Here’s some of our good friends we visited while in Atlanta for Christmas. We’ll see who’s sitting next to Mike tomorrow!

Getting to come for a 3 week long visit back to Atlanta was such a blessing. We got to visit and catch up with so many of our great friends and really spend some much missed time with family. Now that we’ve been back in town awhile, here are just a few of the fun memories and stories from the trip that I want to write down before I forget. Or things get a little crazier around here…(just about 40 days to go! Eeek!) Most of the memories involve the nieces and nephews. Sorry, adults. =)

(In case you’re not familiar with the nieces/nephews ages, I’ll include those. Just like People magazine and Entertainment Weekly does.)

~Caroline (2) being the first one to see me when I  arrived from the airport and hearing her  excited  yell of “Lala!!” and having her run to give me a big hug.

~Mary Ellen (4) asked her mom if she could have a sip of the Coke in her mom’s glass. Katie said she could, but also reminded Mary Ellen that since they were on a vacation at Gran’s house, they were having lots of fun treats. But back home, they would be back to the usual. Mary Ellen cheerfully raised her glass and said, “But since we’re here, we drink Coke!” before taking a nice long sip.

~Silas (3) hopped off his two wheeler bike after riding it for the first time BY HIMSELF without training wheels and cried, “I don’t know how I did that!  How did I do that, Daddy?”                (This story comes from Uncle Josh; I hope I told it accurately.)

~Sydney (6) and I were going to watch a video upstairs. She told me to sit in the reclining chair and even popped out the reclining foot rest for me because, as she said, “growing a baby is hard work.”

~ Seeing Josh hold his brand new nieces, Laney and Faith (both about a month old.) I couldn’t watch him hold either one for too long because it made me tear up. Especially if he was calmly and confidently getting them to stop crying. 

~ Meeting up with the Techies/designers friends at Doc Chey’s and feeling just as comfortable with them as we did before the move.

~Driving with Mom to go pick up Meg (5) from preschool a few times. Seeing her cheerful dance/skip/walk to the car and then listening to her happy chatter the whole way to Mom’s/Gran’s house.

~Going to Maggiano’s for a Teague family dinner. A highlight of that evening was watching Luke (5) pass out the stack of appetizer plates to everyone and responding with a shy smile every time one of us said, “thank you, Luke!”

~Game nights with the Petrellas/Robinsons. Even if Josh and I didn’t do so well on Scategories. 

~New Year’s Eve with some good friends. Again, being able to hang out with them, laugh, and feel like no time has passed and those connections haven’t been lost since the last time we were all together. (We have awesome friends!)

~I was told to wait upstairs while “some details were worked out” downstairs. I could hear Amy on the phone, but that was all. After I got the all clear to come downstairs, Mary Ellen announced, “Aunt Lala, you’re getting a cake!” 

Which brings me to…

~Our beautiful, amazing baby shower put on by the ladies in the family!! Seeing the guests gawk at Mandy’s gorgeous house as they walked in. And the diaper cake created by Amy and Annie. And the edible cake from the best bakery in town! (Sugar Cakes.) And just the fact that so many ladies took the time to come and be so supportive and excited about our baby. Even if they won’t get to meet him/her for awhile.

And those are just a few of the things I’ll remember from our trip back home. We are so grateful for our family and friends and so glad we were able to visit with so many of you. If we didn’t get to see  you this time, you’re on our list for our visit in the spring/summer!