December begins!

December is always a busy month but we normally have a few extra busy days since Nick's birthday is at the beginning of the month and there are usually final exams and end of the semester stuff also...so I thought I would do a quick recap of our lives the past couple of weeks!

Let's start with Nick's 29th birthday! We had a low-key celebration this year since his birthday fell on a Tuesday but it was wonderful anyway :) I made him dinner, Braised Short Ribs in a Cabernet Sauvignon sauce with mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts, and dessert, Paula Deen's Not-Yo-Mama's Banana Pudding (his favorite!) and he opened presents before talking to family members that had called to wish him a happy birthday. Even though it wasn't a huge celebration, I think it was a great night :)

presents :) 

Booney hat for yard work

stainless steel Bento lunchbox 

stud finder and new insulated gloves!

braising away...

final product!

#gottaloveInstagram

Just a couple days later we went to the Athens Christmas parade downtown and met up with a few friends to watch the festivities! I LOVE downtown Athens during the holidays, all the lights are up in the trees and everything feels so festive and hometown-y :)

pretty downtown trees :)

If you didn't figure it out already, the theme was Charlie Brown's Christmas so all the floats had Charlie and his friends as the main characters. It's a relatively short, homemade-ish parade but it's always fun and definitely puts us in the mood for the holidays!

The weekend after the parade our friends threw us a great baby shower (which will get it's own post later today) and a few days ago, we went and picked out our Christmas tree (named Doug IV- Douglas Fir, fourth Christmas tree together)! We decorated it last night while we watched White Christmas (a tradition we started the first year we were married) and I'm finishing up the final holiday touches in the living room and dining room today :) It just doesn't feel like the holidays until there are some decorations in the house!

picking out Doug IV

decorating with White Christmas :)

finished product!

and some of our favorite meaningful ornaments...

our  2011 ornament from Nick's mom, our 1st married Christmas ornament from my mom & our hand carved wooden heart from our honeymoon in St. Augustine :)

gotta represent the schools! Go GATORS! Go DAWGS!

I hope everyone is having as peaceful and enjoyable beginning of the holiday season as we are :) Keep an eye out for our 31 week update and baby shower post later!

much love, L&N

The Pumpkin Trilogy

This post is not baby-related but it is going to be awesome. Are you ready for the cuteness that is about to overcome your computer screen?

I hope so...

Our beagle, Buster, has a new pumpkin friend and we got some video of him last weekend that is just too hilarious not to share!

Background info: I used mini pumpkins and gourds to decorate our dining table this fall and after I was done with them, I threw them into the woods behind our house. Well, one pumpkin didn't quite make it over the fence and Buster picked it up, carried it around the yard for a while and then left it for the next day or so. After noticing that Buster didn't seem to care about it anymore, Nick picked it up and tossed it back over the fence to rot in peace with its pumpkin friends. Little did we know that it had rolled back to the fence and was taunting a very upset pup who just couldn't quite figure out how to get his pumpkin buddy back. This is what ensued...

Part I: The Freak Out

Part II: The Love Fest

Part III: Love Fest, Continued

Funniest dog ever. Hope these put a smile on your face :) 

much love, L&N

beautiful photos

Way back at the beginning of November we had the opportunity to have some photos taken by the wonderful Alyssa of Alyssa Alig Photography here in Athens. Nick and I are lovers of great photography and really enjoy having professional shots done when we can so when Alyssa offered holiday mini-sessions for an amazingly affordable price, we jumped at the chance.

She did a great shoot with us a couple of years ago for our anniversary...

 

so we were already comfortable with her and knew that she would get us some beautiful photos!

We decided a while ago that we didn't want to do a traditional maternity photo session while I was pregnant so we were prepared to just MacGyver some shots at home with our SLR and wait for the awesome professional newborn photos to happen in February. (for three reasons: 1. we knew we wanted to splurge on newborn/infant photos so we decided that we would rather save the $ now 2. we knew we would only print 1 or 2 shots for the house/nursery and paying for an hour and a couple hundred photos seemed excessive and 3. I was afraid that I would get caught in an hour long session with a photographer that either only wanted to/only knew how to do the typical/expected maternity photos, which I didn't want) disclaimer: I am definitely not insulting these types of photos! I think they can be really beautiful and cute, they're just not for me!

Long story short- and if you know me, you know that making a long story short is a feat of amazing proportions for me- Mom, Dad, I'm looking at you ;), Alyssa's set-up for a half-hour mini sessions with a DVD of less than 50 photos sounded perfect! We were able to get some great shots together for holiday cards/family frames and were able to document the pregnancy while avoiding all of the typical maternity photos that I didn't want.

Without further ado, here are some of my favorites...

my sweet husband :)

love

my absolute favorite

A huge shout-out to Alyssa for her hard work and talent! We had a great time :) 

much love, L&N