Atlanta Adventures

Between house showings, UT games, baby gender reveals, concerts (PS:  Chris is playing at Don Gallo tomorrow night, Friday night!), and photo shoots, we managed to squeeze in an adventure to the land of Hot-lanta.

Our friends, Joe and Keri, were getting hitched a little south of Atlanta,

so the opportunity arose to make a few pit stops on our way.

Our plan was to hit the Pottery Barn outlet heading down there, but after a quick phone call and realization that they didn't have the crib I liked online, we abandoned that idea and went straight to our other destination.  Luckily though, our plans changed (while eating one of the best chicken biscuits from Mrs. Winner's I've ever had).  Our other destination...  IKEA.

Good gracious!  I've been wanting to go for a while and it was a good thing we gave ourselves enough time.  IKEAs are HUGE.  I even got lost as I searched my way back to where Mr. Connell had plopped himself down in from of a game.  Note to self for the next trip:  Follow the path woven through the different displays.

Our mission:

pic found here

That would be the first item we've purchased for baby Elizabeth.  That and the stuffed bulldog (thanks to her father).  You can only pick those up in the store, so I touched base with a couple of friends to see if they'd like one as well.  Three high chairs later, we headed on our way.

Mr. Connell had another stop he wanted to make.

The home of the best hot dogs...

We ordered up some delicious dogs and fries...

and saved the orange cream shake for last!

We ate and ate and were stuffed by the time we needed to head to our main Atlanta event...

Joe and Keri's woodland wedding.

The setting was beautiful!

The guests were seated on tiers as we all watched our sweet friends get married.

The evening continued with dinner, yummy wedding cake, and lots and lots of dancing.

Chris, Joe, and the college guys...

Our other Knoxville friends who made the trip...  plus a crazy Las Vegas Kellan...  :)

We danced and danced late until the night!  I haven't danced that much in a while...  but loved every minute of it.  A girl's gotta let her hair down every now and then.

That was the end of our Atlanta adventures.  We had to cut the night a little short for our four hour drive home.  Mr. Connell did the driving...  I did the napping, at least until the last hour of the drive when I was afraid he might fall asleep.  He didn't, of course, so we just talked and sang all the way home.

It was a perfect weekend.

xoxo

The first UT game of the season.

You know what's even better about going to a Tennessee game?

Making a new memory of game day.

Drew and Allison sweetly invited us to join them for the first UT game of the year.

That's always one of the best games...  Everyone is excited about the start of the season and the tailgaters are in full force.  We were pumped!

It was about 400 degrees outside, so we waited closer to game time to make our trip to the campus.  After a quick stop to visit Allison's sister, we headed to the stadium.

So did everyone else.  Little did we know, there was a storm a brewin'.

and brewed it did!

About the time we made it under the stadium, a terrible storm came.  The sky seemed to open up and pour out the rain.  People who were already on the bleechers rapidly made their descent inside.  (Who can blame them for not riding out the lightning sitting on metal bleechers?)

Everyone crammed in to the tunnels where we were.  People touching on every side of your body.  Once all that touching started, so did the heat.  Out of no where it felt like the hottest place ever.  If you weren't claustophic, that place could make you that way.

So we did what reasonable people would and made our way closer to the exit gates.  The rain was still pouring so there were nice gusts of wind.  and thankfully less people.  The attendants had locked all the gates (not that we were going to leave in that mess) for security purposes.  At one point, I stiffled the urge to yell out "JACK!  JACK!  I'll never let go!"  The locking of the gates reminded me of the Titanic.  If I could remember a good line from when the people were trapped down below, that would have been more appropriate.

We amused ourselves by taking a few photos (as seen above).  You can actually get a glimpse of how many people were around us.  That was the part where we had space between us.

It didn't take long to discuss our next plan.  It was to get the heck outta there!  Who knew when the game would start, so we abandoned our probably-awesome-but-we'll-never-know game seats and made a break for it.  Dinner sounded better than what we were doing.

Since the lightning had past, we thought the rain had really slowed down.  News to us, it was still going pretty hard, but we were already committed.

There we were.  Running through campus in the rain!  Leaping over puddles (not that it matter), hand in hand with our spouse, laughing through it all.  (The hand holding was because Chris was a bit afraid of me falling.  Since I'm pregnant and we were running on slick concrete, that was a good caution to have.  For the record, he also just likes to hold my hand.)  The gentlemen dropped us off at one of the student buildings and made the rest of the trek to the car.

Once inside, the laughter continued.  We were soaking wet and remembering everyone's faces as they watched us take off through the stadium.  Most normal people were huddled under shelter.  and I'm sure normal people would have waited until the rain ceased.

but isn't it all about making a new memory?

Especially one we'll likely never forget!

*******

Thank you, Drew and Allison, for your sweet invite to the UT game!

Maybe next time we'll actually watch the game together.  :)

Baby Reveal Dinner

This is how we revealed to our families the gender of our little baby.

We made lemon cream cheese cupcakes

stuffed with little pink plastic safety pins.

Chris' parents were kind to have both sides of our immediate families over for

the BIG reveal!

Hours earlier, Chris and I found ourselves in the little exam room with the ultrasound technician.

We couldn't wait to find out the gender of our little one, but more importantly, we wanted to know he or she was healthy and developing on track.  Once the technician assured us everything looked great, those sweet words passed through her lips...  "it's a girl!"

Next up - we got to tell the family:

Katie and Beth did the honors of pulling apart the first cupcake.

None of us could wait until after dinner,

so this was considered an appetizer.

I'm not sure who declared it,

but obviously everyone got the message.

There is a little baby girl on her way!

After the gender reveal,

Chris and I got to share her name.

We had told everyone if she was a girl she would be named Claire and if a boy, he would be called Turner.  What we didn't anticipate was seeing her on the ultrasound and knowing her name wasn't Claire...  (Funny how it came to both of us and we were both in agreement - The Lord definitely granted us clarity!)  I was nervous to change it after we had been so sure so long, so I told Chris it was his decision.

That evening Chris announced to the family our little girl wouldn't be named Claire as originally thought,

but rather she was going to be named

Elizabeth Kate.

Two family names and from both sides...

Elizabeth after my sister, mother, and grandmother.  Their names are Beth, Betsy, and Betty - all derivatives of Elizabeth.  and Kate after Chris' sister who is Katie but who Chris calls Kate.  (She is actually named Mary Katherine but goes by Katie.)

The bonus is that her name literally has our two sisters' names within it.  and we only have two sisters which is perfect!  They're already both over the moon about this baby!

Chris and I are honored to name our little girl after these women.

After a delicious meal the Connells had prepared,

the family gathered around the laptop to watch Elizabeth's ultrasound video.

(Which I'm sure only grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles want to watch!)

My Dad found it amazing and talked about it for a long time.  It is really unbelieveable what all they can see with in your body and the body of a baby!

Then everyone surprised us with several gifts they had all gotten for the baby!

They were so sweet to get us gifts for the baby...  we were definitely surprised!

Elizabeth is the first grandchild on both sides...  maybe this has something to do with our over the top celebration!

What an honor to get to share this with our sweet families!

We were so glad the Connells hosted all of us!

xoxo

Baby Connell...

We are all tickled pink!

More from the family reveal dinner later...

Until then, please enjoy this photo of our baby girl.

Elizabeth Kate.

Thanks be to God!!!

xoxo

Pool Adventures with the Little People

PSST!  If Baby Connell cooperates tomorrow, Mr. Connell and I get to find out if it's a girl or boy!  Check out the poll we put up on the right column...  :)

This may be one of my longest posts ever.

I blame it on the fact that we have one of the largest families ever.  and I don't want to leave anyone off the blog, you know.

Families.

Large or small are a beautiful thing.

On Sunday, in honor of the holiday weekend, part of our extended family got together at Leanne's house..

Cousin Leanne's that is.

You see, these ladies were two of a large clan.

They and their siblings all mulitiplied, their children multiplied, and now their children's children are multiplying.

It's made for a rather large extended family.

Chris is still trying to figure out who all he's now related to by marriage.  Past that, now he's gotta figure out which children go with which couple.  It's quite a task considering there are now (at least in the bunch present at the party) 17 littles running around.

After the feast we called lunch, Leanne offered up her pool for anyone who wanted to swim.

The little people couldn't get in the pool fast enough.

Slipping into bathing suits, lathering on sunscreen, and pulling on the appropriate swim safety equipment, these kids were READY!

"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses." 

~Joyce Brothers

Once little bodies (and some big ones) were successfully starting to prune,

the dessert bell rang.

and everyone began to swarm the dessert table.

But why wouldn't you?  It doesn't get much better than what that table had to offer.

With bellies full of yummy goods, it was back to the pool for more fun.

Several of us big people needed a bit more time to rest between meals.
Our fun was leaning against the railing enjoying the rest from such good food.

Fun or food coma.  You decide.

What I wish you could see is that Sister Beth and Bro-in-law Will were both sporting their polo shirts.  (Cousin Anna I know you would have appreciated that!)

It wasn't too long though until we joined the chitlins down by the water.

J. dressed in his best superman regalia.  I think I heard him say his dad has a matching outfit.

Those are Nana's very famous brownies.  The icing on top is about half an inch thick!

This little girl is a big fan of my mother and my mother is a big fan of her.

Mom's name is Betsy, but Addalee calls her Bitsy.

She loves to tell Bitsy secrets!

It is was so fun getting to see all these kids playing together.  Children of people I grew up with.  So many people that I love dearly in one place.

Big hands helping out littles.

and sometimes small hands helping out smaller hands...

Addalee needed a lift back to the stairs and big brother J. was there to help.

This little guy is a cutie!  About a foot taller than when I last saw him.  Such a water lover!  You can see the storm coming in, so finally his momma had to pull him out of the water.  Our swimming day was over.

Bathing suit beauties made their way inside and just in the nick of time.

Our time with this boat load of family was done.

Everyone began gathering up their little people and giving lots of hugs and kisses goodbye.

We can't wait to add another person to this family mix come February!

xoxo!