Full set of party pics here.

(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!

Left to right: John & Molly, Jeff & Katie, Lauren & Josh, Cody & Christina, Terri & Chuck, Kelly & Kelly, Jill & Andy.

And in case you’ve missed ‘em, you can always find the latest photos here.

Some interesting tidbits:

Below the 1st floor is a parking lot that holds as many spots as the current main parking lot holds — this lot is reserved for Waumba Land / KidStuff families.

Better still, to get to this special parking lot, you actually drive your car/VAN through a tunnel that cuts into building for easy child drop-off. (It is very cool).

There’s an escalator system and stairwells & elevators designed just for children (to ensure their safety, etc.)

The building is 200,000 Sq. ft. That means it is really big.

The worship auditorium holds 3-4 times as many attendees as the current one does. The “upper-deck” seating area alone holds as many as the current in itself.

Beyond these, I can’t remember all the other really creative ways they solved certain problems with trying to fit a church in such a place and meet the needs of various groups.

Finally, what is more impressive to me was Jeff Henderson’s (Pastor) 15min. talk he gave to us at the end of the tour. What stuck out is that in all the planning and fund raising that has gone into the church, they remain cognizant (as we must be) of the fact that the building remains temporal. He noted that “every church has a closing day” and that one day in the future the building will be sold, abandoned or demoed. So with that in mind, we must use the space in a great way and to the best of our ability through Jesus. I thought this was all really forward thinking and very wise. It made Lauren and I extremely proud of what Buckhead church is doing and how the vision that God has given the leaders there remains laser focused on reaching unbelievers. Sidenote: Jeff also remarked how well the Atlantic Station service went earlier in the day — this is where they’ve rented a Regal Cinema screen for the morning to beam the service to. Apparently they packed out every seat (even having to turn away 50 people). But next week they’re going to reserve TWO theater screens for the same thing. Pretty exciting. Below are some photos of the worship auditorium in construction.

Above: A view from the upper seating level.

Above: A lateral view across the upper seating level. Curves rule this building’s design to beautiful effect.

Lauren and I from the top level.

Of course, we had some close calls. Here’s just a few:
1) I printed a picture of Josh’s face to cut out as part of the centerpiece. When he came back from volunteering at church, the first thing I heard him say- “Why is there a picture of me on the computer?” My feeble attempt at an answer,”Oh, I missed you while you were gone all morning and went through old pictures.” (Yup, he bought it.)

2) Someone sent me an instant gmail message that popped up on my screen and read, “Thanks for the directions, but you forgot to give the apartment number.” Thankfully, I saw it and took it down before Josh noticed.

3) Gmail pops up a window to let you know whenever you have a new email, including the name of sender and the first line from the email — for example, “‘We’d love to come to the party!” I could NOT figure out how to turn this feature off, and Josh uses my computer a lot for work. So I kinda made up that he had to turn it off or he might see a confirmation email about a gift I (didn’t really) ordered online for him. Bought that one, too.

And finally,
4)After we ate dinner the night of, Josh starts pushing to go get ice cream. Naturally, he thought it was weird of me to refuse to go. I pulled the whole “I’m just SO TIRED” routine. (Translation- “There’s 20 people waiting for you at the apartment!!”) But he just needed that ice cream and made the decision to stop at Kroger. Where he did not let me run in to get it alone (heart skipping a beat), he took his time walking in ( cold sweat) and did not want to leave the magazine section. (minor nausia.)

But we made it home, finally. It was really touching to see how many people made that extra effort to come from out of town or in the middle of busy summer schedules.
I don’t think this surprise would have been possible if Josh wasn’t as loving and trusting as he is. When I asked him to fix my gmail so he wouldn’t see the emails coming into it, he did it. When I begged him to take me home instead of getting the ice cream he was so obviously craving, he actually apologized that he forgot that I must be feeling so tired. And Josh allows me a lot of freedom, so he doesn’t question where I go shopping or constantly check the online banking to see how much I spent. (Note to self: I must never use these powers for evil.)
Josh, I think the only reason you had a great surprise is because you put so much trust and faith in your family and friends.
Thanks, Birthday Man. Happy 25th!!!

We had a great time and it was a lot of fun to celebrate love on April Fool’s Day. (Willie disappointed us a bit by not having any jokes planned. Such a wasted opportunity, Will.)

Congratulations, Jen & Jeremy!!

(By the way, the song selection is dedicated to all designer/teacher couples out there.)

We thought the best way to begin a site dedicated to us and our love (awww) would be to first recognize those who have already done so much to make this whole thing possible.

Roll the tape . . .

• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine and Beau – thanks for taking the risk of playing match-maker, you are thus far 1-2. Not too shabby.
• Mrs. P / Mom – thank you for taking on the role of unofficial wedding planner extraordinaire. Without your hard work and dedication we would not have a church, reception site or the moolah to pull this off. You could do this for a living now!
• Mother & Daddy – Thank you for supplying the get-a-way vehicle, even though we haven’t officially asked you for it yet. We love you! And also for the coming family get-together. Many, many other thanks to come.
• Mandy, Bryan, Jeanine, Beau (again), Mrs. Spitler, Meredith, Mr. and Mrs. Sandlin, Katie and John, Mrs. Robinson, and Cluster B girls- thank you, thank you, thank you for your generous offers to throw showers for us.
• Tiffany and Mother- The ribbon will be fabulous! Who knew I would be receiving fashion assistance all the way from Paris?!
• To the Bridal Party- thank you all for being willing to stand next to us on our big day. We would like to especially thank….
• ANNIE, ANNIE, ANNIE- We love you, ANNIE. We acknowledge that without your name in this post, we may never have seen tomorrow. So here you go- everyone, ANNIE MARIA PETRELLA of Tucker, Georgia, is a wonder, a doll, and a dream.
• Mike, Will, Ashley, Christie, and Tay for putting up with constant wedding talk. Let’s hear it for the roomies!
• Finally, big thanks to God for allowing us to do this and for all of the wonderful people He’s placed in our lives.

Please do not consider this to be your final thank you from us. You were on our minds as we racked our brains for our first post, so we thought we should indulge ourselves.

Be on the look-out for future posts, including such topics as Bridal Party featurettes, updates on the planning, and all the ways we can squeeze the life out of our brown and blue color combo. See you soon!