Jeff and Amanda, Robin Meade and Homemade Ravioli

Jeff and Amanda visited this weekend. We had a great time. Saturday we visited the New World of Coke. It was really neat. You can sample over 60 Coke products from around the world. I lost count when Jeff hit 30! Afterwards, we ate lunch at the food court at CNN Center. While there, Jeff and I found a gigantic poster of Robin Meade, our favorite morning news personality. We both view/listen to her daily; Jeff on television and me on satellite radio. We even found a lifesize cardboard cutout of her, but by Amanda and Katie's tone, we knew when enough was enough.

On Saturday night, we did our normal ritual when they visit of preparing a gourmet meal. We all four (five if you count Maggie's new found interest in helping) love to cook and usually all have something unique to offer. We made homemade ravioli stuffed with shrimp. Yes, we even rolled out the dough ourselves.

Thanks for visiting, Jeff and Amanda. We hope you come back soon. Maybe I can line up lunch with Robin Meade next time!

~Andy

Now we have to think of a name

Well, Andy and I had our big ultrasound yesterday and everything went really well. The baby is healthy and is growing well. We were able to find out the gender, and...


IT'S A GIRL!!!!

So, Maggie's going to have a little sister. The baby is measuring about 7 inches long at this point and looks to weigh 8 oz.

Maggie was also excited to see several valentines packages awaiting her when she got home from school yesterday. She had a nice pack of valentines and candy from her friends in Las Vegas and an Alice in Wonderland doll from Meme and Pap. She's having a big party at school today so I'm sure getting her calmed down tonight should be a lot of fun! She is doing great with the potty training at school! She only had accidents the first two days and she's been five days without an accident at school. Yeah Maggie!!!

Here are some pictures of Maggie opening her valentines packages, a picture of me and baby girl at 18 weeks and the ultrasound pictures.

Happy Valentines Day!!

Super Tuesday

Here were the other candidates for the title of this post:

- 4 cake mixes, a dozen eggs, 6 sticks of butter and 10 cups of powdered sugar later..

- A tourist for a day

- Potty time

Super Tuesday won for several reasons. First, it's literally Super Tuesday for the presidential primaries, including here in Georgia. Andy and I are going to vote after work. If the experience is something worth writing about, you may get that commentary in the next few weeks (since we don't seem to be updating frequently lately). Second, Maggie is wearing panties today, no pull ups under the panties either. She's been going to the potty at school somewhat consistently (even though she says she goes every day, two times) and now that she's going to be a big sister, we really wanted her potty trained by the time July rolls around. I'm sure there will be updates here about potty progress.

So, here is what has been going on with us lately. Andy's been working, a lot. So far, he hasn't had to work that much on the weekends and when he has, it's been at home. Thankfully, Maggie hasn't had that much time apart from her playmate. Saturday, she pretty much followed him around all day. She even helped take the garbage out so she could be with him. I'm doing well. The baby seems to be doing well too. We have our 17 week check up Thursday. We are hoping to find out the gender of the baby next Wednesday, so keep your fingers crossed that the baby will let us find out! My big project from this past weekend was a giant cake for a baby shower for three expectant moms at church.

Here are some pictures from Papa and Gigi's visit this weekend. I should have taken a picture of Gigi taking Maggie to the bathroom everywhere we went. Maggie is quite fascinated by public restrooms right now. We were able to go to the Children's Museum of Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium Monday, so we were all tourists for a day. Unfortunately, Andy couldn't be off work Monday, but we did manage a quick picture of his office from the aquarium.

A snow-filled birthday weekend

Who would have ever thought that it would snow twice in one week in Atlanta? It started snowing on Saturday morning around 10am and didn't stop until about 4pm. The pictures below were taken about 2pm. It's been so cold since the snow fell, that there is still some on the ground today.

Andy celebrated his birthday today and we have had a relaxing weekend at home (mainly due to the weather) but we did manage to brave the cold weather tonight to go out to eat. Maggie had a lot of fun helping bake and ice Andy's birthday cake and was so excited when he got to blow out the candles.

Oh, and there is also a picture of Maggie getting ready for her dinner with Daddy...we had to wash her face before we could leave the house!

The Snow

Here are some pictures of what we came home to today.

MAGIE

That's what Maggie learned last week while visiting the grandparents (all of them) in Mississippi. At one point, she did include the other G but then she started saying "M A G G (also sounds like Gigi) and Papa I E!"

She says it with such enthusiasm, we just bust out laughing afterwards.

On the baby front, we are 14 weeks along and our latest check up went well. We were able to hear the heartbeat and we scheduled the ultrasound to find out the gender for February 13th.

On another note, right now in Atlanta- SNOW! Yes, there are flurries falling right now and have been for about a half hour and we are under a Winter Weather Advisory. I'm sure the headline on all the news stations tonight will be something like Storm Watch 2008, Snow Storm 2008 or something just as dramatic. I'm sure Andy and I will be at work tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from Maggie's vacation.

Birthday Boy

(Andy posting here, not Katie)

No, not me, even though it is coming up! Jack Pete is the birthday boy today. He's six years old! Quite an accomplishment considering Maggie's mobility for the last couple of years and her joy in tormenting him. Right now he's celebrating with a nap and will top the evening off with a hot dog, which we try to give him every birthday and most major holidays.

Maggie has abandoned us. I knew this day would come but I hardly thought it would be before the age of three! She's spending time with grandparents in Mississippi for an undecided amount of time. She's in Jackson now and will probably go to New Albany before it's over. So, it's very quiet around here, except for Jack Pete yelping about that hot dog!

Oh, and with Maggie away, Katie and I went out to dinner last night at a restaurant that didn't tie balloons around your ears!

Have a good week.

Andy

Christmas pictures

Here are pictures of Maggie from Christmas: