Birthday Weekend Festivities

This past weekend was so fun and so busy!  I have to start with Thursday when Reese and I went to the Kohl Children's Museum with Erika, Isabella & Baby Joey!  It was a blast!  I think the girls favorite part was definitely playing in the pretend grocery store area!  We had to go back for round 2!

Isn't this little man just handsome!  I could kiss his cheeks all day long...

 Friday night we celebrated Shaun & Ryan's Birthdays at the Gorsline's - we had pizza and brownies - I didn't get any pics - shame on me :)

Saturday brought Katie's Baby Shower for Miss Delaney Madison!  Her Mom threw the shower and I can't even begin to describe how beautiful everything was!  Every little detail was thought of and it was all just adorable!  Also - Katie makes just about the cutuest pregnant person I have ever seen!  I just loved her little belly sash!  We were so happy that Sarah was able to be there and all 4 of us roomies from college could reunite!

After the shower, Sarah & the Matteucci's came back to celebrate Shaun's birthday with us with some spaghetti & Texas cake!  Reese looked like this...

...and I got to cuddle and love on this little man some more!

Happy Birthday to you... (Bella helped blow out the candles!)

Then Sunday night my parents took us out to dinner in Lake Genava!  I would say Shaun was a lucky guy this weekend!  We celebrated more than a couple of times!

 This week I have started working on Reese's Christmas stocking.  It is crewel - the same way my Mom made all of our stockings!  It will be time consuming but I am really excited for the end product!  Maybe I can even get a start on mine & Shaun's...we will see!

Family Roots

I don't even know how to write this post because I feel like no matter what I write, that no words can explain how awesome last weekend was for Shaun and I.  We were able to get a hold of Shaun's "Adoption Certificate" which had his birth parents names on it and thanks to modern technology and peoplesearch.com we were able to easily locate Shaun's birth mother Gina and 2 of his half siblings - Ryan and Travis.  The words excited, anxious, nervous and happy kind of half way describe the feeling but not really.  I have never seen Shaun so happy and excited for anything in my entire life - getting married and having a baby are obviously exciting and happy times but this was something very different.

We drove to Zanesville Ohio last Thursday night and the next morning were picked up by Gina and her husband Steve.  Of course, I started talking a million miles a minute from the second that I got in the car (I seriously tried not to but I could NOT contain my excitement).  I kept telling myself, "stop talking Lauren...let Shaun say something!"  Of course he eventually did :)  and the conversation was sooooo easy and relaxed.  They drove us around town and Gina showed us where she grew up, her old school, the house where Shaun's birth Dad grew up in.  It was just awesome - you would expect it to be awkward but it absolutely was not!  They were so welcoming, friendly and easy to get along with!  After our Zanesville tour, we had lunch on Buckeye Lake.  It was such a beautiful, perfect day for that.

After lunch, we drove back to see their house - and it is just beautiful!  You can tell they take a lot of pride in it and Shaun and I basically wanted to move in - It was decorated so nice, it felt so comfortable and homey and they had a fabulous finished basement with an awesome bar.  Gina showed us her High School yearbook with pictures of her and Shaun's birth Father...they were pretty funny!  We must have been down there for a few hours because before we knew it it was 8:30 and we were getting hungry again for dinner!  We went to this really cute Italian place for dinner...it hit the spot - it was so yummy :)  Then we went back to their house - oh and right after Shaun and Gina got in touch with each other, Gina and Steve went to a Scottish/Dublin Festival in Dublin Ohio and they got Shaun a T-shirt and me a cute shamrock bracelet!  They also got Reese a cute book titled, "Little Red's Autumn Adventure" and some bows - oh and also some yummy peanut chocolates (Shaun and his co-workers loved them!)  I just thought that was so sweet and thoughtful!  

These pictures were taken Friday night out in their beautiful back yard!

The next morning we met them for breakfast and then headed back to their house for a bit before we had to leave to go meet his brothers.  This picture below was taken Saturday morning out on their deck!

Then we were headed to Lancaster where we were going to meet Ryan, his wife Bekah, Travis and his girlfriend Jodie.  Shaun met Ryan and they golfed for a few hours and I happily went to TJ Maxx all by myself!  It was a nice little afternoon!  Then we all went to Travis' apartment which was right near our hotel, before going out for dinner.  Ryan, Travis, Bekah and Jodie were all so nice and welcoming!  We felt like we had been friends with them for years, even though we had just met them.  After dinner we went to a little local bar and had a few too many beers!  It was a great time!  We cannot wait to go back soon and do it again!

Shaun & Ryan

Bekah & I

Ryan, Shaun & Travis - a little blurry :(

We were so sad to leave.  I really cannot even begin to express how awesome of a weekend it was, it could not have gone any better at all.  We are so excited because Gina & Steve are planning on coming up to visit us in Bristol at the end of October!  We cannot wait!!!  From all of this, our only expectation and hope is that Gina, Steve, Ryan, Bekah & Travis will want to be a part of our life as much as we want to be a part of theirs!  I am so happy for Shaun that he was able to find and meet this part of his family.  We are very hopeful, excited and happy for the future!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Labor Day Weekend.....did I just type Labor Day???  Where has the time gone???

Shaun turns 30!

Shaun turned the big 3-0 on Sept 8th.  We started his birthday week out celebrating with the Gorsline's (Ryan also had a birthday the same week)  Aren't the little twinkies just too cute for words?!?!?!  I love them so much!

 For Shaun's actual birthday I wanted to do something that I thought he would really like - so I surprised him and brought him down to Peoria to play golf with some of his closest friends and threw him a surprise birthday party (balloons, cupcakes, a keg and all!)  

Blake & Ashley were awesome hostess' and let me use their new (as in moved in only 1 week ago) beautiful house.  I was so happy because ALL of our friends down in Pekin & Peoria came.  Every single person that Shaun would have wanted to see was there!  We had so much fun.  It was so nice to catch up and visit with everyone.  I have to say thank you to a few very special people who helped tremendously - I wouldn't have been able to pull it off with out all of you - Curtis, Jenna, Ashley, Blake, Jessie, Andrea, Kurt & Stacey - Thank You so so so much!!  So many people helped me pull it together - planning a party from 3 hours away is no small feat!  It was 100% worth it.  We had such a good time! AND - on the way out of town, we finally got to meet Miss Elle (Kurt & Stacey's little girl).  She is the most adorable little thing - she is getting so big!!!  We can't wait to bring Reese down to meet her little friend!!!

Enjoy the pics!

Ryder taking Reese for a walk!

Look at those lashes!!!

Samantha Jean

Taylor Ann

Love the eyebrow!

The birthday boys...and Samantha!

They MAY have been afraid of the flash!!

Golf @ Weaver Ridge

Shaun & Kurt

My awesome, amazing helpers!

The Hostess with the mostest!

Shaun walking into his party!

Greek yogurt cupcakes...yum yum!

Dirty 30 & Thirsty!

Jessie came all the way down from Chicago!

Miss Elle!

"Where is Elle's nose?' hahaha!!!

 More posts coming this week from our trip to Galena!  So many to choose from - how will I ever narrow it down?  It is past my bedtime now!  Hope everyone has a great week.  You better believe that this week I will be dusting off my boots, sweaters, slippers, leggings, cinnamon sticks and everything else that is Fall!!  It is my most favorite time of the year!!!