Welcome home!

On Saturday, March 12th we made the trip from San Francisco back home to Knoxville, TN.  We couldn't be happier to be home - and with a healthy baby boy!

Leaving UCSF hospital as a family of 3

Car ride home from the airport - almost there!

Welcome home baby Wayne

Last time wearing a premie outfit

Birth Announcement

Facade Quartet Blue Birth Announcement

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Snow Days

This past week was a very chilly one in East Tennessee.  Area schools had snow days on Monday AND Tuesday, and then an ice day on Thursday.  I had my first snow and ice day as a teacher!  Because we only meet for class on Tues/Thurs we missed the last week of school before break.  The other tutors and I had arranged for a class party on Thursday and unfortunately that didn't happen.  I guess we will be having a "Welcome to 2011" celebration instead when we return in January!


I mentioned a couple weeks ago that a commercial was being filmed in our living room.  If you look you can see Wayne's family heirloom (the antique desk) with a photo of my parents and grandparents on it.  Here it is:






If for some reason the video isn't working you can go to youtube to view it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgEZRgueExQ

On a side note...we thought that you might appreciate a photo of the house in our neighborhood that inspired out Christmas card this year.  Merry Christmas!

Noel Y'all 2010

Picture Tree Christmas

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Getaway weekend

Wayne was in California for work this past week and when he returned on Friday night we made a spontaneous decision to spend the weekend in Asheville, North Carolina.

We checked in at a lovely Bed and Breakfast, The 1889 White Gate Inn, and headed to lunch at Mela, a wonderful Indian restaurant that we had heard good things about - LOVED the food!  It was one of the top 3 Indian restaurants I have ever eaten.

Heading to Biltmore

We had heard wonderful things about the Biltmore at Christmas and decided that we should check it out for ourselves.  Our tickets had a reservation time of 2:45pm.  Needless to say I think we were both ready to be done with the tour about 2:47pm.  The crowds didn't help the situation but we were both VERY underwhelmed and actually had quite a few laughs along the way.  Maybe we missed something but for it being just as expensive (if not more so!) than Disneyland we felt like something was missing...like life-size cartoon characters, amusement rides, and 70 degree weather?  Well, we can say we have been to the Biltmore.  Let's leave it at that.

A picture of our Biltmore picture...funny story

After the Biltmore we headed to Fusion Pilates Studio to join Jennifer for her 'Fusion Holiday Drop In 2010'.  They had a Lululemon fashion show and lots of yummy food and wine.  It was great to have Wayne meet some of the fabulous women that I have trained with over the past year.

During our drive back on Sunday it started snowing.  By evening they were already announcing school closings for Monday.  We curled up upstairs and relaxed before heading into a new week.

Snowing

THE BOYS taking a nap together

It's been a few weeks since the last belly pic.  Oh boy (or girl?) I'm getting bigger.  :-)

25 weeks

Party time

This past week we decorated the house and have been generally getting ready for the holidays.

Friday evening we went to our first holiday party for the board of directors of the Friends of Literacy.  The party was in an old brick warehouse/club in downtown Knoxville that was converted into a family home.  I was taking lots of mental notes since we were getting ready to host our first holiday party the next evening!

Saturday we hosted the Pathfinders Christmas party at our house.  Pathfinders is a Sunday school group that we joined at the church we have been attending (Bearden United Methodist).  It is a great group of families (many with small children) and we are really enjoying the friendship.  We figured there was no better way to jump right into the group than to host the bash.  We had 28 people for a sit down dinner of roasted beef tenderloin (over 12 pounds!) and 50 ribs from Rouxbarb.  I also made Paula Deen's Pimento Cheese Potatoes and Wayne made his favorite appetizer, Swiss Cheese Bites.  It was all fabulous!!  Our guests brought everything else, including a pumpkin latte cheesecake (it was SO good!).

After dinner...still so much food

8 people were in the dining room

20 people ate in the kitchen area

Santa's Sangria

After dinner we had a White Elephant gift exchange.  The steal of the night was the leopard print snuggie.  Wayne and I ended up picking second to last and chose 2 Christmas coffee mugs.

Sunday morning at church they had the annual Christmas Cantata.  It was AMAZING!  Members of the UT and Knoxville Symphony Orchestras joined the BUMC choir to put on a touching musical event.  My mom would have loved it.

Sunday evening our house (specifically our fireplace) was used to film a commercial.  Doublejay Creative filmed Knoxville mayoral candidate Mark Padgett, his wife, daughter, and dog, delivering a Christmas message that will air on local cable.  Supposedly it will also be available on youtube...when it is I will post a link.  It was crazy to see all the cameras, lights, and equipment transform our living room into a set.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  My mom and dad arrived on Wednesday afternoon and helped me with a few last minute preparations.  Lisa and Steve made it in after a very long drive from Chicago with their two dogs, Maya and Addy (including 3 hours of traffic just to get out of the city!).  Over the course of the weekend we played many rounds of Scrabble, Cranium, Euchre, and FIFA World Cup '11 on the Wii.  What a blast!

This was our first Thanksgiving hosting and I think it went well.  We had rosemary roasted turkey (brined for 24 hours), mashed potatoes with celery root and mascarpone cheese, homemade gravy, green bean casserole, brussels spouts and carrots, fresh cranberry sauce, biscuits, and pumpkin chiffon pie with fresh whip cream.  I think the consensus was the cranberry sauce, although the underdog, was the clear winner.

After a little Black Friday shopping we came home to enjoy homemade tortilla soup (it was a CHILLY day!) before heading off to an Ice Bears game.  It happened to be one of the most popular game days - Weiner Dog Races. We didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into.  Basically 40+ owners bring their personal pets to the game and then after the first period they race across the ice rink - there were so many dogs that they had to race in two heats.  My favorite part was watching the dogs that stopped halfway and started doing donuts on the ice.  It was quite a laugh.

After the Ice Bears game

Julia and Wayne

Steve and Lisa

On Saturday Mom, Lis and I enjoyed pedicures at the Aveda salon.  It was nice to have some time to spend with "just the girls" before the family headed back home on Sunday.