Is this really MY baby shower???

I can't tell you how many baby showers I've been to the last 3 years where I sat and WISHED so hard that I would be next. As many of you know, getting this little guy in my belly was not an easy task for us and we've been waiting for our turn for a long time! I'll spare you all the crazy details, and those of you who care already know what a journey it has been for us. Of course I was always so excited for everyone who was having babies, I just wondered if I would ever be joining them. Well, alas it is our turn, and the timing is perfect for us (just shows you that someone else knows better than I do)! I fought back tears all night as I watched so many dear family members and close friends throw gifts my way and hug me and tell me how excited they were for me. My family and friends have been huge life savers and I am extremely grateful for all the love they show me.

My sister, Alysha, is the absolute bomb. Such a darling girl with a fun personality. Now, living across the country from her, I miss her terribly. My other wonderful sister, Sarah wasn't able to be at my shower and we missed her! I put Alysha on camera duty for the night and came away with tons of cute pics, only making my job more difficult when deciding which ones go on the blog... love you sis.

All the lovely ladies who helped throw me a shower came up with a "camping" theme...they know me too well. It was so rad.

Love my Gma White.

Mom made a very cute diaper cake for me.

Hall girls (minus Sarah) with Gma White.

Beautiful quilt from Gma Blackhurst! Love love love!

Stocking up on the Jordan sweat suits! My little guy got so spoiled and he is going to be one stylin' dude!

I still love how baby's nickname, Pete, has stuck for so long. Poor kid will probably be called Pete for the rest of his life.

My Perkinson girlies rock! Love my lady in-laws! Thank you for being so sweet.

My sweet sis-in-law, Kinzi, gave me my fabulous diaper bag. Love it!

My best friend has been the BEST! I am so very lucky to have her!

Thank you all for making me feel special and for preparing me for this exciting time! Now every square inch of our little apartment in New York is filled with darling baby stuff and we couldn't feel more blessed.

Thanksgiving and Fun Visitors!

Family, Food, Football, Fun! We hit on all the important "F" words for Thanksgiving! Bryan's sister, Mary, and her husband, Gavin, came and spent the week with us and we had a blast! The first day we drove up to Sleepy Hollow and visited the creepy cemetery and explored the little town, just to check a new place off our list :)

This is Thanksgiving morning at the Macy's Parade. We had fun wandering through Central Park, catching glimpses of all the cool floats and performers.

I felt bad the boys didn't get to play football Thanksgiving morning because we went to the parade instead (personally, I think I was more upset about this than the boys were...it's tradition people!). All our friends here were starting their football games at like 10am and it just wasn't going to work...oh well, instead we just tossed the football around while we watched the parade.

The trees are still barely holding on to their colors. Soon they will be bare and I will be sad because that means it is going to get really cold!

The weather was so nice, we could have spent all day walking through the park!

The finished product! Pies were made the night before, ham in the oven, turkey in the crockpot (which turned out AMAZINGLY), and all the yummy sides to go with it! Thanks Mary for the help in the kitchen! Our little feast for the four of us turned out fantastic and I was very relieved...spent the rest of the day watching football.

The day after Thanksgiving, Christmas started going up throughout the whole city (some places even started prior to T-day)! It's so fun how NYC goes all out with decorations! Every store, every street has Christmas cheer! This is in the Trump Tower.

The shops on 5th Ave. were so much fun, except I've never seen so many people in my life!

Thanks for spending this holiday week with us!

My Beautiful Visitors!!

Two weeks ago my mom and Gretchen (my sister, Alysha) came across the country to visit me!! I was so HAPPY to see them and spend time showing them my new home :) We had so many things to do and see in only a few days and we wasted no time! Here are only a fraction of the pics we took.

Times Square on a Saturday night is a must if you wanna see all the crazy people dressed up.

I let Lysh take a pic of my belly to take home as a souvenir. It's growing!!

Got some Bubba Gump's shrimp on Times Square with the best frozen lemonade.

Lysh with Miss Liberty. We also took a ferry out on the water to get a closer look.

"Top of the Rock" at the Rockefeller Center where Bryan works.

Shops on 5th Ave. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Sorry, I cut mom out.

And the famous... too bad it was a 2 hour wait to get in. Maybe another time.

We hit up The Addams Family musical. It's not as good as some of the other shows we've seen, but it was still really fun!

Checked out the protesters on Wall Street...

Brooklyn Bridge!

Shopping in SoHo and HAD to stop at the famous Lombardi's Pizza for lunch. Sooo yummy!

And being goofy in the park.

Thank you for coming to see me! Come back sooooon!!

Washington DC and Baltimore

Since we've lived in NY, we have been lucky enough to travel along the East Coast a little bit and have seen some really cool things! It is kinda a pain to leave the city because we either have to figure out the train thing or rent a car (which is sooo pricey on the weekends!). But, this past weekend we got a car and drove to DC. We drove through DC when we moved across the country, but didn't get to spend much time in the city, so we wanted to go back. We jumped on one of the bus tours and went all over the city, getting off at different stops to run into museums or take pics. I couldn't get over all the amazing buildings! I am a huge fan of the style of architecture in DC and it was fun to see everything in person.

The Lincoln Memorial was probably my favorite thing we saw!

Mr. Lincoln himself.

We were lucky enough to stay with Bryan's cousin, Juliette, in DC, then got up early the next day and drove to Baltimore to meet up with our friends, Dennis and Taya Pitta, and catch Dennis' football game! Such a blast! It was a great excuse for me to bust out the purple skinnies to wear to the game.

Yay #88! Luckily, the Ravens pulled out a "W" and we had an enjoyable night at dinner after the game. We really loved the Baltimore stadium, but the city was more ghetto than I thought it would be.

Did I mention the weather was PERFECT?? It was. 65 degrees and only sprinkled for a few minutes. Didn't even have to wear a coat and I was loving it! Kinda mad I didn't get a pic with everyone in it. Oh well. Thanks Pittas!

The Gender Reveal

We are soooo excited to announce that we are having a BOY! These kicks were the very first purchase for our little monster. More importantly, our little dude can keep his nick-name for now which is Pete. After he's born he'll get a normal name, but for now we call him Pete.

I think it's weird when people overload on belly pics during pregnancy...just not my thing. But due to popular demand, (and since I now live so far from friends and family) I will post a few as I start getting fat. Here I am at 20 weeks getting ready to head to the gym. Belly is just barely starting to poke out.

This is the day we found out that Pete is a boy. 21 weeks. This is 2 weeks ago, and my belly has doubled since then!

In-Law Drama?

Nope, no in-law drama for us! I have been immensely blessed by marrying into such an incredible family. From day one I have been treated like one of the daughters and I have always gotten along with everyone so well. I definitely count my blessings when I hear horror in-law stories because I don't have any stories of my own. It also goes vice versa because Bryan gets along really well with my family (and my family has learned to disregard his frequent, rude comments). Anyway, we were privileged a few weeks ago with having Bryan's parents come stay with us! We gave them our bedroom and Bryan and I bunked on the living room futon, and we all were so happy to share our little bathroom for the week! The first few days we rented a car and drove up to Newport, Rhode Island and stayed in a nice little hotel. We had a great time driving around and did tours of some of the incredible mansions. I love this first pic of the shoreline with a few of the mansions.

Obsessed with this entry gate! Someday if you come to our house, you will enter through something like this...

Ok, I guess this house will do for our future home...better pop out some kids to fill it first!

The cute little restaurant we ate at right on the ocean. Great seafood!

The rest of the week was spent in NYC going to broadway shows, enjoying the opera, caught a Mets game, strolled through Central Park, ate some great food, did some shopping, and loved hanging out. Thanks for coming to visit us!

Dave Matthews Perkinson

Kinda a catchy name, right? We love Dave Matthews Band so much we probably would be temped to name our baby after him! (IF the baby is a boy that is...I'll let you know next week!)

Bry has always been a big fan and he got me hooked when we started dating. We have now seen Dave in concert 4 times together! If you haven't seen him in concert, you should. Best concert you will ever go to. One day we will make it to see him at Red Rocks or The Gorge or somewhere cool like that. Dave is now doing his Caravan tour and made a stop here in NYC! He decided to come the same weekend Hurricane Irene decided to come, so we got to see him Friday night on Governor's Island, but then Sat and Sun night's concerts got cancelled. Lucky for us, we only bought tickets for Friday night. And lucky for us, he came back 3 weeks later and did another weekend concert on Randall's Island! 2 Dave concerts in one month! Amazing. Even Pete (fetus in my belly) loved Dave. After the first concert, we got home at about 3am and as I was laying in the tub I felt Pete move for the first time! Definitely a sign that he loved the concert. (I keep saying that, and hope he really wasn't squirming because I inhaled too much weed).

Anyway, here are some pics I got. Some of them are pretty crappy because they were taken on my phone.

Getting ready for the concert to start.

I tried to upload a couple videos, but after leaving it to load for 2 hours I got impatient and cancelled it. Sorry!