Happy Valentine's Day!

Halloween

Our little pirate...

our little pumpkin by day...

and skeleton by night!

And here is Mollie and Maggie... aka... Big Bird and Elmo.  Hilarious!  This year we went to the Perez's for another one of Tony's fabulous Halloween hay rides.  We cruised around in "da rb" and listened to Monster Mash while the kids jumped on and off of the hay ride to trick or treat.  We all had a GREAT time!  Nothin like riding around in a rv, sipping on some adult beverages, listening to music and watching your kids trick or treat!  

The Story of Jack Allen Sharpe...

It was October 3rd, and this is what our board looked like...

Randi and Steve had come in town to stay with us and Randi was making me try everything we could to get Jack to come while she was here.  We walked, squatted, bounced, and even galloped around the driveway.  I was having lots of Braxton-Hicks in a row throughout the day, but not much more than that.  After exhausting our options, we gave up and dedicated the rest of the day to Lifetime movies.  Pretty non-eventful until I went to turn the faucet on and there was NO WATER.  Considering it was a Sunday and it was going to be an extra $500 to have them come out and fix it, Randi and Steve left and Ryan and I headed to my parents to spend the night.  I went to bed around 11pm, Ryan came in about 11:30pm, then my water broke at midnight!  Without going into a lot of detail, the water breaking was much more dramatic than I thought it would be.  Good thing Mom is scared of bed bugs and had two waterproof mattress covers on the bed.  We ran around in circles a little bit, then called the doctor and our doula, Jacqueline.  I took a shower and we headed home to get some stuff together and wait for the contractions to get closer together.  By 3:30am, the contractions were sporadic... 3 minutes apart, then 9, then 6 then 4, then 4, then 4.... so we decided to go ahead and go. We were settled in our room about 5am and waiting through the contractions for me to get past 2 centimeters.  Around 9am, I was at about 5-6 centimeters, the contractions were extremely intense, and I was getting very tired.  All I could think about was how completely exhausting the pushing was with Allie.  I knew I didn't have the energy to do that again.  So in talking with Ryan, the doctor and Jacqueline, we/I decided to go with the epidural (that I really did not want to get).  But HALLELUJAH that epidural was sent straight from God!  I did have a big blood pressure plummet and some vomiting (figured that would happen) but it did let me rest a little.    It still left me with some feeling in my right side, which was actually good because it helped me feel to push.  I pushed through about 5-6 contractions and then we could see that precious little head!  I was in a good seated position so I could totally see what was going on.  Then the doctor looked at me and said "Go ahead, pull him out" (I had made a joke earlier about it, referring to Courtney Kardashian).  But I did actually grab him right under his little head/neck and pulled him right on my belly at 1:14pm!  He wasn't at all slimy and bloody like I thought he would be.  It was absolutely amazing.  He was completely perfect, and we give all the credit to God.  He was 6 lbs. 4 oz, 20.5 inches... just a tiny little thing!  Ryan, Jacqueline, Dr.Kaplan, Jenny, Jane and Meghan were all so wonderful and supportive... I was so fortunate.  I was able to hold and feed him for about an hour before they took him for his bath.  It was wonderful!

Right when I layed eyes on him I knew he looked exactly like Ryan.  But I'll let you be the judge....

Daddy

Jack

More to come!...

Allie's Eight!

Long time no blog!  With the 4th and Allie's birthday, the last couple of weeks have flown by.  We had a wonderfully cool weekend up in Blowing Rock.  It is always nice when you can celebrate with family, good friends, good food, and great shopping (the outlet was having a major sale).  :)  We came back on Sunday and watched the fireworks with the Perez Family, which is becoming quite the tradition.  Then on Monday, Allie turned 8!  Kelly, Will, Mollie, Mary & Caroline came over to mom's for little lunch, ice cream cake, presents, and scooter riding.

 Then on Tuesday we picked up three of Allie's friends, went to Bumper Jumpers, and back to our house for a little party and Slip& Slide (Thanks Caroline!).

Memorial Day

We had a wonderful weekend relaxing at the lake with the Perez family. Great food, great weather, and great company!

Caroline, Maggie & Allie after a long day of swimming!

Precious little Mag Moo being such a good sport about wearing her life jacket.

Bachelorette Party

A few weekends ago we had Randi's Bachelorette Party at my parents house in Blowing Rock. We did lots of shopping, dined at a few wonderful restaurants, went to a wine tasting, and had a great Mexican Fiesta Lingerie Shower at the house on Saturday night.  The weather could not have been better, and Randi got lots of beautiful things at the shower.  Can't wait til the wedding in July!

Stephanie, Rebecca, Colleen, Ashley, Katrina, Lindsay, Randi & Kristin

 

Birthday Shout-Out

Happy Birthday today to a very, very dear friend! We are all so lucky to have you in our lives and to call you a friend. I am so happy you were born (even though it was an extremely long time ago)! I love you Mama Mollie!

Topsail Island Beach Vacation

We are back from a wonderful week at the beach- full of playing all day in the ocean and pool, watching movies, playing games, sunset walks on the beach, shore fishing, and of course TONS of eating and drinking! We also celebrated Will's 5th Birthday and Ryan's 27th! It was a perfect way to wrap up the summer.

Continued Continued Birthday Celebrations!

Belated post... but better late than never, right? My 27th started out with a wonderful lunch date at the Bistro with the Perez girls. Then we went back to our house for play time for Caroline and Allie, and cuddle time for Maggie and I. Thank you again Mollie for ALL the birthday sussies! :) The birthday continued with a very nice Ruth's Chris dinner with my parents. I really cannot think of a better way to spend my birthday.

Continued Birthday Celebration

After celebrating Allie's birthday at the beach, we celebrated again at the pool with her cousins Justin and Will. They had a blast swimming, splashing -and screaming! Justin is the nine-year old nationally ranked Motorcross Racer, and Will is about to turn five in August- so you can imagine how crazy they were together at the pool!

And of course Allie made time for a little sunbathing. Wonder where she got that from...

Birthday Girl wanted a Hello Kitty Cookie cake, which of course we could not find. So guess who had to make one? She was a good helper and colored in the bow. :) Only thing we forgot were the candles! Mom found one in her pantry, so that's all Allie got to blow out. Funny how slack your parenting becomes over the years. At her first birthday party we had about 50 people (no children except the cousins), catered, with a full bar, tents, lanterns, flower arrangements, matching cake & invitations, and party favors... and now that she is seven, poor kid gets a home-made cookie cake and one candle! I promise to be better next year Al!