Back in Town

I've been out of town for the past week - at the Annual Chick-fil-A Operator's Seminar. This is where the home office staff host all the Operators, that run the CFA restaurants, to a Convention. It's a lot of work but is a fun kind of work and is always at a cool place - this year Long Beach, CA.

Spouses are allowed to go, but this year Hannah was unable to since we only have 4 weeks left before Hudson arrives! So Hannah and Raegan stayed home and I roomed with David Laughlin.

If you saw the Valentine video that Hannah and Raegan put together in the previous post... that really got me through the distance from my girls. I watched that video a thousand times!

I didn't have my camera but below are a few shots I snagged from the web of Long Beach & the Convention Center we used and also a couple shots from my camera phone.



During the week at Seminar, I got to see/hear Dave Ramsey, Jim Collins, Kirk Cameron, Tommy Tuberville, Frank Beamer, Rick Warren, Nicole C. Mullen... to name a few. I also ran a 10K, ate at a lot of good restaurants and enjoyed time with some of my co-workers. And on my flight home, we had Hulk Hogan and Kevin Neiland on our plane!

At Seminar every year, they announce where we'll be going the next year. So for 2010... we'll be getting to stay at the brand new Gaylord National in Washington DC!



While I was at Seminar, Hannah & Raegan seemed to have a fun week. On different days, Hannah's mother or sister, Jennifer stayed at our house. Hannah took Raegan to and from daycare each day (which is usually my job). I can tell Hannah and Raegan bonded more because while Raegan was happy to see me... she really shows a strong preference for Hannah!

Hannah found out at the end of a week of balancing Raegan without my help, work & being 35 weeks pregnant, that she has an ear infection and sinus infection. So Hannah really showed how tough she can be - she didn't even know she was really sick! (she has an antibiotic now and seems to be feeling better)

On Saturday, we went to the playground for a little while. Raegan as usual didn't want to play on the playground but seemed content to watch the other kids play. And then her love for dogs came out as she made friends with one of our neighbor's dogs that was out there.

Then today after church, we went down to Hannah's parent's house. Raegan got to play with Mimi, Granddad, Uncle James, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Jacob & Uncle Aaron. Below are some pictures from my camera phone (we forgot the camera).

That's pretty-much all there is to share at the moment. We are ready for Hudson to arrive. Hannah and Hudson are still doing well... other than Hannah is uncomfortable. I finally wired the remote control and new light fixture to the ceiling fan in Hudson's room. I took out the wire shelf in the closet and this week I'll put in a new closet organizer.

This last picture is just a shot of a rainbow that was outside my hotel room in Long Beach. It doesn't seem like you often see a rainbow so clear. So I had to take a picture and post it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tony-We made several attempts to create "valentine" for you, but you know Raegan. Hopefully you can tell from these clips that we love you and miss you! Hope you are having a great day!!

Love,
Hannah and Raegan

Hudson Eli Miley

We have finally nailed down a name for our boy! His name will be Hudson Eli Miley. We have only a few weeks left until we welcome him into the world! Hannah & Hudson are both still doing well! Hannah is pretty uncomfortable but health is all good!

This past week I spent most of my time preparing for the Chick-fil-A annual Seminar - this year in Long Beach, CA. The truck deadline was Thursday evening so I made the deadline and took Friday off to celebrate. I spent Friday working on 2 shelves for our boy's room.

Hannah played with Raegan all day Friday before leaving for the weekend on a girl's trip to the Lake (not our Lake). Hannah said the house they stayed in was really nice. Hannah relaxed with her old college roommates. They didn't take any pictures!

So Raegan and I had kind of a Daddy/Daughter weekend. She was so good and so much fun! Plus it was an incredible weekend that felt like Spring!

The rest of this blog post is pretty much all from my perspective because Hannah was out of town for the weekend. But I'm sure she could blog about how much fun her Lake trip was.

Saturday morning was the neighborhood playground opening party. You've seen posts where Raegan loved playing on the playground. Well lately she has just wanted to play around the playground but not get on it. She enjoyed mingling a little but mostly just staying away from the playground and playing with things like rocks.

After the playground party, Raegan and I drove to Cordele, GA to see my Grandmother (Granny), Nana & Bailey. Raegan was excited to see all 3 of them. Raegan enjoyed exploring Granny's house, eating her food and I think mostly running in her yard. Granny's yard is huge and Raegan doesn't usually just get to run wide-open like that. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed visiting with my Mom & Granny too. Below is a slideshow of some of the visit at Granny's house:




So then we drove home. Sunday morning either Raegan didn't wake up until 10am or she woke-up at her normal 7:45am and I was sleeping so hard I didn't know it... so she went back to sleep. Regardless, we missed church because we slept too long. But it was another beautiful day. So we went back down to the playground. She finally got back on it again! Maybe since we were the only ones down there. But she still wouldn't get back on the big slide. Here is a slideshow of pictures of that:



Then after playing on the playground, it occured to me that I had never taken Raegan onto the tennis courts. I need to get her used to tennis! She enjoyed playing on the courts. She has become very silly lately. And until the tennis courts, she has seemed to be scared of stickers of all things. But on the tennis court she decided to use a sticker to be silly. You'll see in the pictures (another slideshow):

Finally, I have to show you what I worked on during the weekend while Raegan was asleep. It may not look like much work but it really was! I haven't built anything since Raegan was born. So this was fun to use all my tools and some creativity again! And to do something custom for my son, Hudson!

I started with this piece of wood...

And using a Table Saw, Jig Saw, Miter Saw, Brad Nailer, Router, Paint Brush (with Stain & poly), I made this (I know I could have bought something similar for maybe cheaper and less effort):

Have a good week!

Weekend Update

Hello friends! Thanks for reading our updates each week! It's nice to know that our friends and family are keeping up with us in some way, even if we don't get to talk to each of you every week. Let us know what's going on with you! This week, we really enjoyed our new small group (Bible study) on Tues. night. We're glad to be a part of a group again, now that we've decided not to move away from Smyrna/Mableton so soon. Our new babysitter, Leslie, was awesome and we feel very fortunate that she is available to us. Raegan liked her immediately, and there were no tears. Yea! Tony worked late preparing for CFA seminar on Wed. night and then played poker in the neighborhood on Thursday night. I think he enjoyed meeting some of the newer guys in the neighborhood. He came home with empty pockets, but a full stomach, which is the same thing I could say for myself after Bunko night!

Nana and Papa (Tony's parents) visited with us on Saturday. We took Raegan, our dogs, and "Bai-yee" (their dog, Bailey) down to the playground for a few. Drew came down with his dad, too. I wonder if Raegan and Drew expect to see each other at the playground now since they are usually down there at the same time. We went out to Stoney River Steakhouse (yum) for Nana's birthday, and I think that was Raegan's first white tablecloth experience. She behaved well, and ended up providing entertainment to some of the surrounding tables with her dancing (in her highchair). She of course tried to clean the tablecloth after spreading her food all over it, and even polished the silver. Too bad she probably left half her meal under the table. Happy Birthday early, Nana!



There is a stuffed cow at the Chick-fil-A daycare (big surprise), and Raegan has started greeting it each morning and afternoon when she and Tony pass by the bench it sits on. She likes to sit next to it and chat for a bit. I even witnessed this on Wed. when I picked her up. Tony captured one of their moments on his phone this week:



Bristo and Luci don't get the attention that they used to get back when they were our only babies. I think they can sense that another baby is coming, which will bump them down even further in the pecking order. They've compensated by bonding with each other lately.



This last picture is one that Laura sent from a couple weeks ago when we got together for a Friday morning playdate (wonderful thing about having Fridays off from work!). This is Hannah, Zach, and Raegan. I think Hannah looks just like Angela (her mom) in this pic -so cute! Hannah and Zach both have younger siblings, so Raegan is hopefully going to learn a thing or two from them. Raegan loves going in Laura's kitchen - she says, "eat eat" everytime she goes in there, b/c she knows she'll get great snacks!