lots to celebrate!

What a great weekend! We started it out by having our first baby shower Thursday night! The Gibbs, the family I work for, and several other of our closest friends, hosted a "couples shower" for us where tons of our friends and family came to celebrate with us and Baby Fiehler! We had some great mexican food, played silly games, heard sweet prayers for our baby, and got some "baby gear" to start filling up our nursery! This is definitely making it all feel very real, along with the fact that we have about six weeks until the due date!

My whole family came in town for the shower and stayed the rest of the weekend to celebrate my birthday! I must say, in the midst of all the baby excitement, my bday feels like small potatoes...welcome to the rest of my life, right? But, we had a good day on Saturday with going to watch the ECU/Virginia Tech football game here in Charlotte...GO PIRATES! And we had a great dinner at my favorite local restuaurant here, 131 Main. One of my birthday presents was a video camera...so, I'm sure you'll start to see some video action on the blog!

Thanks for a great birthday weekend... to think it's the last one without a baby in the picture is kind of surreal!

friends stopping through...

Last week, I was so happy to have two of my dear friends from out of town coming through Charlotte...

I got to see my friend Tori and we were so excited to finally see each other because we are just a few weeks apart in our pregnancy and have had so many phone conversations along the way and had yet to see each other's bellies! Here we are with our babies meeting for the first time :) So good to see you Tori!

I also got to see my friend Emily...who was here all the way from LA...and who I don't get to see often enough! It was so good to catch up and introduce her to "belly fiehler" as well! Love you Em!

So thankful for old friends!

oldies but GOODIES...

Baby Fiehler!

Baby Cook!

I had a great weekend with my girlfriends from college...these weekends are some of the best of the year...fun times with some of best and oldest friends! We relax, we catch up, we eat (of course), we play dominoes, we laugh really hard, we watch Jenn dance, and we get to be encouraged by seeing the ways we've all been growing and experiencing life since the last time we've been together. This weekend we were at the Lake and we got to celebrate little Baby Fiehler a little too, which was so sweet! Old friends are such a gift...these friends have walked with me through so much and they continue to love me so well. I'm so thankful for Rebecca, Julie, Steph, and Jenn...and I can't wait until we're all together again!

our little house guest...

As some of you know, we have had our dear friends, the Clarks, staying with us for the past few weeks. They are in the process of doing some work on their new house and have been staying at our house in the meantime. Most people say, "How is that working out?" or "Is that hard to have people in your house that long?" And I think all that we've realized in the process is what we've already known...that our friendship with Ryan and Sharon is a rare and amazing one...we have a closeness and comfort with each other that is rarely found between two couples and we are SO thankful to be able to share life with them all the time! We love you Clarks!


After eating a lot of meals together over the past few weeks, Elle, who is almost 4, has had fun helping us out in the kitchen. These pictures are from a few nights ago when she helped Brad make some meatloaf and the rest of dinner...it was so cute!

and the NESTING officially begins...

nest[verb]
1 : to build or occupy a nest : settle in or as if in a nest 2 : to form a nest for

So, yes, just like the birds, this is what us pregnant girls do...we prepare a little nest for our babies on the way! And with only 9 weeks to go, the nesting is in full force! This week the nursery finally started to come together... we got our furniture and our BEAUTIFUL bedding--all hand made by Brad's mom--the talented seamstress! I couldn't have imagined how much I would love it once it all came together this week! It's looking very cozy in there and all ready for a little one to arrive! It will be fun to see if it's a little "she" or a little "he" that sleeps in that crib! Enjoy these few pictures of our new nursery!

A little slice of heaven...

The Grovepark with the girls that is.... So, this weekend was the 4th annual girls weekend at the Grovepark Inn and Spa in the mountains of North Carolina! My mom, sis, two aunts, and two cousins get away to possibly the most relaxing, peaceful, refreshing, fun time EVER! We spend lots of time in robes and at good meals and little time being stressed or thinking too hard about anything! I love these women and the conversations that we get to have and of course I don't mind being pampered a little too :) Thanks MOM for this wonderful gift of the weekend every year! As you'll see, my belly is growing and all weekend everyone was placing their guesses--about half and half on boy or girl! Just 10 weeks to go!