One of the great things about being part of a large family is that sometimes the blog posts just write themselves. Here’s a video that Lauren’s sister Annie (Aunt Annie to Nora & Quinn) put together after a recent trip to the apple orchards.

Thanks, Annie!

(Wanted to make sure this one didn’t get lost in all the Picture of the Days, so I’m featuring it on the front-page now.)

Our daughters are blessed to have a lot of special people in their life. And last night we received a really precious video made by Aunt Annie (Lauren’s sister) that celebrates Quinn’s birth and homecoming. Thank you, Annie. So far you are 3 for 3 in making our eyes well up at the enjoyment of this video.

Nora Praise. Happy Birthday! You are two! Your Mommy and I are just now sitting down after having 28 family members over at our house for your “doggie theme” birthday party. What a success it was! It’s hard to believe all that has happened in just the past one year:

You’re an awesome blessing to so many people.

Most recently, you have become a fantastic story teller! I love coming home to hear what you did that day: who you saw, what happened at the playground, what you and Remy discovered in the backyard, and how you helped Mommy around the house. Thank you, also, for waving goodbye to me each day as I leave for work. It isn’t fun to leave you girls, but you’re sure to give me a cheerful send-off. I am a very very blessed Dad, Nora.

Soon you will be an older sister! We caught a glimpse of what this will be like tonight as you opened your arms up to hold your cousin, Baby James. You smiled big. You laughed as his fingers began to tickle your face. I can’t wait to see how you take to our own.

We love you so much. God has blessed us greatly in the past year, Nora. I’m so thrilled to tell the story each time we get the chance. He is Faithful and True.

We got into Atlanta yesterday to kick off our Christmas vacation back home. Nora did great on the plane!
Left to right: Uncle Royal, Panzy, Poppy, Nora, Mary Ellen, & Gran.

Half a year?!?! Are you kidding us? That can’t be right. Spring was a blur, summer has flown by in giggles and cuddles. And here we are! Entering autumn with our awesome little Munchkin Pie.

Josh and I recently went back through this post from a whole year ago. (!) It was so much fun to relive the moments when we got to announce to our family and friends that little Nora was on the way.

Then she was here. Newborn Nora, then at 1 Month

2 Months

3 and 4 Months

5 Months

And ta da! 6 Month Old Nora.

We had a great day with our girl. First we informed her of the day’s significance.

Then we went to the toy store where we learned that Nora is not the least afraid of over-sized dogs, frogs, or leopards. Quite the contrary.

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!

Born just 24 hours after Faith Claire, we’re a proud Uncle and Aunt all over again with Margie Elaine “Laney” Petrella. See the pictures here.

Born earlier today… right over here! Congratulations Beau, Jeanine, Luke, & Silas!

New job, new city, new apartment, and soon…. a New Teague!

Josh and I are completely thrilled and feel so blessed and humbled. As of publication time, we are four months into this thing. Why did we wait so long to tell such exciting news?!? Well…

We found out about two weeks before the move. Rather than tell friends and family so early on, we decided to wait. We also knew we wanted to tell as many people at the same time and in person as possible. There were plans to come back to Atlanta in September for Josh’s dad’s birthday and the annual Petrella Beach Retreat. At that point we’d be into the second trimester and eager to tell.

So one cross-country move, two and a half months, and a plane trip back to Atlanta later, it was time to tell the families. 

The Teagues were up first.  Our sister-in-law, Jeanine, is expecting their third child in December. We also owed her a belated birthday gift. Google will stick their name on any kind of gift. So Josh bought two Google infant onesies and put both in a purse we bought for Jeanine. The plan was to let her find both and then…

Josh: “Oh, how’d that one get in there? That’s supposed to be for us!”

Lauren: “That’s okay. We don’t need it until March.”

BOOM! They’d all get it and it would be so fun! And that’s almost what happened. Only one thing  threw us off. Right before Jeanine found the onesies, the phone rang and Josh’s mom went to answer it. By the time she got back (Reality-she was gone about two seconds. To us, it felt like ten minutes) we were even more nervous and tongue-tied. Mission accomplished anyway. Good thing the Teagues are quick.

Here’s the reaction:

Next up: The Petrellas. My mom has been begging for pictures of the apartment. The nieces have been longing to see Remy. So we created a virtual tour of our new city and home, complete with Remy footage for the girls. The Baby Bomb drops at the end.

Here’s the short video we edited together:

This time nothing could frazzle us, right? We’re pros at this point. Just before we were going to subtly get everyone’s attention, our 6 year old niece stood up and announced: “Everyone, I have some news. Mommy’s going to have a baby!” 

Naturally, we were incredibly happy and excited! Also a little confused. ( “Wait, does she mean us? Wasn’t that what we were going to say?” ) We were also not sure what to do next. Postpone? Piggy-back with an “us, too!” ? About ten minutes later, all four nieces were asking to go to the pool. So I panic. “Who wants to see Remy?! We have a video we want to show, but it’s really short! No big deal, we can watch it later, but it’s really short so we can just watch it real quick. Mom, it shows our apartment! Whatever, we don’t care or anything. It has Remy, girls!” Smooth, I know.

Here’s their reaction: (Watch my mom in the white robe. She doesn’t make a move until she’s 100% positive we are definitely announcing a pregnancy.)

 
Up until this point, this baby had been kept our little (pun?) secret for over three months. So you can imagine that most discussion for the rest of the weekend pertained directly to pregnancy. Such a relief! 

We cannot believe our families have so many babies on the way! Jeanine and Katie, my sister-in-law, are both in their sixth months and my sister Mandy is only three weeks behind me. FOUR, I repeat, FOUR women in our immediate families are expecting! It’s our own mini Baby Boom. 2009 promises to be an extremely interesting and busy year. Stay tuned!

If there ever was a time for birthdays, this would certainly be the season! Our oldest niece Sydney turned 6 this week, so here’s a ton of pictures from the big day. Click below for the whole set…

This past Memorial Day weekend we celebrated our nephew Silas’s 3rd birthday here in Marietta. Click on the photo below to see the entire gallery!

We recently found ourselves in Birmingham, AL for our niece’s princess birthday party. Click on the photo below to see the entire gallery!

Have been going absolutely crazy lately taking pictures. However, haven’t had the chance to share them with our FSI readers. So here’s some photos from Tiffany’s homecoming lunch — yup, she got a one-way ticket back to America! And the other slideshow is from the Petrella Family Easter Extravaganza — in Mrs. Petrella’s new home!

Click on the photos below to see each gallery…

Back at the Teague compound Mother and Daddy threw a little family get-together for Jeanine as she heads off to visit Tiffany in Italy. Here’s the pics from the party!

A yearly family beach trip is something not to be missed. Rain or shine.

Although you may not be able to tell, it rained throughout the entire shooting of that video (well, if you don’t count the signature Mandy Robinson photos at the end :). Combine that with 13 people, a tiny pool, and an over-sized $1 beachball (thanks, Annie!), you’ve got yourself a rocking pool party.

And here’s the YouTube version that’ll load faster, but is a reduction in quality.