Babies!

             So lately I've been running a fever......baby fever that is! I just love babies, and if I could have one and it would stay <1 year old forever I'd have one tomorrow. Unfortunately I haven't quite figured out how to make that happen yet, so no baby for me! And I have plans to go back to grad school to get my masters which will take 3 years, so we will most likely wait to start a family until I graduate. Luckily one of my good friends April and my cousin Jeana just had babies exactly one month apart, so I have been spending lots of time with them to get my fix! haha : )

Aubrey Lynn was born on September 19th and I have loved getting to spend so much time with her! She is such a sweet little girl and has the most precious smile! 

Stop, don't shoot!

1st ride in the swing...I think she likes it!

Big brother CJ

Little sis...see the resemblance?

Holden Ward was born on August 19th and is April & Ren's 1st baby! It is so crazy to see them as parents now, but they are naturals! I can't believe April is already ready for #2... but if I made kids as cute as this little guy I'd want another one too! Holden is such an alert, happy baby...he is always making the cutest little faces!

Proud "Auntie" Stacey!

 

look at those lips!!

 Thank you Jeana and April for letting me steal your babies from you so much!! For now, this is the only child I will have...he's pretty cute too if I do say so myself!

Dallas the reindeer!

It's About Time!

    My cousin Cassidy (Casshole, as I lovingly call her), has been dating her now fiance for 7 years!! We have all been waiting for Martin to pop the question and he finally made his move on their 7 year anniversary at the Angus Barn. Although his plan didn't go exactly as he had wanted it, it was still a great night that they will always remember!

    My other cousin Sally and I both love taking pictures and decided that we wanted to take some engagement pictures for Cassidy and Martin, "Massidy," if you will. So we headed out to the Angus Barn and again, things didn't go as planned, but we made it work! Sally and I were slightly worried we would get kicked off the premises for taking pics there, so every time a car drove by we would act all casual like we weren't in the middle of a photo shoot...smooth! I'm sure it didn't look suspicious at all with 2 other people sitting there in some awkward pose. Anyways, we did not get kicked out so all was well!

    "Massidy" was a great pair to shoot with, they were fun and up for anything we asked them to do! It's pretty much impossible to take a bad picture of Casshole, she is beautiful! (Martin, you didn't look too shabby yourself!) I was worried Martin would be a little timid, but all I had to do was make fun of Cassidy's "claw" hands and it made him laugh every time!

The spot where he proposed!

  
    I'm so happy for these two love birds and I can't wait for the wedding!

Faaaaamily weekend!

lookin' good!

I guess you could say I grew up a little different than most. My Grandmother and Grandaddy (my mom's parents), my mom's brother (Uncle Steve), his wife (Aunt Barb), their 3 kids Jeana, Phillip & Cassidy and my parents, brother (Brandon) and I all grew up as neighbors. So to say we are close is an understatement! It was basically like always having 4 siblings around to hang out with, which was always a lot of fun. Some of my favorite memories that stick out from our childhood are: the countless summers we spent at Harkers Island, playing hide-and-seek, building couch cushion forts and watching the Price is Right, building forts in the woods, building forts out of boxes (we really liked forts!), eating raw turnips from the garden (weird), Cassidy and I playing barbie dolls/baby dolls/mall on the steps/paint shop/school, flash light tag and kickball. 

Now that we are all married or almost married (yay Cassidy!), we obviously don't get to spend quite as much time together, but when we can we try and get together for what we call "faaaamily night."

The "faaam" minus Jeana, Corey and Martin

Luckily none of us married weirdos, so we all get along great and love spending time together. A couple of weekends ago Sally and Phillip, "Sallip" if you will, invited us all over for dinner since it had been a while since the last family gathering. "Sallip" made a great dinner for us and Phillip even whipped up some homemade chocolate ice cream that was AWESOME! But for some strange reason CJ was veryyy suspicious about this ice cream and had to be talked into eating it.

The boys trying to talk CJ into eating his ice cream

Aubrey was really into Faaamily night!

CJ was very excited about the Wolfpack win!!

  After dinner Jeana had to take the kiddos home to bed, but the rest of us stayed and decided to "Get Wacky." And no, that probably doesn't mean what you think it does. Wacky Six is a card game that is VERY complicated and VERY intense. We split up into 4 teams of 2 (couples) and started what would be about 3-4 hours of wackiness. At the beginning of each round you have to designate someone to say "LET'S GET WACKY!!" to start... obviously I chose Martin for this job because he is the most outgoing of us all. (sidenote: that is not true, which made it hilarious!) So the game started off innocent enough, we were all laughing and having a great time. Well about 2 hours in, things got ugly. There was a point in time when I didn't think a few of us would ever speak again. We laughed about how if we played much longer "Sallip" would kick us out of their house and none of us would ever speak of the night's events again. Obviously I'm being dramatic, but there were a few close calls...especially when Martin and Cassidy started cheating. Haha : )

But all joking aside, it really was the most I've laughed in a long time and I am so thankful to have my family in one place and still be able to spend time together on a pretty regular basis!

  

That's All Folks!

Tuesday morning we woke up around 10:00, packed up like nomads one last time, and headed out to our last meal together before Meredith and I headed back to NC. I found a breakfast place near USC called Jacks N Joe that had good ratings on Yelp, so we headed there for some grub. 

"The Pudgie Elvis"

   Meredith ordered the house specialty: "the pudgie elvis" which was 2 pancakes covered with bananas and a peanut butter sauce. I had an omelet with tomato, avocado, bacon, and cheese and it was delicious! During breakfast, Meredith and I almost got into a fist fight over a $4 debt she claimed I owed her. I know it was only $4, but after 12 days together, it didn't take much for us to get sassy with one another! Allison finally made us compromise and split the huge debt 50/50. sigh.


Also during breakfast, we learned that there had been an earthquake in Virginia! How crazy that there would be an earthquake at home when we were in California.

this picture makes me laughhh

   Once we finished breakfast we headed to LAX and said our goodbyes. It was hard saying goodbye to Allison, especially since she had no clue what she was getting into and was feeling nervous about everything. I wanted to pack up that little ninny in my carry-on and bring her home, but my bag was just too full already (seriously...I had a pair of shoes in my purse). So we hugged one last time and it was so long-farewell! Meredith and I hopped on our plane and got back to Raleigh around 11:30 pm Tuesday night. (Shout-out to my loving hubby who picked us up that late and had to work the next day!)

   Every time I think back on this trip I still can't believe we did it! It seems so surreal. 3000 miles, 12 days, and 10 states with NO major issues! I can't believe we didn't have a flat tire, run out of gas, get in an accident, or get a speeding ticket the whole way! It was really a seamless trip which is shocking considering how little we had planned as far as hotels and stuff to do the last half of the trip. Even though the 3 of us didn't always see eye-to-eye, we actually got along really well for the most part and had a blast along the way.

   There were times before we left that I considered backing out because of the expense and being away from home for 12 days, but I am so glad I decided to go. It was a once in a lifetime kind of trip and I am so thankful to have had those 12 days with Allison before she moved away from me! Allison is such a strong, brave, amazing person to be able to move thousands of miles away from family and friends (for the second time!), and I am so lucky to have had her as a best friend for 13+ years now!! I know she will do great things in California and I can't wait to hear about all her adventures...and hopefully about more celebrity sightings!

Smell ya later, CA!

Now I'm back to my not as exciting life in Raleigh, that'll probably be the end of my blogging career! Thanks for reading : )

Love,
   Stacey (aka Ninny Sea Buscuit)