A weekend in Atlanta!

After a pretty stressful week at work Kyle and I had a lot of fun doing "Atlanta" things over the weekend. On Friday night we were given free tickets to the last pre-season Thrashers hockey game. Our good friends, Chris D. & Brooke invited us to go with them and sit in their suite with them! The suite was on the second level right at the red line... it was crazy! We had all the free food and drinks we could want, and were treated like celebrities!

Chris & Brooke (the boys played at App together)
Saturday night, Kyle surprised me and took me to the Georgia State Fair! If you don't know me very well, you might be shocked that I LOVE THE FAIR, but I really do!
It was more crowded and a lot smaller than the NC State Fair, but we still had a great time. I got my carmel apple and Kyle got his cheese chips! We went with Chris & Kathleen, and Elise & John. Kyle actually rode some rides with me without getting sick, so that was a real treat!

This is us on the Pirate Ship (soon after Kyle felt sick!)

Happy Birthday to Kyle!!

My wonderful husband turned 24 on Wednesday! Before work I surprised Kyle with a card and monkey bread for breakfast! Kyle and I also met at lunch, and took a picnic to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (beautiful!!). After work, we got a little group together, Lacey, Warren, Chris, Kyle & I and all went out to a Japanese Steak House called Shogun. Our chef was great, and joked around with us the entire time. We all had to catch shrimp in our mouths! Afterwards they brought Kyle fried icecream and took a polaroid of our group! I will try to scan it in and post it soon! We all came back to our house and played Guitar Hero, which all the guys are now in love with. What a great birthday for Kyle!

Wonderful Raleigh weekend!

Man we sure do love our Raleigh weekends! This weekend was special because we had 3 birthdays to celebrate, Tara's, Grandma's and then Kyle's! It was a family filled weekend like always, packed with great food and lots of laughs! Kyle and I ended up getting to take a half day on Friday, so we were able to pick up Nick from Chapel Hill on the way home. We got the chance to meet all of Nick's great roomates and see his house that they are all living in. Their house is located pretty close to Frat Court, and just a bike ride (or skateboard for Nick) away from all of his classes. We went out to a local joint for dinner and had a great time catching up with him and his crazy life. Nick is wanting to be a dentist, so he is volunteering a lot of his time at a local clinic in Chapel Hill. When he's not doing that, he works at the KD sorority house as a waiter to all the beautiful girls. Nick gets 3 free meals a day, and gets to meet a lot of people! Can't really complain about that one!
Saturday Nick, Kyle and I all woke up and went for a run. I'm TRYING to get in shape, Kyle is ALREADY in shape, and Nick is as skinny as he can get, but wants to train for a triathlon to do with Kyle when the season starts up again. Kyle then went to paintball with all the guys for Bobby's bachelor party (a friend from the ASU Ice Hockey team). There were about 25 guys there and Kyle had a great time. After that they went out to dinner & drinks at the Flying Saucer, which Kyle said was a fun place to go. While Kyle was busy all day with the guys, I got the chance to hang out and catch up with some great friends, Sara & Joe Turner, (known since I was 6) and Bret Ackerman (known since I was 10). It was so great being around old friends like that! Sara has become Mrs. Gardner outside and has so many beautiful plants growing around the house. Bret has been recalled to the Marines, and will fly out in a couple days to California where he will train for a few months, then get shipped to Iraq. Please keep him in your prayers, as we can just never predict what he will face over there.
We then celebrated Grandma's birthday with the whole family! Aunt JoAnne, Uncle Johnny, Sarah & her boyfriend David flew in from Orlando, Florida to help celebrate! Summer (my cousin) & Jeff also drove in from Virginia, so we had a big crowd! She got some great presents and was thrilled that everyone drove in to help celebrate her day. Kyle and I gave her a cast iron Hummingbird feeder/stand from one of the art festivals held on the Marietta square.
Kyle and I couldn't make it to Raleigh for Tara's Birthday, so we finally got to give her present to her. I had collected all of her baby shower pictures, and had made a scrapbook for her putting them all together.

She loved it, just like I hoped she would!

On Sunday we all went to church then went back over to Mom and Dad's to celebrate Kyle's 24th birthday. The Baker/Dew/Stout crowd came over, as well as Kerry & Brad & Kyle's 94 year old grandfather, Pop. We had a great time with everyone, eating a wonderful home cooked meal (chicken parm... Kyle's favorite) with some mint chocolate chip icecream pie. Grandpa was in a wonderful mood that day, so it was really neat seeing him and Pop interact with each other.The whole family had chipped in to give Kyle Guitar hero for his birthday. He received : 2 wireless guitars (so we can thrash together), slim ps2, a memory card, remote, couple soccer and other games, and then guitar hero 2. Needless to say he hasn't stopped playing it. Thank you all for a wonderful weekend, which we were closer like always!

We even got Kerry & Brad to play!

Kyle and I took a trip to NYC for my 24th birthday and had bought the twins and pop little "I love NY shirts".

Here they are all looking adorable as usual:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!

Yesterday was grandma's 77th birthday! It was a great birthday for her, as Uncle Johnny's whole family (minus Ben) flew in town from Orlando, FL to help her celebrate! We can't wait to see everyone in Raleigh this weekend, and get to celebrate all the birthdays! Love you g-ma!

Sorry ladies he's mine :)

I thought I would write a post about Kyle's last Triathlon in PeachTree City two weekends ago, since everyone has been asking! Kyle FINALLY had a great run! In the past triathlons he has done, Kyle's calves/hamstrings have cramped badly during the run portion and he's had to "pull over" and stretch them out. Starting a week before this one he started putting a mix in Gatorade 4 times a day that boosts your electrolytes. Chris did this tri with him, and also watched him to make sure he was drinking lots of water the day before. Unfortunately I had to stay at home to talk care of Tyson, so I couldn't watch this one. But it was great news getting that phone call and hearing Kyle actually feeling good afterwards because his legs weren't cramped. YEAH for Kyle! He is trying to do one more before the season is over so we'll see!

I have the cutest niece & nephew in the world!

Happy 5 month kids! Can't wait to see them in less than 2 weeks!

Another one!

Sorry Nick you know you had to be in one of these!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Something to make you smile!

Kyle and I know you all would enjoy this! Have a great day!

Cuzzie

Another prayer request to bring up to everyone. Kyle's dads cousin/ Cuzzie/ Kyle's second father / Crazy ski man / Cuzmo, and many more great names, was diagnosed with stage four melanoma a couple weeks ago. He had the patch of skin removed, as well as dye injected in his body to see which lymph nodes it would spread to first. He later had 4 lymph nodes removed from his armpits, and we just heard this week that one of the lymph nodes that was removed tested positive for melanoma cells. He will go through chemo and immunobiological treatments over the next couple weeks/months. Cuzzie is so strong, still feels great and has such a positive attitude, we know he will get through this. Please keep him and the Guenther family in your prayers!

Update on Grandpa Stout

We can't thank you all enough for your prayers and support for my Grandpa, everyones emails and calls have been so uplifting. I wanted to update you all and let you know how he is doing! He has only gone through 2 weeks of full blown chemo, but still no hair loss! Grandma says that the chemo really knocks him out and he spends a lot of time in bed recovering. Last weekend over Labor Day, he was outside giving everyone orders on how to clean up his yard! He was cracking everyone up, and seemed in high spirits. So thank you all again, and I will keep you updated on how he progresses through all of his treatments!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARA!

Just wanted to write a quick Happy Birthday to Tara, my older and much much wiser sister! She turns 27 today! (I'm sure she loves that I'm sharing this with the world). Her and Jamie are having a date night tonight, going to dinner & a movie, while mom & dad babysit Natalie & Nathan. We hope you have a wonderful birthday Tara and we can't wait to see you in a couple weeks to give you your present! I can't believe she's 27 and already a mother of 2! Tara sent me this picture of the twins on my birthday (she dressed them up for me!), so I thought it was appropriate to post on hers!

I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of the twins yet on our blog! I'm sure most of you have gone to the "Dew's site" on the left hand side of our page, but just in case here is one of my favorite pictures with Tara and the twins. They are growing up so fast, and are the most beautiful, healthy babies! I had the chance to spend the twins first week at home with them, helping Tara adjust to being a mom! Here is their baby announcement, that I was able to design for Tara & Jamie! Now you can see how much they have grown the past couple of months!

Guenther/ Cress weekend!

This past Labor Day weekend Kerry & Brad (Kyle's sister and brother in law) came down to spend the long weekend in Marietta. They had never been to our house before, so we had a lot of fun showing them all the stuff we enjoy doing here. Saturday was filled with sports, Virginia Tech vs. ECU, App State vs. Michigan, and then the Braves Game. We were all happy since our teams won! Kyle's friend, Chris D'Emilio, works for a radio station down here and has Lexus level tickets to every Braves game, so we all received the royal treatment up there. It didn't even feel like we were at a stadium, being air conditioned and eating free food the whole time! Saturday night we all walked up to the square and had dinner & icecream while listening to the live music going on. Sunday there was an arts festival happening up at the square so we walked up there and looked at all the local talent.... it was awesome stuff! Then we took them to the battlefield, and watched Tyson chase the Frisbee through the creek there. Kyle & I think it's about 4,000 acres of protected land, and it is just filled with trails to hike/walk through.

The Battlefield:

Sunday night we all had a part in making a wonderful home cooked meal (Teriyaki chicken, twice baked potatoes, and corn on the cob!) and then played ping pong in our basement until bedtime. While sitting down there we all came up with the idea to create a 3rd bedroom by cutting our garage in half. There is also a possibility to have a bathroom down there to really help our resale go up. So that might be a project Kyle and I start soon once we get it approved by our builder! It was a wonderful RELAXING weekend, and we always have so much fun when family come to visit us! Thanks for coming guys!

ASU beats Michigan at The Big House!

WOW what an unbelievable victory App State had over Michigan this in past weekends game, 34-32. The Mountaineer alumni are all on cloud 9 here, and we are still having trouble believing it ourselves! It was one of the greatest upsets in sports history! The game was broadcasted from the Big Ten Network, which most people cannot get! We were glued to ESPN, which had a ticker running along the bottom updating the score of the game. They also would cut out from the VT game to show highlights of the ASU vs. Michigan game. ASU's football team has proven themselves to be AWESOME, and we still don't know why Michigan chose us as their "cupcake team" to whoop on their first game. I guess they learned their lesson on that one! After the win, all the ASU students still ripped down the goalposts and brought them up to the chancellors house! (if you have never been to the ASU campus, the chancellors house is up a long curvy road that is VERY steep, but that obviously didn't stop the students from going up there!) Here are a couple of videos showing ASU's win incase you haven't seen these!
What made the game!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fumxmR416t4
ASU's goalposts being carried to the chancellors house!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=26WNUJ4-fCI
ASU fans being crazy!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pejW_qIGJ1Q

We have already gotten a call from Uncle Bobby (HUGE Gator's fan) saying thank you on behalf of Florida for knocking out Michigan, and a lot of other teams thank us too I'm sure! My boss at work went to Ohio State, so she gave me parking infront of our office (big deal) for the whole month of September! haha. If you want to read anything about our school's sports go to: GOASU.com.
LETS GO MOUNTAINEERS!!!