Memorial Day and more

Hey Folks,

How's it going? Life at the Whittingtons is pretty chaotic. With work, me studying for my comprehensive finals, us trying to get ready for the big move (June 22) and normal summer activities, all I can say is that we are making it. Not complaining though, we are both thankful for many blessings.

Memorial Day weekend we went to the beach and spent some time with my family and Hayden's friend, Mallory. We had gorgeous weather and what turn out to be calm, clear water. Kyle and I were set. It was nice to do a whole bunch of nothing. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

On Sunday afternoon Kyle, Hayden, Mallory and I went to Seaside for the afternoon. Kyle and I have a tradition of going back to Bud and Alleys at least one time during the summer to toast to the spot where we got engaged. I always have the drink I had moments before we got engaged. It's called a Keylime Freeze and it's delicious. It's more of a dessert drink and it has ice cream in it. Totally not something I would usually order but ya'll, it is quite yummy.  Hayden and Mallory enjoyed our annual rendezvous with us and we were all lucky to share the afternoon with Eli Manning. 

Yep, the guy in the grey is Eli Manning himself. It was pretty cool that Kyle spotted him and even "cooler" that no one really bothered him while he was there.

Monday, Kyle and I headed back to B-ham with a quick stop at Sikes and Kohns and then a 3 hour visit to Lowes to purchase some items for the new house. It was a long 3 hours.

In other news, baby William is growing. I've spent some time with him since his birth and it's so much fun to watch him grow and laugh at how much he looks just like his daddy. I could just eat him up!

This is William at 5 weeks. He's getting chunky...just the way I like babies. Counting down the days for baby Mae now...

Baby Mae's Day

This past weekend we celebrated the upcoming arrival of my friend Sarah's baby, Mary Turner Abernethy. She will be called Mae. Sarah and I were friends and roommates at the Kappa Delta house for two years and I am so excited for her! I keep telling people I get the best of both worlds a boy (William) and a girl (Mae) right down the road to play with whenever I want.

Friday night our other good friends, BJ, Ferrill and Ferrill's hubby Rob came into town and we had a cookout over at our house (the rental).

Saturday morning we headed over to the baby shower brunch at Sarah's sister-in-laws gorgeous new home. Let's just say that little Mae racked up on the gifts. I've come to the conclusion people just love buying little girl stuff. Mae is going to be dressed to kill in all of her ruffles, bows, bloomers and smocked attire. Mae even got a Lil' Luxuries Whirlpool, Bubbling Spa and Shower. Hello?! Amazing. I'd use that thing to soak my own feet in.

Perhaps the best thing about the shower was Sarah's little helper, her nephew Slaton. He was a "big help" opening up gifts and is 100% boy. His mama is expecting a baby this fall and he is dead set that it is going to be a baby sister. Seriously. If you even mention the baby is going to be a boy he flips out. Here's hoping baby number two will be wearing pink.

Earlier in the week my parents came in town to check out our new house. I'll admit, I never thought we would have bought a house without me wanting approval from them but I put on my big girl panties and we bought a house...on our own. Their seal of approval meant a lot to me. Currently, my mind is in the land of paint colors, wood floor stains and general decorating ideas. Pinterest has become my best friend. I can't decide if I want to go ahead and post pictures or do some before and afters.

This and That

This past weekend we traveled to Nashville for a wedding reception honoring Kyle's friend and old roommate, Mike. Mike got married two weekends ago at the beach and he and his new wife, Sam had a small party to celebrate their marriage. Kyle and I went to Nashville Friday after work and met up with Kyle's other friends, Shawn, Allie and their almost one year old baby Avery. The weekend was pretty low key for me. I was sick this past week (apparently I had walking pneumonia but the verdict is still out) so I slept a lot of the trip. Basically, I got 12 hours of sleep Friday night. It was awesome. I love to sleep.

Kyle and I on Broadway (a.k.a. the music street downtown Nashville where all the honky tonks are).

On Sunday, Kyle and I headed back to Birmingham, loaded up the car and took some of our junk stuff to the new house. We closed on our new house this past Wednesday. We are officially homeowners! It's a nice feeling. Kyle used the afternoon to rip up the carpet in the living room and dinning room to check out the condition of the hardwoods underneath. Luckily, they didn't look too shabby. Pictures of the house coming soon... I promise. 
 

William's story

It's easy to say Kyle and I have become quite smitten with baby William. Since his birth on Wednesday, we have seen him two other times and talk about him quite frequently. Being firstborns, Kyle and I haven't been able to experience what it is like to be an aunt or uncle yet so we are considering this our practice run. While there are a lot of other babies we hold near and dear to our hearts, we do have easy access to baby William (he's about 15 minutes from us) and we are his godparents so I consider our obsession quite normal.

William's mother informed me of his soon to be arrival at 4am Wednesday morning via text when her water broke. Needless to say, I was wide awake after that. It was a long morning. I made my way up to the hospital around noon and found Caroline just as calm, cool and collected as could be. I could tell she was anxious but she looked really good. I was impressed. I spent the day with Caroline's family (dad, mom, sister and brother) along with the daddy to be, Grant. We had a good time catching up, discussing what we thought the baby would look like and commenting on how good Caroline appeared to be doing.

We passed the time each guessing William's weight, length and time of arrival. To tell you the truth though, the day went by pretty fast, especially since Caroline never really had any complaints (thank God for epidurals). Around 2:30 the doctor came to the room and said it was time for William to arrive. We left the room and gave our love to Grant and Caroline.

While in the waiting room we continued to comment on how well Caroline was handling things and discussed what we thought the baby would look like. Once in a while we would walk down to Caroline's room, stand outside the room and listen. From what we could tell, it sounded like things were running pretty smoothly in there.

The best part of the whole day was that Caroline's sister, mother and I got to hear baby William's entrance into the world. Julie and I had never heard a baby's first cry and we were both in awe. The second best part of the day was seeing Caroline's parents reactions to knowing they were officially grandparents. They were beaming with pride. We anxiously waited (2 hours) outside Caroline's door for our moment to meet William as other friends and family gathered. It was worth it.

Grant finally walked out and told us mama and baby were doing good.

After the family got to check William out it was time for friends to visit.

We eventually got Caroline into her own room where she would spend the next two nights. Caroline debriefed us on the delivery (once commenting on how easy things really went...seriously?!) and then she finally got to eat. I think her hunger pains were worse than labor pains.

                            Cake from Olexa's that I got baby William...it was his birth-day

                            Kyle even made his way up to the hospital that evening.

The following evening we came back to the hospital to visit some more with William. Truth be told, I wanted to hold William all by myself without having to share him. Sorry, I'm selfish. My wish was granted and I got to hold William for about an hour without having to share (except with Kyle).

The Davis family of three are now at home. I cannot thank Caroline and her family enough for letting me be a part of that special day. I am looking forward to seeing William grow up and excited to see what his personality will be like. One thing that I am certain of...there are a lot of people who love this little baby.