Neighborhood Shower

Last Sunday our neighbors, Bruce and Nancy, organized a surprise baby shower for the whole street, officially making them the greatest neighbors of all-time. Since we have moved here they have helped us with home improvement projects, given us a dryer, and now put together a baby shower for Becky! This was such a thoughtful thing to do, and was such a great opportunity for us to meet a lot of the neighbors we hadn't had a chance to meet yet.

As it turns out we have a lot of really great neighbors. We had such a great time getting to know the other people on our street. Every one of them brought generous gifts...even the ones we had never even met before! Incredible. Also, Bruce is a chef, so the food was awesome.



Nancy created a beautiful cake and hand-decorated cookies.

Here's a shot of the ladies playing shower games...and Roy. Maybe he was just on his way to the beverage cooler.

It has certainly taken awhile for us to feel like this new place we live is home. Over the past month we are starting to feel much more settled, and the wonderful neighbors around us have been a big part of that.

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The Nursery

Will it be a girl...



or a boy?

Baby Bumps...

Week 32

Week 36


Maybe there will be a picture of the actual baby, instead of the bump, for week 40...

Baby Shower

This post is belated, but we've been a bit busy getting everything ready for the arrival of baby Loo! I took a quick trip back to Michigan for a number of celebrations. Gwen and Sarah threw a lovely baby shower with the fitting "Fruit of the Loomis" theme. It was very refreshing for me to be surrounded by family and close friends and share in the joy and anticipation.


My parents also put together a brunch, so I could see my grandparents and cousin Mandy. Even though our babies may not meet for some time, at least they were introduced via baby bump.


We also celebrated Mother's Day, Father's Day, Dad's birthday and Mom's birthday. Marcus and Sarah came up from Chicago for the weekend, and it was nice to spend time with them.

The last event of the jam-packed weekend was a shower for Sheri Camp. It was great to see the Hope girls and have a chance to catch up.
Thank you to everyone who made this weekend so much fun!

NYC

For Memorial Day weekend Becky and I went to New York City / New Jersey for a fun weekend and to visit some good friends. We joked that this was going to be the last fun weekend of our lives, eluding to the fact that we are about to add a child to our family. When I shared this joke with a friend (who is a parent) he said, "Oh, it's not the rest of your life...just the next 18 years!" Anyway, we are of course incredibly excited to be parents soon, but are trying to take advantage of the freedom we still have! Plus Becky had never been to NYC so figured this was the perfect time.

We spent the weekend with my close high school friend Tim, and his girlfriend Kira. We also spent a lot of time with Phil and Becky, who are friends from Hope who now live in a beautiful town in New Jersey.

Here is the whole crew on the Ellis Island ferry. We were thankful that there we no crashes.


Statue of Liberty, in case you couldn't tell what we are posing in front of.


Thought this was cool.


Had a particular Jay-Z song stuck in my head all day...


Central park.


I just thought Tim looked awesome while carrying Kira's bag for her. I had rocked my man-bag all day as well so it was nice to have someone else join in.


We covered a lot of ground in our one day in the city, which I am sure was no minor accomplishment for someone who is 33 weeks pregnant. After spending a beautiful day in the city, we both went to Phil and Becky's house and went to their church the next day. We had such a nice time at their place, but unfortunately didn't take any pictures. It is very cool being so close to such a fun citiy and friends that we didn't get to see very often before we moved here.

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And he bought me flowers!!

Here are the beautiful flowers Bryant bought to celebrate our anniversary.


Can you tell that the lily is bigger than my face? Granted I do have a rather small face, but the lilies are huge!!

Celebrating 5 years

Friday was our 5-year anniversary! It is hard for both of us to believe that so much time has passed so quickly. Being married to each other has been even better than we imagined...and we figured that was worth celebrating.

We began the celebration on Friday with a couples massage at a fancy-pants spa near Columbia. This was only the second time I've ever had a massage, and it is one of the greatest things ever. Back at home I grilled up a gigantic steak. I should have taken a picture because it was amazing.

Then on Saturday, we were planning to go into Baltimore for a nice dinner, but after seeing the weather report we decided to head in for the afternoon instead. We went for the first time to Fells Point, which is a very cool area that is close to the inner harbor, but seems to be much more of a local hang-out (it's also home to Michael Phelps). We spent the afternoon just hanging out near the water, checking out the shops, and then stopping for lunch.


We ate at a Mediterranean place, which turned out to be a minor challenge for my pregnant wife who is not supposed to eat feta cheese! In the end we both found selections that were some of the best we have had in a long time. The more time we spend in Baltimore to more we realize it is actually a very cool city. It's kind of cool when things turn out even better than you thought....



Can you tell I'm holding Becky's hair back to prevent it from blowing in the wind? This picture took several tries.

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