Our Thanksgiving Beach Trip

The baby bump at week 28 in Myrtle Beach

Every year for Thanksgiving, my husband and his family, have this tradition of spending the holiday at their condo in Myrtle Beach, SC. Since we have been married, I have enjoyed partaking in this tradition with them. Even though, it is not warm enough to layout in your swimsuit it is still nice enough for a round of golf, walking on the beach, shopping at the outlets, and enjoying the 70 degree weather. This year, since I cannot play golf, I decided to just enjoy the beach weather,shop, and relax for a few days.

Lilly looking out on the beach

Sunset in Myrtle Beach

For Thanksgiving day, we did nothing but relax and enjoy the beautiful weather while laying out by the pool (in our shorts of course :). 

 View of ocean from pool

Just another beautiful Thanksgiving Day!

In the late afternoon, we all departed for our Thanksgiving dinner destination, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Myrtle Beach, SC

They had such a wonderful menu for Thanksgiving and the food was outstanding!

Thanksgiving Menu

My favorite, brother-in-law, Thomas

For the rest of the weekend, we just enjoyed spending time with one another, shopping the sales, and eating  at all of our favorite restaurants. On the last night, we went to one of our favorites, Rossi's which is an excellent Italian restaurant.

Will & I

Will, my brother-in-law Thomas & I

As you can see, I have many things to be Thankful for this year!

What I Am Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays not just because I am a history teacher and enjoy the first Thanksgiving story but I love that for one day everyone thinks about what they are truly thankful for. For me, I am Thankful for many things. 

Here are the top 15 things I am Thankful for: 

~Will , who is not just a wonderful husband but a best friend a girl could have. He is always supportive, a good listener, patient, kind, a great confidant and my # 1 fan. I am so thankful that he came into my life 9 years ago. 

~Lilly , who will always be my first little girl. She brings me so much entertainment and unconditional love at all times.

~Our soon to be little girl,  Harper. Will and  I prayed so many times over the last year to be blessed with a child and now are just thankful that we get the chance to be wonderful parents.

~My wonderful parents, Angie & Dave. I am thankful for being a daughter of two loving, supportive parents.

~ My two brothers, Brandon and Bryan. They are the best brothers any girl could ask for.

~My husband's family.  Being blessed with the best in-laws is a gift any girl is lucky to have. I love that they love me as like their own sibling and provide me unconditional support.

~ Our beautiful home. 

~Having an easy pregnancy, so far. 

Week 20

~Our family condo in Myrtle Beach that provides us many wonderful memories with family and friends.

~Being able to have the opportunity to travel to many places, throughout this year.

The Greenbrier- Feb.  14, 2011

View from our room in Bermuda- April 2011

Myrtle Beach Days- Summer 2011

The Homestead Weekend - Sept. 2011

~Being able to go to college then graduate school and being happy with the career I chose.

~ Being an American: (enough said)

~Golf. If I could, I would play golf everyday of the week. Not because I'm good, believe me I need some improvement but being out on a beautiful golf course any day of the week is so relaxing and enjoyable.

~Mexican Food. No matter day or night I am obsessed with Tacos and the # 4 option at our local restaurants which includes 2 tacos, 1 enchilada, and a chili con queso.

~Sense of Humor. If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane. And believe me, being a teacher, you must have a good sense of humor.

Harper's Nursery Update

Currently, we are working on finishing the nursery for our little girl , Harper. This has been quite the job. The room we are coverting into the nursery has been our home office, the last 4 years. We have decided to move our home office to our finished basement. So, the basement is now Will's man cave, our new office, and Harper's soon to be playroom. It is so funny how things change when you have a little on the way. Since, in our basement, we have full wrap around bar with a built in kegorator, a 60 inch flat screen TV and tons of golf and Redskin memorbilla hanging on the walls. As you can tell, it never crossed our minds that one day we would have to make this man cave into a playroom and office.

Back to our nursery update . This room has been a work in progress. It used to be painted a dark blue to make it look like an official office. Now, after two coats of paint and primer it is the color I want the room to be for Harper. The nursery theme we are copying is from Pottery Barn Kids. The color of room is country green from Benjamin Moore. This is the exact color that pottery barn used for the room that we are recreating. 

This is where our crib is going to go.

This is where we will place the chest.

Harper's nursery bedding will be the Hailey Collection from pottery barn kids. It is going to look just like the photo below. We have purchased all the necessary items to ensure this.  Such as the full bedding set, valance, and green polka dot blackout curtains.

This is exactly what Harper's nursery is going to look like

We decided however, to not buy the baby furniture from pottery barn because it does not come assembled. After months of looking, for the right furniture, we decided on the Disney Princess Collection from Roomstogo. We have had wonderful experiences with this store and have been pleased with their furniture. So, when we realized they carried nursery furniture it was an easy decision. 


I absolutely love the furniture collection we chose. It comes with a beautiful white crib, dresser, chest, and nightstand. We also purchased a white glider that I'm sure I will use nightly to rock Harper to sleep. The furniture we purchased is featured in the photo below.

Furniture we purchased for the nursery

The reason, I love this collection so much is because of the girly details on the dresser and chest. The ribbons and intricate edging just made me want it for our little girl.

I love the ribbon and girly details on this dresser.

To add to the nursery decor, I went to Etsy and purchased the cutest wall decal. This decal is exactly like the bedding we purchased from pottery barn kids. Below is the decal we are using in Harper's room. It is going to go on the wall around her crib just like in the photo. 

We are placing this decal around the crib just like this photo.

Currently, we are waiting for all these items to arrive. Our furniture is being shipped the first week of December and I will be sure to update when the room is complete.

Weekend Fun

This weekend , Will and I were busy getting our house ready for my parents to visit. On Saturday morning, Will and Lilly spent hours getting all our leaves off our yard. This has been a weekly task for Will since our yard is a magnet for leaves. Let me first explain why we get so many leaves. Our house is located on the center of a hill which means all our neighbors who live above us are lucky enough to have their leaves blow down to our house. However, I must brag that Will does a great job making sure we never have too many leaves on our yard.

This is where all our neighbors leaves land and ours accumulate.

This year, I have really enjoyed watching Will gather our leaves. The reason is, he looks like a Ghostbuster from that 1984 movie with Dan Aykroyd and  Bill Murray.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters 

I am not joking. Will has this leaf blower that he carries on his back just like the guys on the movie. And since, he takes this job pretty serious he always looks like he is out getting ghost while gathering our leaves.  I will let you be the judge of it.

Will with his leaf blower

These are all the leaves Will collected on Saturday.

As you can tell, Lilly was pretty exhausted after helping gather all our leaves with Will.

Lilly relaxing after her hard day :)

On Saturday evening, I had a wonderful visit from my parents and brother Bryan who came down to celebrate my birthday. My mom and dad surprised me with many gifts which was so thoughtful of them.

One of my favorite gifts was a handmade silver bracelet they had gotten at The Greenbrier Resort. This was a special gift, since Will and I have had many wonderful memories with both our families at this resort.

This bracelet is made out of a silver spoon.

For dinner, we went to a Brazilian restaurant called Carlos. This restaurant is located on top of a hill and overlooks our little city. At night, it is breath taking with all the beautiful views of Roanoke.

Carlos Brazilian Restaurant

My mom and I enjoying dinner

My birthday cake from Carlos.

To make my birthday weekend complete, my brother Bryan brought out his guitar and played a few of my favorite songs. Bryan is one of the most talented people I know. He can play and sing pretty much anything you request. Listening to him perform is one of my favorite things to do.

Bryan playing the guitar and singing

Now that this weekend is over, I really do have to face the fact that I am now 29.  However, I am so excited for what this year has to bring!

Week 27 Baby Bump

It's My Birthday..

Note: My birthday was on Tuesday Nov. 15 but life was just too busy for me to post right away.

I just love birthday's! I not only enjoy celebrating my own but anyone else who is having one. It just is something about making someone feel special on their big day that I love. Personally, I think this goes back to my childhood. Growing up my mom always made our birthday a very special day. When we would come home from school we would always be greeted with tons of balloons and gifts waiting for us. We even had a balloon walker floating around our house.(Remember those balloons that have arms and legs and float around like people).  My mom would also have a personalized Happy Birthday banner hanging  above our fireplace to greet us.

This is not the exact banner but was just like this one. 

That same evening we were also able choose wherever we wanted to go for dinner. ( Which was always a nice treat since one of my brothers was a picky eater and we always seemed to eat at the same restaurants). Then, we would come home,open our gifts, eat our birthday cake and spend quality time with the family. These are memories that I dearly treasure and hope to continue with my own children in the future.

Now even in my adult years this tradition has continued. Except now, it's just a bit different. Different being good though. With my parents living 3 hours away I now have to wait to celebrate with them on the weekend.  My husband however, has taken over my mom's job of making sure that I am fully greeted with gifts, cake, and the restaurant of my choice. So, needless to say my birthday has now become a birthweek! Which I'm not complaining about :)

This year I had another wonderful birthday. I woke up to my husband making me a homemade breakfast. Then, to my surprise I got two flower arrangements delivered to my classroom. One was from my parents and the other from my brother Brandon and sister-in-law Anne.

The beautiful flowers from my parents

The gorgeous flowers I received from my brother and sister-in-law.

I had not told my students it was my birthday because I did not want to reveal that I was actually 29. However, they realized it was my birthday when they saw the flowers. One thing about high school kids is that they love to do anything to not take notes or do their classwork.  Which on this day, every class was distracted discussing my age and then singing "Happy Birthday"  to me.

When I got home from work I had another nice surprise waiting for me. Will had a gift bag hanging on the front door with all my gifts inside. He gave me a sweet card signed by him and Lilly saying how much they are excited about our new chapter in our lives and such (don't want to get too personal :). I also got a prenatal massage and facial which was scheduled for the next day after work at Pure Spa. Let me tell you, being 7 1/2 months pregnant and carrying an extra 15 pounds this was the best gift a girl could get!

Pure Spa in Roanoke, Virginia

I think I see another one of these in my future before Harper's arrival.

The last thing I received was my favorite chocolate covered potato chips and truffles from a local candy store, Chocolate Paper.

Absolutely love Chocolate Paper!!

Then, to finish the night we went to my favorite Italian restaurant Norberto's  in the beautiful Grandin Village area of our town and enjoyed a nice relaxing evening.  

Norberto's Italian Restaurant in Grandin Village

Needless to say, this was a perfect way to start year 29!