Happy 35th Birthday to My Love!

My sweet husband is 35! We went to the beach for the day to celebrate.

This spot is quite near where we went the day after we fell in love. Aww...

As I was taking this picture, some ladies behind me were hooting and hollering and taking his picture too. I love Americans.

The Pacific Ocean is cold.

We had clam chowder by the pier.

We got pretty sunburned too...

When we came home we had a great dinner with my family and a few friends and found out that Nathan now shares a baby with the new royal prince! This is blurry, but Winnie gave Nathan the sweetest birthday hug.

Nathan blew out his candles on a home made chocolate cake.

And then Winnie blew out some candles...

And then June blew out some candles...

Good times had by all. Happy birthday, my love!

We're off to Atlanta. More blogging from there will commence soon.

We're Having a Baby ______ !

My sister hosted a beautiful baby shower for Nathan and me on Saturday. It was so much fun to celebrate our baby's upcoming arrival with family and friends here in California. It was a "gift cards only" shower because we don't know where we'll settle eventually, which meant extra time chatting to people and building up the anticipation of the big gender reveal.

Here's our beautiful cake with either pink or blue sponge. What color is inside? You'll just have to wait and see like everyone else... :) Nathan is probably asking, "Do you think you know?"

Yummy punch... leftover from my brother's wedding last weekend.

Happy face cookies from Smith's Bakery, a Bakersfield staple. They went perfectly with the yellow theme!

June went swimming with her triplet friends across the street during most of the shower, but we got a quick picture beforehand.

Chatting to people...

And feeling the baby move around...

My sister and I (in the middle) grew up with these sisters, Vali (on the left) and Kiki (on the right). They lived right around the corner from us. Love these girls!

Nathan and I had a question-and-answer time (Where will you live? When is the baby coming? What kind of job is Nathan looking for? How was England?) and then opened cards together.

My sister's friend, Anamie, made this beautiful cake that matched the invitations perfectly. It was tasty too! Lemon poppy seed with cream cheese frosting. Yum!

My friend Allison Skyped in from Bangkok, Thailand, and some of my in-laws Skyped in from Atlanta. It was so great to have them there, if only virtually.

It's BLUE! We're having a baby boy! His name is Michael Harrison Parker, after my father and Nathan's father.

I wonder if my mom's excited... and I wonder if Winnie's arm is still attached.

Wish y'all could have had a piece.

My "Aunt" Linda and my friend Nancy, who gave a beautiful devotion at the shower

 My friend, BreAnne, brought her sweet baby girl to the shower too.

Many thanks to Amy for taking all of these pictures. I am truly grateful to each person who came to celebrate and to all those who wish they could have been there but couldn't make it, especially our English friends who were stalking our Facebook pages for news. We miss you and love you so very much!

Little Brother is Married!

Winnie and me the night of the rehearsal

Winnie's flower girl basket was a little hat for the night.

June and me

Priya's nieces

The Onaindias

Winnie taking pictures of her mom and dad

My sister and brother-in-law, Kristen and Nick

Pastor Jeff delivers the homily.

Exchanging vows

Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Sampley

Nathan led the charge on the crazy wedding party picture.

The whole fam

Crazy pic of the whole fam

My parents and Priya and Matt

Parkers and Sampleys

The Sampley kids

Nathan gave a little speech (well, part of it) in sign language. I'm so proud of him!

They're off to Disneyland for their honeymoon!

Nathan and our friend Steve wanted to know who had more grey hair, so I took this picture for them to compare. Who do you think wins?

No matter what, they're still friends.

Clean up time! Winnie's favorite Disney princess is Cinderella, so she was stoked to have the mini-vacuum.

Dad was bribing little kids to pick up all the flower petals and said he would pay them a dollar each after they were all picked up. Winnie was running around screaming, "DOLLARS! DOLLARS! DOLLARS!"

It was a gorgeous wedding and a great opportunity to see lots and lots of family and friends. Congratulations Priya and Matt!

Saying Goodbye

We spent our last couple of days in Durham cleaning our house and getting packed. Nathan said he wanted to take some baby bump pics. I assented.

He got a nice one.

Then he started joking around with the camera, pretending to squish me.

And then he said he was going to squish the baby. To which I said, "That's enough, buddy."

Our last Sunday at church we had to say goodbyes to good friends, including baby Will.

And my dear friend, Marije. So sad!

On our last night we spent the night with Sam and Emily and then they dropped us off at the airport early in the morning. Again, so sad.

On the plane from London to LA, we played a little game where we would say, "How do you feel about _______?" and then we would make a face and he would take a picture.

"How do you feel about saying goodbye to friends?"

"How do you feel about a 10 and half hour plane ride?"

"How do you feel about being back in America?"

"How do you feel about eating In N Out burgers as soon as we get off the plane?"

"How do you feel about knowing whether the baby is a boy or a girl and people asking you to tell them before it's time?"

Next up... wedding pictures!