nephews, parents, and flowers

Hey Al! I can't believe Mom and Dad are already there and hanging out with you! I also can't believe that it's been a year since we were all there as a family! Time definitely flies by these days....I think I've already told Mom and Dad about twenty million times how much I wish I could have hopped on that plane with them to come see you, but I think you already know that if I could be there, I'd be there in a heartbeat! For now, enjoy all the time you can with the parents! They are pretty fun to hang out with in my book:)

In the meantime....here's what we've been up to the last few weeks...Lots of traveling, visiting, and of recent....gardening!

First, a couple weekends ago, I went down to visit M & D for the weekend before they left to see you. I had such a fun visit with them....They are probably the cutest...funniest, married couple I know. We are so blessed to have parents that want to spend time with us like they do:)

On their plane to Sweden!

Dad took me on a nice little ride on his new bike...Man can that thing fly down the road....I couldn't help but squeal as we took off from each stop, and tried not to look at the speedometer as it crept up to 75 miles an hour. But it was so much fun!

Saturday afternoon, our friends Jeff and Kalli stopped by to spend the night with us on their way to the beach....and Mom and Dad got to meet June...and they instantly fell in love. She's probably the best baby I know..so it's pretty easy to do that. (sorry for the bad light in these pictures:)

This was pretty much all mom did the whole night...Kalli was so nice to let us love on June, give her bath, and put her pj's on. (I forgot to tell Kalli before she got there that she might not hold her child the whole night....Fortunately, she was ok with that. It comes with the territory). 

Sunday after Church, it was warm enough to do a little sunbathing....with Rudy, of course. I don't know how that dog could enjoy sitting outside with that much fur, but he was good company, for a little while at least.


Last weekend, we finally got to meet our newest nephew, Nolan. He was born January 1st of this year, and it's been killing me to not see him sooner, but our schedules could never match up to go up to Raleigh, so wait we did. It worked out really good since they came down to Atlanta, and stayed with the grandparents, while Jon and Melissa were at a wedding. So we got to do some extra helping with both Nolan, and Parker, who is now 2 1/2 years old and everywhere.

 Nolan was a happy and sleepy guy almost the whole weekend....Sam is not really asleep here, by the way.

Parker loves his Pee-pa so much...he pretty much mimics everything he does. It's hilarious.

When he's not doing that...he's flipping on every single light switch he can reach, and repeating the words "ON" and "OFF" over and over again.

And he's fast...not really wanting to stop for any pictures....so I took what I could get;)

He's such a fun kid though...Sam and I took him on a walk around the neighborhood and he was talking non-stop. Literally ever mailbox we went by he asked, "What is that? How do you open it?" It was really cute at first, but by mailbox number 20...I finally said, "Parker, you tell me what that is..." and he knew exactly what it to say.

I also did a lot of this...Nolan's personality is coming out a lot... I absolutely love his smile.

 I did manage one good picture with these two rascals:) and then we had to head back to Bham...I can't wait to see these guys again in June at the beach!

This weekend...we got real motivated and decided it was finally time to do something about our front yard, which was in desperate need of some major TLC. So we got up early Saturday morning, headed over to a garden shop, and picked out a lot plants! I still don't know how we fit everything into the car...

We give the green machine a hard time, but it really can hold a ton of stuff! By the time we got back to the house, we were both raring to get planting, but it didn't quite happen until we spent about 20 minutes arguing about how we were actually going to clear the yard and space out the plants. You think it would be a simple thing to do...but no. I'm still laughing at how poor our communication skills can be sometimes. I guess we are both a lot more stubborn than we realize. 

 I've also never seen this guy so dirty...His hands and fingers were completely black by the time we called it a day...I swore I wouldn't let him inside until I sprayed him off with the yard hose, but he refused, slipped his shoes off, and stole inside before I had time to catch him.

We did get a really good "dirt tan" though. I was pretty proud of myself, Al. I think the flowers will look good by the time they are fully grown too.

Black and Blue Salvia

Pretty, but can't remember the name:)

Hydrangeas

More updates on the yard when we see some significant growth! Next project....painting the kitchen cabinets! Boy, do we have our work cut out for us there!

Have fun with Mom and  Dad this week!

Love you all,

Whit

Short and sweet

Hey Whiggle,

This is going to be really short, but I thought I could catch you up on this last weekend! We went to Malmö to visit Björns dad and some friends, and had a really nice weekend. It's hard to believe that the last time we saw Björn's dad was when you were with us almost a year ago! This time we came back with our newest family member, Henry, and had a lot of fun with him. This was the first time he had his own backyard to run around in and he loved it. There was a dog park close by and on Saturday we took him out there. There were these birds all around and he decided to try to catch one. I'm pretty sure the birds were almost bigger than him, but that didn't stop him...

Poor little guy, never had a chance of catching one, but it was extremely entertaining to watch him try...

Do you remember when we went to to that park near the Turning Torso in Malmo last year? We took Henry to that same park-

Henry and Bjorn's dad, Klas

 And guess who decided to follow Bjorn out into the cold ocean water? Yep, he's braver than me.

Definitely sweet.

That's all for now, I have to get a ton of stuff done before the parents get here in a few days. Seriously excited about that. Henry is too,  I've been telling him all about how he's going to get to see his grandparents... :)

Wish you were coming, but we'll plan something fun to do so I can see you. Miss you Whiggle, hope you're having a good week!

Love you,
Allie

soakin' in spring

Hey Al! I know it's been a while since you've seen me here, but life's been pretty busy over here lately, so get ready...the pictures have piled up. Last month, I took a little 48 hour trip to Las Vegas, NV with my college, Danny, to check out a hospital we will be renovating. It was a long trip for a short stay, but hey, at least I can say that I spent some of our 26th birthday in Las Vegas! Here are some highlights:

Well...I take that back...this was a low point. We had to be at the airport at 4:30 in the morning..which means I woke up at 3:30 a.m. This picture was taken about 6:30 a.m. I think. Poor Danny too...he's not a morning person.

One of the things I loved about flying to Las Vegas was seeing the Grand Canyons! Al...they are so beautiful! Even though I've never been there...the view from 30,000 feet was one for the books!

I also set a new Starbucks record the first day of the trip....3 vanilla with whip lattes in a 24 hour period, and I was still exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel. But you better believe I wanted to be awake to see the sights that night.

I was really excited to see the city at night. They weren't joking when they said this city never sleeps...you could stay up all night and still not have scratched the surface of all there is to see. Don't worry, Al, I didn't go too crazy. We did have a great dinner at the Bellagio. That place in itself was worth the trip! It's such a beautiful hotel.

Looking from infront of the Bellagio

Danny and I infront of the Bellagio

This is what you see right when you walk in to the lobby of the Bellagio. It's quite impressive. I just stood there looking up at the ceiling for what felt like forever, just to take it all in.

The live flower display in the atrium...you
would have loved the tulips!

I thought this was cool...all the restaurants in the Bellagio have touch screen menus outside, so you can easily scroll through and see if they have anything you like before you go in!

The water show in front of the Bellagio.

After dinner, we took a ride up the miniature Eiffel tower and got a bird's eye view of Las Vegas at night. By that time it was about 11:30 pm and even though the view was great...being that high up as exhausted as I was, was pretty nerve racking.  Good thing we were completely caged in.

Well...Las Vegas came and went...and then it was back to reality and oh yeah, that huge test I'd been studying for for months. 

cabinet section practice

Systems Integration Exercise practice

I did manage to enjoy some great weather, which made
studying a little more bearable. 

Grabbing some dinner with the hubs the night before the test. 

Al...the test was really hard, and I'm not sure if I passed...but I tried my best, and I know the outcome is in God's hands. So for the next month and half until I find out how I did, I'm taking time to do things I haven't done in a while.

Like read The Hunger Games....it was a page turner, AL. The movie was  really good too!

Taking time to go on a dinner date with my sweet man....

The Friday before Easter, we went over to one of our small group couple's houses and did Secret Church. It's a 6 hour intense Bible Study taught by our Paster, David Platt, 2-3 times a year. This year the topic was "Suffering," and there were more than 50,000 people participating in homes across the country and the world through simulcast. (We only made it to 11p.m, but that was 2 hours past our bedtime.)

A couple of weekends ago...It was pretty enough to sit outside and finish my book. Unfortunately, I soaked in a little too much sun, and ended up with a nasty sunburn Al. No worries, it's ok now. Just peeling a lot. Wish you could do some sunbathing with me, but since it's still snowing over there, maybe you can make a snow angel for me instead...hahaha.

In the meantime...I've been trying to track you down over the last few weeks....Glad we could catch up this past weekend:)

Now I know when I can't get a hold of you, all I have to do is post this ad for a "Missing Sister" on Instagram.....and I get a call in no time!

Love you!

Whit