norah: relatives, outings, and milestones

now it's hard to imagine our life without norah. what did we do before she came?! over the past few weeks, both sets of her grandparents came to visit. it was great to have the extra help!

grammy & pop came when she was two weeks old. she also got to meet her uncle andy:nana & grandpa came when she was four weeks old.
and no, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. there are two babies there; mrs. cathy is holding daniel, our friends' newborn. they came to bring us dinner that week. the husband, adam, plays on the church softball team with christopher. his wife sarah beth & i are enjoying taking the babies to games. this was norah's first outing (other than pediatrician visits)!
norah's second outing was her very first sunday at church, which happened to be easter sunday. she wore a sweet little dress from one of christopher's parents' friends.last weekend, norah got to meet her great-grandparents on my side, grandmother & daddy buck. this was so special and warmed my heart to see! i had been praying they would live to meet their great-grandchildren. God is so good!
norah has already reached some notable milestones. of course, as her parents we are amazed at anything she does! every sneeze, every yawn, every coo seems like a miracle. she started smiling at four weeks old. here she's doing it in her sleep; we thought she must be having sweet dreams!
at four weeks, she also started reaching for things: my hair (she has quite the grip!), christopher's fingers, hanging toys on her activity mat. we have also started doing "tummy time" so she has the opportunity to strengthen her upper body & neck muscles. she is working hard at lifting that heavy little head! one of the most significant milestones (to a sleep deprived mama, anyway!) is that norah slept through the night last night! we hope this will become a regular thing.

we are so excited for christopher's brother kevin & his fiance andra's wedding later this month. this will be our first big outing/trip with norah, and her first time meeting extended family on christopher's side. we hope everything goes smoothly (for them and for us!).

november so far

we've had some great weekends in november, and it's not even thanksgiving yet! we went to atlanta for the vt game (we won't talk about that too much) and got to meet up with some of the yorks- here's me with our sweet friend blakely and her precious boys, ashton & collin. (please ignore the beer sign behind us. i think the photographer- aka christopher- must not have noticed!) blakely also has another boy on the way, due two days before our girl! her husband wes had to work, so he couldn't join us for lunch. we love hanging out with them and wish we could see them more often! i hope we will be as great parents as they are!! the rest of the weekend, i had a mini-reunion with three of my best friends from middle school: (left to right) carrie, tori, & jessie. i'm not exactly sure how it got started, but back then at sleepovers we used to blow kisses at the clock at 11:11 and make a wish. we have been saying for years (about 13 to be exact) that we were going to get together at 11:11 on 11/11/11 at a 7-eleven and make a big wish! well, we nixed the 7-eleven part, but had a great weekend at carrie's house reminiscing (i even dug up our old middle school yearbooks!). we also recently went to a wedding in greenville for some friends from bible study. it was fun to see some of the beautiful venues in our city and enjoy good food, friends, & dancing! i also finished a craft project with my friends liz & lori. it is a frame to display christmas cards. i saw something very similar (for $200) in a pottery barn catalog and knew i could make it for much cheaper (less than $40). i wish i had taken step-by-step pictures, but just try to imagine: 1) i took a plain black wooden frame and spray painted it a metallic champagne. 2) after it dried, i used sandpaper to scrape some of the edges to make it look weathered. thanks to liz for showing me the basics of "antiquing" furniture! 3) i measured & cut picture hanging wire and attached it to the back using a staple gun. 4) i used metal clips to hang the cards- in this case, birth/adoption announcements. i think i may use it year round for other cards & announcements, maybe photos too. but for now i will have a great place to collect all the christmas cards that usually take up counter space!

live free or die

this is the state motto for new hampshire, where we spent my birthday last weekend. we actually went there for a friend's wedding, and my birthday just happened to coincide. brienne is a friend from college who moved to new hampshire after she finished her doctorate in physical therapy. we got to do a few fun activities while we were visiting. on friday before the wedding, we visited mount washington, the tallest peak in new england. here we are about halfway up, with another college friend, michael. well, michael is a college friend to me, but he & chris went to school together since 1st grade!notice how i added layers of clothing as we went up. the base of the mountain was in the mid-70s that day, while the peak was mid-40s! there was a gift shop on top of the mountain that was chained down because of the wind. the top wind speed ever recorded was 231mph! in case you were wondering, that's a world record. on to the wedding- here's brienne & andy, newly married. and us at the reception, happily married for almost 4 years. chris liked the getaway car. we enjoyed some other activities i don't have pictures of- hiking, tubing, and a cook out at the bride & groom's adorable house. and here's a sign you don't see in the south. all in all, new hampshire was really beautiful. i didn't know much about it before we went, but i can see why they enjoy living there.

sweet home alabama

june was the month of weddings for my extended family in alabama. i had two cousins get married in or near birmingham within three weeks. the first was my mom's sister's daughter- victoria. i don't have as many pictures of this event, but here i am with the bride. the wedding was at a beautiful farm in the country. the night was completed with fireworks over the lake. victoria was recently accepted to school for music technology in birmingham, where she and her husband michael will live. she is a talented guitarist and recorded her own wedding march playing classical guitar!

last weekend we had the second wedding, in which i was a bridesmaid (bridesmatron?). it was my dad's brother's daughter- ashley. she was in my wedding nearly four years ago. here's a flashback of that.back then she was dating patrick off and on. they are high school sweethearts, which is neat because so are her parents- my aunt jenny and uncle larry. here they all are. uncle larry looks like he's tired of taking pictures! ashley & patrick will live in birmingham where she recently got a new job as an editor at southern living. but her passion is clothing design, and she is very talented! you can see some of her original designs at her website, addie & elon.

the weekend was so relaxing & fun because we stayed at a hotel downtown very close to all the events. i always find staying at hotels really luxurious, i guess because i don't have to make my bed, clean up after myself, or cook! birmingham has some great shopping, so after the bridesmaids' luncheon on friday we went to the summit where christopher got some new shoes and i got to visit anthropologie. the rehearsal dinner was delicious, at a restaurant called brick & tin. the wedding was at historic rucker place. here we are in the bride's room...and at the reception. chris & me with my dad's parents. mom & dad with grandmother & daddy buck. my mom played piano for the ceremony and my dad helped turn the pages. we are almost done with weddings for a little while. we have one more this summer, on my birthday in new hampshire. christopher is a trooper, because i know weddings are not as fun for boys. but i do love weddings!

tori's wedding and chicago

last weekend, we drove to the chicago area for my friend tori's wedding. it was around 11 hours, and chris drove the entire way. (i promise i offered to help, but he doesn't mind driving and i don't prefer it!) we passed the time by listening to a lot of brad paisley music (we're getting ready to go to his concert next month in charlotte!), listening to my mom's favorite book, to kill a mockingbird (which is a lot funnier than i remember it being in 9th grade), and talking about our dreams for the future and life in general. i feel like we have some of our best conversations riding in the car together.
so we arrived in naperville (a suburb where tori lives & where all the wedding activities were held) on thursday night. on friday, i enjoyed a fun day with the bridesmaids getting manicures & pedicures and having a delicious lunch of tortellini soup and apricot/apple salad. these menu items were courtesy of the bride's sister, catherine, who is a regular martha stewart! (she was also the one behind the yummy dishes at the bachelorette weekend.) friday night we of course had the rehearsal followed by the rehearsal dinner, in which tori & ron rented out their favorite tapas restaurant. the bacon wrapped dates and the goat cheese balls were my favorite dishes.on saturday morning, we started getting ready at the hotel. then we moved to wedding & reception location, arrowhead golf club, to continue getting ready for the ceremony at 5pm. here's the gorgeous bride with her sister catherine and mother debby before the ceremony. their ceremony was held at a beautiful arbor outdoors, and the reception was a lot of fun. they had several meal courses, my favorite of which was the cold stone ice cream bar. there was also a photo booth & funny props (hats, sunglasses, etc.) to make silly pictures. we danced until nearly midnight, when they served a late-night snack. then we sent the bride & groom off with sparklers. today is actually tori's 26th birthday, and they are currently enjoying a two-week honeymoon in scotland, france, & italy.chris & i spent the fourth of july sunday exploring downtown chicago with carrie and her husband eric, who were also there for the wedding. (carrie was a good friend from middle & high school. she & eric met in college at mercer and now live in lawrenceville.) here we are enjoying deep dish pizza at gino's east. my favorite attraction was going to the skydeck at the top of sears tower. 103 stories up, they have The Ledge where you can walk into a glass box and see the city below.
we also walked along the magnificent mile, and chris picked out an adorable dress for me at h&m. it's white and gold- he has of course already got his mind on football season! chris' favorite thing we did was a river boat tour of the architecture of chicago. at the end of the day, we watched fireworks shot off of navy pier. using the walking directions feature on google maps, i calculated how far we walked on sunday: 6.6 miles! no wonder my calves were aching for two days afterward! all in all, this was simultaneously one of the most fun and exhausting trips i've taken in quite a while.

christy's wedding

this weekend we visited augusta for the wedding of one of my good friends from high school, christy. i was a bridesmaid, which gave me perfect reason to take friday off! (by the way, i love the dresses she picked out - will definitely be wearing mine again!) so i enjoyed a bridesmaids' luncheon on friday. then chris came with me to the rehearsal & dinner that night.
christy is in medical school, which is where she met her now-husband, josh. i think it is so neat that they both have a passion for medical missions. they first got to know each other on a foreign medical mission trip, and they are preparing to go together on another in february to cambodia. christy's flowers in the wedding were beautiful, and i have been enjoying my bouquet all week!

doggies, weddings, and babies

three of my favorite things! first, we celebrated eva's first birthday this week with her first bandana that i found online at pawsh pooch, a doggie boutique by two women in kennesaw. i also found some peanut-butter flavored frozen dog treats near the ice cream in the grocery store. eva seemed to love it! we recommend putting it in a dog bowl, not a saucer (which is what the box shows) because as she licked it, it fell off the sides!

we went to atlanta for part of the long weekend for kaitlin & wallace's wedding and the first gt football game of the season. i'll let christopher tell you about the football...the wedding was beautiful. here are linda, angela, & me with the bride: our favorite campus minister, jamey, was the officiant. it was great to see him, and we miss him and his family a lot!we enjoyed staying with some tech friends, angela & joseph. they have a black lab named dixie that eva enjoyed playing with. chris & i got to meet luke & julia's baby, carrigan for the first time. she is around 6 months old and looks just like a tiny female version of luke. we also got to stop by for a visit with the yorks. it's hard to believe their son, ashton, is already one!