Gobble Jog 5K with Kyle's Work

Kyle's work hosted a company wide 5K Gobble Jog a couple weeks before Thanksgiving.  Emery and I decided to skip her nap and go enjoy Birkdale for the afternoon so we could watch the race!  They had already decorated for Christmas up near the shopping center and Emery loved seeing the huge tree there.

They also have the singing bears up again this year so we watched that for a while (the show is over 30 minutes this year!) then got some ice cream!  Of course she picked out Mint Chocolate Chip to eat-- one of the many similarities between her and Kyle!

Before we knew it, it was time to head over and watch the race!  Kyle ran one of his fastest 5K's to date getting 4th place out of the whole thing... needless to say I was super impressed!

His buddy, Cory, ran it too so I had to take a picture of Cory coming in to the finish line!

Kyle and Cory! (now I haven't explained on here that Kyle participated in "MOVEMBER" and had a mustache the whole month to raise money for Men's Health.  Not my favorite look to say the least but it was for a great cause so I couldn't complain too much.)

Proud of her Daddy!

A fun afternoon with the fam!

Dinner with the Nortons

The first weekend after our due diligence period ended we spent packing, packing and more packing.  Well really, I was packing while Kyle spent 100% of his time stuck in insulation fixing some items off of our inspection list, poor guy.  So we were very excited to head to the Norton's house on Saturday night to spend some family time with them before we moved.  Tim has always treated Kyle like a son, and we will always be grateful for how Tim helped mentor Kyle in his career. 
Emery had an absolute ball hanging out with all the kids, and it was such a treat for Kyle and I to eat a meal in peace and be able to visit afterwards with Tim and Deidre.  Their oldest girl, Elizabeth, watched Emery the entire time, while the boys soaked up their last night with Tyson, as they've grown very attached since they always watch Tyson for us when we go on vacations.

Emma, Elizabeth and Emery :)

Thank you again Tim and Deidre for having us over and truly giving us a "night out".  Hope to see y'all soon!

Firebreather Challenge

Two weekends ago, Kyle and 6 other of his co-workers participated in the Firebreather Challenge!  It was a 6 mile off road obstacle race with walls to climb, cargo nets, river crossings and various other physical challenges.  The Saturday that the race was held was when temperatures here in Atlanta were 105, so they actually changed up the course so that the competitors had to swim through the river 5 times, compared to the normal 1 or 2 crossings.  They all had an absolute blast!

Emery and I came for a little while to cheer them on during the first couple obstacles that we could watch.  I forgot to say that their team name was Cobra Kai (from Karate Kid!) so we put the hand band on Em for the pic!

The team before the race:

They first ran up a large hill, grabbed a piece of wood and carried it back down to drop in a nearby bucket:

Next was moving two 45 lb weights and a 25 lb weight across the sidewalk:

Then jumped a 6 foot wall, crawled over a pile of tires and then climbed up another 6 foot wall:

That was as much as Emery and I could watch since by this point we were both drenched in sweat and it was definitely time to go home. Another one of his co-workers made sure to take a final picture after they all finished.

A great bonding day for Kyle and his co-workers!

Whirlwind

There has been so much going on these last few weeks. Trying to write it all down in a blog post is not only time consuming but a little intimidating to use the correct words. But I just have to share, if only to show God's grace & provision for our family!

I shared how Kyle took a new job with Rubbermaid on our blog, but I left out one teeny-tiny super exciting part ;)  With this job, in 6-9 months we are able to transfer to Charlotte, North Carolina! (Probably start looking in December with the plans to be there in January).  Charlotte is where Kyle and I lived when we first got married, and we are so pumped to get back there and be closer to some of our best friends and family.  We immediately put our town home up on the market, trying to be proactive in selling it so that when we do move we won't have to deal with the burden of two mortgages next year.  

Well it was up for 10 days, and after 5 showings we got an offer!  We were "under contract" for about 4 days (4 craziest days ever as the couple wanted to move in by May 31st -- so lots of driving around the city & looking online for homes to rent).  On Wednesday of this week though, the news came that the contract had been canceled due to the buyers not being able to get financing.  Kyle and I both agree this was a blessing in disguise as packing up our house (with a toddler) and finding a new place to rent in less than 2 weeks was going to be insane.  Either way, our house is now back on the market as of yesterday and hopefully we'll have some more people interested in it over the next couple months!

One of the biggest reasons we didn't share the moving news on our blog was because of my work.  I didn't know how much longer I would be working and I didn't want word getting back that we were moving quite yet.  I officially have been working from home and taking care of Emery for an entire year now, and I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to do both.  But on the other hand, I knew that this was not a long term solution as Emery will be dropping her second nap any day now, and as she has gotten more mobile I don't want us to be tied down at home near my computer everyday.


On Monday April 23rd, I went into the office with the plans of talking to my boss about setting an end date for me, depending on how long it would take to train someone new and/or finish large projects that are going on.  Well God had another plan in mind!  That same morning, my boss called me into her office with tears in her eyes letting me know that my job as well as one other in our marketing department needed to be eliminated based on financial issues that our company is having.  Our department is one that has never been affected by this issue in the past, and unfortunately we had to be this time.  Even though that news is never easy to hear, it could not have worked out better for me and my family.  I can't go into more details on that, but we are so blessed by this outcome.  God is so good.


So, today is actually my last official day working, and this past Monday was my last day going into the office.  It was bittersweet to give everyone hugs and say goodbye, but I have such a peace about it and am SO excited to officially be a stay-at-home mom! Lacey brought in a yummy Panera breakfast, and then a large group of us went out to lunch to celebrate my last day.  I also came home with these beautiful flowers, one delivered from Ky and one from my boss, Donna.  It truly has been a great 4 year run with this company.

We also met Lacey last week for dinner to celebrate and just talk about everything going on.  I feel like it was just yesterday when we were both hired only a couple months apart from each other, and I have been so blessed to get to work with her for the past 4 years.  We are really such a great team, and I will always consider her a best friend. This change is not going to be easy on Lacey as she now will have the work of 2 of her friends added to her plate.  I have agreed to freelance for them during busy times though, so don't worry Lacey I'm still here if you need me. Love you girl!

Alright if you made it to the bottom of this post, that is all of our news, phew!  Kyle, Emery and I are so excited about this new phase happening in our lives and I feel so blessed that my goal of being a stay-at-home mom is happening!  Please keep your fingers crossed that an awesome buyer comes along for us before December... NC here we come!

Em's first game at Turner Field

At the beginning of last week, we headed to Turner Field for a Georgia vs. Georgia Tech baseball game.  It was a family event for Ky's team at work, and we had such a great time.  Ky is absolutely loving his new job and all the people on the Irwin team and it was neat for Emery and I to get to meet them all so quickly.

Emery cheering on Georgia Tech!

The game started at 7 (Em's bedtime), so before long she wanted her paci and started drifting off to sleep!

A very fun night for sure! 

Date night to celebrate!

Last week, Kyle and I met on a Monday night after work for a dinner date just the two of us (thank you Jeneane for staying later to watch Emery!).  We went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants here in town, Pappasitos!  We had two things to celebrate: 1) Me nursing an entire year (hence the margarita in the picture below... my first one in almost 2 years!) and way more importantly 2) Kyle accepting a new job!

We are so excited for this new opportunity for Kyle, as he is taking on the National Account Manager position for Irwin Tools (a division of Newell Rubbermaid) selling to Home Depot.  He was sought after for this job by the current team, and this offer couldn't have come at a better time!  Congratulations Ky, I am so proud of you!!

Jen's Circus Themed Baby Shower!

I am so excited to show you all what Lacey and I have been busy planning and crafting these past couple weeks for Jen's baby shower!  Even though it was a work shower it doesn't mean that we didn't want to go all out for Jen! We chose to do a circus theme with the invitation wording being "There is someone new coming to town... Let's Celebrate!"

So here we go, get ready for LOTS of details, I mean after all what you would expect a shower to look like from two graphic designers?! We transformed our conference room into a circus!  We started by hanging pennant banners from the ceiling that we cut from scrapbook paper, punched holes in, and strung with twine!  Then around the table we swooped streamers, and then added balloons under the table to add to the decor but not get in the way!

 

We put some of our food and silverware inside Lacey's mason jars, then to add some color we wrapped ribbon around and printed little tags backed by scrap booking paper to cover the seam.  I also found 2 large white frames at Michaels for only $4, so we printed cute phrases inside, keeping with the same colors and fonts from the invitation of course. They added height and color to the table, which worked out perfectly! 

Lacey picked up the cardboard letters of Max's name and painted them white, which looked awesome as the main centerpiece.  We put them on top of a plain cardboard box that we covered in turquoise fabric to match!

We also found this cute Farris wheel centerpiece from Hobby Lobby, and filled it with taffy for decoration.

It was so fun to make all the food revolve around what you would find at a circus!  Our menu consisted of: Sliders, Mini Hot Dogs (smokies put in small dinner rolls), cake pops, twizzlers, gumballs, popcorn, cupcakes, pretzels, circus peanuts, taffy, fruit, cotton candy, animal crackers, caramel popcorn, and real peanuts!  We gave away the boxes of animal crackers to the winners of our games, but until the games started we stacked them behind their plate for more decoration!

For drinks we used Izze cans (from Costco) and then had a water pitcher that we filled with lime and lemon slices for color!  The striped straws to drink from were a hit, everyone loved them!

We used Kate Aspen's Born to Be Wild Animal Place Card Holders to label all the food.  We printed the names on card stock then backed with scrap booking paper to match.  They were so cute!

To go along with the larger pennant banners hung from the ceiling, we did a smaller version on the cake plate that was filled with cupcakes!  I strung little pennants with sewing string, then attached them to kabobs and stuck in the funfetti cupcakes for decoration.  We love how these turned out!

For the other cupcakes Lacey made toppers that were a hit as well, so cute!

Okay enough food shots, here is everyone enjoying it all!  We had a huge crowd, and were thrilled that so many people came to celebrate Jen and Max.  So many people stayed to participate in the games and watch Jen open her gifts which was great!

For the first game we passed out a Baby Animal Name Game card that I made where you have to write down what a baby is called for that animal.  It was a lot harder than people expected it to be and was fun hearing their answers.  I think the hardest one was "what is a baby Llama?"... the answer is Cria!

Next was watching Jen open up her gifts!  The big group gift was her Ergo carrier and play mat, but she got some really cute other gifts for Max.

And our last game was guessing Jen's belly size.  We passed out ribbon then had people hang the strands with their names from a piece of twine until we were ready to go through them. 4 people were really close with their guesses, but Gina ended up winning in the end!

You can't leave without favors, especially when you work for a favor company!  We used Kate Aspen's Born to Be Wild Jungle Themed Favor Boxes and filled them with candy, as well as gave away cotton candy which we personalized with animal stickers we designed and printed out.

 Jen, Lacey and I had so much fun hosting this shower for you and baby Max.  We cannot wait to meet him in just a couple weeks!

*A HUGE thank you to Brooke for helping us set up.  We would not have gotten it done without you!  Also thank you to Christen for the delicious cake pops, they were a hit!*

Work Halloween

Our company always has such fun celebrations for Halloween and this year was no different.  Now it wasn't as amazing as 2009, but I don't think that one will ever be topped!

Jen, Lacey and I decided to dress up as the "3 Marketeers"as a play on words for the candy bar "3 Musketeers" (we are the only 3 in marketing at our office!).  It was a super easy costume to make and I think it ended up coming out great!

The morning activities consisted of Spooky Bingo over the loud speaker.  Jen and I were totally excited to play and Lacey was barely even paying attention... well guess who won?! LACEY!

Everyone brought yummy treats to eat throughout the day, just take a look at how creative people got!  Most everything was delicious... the only one that I really couldn't get over and eat was the feet of meat (bottom right!) just looked way to realistic!

My favorite treat of the day was one that Jen made.  You can never go wrong with Rice Krispie Treats but shape them into pumpkins with a tootsie roll and icing as the stem & leaves, and put them over crushed cookies as dirt and you have yourself a winner!

It was a fun day for sure!  Love our company!

Work Carnival!

A couple weeks ago, our work hosted a Fall Carnival for all the employees and their families!  It was so fun! They rented the Tex's Tacos food truck and we had all you can eat tacos, quesadillas, lime seasoned chips, salsa, and guacamole... YUM!  It was so delicious I might just have to visit this truck again soon!

Here's the delicious menu:

 See I told you it was amazing:

We also had a funnel cake stand AND a sno-kone machine.  So fun!

Lacey and I thoroughly enjoyed our grape sno-kones:

I was so excited that Kyle could make it with Emery and I:

 The girls:

 Everyone had a great time visiting with Em:

The company also rented some blow up castles and a magician for all the kids.  Both were very entertaining to say the least:

Jen's husband, David, and Kyle had fun catching up:

 Lacey, Kyle and I stayed a while to try to dodge some of the traffic.  

Ky and Emery:

AND lastly Jen had just been to her gender ultrasound earlier that day... she announced they are having a BABY BOY!! So exciting!