Coming Soon...

We are super excited to announce that we will be adding another member to our little family!!! {Don't you love how this immediately follows our honeymoon post? Awesome.} We hope to use this little blog to keep everyone up-to-date on our little peanut's progress between now and sometime around April 4th. I am currently 12 weeks. We had our first ultrasound around 6-7 weeks and then heard the heartbeat about a week ago. Hearing that little beat is like nothing we could have ever imagined.

We were able to tell Josh's siblings during a family photo shoot in August {a most exciting way to announce this kind of news} and here are couple of the pictures. I wish we could have had a second photographer capturing their expressions. It was priceless.

Please follow along as we attempt figure out this parenthood thing!

Love,

Stephanie & Josh

Honeymoon At Last

FINALLY! We finally went on our honeymoon! It seems like we waited forever, but of course life happens. We spent a lot of time researching and decided we wanted to go to the Outer Banks! Neither Josh or I had ever been there and had heard so many awesome things about it! I think I looked at 100's of cottages and B&B's in the months leading up to our trip. In the end, we decided to stay at the Cypress House Inn in Kill Devil Hills and are SO happy with that decision. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

{Breakfast at Chick-fil-a on our way! I was one happy girl!}

{Our adorable B&B: Cypress House Inn}

{More than welcomed beach time!}

{We planted ourselves in the same spot every day.}

{Headed out to dinner at The Kill Devil Grill}

The Kill Devil Grill is one of those places you can't really imagine having fabulous food, but the line out the door makes you wonder what is going on inside. It looks like an old diner that might seat 15 people, but they have extended it out the back to accommodate a few more. The inn keepers at our B&B suggested it so we went for a quick lunch. We loved it so much we went back for dinner that same night since they wouldn't be open again while we were there. It was definitely worth it. The classic American food with a Southern twist seemed to be out of a 4 star restaurant rather than a diner 100 yards from the beach. If you are ever in the Outer Banks you MUST go and eat there. Oh and get the KEY. LIME. PIE!!!!

{Visiting the Wright Brothers National Memorial}

{View from the monument at the Wright Brothers --our B&B is there in there somewhere.}

{Dinner at Colington Cafe: Another great dining experience in a quirky old house!}

{She crab soup to start off dinner. Oh so decadent!}

On our drive south to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, we stopped to see if we could find any cool shells. We were so lucky to pick up a bag full. I had heard that finding shells in the Outer Banks was difficult.

{Cape Hatteras Lighthouse: We learned it is the tallest brick lighthouse in North America --all 248 steps!}

{We made it to the top!}

{Vacations coinciding!!!!! We loved being able to have lunch with Joe, Jannah and Elliott! We just don't get to see these sweet friends enough.}

{Coffee at Morning View was a daily treat!}

{Josh reading on the beach}

{Feet picture in our last few minutes on the beach!}

We will definitely be going back to the Outer Banks! There is still so much to explore. We foresee family vacations for years to come.

Stephanie

Katie & Tim Get Hitched

Josh's sister, Katie, got married to one of his best friends, Tim. How much more fun can a wedding get than that? We had a blast rounding out our year of weddings (4 siblings got hitched in less than 12 months!) and wanted to share the love. (Sorry for the mix of iPhone pictures! I'm the worst at carrying my camera.)

{Vintage Peacock Shower}

{Practicing hair}

{Showered in balloons -and presents and love, too}

{Bachelorette night at Good Luck --it's now a bridal tradition}

{My first taste of oxtail and tripe}

{It was heavenly!!!}

The wedding was at the Auditorium Center in downtown Rochester. Such a great location!

{Sisters}

{Sisters}

{Complicated, but still clinging to the sisters title}

{Getting ready!}

{Reception Time}

It was such a wonderful celebration of love and the grace God bestows as new journeys begin. Josh and I are incredibly happy to add Tim to the family and can't wait to see the plans God has for their life together!

Stephanie

Mother's Day Surprise

The whole family was plotting my surprise trip to Oklahoma for Mother's Day. My mom had no clue and that's just the way we wanted it. I flew in really late Friday and stayed at my brother's house. His sweet little family planned to have my parents over for a brunch to celebrate Mother's Day. When they arrived Saturday morning, I was hiding in the closet of their guest room in the dark...just in case. You never know with my mom. She's kind of a snoop in the most endearing way.

Once they were there and settled the plan was to FaceTime with Josh and I back in New York (and Toby, too). Josh popped up on FaceTime. They said their hellos, and then he let them know I was in the other room and would be right there. Instead of showing up on the iPad, I walked out of the back room and said, "you can't start FaceTime without me!" I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack and was hoping someone had slipped her a Xanax. She was completely caught of guard. I'm not sure how we pulled this off, but it was totally worth the stress!

The girls went off and shopped and had lunch then we met back up with the gents for dinner. It was wonderful to be in my home church on a Sunday for the first time in almost 9 months. We rounded it out with lunch at Wolfgang Puck and a flight back to New York for me.

I wouldn't trade the stress or exhaustion of pulling off this surprise for anything. Love you mama!

Stephanie