A Pregnant Woman and her Cake!

I took this picture from Courtney and Austin's blog who did a very thorough recap of our weekend together in Athens! The highlight was clearly our visit to my favorite restaurant down there, Last Resort - their Red Velvet Cake is seriously AMAZING! When I had gone down to visit Courtney in May we went there for dinner and split a piece, but this time there was no way in hell we were going to share!

I think Allen's highlight was playing the Wii. Allen is truly an XBox fan, but I think there is probably a Wii in our future - thanks Courtney and Austin!

It was certainly a nice little mini-vacation - thanks for the great weekend guys!

October Snow

This is what it looked like outside my front windshield this morning on my way to work...CRAZY! For those of you who may not know, I drive about an hour to work everyday. Our house is in Morganton, NC and I still currently am working in Asheville. The county we live in can be anywhere between 5-10 degrees warmer than Asheville so when I drive over the mountain each day I sometimes feel like I'm entering a whole new world - today it looked like a winter wonderland. So needless to say it was not snowing at our house this morning, but I am enjoying looking out my office window at the snow that is steadily falling.

Counting Down the Days until Thanksgiving Vacation!

Can you tell that I am looking forward to Thanksgiving?

We seriously need a vacation! Between our full-time jobs and working around the house to get things done for Emma, Allen and I are thoroughly looking forward to our almost week-long vacation we are taking for Thanksgiving this year. It will probably be one of the last times we will be home to Northern VA in a while with Emma arriving in January.

We have got a full itinerary planned for the week between enjoying a huge Thanksgiving Feast at Casa Rolland on Thursday, a day long visit at the salon with mom getting completely pampered on Friday, and my baby shower that my mother is throwing for me at her house on Saturday. It is going to be a very small and intimate affair for just family and close friends - check out the AMAZING baby shower invitation below made by the very talented Michelle Hrudowsky. She did a great job - they are so adorable! The shower will have a Christmas/Wintery Theme. I am so excited!

Happy Birthday Thomas!

My little brother is 20 years old TODAY! I can't freakin believe it! Just goes to show how fast time flies; and no matter how old he gets, my most vivid memory will be him as a toddler sitting in one of my mom's laundry baskets, thumb in mouth, blankie wrapped around him, watching a Redskins game!

Love you Thomas! Have a great birthday!

29 Weeks!

The pictures were illustrated by my aunt and hung in my childhood bedroom.

We just finished getting the shelf painted and this is where the glider will sit once that is finished.

Canopy crib that was Allen's - still waiting for all the bedding to be finished!

Bookshelf and part of the changing table - Allen did such a beautiful job installing the chair rail all around the room!

29 Weeks!

I know that many of you will be extremely thrilled to see some updated pregnancy pictures - now you can officially STOP harrassing me! I made Allen take some last night on the front porch after we got home from work before it started getting dark out.

So an update...

I'll officially be 29 weeks on Friday and have been doing very well! I have officially been bumped up to seeing my doctor every two weeks now as oppossed to once a month. I am still doing my prenatal yoga classes twice a week, which helps tremendously with my lower back pain and relieving of the daily stress from work. I signed both Allen and I up for Childbirth Classes, which will be on Monday nights for four weeks from 7pm-9pm starting in mid-November. They were highly recommended by the doctor and since they are free and conveniently located at the hospital, we thought it would be a good idea to give them a try - God knows that I will need to have Allen as prepared as possible to get through labor and delivery!

Another amazing burden that has been lifted off our shoulders is finding a safe and affordable daycare center for Emma once I return back to work in early March. The place we decided to go with is about 2 minutes down the road from the house, has a 5-star rating in the state, has a very small and intimate setting, is frequently used by neighboring friends in the community, and could guarentee an opening for March - we're happy campers!

The last few weekends we have had the chance to get some things done around the house, I've done some "fall foods baking" as Allen likes to call it (i.e. pumpkin cookies and zucchini bread), and have spent time watching football. This weekend we are really excited to be taking a little mini-vacation down to Athens, GA to visit Courtney and Austin - I promise to post updates and pictures from our trip!

In addition to posting some pregnancy pictures, I have put a few up of the progress on Emma's room. We have finally gotten some things up on the wall. Her crib will probably be the last thing to complete - my mom and aunt are making all the bedding and the curtains, which will be done by Thanksgiving and we are still waiting for the glider rocking chair that is currently being reappholstered in a fabulous blue minky fabric! I really wanted her room to reflect a cottagy/shabby chic look - of course there will be toile! My mom being the amazing quilter that she is has chosen a beautiful arrangement of fabrics for the bedding and window treatments - I absolutely cannot wait to see the end result. Allen's parents were very generous in giving us the crib that both he and his sister used as infants and their glider. The yellow bookshelf that you'll see was in my bedroom at my parent's house - so really the only new piece of furniture in there is the changing table - I just love that we are able to share and pass down things to Emma that were ours and have been in the family for years.