Baby Eli's here!

the sweet Gwinn family of 3!

Jason and Andrea welcomed their sweet little boy into the world today! Eli Joseph Gwinn weighed 7lbs 8oz, was 22 inches long and is such a cutie!! Yay, we have a nephew and the kids have a cousin! how fun!

sweet lil eli and his sweet lil mamma!

picture day

matt's mom and i took the kids to get there pictures made today. we wanted some nice pictures of them in their outfits from John and Ashley's wedding. we got it! our blog header is one of the pictures taken and here are a few more! enjoy! :)

i had to share this one because it's such a perfect picture of claire,
she is always doing the splits!! :)

surprise, matt's 30!!

matt didn't want anything big for his 30th birthday, but i just had to do a little something! we had a little surprise party with his college roommates and their families! he thought that we were going to go to dinner with our friends ben, carmen and their boys, so he was surprised to see them. they arrived first and matt, ben and the kids were in the living room as soon after, one by one the others arrived and would casually walk into the living room to surprise him! :) it was great! he kept looking at me with this "i'll get you my pretty" look, but he was really glad to see everyone and later told me thank you! :) what a fun day!

cake courtesy of carmen, she had connections and
had the super cool NC State wolf cake made for matt!

matt and a few of his guests, jimmy, ben, claire and bryan.

wyatt and oliver enjoying the pizza.
cool side note about the pizza:i ordered, payed AND tipped the driver online,
2 days before the party!! the delivery guy just dropped it off and took off!!
it was so nice! go Papa Johns!

a different view of the cake, you can see the "30" better at this angle!

me holding the cake so that matt can blow out the candles...thank goodness there
were only 2 and not 30...that could have been dangerous!

the kiddos

just playing today and took a couple pics!

sweet baby claire :)

me and my bubs, wyatt :)

asheville, grove park, biltmore

every year, through matt's work, we attend the NC Seedsman's Convention. they have it somewhere different every year and this year it was held at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. the funny part is that we didn't even take any pictures of the Grove Park Inn!! oops! while we were in asheville we found that we were only 10 minutes (if that) from the Biltmore House, which i've been wanting to go to for a few years now. so that is where were most of the time! (that and the spa treatments were all too expensive).

the barn on River Bend Farm, the working farm on the estate.

matt and the Kitchen Garden, where they get some
of the produce for the restaurants on the estate.

a view from the "deck" of the house, i mean castle, i mean mansion!!

matt on the porch/terrace, not sure what they call it,
it was just so nice to sit there in the wonderful breeze after
over 4 hours of walking around the house/mansion/CASTLE!
and to think that we didn't even see but maybe 1/3 of the mansion...er house??!!

me on the porch/terrace with the view behind me!

the biltmore "HOUSE" :)

baby Gwinn's shower

today was the big day for baby gwinn's baby shower! what a perfect and hot day! :) i co-hosted it with hilary and laura (2 of andrea's best buds, and 2 friends that are dear to me as well!). i feel like they did all the work and it turned out great! what a awesome turn out!

the abundant gift tables!!

the spread: we had hot dogs and all the works!

the grillers/muscles of the operation: russ and jon. :)

guests: my friend angel's little cuties, colton and connor.

more guests: stasha, her son and husband, michelle and carla.

co-hostess and game leader: laura! :)

co-hostess, hilary, showing a basket full of goodies!

the sweet mommy and daddy to be: andrea and jason. :)
(there's wyatt checking out the goods!)

the hostesses and one of the guests of honor:
hilary, laura, andrea and me!

Pollock Wedding Weekend: Reception

so, since we were in the wedding we have no pictures of it! that and picture taking may not have been allowed anyway? but we do have a couple pictures from the reception! (if anyone has pictures of wyatt, matt or ali please send them so we can add them to this post! thanks so much!!)

the sweet Mr. and Mrs. Pollock's first dance

father-daughter dance

claire (on auntie ree's lap) in a cute bib our friends the Rays gave her

super pretty wedding cake

feeding each other cake...nice or mischievous?

cleaning up the mischievousness!!

Pollock Wedding Weekend: Getting Ready!

The German Club Manor, where John and Ash had their reception, has a really nice women's restroom that has a great area for getting ready for weddings. we made good use of it for hair and make-up prep and then put our dresses on in the church's choir room.

the girls getting ready

myra helping ashley with final touches :)

ash and mom in the choir room minutes before the big moment!!
aren't they both so pretty!

Pollock Wedding Weekend: Bridesmaid Brunch

matt's mom, with the help of Grannie and Brenda (his grandma and aunt), put on a super yummy brunch for ashley and her bridesmaids. there were scones, mini muffins, mini cinnamon rolls, cran-orange bread, fruit salad, the best quiche ever, coffee and juice...i think that's everything! it was all so delicious and fueled us ladies for the big day! :)

the spread!

the family:
grannie, aunt brenda, judy (mom/ "nana"), claire, ali, ash, wyatt :)

the BRIDE and her bridesmaids:
dana, jessica, adrienne, ASH, cynthia, myra, ali, kelly
(and ring bearer: wyatt!)

Pollock Wedding Weekend: Arrive in Blacksburg

it has finally arrived, john and ashley's wedding weekend!! we are so excited! we drove to blacksburg this morning and the fun has just begun! it's so pretty up here. we had a yummy pizza dinner with the family. then once the kids were asleep it was off to do some wedding preparations!

wyatt's 1st professional haircut

wyatt has had many "homemade" haircuts, but we weren't feeling confident enough in our technique to give him the one he would have for his aunt "asheesh's" wedding! so i took him to Snip-Its. it's a place that only does kids haircuts. he was excited to go in, because there were toys, but not so happy when i tried to get him away from the toys and into the chair. i got him buckled in the chair, with little debating, and the hair stylist tried to get him interested in a little video. it worked, even if he did sit there with a grump-a-dump look on his face through the entire haircut! at least he barely moved! gooooo bubbie!! :) it turned out pretty cute too! now he looks good enough to be a ring bearer!

farmers market

the kids and i decided to surprise matt and show up at the farmers market today! it's his 3rd or 4th time selling. he had a nice little area and all the other sellers were really friendly and fun to talk to. he started out with potatoes, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and blueberries. as you can see from the pic, the tomatoes and blueberries were the first to
sell out.

potatoes, squash and cucumbers from our "farm" :)

cary farmers market: our booth is on the left, on the other side of the green canopy.
our canopy is blue, but you can't see it in this photo. you can barely see our
table to the left and up a little from the table under the green canopy.