Vacation 2010!!

Matt spent the month of May working in upstate NY again, at Glimmerglass Opera, and I flew out there Memorial Day weekend to make the drive home with him. We decided to take the long way home, and made stops in PA and D.C. Our trip started out delayed, as bad weather caused me to miss my flight, so I arrived a day late.

Our friend Bob, who happens to live just 3 hours north of us, but I had to visit him in NY!

Glimmerglass buddies- Chris and Ryan

Glimmerglass Opera! Isn't it beautiful?


After a quick visit with friends, we headed down the road to Hershey, PA. It was on the way to Gettysburg, and of course we wanted to stop at Chocolate World!

They have a little mock factory tour, that's really more like a ride at Disney, but it was neat, and we got some free chocolate at the end!

Gettysburg was awesome! This museum had tons of artifacts from the war, and lots of videos and information. Really cool.

Some of the statues/memorials around the National Military Park.


It was really hot that day, so I decided to rest/hide in the shade of the above monument, but I guess Matt found me! =) (My belly looks really big from this angle...)

We drove to Fairfax, VA, just outside Washington, DC and spent the night. Then we set out early the next morning to do some sightseeing in the Capitol. It was very hot, but it was a great way to spend Memorial Day!

Washington Monument

Lincoln Memorial

Hello, Mr. Lincoln.

Lots of history in that area. Here's where MLK, Jr. stood to deliver his speech, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Pretty bridge over the Potomac.

Korean War Veteran's Memorial

Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. We couldn't get any closer, because there was some kind of presentation going on.

World War II Memorial

1600 Penn Ave.

Chattanooga

To celebrate tax season's end, we decided to escape for a day, and just get out of town. We headed for Chattanooga, about 2 hours SE of here, and spent the day on Lookout Mountain at a place called Rock City. It's easy to find...they start advertising for it not long after you get out of Nashville!


Welcome to Rock City Gardens. Aptly named, there are beautiful plants and trees and rock formations to explore. Wow, I think I sound like a tour guide! We had a lot of fun enjoying the beautiful weather that day and hiking around the gardens.








This suspended bridge was very bouncy/swingy. Not so great for me! I was pretty woozy by the time we got to the other side!

Technically, at this point on the mountain, we were in Georgia.

Fat man's squeeze! This pregnant lady almost didn't fit, going through sideways!

So pretty!

Did you know that Chattanooga is where MoonPies originated? You can get them at this store, fresh from the factory. Yummy!

It's......a......................BOY!!!!!

We couldn't be happier! Pics to come!

18 1/2 weeks

Here it is! Baby belly photo number 1. =)


I have officially outgrown all of my clothes, but am loving the changes in my body!

Baby belly?! Where did you come from?

So this is not a surprise to those of you who have children already, but since this is my first pregnancy...

I'm telling you, I don't know where this baby belly came from! I swear it appeared overnight. =) Suddenly my shirts are too small! (my pants are already there)

I'm loving it though. The ladies at my office are just having a ball cooing about how cute I am. Makes me smile.

Time to do some more shopping though, for sure! I suppose I'll have Matt take some pics of my belly, and I'll post them soon.

Things are going great. I'm feeling much better, with a lot more energy, which is great since I'm working a LOT of hours for tax season. We're still counting down to our next ultrasound and hopefully finding out whether we're having a boy or a girl. 3 weeks to go!

We're having a baby!!!!

Well, most of you who read this already probably know, but in case I missed anyone, we're expecting a little "Matt and Heidi baby" (as some of our friends say) the first week of September.

Things have been going great! I have not had much morning sickness at all, and other than a big scare over the weekend, everything is going smoothly. We went in to make sure the little one was okay this morning, and all is well. He/she is very busy in there. =)

Here's an early pic from my first ultrasound, about 5 weeks ago.

We're going to find out the gender (hopefully) in about 5 more weeks, and we can hardly wait!!

Christmas in Nashville

Merry Christmas!

We celebrated our first Christmas on our own this year, and we had a lot of fun starting some traditions for our little family and relaxing.

Santa came early to our house! He delivered this dining table and chairs on the 23rd. We are so happy to finally have a nice table- our garage sale set from our college years was starting to fall apart!

Santa brought these too! We donated our dishes to Goodwill before moving to Nashville, and then weren't able to buy new ones when we got here! My mom gave us some of her extra ones to hold us over, and we're so glad to have enough plates to have people over for dinner now.


Now for the good stuff! We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, adding the tradition of giving each other new pajamas and slippers for the holiday. We stayed in our pajamas ALL DAY LONG on Christmas Day, and it was awesome!!

Christmas morning started off great with breakfast. We had homemade eggnog and cinnamon rolls (Thanks to Tiff for the recipe!). Delicious! We enjoyed them so much that we decided to add this breakfast to our Christmas tradition list as well.

Christmas dinner! Here's the spread: Honeybaked ham (from my boss for Christmas), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes and apples, stuffing, Hawaiian pineapple salad, and homemade rolls.

Just in case you want a closer look...we have lots of leftovers!

Dessert! Scarlet and cream cheesecake, made with cranberries. It turned out great.

Yummy! Please excuse the "fine china." We were tired of doing dishes. =)

We had a great day, spending time together and playing some games that Santa brought us. We missed being with our families, but we knew we'd be seeing them soon.

We're travelling to Indianapolis to spend time with Matt's family for New Year's weekend, and then to my parent's house the following weekend to have a late Christmas with my family, since my brother will be on leave. We're very excited to be seeing all of them soon!

Thanksgiving Deliciousness!

Oh- quick side note- I GOT A JOB!! I got a great offer for the job I really wanted, and I start on the 7th. God is good!

We have so much to be thankful for, and I feel like I should just name a few things. We are grateful for jobs, at a time when they are soooo hard to come by. We are thankful for our families, and our friends (most of whom are like family to us). We are so happy we chose to move to Nashville- we have found even more great friends who love us like family. We are truly blessed by our loving Father in Heaven.

In our 6 years of marriage, we have been fortunate enough (and probably a bit spoiled) to spend the holidays with both our families each year.
Since it's been a rough few months, we decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and try doing the cooking ourselves.

We started the festivities early this morning with homemade eggnog for breakfast. =)

Our appetizer to munch on while cooking- cranberry salsa, served over cream cheese. (Thanks for the recipe, Tiff!)

The spread! Matt smoked the turkey yesterday using apple wood chips. We had the usual suspects: mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce, acorn squash, homemade rolls (Matt), taffy apple salad, and pumpkin pie. We made everything, except the cranberry sauce.

We had a lot of fun preparing the meal, but wowsa, it's a lot of work! We have a ton of leftovers! Who wants to come help us eat them?

What was that noise?

Matt was sitting at the desk yesterday, playing on the internet, when he heard a rustling coming from the stack of boxes yet to be unpacked in the spare bedroom...

Well, hello there! Who knew a box would be such an interesting place to hide?













Smelling the orchids...fake ones, anyway. =)