Long weekend in Asheville

I've been a bit of a slacker on my blog posts lately, so I'm going to give a quick little update of our awesome long weekend trip in Asheville (first December weekend). One of our favorite bands, Beirut, was going to be playing in Asheville on Monday, December 5th, so Harrison and I chose to take a couple of days off work and have a mini-vacation is Asheville. We had so much fun going back to all of our favorite establishments and seeing all of our friends again. Since we've moved in late July, we've already been back to visit twice! It's only a 5 hour drive, so maybe we can keep this up (visiting about every 3 months or so).

Here are some photos we took while hiking around the grounds of the Biltmore Estate:

My friend, Renee and I in front of the lovely bridge on the Estate (it was featured in Last of the Mohican's).

We had High Tea (3:30pm) at Chelsea's tea room...a favorite spot of mine in Biltmore Village. The Earl Grey tea that I mix with a bit of Splenda and a 'spot' of milk is so good!

I always make sure to order the tea plate of super tasty desserts:

Finally, on Monday night we got to see the show that we've been waiting years to see. Beirut...live!

He is an extremely talented young musician and he and the band put on a great show! They played all of our favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzVbXeD_8E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWSz_PAfgNc
Several of our Asheville buddies joined us for the concert:

Isn't he adorable? I want to squeeze those cheeks!

National Nurse Practitioner week

Happy Nurse Practitioner week!



HMS 11-11-11

We had a very exciting weekend! Friday was Veteran's Day, so Harrison didn't have to work. Neither did I because I don't work Fridays, so we drove to Aileen's house after work on Thursday. We were going to be 'in-charge' of the boys since they would be heading to the hospital at 4:30 Friday morning for Aileen's C-section. Everyone was so excited to find out if there was going to be another baby boy or the first baby Swartz girl.

We got the sleepy boys up around 6, dressed them in good-looking big brother outfits, bagged up a to-go breakfast, and strapped them into their carseats, and we were off to meet their sibling!

The procedure was scheduled for 7:30, but with ten births during the night and five more women in labor to go (probably due to the full moon and 11-11-11), Aileen didn't have the baby until 9:16. We all waited anxiously:

 Finally, Andrew came out and shared the news with everyone!

We are so excited for Aileen and Andrew to have a daughter, for Blake and Ryan to have a sister, and another niece for us! I can't wait to spoil her!

Ryan and Blake say 'cheers' to Hailey Marie Swartz:

Isn't she perfect?

Swartz party of five:

Hailey with her mommy, one of her aunts and two of her uncles:

 Uncle Nate and Hailey

 Pops and Uncle David with Hailey

 Uncle Harrison doesn't really know how to hold babies, and that frustrates him. Can't you tell?

Paige meeting her first girl cousin:

Paige will be meeting her sisters in a couple of months!

How precious are those brand new feet?

Day 2

I dressed Hailey up in everything blue and orange that I could find since it was game day:

War Eagle, Hailey!

I left the hospital to head back to Aileen's and take care of the boys for the afternoon. Although Auburn had a tough game against those Bulldogs, Blake and Ryan's Auburn Team Spirit was impressive!

Here are pictures of Ryan and Blake when they were newborns:

 Ryan

Blake

Compare to Hailey... does she look like her brothers?



Paige's first birthday!

After work on Thursday, I picked up Piper from her grandparent's. There have been some suspicions lately that she may be in heat and I was planning on taking her to the vet Friday to be spayed and micro-chipped. Isn't she cute?

On Saturday morning, we picked up our pooch from the vet. She was definitely more chill than her usual hyper self! After dropping her back off at Esther and Perry's we were on our way to Newnan. There we met up with Aileen, Ryan, and Blake to carpool up to Marietta for Paige's first BIRTHDAY!

We had so much to be thankful for and celebrate on 11/5/11! Paige is such a blessing to all of us, and it thrills me to know that we'll be able to celebrate many more birthdays with her thanks to a very special organ donor family!

The Birthday Girl and her dad, goofing around:

Kellye is a master at scrap-booking, and she made all this adorable timeline of Paige's eventful year!

The cake was lovely, and of course decorated in LSU colors!

Time for cake!

Paige got a little scared when her mom tried to protect her hands from the candle's flame while they waited on me to snap pictures. Unfortunately, she wasn't in the mood for cake after that!

Eventually she became a little more interested.

Aileen (with Baby Swartz #3 due in 6 days), Blake, and Ryan:

Harrison and Ryan having way too much fun:

Cousin buddies:

This photo makes me laugh every time:

Halloween

I LOVE HALLOWEEN! I love how it gives everyone an opportunity to be creative, imaginative, and light-hearted. This year we were pretty low key since it was on a Monday, but because it was on a Monday, that meant Trivia Night at Niffer's. We play with Joey, Jessica, Chris, Kate, and Eric every Monday that we can. We're usually pretty good and get 2nd or 3rd place. That's why our team name is usually 'First Place Losers.'

For trivia, we showed up in our Halloween costumes, as many others did as well. Can you guess who we were (costumes are independent of each other)?

Magnum P.I. and Princess/Duchess Kate! I made the hat from a tutorial I found on Pinterest. It took all of an hour. Harrison's mustache kept falling off.

Can you guess who Joey is dressed as?

Yep...Harrison. I bagged up a bunch of Harrison's typical clothes (see prior post) and delivered them to Joey before trivia. He really shocked Harrison when he showed up!

I had to throw in an adorable picture of my niece. She was dressed as an unbiased Tiger, since her parents are split between AU and LSU!

 Aren't my nephews adorable?

 Aileen's about to pop with Baby Swartz #3. He/she will be arriving very soon: 11-11-11!

Birthday and football

Last Wednesday was my birthday! After work Harrison took me to dinner at Cafe 123 in Opelika. The food was fantastic. We'll definitely be eating there again soon!

Here are some photos from the AU v. Ole Miss game. The weather was perfect football weather during the day, but the temperature took a sharp drop during the night. We were pretty chilly at the game!

Harrison and Shane playing DJ at the tailgate:

Cold and windy:

WAR EAGLE!