These are a Few of my Favorite Things

I stole this idea from Kim's blog. All that is below....is for now, my favorite things change quite often!

1. Saturday Mornings listening to Reggae music and cooking breakfast with Chad!
2. Eating fresh summer vegetables from friend's gardens or from the market: favorites include green beans and red potatoes.
3. Cuddling with Charlie(when he is clean).
4. Expo Markers, I use them everyday during the school year, I never get sick of writing on the board with them. I can't imagine having to use chalk everyday!
5. TARGET

6. The smell of Christmas.
7. The feeling of Santa Baby moving in my belly.
8. Abuelos
9. Wedding and Baby Showers (for other people of course)!
10. Steel Magnolia quotes and comparing people to characters in Steel Magnolias!
11. 80's music

12. Trips to the salon
13. Elizabeth from The View

14. Long talks with my mom, that are usually us laughing most of the time.
15. Revlon Color Stay Lipstick
16. Going to the Movies...only with popcorn and a big Diet Coke!
17.Grandmother Georgia's House
18. Playing with all of my little cousins and niece!
19. DVR
20. Teaching the 2 year olds at church
21. Cookies from the mall (The Cookie Factory)
22. I think shopping gives me more enodorphines than working out....that is why I do it more!
23. Lifetime
24. Bunko
25. Scrabble (especially playing with Grandmother and Chad)

Cousins

Santa Baby is already so blessed b/c he/she will have 2 cousins that are the same age as he/she is. My brother, Paul and his wife, Tessa have there 2cd child due in November(they think it is a girl). Chad's brother,Scott and his wife Amy have a baby due in January, 2 weeks after Santa Baby. Family functions will be so much fun having a play mate every time! I only had one cousin that was close to my age,Ashley, http://heathnashley.blogspot.com/ . She made going to Grandmother and Granddad's house that much more fun!
I need to get a picture of me and Tessa together but, here is mine and Amy's bellies. The other picture is of Mimi with her 2 pregnant daughter in laws! I had to add a picture of the soon to be dad's showing off their bellies as well.
Scott and Amy live about 20 miles away and I am sure it will make life easier for both of us to have our babies so close. I am sure they will grow up being like siblings!
Paul and Tessa are getting ready to graduate and Paul will be looking for a coaching job! I cherish my years sitting on the bench with my dad while he coached basketball. Doing my homework on the bus and having a team of older kids give me extra attention. I am hoping they will move close, so our baby will be able to experience that as well.

Exciting news....I finally felt Santa Baby move....WOW! Chad happen to be sitting beside me and was able to feel it kick just a little bit. I am still glowing with excitement! I just love my baby!

The Name Game

I had assumed since we got pregnant we would name our son Harry Luke or Dean and our girl Georgia Ann. Harry is Chad's dad name and was a family name until his mom decided she did not like it and stopped the tradition. Luke is a name my grandmother and I have always loved. Dean is my maiden name and I always knew I would use it but liked it with the name Louis better than Harry. Georgia is my grandmother's name and Ann is Chad's aunt's name and my sister's middle name. A wrench has been thrown into the mix when Chad admitted that he would like the name Harrison if he knew the boy would be called Harry. I know we have 2 weeks and we may not even be worrying about boy names....but it is kind of fun and we will have an identity for this Santa Baby. We are now making some other ideas for names. I am making a list of my favorite names and then will tell you the 2 we are deciding from for a boy and a girl. I have to say my dad is partial to Dean and mother in law is partial to Harrison....it kind of pushes the first choice. I just LOVE Harry!

Favorite names that must be used .....but I don't think I can produce enough kids:
Harry (Harrison)
Dean
Louis
Theodore(Teddy)
Luke
Girls:
Georgia (Georgie)
Joyce(one of my favorite aunt's name)
Gloria(Chad's only aunt's first name)
Ann
Elizabeth
Kate
Brooke(Chad's brother is using that one)
If you have a favorite combination....please let me know.
We will for sure use Harry and Georgia for our first girl and boy....just not sure which! Any ideas will be greatly appreciated!

Branson Shopping Trip

Rachel and I decided to spend the day shopping in Branson this Saturday while our husbands were on a float trip. It just happen to be the Santa Clause Convention and Santa's were everywhere....in normal clothes! It was a great day trip! I got lots of Christmas shopping done and of course a few things for myself! I figure I better to it now before I find out if Santa Baby is a boy or a girl because, it will be hard not to buy lots of stuff for this baby! I thought I would write a few of the highlights of the day.

• Spending hours on our feet at 2 outlet malls and a regular mall. We got the best deals at the Tanger Mall and we found the best stuff at Branson Landing(new mall).
• Lunch at the Hard Luck Cafe. This is a cafe off the strip where people who are trying to make it in some of the shows work. They sing while you are eating! One of the servers was on American Idol. The food was okay but, the experience was a lot of fun!
• The very best part of the whole trip was when Rachel's father in law called and told Rachel if we found him he would give us $100. He and his wife were shopping at the same mall we were at. He called an hour later and said he would give us $50 more....we found him after running in every store and he gave us $150 more! By this time we were exhausted so we decided to leave and go back home. He called again and told us the same thing! He was planning on doing his for 4 more hours! Santa Doug made our Saturday Christmas in July! Doug and Linda have been close family friends of Chad's family for years. I have been blessed to become apart of their friendship! I am so glad Chad's best friend married such a great person! It makes it easier to stay in touch with their family!
• Kringle's Christmas Store was our favorite shop in Branson. It had 3 levels of Christmas decoration! We could have stayed in there for hours and if St. Doug was around...we probably would have! This store is located in the same center as Hard Luck Cafe.
• Spending quality girl time with a girl who knows how to shop was definitely another super fun highlight!

4th of July

Great Company
Great Food
Great Fireworks
Great Dogs

Family Reunion

We had the greatest time visiting my grandmother this weekend. Two of these pictures are right before the family reunion. Mom, wanted to show off her strawberry shortcake!Her house has always been my favorite place to go. She lives in the quiet country of NEA. I am adding a picture of Dezi b/c it is so cute! Dezi has the chicken pox and absolutely hates the word chicken now! I should do a blog on Dezi funnies!