Summarizing Life

I use the word busy in most life updates, because I always seem to find myself doing stuff non-stop! Even though I have a list of things I need to do I thought it might help my brain if I took a minute to blog about what's been going on since January (and a little in December!). Yes, since January! There have been a lot of fun things to happen that I haven't had time to post. The good news is this will mainly be in picture form, which can be way more fun! :)

Enjoy my life and all the other wonderful life's that I surround myself with! We're officially half way through the year!

December

It's only fair to step back to December 29th, because one my dearest friends turned 30 (a day later!). I had special plans for her the day before her Birthday. We headed to Raleigh that day. We started off my going to go see "The Adventures of Tintin" at the Imax theater. Afterwards we enjoyed some pizza at Mellow Mushroom. My surprise for that evening was tickets to a Carolina basketball came. Amy is an Alumni and I kind of forced Carolina basketball on her at a young age (she took a lot of abuse!). It had been so long since we had seen a game together so it was quite a fun adventure!

December 30th was officially Amy's Birthday. I took Amy for her first massage that morning before our group of girls headed to Raleigh for a fun evening of celebrating! We tried a new restaurant in town called Humble Pie (I'd recommend it if you have a group!). We stopped for dessert after we were already stuffed. Lastly, we surprised Amy and dropped by the outdoor skating rink they have downtown. We had a bad experience at another "outdoor rink" (it was fake ice and super small!) so we wanted to make it up to her!

I finally got the chance to meet my newest cousin, Samantha! She's grown so much since these pictures!

(Matthew (cousin), Ashley, and Samantha)

January

Spent New Years with Matt & Kay (and Rory!).

Amie & I (with lots of help from other friends!!!) threw a baby shower for Kay.

We had a surprise party for Amy (Yes, Amy received much deserved LOVE for her Birthday!)...

February

I took my friend Jessica's maternity pictures. She doesn't even look pregnant! I'm doing a total of 6 sessions for her (3 posted here!).

Amanda & Cody got married! YAY!

Chris & I took a quick weekend visit to Alexandria, VA (our home in about 4 weeks!). This was the first time I had been to DC, which is well overdue!

Our first and only snow  (hoping for more once we move!) that we saw driving home from VA.

We celebrated my good friend Christina's daughters (Oriana) 1st Birthday!

Rory was born! Another YAY!

MARCH

We visited our good friends Joe & Liz. They went with us on opening night at the imax theater to see "The Hunger Games." They also were okay with me watching Carolina (barely) make it to the Elite 8 (what good DUKE friends!). We also went to Chapel Hill, which makes the adventure even better!

My favorite cupcake shop, Sugarland, in Chapel Hill (they also made me famous on tv ;) ).

April

I had such a wonderful Birthday this year! I felt so much LOVE! We also adopted Francis a day after my Birthday! Love at first sight :)

A little photo session with the Bain crew :)

A visit with my good friend, Dana, in Fort Mill, SC. We went to a cupcake shop that had the best red velvet cupcakes. I'm very picky about my red velvet so it means a lot for me to say BEST about it!

Katherine Grace's first little photo session (minus the one where she was in her mommy's belly!).

Mom came up for a visit. We took a trip a local strawberry farm. We bought some fresh strawberries, beautiful plants, and ate homemade ice cream! I also officially became an Episcopalian that weekend!

May

We celebrated our 3rd Anniversary!



I've done a few sessions with Myles and he just keeps getting cuter by the minute!

We hung out with our friends Matt, Kay, and Rory. Their dogs got to meet our new addition, Francis!

Rory giving Chris some smiles!

Francis putting Annabelle in her place! Now they can be best girlfriends though!

We went on a camping adventure with our friends Kerri & Nick. Carolina Beach State Park is such a beautiful place and a great spot to camp!



Francis loved camping :)





Francis also loves the beach! I'm not claiming that guy in the background ;)





We were very happy to see Francis warm up to Kerri & Nick! She usually gets pretty scared when we have family or friends in town.



June

I hung out with my sweet friend Audrey and her cute son Asher at the local Farmer's Market in Rocky Mount.

A bunch of my girlfriends took our mom to go see the play "Wicked" in Durham! We had a blast (minus all the stair climbing!)!

Amy couldn't bare her shoes any more so she walked barefoot on this "dirty" cement! EWWW ;) I can't talk much I would have done the same thing!

Katherine Grace, her mommy, and her great grandma came to visit me at the beach for her second photo session. We managed to avoid the rain and had perfect weather!

The biggest news for us is that we found out I was pregnant! Sometimes unexpected things come along! Jude or Lucy will be born around December 21st!

The next 6 months should be pretty interesting. I am about to venture out to Utah to visit my close friend Melinda and her family. Once I return I immediately go camping on our annual camping trip at the lake (Kerr Lake). There's more...two weeks later we move to Alexandria, Va. Then Chris and I will both begin school! I can't believe I'll be a full time student again!!! We'll end the year with a bang when the baby is born :) I'm sure there will even be more adventures in between, but I'm tired just thinking of the ones I know about! LIFE IS BUSY!

The Mini Diana Experiment

I bought myself the Mini Diana for a Birthday gift to myself. I thought it would be a lot of fun to break out a roll of film again. It's sad to say that hasn't happen probably since 2006. I received my first roll back and I was a little disappointed. THEY WERE SO GREEN! Some of the pictures didn't turn out at all. I went through them and picked out a few that I thought were fun and I thought I would share them! Thanks to photoshop they are not as green any more! Enjoy!

Chris & Francis

We discovered a fun place to ride our bikes at Carolina beach. This is my favorite shot of them all!

 Francis isn't really a fan of all dogs...especially ones that like to pounce on her!

This one looks a little creepy!

Me & our baby girl :)

I have a billion blogs I could write, but lately time doesn't permit me to do so! Maybe one day I'll have fun catching up on some fun life events that have happened so far this year! This will have to do for now!



Birthday love

I felt so much love on my Birthday this year! I just had a blast spending time with friends, getting free stuff, talking to my family and friends, eating lots of cake and cupcakes, and getting our first dog ( she was actually just a bonus to my B-day, not even planned).

Chris made me feel so special on my Birthday. It started off the Wednesday before my Birthday. We went to get massage's right before bedtime and it was very relaxing. Friday night we went to Red Robin and then went to see "The Hunger Games" for the second time. Saturday started off with a morning bike ride. Riding bikes has become a really fun activity that we enjoy doing together. Then I went to get a pedicure with Michelle. That evening we went out to eat with a very special group of people.

We ate at a wonderful restaurant called Rucker John's. I'd totally recommend it to anyone visiting the area. They have great chicken fingers (for those who any meat!), a good veggie pizza, and amazing honey croissant rolls.

  

Michelle & Greg bought me this wonderful red velvet Birthday cake. Harris Teeter has really good cakes! This is the second year I've had this one.

These are our neighbors at our apartment and they are wonderful! I babysit the boys sometimes and they are so much fun!

The Howard's are one of my many sets of parents. I am really good friends with their daughter and I'm very thankful that we get to share time like this together while we are still in Wilmington.

Andy is such a cool guy! He is the youth intern at First Baptist and he is so loved. I can't say enough good things about him. 

Greg & Michelle are the first set of friends we made in Wilmington and there is no doubt that we treasure that friendship!

Sunday was my actual Birthday and it was still filled with lots of fun things. We went to Church that morning and ate lunch with an older couple from our Church. After we ate Chris & I headed over to Airlie gardens for their free day. This was the first time we had been there. It's such a gorgeous place and I'll look forward to going back to explore it even more!

We didn't get to stay at Airlie gardens too long, because I had a free eyebrow waxing at Ulta to go to. This may have been the first time I've had this done, but I will admit it was a good experience. We dropped by Starbucks so I could pick up my free drink. I don't drink coffee drinks so I always get their frappuccino's. I some how managed to down the largest size they have!!!

My last treat on my Birthday was a stop by Coastal Cupcakes for cupcakes of course! I love going to local bakeries!

Lastly, we randomly got a dog that next day! I'm not sure what got into us, but it turned out to be a great idea. We found her online at petfinders.com and adopted her Monday afternoon. Her name is Francis. She is shy, silly, playful, restful, curious, cuddly (loves to spoon!) and so very loving. We're exciting about sharing our life adventures with her! She wasn't really a Birthday gift, but she was a great conclusion to a very good Birthday!

Now I get to enjoy one more year of being in my 20's. I still have plenty to enjoy this year! I get to go to Utah and visit friends and see a friend get married. I get to spend a week at the lake with my family and my extended family. I get to go to the beach a lot and enjoy a nice North Carolina Summer. There are many many more things I could list, but I'll leave it there for now! Turning 29 wasn't so bad after all. I'm planning on making 30 pretty rad too!

Here's a little bonus of things I got free for my B-day:

Starbucks drink (sign up!)

Red Robin Burger and ice cream sundae (once again, sign up!)

Eyebrow wax ( mine was free, but I was actually suppose to have a previous service through Ulta, which I did not)

Pastry from Panera (I haven't even got this one yet!)

A few fun gifts I got for my Birthday:

(Collapsible lunch container)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Y3I0SI/ref=oh_o00_s01_i00_details

(Collapsible bowls)

(Diana Mini)

(Team Peeta shirt)

25

The number twenty five has become a very symbolic number for me. On April 1st, 2008 I turned 25. On April 25th, 2008 my dad passed away. On February 25th, 2012 two of my closet girlfriends had babies.

On my drive over to the hospital on February 26th to meet baby Rory I felt a little overwhelmed with grief and joy at the same time. I told one of my friends that I kept wondering why February 25th sounded like such a familiar date. I can't recall what happened on February 25th in the years past, but I now automatically connect the 25th of any month to my dad. I have no doubt that I will always remember the Birthday of baby Rory and baby Isaac! It's exciting to have such a joyous life event on a day that can sometimes represent sadness for me. I am so blessed to have two new sweet little baby's in my life!

Here's a few sweet pictures of baby Rory, mom (Kay), and dad (Matt). I can't believe my best friend that I have known my WHOLE life has a baby! I am very happy for the two of them!

Aunt Karen is very excited about sharing more pictures of baby Rory and baby Isaac in the future!