Fun with Sharla and Jackson!

Nate and I took a quick trip to visit Sharla and Jackson at their new house! We had a fun time playing, visiting Lazy 5 Ranch and Sharla and I even got to go out to dinner without kids! Yay!

Here are a few pictures from the ranch and then a cute video of Jackson and Nate.

Those birds were SCARY. Notice Sharla's hand blocking Jackson's face, as in "bird, don't eat my baby!"

Nate actually smiled at those crazy birds....and then I rolled his window up!

Keeping Busy

We've had a fun and busy week. I forgot to mention that last Friday night (or actually early Saturday morning) we hosted our friends Ben and Molly during an unexpected layover in Atlanta. They were trying to make it to NYC from Raleigh, but due to canceled flights and bad weather they had to route through Atlanta to make it there. We were glad to have them and even more excited to hear about their recent engagement! I forgot to take a picture in the 7 hours they were here, sad.

The Pennys got in on Saturday afternoon and the spoiling began! I get spoiled when they visit too because I don't really have to lift a finger. Meals are made, diapers are changed and laundry is done for me! I did have some time to clean out my closet which I had really been wanting to do. We made trips to Ikea and Costco. We had fun cheering on Nate in what we hoped would be him rolling over for the first time. He almost has it, but seems to enjoy only going from his back to his side just fine. Here is what else he's been up to-

Watching Wimbeldon

Testing out the high chair at Ikea

Learning to nap without the swaddle

And just hanging out with Sammy!

Meredith 5 Year Reunion

Five years has definitely flown by! The reunion weekend was fun, although I did miss seeing many classmates who I was hoping to see -- who aren't on Facebook and I haven't seen since graduation. Still, it was fun to catch up with my girls!

Everyone at the President's house on Friday night.

Class of 2004 PJ Party

And dinner at Cafe Luna!

Nate was loved on....

all week by family and new friends!

He had his first trip to the bowling alley....
and to Build A Bear
Met the Surles

and Uncle Dion

and Great Grandmother "Mimi" Cornett

Such a lucky (and spoiled) boy!

Fun at the park

The Collins came to visit this past weekend and we included them in our Saturday night family tradition (for the summertime at least) of Five Guys and Rita's at the park. It was fun to get a glimpse of toddler-dom and everything that we have to look forward to with Nate (don't worry Sharla, you didn't scare us).

Wrapping up 2008!

Be prepared for a mega-post here!

December was a super busy month for us...preparing for Christmas, parties, wrapping up the year at work, us both being sick for a week and trying to get Nate's room ready!

We had a great trip home for Christmas and were even surprised with a baby shower after opening presents at Joel's parents house.I was able to fulfill my craving for Crazy Fire at lunch with Nelson, Rachel and Adam and we hit a few of our favorite NC dining establishments--Smithfields BBQ and Cook Out. We also got to see Ben & Molly, Rex & Liz and Melissa...always good to catch up with our HCHS buddies.

We returned home on Sunday and have enjoyed this past week sleeping in, relaxing, working on Nate's room, and watching How I Met Your Mother on DVD (thanks Megan!) We went out to dinner on New Year's Eve to California Dreaming, one of our favorite restaurants.

This week I have also been battling a hive-like rash that has mysteriously broken out over half of my body. So, slathering Benedryl cream all over and daily oatmeal baths have been part of my routine this week. I went to the doctor on Tuesday to have her look at it and she said it is just something that can happen to some pregnant women... Thankfully I feel like it is getting better and will hopefully not have to resort to more intense medicine, since it may not go away completely until after I deliver. Here is the 30 weeks belly picture, you can see a little bit of the remaining rash on my hand.

NYC

I'm too tired right now to post the details of the weekend...but mom wants to see pictures...Us in Central Park

Our Hosts: Ben & MollyPumpkin carvings at Chelsea Market

Joel & Ben at the battery
Inside the battery's fort (classic Joel w/cannon pic)
The mastadon freaked Ben outMe, Ace and a big turtle!

Spoiled already?

We've received many presents for us and our baby from our sweet friends...

From Joel's assistant this cute robe and towel set...and behind that many clothes that "Nanna" couldn't resist shopping for the day after we announced that Ace was coming...

Some good reading materials for the parents-to-be...The Belly Book to record things during the pregnancy from Sharla & Josh, Belly Laughs to keep things light and humorous from Liz & Rex, and Safe Baby Handling Tips from Rachel & Nelson

I think Joel needed this page...can we add a part about Mommy not liking chess either?

And Nelson and Rachel gave us some good baby name suggestions--

we were cracking up at this. Needless to say, our baby will not have a name that ends in the "y" sound...or anything that can be construed into a nickname ending in the "y" sound. This limits the choices of names greatly!

We're very excited that in ONE WEEK we will know if Ace is a boy or a girl...and then I can start shopping!

10 and 11 Weeks

10 Weeks

11 Weeks

Getting bigger and bigger....we're excited for Sharla, Josh and Jackson to visit this weekend! Going to get Sharla to help me look at some things at Babies R Us and do some maternity clothes shopping! We're also anxious to see how Sammy does around Jackson, since he's never been around a baby before...he should know to be on his best behavior!

Wii love our friends...

Ok, so that was really corny. We went to visit Rex & Liz a couple of weekends ago, but the only picture I have is this one of Joel Wii bowling


Next weekend Joel is going back up to help them move into their new house...and then the next weekend we are both going up to go to with them to the NASCAR All Star Race at Lowes Motor Speedway...and then a little over a week later we'll be leaving for our trip to Yosemite together. So guys...I hope we don't get tired of you :-)

Back among the living...

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks at the Penny house! Here's my attempt at a general wrapup--

On President's Day weekend, we hung up the shelves that Joel has been working on for the dining room. I really like them, although I'm not sure about the arrangement of everything I want on them. It is nice to have some more storage space!















I also got to catch up with my friend Kara while she was in Atlanta visiting some friends of her husband. It had been That was the same day that Jackson was born! So I waited a whole long week at work to get to go to visit the little guy. Joel and I had a great time visiting (and Jackson was really good while we were there)...Joel made his first visit to Babies R Us with Josh while Sharla and I caught up. The best part was we were able to get some great photographs of Jackson and his mom & dad--

And we got to love on the guy a little bit too:

On Sunday, I started to feel like I was getting sick. Joel was sweet and let me sleep the whole way home and I basically just laid on the couch all afternoon. I got up Monday and went to work, but threw in the towel after an hour and went home. Some crazy virus was going around our office and 4 other people were sick too! Joel had left for Seattle on a business trip--he went to Pikes Place Market and the original Starbucks and forgot to take a single picture for me! So I was home all alone to take care of myself :-(

Today we finally put together the order for our wedding album (yes, almost four years later). I had previously worked for our photographer and she shot our wedding for free--but we would have to pay for the album. Her work is really great, but also really expensive, so we haven't had the funds to order the album until now. We're sooo looking forward to finally having it! Tonight we're going on a little date to one of our fav restaurants- California Dreaming to celebrate Joel's annual bonus and my new position, which went into effect this week! Our Valentine's dinner wasn't all we had hoped it would be, but we know we'll have a great dinner tonight!

Gone to Carolina....

For our faithful readers, I know that these posts are way overdue...but I've had a couple of crazy weeks at work and just couldn't seem to muster enough energy to put together an interesting post...so here it goes--

On Labor Day weekend I went up to Gastonia to visit with my bestie, Sharla, my breakfast buddy Josh and Baby Teeny (who is doing some good growing). Sharla and I went to see the long awaited movie, The Nanny Diaries. We had both read the book back in college and loved it.



After that we had a less-than-exemplary dinner at Applebees with Josh that included a really long wait to be seated, some interesting people watching and a frustrating wait for our mediocre food. But being the easy going people that we are, we took it in stride. The evening was finished up my some dice throwing- Yahtzee style. I'm not sure if I had even played Yahtzee before, but it's my kind of game, since it includes a lot of luck. Everyone knows that I am not so good at the stratergery (which is why Sharla can whoop me at Skip Bo every time) but I do seem to have good luck when it comes to games of chance. I even beat the standing Collins' House High Score.




On Sunday we had a yummy Bojangles breakfast and I drove to Charlotte to have lunch with my middle/high school friend Katherine, her husband Seth and her sweet baby, Charles. I hadn't met Charles until then and he is a real cutie and a flirt :-) He let me hold him for a little bit and Katherine and I had a good chance to catch up. As always, it was a great trip to NC!