It's a....

GIRL!!!

Last week we found out the wonderful news that we will be having a baby girl...we are beyond excited and beyond surprised! We have both felt that it was a baby boy from the start (which too would have been amazing), not to mention that at our last sonogram the sonographer guessed that it was a boy! Although we had not fully gone all boy, we were leaning that way pretty heavily! Then last week after the sonographer and doctor each had a look, it was confirmed that it was a girl! I have been protecting myself from thinking bows, lace, shopping, and mommy daughter time that I can barely believe this is real! And this little girl will have her daddy wrapped around her finger instantaneously! Although Sam and I found out the big news at the doctor, we had a reveal party with family and close friends that night. The majority of the party, like us, were Team Blue so lets just say there were a lot of surprised screams when the cake was cut! Thank you all for making this special time even more special! Now its on to decorating the nursery, shopping for girly clothes, and waiting patiently on this precious little gift!

Tres, Tri, Tre, Trois...THREE

Looks like I forgot a picture from our trip...we are finally taking the plunge into parenthood, due 12/10/12!!!!  The Lord is so good!



Family Beach Vacation

Last week my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, and us took a trip to Florida. We stayed in the cutest community, Watersound, which is right outside of Seaside in the most picturesque house (my SIL wrote a post about the house here). We had the best time playing at the beach, swimming at the pools, eating delicious food, celebrating a birthday, and just spending good quality time together! I have more memories from vacations throughout my life and just got to add another one to the list! It was extra special getting to experience the beach for the first time with our niece, Mia! She thought it was the best and could have stayed out and played in the sand and waves 24-7 had we let her! Since vacations equal food for us, I couldn't post about a vacation without talking about the food we ate!!! We spent half of our meals eating at the house with a friendly cooking competition and the rest of the nights eating out. Here are a list of some of my favorite places...delicious...favorite meal though must go to The Great Southern Cafe; I had some of the most amazing crab and hush puppies EVER!!!

- Bud and Alley's Pizza with an Ocean View

- The Donut Hole, Santa Rosa Beach

- The Great Southern Cafe , Seaside

- The Donut Truck - Aly's Beach

- V at Seagrove for double-date night!

We love our families more that words can express and say a BIG thank you to my mom and dad for an amazing, memory filled vacation!!! Here are just a few alot the the many pictures that we took over the week (also, you can see my SIL's pics here)

We also took family pictures one night. It ended up being such a beautiful night...couldn't have asked for more!!!

YOU + ME = LOVE

On Friday night, all of the men from our small group decided to surprise us with an early Valentine's celebration! Getting dressed up + limo + champagne + amazing dinner + lots of laughs = an incredible Valentine's celebration!!! Eddie V's has moved on to my top 5 favorite places to eat. The meal was DELICIOUS!!! I can't stop talking about it!! I know I am partial, but I have the best husband a girl could ask for that loves me more than I could ever deserve! Thanks guys for planning such a romantic, fun night out to celebrate; we could not ask for more - truly a night to remember!!! (didn't have my good camera to catch the night, so these will have to do!)

The Tree Christmas

I cannot express how greatly the Lord blessed us when he guided us to our young adults/young families class about 5 years ago. We have grown more deeply with the Lord, with eachother in our marriage, and with an amazing group of people through this class. We have had some people come and go from the class, but each person has played a role and been a huge asset! We do life with these people - we learn, grow, are challenged, held accoutable, and enjoy get fellowship (and some great food!). Our annual Tree Christmas Party was once agian held at the Elliots (our faithful leaders)last weekend. I can't say enough about this family and the example that they set for us; we are blessed more than words can express by you as leaders! This night we had lots of good food, fellowship, and a friendly white elephant gift exchange. We ended up a little better this year with Sam grabbing a Starbucks giftcard. I unfortunitly gave away my gift of the night - a UT Nutcracker, no thank you!!!

Italian Christmas Feast

We had our third annual Christmas Dinner this past weekend. The Maenius' and Sam and I prepared an Italian Feast with all of the food we learned to cook in Italy. Various crostinis, prosciutto, cheese, and honey tray, bruschetta, caprese salad, lasagna, homemade arugula pesto pasta, cheesecake with whiskey sauce, and mini tiramisus. After dinner we had a gift exchange and then a fun night of karaoke!! What a blessing we have in each of these people!!