excellent staff who fixed me up with anti-nausea medicine and 2 liters of fluid. I left very sleepy but feeling better. Here are a few pics from my camera in the ER...

I should get a milkshake for this...right mom?

This is what I look like nauseous - I hope no one ever sees this again!So, moving on - we FINALLY reach Estes Park late that night and explore our amazing house that mom and dad rented. It had a huge hot tub on the deck, sound system throughout the whole house playing the ipod, a pool table, a wii, and a GYM equiped with basketball, dodgeball, and hockey!

Ok that's it for now - I've got to go to bed...more mountain pics coming soon!

Hello from Colorado!

Well, I have to say, I'm thouroughly enjoying this vacation. I absolutely love the mountains, always have. I grew up visiting Colorado several times on family vacations, youth group wilderness adventures, and then in college at some camps and the semester at Focus.

This is Matt's first experience in Colorado and I think he's enjoying it and taking it all in. I'll have more to blog about when we get back but here are a few pictures!
These guys are everywhere!It's colder in the Nat'l park than we thought it would be!