Charlotte, Ikea, and Snow

The weekend after Mark's birthday we headed to Charlotte to celebrate with the family.  It called for snow all weekend, so I was glad when we woke up on Saturday and there wasn't any snow yet.  We were able to meet up with my parents for breakfast and then head to Ikea to pick up the dresser for the nursery.  I always have so much fun at Ikea and could stay there all day just wandering...but Mark doesn't love big crowds quite the way that I do so luckily we knew exactly what we were looking for and we knew they had it in stock (thank you Ikea website!).  We've started putting it together, but aren't quite done so I'll wait till its finished to post a picture.

Once all of our very important shopping was done I was ready for the snow to start...and right on cue it started coming down around 4:30 and came down fast and hard for a few hours.  The dogs had a blast playing in the snow and Mark hung out on the porch all bundled up in his snow gear drinking a beer.  I guess he is missing the summer time where he could just sit outside, enjoy the weather, and have a beer while he grilled.

Mark's mom LOVES birthdays and so made an absolute celebration out of the evening...complete with ice cream cake - yum!

January / February 2013

Typing a recap of 2012 has proven to be harder than I had expected...and it taking much longer than I had expected (that post coming soon...I hope!).  So in an effort not to fall to far behind in 2013 here is a brief recap of the past month and half.  Time is moving s.l.o.w.l.y. because we haven't had a whole lot going on.  Which also means that waiting for that phone call is getting harder and harder for someone who is as impatient as I am.   I've got my fingers crossed that it will be soon...but we know that God has our baby already picked out and that His timing is perfect!

January 2013
We spent every weekend at home this month, which was really nice and a welcome change to our being gone almost every weekend in the fall.  We recuperated from the busy holiday season, did a little nesting, and just got to spend time hanging out with each other and hanging out with friends.  Thanks to Christmas giftcards we were able to get new floor put in the kitchen (which we LOVE ).  We also ordered the glider and put it together one Friday night (I know, we are exciting right?!?).  Then we picked out the paint color and painted the nursery, with some help from awesome friends.  Here's a sneak peek.

This is one of those colors that looks different in different lights...
anyone want to guess what color it actually is?!? 

Brightening up the dark brown/blue nursery with some white/yellow-

No this is not our nursery the glider hung out in the family room for a while! 

February 2013
I can't believe the month is more than half over already...as slowly as this year is going...its flying by at the same time!  We were in town for the first two weekends of the month and this past weekend went to Charlotte.  Mark turned 31 on the 8th and so we spent a week celebrating his birthday.  It started with breakfast at his favorite place (Chick Fil A) and ended with a beer tasting (March Madness Style) with several of our good friends.  I think Mark had a blast!  The girls tried to do a wine tasting, but it didn't work out quite as well as the beer brackets.  As you can see in the below pictures, our friends did use the evening as an opportunity to swap out the pictures in our family room frames using magazine articles.  Thanks guys...i get the hint that the pictures that came with the frames are starting to get boring!

Presents for the birthday boy

Notice the new pictures in the frames?  The one of the girl in a bikini has got to be my least favorite (and of course its the first one everyone sees).  The sad part is that I had no idea that the pictures were different until hours later when someone finally told me!

This past weekend we went to Charlotte to continue Mark's birthday celebration!  Despite some blizzard like conditions (okay that might be an exaggeration...but we did get to see snow!) we made it to Ikea to get the dresser for the nursery!  It may take us the next 6 months to put it together, but when we do the nursery will be almost complete!!!  Pictures to come...

Christmas 2012 and New Year's Eve

We had a super busy Christmas holiday, but it really reminded us how fortunate we are that most of our family lives within a few short hours of our home.  With Christmas being on a Tuesday, it gave us the perfect opportunity to take a four day weekend and actually see all sets of parents.  This is the first time that I can ever remember that we celebrated Christmas with my dad before Christmas, rather than in January.  

We started the weekend by picking up my niece Bella on our way to Hickory, so she could celebrate with us too.  We were able to spend all day Saturday with my dad, Karin, Bella and the four dogs (our 2 and their 2).  We hung out, exchanged gifts, ate delicious food, and took a hike through the woods with the dogs.  

Late Saturday night we left, headed almost an hour west to get Mark's grandma and then drove to Charlotte so that we could wake up and celebrate Christmas #2 on Sunday morning with Mark's dad and family.  We had a great relaxing visit with them on Sunday.  And...Mark and his dad dressed like twins, which was pretty funny to see.  

Monday, which to many was known as Christmas Eve, was "Grandma's Birthday", and we make a whole day celebration out of it.  If we didn't go to Christmas Eve service, we would never even know that Christmas was the next day.  We try to make the whole day about grandma, even though she whines and complains the whole time about having to celebrate another birthday :)  This year though, she admitted was one of her best birthdays so far! 

Is it sad this is the only picture I got of Grandma's birthday?!? 

Then Tuesday, Christmas morning, we woke up at Mark's mom's house.  We opened stockings (the gifts in the stockings are always so good, there is no need for gifts later in the day - but Mark's mom always outdoes herself).  Then we continued the tradition that Mark's family started several years ago, of going to the Soup Kitchen and serving the homeless.  Mark and I join every other year, since we split our Christmas mornings between my mom and his mom.  This year, Ken's girlfriend K.C. was able to join us too, which made it even more special.  I didn't take many pictures at the soup kitchen, but I did manage to catch one of Sally, all dressed up with her fanny pack on :) 

After serving, we went home opened some gifts and then headed over to my mom's house for dinner and Christmas #4.  My mom always outdoes herself with the cooking and this year was no exception.  We had lasagna and about a hundred different desserts.  

Despite the fact that we managed to squeeze 4 Christmas celebrations and Grandma's birthday into four days, the weekend actually felt quite relaxing and it was so enjoyable to be with family and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  I'm already looking forward to next Christmas (and with any luck maybe there will be a baby Harrill at our next Christmas celebration)  

Since Christmas was so busy, we decided to have a relaxing New Year Eve and New Years Day.  We went over Nick and Nicole's for New Years Eve and had a party... just us, them, and the dogs!  I even got to wear my pajamas to the "party" and really that was all I needed for the night to be an awesome one :)  New Years Day Laura and Michael had everyone over for a brunch...which I'm hoping becomes a tradition because it was such a good idea!  (hint hint Laura).  

Can you believe that 2012 is over?  I still am not used to saying its 2013!