...BABIES, OH MY!!

Babies, babies, babies!!

During the last few days of September/first few days of October, we know so many people who have had BABIES!

Three babies were born to our office family in one week! (And another co-worker's wife is past her due date!)  Congratulations Jeff, Mike and Amy!!!!

Our good friends Chris and Ally had their first baby, Savannah Kate, on October 1st, and she is absolutely beautiful!  :D We can't WAIT to meet her!

AND on October 2nd (at the same hospital where Savannah was born), our nephew Jaxson Lee was born.  He is the most handsome baby that I have ever seen. (And there is absolutely zero chance that I am biased!)  Amazing job, Amanda and Brad! 

Now that I have an excuse to look at baby things, I look everywhere I go.  And I have found the most adorable baby everything!! I can't even begin to post pictures or look on the internet because I won't be able to stop.

I also see pregnant ladies and babies everywhere!  Is it possible that I just didn't notice them until recently?!  I wouldn't say that I have baby fever...but I'm on the verge ;)  Luckily, we have our sweet nephew to keep "the feva" at bay for a couple more years.

I tried to do a little bit of research to see if there is a biological reason why some women get "baby fever," but I didn't have any luck.  Thoughts, please?

Engagements, Weddings and...

The last month has just been the most joyful whirlwind of exciting events!

Two of our very favorite couple friends that we spend most of our free time with are engaged-- Congratulations Mike and Laura and Kevin and Julie!! Laura and Julie have the most beautiful rings--all of our rings just happen to be from the same jeweler, and I am having the best time "talking wedding" and swapping magazines and vendors with them :D Kevin and Mike are also groomsmen in our wedding!  Adam and I frequently talk (slash brag) about how lucky we are to have such an amazing group of friends.  Hollerrr Glenwood crew... (yeah, that just happened.)

Julie, Kevin, Mike & Laura
We are so excited for y'all!

We have also been to two incredible weddings during the last few weeks.  Our friends Bryant and Cassie were married the last weekend in September in the beautiful rolling hills of Maryland.  (Honestly, on the way to the wedding, we thought the van driver was taking us to the middle of a field to kill us all.)  But we ended up here...

The wedding was actually outside and behind the stone mansion in a huge open field.  The ceremony was  intimate and short and sweet, and the bride looked absolutely stunning.  At the end of the ceremony when the minister announced the couple, Cassie and Bryant walked out to "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey.  It was prefect for them :)

We had cocktails and snacks around the outside of the house while the wedding party took pictures.  Luckily, it was a warm, sunny afternoon.  And we took full advantage of the drinks ;)

Trouble right there.

The reception was in a tent to the side of the house.  And they played ALL 80's music--such a great and unique idea!!! And so perfect for a hardcore dance party!

Then, drum roll please... on 10-10-10, my sweet mama got married!! 

My mom and I packed up and headed to the beach four days before the wedding.  And we packed my little Honda Accord completely full.

Essentials...
...Vera Bradley, beer & prosecco

The next day we did all kinds of wedding errands...visited the bakery, ordered the groom's cake, made up guest baskets, and got our nails done (of course!).

The bride-to-be

You Wanna Pisa Me OPI
to match our watermelon dresses

My nails did not look nearly this good by the wedding day!

We could not have asked for a more PERFECT weekend.  The weather was absolutely amazing--temperatures in the 80's and cloudless Carolina blue skies.  (A week earlier at Ocean Isle Beach it rained 18 inches!!!)



Two days before the wedding.
And yes, I did try to soak up a little bit of sun.

 Because the wedding was on Sunday, we were able to spend some quality family time talking, relaxing, and eating Friday night when people started arriving at the beach!

Serious tub of peach cobbler.
(I politely reminded my grandparents that I did have to fit in to my dress in two days!)

And because we got so much done during the week, we had time to play on Saturday before the rehearsal!  So Adam and I went golfing with my Aunt and Uncle...

It was a beautiful course and day!

Aunt Betsy and I got our own golf cart.
We read and chatted (quietly) while the boys played.

We rehearsed that evening...

We are just slightly high-maintenance,
so it was getting dark by the time we actually started "rehearsing."

The rehearsal dinner was a blast...

Shots with the bride (AKA Mom)
She had on her "you better not be hungover tomorrow" face.

And the wedding day went very smoothly.  It was so much fun to decorate and to do all of the table arrangements! (Although, I will be way too stressed to do anything of the sort on my wedding day.)

Decorating committee in action!

Please notice the American and Dutch flags!!

 The female half of the wedding party cut it a little bit close finishing up hair and make-up, but I don't think anyone minded...


Uncle Dirk and I were witnesses on the marriage license...
I wasn't quite ready, but the officiant wasn't messin' around!

Very sweet sand ceremony on the beach.

I wasn't happy at all ;)

The happy couple!

The new fam after the ceremony... Woo-hoo!

Beach house...the reception was below!

Our bouquets the next day.

We played late into the night.  There was eating, drinking, dancing and LOTS of cake involved!  I am so excited about all of my new family members--I could not imagine better additions :D  (And I can't wait to add more amazing family members next June!!!)

We love you both!!
Wishing you a life time of health, love, and happiness together!

It has been an entire month!

Hi loyal blog followers (aka Mom),
I can't believe it has been an entire month since I have posted!! I hope that no one has been too terribly distraught over my lack of posts. (hey, a girl can pretend, right??) 

Here's a quick recap of our last month...

NCSU football games
GO PACK!! (4-0)

More football celebrations



Chocolate fountains!



Baby showers for Amanda and Brad

Wedding shower for Mom and Robert!

Umm...just my new favorite peanut butter discovery!



Lots of school work
...Sweet Kali wanted to help



Our engagement party!
It was amazing...thank you Mom and Robert and Brooke and Drew and Steph
and all of our incredible friends and family for coming!

Lots of September birthdays!

Practicing our cake cutting...

And cake attack...

And another chocolate fountain!!
(Hmm...I wonder why I've gained 5 pounds this month?!)

Maryland for Cassie and Bryant's wedding--absolutely gorgeous!

Handsome couples :)

Whewf! Super fun and busy month, so we haven't done too much wedding planning.  There has also been lots of fantasy football (for Adam) and getting ready for my mom's upcoming wedding! (10 days away!!!)

We have made some progress with bridesmaids' dresses (and I think that most of them have gotten measured--woohoo!).  I have also been searching for a hair stylist/make-up artist, and I believe that I have found someone...I'm super excited about her, so we'll see!! More updates to come...

HAPPY OCTOBER!!! (And cooler weather, yay yay yaaay!)

Priscillas!

Nooo, not THAT Priscilla's (teehee), sorry. 

Our wedding has had a complete color revolution. And I am ridiculously excited about it! The theme of our wedding is "simple and elegant -- ish," and our colors, LATTE and BLACK (ta-da!), are precisely that.

Adam's first response to the addition of the color "latte" was that it looks like "baby shit." Now, I don't actually think that Adam has seen much "baby shit" in his life, but I have a feeling that that is going to change come October when our nephew, Jaxson, is born (!!!!).

The tuxes have gone from gray to navy to black over the last few weeks, and I was pretty set on navy blue bridesmaid dresses...but I wanted to keep an open mind.  Luckily for me, four of my amazing bridesmaids and my mom came to look at dresses with me!!  I knew that I wanted simple, probably long, dresses, but after finding that my perfect wedding dress was completely different than what I thought that I wanted, I was up for pretty much anything.

We found a dress in the store that was similar to mine, and we held it up next to whoever had on a dress that we liked.  It's really difficult to imagine some of the dresses in different colors, but we managed. 

So many of the dresses were stunning on my bridesmiads (I do have very attractive and fit friends).  But, when Katie put on this particular dress, we knew almost right away that it was the one.  The weirdest thing was that it was one of the dresses that we liked the least when we were picking them out.  (Honestly, I have always loved the taupeish/gold color of "latte" for bridesmaid dresses, but I didn't think it would look good on a variety of skin tones or hair colors.)  Well, it looked fantastic on all of my friends--I have very blonde, dirty blonde, brunette, and almost black haired bridesmaid with a variety of skin tones.  We are just a melting pot.  AND the dress style and color was amazing with the dress like mine...I am getting really ridiculously excited just talking about it!  Plus, the dressy, black with black style of the tuxes is hopefully going to be absolutely perfect with the dresses.  (Man, do I really have to wait 9 more months?!)

The fabric of the dressic is perfect too...not sooo shiny that it will look cheap in pictures.

We found the dresses at Priscilla's of Boston.  The store in Raleigh is brand new, and we had such a great time there (although we were a little bit disappointed that we didn't get any champagne!).  They have so many gorgeous dresses.  I would absolutely love to wear one of their dresses to a cocktail party. 

So many of their dresses are classic but trendy!

Absolutely love this dress!

Stunning.

Some more of Priscilla's of Boston's gorgeous dresses

Some latte...

I don't looove it with pink though.

About the color of the dresses;

although, ours are a little bit lighter and golder

I have seen a lot of blue and yellow weddings this year! I think it is gorgeous and so preppy and I love it, but our new colors fit our venue and time-of-day much better, and, more importantly, they are much more "us!"

Blue and yellow!

Very summery.  I like the trend of different style dresses in the same color,

but it's not quite traditional enough for me.

Beachy and modern!

Very pretty.

I love yellow because it is such a happy color :)

So pretty together.

More blue and yellow!

I will ALWAYS looove pink and green!

And, yes I did consider Lilly Pulitzer dresses.

More pink and green.

I am in LOVE with these shoes!

I love it even more for shower colors.

I'd say our wedding is late spring/early summer...

Not so much...