Celebrations and Congratulations!

It has been an AMAZING two weeks!  Here's my feeble attempt at a recap --

1) On October 29, we celebrated the Fourth Annual Friends Thanksgiving at Steve and Ashley's house! It was super sweet of them to make it early this year so Stephen and I could attend (since we may or may not have a tiny turkey by the time ACTUAL Thanksgiving rolls around.)  We had a great time catching up with friends and ate way too much delicious Thanksgiving food...turkey, potatoes, homemade applesauce, veggie casserole, corn, rolls, stuffing...literally everything imaginable.  Steve and Ash really have the Thanksgiving banquet thing worked out!  :)

2) Our first wedding anniversary was on October 30 and was PERFECT.  We started the day by going to the Loveland bike trail for a walk, where we had some of our wedding photos taken a year ago.  We went down to the river, walked around the park, and generally reminisced about what a nice experience we had with Steve Lyons (our wonderful photographer) last year.

We got smoothies for lunch (yum) and spent the afternoon relaxing, and then Stephen surprised me by taking me to Melting Pot for dinner!  A pregnant woman's DREAM!  There were flowers on the table, which I always love, and he gave me a beautiful, engraved locket to hold pictures of our soon-to-be baby boy.  A+ work for my super thoughtful husband.  I don't know what I did to deserve him...but I'm really glad he's mine.  :)  We did the whole cut-into-the-anniversary-cake deal, but a year in the freezer did not do the cake any favors, so we were thankful to be already so full on all that delicious chocolate fondue.

Our still-beautiful but awful-tasting anniversary cake, gorgeous flowers, and a souvenir photo from our first anniversary dinner!

My present to Stephen for our "paper" anniversary!

3) After our anniversary came Halloween, one of our favorite holidays!  We both had to work all day (and Stephen had class) but we got home just in time to pass out candy for trick-or-treaters.  We live in a growing neighborhood, so usually we don't have a ton of kids pass through, but we had way more than we expected this year!  We ran through three huge bags of candy within one hour and had to call it a night, but it was fun to sit outside and chit chat with some of our neighbors and see some adorable little costumes.

4) Stephen aced his third math exam...meaning that he got A's on ALL THREE exams!  Because he's such a superstar, he doesn't have to take the final, nor does he have to attend that class for the rest of the term (three sessions).  I am so proud of him...but more importantly, he's so proud of himself!  He set that goal for himself at the beginning of the term and made it happen.  He still has a few more things to do for his other two classes, but he should have about a week off to relax before next term begins.  He'll be taking a writing class and his first computer tech class starting November 15.  Yay!  Starting to move past the gen-eds!

5) Gavin and I had our 36 week appointment earlier this week -- I'm 37 weeks, FULL-TERM, tomorrow! -- and I'm happy to report that everything is still right on track.  I'm not dilated or effaced yet, but G is riding really low and is in position for his big debut in a few short weeks.  My doctor said that most first-time moms deliver up to a week late, so we're thinking Gavin could even end up being a December baby...but who knows!  We're prepared for him to come next week...we're prepared for him to come in four weeks.  We're just prepared for him in general.  :)

6) Perhaps the biggest news of the past two weeks is that my brother and his beautiful wife welcomed their first child, Quinn Allan Berg, into the world on November 2!  Quinn is absolutely the cutest thing ever and Doug and Mindy are so in love with their new little bundle.  Stephen and I are also in love with their new little bundle.  Actually...I think everyone is.  :)  We spent the afternoon at the hospital with the adorable family yesterday and couldn't get enough of holding baby Quinn and marveling at his chubby bunny little face.  Gavin kept kicking every time I had Quinn in my arms -- he was either totally jealous or totally excited to meet his new BFF!

The happy threesome!

Quinn Allan Berg -- SO precious!

CONGRATULATIONS, Doug and Mindy!  We are so happy to have a new little nephew and can't wait to spoil him rotten (and sign him up for the same t-ball team as Gavin, of course.)

I think that about covers the many, MANY celebrations from the last few weeks -- and the upcoming weeks are bound to have many, many more!  Our family is so blessed right now.  :)