Annual Whitaker Family Picture, 2012

Every year Perry & I take an "Annual Family Picture" (2011, 2010 bloopers, and 2009's were our wedding photos!). 2012 was the best one yet... because our family grew by two feet! Gabriel's!!!

We aimed for mid-November but something kept coming up and our photo shoot got pushed back to December 2nd. I was worried it would be cold & dreary but it turned out to be a beautiful day! Mom W has been our photographer in years past but my Mom (Mom J) had recently gotten a "fancy" camera so we made an extended-family event out of it! We met at an art museum and used some of the outdoor structures as back-drops. 

Gabriel thinking he's big stuff sitting in the front seat, waiting for everyone else to arrive!

We ended up with some great pictures and I love our Christmas card!! I used walmart.com and got forty 4x8" photo cards for less than $20!

I adore these...

The boys ♥

G & Mommy

The whole gang (Dad & Mom W on left, Paul & Mom J on right)

Annual Whitaker Family Picture, 2011 Edition

Perry & I started the tradition of taking an annual family picture. Each year, around November, we'll have a photo shoot, and oh, how nice it will be to see how our family changes & grows over the years!!! In 2009, we had just gotten married (and had plenty of pictures taken then!) so our first year doing this was 2010. I think we waited a little late- it was December and freezing outside- but the pictures turned out great! I shared several "bloopers" in this post. It really is a family affair- we enlisted my mother-in-law, Debra, as our photographer! She was willing to take pictures of us again for 2011; I'm so glad we didn't scare her away! Here's a little recap:

2009: Our Wedding Day
Lake Wheeler
Photo by Story Photographers (http://www.storyphotographers.com/)

2010: Perry & Lauren
Yates Mill Pond

2011: Perry & Lauren plus 1-on-the-way!!!
White Deer Park

Blurry but still cute

It was tickling him!

I love this picture that I caught of my hot hubby

Perry might have been getting tired at this point...

But he was still his silly self!

And that's a wrap!

Perry found an owl (the "theme" in the nursery!) on a park sign

Watch for "2012: Perry, Lauren & 10-month old Gabriel"!!

Christmas 2011

*This was written in December 2013 and back-dated to it's appropriate place on my blog, December 2011*

The past few months have been busy. And my focus has been on other things besides my blog. New baby. Thanksgiving. Christmas (2013!). But lately I've had "an itch" to better document the happenings in our lives. You'll hopefully continue to see more frequent posts from me. Before I can get to current stuff, I will be finishing old drafts that were left in limbo! Like Christmas...2011. Hah.

We spent Christmas Eve eve celebrating at my Mom's. I had to work on Christmas Eve night so Christmas Day was pretty laid back at home, just the two of us.

Watercolor I had framed for Perry

A few days after Christmas, my Dad & Karlene came from Virginia and Jason & Kelley drove from South Carolina so we all could spend the evening together! I'm thankful that our house is in middle because at 36 weeks pregnant, I wasn't up for traveling. My Dad treated us all to dinner at a very nice Czech restaurant he and Kar had been wanting to try called Klara's (at the time, it was in downtown Cary but is no longer there). I do remember that Perry ordered the Pork Schnitzel {funny name for basically a fried pork chop} and loved it.

We exchanged Christmas gifts and rang in the new year on New Years Eve at Mom & Dad Whitaker's. 2012 was the year that our baby would be born!

Merry Christmas From Our {Growing} Family To Yours!!!

I used some of my Pampers points to get 25 free photo cards from Shutterfly! {I knew it would be worth it to start collecting freebie points from couponing blogs, even before we started a family!}

Very Merry Monday

The next day (2 days after Christmas) Perry & I went to Concord with his parents to visit my sister-in-law Cassy & family. It was awesome to witness the girls' energy and excitement about Christmas! We. love. them.

Uncle P ♥'s his nieces

Emily

"Little Lauren"

"Big Lauren"

Silly faces with Aunt Lew! 
{Concerning fact: my left eyeball seems to like turning inward... 
it won't really get stuck like that, right?}

I have never written about my bestie Sayra {no, she doesn't really spell her name like that. It's Sara, but I've said "Say-ra" since high school}. She is AWESOME! One night she shared a yummy meal of taco soup & cornbread, paired with salad, with me & Perry. Then we improvised with what I had in the kitchen and made a sad-looking strange-colored Christmas tree cake. My excuse is that we didn't have the proper supplies *wink*. It was still fun & yummy.

Cute little guy... almonds from Sara Almond, of course!!

Perry & I also visited my Dad & Karlene in Virginia before Christmas {pictures to come... once I find them}. What a wonderful, glorious Christmas we had filled with family & friends, warmth & laughter!!! "An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'" {Luke 2:9-12}

Very Merry Next Day

I was dreaming of a whiiiiiite Christmas, just like the ones I used to know... er, not so much- I grew up here in North Carolina, people; I read/heard somewhere that the last "white Christmas" NC had was in the mid-1960's!! It came late in the day but that still counts. I think we ended up with roughly 7, yes, seven inches of snow! Our pups had a blast playing in it the next morning! {Of course, Bella girl loves it}

View of our house from the street

Icicles hung from the roof {yes, 1/2 of our house is grey, 1/2 is still white primer = project #1 to be completed when the weather warms up!}

Autumn loves laying under the trailer

We ventured out to see how bad the roads were:

Hwy 70

Interstate 40

Perry drove, I took pictures

We made it safe & sound to Mom & Paul J's!! My brother Jason came as well but none of my step-siblings could make it to Chapel Hill. We exchanged gifts (white elephant/clean "dirty" Santa ones too!) and enjoyed each others company.

With Mom & Jason

Poor Paul wasn't feeling good

Zena!

Joker!

Modeling my new ruffled shawl

Perry's beautiful knife set

Jason's new watch

Jokie boy loves laps

Mom & her yellow Nine West purse: she's so stylish!

Trying to get puppy kisses from Zena

*Smooch*

Laughing about Jason's "gag gift", a kid's tooth-brushing set. Mom loved it though!

"No penguins?!" {I reused an insulated box from when my Dad gave us deer meat & veggies from his garden. Illiterate people will know that you should not freeze whatever is inside the box... Hah! The words "refrigerate, do not freeze" do the trick otherwise.}

I got a Snuggie LOL

Mom & I being silly with the gigantic blanket with gigantic sleeves and gigantic pockets

It makes you look crazy TALL!

I have no idea what we were going for here...