CBI Christmas Party!

Chris' company, CBI (Christian Brothers Inc) General Contractors had their annual Christmas party in November - which I think is GENIOUS!  It is SO difficult to get everyone together on a weekend in December - so having a party in November is the most perfect idea ever!  It was completely family friendly with 3 different jump houses, enough food to feed 60 adults and kids and loads of fun for the family all day!

Here is one of the jumpy houses!

Here are the other two houses - Parker LOVED them!

This is his boss' house - beautiful!  He built it himself of course!

Chris coming down the slide!

My turn!

We had SO much fun!  What a great way to start off the Christmas season!

Erika's Wedding

In early November (yes - I'm THAT behind on blogging!) my co-worker, DD, and I threw a surprise wedding shower for our co-worker, Erika!  I made these ADORABLE pretzel people bride and grooms that I am so in love with :) 

Erika and I showing off my pretzel people!

The office ladies!  Minus DD who was taking the picture!

Her wedding was that Friday night at an old plantation house in Roswell - ABSOLUTELY amazing wedding.  Erika originally wasn't able to invite anyone from the office but at the last minute she had a couple of people unable to come so DD and I were able to go - we were so excited! 

Walking down the aisle with her father and son.

She came in and left in a horse drawn carriage!

DD, Erika and I at the wedding reception.  Erika hadn't had ANY sweets for a few months before her wedding so all she could talk about was eating her wedding cake!  We had to document this important experience!  :)

You can always tell when my husband takes a picture.... it looks like someone is standing on a chair taking the picture.

Chris and I after the wedding.

Updates

I have so much to update from the past few weeks it's not even funny!  I'll have plenty of time to work on it this week while on Thanksgiving break so be on the lookout! 

Until then - I have to post this precious picture of my child.  I think he is the most amazing creature ever created by our Awesome God.

Busy Weekend Day 2 - DATE NIGHT!

Chris and I had DATE NIGHT last Sunday night!  We got a frantic email from Amy last Monday asking for a babysitter for Friday - well turns out - we had a Groupon to use at Sun Dial Restaurant that I bought last summer hoping to take Chris there for Father's day!  Whoops!  Anyway - we still had it and it expires in December so I knew if we didn't plan something soon it would expire before we could use it!  So - we sat-swaped :)  We babysat Sienna on Friday night and they babysat Parker on Sunday!  And it just works out perfectly because Parker and Sienna are going to get married one day so it's better that we start them "courting" with parental supervision as soon as possible. :)

I forgot to take any pictures on Friday but we took about 200 of S and P before we left for dinner on Sunday and this is the ONLY one where they are both sort looking in the direction of the camera.  Taking pictures of a crawler and a toddler - not so easy.

We clean up pretty well :)

 So - the Sun Dial Restaurant is at the top of the Westin hotel in downtown Atlanta.  It's 723 feet high and it actually moves non stop while you are up there.  The restaurant tables sit on a platform that slowly moves around in a circle while you eat.  It's pretty neat!  We got to see the view of the city at night from every possible angle at 723 feet.  I think we were there a few hours and the Dial revolved about 2 and a half times.  Well - we only had to pay about $60 for our meal after all our coupons but our entire meal actually cost $175.00!  I can't believe people actually pay that much for food... it's crazy!  We probably won't ever return - unless we have another great coupon - but it was a great way to get us out of our comfort zone in Cumming and on a nice romantic date in the city!

This is Centennial Olympic Park

 The blue square is the top of the Georgia Aquarium.

 We didn't know until later that our home town of Cumming is in this picture!  If it were daylight - we would supposedly be able to see it - who knows!

 Chris asked for sweet tea.  And they brought him this.  Needless to say I had to drink it :)

 My yummy husband and his handsome dessert.  There are candles because we told them it was our anniversary (6 months late - shhh!)  We figure that since our anniversary will FOREVER be outshined by Parker's birthday on the same day - we can celebrate our anniversary every other time we go out on a date!

 Yes - oink oink - we both got desserts!

 Showing off our city!

 In the glass elevators on the way down.  Love this guy so much.



Busy Weekend Day 1.5 - Dada's little helper

My grandparents have 7 acres of land of nothing but trees and creeks so we were able to get some firewood from my Pop's land for free!  Yippee!  I was inside making dinner for a neighbor who just had a baby so I sent Parker out to help dada - little did I know - he actually helped!  I was sure I was going to get a knock at the window asking me to take P back insinde so Chris could get stuff done - but much to my surprise I went outside after awhile to find this precious little scene :)  See the bottom for a video. 

Busy Weekend Day 1! Visiting Nano and Bubba

Last wekeend was our FIRST of about 2 months worth of weekends where we didn't have plans to leave town.  So - what do I end up doing - oh - you know - making plans to leave town.  My grandparents live south of Atlanta and they aren't able to come see us - and we haven't been down to see them in several months so we made the trip down to see them Saturday morning!  Parker had a blast hanging out and he just fell in LOVE with "Bubba". 

Nano, me and Parker

 Nano was a preschool teacher for like ever - and she also kept kids at her house from the time they were 6 weeks to the time they were too old for a baby sitter so she's got LOADS of fun toys!

 Bubba and Parker

Here is a picture of Bubba and Parker when Parker was only 4 months old...  You think Park has changed much?

 Parker LOVED sitting on Bubba's tractor outside.  We may have experienced one or two or TEN temper tantrums every time we had to take him off - but I want to end this post on a happy note so we won't go there!

 He was OUT on the way home - doesn't this look comfortable?  I tried my best to make a pillow for him with whatever I could find but his darn head is so heavy - I couldn't find anything to work.  He didn't seem to mind and he slept the entire way home!

Life_Group Retreat!

The weekend of Halloween, our Life_Group from church had a weekend getaway retreat!  Chris' boss has a cabin up in Helen, Ga that his employees are free to use whenever.  So - we chose to take our Life_Group members up there for a weekend - what a GREAT decision!  We had such a great time.  It's very rare that ALL of us are together every week due to our busy schedules, so having everyone there - together - for an entire weekend was amazing!  We are so blessed to have these people in our lives and literally consider the an answer to prayer.  We felt so lonely when we first moved to Cumming - about an hour away from all our old church friends - but shortly after we met our awesome neighbors, Jon and Robin, we got involved in our awesome church, Mountain Lake, and then went to join Jon and Robin's Life_Group! 

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

Chris and I sharing an AMAZING caramel apple in one of Helen's UH-MA-ZING candy stores!  We spent more money at the candy store than we did anywhere else!  Whoopsie.

This guy has a little shop in downtown Helen where he makes all wooden toys - right there in the shop! We bought this awesome little toy train for Parker which he LOVES!  I love simple wooden toys - and it seems as if Parker likes them more than expensive flashy noisy toys!

Amy made her AWESOME guacamole for everyone on Saturday night.  YUM!  I am pretty sure Kristin and I ate the entire bowl - sorry to everyone who didn't get any!

All the L_G ladies!

We all took turns making meals together and the Berlins and Drucks were in charge of dinner on Saturday night!  Robin's whipping up her amazing marinade for the steak and chicken kabobs!

And - Jon - being - Jon.

The view from our back porch!

Me and my love.

Kristin and Tyler - I only took about 2 bajillion pictures of them to get one that turned out so great.  Chris would NOT have had the patience to endure that kind of photo session.  Tyler did great, though!

The Drunks.

These pictures need no caption.  Let's just say we were playing with the self timer options.

The L_G ladies again - LOVE them.

The entire group.

Robin and her KABOBS!

 Tournament time!  The two college athletes at war!

 Chris took on Amy - Ms. All American Professional Tennis All Star - seriously.

 BON FIRE TIME!

 We found Kristin's REAL true love in her bed when we got back from the fire!

 In case you don't know Kristin - she LOVES Christmas!  And Santa.

 Some cabin decor....

 This little rascal nearly got shot!  I really wanted those cracker jacks!

 The cabin.

 The 50s love shack that we banned Robin to since she had an awful cold!  And because they were too nice to fight for a bed in the house!  :)