Roadtrip to Nashville and a beautiful southern wedding

What a great weekend! Doug’s cousin, Richie, was getting married in Nashville and rather than flying, Doug and I decided to take a road trip! We hit the road at about 4:00 am on Friday morning. Once we got over the initial exhaustion of being up so early, we had a blast. We decided to stop for breakfast about 2 hours into the trip and this really made the 1st ½ of the trip go by fast. We ended up renting a car and got a free upgrade! Sweet! So, we were riding in style, not to mention comfort! The trip took us a total of 13 hours. When we arrived in Nashville, we checked into our hotel and then headed over to the rehearsal. The location was beautiful! The site was at the bride's (Tiffani) parents house. Everyone on this quiet little street knew each other and they all offered up their houses/yards for this wedding. The rehearsal went smoothly, and, like every 'night before the wedding', there was a mixture of excitement, anxiousness and nervousness. Everyone was hoping for clear skys (since there was not a back-up plan!!!) and sure enough...it rained! Luckily, the rain was in and out about an hour before the wedding. Phew! The location was more stunning than the night before! There were multiple tables scattered across the lawn each containing a different vase filled with the most beautiful wild flowers. There were twinkle lights and little lanterns hanging from the trees. It was just amazing. And hot! I give the Richie and Tiff a lot of credit to get married outdoors in the summer down South. Doug was sweating bullets before we even got outside! haha!

The next day (Sunday) was our chance to really explore the city of Nashville. It was NOTHING like I was imagining. For some reason, I was picturing it to be MUCH smaller than it was. We took a horse and buggy ride (typical tourists!) and learned a bit about the history of the city. Then, of course, we just walked up and down the streets and checked out all the different karaoke bars, souvenir shops and country restaurants. We ended the night by eating dinner at the Blues Brothers restaurant. They had a live jazz band playing and there were great! Lots of great musicians in this city. Also, a lot of VERY SCARY and EXTREMELY INTENSE cowboys. Yikes!

We woke up early the next morning (Monday) and started our drive back. It wasn't nearly as exciting as our drive to Nashville...but we still had a great time!

Isn't it crazy how great weekends seem to go by SOOOOOO quickly?!?!?!

Locks of Love

For the past 5+ years now, I have been growing my hair long. Doug is OBSESSED with long hair and practically has a heart attack anytime I mentioned cutting it. I kept it nice and long for our wedding and since then, I have been itching to cut it. Several months back, I came across an Oprah special where Hilary Swank was donating her hair for Locks of Love. She talked about the whole process and how these young children that lose their hair from Chemo are the ones these wigs are made for. She also mentioned that it takes 6 donations (6 different people) in order to create 1 wig. I was SO moved by this episode and by these poor little girls that lost all of their hair. At that point, I decided that I was going to grow out my hair (you need to have a minimum of 8 inches) and donate it. Since then, I have been trying to deep condition my hair and take my multivitamins so it would be strong and healthy. I made my appointment for Thursday night, May 29. Again, Doug is NOT a fan of short hair so I made sure that I talked to him about why I was cutting it and who was going to benefit from it. As soon as he heard about Locks of Love, he was okay with it. I showed him the hairstyle that I was looking at ahead of time and made sure he got used to it before I took the plunge. The week before, I started getting nervous and feeling like I was going to chicken out. Every time I thought about not doing it, I thought about those little girls. How selfish would it be of me to not cut my hair because I grew attached to it and was afraid to get it shorter when these children lost all of their hair (not by choice) all at once...? This was instant motivation for me to stick to the plan! Amazingly enough, I was VERY calm at the salon. I thought I would cry for sure or start freaking out when she cut it. But I didn’t. I felt so proud to be helping and so happy that my hair was going to a good cause! We ended up cutting off 9.5 inches. I was surprised at how much hair I still had!
I’m really happy with the end result. It’s a good summer look. AND…Doug absolutely loved it! I would totally donate to Locks of Love again and recommend anyone wanting/needing a change to consider it! :)

Bernadette has the baby! :)

Little Miss Emma Victoria has FINALLY arrived! Bernadette's water broke around 5:00 pm on Tuesday, May 20. For some reason, she thought it was just a false alarm. They admitted her at the hospital and she started pushing at 7:00 pm. By 7:30, little Emma was born weighing in at 7 lbs and 11 oz. She is the most beautiful little thing and if anyone deserves such an easy labor...it is Bernadette! I think they come home from the hospital today and I can only imagine her excitement to finally be a Mommy after waiting and trying all of these years.

CONGRATS, Bernadette and Jack and welcome to the world, little Emma!

Baby fever???

We spent this past weekend babysitting for my Aunt's children. Georgie is the oldest and will be 4 in July and Cassidy turned 1 in September. Doug and I went into it thinking that it would be some serious birth control for us. We arrived on Friday night after they had already had dinner. It was a GORGEOUS night out so we played outside for a while and then it was time for bed. I couldn't believe how easy bedtime was! Cassidy went down first and their rituals were pretty similar. Cup of milk, 2 bedtime stories and off to bed. I expected them to fuss or be upset that they had to go to bed but they were not! They were so easy and had their ritual down perfectly.

The only hairy part was how early they woke up!!!! Actually, it was really just Georgie that woke up early. On Saturday morning, he was up at 6:30. Early, but, not too awful. Sunday morning he was up at 5:30!!!! TORTURE! Cassidy was so easy and slept surprisingly long! She woke up at 7 and took a bottle. After playing in her crib for an hour and drinking her milk, we got her up. Piece of cake! It was really fun playing with the kids. Georgie has quite the vocabulary and it was hilarious hearing some of the things he was saying. It was so warm on Saturday, so we decided to wash Dougie's car. The kids put their bathing suits on and had a blast squirting the car with the hose and using sponges to wash it! I was beyond exhausted by the time Saturday night came around. Sunday we took the kids to Chuckie Cheese. It was really fun to see them running around and playing.

The weekend was great and it was really neat to see how Doug interacted with the kids. It's fun to think about what he will be like as a Daddy. I'm definitely excited to have kids; however, we are both in agreement that we need to get a few things figured out with finances before we start seriously thinking about kids. Plus, we both want to travel a bit. So, no baby fever quite just yet....but, it's definitely in the future for us! :)

Bernadette's baby shower

Today we threw a baby shower for my girlfriend at work, Bernadette. This was a very special baby shower because she and her husband, Jack, have been trying to get pregnant for 3 years now. They have gone through IVF 3 times before it finally took. We are all so incredibly excited for them both and have loved watching her belly grow! I think she is one of the very few people I know that still looks absolutely amazing pregnant! She is ALL BELLY!!! When you see her walking from behind, you can't even tell that she is pregnant.

Anyways, she is due on May 24 (I think) and she is getting very close! We threw her a "short and sweet" baby shower today and it went great! We had a collection in the office and were able to get her a pack-and-play as well as her baby video monitor. There were a ton of other little gifts that people purchased on their own and I think we were able to really surprise her with all of the gifts!

Spring has sprung

Spring has FINALLY sprung around here! These past two weeks have been absolutely GORGEOUS which makes it even harder to stay focused and concentrate on anything other than the flowers and buds. I jumped on here the other day and realized that I have not posted a blog since March! OOPS!
All is well in the Shade household. We were struggling with colds and sickness for several weeks in March. But, thank goodness, we are healthy now. I think there is something about spring that seems to make everything so much better!
The apartment is really coming along. I have been trying to buy something off of our never-ending wish list with each pay. Last week Doug and I found the most ADORABLE accent table! I also got curtains for the windows above the accent table. I really need to get some pictures on here. I keep thinking, I'll just wait until I can buy______ and then I'll take pictures. And...this just keeps repeating. Eventually I will have it picture-ready.
Doug and I have been starting to talk about plans for this summer. Lots of wedding showers, baby showers, wedding ceremonies and, new babies arriving. It always seems like our summer fills up long before it has even arrived.
So far, we have a road trip to Nashville (Doug's cousin's wedding) planned for the end of May and a week vacation in OCNJ in July. I think I am going to surprise Doug with a little mini-trip one weekend during the summer. ;)
I will work on posting more frequently and getting some additional pictures as well.
HAPPY SPRING, everyone!!!!

Professional wedding photos

We just received a few professional wedding photos from our photographer and I just HAD to post them. They did such an amazing job of capturing all of our different emotions that day!

Here are just a few of our favorites and a few that we chose for our wedding album....