Still waiting for baby

While we still wait patiently for baby Sofi, let's take a look back at her baby shower earlier this year.

This is the decor that I worked on during the weeks leading up to the shower.  It was inspired by a childhood memory of me and Mika making hundreds of these links in one day and then putting them up ALL over our bedroom.  This does not even compare to the masterpiece that we had created years ago.

The activity that we had planned was to create Sofi's first alphabet book.  It went over really well, and I recommend it for any baby shower.  Guests really had fun with it, and Mika and Josh have a nice keepsake from the shower.

We had tons of food, of course including the Filipino favorites.

  

And for dessert, we had Mika's favorite pink donuts with sprinkles.  I'm pretty sure Sofi is made purely of donuts.

It was a really fun day, and got us all even more excited to meet little Sofi.  So hurry up, baby!  We are all waiting for you!

Weekend Adventures

Weekend was lovely and fun-filled.  Saturday was spent on the lake enjoying the most perfect lake weather ever.  We ate lunch on the lake at the Harbor Club and then went off for an afternoon of boating with Josh and Meredith.  It's the first time we've gone out on the lake this year and we are now convinced it needs to become a weekly routine.  We stopped at Rusty Rudder for dinner and then fit in a couple more hours of lake time before heading back for the night.

We got up bright and early Sunday morning to make the trip to West Virginia to celebrate Matt's Mamaw's 80th birthday.  We met Jason on the road and he drove us most of the way to WV, taking us through unnamed mountain roads.  It was an interesting ride, but worth it to see Mamaw's smile at the party when she saw us.

Let me tell you folks, this is one spunky Mamaw.  Even at 80 years old, she is gorgeous and just full of life.  She's one special lady, and people came from all over to celebrate with her.

I sure wouldn't mind if I looked like this when I'm 80!

Love a good weekend.  Lake Fun- Thanks Josh and Meredith!  Survived WV unnamed roads- Thanks Jason!  Birthday festivities- Happy Birthday, Mamaw!

Waiting PATIENTLY (not)

Yesterday was Sofi's due date.  I am trying to wait patiently for my new little niece to arrive.  She's officially late and officially a Filipino.

Check out Sofi's insanely adorable nursery.  My sister is crazy talented and her hubby's got some decent skills himself.

Hurry up, Sofi.  We are all awaiting your arrival!

Photo session: The Whitfields

Had a special photoshoot today with the Whitfields- Jill, Brandon, and their baby girl Addy.  Marcie and I both got new lenses, so we enlisted this adorable fam to be our subjects today.  We chose Independence Park in Charlotte for our location.  Baby Addy was so adorable and completely cooperated for our shoot.  Congrats to Jill and Brandon on their precious baby girl!

Photo excitement

So for over a year now, I have had a digital SLR camera.  I have really enjoyed it and have taken many more pictures over the last year because of it.  I think because it is so much larger than my old point and shoot camera that I actually use it more to make it worth my while when hauling it all over the place.  Plus I feel like a fancy photographer when I use it.

Now after a year of having this thing, I'm finally learning how to use it.  I started my photography class at the Light Factory on Monday.  Get ready for improved photo skillz!

And to add to the photography excitement, I purchased a new lens yesterday.  Let me tell you I am obsessed!  Best $140 I've spent on this little lens.  I only had a few minutes yesterday before Matt and I had to leave for our movie date, but here's a couple of shots of my favorite test subject.

My TWO nephews

Up until about a week ago, I had one nephew- Davin.  Well last Monday, May 9th, I got another nephew!  His name is Dylan, and he was born 7lbs 8oz.  Matt was already scheduled for meetings later that week in Raleigh, so we drove over on Friday for Matt's work and to meet this new little guy.

He is such a perfect little doll.  He looks so much like Davin, which is pretty cool.  Matt and I took turns holding him.  Everyone keeps teasing us that this will give us baby-fever.  This little guy is precious, but what I really have the fever for is... a 3 year old! haha!  We had so much fun playing with Davin over the weekend.  He is such a blast at this age.  Maybe I will change my mind when we have kids one day, but I would take this stage over the baby stage any day!  I mean look at this cute little guy...

Davin is obsessed with hockey.  He loves going to the Hurricanes games, and he seriously knows every player on the team.  His hockey knowledge is impressive.  However, if there is one sport that I would probably try to steer my future kids away from, it would be hockey!  I mean can you imagine this guy running around the house all day with a big stick taking swings at his hockey puck?!  It is scary.  You will probably leave with a busted toe.  But he enjoys it so much, so how can you tell him no?  I drew a picture of him over the weekend with a hockey uniform and stick, and the kid smiled from ear to ear.  Guess it's worth the busted toes and scratched floors haha.

When Uncle Matt got home from his meetings, he got some loves from Davin.  Davin is crazy over his Uncle Matt.  Two peas in a pod really...

Then we took Davin and Furgie to the park, where we played tag, hide-and-seek, and swung on the swings.

It was a fun weekend with Jason, Jennifer, and our TWO little nephews.  Now if I can just find someone to raise my future babies until they are three :)

Blogger hiccup

This weekend recap is a bit overdue.  It's from two weeks ago, but I have a good excuse.  Blogger had some hiccups last week when the site went down.  I realize the site was only down for one day and I'm a week and half overdue with this post, but it just happened to be the one day I sat down to do this post.  See, told you it was a good excuse!  

So two weekends ago, we decided to do some exploring at the White Water Center.  We've been there for rafting and zip-lining, but we've never walked the trails.  Saturday was the perfect day for that, so we set out for a quick hike.

The trails were marked for mountain bikers and hikers.  We had to dart out of the way when the bikes came zipping by.  We've been doing more biking ourselves lately, but only street/sidewalk biking.  I don't have a mountain bike.  Mine is what I call a "boardwalk bike" - super comfortable but not the least bit rugged.  As we walked the trails, we joked about what it would be like for me to try biking these same trails.  We decided that I would definitely not make it out alive on a bike.  I don't know how people bike these things.  There are huge tree roots all over the paths, and there are some serious drops!  I mean look at the picture below.  That drop is taller than I am!  We saw a sign that read "Try walking the trail before you bike".  Seriously people, that is a good idea.  After walking these trails, I would never attempt to bike them!

We worked up our appetites on the trails, so we drove over to Jim 'N Nick's.  This is one of our favorites from when we lived in Birmingham, AL.  It's a bit far of a drive all the way from our house, but it's pretty close to the White Water Center, so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to stuff ourselves with cheesy biscuits.

With stuffed bellies, we came home and took a nap.  Our plans for the evening were to go over to a friend's house to watch the fights, mostly the main event, the  Manny Pacquiao fight.  Our friend put up the big inflatable screen for the party.  I kind of want one now, or at least when we have a backyard big enough one day!  How fun would that thing be for movie parties?  It was a fun night, ending with a Pacquiao win.  Go Pacman!

Lastly, I couldn't resist this little lion toy at Target on Sunday.  I scooped it up for Furgie and she was one happy pup.  That little lion has not left her side since!  Everyone in the McCoy household had a good weekend :)

Happy Cinco!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  I prepped our Cinco de Mayo meal by marinating some chicken with this recipe (I made a few adjustments like using lime instead of lemon, adding cilantro, and a splash of soy sauce).  

It turned out so yummy.  I think this will be my go-to fajita marinade.  And it was super easy.  Everything was all prepped so that all I had to do after my afternoon yoga class was to fire up the grill.  What can I say, I love any excuse to chow on some Mexican!

Over the Weekend

This is Furgie enjoying her weekend while Matt was busy with a garden project. The weather was gorgeous this weekend, and I had hoped we could do something active outside like hiking or biking. But instead, Matt had me doing chores and he was determined to work in our backyard.

I did have fun teasing Matt while he attempted to take the ivy that his buddy Grant ripped out of his yard and plant it in our yard. Apparently, this has been known to work because ivy is such an aggressive plant. But when I saw the pile of dead ivy vines that Matt said he was going to plant in our yard, I couldn't help but laugh. I should have taken a picture so you could see how hopeless it looked. But we made a trip to Lowe's for some supplies and some fresh ivy to add to the dead brown vines we were planting. The goal is to have an ivy wall covering the side of our detached garage that is facing our back porch. I don't like the looking back there and seeing the white vinyl siding, so I've wanted to break it up with some greenery for a while now. Hopefully this will actually work. If it does, I'll post some before and after pics later.

After the yard project was complete, we got some grilling supplies and prepared for a visit from Tom. Who knew we'd be getting live entertainment for dinner as Tom read us word-for-word love letters. The majority of the weekend was then spent giving Tom dating advice :)