Katrina, Gustav, and Beignets

Three years ago Greg and I were planning a trip to visit my Grandmother in Biloxi, Mississippi-Greg had never met my wonderful Grandmother and I was going to take him to New Orleans, which he had never been to-when we heard news that our trip would have to be postponed, or rather officially cancelled. There was a monster storm heading for the gulf coast. We spoke with my Grandma on the phone and convinced her to head to her church for shelter. My Grandmother lived by herself, my Grandfather and my Uncle having passed a few years before. Thankfully some ward members picked her up and took her to church where they would all spend the next week. The last minute that horrible storm turned toward Biloxi and reeked havoc on the Mississippi coast. My Grandmother's home, where she and her family had lived for years and we had spent many Christmas', was destroyed from the 20 foot surge. She lost everything but the few things she had taken with her. As horrible as this storm was, it was truly a great blessing for our family. With no home to go back to, my "stubborn limey" grandmother was forced to make the move to Florida. A move my mother has been asking her to make since my uncle, who helped take care of her, had died. Shortly after her move down here she was diagnosed with cancer and we were able to spend the last year of her life with her. I guess I will always be thankful for that terrible storm that devastated so many other lives, because I got that last year with her.

Today another storm is slamming into the Gulf Coast-Gustav- which had me reflecting back a few years, although not directly hitting Biloxi this time. Nobody heard too much about Biloxi last time, even though landfall and the worst of the storm happened there. I did get the chance to revisit the area when we went to my Grandmother's funeral over a year after Katrina had hit. It was not the same Mississippi Coast I remembered spending so many holidays at. I pray for everyone along the Gulf Coast in the path of Gustav. For my grandmother's old ward and great friends who took care of her when no family lived close by, for the people in Louisiana. I have many fond memories of days spent in Mississippi with my family, learning to cook seafood like my Grandfather and of New Orleans-of the French Quarter and the Cafe' Du Monde and of course, the fabulous Cajun food we Tarpeins love so much.

So in honor of the Gulf Coast-Mississippi and Louisiana- I made Greg some Beignets this morning for breakfast. Beignets are served everyday, all day at the Cafe du' Monde in New Orleans. Anyone that visits has to stop by there and get these amazing french doughnuts with chocolate milk. Greg still hasn't had the chance to visit New Orleans, so I thought I would bring the breakfast to him. They were absolutely delicious!

Sting'em is in the Band

Ah, Rock Band. I was first introduced to this game on the Road Trip with the YW. Now Daniel Nunes has brought it into our home and Greg and he have been playing it in the evenings. Daniel is on the guitar while Greg is on drums. Greg was really getting into the whole band thing and pounding furiously on the drums. Sting'em, I'm sure enjoying the racket, I mean sweet music as much as I was, starting barking and howling. I guess he had become the lead singer for their little band, as Greg called out, "Sting'em's part of the band now!" This cracked Daniel up to the point where he couldn't continue playing. After that they even named their band "Sting' em". The sight of Sting'em on his hind legs, dancing and barking trying to join in the fun was too funny. I wish I had taken a picture of it. I am sure that I will be subject to this again, I'll take a picture next time.

College Football Season

It has officially begun! Yes, that's right, the start of college football season. What does this mean to me? Well, it means that I know what I am doing everyday Saturday from now until December. I know this because Greg plans our Saturdays around when the games begin. And I can expect an upcoming trip to Atlanta for a Georgia Tech game. So last night Greg watched the first Georgia Tech football via internet-it wasn't showing on TV. And on Saturday, he will attend the first UCF game with Randy White. I do enjoy a good Georgia Tech-our team of choice-game every now and then, but not every single game they show on Saturday! Too much. I am just grateful that I have so many wonderful friends whose husbands obsess over football season too. We will get through the season together as our husbands tune out everything around them but the football!

Here comes the sun

Fay has to be one of the storms we will never forget. No one would've ever thought this storm would have created the damage that it did, as it spun across Florida, affecting, I think, every county in the state making it's mark in history as being the storm that made landfall a record 4 times in Florida-with all the exiting and re-entering the state. All the time refusing to weaken. In fact, it strengthened over land. Very unlike anything I have ever seen. Days and days of nonstop rain, as it halted over central Florida. My mother, sister and her family were in the middle of it. We didn't get nearly as much as they did. In Brevard it rained from Tuesday until Friday, nonstop. I called my mom often to check on her and the family. We joked about how miserable Noah must have been, because it was hard to for us to even handle a few days on torrential downpour with not seeing the sun. Floridians need sun. After days of being drenched by Tropical Storm Fay, we were able to make it over to our condo in Cocoa Beach to check out the damage. We had heard all week about Brevard being pounded by the underestimated storm and reports were that Cocoa Beach had received 24 inches of rain. Needless to say, we were pretty worried about how much water would be in our condo that sits on the first floor. As we made our drive to the coast, the worst possible scenario in my mind, the sun began to finally peek out from the clouds. Yeah, sun! Finally! We final reached our condo and to our amazement, there was not one puddle of water in our place! Incredible! I am so grateful and feel like the luckiest person in the state of Florida. I know many, many others did not fare nearly as well as we did. After we left our condo, we drove just a little ways down A1A to where Greg lived when he first moved to Florida. Sure enough, there was about 1 ft of standing water in the road and around the homes there. Again, I felt amazingly blessed. Here are the pics from the road we were on. My heart goes out to all those with damage from this storm. I know people are still suffering from rising waters from rivers and lakes.

Move your hand

I have been feeling our little guy move around quite a bit and now it was Greg's turn. Last night, our little baby was on move, due to the juice I had consumed earlier that evening, so I told Greg to put his hand in the spot with the most activity. Of course as soon as Greg placed his hand on my tummy, the movement ceased. Greg removed his hand and sure enough the somersaults started again. So Greg put his hand there again, and again movement stopped. This time Greg decided to rub my tummy, slightly pushing on the area. Well, this got a big THWACK right back where Greg's hand was. Greg kinda jumped. It was pretty funny. Either our little boy was giving his dad a high five or saying don't touch me! I am glad that Greg was able to feel the nudge and experience a little of what I have been able to feel!

Half Way Through and It's a Boy!!!

I hit my 2o week mark this week (I can't believe I am half way there already) and it was time for our ultrasound. We did have one four weeks before, but our tiny baby was a little on the modest side and wasn't giving too much away, although the tech thought we might be having a boy, we still weren't 100% sure. We were very excited to see our baby again and I just hoped that our he/she was healthy and growing. Greg's parents were in town and my mom drove over for the appointment, so they could meet their new grandchild. We all packed into the tiny room waiting in anticipation. The first shot we got was the money shot, there is no doubt we are having a boy! There was our baby, in all his glory, showing his stuff off for the audience that had gathered around the little monitor. No longer the shy baby we saw just 4 weeks ago. I blame it on the apple juice I downed right before my appointment to get him dancing-he was a little sugared up! Or maybe he knew he had an audience and wanted to shake it for everyone! He was squirming during the entire ultrasound. But we got lots of good shots and our wonderful tech was nice enough to print them all off for us. So here he is...little Lochlan Paxton (for those who don't know, Greg served his mission in Scotland and we picked out a very Scottish name for our first son a few years back...we are still negotiating on the middle name).

Mini Lobster Season 2008

It was time for our annual Mini Lobster Season trip to the Keys. Having camped every year due to a college student's budget, we were especially looking forward to this year staying at the Coral Lagoon Resort in Marathon, which we had booked about 11 months ago. Greg's parents came down from Ohio, along with his friend since 6th grade, Adam. The McGraths also were able to join us for our adventure. The resort was gorgeous and the weather was perfect for our two day excursion. We rented a boat and the guys were put to the task of capturing our 6 lobster per person per day limit. The whole process can be tricky if you don't find a good spot. You have to tickle the lobster out from underneath their hiding places (rocks) with a tickle stick and then catch them in your net before they escape. They are pretty fast if they get past you too. We didn't catch nearly as many spiny lobster as we would've like to have caught, but we still had a blast. Greg even captured the monster lobster of the trip and a crab. We had a great time and what made it even better was returning to a resort with showers and a nice bed as opposed to a tent and campsite showers...constantly sweating. Ewww. I don't think we will ever go back to camping after our perfect resort stay. I am looking forward to next year and hopefully catching more lobster. I only hope our little baby will be half as good as Macie McGrath. She was quite the trooper and possibly the best baby ever. We had such an amazing time. Thanks Bob, Carol, and Adam for coming down from Ohio for the week. And thanks Katelyn, Michael and Macie for joining us on our trip. Can't wait until next Mini Lobster Season!

4 Year Anniversary

Four years ago today, Greg and I were married in the Orlando Temple. The time has flown by. I am so grateful for my husband and look forward to my next big adventure with him in the coming year...parenthood. I am grateful for the time we had to grow together in these past years and can't wait for the future with him.

Cumberland Island

Greg and the YM took their annual camping trip to Cumberland Island this year-which is an underdeveloped barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Besides the rain, I think they had a good time. Here are the pictures Greg took.

Greg said the island was beautiful, complete with wild horses and ruins of historic mansions. I would love to go there sometime with him...but no camping please, I can do without the ticks! (Thanks goodness Greg didn't come home with any.)

Snip=Bad Weekend

Sting'em had a very hard weekend after his little surgery on Friday-Greg finally agreed to get him snipped, taking away "his manhood"-only it was scheduled for a weekend when Greg was out of town, so I was the bad guy! How convenient for Greg. I picked poor little Sting'em up Friday afternoon and we spent all evening on the sofa, him not wanting to move anywhere and he certainly didn't want me to go anywhere. The vet gave me a lamp shade thing to put on him to try to keep him from licking his wound. But with his nose and his body being so long, he was still able to reach around to his stitches. The only thing I could think of was to doctor up some kind of little diaper/cover up out of an ace bandage to cover the bottom half of him, so he wouldn't be able to pull out his stitches and undo what the vet had done. So here was Sting'em with a lamp shade on his head with an ace bandage diaper around his rear...sad. My poor little puppy looked so pathetic. He had a rough night, I think I only got 3 hours of sleep because Sting'em could not get comfortable and every time he moved he cried. He recovered quickly though, when Greg returned home on Monday, he was back to normal and Greg joked that I had exaggerated about Sting'em's condition. If he only knew.

Hubby Tag

I was tagged by my sis-in-law America. This is a cute tag. So here we go.
1. What is his name? Gregory Clifford Paxton
2. Who eats more? That's easy, he does. He usually finishes what I don't eat.
3. Who said "I love you" first? Greg, after working up the courage to do so. He was smitten at first sight though. :)
4. Who is taller? Depends on the day and the shoes we're wearing. Barefoot, Greg is barely taller than I am.
5. Who is smarter? Hmmm...on what the topic? Greg is a pretty smart guy.
6. Who is more sensitive? Uh, me.
7. Who does the laundry? I sort and usually wash, Greg will fold though. It's a joint effort.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When in bed, I sleep on the right. I love my side of the bed. It's so comfy.
9. Who pays the bills? We both do, for now.
10. Who cooks more? I absolutely do. I can't eat hot dogs every night. If Greg gets home before me, sometimes he'll start dinner and then I'll finish.
11. What meals do you cook together? Hmm...joint nights are usually taco nights.
12. Who is more stubborn? I think we both can be. We take turns.
13. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Again, we take turns.
14. Who has more siblings? Greg does. He has two sisters and one brother. I have one brother and one sister.
15. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We both try to fit-it's kinda a tight squeeze. Just kidding. We do try to keep things pretty even.
16. What do you like to do together? Anything and everything. Just being with each other makes us happy, no matter what we're doing. I like to go to movies and he likes to go to sports games-we try to go to each for each other and usually both have a blast going.
17. Who eats more sweets? I would say I do, but Greg does have a major sweet tooth too-he likes his Snickers Ice Cream bars.
18. His guilty pleasures? Anything on the lake-wakeboarding, wakeskating. SPORTS!! Anyone who knows my husband knows he LOVES sports. Any and every sport! And at night he does turn on the XBox 360 when I head for bed early-always a sports game.
19. How did you meet? Greg and his friend moved from Ohio to Cocoa Beach July of 2003-to live the beach lifestyle, he was a bit of a beach bum when not in class. We met the following week at church and were married July of 2004.
20. Who asked out who first? Greg...it took me awhile to say yes, I was always busy-he kept asking me out Thursday night and I, uh, already would have plans for the weekend. He finally got the hint and called me earlier in the week to snag me up for the weekend before anyone else did. We were pretty inseparable once we started dating.
21. Who kissed who first? Greg did, after seeing the movie Elf-funny movie. It took him awhile to do it that night. I knew he wanted to and was working up the courage to. It was cute. He's cute.
22. Who proposed? Greg did. We went for a walk on the beach around sunset. He had written in the sand, "Stephanie I love you." There were roses lying on the sand. Greg knelt down to hand me the roses and buried underneath the roses was a little box with a beautiful ring in it. (Don't worry, his brother was hiding near by in the sea oats keeping an eye on the ring until we got close enough.) How can you say no to that?
23. His best features? His blue-green eyes and his smile. I love the way he walks too. It's pretty cute.
24. What is his greatest quality? There are so many! I love that he can always make me laugh. Even when I have had a bad day and am determined that I can't be happy that day, he always brings a smile to my face. I love that!

Hmmm...who to tag. I tag Ashlea and Missy

Bump in the Night

Everyone is starting to notice my ever growing baby bump. I, myself, have felt that I have had one for awhile now, but that's just me noticing every change. It is very exciting seeing and feeling all the changes and knowing that I am almost halfway there. Crazy! I have been wondering when I would start to feel the little "flutter." There are lots of things going on down there that I take notice of, I might've felt something already, but just couldn't be certain that what I was feeling was our baby. Well, last night while lying in bed, very still in the middle on the night, trying to get comfortable, I felt a bump. Movement! How Exciting! I felt our little baby move for the first time. I thought it best not to wake Greg up seeing how it was 2 AM, he was very excited the next day to hear the news. He is so wonderful and is really enjoying seeing all the changes too. (Sometimes I think he is more excited than I am.) I do think it is a funny thought that our child is so small and not even born and is already keeping me up at night!

Happy Birthday Greg!

Today is Greg's birthday. He is getting to be an old man! (Just kidding, he is only 10 months older than me.) We got to celebrate with his family this past weekend, but we still plan on having a little dinner of our own. I just wanted to say that I am so grateful for Greg. He is an amazing man-everything that I could ever ask for. A little more sports than expected, but still wonderful. He has been such an incredible husband to me for the past almost four years and I really look forward to the rest with him. He is so caring and always keeps me laughing. He has been especially great with me being pregnant-running to get any food I might be craving, rubbing my back when I feel tired, and putting up with all the hormonal mood swings! He is so patient with me. I know that he will be the best father to our children. I love this man and it makes me so happy to think that I have him for eternity. I couldn't ask for more in my life. Happy Birthday Greg!

Ohio for the 4th

This year for the fourth, we were able to go to Ohio for a short visit with Greg's family. We flew out Thursday night after work-thanks so much to Jonathan and Missy for taking us to the airport- arriving around midnight. The flight was horrible, absolutely no leg space for tall people, we were so glad to get off that plane. It was so wonderful to see Greg's family. Alysia (Greg's sister) and her kids-Savannah and the triplets, Will, Paxton, and JD-were visiting from Utah while Mark (Alysia's husband) was on a fising trip in Alaska. Greg's grandpa was also visiting, so everyone was there, except Mark.

The triplets-Will(Greg's lil'twin), Paxton, and sweet Jd

We had a little 4th of July party on Friday evening with the whole family. After our yummy meal we made our way to the Maumee River with the boat to watch the fireworks. (Carol and Bob stayed back with the triplets.) The fireworks were amazing. It was a spectacular sight to see all the boats piled in to celebrate our country. I feel so blessed to live in this country and have the freedom that we have. I am so grateful for that and I love this holiday.Greg and I enjoyed the chilly evening on the Maumee River
Alysia with the girls-Savannah, Vannessa, and Isabella

Kim, Rita, and Jeff waiting for the fireworks to get startedSaturday we had a little celebration for all the birthdays around this time of year. Grandpa Penzien (June birthday), and Savannah (turns six at the end of this month), and of course my favorite person in the world, my wonderful husband (birthday on the 10th). The triplets must have felt a little left out with all the present opening, as they insisted on helping their older sister tear her gifts open. Sunday afternoon we had to fly back home. The flight was much more pleasant-lots of long leg space, but it was sad to leave everyone after such a short trip. We love them all very much and are so grateful for each and everyone of them. Hope to see them soon!

The Birthday Bunch-Grandpa Penzien, Savannah (with her new guitar), and Greg

Saying goodbye to Savannah and the boys-next time we see them, they will have a new cousin!

(And thanks to my family for watching our little Sting'em for the weekend-he hates to fly!)

Baby's First Photo

Today was my 16 week check up. My Dr's office decided to run some tests-due to some slight pain that I have been feeling. Luckily everything came back perfect and our baby's heartbeat sounded great, but they still wanted to do an ultrasound, just to make sure. In the afternoon Greg met up with me for an ultrasound and we got the first glimpse at our beautiful baby. It was the most amazing thing ever. When the tech started, we could only see the top of the baby's head. But then our baby turned and for the rest of the appointment it was like he/she was staring right at us. So here are the images of our baby, looking right at us. Greg was a little freaked out at first because the baby looks like a skeleton, but the tech explained to him that is what babies look like at 16 weeks. The tech was also convinced that we are having a boy-she got a few glimpses of something, even though our baby made it difficult to see-our child is already modest and shy. She was still convinced the it was little boy Paxton. We will double check when we have our 20 week ultrasound.