Curt's 30th Birthday

Curt turned the big 3-0 on December 14th.  He was in the middle of finals week then, so we decided to wait and celebrate after he was done.  I surprised him with tickets to a Celtics game with some of our friends and dinner beforehand at Sunset Grill (a place in the city we had been wanting to try for a while).  We had such a great time and it was so fun to surprise him.

 birthday card to Curt "Amazing" (nickname coined by our nephew)

 All the goods!

 

 Surprise!  We are heading to a Celtics game in 20 minutes!

 The biggest plate of nachos I've ever seen

 Cameron's expression in this pic cracks me up...

 Beer sampler

 Our dinner crew at Sunset Grill

 The game!

 Celtics won!

 Fun group of friends...thanks again for celebrating with us!

Thanksgiving in Richmond

We had a great time in Richmond celebrating Thanksgiving with friends and family.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and I was so happy that we were able to come home.  We were able to do so many fun things and see many people we love.  Here are some pictures:

Our first stop the morning after we got into town was to Ben's school to see his Thanksgiving program.  It was so cute!  Ben goes to the same preschool I went to and they used to do the same program when I was there!

On Thanksgiving we always start our morning by heading to the Turkey Bowl.  This is essentially a yearly high school reunion for my parents.  There's football, oysters, beer, dogs, and lots of people we love!

 

Ti and me...friends since kindergarten!!

 

 Sisters!

 After the Turkey Bowl, we headed back home to fry our turkey.  My brother-in-law built this amazing contraption...it was awesome!

 Sooo yummy!

On Friday we got together with some of our best family friends and painted a picture at Wine & Design.  I couldn't drink any wine...but I sure had a lot of fun!  Thanks again Sanyours!!

On Saturday my sisters, mom, and friends from high school threw us a baby shower.  It was so fun to celebrate our baby girl with so many wonderful people.

 The wonderful hostesses!

Sisters!

Saturday night we went out to celebrate Lolly's engagement...so much fun!

 Finally, we took some family pictures before we left for the airport.  You may recognize one from our Christmas card.  :)

Catherine's 30th Birthday

Curt and I both turned 30 within a month of one another.  We thought about doing something together with friends but never quite got around to planning it.  Instead we decided to celebrate in ways that catered more to our individual personalities.  For me, we went up to Maine for the weekend and celebrated just the two of us.  For Curt, we got a group of friends together and went out to eat and then to a Celtics game (this post got long quick, so I'll save pics from Curt's b-day for another post).

Catherine's Birthday...

My sweet friend Sage and I have birthdays one day apart.  We've had fun celebrating at our community group the past two years. 

I took Friday off from school (gasp!) and Curt and I headed up to York, Maine on Thursday night.  The next morning we took a drive up the coast to Kennebunkport, ME and stopped to see some lighthouses on the way.

 My yummy lunch - lobster roll and french fries!

 Our cute little inn...right on the water.

The view across the street...

Curt surprised me with a spa pedicure!  What a good hubby..

Sorry this picture is so terrible, but it's the only one of us.  The parents in my class surprised us (with the help of my sneaky TA) with a very generous gift certificate for the restaurant at the inn where we were staying.  We got to enjoy a lovely dinner on the night of my birthday thanks to them!

 Overall, it was a perfect birthday for me....got to spend time with Curt, relax, and eat good food.  :)

Showers for baby girl

*Once again, I have fallen behind on the blog.  I wrote this about a month ago, but am just now posting.  My b! :)*

I'll be honest.  It's been hard being away from family during these past few years.  I am a homebody by nature.  I much prefer getting cozy on the couch to a night out on the town.  The same goes for where I live.  I would definitely prefer to live close to friends and family than set out on an adventure in a faraway place.

However, we have been so blessed by several different communities since we moved up to Massachusetts and they have really rallied around us as we get ready to welcome our baby girl in just a little over a month (whaaat??!!) - (*update - about 2 weeks! double whaaaa?!)   Warning:  LOTS of pictures to follow and please excuse the fact that I'm wearing the same outfit in pretty much all of them (hey...whatever fits!).

One of those communities is our church community.  Personal opinion alert:  we go to the best church in the city of Boston and probably a lot of other places too.  We LOVE our church and especially the people that make up our church.   Some lovely ladies from said church hosted the sweetest shower for myself and another girl who is expecting in December. *update - she had her baby and she's precious!)

 Jess and me (she just had her baby!)

 Our sweet hostesses

 A second wonderful community is the one we live in right here at the seminary.  I was afraid before we moved here that seminary was a place for nerdy people and that I wouldn't find any friends.  I'm really glad I was wrong because we've met some really great friends that have been such a wonderful support to us over these past two and a half years.  Some of these sweet friends threw us a shower for our baby girl!

Hostess gifts I was really proud of :)

 

 Hostess friends!

The third community we are thankful for is my school community.  I work at a satellite preschool, so I don't get to interact with the other teachers (other than my TA) on a regular basis.  However, my principal and the other preschool teachers and I get together regularly and they were so sweet to throw my a little shower.  I'm thankful for these sweet ladies!

We also had an amazing shower in Richmond over Thanksgiving, but I'll post about that in my Thanksgiving post...promise I'll get around to it soon!