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!

round trip

this weekend we drove to alabama so i could attend my cousin ashley's bridal tea sunday. on the way down saturday, we got to have lunch with our college friends luke & julia. luke just returned from kosovo after a year of military duty. i know he must be so glad to be reunited with his wife & baby daughter, carrigan! (she was at her grandparents' for the day here.)we went to church on sunday, and my grandmother proceeded to introduce me & christopher [read: show us off] to no less than 20 or so of her friends. keep in mind this is at a church where that probably comprises 20% of the congregation! we went to the bridal tea shortly after church, while the men went to lunch. it's funny, because there was actually no tea involved. it was basically a shower. except it felt more like a reception. our gifts were opened discreetly by the hostesses and displayed on several tables for all to see while everyone mingled and ate. i think this is how things are done in small southern towns. it was fun to meet some of ashley's other bridesmaids that i will be seeing more of over the next two months. here i am with the beautiful bride, her mother (aunt jenny), and our grandmother. grandmother is wearing the same dress that she wore to her & daddy buck's 50th wedding anniversary (they are now going on 63 years!) and to mine & christopher's wedding. on the way back through atlanta, we got to have dinner with our good friends wes & blakely. we enjoyed little szechuan while their sweet boys, ashton & collin played. soon it was their bedtime and ashton was in his little monkey pj's. i asked him if i could have a hug and he said "yeah, sure!" they are both so sweet! it really works out well that many of our friends living in atlanta are in the perfect path for us to meet up with on our way through town. we love greenville, but we do miss our atlanta friends!

octogenarian fête

this weekend the riddles celebrated grandmother's 80th birthday. on the way to alabama, i got to see wes & blakely. here they are with their sweet son, ashton, who will be two in august. as you can see they are expecting again soon- another boy, collin, next month! grandmother picked the restaurant, lloyd's, and we enjoyed a great seafood meal. (sorry for the blurry picture. i think it was focusing on the flowers, but you get the idea.) then we went back to the house for cake & ice cream. here's the beaming birthday girl!it was great to catch up with my cousin, ashley. we missed chris- his softball team was playing in a tournament, so he wasn't able to come. he held down the fort and kept eva company all weekend.

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!

surprise visit

chris & i had a great weekend - wes & blakely called us on thursday so see what we were up to on friday. we didn't really have plans because chris had a softball game from 8:30-9:30pm. it turned out they were free & we were free...so they came & spent the night with us! how fun - my goal was (is) to invite them up, and each of our parents before the summer's over.
of course they brought their beautiful, almost-10-months-old boy, ashton. and their sweet dog, haley. we went to tsunami (our favorite sushi restaurant here), and showed them around downtown a little before the game.saturday was also a great day...after the yorks left, i went shopping for a bit. then in the afternoon we met grant & audrey at the pool and ran into tim & blaire there! the weather was gorgeous, and we ended up grilling out for dinner.

atlanta weekend

chris and i had a great weekend visiting some dear friends in atlanta. friday night, we ate at los hermanos with the yorks and stayed with them that night. they didn't mind us bringing eva, and we were glad for the chance to get her more socialized. other than a little barking at first, she did great around their dog, haley and their sweet 7-month-old son, ashton. it helps that haley is one of the most laid-back dogs i know (she's in a category with the droddys' dog lucy). turns out ashton is fascinated by dogs. he was so cute to watch playing with them! later the sullivans dropped by and brought their dog, georgie. i wish i had a picture of the three of them sniffing each other! chris assures me that smelling behinds is equivalent to shaking hands for dogs. blakely also let me feed ashton, which was fun. on saturday, we hung out with the gurleys. chris watched some baseball with luke while i went with julia to her baby shower thrown by our old church, mt. vernon. it was great to get to spend time with her and see many of our old friends from sunday school. how cute are these dresses? the gurleys got a surprise yesterday when julia went into labor a month early. carrigan hope was born at a little over 5 pounds but was healthy, praise God! here's a picture they sent out to the sunday school class. i think julia looks amazing to have just been in labor!

atlanta trip

this weekend we took our first trip back to atlanta since we moved. our friends wes & blakely are having a baby in august, and blakely invited me to a shower sunday afternoon at her aunt's house. chris & i decided to go saturday night, so we got to stay with the yorks and chris & wes got to hang out while blakely & i were at the shower.

we really had a nice weekend. saturday we went to little szechuan (see chris' post from last nov.) & rented a suspense movie. i'm sure we didn't get enough sleep because we stayed up late talking, but it was definitely worth it since we don't get to visit often. (though i have to admit i was struggling not to fall asleep in church sunday morning!) we definitely miss our good friends in atlanta.

the shower was beautiful - wonderful people (i got to see our friend joy) & food (hors d'oeuvres are my favorite). this is only the second baby shower i have been to, but i'm sure in a year or two there will be a wave of babies to follow the wave of weddings last year. shopping at babies r us and seeing blakely open her gifts made me realize how much i don't know about babies! i had no clue there are different sized pacifiers depending on the baby's age, and i'm still not clear on what a swaddling blanket is supposed to do. but the wonderful thing about baby stuff is that it is, first and foremost, cute! as i've told chris before, anything that is a miniature of something else is automatically adorable. case in point, tiny socks & little blue shoes.