BFF & Baby

My very best friend Autumn and her husband Pete are expecting their first baby, and today was the day they got to find out if it was a little Shrock, or a little Shrockette...

Not so secretly, Chad and I have been rooting for them to have a little girl... mostly because they shared what would be their little girl's name with us before they even got pregnant - and we instantly fell in love with it. So for the past few months, we've been referring to little baby Shrock by the little girl's name in the hopes that if we put it out there, that's what they'd have :) And not to mention Autumn desperately has to have a chandelier in the baby nursery, and we all know little girls love all things shiny and sparkly. But of course, no matter what Auts has been baking for the past 4 months, we're going to love baby Shrock all the same <3

So like I said, today was the big day. Autumn and Pete are having a...






GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so excited I almost cried. Not just because they were having a girl, but because I now know that I have magical powers and can will a child's gender with the flick of my pinky. Or well, that's what I'll tell myself anyway ;)

But in all seriousness, we couldn't be more happy and excited for the very proud parents to be... Autumn and Pete are wonderful people, wonderful friends, and will undoubtedly be the most wonderful parents.

We love you three <3

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The family and the eye

Omg what a busy couple of weeks we just had. But it was family filled and fun, so I can't complain :) We started off with a trip down to Grayson, GA to visit my folks. Keeping in mind that the sole purpose of this trip was to hook up the Photosmart printer we had bought my folks for Christmas. You read that right - Christmas. And it's March. Don't judge... the lady just figured out how to use her Kindle :)

So we arrived on Thursday, successfully installed the printer Friday, went out for dinner and a movie (The Adjustment Bureau - really good) on Saturday, and then headed back home Sunday.

Which is when we almost died.

Now the route from VA to GA really isn't bad. It's pretty much a straight shot, with like 50-60 miles through the VA mountains. Not a big deal right? Right. Unless you're dealing with 60mph cross winds and blizzard conditions. The wind was so strong it almost toppled a semi-truck right next to us. As in right on top of us. It was scary. Not to mention that when we finally made it through the mountains it started snowing even harder and we could barely see the cars in front of us. And then all the trucks blowing the snow back at us... it was seriously white out conditions. The puppies were freaked out, I was freaked out, and my blind-in-his-left-eye husband managed to keep us steady and make it home just fine :)

The end? Nope. Not even close.

Chad's brother OJ and his girlfriend Sheri were coming into town for the week from LA, and we were planning to pick them up at the airport, then drive down to Chad's folks house in Fredericksburg, then stay the night and head into work the next day. So we got home from our treacherous drive, grabbed a clean set of clothes, sat down for about 4 minutes, and then headed to the airport and off to Fburg.

We spent the next few days totally immersed in solid family entertainment. Dinners, movies, (tons of) wine, and an awesome night with the entire Baer family where we watched Uncle Chad entertain our three yearld old nephew, Jett, with Punch Out on the Wii. The catch phrase of the night very quickly became "kick his butt Uncle Chad", which btw just gets funnier every time you hear it.

The next morning we headed off to the hospital where Chad was scheduled for a cornea transplant. He's been suffering from a degenerative cornea disease called keratoconus for the past 20 years, which basically means he's blind in his left eye. The surgery went well, and he's still recovering, but the doctor says everything looks great and his vision has already significantly improved.

Then the next afternoon OJ and Sheri were headed back home to LA, so we said our goodbyes and started counting down the days until we see each other again in Hawaii in September :) Only like 180 something to go...

So the past few weeks have had a LOT going on, to say the least. But it's been the good kind of busy. Lots of family fun, food, wine, cupcakes (obviously I had to get some so my hubby could recover faster... everybody feels better after cupcakes), and just an overall great time. I'll leave you with a photo of Frankie and Dino enjoying their road trip...

Spoiled :)

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Spring

So this weekend wasn't as warm as I wanted it to be, but it's better than mid 40s, so I'll take it. Since it felt like spring was approaching, we took the opportunity to do a little cleaning around the house. And by little I mean holy cleaning Batman... our house is now spotless. Laundry? Check. Ironing? (I hate ironing... hate hate hate it) Check. Vacuumed? Check. Cleaned the hardwood? Check. Bathrooms? Check. EVERYTHING got done. We even power washed the deck for the first time in three years. It needed it. Bad. And now, it looks amazing. The puppies even got their nails did, their teeth did, and got bathed. Here's a little recap:

Dino helping me with the dishes. Such a helpful little puppy...

 Picking all her toys up off the floor.

Supervising the cleaning process.

Frankie checking for dust bunnies.

Wiped out from all the hard work they did.

After a long day of cleaning, we had our first grill of the season, a bottle of wine, and didn't move from the couch for the rest of the night. Good weekend :)

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