Introducing Melinda and Todd Servick!

Ben and I headed down to West Palm/Delray Beach, FL, for the wedding of our friend, Melinda, to Todd Servick. What a gorgeous wedding! The ceremony was held in this cute little church right in Delray and the reception was at the very nice Gulfstream Bath and Tennis Club. We stayed at this adorable environmentally friendly resort called The Sundy House, which I would suggest to anyone heading down to South Florida. Here is the link: http://www.sundyhouse.com/
We even had a few celebrity encounters on the trip.....Mark O'Meara was a groomsmen (nice guy!) and we ran into Ivanna Trump in the Delta Crown Room at the West Palm airport on our way home. What a different world down there!
Ben cuts a rug with some of the flowergirls.....he is going to be such a good daddy to Emery Catherine.

Bridesmaids Alison and Mallory with the beautiful bride. (The John Weiland Girls!) The color of the dresses is called "snapdragon" and I love it. I think it's my new favorite color. All the flowers and decor were shades of hot pink and coral. Stunning.

Mark O'Meara poses with a wedding guest. Mark gave a really nice toast. Todd and Mark have been friends for over 12 years and Todd now works for Mark's golf course design firm.

Mallory and Dan Heinle with little Ellie. Ellie was the perfect wedding guest!

Wedding party photos on the beach. I can't wait to see the photographer's pictures.

Mr. and Mrs. Todd Servick!

Alison's Shower for Baby Hayes

Kriya, Katie, Mallory, Donna and Alicia hosted a wonderful shower for Alison and Baby Hayes this past weekend. They really outdid themselves! Thanks for such a fun afternoon. Katie even flew all the way down to Atlanta from NY in the middle of moving into a brand new house for the occasion. It's always a treat to see all of our friends together!
Lots of monogrammed goodies......like these burp cloths. Almost too cute to use!

The guests

The hostesses with the guest(s) of honor: Katie, Mallory, Kriya, Alison (and Hayes), Donna and Alicia

Diaper cake

More Steamboat Fun

Although Ben and his friends usually spend most of their time skiing in Steamboat, they have recently started snowmobiling as a way to mix things up a bit. Ben's friend, John Heinle, brought a fleet of snowmobiles to Steamboat and the guys rode around on those the first day/evening they were in CO. Below are some pics.

Ski Trips

Ben is currently out in Steamboat for a ski trip with the boys. I am bummed that I didn't get to go this year, but since you can't ski, drink or hot tub while pregnant I really couldn't justify going all the way out there. Next year, for sure! However, I was REALLY wanting to go back to Steamboat because of a little incident that occurred last year when we made the trip with Alison, Brian, Tara and Nando. Let me just set the scene.....I am not a great skier seeing as how I've only been a handful of times and Tara was on skis for the first time EVER. However, after a day of lessons for Tara followed by a day of mastering the greens and two days of me doing just fine on blues, Tara and I decided to set off on our own for the last run of the day. Ben told us to head all the way up to the top of the mountain to try Buddy's Run--a nice, long blue that would bring us all the way down to Gondola Square and Slopeside's bar where we could meet up with him and Nando for our requisite apres-ski Fat Tires. Tara and I hop on the lift and noticed that we were THE LAST CHAIR FOR THE DAY. Now, for skiers like Ben and his friends, this is the stuff dreams are made of. For Tara and me it was a little disconcerting. What if one of us falls and gets hurt? No one is around to save us! (We learned AFTER the fact that ski patrol makes final runs to make sure no one is left wounded on the mountain.....good to know). We get off the lift and are all alone at the very top of the mountain and we can only seem to find one way down: completely vertical chutes and black diamonds. OMG! We could see our flatter blue way off to our left but couldn't figure out how to get to it. So, after a few minutes of hesitating, we go for it.....down a freakin' black! Several terrifying moments later we decide that we have to get to our blue through whatever means necessary.......off the groomed run and through the trees. We cut through the trees and finally make it onto Buddy's Run, but not without Tara falling and tumbling and losing her cell phone and injuring her thumb ("skier's thumb"--it's a common injury, come to find out). Anyways, once on the blue we make it down the mountain no problem....and actually realize that the black we had been on intersected Buddy's Run about 50 yards from where we aborted the trail and headed for the trees). Unfortunately for Ben, we're furious at him for sending us down this run that forced us to negotiate a black diamond for several hundred yards. And Tara was mad at Nando for not going with us. Our husbands were baffled as we were yelling at them. Ben and Nando swore up and down that a big sign clearly marked where we needed to go to get to Buddy's Run while staying on a blue. Tara and I never saw the sign and we were convinced that the sign wasn't actually there. Alison and Brian missed all of this because they decided to have a spa day our last day in Steamboat. Anyways, Ben is back in Steamboat for the first time since the Buddy's Run debacle and made it a point to snap pictures of Bret Hightower in front of the big sign indicating where we needed to go last year. Even in goggles and a helmet, I can tell that Bret is making fun of us! Tara, I guess we both had a major blonde moment.....or we got so flustered by all the black diamond indicators and being all alone that we panicked! Live and learn.....I can't wait to go back next year and do this run again!

I have a feeling that Tara and I are never going to live this one down.

Ben claims that this picture is of two novice skiers who managed to read the sign just fine.....rub salt in a wound, why don't you!

Weekend of Babies!

I hosted a baby shower for my good friends, Debbie and James Boyd, along with my mom and my sister this past Saturday at mom's house. Debbie is expecting a baby girl in early March (Phinley), so we had lots of fun decking out the house and ourselves in pink. Plus, Debbie got some super cute gifts that made me want to go out and give little Emery a major shopping spree. I am excited that Phinley and Emery will grow up being close friends! We were honored to have James's mom, sister and niece come up from Florida for the occasion.
Sunday morning was spent at the house of our friends, Christy and Stuart Everett. Christy and Stuart welcomed Caleb Ray on December 14th and this was the first time I've been able to meet him. He is adorable!!! And Christy looks amazing.....I hope I'm that lucky with the baby weight.

Ben did very well holding a newborn!

It's A.......

Well, I caved and learned the sex of our baby. Actually, Ben and I went in for the 20 week ultrasound (at 20 weeks and 6 days) and we told the ultrasound technician to write down the baby's gender and place it in an envelope, as planned. Ben was to open the envelope later. We had such a fun time watching the baby flip and kick and punch on the ultrasound and, most importantly, everything looks great! We saw ten fingers and ten toes and a well developed spine and heart. We are so thankful! So, we return home and after a few hours I was dying for Ben to open the envelope. I told him I wanted to watch him open it but that I did not want to know the sex. We decided to do this while in the nursery. I'm standing by the crib and Ben is standing by the changing table. He opens the envelope and a look of pure shock and slight panic comes across his face. Immediately I knew what was inside the envelope......"It's a Girl!" I screamed this out and Ben replies with "Yes!" So much for him keeping it to himself. And honey, if you're reading this, please don't ever play poker. Your facial expressions are a dead giveaway. We are thrilled to announce that our baby's name is Emery Catherine Slagel and we can't wait to meet her in June. I think Ben has gotten over his initial shock and is pumped to have our sweet HEALTHY baby girl join the family. I've promised him that he will be able to teach this precious little lady how to ski and swim and wakeboard and he won't be forced to have tea parties all the time. Miss Emery is going to be able to hold her own with all the boys in the family just fine! I've also assured Ben that I won't go overboard with pink and girly stuff. Ben wants me to be practical and choose items for Emery that we'll be able to use for all the future Slagel babies. I agree with this, for the most part, and am very glad that we have done the basics in gender neutral colors. But seriously......like I can resist buying pink monogrammed smocked sundresses and bloomers!?!?!?! AUGHH!!! It's too cute!!! Ben, I've only bought two so far. Well, two dresses and two bloomer sets. Oh yeah.....and a onesie trimmed in pink ribbon with ESC embroidered on the front.

Although I was the one who was fighting NOT to learn the sex of the baby, I have to admit that calling her "Emery" or "Emmy Cate" these past few days and using the proper pronouns when referring to her has made me feel even more bonded to our child. Bennie doesn't realize this yet, but he is about to be wrapped around this baby's finger! He is just going to melt when he sees her. Another lady in his life to spoil.....what more could he want??!!
Emery was tapping her head in this picture.....she's a deep thinker already!

Emmy Cate looks like she is blowing a bubble in this image, but it's actually her umbilical cord visible in the background.