I'm an Aunt!!

I am an Aunt for the very first time to a beautiful niece and nephew. Ellen McCall Gresham and Cole Robinson Gresham, Jr. were born July 13, 2010 (the day after my birthday). We got a phone call Tuesday morning from Cole that Anna's water had broken. I jumped out of bed, got my shower, packed my bag, went to pick up Sara and we were headed to Birmingham. We got to the hospital just as Anna was pushing. We were all out in the waiting room, we were so excited that we couldn't sit down.

My mom was so excited that she went and stood outside Anna's door for a minute.

We had no idea what Anna was having. She didn't find out til they were born. From the beginning my sister Sara and I thought it would be a boy and a girl, but everyone else seemed to think 2 boys. Well Sara and I were right, it was a girl and a boy. Cole texted us as soon as the first baby came out, we were dying to know what it was but they didn't tell us til Cole came out in the waiting room to let everyone know. I took a picture of the clock when Cole let us know that the first one was out, which i think the text he sent was a little delayed. About 5min or so later, the second came out.

Cole finally came out of the room to let all of us know that they had a precious little girl and precious little boy, they got a nurse to come out with him so they could capture our reactions on video. It was such a special moment. Everyone on that floor could probably hear us screaming. Ellen weighed 4lbs. 6oz. and Cole weighed 4lbs. 3 oz., precious, precious babies.

We were finally able to go in and see Anna. She looked great!! Anna was the one to let us know what they had named both babies.

The babies are in the NICU but are doing very well. The sad thing was is that Sara nor I could see them. They only let parents and grandparents in the NICU. It was killing me not to be able to see them. I got mom to take my camera in the NICU to take some pictures b/c that is all i have. They are the cutest little babies I have ever seen, I admit I am a little biased but it's true they are very cute!

I am so ready for those precious babies to come home. I am ready to hold and love on both of them. I am so happy for Anna and Cole, they are going to be such amazing parents. Words can't describe how proud I am to be an Aunt to these two amazing babies. It's the best feeling. I can't wait to see what life has in store for them and to watch them grow.

Sweet little Ellen. I just love her dark hair!

Precious little Cole. His hair is lighter than Ellen's, we think he looks like Anna!

The 4th!!

We had a pretty good 4th of July weekend. I was SO excited that Rob had off work all weekend, it was nice having a holiday weekend that he didn't have to work. So on Friday we headed to the beach, to Destin, FL. My parents were already down there, 4th of July weekend and the week following the 4th is usually our family vacation. This year we couldn't stay for family vacation b/c we already had taken our trip to Jamaica. My sister Sara was already down there too. We got to Destin Friday evening and around 8:00 we all headed out to eat at my favorite place Louisianna Lagniappe! I love it. We had such a wonderful dinner.

Saturday was absolutely beautiful. Rob had to help my dad replace a post on our dock that morning. Allie and I headed down to the dock to see what they were doing and Allie was whining like crazy b/c her daddy was in the water. As Rob was walking up in the water to the shore, Allie followed him and jumped off our dock and went straight for the water and swam to him. It was hilarious. Later we tried to get her to do it again, but she wouldn't. We think that she forgot what water was and once she was in the water she didn't have any other choice but to swim...haha. Allie is definitely a beach dog, she LOVES being outside at the beach. We layed in the sun most of the afternoon and then enjoyed a beautiful sunset that evening with a cocktail in hand. We headed up to the house for dinner. My parents had prepared boiled shrimp, broiled snapper and twice baked potatoes, I could eat this meal every night I think and not get tired of it, it was SOOO delicious!

It was so nice spending time with family for the 4th. We just couldn't stay long enough. Hope everyone had a great and safe 4th!!

Our Jamaican Vacation (Part 2)!

This is what we looked at everyday, ahh I could get used to that.

During the day we would lay out and then take a dip in the ocean and then go float in the pool. It doesn't get any better than that.

Our second night there we ate dinner at Portifino which was the Italian restaurant. It was SOOO good! For our appetizer we had this thing called a mushroom pancake and it was amazing, I can't even describe it. I even took a picture of it.

Our entree was this wonderfully cooked snapper.

If you can't tell already, this was my favorite restaurant. We even went back for a second night!

We were in Jamaica from June 6th-11th. Rob's birthday was June 10th so I had to do something special. I went down to the front desk and asked if they could send a little dessert to our room for my husband's birthday, they said of course. We were about to start getting ready for dinner and there was a knock at our door. It was room service bringing Rob a piece of cake, champagne and fresh fruit. How wonderful to get to spend your birthday in Jamaica.

I made him take a picutre with his cake!

After that, we finished getting ready for dinner and headed to eat at Himitsu which was the Japanese restaurant. It was great, we had a great meal which included sushi, some chicken appetizer and shrimp fried rice.

 At this restaurant you had to make reservations if you wanted to sit at the hibachi table, Rob and I really didn't care about sitting at the hibachi table b/c once you've seen one show, you've seen them all.

After dinner that night we came back to the room and there was a knock at our door, the concierge had brought us some more champagne and some flowers for Rob's birthday. He had a very special birthday!

Nightlife at the resort was good some nights. One night they had a steel drum band which was GREAT and then one night they had things going on outside.

While we would be laying out and enjoying the sun, they had people walking around taking your drink orders. They would also bring you bottled WATA, that's right I said WATA not WATER. One day I was drinking water and I looked at the bottle and notice it said WATA not water...haha.

We had such a great vacation! We are already planning our next one. We really love going to all-inclusive resorts b/c everything is already paid for upfront. You don't pay for food or drinks, the only thing you pay for is if you want to go on an excursion. We didn't do any excursions, we just enjoyed relaxing! This was a great vacation before children come in the picture. Sorry if the posts were long, i just wanted to document everything I could think of, and I probably left some things out. It's so hard for me to post just one or two pictures. Gosh, it's gonna be bad when we have children...haha. I hope ya'll enjoyed reading about our Jamaican Vacation.

This picture was taken on our balcony the day we were leaving!

I took this picture as we were leaving the resort.

Our Jamaican Vacation!

We are back from our Jamaican Vacation and  had a GREAT time. We left home (June 5th) Saturday afternoon and headed to Atlanta which took a little over 3 hours. We stayed in a hotel right near the airport. At this hotel they had the option of paying a little bit extra and leaving your car there and their shuttle would take you to the airport. So that is what we did and that was the BEST decision we made. We would have been so lost trying to park in the Atlanta airport and it probably would have cost us too. We got up about 4:30a.m. Sunday morning, got ready and headed to the airport. As we were sitting in the terminal waiting to board the plane, they announced there would be a bit of a delay due to a mechanical problem. Well that's never good, Rob hates flying so this didn't make him any more comfortable, and in my mind I was a little nervous too. The delay was only about 30 minutes and they said it was a problem with the batteries in the plane. We had a smooth flight to Jamaica and it only took about 2 hrs. 22 min. which wasn't bad. We landed and had to get through the airport and get our baggage and then find our transportaion to the resort. The resort was only about 15 minutes from the airport which was great, on our honeymoon when we went to St. Lucia the resort was over an hour from the airport. We got to the resort around noon and this resort was beautiful! We were staying on the Preferred Club side of the resort which was really nice b/c we had a few more amenities that the regular side did not have. The service was great and the staff was really nice.

When we got there and checked in, our room wasn't ready which was fine. We had packed our swimsuits in our carry on, so we went into the bathrooms and changed and headed to eat lunch. We ate lunch and then proceeded to get a cold drink and head to the beach. Our room was ready around 3:00 so the bellman got our bags and showed us to our room. Our room was gorgeous, we couldn't have been happier. We even had a little mini bar in our room which was really nice.

Once we got settled in our room we headed back down to the pool area and met some really nice people. There were people there from everywhere. We met people from New York, Vancouver, North Carolina...etc. Around 6p.m. or so we came back up to the room and got ready for dinner. I am so sorry but when we headed out to dinner that first night, I forgot to take my camera so I didn't get any pictures that first night. We ate at Bordeaux which was the French restaurant and it was very good. Rob tried the lamb, he has never had lamb before so this was a good time to try it and he really enjoyed it. I got a filet which was pretty good. We didn't stay out too late our first night b/c I wanted to go ahead and get up the next morning and get out in the sun. The drinks at this resort were GREAT!!! I enjoyed a strawberry dacquri, a mudslide, a margarita and a miami vice. Rob pretty much stuck with Red Stripe the whole time, that is the only beer they had at this resort, he would occasionaly have a fruity drink.

 Each afternoon around the same time, it would pour down rain so Rob and I would go grab some lunch and then head to our room for a little bit to rest. Once the storms would pass we would head back out to the pool. There was a lobby on the Preferred Club side and they always had yummy snacks out and drinks. One day they had some steamed mussels, which were so good, so we put some on a plate and headed to our balcony to start watching the sunset.

We saw some beautiful sunsets while we were there. We would always go up to our room to sit on our balcony each evening to enjoy the sunsets. Here are just a few pictures of the sunsets.

 Sorry this post is getting long, but we were there for 5 days so I have a lot to post about that I want to always remember. So I don't bore you and so this post doesn't get too long, I am going to put our trip into two posts. We took so many great pictures. If you read this blog and you want to see all the pictures from the trip you can send me a message and I will send them to you through snapfish. I will be posting all the pictures on facebook. Alright on to the next post!

And We Are Off...

to Jamaica! We are leaving today(saturday) and heading to Atlanta to stay the night since our flight leaves so early in the morning. We will be flying to Jamiaca Sunday morning and will be coming back on Friday! We are SO excited! We figured we would get another big/good trip in before kids come in the picture. Don't you worry I will be taking plenty of pictures, probably too many! Talk to ya'll when we get back! LOVE!

What's been going on?!

Well it's been a little bit since I last blogged, sorry for that. Let's see what's been going on around here. About two weeks ago this is where we were

Guntersville, AL at Guntersville State Park and Lodge. My good friend and college roommate Sherry was getting married and I was a bridesmaid in the wedding. We left Troy thursday night and headed to Birmingham to stay with my sister and brother-in-law. The reason we stayed in b'ham was to break up the trip a little bit. Friday morning we headed to Guntersville, I had to be there Friday afternoon for the bridesmaids luncheon. Friday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner which were very nice. We stayed up pretty late visiting Friday night and then I had to get up early Saturday morning to get ready for the wedding which was that evening. The wedding was held outside on one of the terraces overlooking Lake Guntersville and it was gorgeous! It was a great weekend with some good friends. I didn't take many pictures b/c I just didn't feel like keeping up with my camera all night. Here are a few pictures I did take, these pictures were taken the night of the rehearsal dinner.

This past weekend (Memorial Day weekend) Rob had to work so we stayed in Troy. Friday night the boys had a poker night over at our friends Kelley and Kay's house. So while the boys played poker, I hung out with Kay and Henry. We had some yummy guacamole dip that Kay made and some chicken enchiladas.

 

 While the boys played poker I hung out with Kay and Henry. Kay had to give Henry a bath so I had a little photoshoot.

He is such a precious baby!! Saturday Kay and I went to Montgomery to do a litte shopping. We had a great time!

So that is pretty much what we have been up to lately! We are leaving in 4 days for Jamaica, we can't wait!!