Blueberry Ever After

On Saturday, some of the girls from my old company came together to throw me and Lora a baby boy "work" shower and it was so much fun. Thanks again ladies for thinking of us!

Everything was beautiful and Baby Blueberry is sure to love all of his gifts. But my favorite part was spending time catching up with everyone since I don't get to see these girls everyday anymore!

Here are a few pictures from the party:

The beautiful baby bump cake made by Julie Pietz:



Opening gifts:


Lora and I showing off our bellies:

Let me apologize for being so slack with my blogging recently. Despite being unemployed, I am keeping surprisingly busy! Plus, loading pictures into blogger has been a major PITA so this update has taken some time. But, I wanted to start catching everyone up on what has been going on with us, so let me start with our Christmas vacation. This year we hopped across the pond for the holidays, landing first in England and then traveling to Spain to spend Christmas with Jay's parents. Once again, I was blessed with beautiful weather in England. It didn't rain a drop the whole time we were there!

The first day was a whirlwind day, but I did get to meet my brother-in-law finally. He's real! And we had a nice fish and chips takeaway with Kate and Joel that night, the first of many on our trip. Yummy!

This is the very posh restaurant Carl works at, Le Manior in Oxford. He has got the cooking skillz. Jay took this same picture about 37 times while Kate and I waited in the car. We even left him and came back. I don't think he noticed.

Moving on to Spain...how would you like this view from your back garden? Not too shabby, right? This is the little village that Jay's parents live in, which is in the Murcia region of Spain. There is a castle on top of the hill in the center of town, as well as a beautiful church. The view was gorgeous at night with all the tiny houses stacked on top of each other all lit up.

Our first full day in Spain we went down to a small seaside village on the Mediterranean coast called Mazarron.

The weather was only slightly chilly, but 100% sunny and beautiful so we got to sit outside by the sea and eat lunch (more fish and chips, believe it or not) and take in views like these:

Apparently in the warmer months the beach stays chocker with people so it was nice to be able to take in the sights on a very quiet and deserted day.

Here we all are, cheesing it up for the camera and hoping the nice Spanish man doesn't decide to run away with it:

Back at Jay's parents house, here is the daytime view of the village:

After a massive dinner, we decided it would be a good idea to walk to the top of the hill to have a look at the castle. Let's just say the walk home was my favorite part of this excursion, as it was downhill! Just kidding, it was really cool to see everything up close.

We have a tradition in this family of not removing our pj's on Christmas Day so here Pete and I are in our holiday finest:

Boxing Day was our last day in Spain, so Jay's parents took us on a little trek to a monastery not far from their house. It's on top of a mountain. Joel decided to bike up the mountain. The rest of us opted to ride in the car to point, laugh and wave at him. I was seriously impressed that he brought his mountain bike all the way to Spain for the holidays. You know, not impressed enough to borrow it and exercise, but impressed nonetheless. But seriously, Joel is a superstar!

Here he comes...see I wasn't kidding about him biking up a mountain!

The view from the top:

Taking a breather:

We ran into some goats wandering the grounds of the monastery. They all had bells around their necks and made lots of music for us as they ran from the cameras.

I did have a little trouble leaving Spain, because when we landed there was no one at customs to check passports, so we just entered the country without anyone thinking to make sure we were okay...so when I went to leave I had to explain this in my very limited Spanish to the nice man who was in charge of stamping my passport on the way out. Luckily, I just had to fill out a form and he let me through, and Jay even waited on me in case they dragged me off in handcuffs! But it was all good.

We spent the night in Brighton with Rob when we got back to the UK and then headed back up to Kate and Joel's on our last day there. This time we had curry takeaways for dinner and a relaxing evening on the sofa watching a movie. Kate was even nice enough to take us to Tesco's the morning of our flight home so I could get my last minute biscuits and crisps to take home. Thanks again Kate!

We had a wonderful visit with everyone and can't wait to go back. And to think, next time we will be a party of 3!

Jay and I have the "big" ultrasound on Monday morning and we have decided to ask the doctor to keep the sex of the baby a secret, just for a few days. Our plan is to get them to put it in an envelope for us to open on Christmas day. I think it will such a wonderful surprise for us on Christmas morning and we can't wait to find out if we are having a son or a daughter!

A lot of people have asked me if I have a feeling one way or another and I honestly don't have a clue. So, what do YOU think I am having, is it a boy or a girl? Cast your vote today in my poll at the top right corner of this page.

I promise to post results as soon as we get back from Christmas vacation!!

On Saturday, Bill, Amy, Jackie, Jamie and I all ran the annual Jingle Bell 5K Run in downtown Raleigh. The best part of this race is that it didn't start until 10:30am so it wasn't as frigid cold as I had expected it to be. The course was great, mainly sticking to Hillsborough St., and a 5K felt really fast after my 11K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day!

Here are some photos courtesy of Jamie and her sweet new camera. Congrats to all the race finishers! And also a special thanks to Kathleen for being my official jacket holder while Jay slept in!

For Thanksgiving, Jay and I flew out to fabulous Las Vegas to visit my parents...well, Boulder City to be exact. Check out the view from their backyard, how cool is this?!


My Mom even has two orange trees growing in her yard that had lots of yummy ripe oranges on them. Lucky!


Throughout my parents' neighborhood there are tons of these "watch for sheep" signs. A herd of big horned sheep live up on the mountain behind the neighborhood and every afternoon they make their way down to the playground to munch on some grass and drink some water. Naturally, we had to swing by and check them out.


They'll let you get pretty close if you look nice!

The night before Thanksgiving we all went to a show, "V", at the Planet Hollywood casino on the strip. It was an awesome variety show with all kinds of crazy acts, including this guy: Fast Wally.

We had all kinds of wholesome food like wings, onion rings, burgers and fries at a restaurant the Magnificent Mile shops before the show. Jay enjoyed his one pound double cheeseburger.

Thanksgiving morning, we all got up early and headed down the street to the Hacienda casino so I could run the Boulder City Turkey Trot 11K race. Mom and Jay walked me down to the start line and hung out with me until the race started.

The runners are off!

I think I can, I think I can!

And Jay came back to watch me finish. Here I come around the last bend.

I finished in about 1 hour and 19 minutes, not too bad. And you can start to see the makings of a baby bump in this picture, along with my sweet finisher's medal.

After the race, Jay and I walked back up to the casino to meet Mom & Dad who you can see hitting the penny slots in this photo. We all had a yummy breakfast buffet and then went home to put the turkey in the oven. Dinner was so delicious! I only wish I could have smuggled some of Mom's stuffing home with me. Since we were limited to carry on luggage for this trip, the packing got interesting, but we made it home with all of our stuff, even after hitting the Black Friday sales on the way to the airport. When it comes to shopping and packing I guess we are pros!