Waiting for Jude

Megan has been one of my best friends for almost 15 years. She was my first friend in Louisville and in middle school, probably the hardest time ever to meet new friends. I have spent more hours of my life with Megan than any other friend. We have experienced and shared so many things in life together. We danced, attended grade school and college, and lived together. We were in each other's weddings, experienced lots of firsts and probably some lasts, laughed, cried and everything in between. I am so lucky to have a friend like Megan in my life and I am so so so excited to be a part of this next first she is about to embark on. That first would happen to be Motherhood.

Megan is going to give birth to a baby boy in one month. I am sad that I won't be there for his birth but I will get to meet him soon there after when we go to Louisville for the Derby. Megan is going to be an awesome mother because she is one of the most nurturing people I know. Lonnie will be a great dad too; I can tell by the way he lights up when he talks about the baby.

When we were home for Christmas I was able to help Megan finish decorating the nursery and host a shower in her honor. We had a lot of fun and Megan received so many wonderful gifts to help with the arrival of Jude. I can't wait to meet him and to share this next chapter of life with Megan.

If you look close in the background you can see the cute diaper cakes

I made for the centerpieces.

Yum Cookies!

Jessica knitted this beautiful blanket.

Monogramed onesies

All the girls, Megan is the first mom

Reagan handmade this beautiful mobile

The letters I painted for Jude's room.

(They were out of Js so Megan had to paint it later.)

Back on the Blog: Christmas Update

So I have been away from the blog for about a month now so I thought it was time to get back on. I am just finally getting back into the normal swing of things after the holidays. It was so much fun going home and seeing everyone and I'm sure I had several long blogs I could have posted about the trip but I'm just going to touch on a few of the highlights through the photos.

First, here is what our finished Christmas tree looked like this year.

Let me start by telling you about our drive home to Louisville. It was the night it started snowing a lot and Brian thought we should get as far as we could before we were stuck in New York. At 4 am when we got off the turnpike we had to get a hotel because we were traveling at 30 mph on the highway. Thank goodness we found a vacancy. And by morning the roads were cleared so we could make it home just in time to see Lindsey dance at her college basketball game. Her team is really good and I'm glad we were able to see her dance.

Another highlight was hanging out with Matt, Nikki, Whitney, Creed, and their children, especially meeting this new little guy Hayden. I think Brian and Hayden have matching hair.

Another stop while we were home was to the land where my parents are building their new house. It's so peacefully and beautiful. This is the view that they will see every morning out the back windows. I can't wait to see it in the summer.

Nikki and Whitney were great hosts and had a yummy cookie party.

We were able to get in lots of Foster cuddle time. This is our family Christmas photo.

We open our presents with Brian's family on Christmas Eve after church and we usually have lots of fun. Here is an example: Stephen-I think he was trying on all his presents at the same time but I'm not really sure.

Example #2 Brian and Andrew and their Dad got Das Boots to drink their beer out of. Stephen already had one.

Then on Christmas morning we go to my parents and have a marathon present session and it is so much fun also. Here is Brian checking out his new driver I got him. But his best gift was the new computer he got from my parents so now he can do all his work from home like reading X-rays.

Dad's fishing pole for the lake behind the new house.

This is Tony Lindsey's boyfriend and he joined us as well since his family lives in Bulgaria.

Meme was surprised with her new flat screen TV.

After presents the extended family comes over for a delicious dinner and family time.

This was a great Christmas trip home and we are so blessed.

Busy Busy Me

The reason I was so behind on my Blog this week and for the past two months, not to mention some of my friends may have noticed a lack of phone calls from me, is because I had a crazy week/couple of months. This week I started my new full time position with a family that I use to just help out on nights and weekends. I am sad that I don't get to watch Wyatt anymore, but I really needed to work full time. I am really excited about the new little ones I get take care of now; Clementine is 19 months and Field is 6 weeks. Nikki and I will have lots to talk about because her children are almost the same age and sex. My new hours are 8-6 so this week has been busy.

On top of that back in August I decided that I really wanted to go back to school. I was thinking about a masters in education for a while but that just seemed like an easy option for me because I do like working with children and I would have a nice schedule, but that wasn't ultimately what I would choose to do if I could go back for anything. So I thought about it A LOT and Brian and I talked it over and over and over and I decided that I wanted to go to law school for several reasons. So I took a Kaplan course and have been studying for hours everyday and this morning I took the LSAT. I hope I don't have to take it over again because I have been very stressed and completely consumed by this test. I am going to still work for a little over a year and a half to save and then I am applying for starting in the Fall 2011 term. The reason I didn't really tell everyone about my plans was because I wanted the least amount of pressure on me and it was nice to talk about things other than the test when I did have time to chat. My plans from here include school research, applications, personal statements... And I am going to try to work with Clementine's dad or one of his colleagues on a project since he is a professor at a law school. Wish my score good luck.

Black Friday Window Shopping

On Black Friday Pat and I went out shopping. We didn't go out too early and it was just a nice leisurely shopping day. I was almost finished with my shopping by that point and Pat didn't have too much to get either. We did make a point to go and see all the holiday windows at the major department stores. Bergdorf Goodman had the best windows that were inspired by Alice in Wonderland, I think it was from the original book and I am not as familiar with that version. Bloomingdales also had a really pretty shoe factory window. When we went home we ate pizza and wings for dinner, I think we were the only people not eating leftovers. At night we all went out to the holiday shops at Bryant Park and then over to see the big tree in Rockefeller Center and watch the ice skaters. On the way home we picked up a Christmas tree for the apartment. I think it was one of the best Black Fridays ever.

Look at the shoe tree and chandelier

Alice going down the rabbit hole

The Queen

Alice going through the mirror

At the Bryant Park Shops

Decorating the Tree

Happy Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we celebrated in New York with Brian's parents. Since there were only four of us planning an entire Thanksgiving meal for only four people is quite a challenge because every dish is so large, my kitchen is not all that big and we still wanted to have all the different sides that usually accompany dinner on turkey day. This may seem like cheating but it was a great solution; the company we order our groceries from offered pre-made sides that were 4-6 servings and it worked out great. We did bake the turkey and I made a pumpkin pie. We also used our china for the first time ever and we have been married for almost 4 years, we are going to try to use it more than we have in the past. We were so thankful to spend Thanksgiving with Brian's parents and have yummy food. Although we did miss the rest of our family, we thankfully will get to see everyone at Christmas time in just a few short weeks.

Macy's Day Parade Preview

Today Brian's parents came into the city for the Thanksgiving weekend. Tonight we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon preview. It was a really fun and cool way to see the balloons without actually getting up early and going to the parade. The balloons were tied down so some of them were a little difficult to see but they were so big and it really got me in the Thanksgiving spirit. We even saw Mayor Bloomberg filming a segment for the news. Enjoy the preview and look for these guys tomorrow morning marching down the streets of NY.

Golden Weekend

This weekend was so nice because Brian had what they call a "golden weekend." That is where you are on call on Thursday night and then have Friday-Sunday off. On Friday we went to see New Moon and then met up with his friends from work to celebrate Kevin's Birthday. Kevin is in Brian's year of interns. We started at this dive bar called The Blue Donkey. I'm not sure why we went here because it is such a dive, but it was empty and we had a big group of people so there was plenty of room and we could actually hear each other speak. Later we went to another place called Prohibition and they had the best Michael Jackson cover band. If you weren't looking at the band you might have thought you were at a MJ concert. They also brought out the most delicious warm chocolate brownie with ice cream for Kevin's birthday. It was a pretty fun night. The rest of the weekend we watched sports (football and the upsetting MLS Cup soccer game), went to church, relaxed, and cleaned for Thanksgiving. It was a great weekend and I can't wait until Brian always has his weekends off.

This is Kevin the Birthday Boy & his girlfriend Lauren

I think Bob was a little tired in this picture