Labor Day on Long Island

We weren't able to make it back South this year for our annual Labor Day beach trip, and we were completely bummed. So we decided to console ourselves with a day trip to Long Island for a little bit of vineyard hopping. It was so nice to get out of the city just the four of us, and we spent the entire day outside since Bo came along. It was just what the doctor ordered, and we brought back some beautiful sunflowers and delicious blueberries to ease us into another week. This was our favorite vineyard for ambiance (they had a huge tent for shade and a petting zoo), and this was our favorite vineyard for taste.

Also, May found her one true love as evidenced by the picture above. She now pitches a fit when we make her find another play toy.

Happy hump day!                                                                                                           

Snail Mail or Electronic?

How do you send your invitations? I have done both, but my preferred method is snail mail. I love paper and pens and my return address stamp too much to abandon ship. I am going to try and do some variation on the above invites for May's first birthday party (writing out the details instead of printed balloons). Wouldn't it make your day to receive something so cheery in the mail? Also, it looks pretty easy to DIY. I'll let y'all know how it goes!

photo from edyta photography

And We're Back!

I have been quite blog delinquent, but I am going to try and be better about keeping up-to-date. Miss May has certainly been taking all of my energy; however, it is time to give my brain other things to think about besides crawling, diapers, teething and separation anxiety.

One of the things I miss about living in The South are the really cute gift boutiques that every town has, no matter how big or small. I love browsing the pretty stationary and beautiful housewares. It is easy to stop in and grab a quick birthday gift for a friend or a hostess gift for the party you are headed to that evening. The boutique gift stores up here are usually either incredibly expensive or not quite my taste; however, Pink Olive is exactly what I have been looking for. I read about their new East Village shop, so May and I headed over last week to investigate. I stayed in the approx. 200 square foot store for a good thirty minutes because there was something new to look at everywhere I turned. It was incredible and gave me the taste of home I was craving. I am so happy to know where I can go for the perfect gift for friends (and a little something fun for myself as well).

Picture by Miha Matei via Pink Olive

Right Here, Right Now

When we got pregnant, a lot of people started asking us if it changed our timeline for staying in New York.  I would be lying if I said it hadn't crossed my mind several hundred times in the past year, but I am even more confident in our decision now than I was a year ago.  Yes, I so wish that we lived closer to our families, and there are days that I desperately want a car and a house and a Publix down the road.  Living in the city is hard and has gotten harder since little miss May arrived, but I love this place and our life here.  There isn't any place I would rather live right now.

You see, while it takes me two trips to get May, the car seat, the stroller and the diaper bag down our apartment stairs and onto the sidewalk; and every time we venture out the door, I have to bundle May up in a snow suit that she hates putting on, so she screams bloody murder while I am putting her in it; and I can't just open the back door to let Bo out, I have to do the aforementioned routine, even if it is just to walk a couple of blocks; and I have to make my own network of friends with babies because we don't have close friends nearby that have ventured into parenthood yet; and our 550 square foot apartment feels even smaller now that May and her things have arrived and taken over.....there are so many more things that I love about living here right here, right now.

May sees as many new things in our walk to the park as she would in a week of driving around in a car in any other city we would choose; and we have our choice of this, this, this, or this mommy and me class (and that is just in our neighborhood); and May learns every single day that the world is made up of people of all different kinds of nationalities; and we can pick up and go to four different zoos or an aquarium any day of the week; and we walk to church and are learning what it means to live in community; and there is a kids sing-a-long in a local bar every Wednesday morning; and we get a lesson on our country's history just by walking around lower Manhattan; and we can walk to no less than five playgrounds without breaking a sweat; and most of all, we have wonderful friends who have taken care of us like family.

We will undoubtedly get back South at some point, but right now, we are so thankful to be right where we are.  And we are so glad that May gets to start discovering the world in this wonderful place.

Dinner + Drinks + Movie

There is a lovely new theater a few short blocks from our house.  If it weren't exciting enough that we can go see a movie in our little Brooklyn neighborhood, they serve you dinner and drinks while you watch.  Yep, you read that correctly, dinner and drinks and a movie, all at once.  The Nitehawk Cinema is amazing, and we love it.  The food is quite delicious!  We went on a little date Saturday night and stuffed our face with an appetizers, entrees, drinks and popcorn.  We saw The Descendants and think you should too.  It wasn't quite up to all of the hype, but it is still a really good movie.  And lets be serious, who doesn't love George Clooney?  It was date night perfection!

Maybelle Jean McGuffey

Meet Maybelle Jean McGuffey, born on October 11, 2011 at 3:56 pm.  Most of you have already met her or at the very least knew she was already here, but I figured I would make it blog official.  It has been quite the crazy three months, hardest of my life, but she is amazing.

After four long hours of pushing, she entered the world at 7 pounds 5 ounces and 20.5 inches.  We were so thankful to have both of our parents here for the couple of weeks after she was born to help us with the transition into parenthood.  I have a new appreciation for all of the parents out there; this is quite the undertaking! :)  I now understand why when I was pregnant, every parent we saw said "this will be the hardest and most rewarding thing you will ever do."  Three months in, I feel like I am starting to get the hang of things.  She is growing up and interacting so much more; which makes the days go by faster.  She can certainly melt my heart with her little smile, and it's fun to have someone to go around with me on the various errands I have to run.

Today is her three month check up, so cross your fingers she is gaining weight and doesn't freak out too much with her shots.

Note, the picture above was taken right after we loaded her up to go home from the hospital.

The Past Two Months

I have been such a blogging slacker these past two months!  So much has happened, so in lieu of trying to type it all out, I am including a ton of pictures.

We are less than two weeks away from Maybelle's due date, and we cannot wait for her to get here!  We will keep you posted on her arrival!

Sugar Plums from our CSA

Our Brooklyn Shower

 Cake Decorating Class with Natalie

Laurie Beth gets married!!!

 Funny belly shot

Hurricane Irene

Mitch's surprise baby shower at work

US Open....one thing checked off the bucket list

Nursery painting

Bo Carnell testing out the crib

 I think he is ready for Maybelle to get here, so we stop pestering him....

Three Years Ago....

I married the most amazing man I know!  As I was thinking back over the past three years, I realized that we have experienced a lot together.  Between the two of us, we have done the following: lived in five different apartments/houses (not always together), adopted a dog, changed jobs twice, gotten a summer internship, gotten a first "real" job, finished law school, studied for and passed the bar, been blessed with a niece and a nephew, moved to New York City, traveled Europe, won a National Championship (well okay, Auburn did), become members at two different churches and found out we are having a beautiful baby girl.  And I could not imagine experiencing all of that with anyone else.  It has been an incredible journey, and I can't wait to see what is in store for us next!

Every year for our anniversary we sit down and look through pictures and watch the ceremony.  We had an absolutely amazing ceremony that glorified our Lord, and then we had a hot and sweaty dance party at the reception.  It was everything we wanted it to be and more!  Enjoy some of my favorite pictures from the big day!

McGuffey Guide to Paris - Part I

I dreamed of going to the City of Love for as long as I can remember.  I wanted to walk the narrow streets past all of the window boxes filled with beautiful flowers.  I wanted to drink wine and have a picnic on the Seine.  I wanted to sit outside of a cafe and watch Parisian life pass me by.  I wanted to eat the fabulous food and refine my palette.  I wanted to see all of the sites and spend hours taking in the abundance of impressionist art that I love so much.  And last but certainly not least, I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower with the love of my life.  Last September, I got the chance to make my dream come true.  Mitch and I took a three week European tour in celebration of his completion of law school and the bar.  It was amazing and more than I could have ever dreamed of.  Our first five days were spent in Paris, and it was the perfect beginning to the trip and my favorite city we visited.

This trip was very fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, and while it worked out great for us, I thought I would share some of our tips and favorite places for those who enjoy a more planned vacation.  I've split the post in two so that it isn't the blog equivalent of Les Miserables.  Hope you enjoy our favorite places and the pictures from our visit.

Hotel
We think hands down, you should stay in the Latin Quarter when on your visit to Paris.  It has the beautiful narrow streets and window boxes, it is close to most of the attractions you want to see (Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre, Luxembourg Gardens, Musee d'Orsay), and it has the outdoor markets and quaint cafes that you will want to frequent.  We spent half of our stay at a lovely, budget friendly place in the Latin Quarter named Hotel des 3 Colleges.  We got an end room, so one of our windows opened up on the corner, and we enjoyed the sounds of the streets and felt very Parisian while in our room.  I will put the disclaimer that it is not a five star hotel by any means, but it is clean, has all of the necessities, great location and the price is right. 

We spent the second half of our stay in a hotel near the Eiffel Tower and would not recommend it; we felt very out of the loop.  It just seemed like less was going on in that area and we had to walk a good distance to get anywhere we wanted to go.

We looked into several other hotels that were recommended by Steph Modo here, but they were all booked up. They all look delightful and when we go back, they will be on the short list of places we check.

Food
It is worth it to do your homework on places to eat dinner in Paris.  There are a lot of touristy places that are not very good, and you do not want to get stuck eating at them like we did one night.  Our favorite dinner during our time there was at a place called Cafe Constant.  It was recommended by a friend, and it was absolutely fabulous!  My fish was delicious, but Mitch's quail was out of the this world.  Seriously, do yourself a favor and go!

Our flight arrived at 8:00 am, so we were quite hungry by the time we dropped our stuff at the hotel.  We wandered around the corner and found Soufflot Cafe.  It was exactly what we needed to initiate us into our time in Paris.  A lot of the locals stop in at a cafe in the morning for a quick coffee and baguette with butter and jam, so in an effort to blend in (or maybe just because we were hungry), we went back several times for our morning fix. :)  It has a very English friendly menu and a delicious onion soup if you choose to go for lunch.

There is ice cream and there is ICE CREAM!  Berthillon ice cream falls in the later category.  I'm not sure I've had anything better.  It is absolutely divine and a place that you will want to frequent throughout your stay.  My favorite flavor was peach; it tasted like I was biting into a fresh, frozen peach.  Berthillon is located on Isle St. Louis, which is right beside the Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter.  Everywhere on the island sells this ice cream, but you should definitely go to the real location.  They are closed on Monday and Tuesdays, so be sure to plan accordingly.

One of the best things about Paris is the abundance of fresh markets and shops.  So pick up your favorite cured meat, cheese, baguette and bottle of wine and head down to any of the benches along the Seine for one of the loveliest lunches you could ever ask for.

And last, but certainly not least.....crepes!  You can get them anywhere and everywhere, and they are amazing!  They make for a quick lunch on the go or the perfect evening cap.  My personal favorites were ham and cheese and butter, sugar and cinnamon.  And I am pretty sure we had at least one every day we were there.

Come back next week for Part II of the McGuffey Guide to Paris.  I will share our favorite museums, things we loved doing while there, random tips and lots of pictures.

Baby Fun

Some sweet friends gave us the ERGObaby Carrier, so Friday night we decided to give it a try with books in place of a baby.  It was quite entertaining, and Bo is lucky that I talked Mitch out of using him instead of the books; however, he wasn't quite as lucky when Mitch was learning how to swaddle......