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Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Cat in the Hat, and all of that...

Yesterday was my baby shower!  It was hosted by my sweet friend Allison, who knew about my nursery theme.  So she did my baby shower around the Dr. Seuss theme too.  The invitations were SO SO cute, and when I got to her house, I was blown away by the Seusstastic shower decor.  She REALLY out-did herself. 

Cute balloons, welcome sign, and drinks station in her kitchen...



She had cute decor all over the place, like this!  (Ignore the fuzzy picture... I'm still getting used to the new camera!)


It's a Boy!


The table right by the front door, with the party favors



The gift station... seriously- how cute is this?!


The pregnant woman's fantasy land!  CUPCAKES!!!



And my beautiful hostess herself.  Thank you SO much Allison, for hosting an awesome, fun shower!

The shower was so nice.  My sweet friends spoiled me ROTTEN with the great gifts they gave!!  Baby O is just about set.  I have a work shower coming up in a couple of weeks, and after that, I really think we'll have just about everything we need.  Oh except the instruction manual on what to do with this kid... Anybody have one of those? 


Sunday, July 11, 2010

Maternity Photo Shoot!

We have been debating on whether or not to do Maternity pictures for a while now.  It has gotten down to the wire though, because if we wanted to do them, we needed to hurry up and do them- otherwise, I would be too huge to fit into even a wide-angle lens!  My friend from college, Amber, does a lot of kids and family pictures, so we thought she was the natural choice for our photographer.  She came over on July 5th, and did these- we are VERY glad we decided to get them!  Check out more of Amber's work here:  http://www.amberpricephotography.blogspot.com/



That group of pictures was taken at Poole's Mill Park- near our house.  We also had our engagement pictures taken there. 



These were taken in a sunflower field that was just on the side of the road.  It's on our way home from work, and we've always thought it was so pretty, so we were really happy to be able to have these taken there.



These were just at the house.  I'm really happy we got a picture with Bella in it though! 

4th of July Weekend

Last weekend was a fun weekend at the Orrick houshold.  We have been going full court press on our to-do list lately, so that was the first weekend we had where we were able to have FUN and not worry so much about "the list".  We did a lot of regular household stuff on Saturday, like cleaning, laundry, and organizing (sounds like fun, right?)  but then on Sunday was when we let it all go.  We got up early to watch the Peachtree Road Race.  That was kind of a big deal for me because it's the first time in at least 5 years, maybe more, that I haven't run it. 
You may remember this picture as our first Peachtree that we ran together.  But this year, that was out of the question.  This could be ridiculously optimistic of me, but I THINK I could have walked the race endurance wise.  But I never would have made it bathroom-wise.  They usually offer a "runners" and a "walkers" division, so I would have needed them to add a "waddlers" division, and maybe a 3 day head start in order for me to have done it comfortably.  Needless to say, the ATC didn't really see the need for all that.  So this year, I watched.  It was very hard to sit back and relax, knowing the emotions that the runners were going through at the point we were sitting at on the course.  We set up camp between 10th and 11th streets, and for those of you who know the course, you probably know that 11th street is where one of the last mister stations is, and 10th street is the turn to head down the last little stretch to cross the finish line.  I haven't looked at the official course map to validate this, but I believe that "little stretch" is the last 1/2 mile.  So you can imagine how all the runners are feeling when they get to where we are.  And just in case you can't, here's what it was like...



I can honestly say that I have never had the privelege of looking at these elite runners from this angle.  I usually only see them when I am crossing the finish line and they are already on the podium getting their trophies!


I probably took 100 pictures of people carrying American and military flags.  I love that the patriotism of the day is not lost on the runners. 



More American pride!



And even MORE American pride!



I don't know what this person said to anger this guy, but he is clearly one unhappy super-hero wannabe!




Hubs, cooling off under the tree.  Behind him are the runners that are about to round the corner onto 10th street.




The only picture of me with other sweaty runners! 


(Just in case you were wondering what he did in the "off season")


After that, a nap was in order.  Then we switched over to the great American tradition of having a cook-out!  We had a few friends over and grilled out (what else?) hot dogs and hamburgers (chicken burgers for me).  We had all of the traditional sides- potato salad, cucumber salad, pasta salad, fruit, chips, salsa, guacamole, french onion dip...oh and beer!  I had peach tea- it's a Southern thing, I guess, but that was good enough for me.   AND I got to use a lot of tomatoes from my garden!  I used some cucumbers too- the ones that survived the squash bug war, that is. 



One of the few times we've put the Party Pergola to good use.  Ryan installed a mister system the day before, so that helped keep everyone cool...



My attempt at a patriotic dessert.







The dads to be! 



Fernando was not happy with Ricky's choice to play New Kids on the Block for background music!  Everyone else loved it though- haha!



Bonnie, Mindy, and Andrea- smile ladies!