Presents Galore! Part Deux.

Have I mentioned how loving, supportive, caring, and downright wonderful our friends and family are?!  Baby Geronimina is already so loved - I have said it before, and will say it again - it absolutely overwhelms me.  I can't wait for her to meet all of you. 

We have been showered with gifts ever since we found out we were expecting - we honestly have the greatest friends and family ever.  Since I am still sick (and therefore exhausted), I am going to do a (mostly) picture post to show you what we've gotten since the last "presents update!" 

Right after we found out that Geronimina is a "she," we had dinner with our neighbor besties Bo & Meagan.  Dan works with Bo, and I've gotten to know them both well since we moved.  We LOVE having them as neighbors, because they are so much fun, and we have really enjoyed getting to know them better.  I think (hope!) we will be friends for years to come!  Not to mention that Layla and their dog, Fender, have total crushes on each other.  We can't walk by their house (and vice versa) without Layla stopping at their gate to whine for Fender.  Anyway, they gave us the following:



Sweet little Cabbage Patch cow



"daddy says NO DATING until i'm 25!"

Cutest ever, right?  I had a cabbage patch doll, Dottie, growing up and wouldn't go anywhere without her - isn't the cow adorable?  And the onesie is hilarious - and so fitting.

The same day, Dan brought home the sweetest gift from another work friend, Daniel.  I've gotten to know Daniel and his wife, Mary-Peyton, through my Dan.  They just had the sweetest little baby boy named Whitaker, and I can't wait to meet him!  Here was our "YAY IT'S A GIRL!" gift from the three of them:

MY WORD the cuteness.  Can't be contained!  Thanks guys!

Next up is my girl Leah, who you may remember not too long ago sent me the Burt's Bees Mama Bee gifts.  LC (I guess you are LL now?!?!?!), you are spoiling this baby and I rotten!  Anyway, I came home Friday to this little gem of adorableness (not a word, I know), and I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven:

BABY GLITTER TOM'S!  IN MY FAVORITE COLOR!  Seriously.  I die.  And the pictures can't even do them justice.  If you have never heard of Toms, you should check them out - I am a big fan of their one for one program.  For every pair of shoes or eye wear purchased, they donate a pair to a child in need.  Pretty nifty, right?  There is a hilarious story behind said Toms that I will have to tell you another time - it's kind of long-winded.  Maybe tomorrow?  Auntie Leah, thank you SO MUCH for the adorable gift.  We LOVE it, and Geronimina told me she can't wait to rock them to match Mommy's pink glitters!

Probably one of the greatest gifts from this past week was that I got see my best girlfriends from college over the weekend.  We live close to one another, relatively speaking, but far enough away that we don't see each other every day or week (like I would love to), so when we do get together it's a real treat.  Allison, April, April's daughter Ava, Megan and I met in Durham at Mad Hatter Bakeshop and Cafe (we missed you Amanda and Sheila!) for breakfast, and I had such a great time catching up.  Girls, if you're reading, can we PLEASE make a conscious effort to meet more often?  Anyway, no offense to the rest of you, but the best part was hanging out with Ava:

...even when she showed me her mad face:

Cute, ain't she?  As well as smart, hilarious, and very well-behaved.  Love all of you girls, let's PLEASE do it again soon!

In closing, this has nothing to do with being showered with gifts by our amazing friends and family, but look where I got to park today when I went to Babies R Us to pick up some gifts for Carrie's work baby shower tomorrow:

It's the little things, I guess.  Off to bed for me, still trying to sleep off this sickness!

Sarah

Boone Vacation Recap

I briefly considered being a trickster and doing the 15-week update today and saving the Boone post for tomorrow.  BUT, I had such a good weekend and am so excited to share the pictures that I didn't think I could stand to put it off.  Prepare yourselves, this is gonna be a long one!

Boone is one of our absolute favorite places on earth.  There is nowhere better.  My parents recently bought some property there and are working on building their house, and I can't wait to see it all come together.  In the mean time, Aunt Niecey and Uncle Jeff were nice enough to let us stay in theirs (thanks, guys!) - and we had an absolute blast!

We drove up on Thursday evening after work and arrived around 10 - we wanted to be able to enjoy the day on Friday, so I'm glad we did!  Rich and Eliza stayed with us on Thurdsay night and we got to spend most of Friday with them, and it was so nice to be able to spend some time with them and catch up.  Move back to Raleigh ASAP, you two! 

Friday morning, we got breakfast at one of Dan's and my favorite places - Boone Bagelry.  If you are ever in Boone and want the best breakfast ever, Boone Bagelry and the Sunrise Grill are my two absolute favorites!  We spent the day walking around campus to see all of the new renovations and doing some shopping (oh how I miss Gladiola Girls!), and then of course we ended up spending most of the afternoon at Klondike, where Dan used to bartend (In fact, Klondike is where we met!).  Luckily for Dan, he was escorted by a pregnant woman who was able to drive him home late that afternoon.  Please LOOK at the cute stuff I bought Baby Geronimo!

He/she will not be able to wear the hat with the ears for a while because it's kind of big, but I could not resist.  I can't wait to find out whether we're having a girl or boy to go back and get more stuff!  What I got was all we could find in the way of gender neutral.  Not to worry, I didn't forget about my other child...

I had to promise her quite a few treats (okay, possibly I actually had to promise her part of my cookie) to get her to cooperate, but she did good, don't ya think?  Friday night, we cooked dinner at the cabin and Ryan, Erin and Boswell came to stay with us. 

Saturday morning, the boys played golf, so the girls had a spa and shopping day (I know, I know...more shopping.  What can I say?  It's a disease.)!  First thing in the morning, we had mani/pedis, and then we went to the outlets in Blowing Rock.  While there, I realized I had forgotten to try on my dress to ensure that it still fit, so I bought a REALLY cute back-up just in case that I'll be able to wear for a while yet - plenty of room to grow (if you saw today's earlier post, you'll know that the dress did, in fact, fit!).  After that we met the boys for lunch at the new Mellow Mushroom (which, by the way, is fantastic, and WAY nicer than the old one) and then all went our separate ways to get ready for the wedding festivities.

I was not sure whether we were going to actually make the wedding because we were dawdling getting ready, but luckily we made it, and it was absolutely gorgeous!  I took around 150 pictures but am having a hard time narrowing them down for the blog, so prepare yourselves...there are a lot.



First, I have to talk about how ADORABLE their programs were.  They doubled as a program and a fan - and there was even entertainment in the form of a mad lib on one side!  Boswell and Dan had a lot of fun with that, which I will not share on my family-friendly blog.

The beautiful couple:

Please examine Baby Xander's cute factor:

I could really just eat those chunky cheeks!  Getting lots of practice:

We have the best friends - see below.  We missed you Nicky & Tracy!

Eliza & Rich



Erin & Ryan



The Farmer Family

The boys!

Side note: Isn't Meghan so cute and sickening?  True story: she just birthed that child 3 months ago.  You look fab, Mama!

Now, onto the reception!  It was at the Apple Barn, and everything was gorgeous and decorated so impeccably.

On the gift table, they had something so neat that I'd never seen before!  It was called a wishing tree.  You wrote your wishes for the bride & groom on the little tags, and hung them on the tree.  So cute (Side note: can anyone who uses blogger tell me how to put three images on one line instead of only two? I tried making them all small but still could only fit two, so annoying.)!

Dan and I goofing off, Olan Mills style:

More photos of the happy couple:

The whole group (minus the pregnant lady) taking shots:

Mike and Sarah, we had SO MUCH FUN, and are so excited that we were able to celebrate with you on your special day!  I hope you're having a BLAST on your honeymoon, and I wish for you many years of love, hugs and happiness.  Love you both!

As for the rest of you, I leave you with a shot of what a pregnant lady does when her feet hurt due to extremely fashionable (but not necessarily comfortable) shoes (don't worry shoes, I still love you and plan to wear you often!):

I hope you enjoyed this lengthy but picture-filled post...15-week update coming up tomorrow, so check back then.

Happy Monday!

Sarah