fun with the 'rents

My mom and dad came for a 2 night visit this weekend, and it was so fun! We ate Jet's Pizza, got froyo from the new Top It Off (SO great!), went to the Market, watched David win a soccer game (and score!), watched Law  Order SVU, snuggled with the puppy, did lots and lots of talking and laughing, and ate Mexican of course. 

Unfortunately, I only took pictures while we were eating Mexican... the least eventful part of our time together.

progression of a picture with Molls...

clean plate club!

I am so, so thankful for my parents. I'm thankful for their honesty and openness with us kids, and for their willingness to rearrange their schedules and drive to Chattanooga on a whim! Love you guys.

summer toy

A few weeks ago, on a Tuesday morning, David sent me an email with an attachment saying "want one?". I didn't look at the attachment, but I assumed it must be some free t-shirts or something so I replied "sure!".

It wasn't a free t-shirt...

VW offers their employees lease specials on a regular basis. It's always a good deal, especially since they cover the license, registration and insurance. We've never needed a car, so we haven't bothered with the program. However, this was a special lease offer. Only once a year do Audi's become available and they always go quickly. In this case they notified the employees first thing in the morning, they were available at 11am and by 11:15 all of the cars were reserved.

I'm so not a car person, but David IS! I haven't seen him this excited about something in a long time, and it's been so fun for him to treat himself. He is super frugal and an awesome saver (thank you, Jesus!!), and he totally deserves this splurge. We have the car technically for one year, but I doubt we'll keep it that long. It probably won't be much fun to have a convertible in the winter, so we'll likely turn it in before it gets too cold.

In the meantime, we're taking advantage of the opportunity to sell our Trailblazer and upgrade to something that can last us the next 5+ years (I have to admit...I'll be sad to see it go).

Oh, and just days after David ordered the Audi, this was my fortune cookie fortune:

"Something on 4 wheels will soon be a fun investment for you!"

Post Script- I wrote this a few weeks ago and just forgot to post it. In the mean time, we've sold the trailblazer! It only took 2 days on Craigslist!

splish, splash

We had a super fun weekend. I mean, most weekends are good because they are weekends, but we just kept saying "man, it's been such a good weekend" this time.

After early morning productivity (D- grocery shopping, me- yard sale-ing), we spent Saturday lounging at the lake, and it doesn't get much better than that. We were in the water most of the time because it is so blasted hot, but floating in the water is a pretty nice place to be on a Saturday afternoon. That night we served in the children's ministry at church, but in a new-to-us capacity. Usually we're assigned to a classroom, but we were asked to become supervisors (I guess there aren't many couples who serve together to do this job) and WE LOVED IT. Seriously, this is so our niche. David rocked it, as usual. I loooooved watching him as such a good leader but I also caught him loving on kids too. Perfect combo.

Sunday was awesome. We were pumped about sleeping in, but that didn't happen. It never does. We were up at 6:30 and by 8am had done 3 loads of laundry (me) and detailed both cars (D). We really spent the morning being uuber productive, so we rewarded ourselves with a mid-morning nap/dvr catch up time. David's soccer team played at 3, and despite the scorching heat and lack of subs they won! I love it when he has these teams, because I so enjoy my time on the sidelines with the wives. It's wild that the last time these guys played together there were zero babies in the mix. Now, just about everyone on the team has one! It makes the sidelines a really cute place to be!

After soccer we hung out with the Rochas, Linhosses and Sarah eating dinner and relaxing in the pool. Proof:

Man, our friends have super cute and hilarious (see, Kate above) kids! We have so much fun with them.

PS- TODAY is Max's FIRST BIRTHDAY!! Happy Birthday, little guy! We're so happy you were born!

Johnson babies

It has been so fun to keep up with Beth and the babies she is growing. I still can't believe she is having two babies, but I cannot wait to meet them in October!

May 11- 16 weeks

May 23- 18 weeks

The Johnsons had their ultrasound last week to find out the genders of both babies, and the results were pretty awesome:

BOY!

GIRL!

And, Beth's commentary (this is awesome):

"Anyway, so the u/s was 1 hour long. She looked at Baby A’s anatomy first and took a ton of pics and then she said, “It’s a boy!” Jayme started crying. Brianna said, “UGH! What is the other one?” We all started laughing. So, then she did all the anatomy scans on Baby B. Brianna said, “Why is this taking forever.” The u/s tech said, “You have to be patient. I need to see the head, heart, stomach, arms, legs… Brianna says, “I’m not patient!” WE KNOW!  I said that I thought Baby B looked like Brianna. So, then she announced B is a girl and Brianna had the biggest grin on her face. The doctor looked over all the scans and said that everything looked great.  I’m very relieved. I’m still shocked there is a boy..."

So fun! David and I cannot stop talking about these babies on the way. We are so excited for our new niece and nephew!

g man and popsickle

Greg is awesome. He is leaving tomorrow for New York City where he planned (last minute) to spend the rest of his summer working in a restaurant, taking dance classes and auditioning. Then, he got selected for a role in Oklahoma at Regent Theatre outside of Boston! His first real gig! Paid! For equity points! Woo hoo! This was Monday. So, he and dad (mom had appointments at home and couldn't come... we missed you, Molls!!!) made a quick round trip to Birmingham and Chatty to visit the sisters before Greg is gone for the summer.

It was great.

Just like old times, Greg and I did some stunts and worked on some gymnastics. It was so fun and silly.

While taking some toe-touch photos, we got some awesome in between shots:

You might have to click to enlarge so you can really see his face. It's hilarious. You want to see.

Good.

Better.

BEST!!

Ninja boy

 He's a cutie!

We ate Jet's Pizza for dinner- Dad's absolute FAV- and went to Sweet CeCe's for dessert.

We walked around outside and on the bridge for a bit... did a little Hokey Pokey in our slippers...

and beat up our big sister... thanks, gg.

It was so, so fun to have my boys all here. I seriously miss these two (and my mama) too much for my own good, and it was a super special Tuesday night to have them in one place!

one proud wifey

This is going to be braggey, so if you don't want to read about how awesome my husband is, feel free to skip ahead.

I mentioned that we toured the VW plant Saturday with the Bryants (and about 10,000 of our closest friends). I didn't mention that David gave us the tour. So I knew that he goes to work every day, works hard and comes home worn out. I had no idea how much he does and how good he is at his job.

David is the person from finance who has his hand in every area of the plant. As one of the first 100 employees at VW Chattanooga, and the very first one in finance, he has literally helped build the entire 2 million square foot facility. He controls the $1.3 billion capital investments budget, which sounds really impressive, right? I've thought so all along, but to SEE that $1.3B in robots and machinery and buildings is pretty outstanding. We could have spent days walking through the plant and learning from David about all the processes of manufacturing the new Passat. The crazy thing is that he is not an engineer. He didn't know anything about making cars two years ago. But now? He can tell you in intricate, technical detail about every aspect that goes into these cars. He is so smart.

I am so proud to be your wife, David. I am so thankful that you get to work early, work through lunch and come home at a reasonable hour- every single night. You show me every day that you choose me, and I take that for granted.

summer has arrived

This weekend definitely felt like summer was here. Granted, the weather has felt like summer for a few weeks now, but lounging on the lake for the first time this season officially kicks it into high gear!

Our weekend started with being over committed. Go figure. David had scheduled a business meeting/dinner with the Lapinskis (they are in the process of creating Realty Zone), and I had book club. I was able to do both AND David got to hang out with the book club husbands too! It was a full and super-fun night.

Our book club has expanded by lots of baby girls! Ellie and Ella are already here, plus Saskia and Anna are pregnant with girls and Andrea has seen a picture of their baby girl in Ethiopia! It's going to be so fun to watch our group (and our cheering section on the soccer field) expand over the next year.

Saturday was lake day. I dropped David off on the side of the road (literally) so he could get a run on the way to the lake- ha! We all kept watching the road to see him appear, and John did the cutest thing ever. As soon as we saw David, he sprinted to the road to cheer him in and meet him with a bottle of water. I died. That's why John is still in my pocket. Even though he's 16.

We skied, wake boarded, fished, played corn hole and lounged around. I read an entire book on Kevin's Kindle- so cool!

After a full day in the sun, we loaded up, cleaned up and headed out. David had rounded up a bunch of extra wristbands for VW's grand opening family celebration, and we had a blast.

We toured the plant, ate some burgers, got tattoos, played some carnival games and watched Switchfoot in concert. The night ended with a pretty spectacular fireworks display, and we were all so glad we went! It was a great night of family fun- on VW's dime =)

Bwianna is 6!

The rest of our weekend in Ohio was just as fun as our time at Chuck E. Cheese.

Brianna opened lots of presents,

note cards and a canopy for her bed

we did a good bit of shopping

Beth is awesome- how cute is she?! We wore Brianna out!

we hung out with Grammy Rae, Papa Dale, Aunt Cindy, Uncle Bill, cousin Kate and baby Lydia,

she's going to be the BEST big sister

one of these bellies is not like the other

cutest grandparents!

I ate Graeter's ice cream for the first time- and was NOT disappointed,

and Beth and I completely cleaned out and organized ALL of her clothes.

Beth was moral support and I brought home this entire stash of new (to me) stuff!

super-duper organized closet, with maternity clothes ready to go!

Harley was a very good travel buddy each way! He found a comfy perch on top of our bag...

We had such a great time! I was really sad to leave (which is unusual because I'm such a homebody...), but I'm excited that we have plans to be back in Ohio at least 3 more times by October, and we'll see the Johnsons in Florida in less than a month!

PLUS, we find out the genders of the Johnson babies NEXT Wednesday! I can.not.wait.