Josh's Birthday

Sunday was Josh's birthday. Although we had already celebrated with Josh's parents and Laura's family, we made plans to drive down to Buford to dine at Provino's. It is a great Italian restaurant that offers a free meal on your birthday. We made plans to meet John & Lisa. As it turned out, Ben & Kelly Carr were in Atlanta celebrating Kelly's birthday and agreed to drive a out of their way to meet us as well. It was so great to see Ben & Kelly since we had not seen them since the UGA/Auburn game, which was before Jack's arrival. They were excited to meet Jack. He enjoyed sitting in Ms. Kelly's lap and had a good time at dinner.

With all the running around, it was a long day, and Jack eventually fell asleep on Josh while we finished up dinner. Kelly shared her birthday petifors (sp?), which were delicious. Thanks, Kelly. What a great birthday celebration with friends and family.

Lots of Laughs & Lots of Birthdays

So, this weekend we spent a lot of time running around. Friday evening we were back at Philips arena to take in another Thrashers game. This time around the Thrashers actually won and in dramatic fashion...scoring 2 goals in the final 3 minutes to tie the game and then ultimately prevailing in a shootout. I managed to get a photo of the fire-breathing Thrasher, which Josh and I made endless jokes about. It was a fun evening and we were glad to have received the free tickets again.

On Saturday, we drove to Commerce to meet my mom and head over to Braselton for a baby shower for Becca, my best friend from high school. She is having her first baby in a few weeks...it's a girl. Saturday afternoon the three of us headed to the Mall of Georgia to meet Josh's parents for dinner. We celebrated Josh's birthday and they came back home with us. It was a long, but fun day.

After springing forward we hustled to church, then to Athens for a late lunch to celebrate Emily's birthday. We enjoyed cookies and ice cream at mom & dad's house. Jack has really started laughing now. It is SO CUTE. He'll usually only laugh at little bit each day. Josh and I try to get him going as often as possible. As you can see, he even shared his cute little laugh with Emily on her birthday.
Jack and I got Josh a new coffee maker for his birthday, so Sunday evening we made coffee and hot cocoa and watched a movie. It was a long, but fun weekend. We'll be celebrating all week...Josh's birthday is Sunday!

Thursday Nite Reunion plus Jack

Last week I had to make an overnight trip to Athens. Jack and I planned it for a Thursday evening so we could reunite with the crew for Thursday night fun! Unfortunately, Cassidy wasn't feeling well, but Terri & Stacie were glad to have us fill in. Jack was pretty well behaved for his first Thursday night with the girls. He should also have felt honored...boys are not usually allowed at Thursday night events. Terri prepared Cheesy Chicken Spaghetti and we capped it off with the always enjoyable chocolate peanut butter cookies!

After calling it a night at Terri's, Jack and I got tucked in at grandma & grandpa's house. Mom & I spent Friday morning running errands and buying birthday gifts. After lunch we headed to Franklin Springs to watch Emily's tennis match. They were playing against Shorter...who needed a lesson in good sportsmanship. Jack sported his Lions rugby shirt from Emily, but didn't watch much tennis.

Mommy's Night Off & More

Well, about two weeks ago Josh (thinking I needed at least one night of completely good rest) volunteered to sleep upstairs in the guest room next door to Jack. This allowed me to turn off the monitor downstairs and sleep without hearing a peep. I must have been a real crab that needed some serious rest :) Early the next morning Josh brought Jack down to eat. Then I had to get up and help prepare for a baby shower, so I put Jack in the bed with Josh. Before I left, I couldn't resist snapping this adorable photo.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Josh has been working non-stop and on top of it all came down with the flu on Monday night. He was pretty miserable on Tuesday, but was beginning to regain strength by Wednesday. So far, Jack and I seem to be free of symptoms and have tried to stay away from him. I've also been washing my hands even more than normal, which is a lot!


Jack is growing so much and changing every day it seems. He's is so pleasant and smiles a lot. He's getting really close to belting out a laugh. We think we've heard one a couple of times. He's grown quite curious of things around him. Here he is trying to figure out the singing puppy he received as a Valentine's gift.

Fun with Filming

Today I dabbled with our new video editing software and created a video of our little Jack and his current favorite toy, his baby gym. You can view the video at the bottom of our blog.

Ice Hockey anyone?

Well, Jack has now experienced his first sporting event. And as much as it may pain Josh and I to say in the future, but this milestone event was an ice hockey game! Can you believe it? One of Josh's fellow ER physicians has season tickets to the Thrashers game and offered us a pair of tickets. We've both always heard how much fun they are to attend, so we took him up. We arrived with only 3 minutes left in the first period and Jack was fast asleep on Josh's lap.

Sometime in the second period the Thrashers scored and the place went nuts. An obnoxiously loud siren went off, a fire breathing Thrasher appeared and needless to say Jack was awake! After he ate, he was pretty content to sit on my lap and watch the hockey game or at least look around. He was quite a cutie and so well behaved.

Unfortunately, the Thrashers gave up two more goals and lost 2-1 to the Vancouver Canucks. Overall, it was a lot of fun and we got to see two fights. One with the guys ripping off their gloves and helmets to go at it. Of course, they were both sent to the penalty box for 5 minutes, but it was worth it. I don't know much about hockey, but I do know that it's not much of a game without a good fight.

To Grandmother's House We Go

Last weekend we loaded up the truck and headed to Grandmommy & Grandaddy Garrett's house in Rome. Although we had planned to visit to celebrate Josh's mom's birthday, it turned out to be a longer trip to say goodbye and reflect on the memory of Josh's grandmother Virginia Garrett. It is always difficult to say goodbye, but it was good to be together with the extended family (Uncle Ken & Aunt Pat, cousins Derek & Joy, Ryan & Julie, Gina, Robbie & Nathan). Here's a picture of the great grandsons with Josh's grandmother or Miss Ginia (short for Virginia) as she was affectionately named by Sean.

On Friday evening we celebrated Josh's mom's birthday at one of her favorite restaurants, Olive Garden. Our waitress was so kind and even brought a cake to help us celebrate. It was chocolate on chocolate and delicious. As you can see Grandmommy had a little help blowing out her candles. Jack didn't skip a beat from his dinner to notice much of what was going on.

Saturday morning, we went to Atlanta for a baby shower for an old friend of Josh's. Our friends, Kajal & Brett live in New York and are expecting their first child in April. It was so good to catch up with them. We haven't seen them in almost a year, when we were in New York for Derek & Joy's wedding last April. Everyone enjoyed meeting Jack and the food was excellent...it was brunch at a place called Cafe de Sol in the Highlands area. Our evening ended at the funeral home, where Jack met lots of new faces. Afterwards, we enjoyed dinner at the Fish Market next door with all of the Pucketts. Sean and BJ had a lot of fun together. They even took time to hang out with Jack.

It was a long time to be away from home (3 days), so we were all glad to be back home. We will miss Miss Ginia greatly, but are glad she got to meet Jack. She was so proud of her family, especially her three great grandsons.