Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Preston’s first Christmas here
With Preston being born such a short time ago, we were very hesitant to take him to our family Christmas Eve gathering that we do each year. Since we have such a large family, it is usually about 35 people getting together to celebrate such a great time of year.
We were thinking that it would be too many people to worry about, all in once place, at one time. The last thing that we would want is for Preston to get sick from someone who was not feeling 100%. We decided to check with our doctor and see what she thought when we were there this past week and she said “dont do it! Blame it on me if you have to. Just dont do it.” We decided to go with the doctor’s orders. She mentioned that fortunately swine flu was on the decline but RSD was on the rise and unfortunately that would put our little bundle of joy in the hospital 
. It is just not worth the risk.
We were home alone for evening which made for a boring night. We love hanging out with our family and it was really tough to not go. We watched a lot of tv and just relaxed. Before long I got a text from our awesome neighbors asking us if we wanted some sushi. They had people over and ordered way too much and wanted to know if we wanted some. HECK YEAH!!!! Heather came over to see Preston and to drop off a ton of sushi. It was excellent! Thanks guys!
We headed off to bed shortly after and had a decent night’s sleep. He was up for a bit, but all in all, we couldn’t complain. We got dressed and came downstairs for breakfast and to open the gifts that we got. After that we sat around while Alisha’s mom went crazy cooking. She was cooking up a storm as we were having my parents (with the kids) and Kara and Lin over for Christmas dinner. The food turned out excellent and we had a nice chill evening together.
It was a very chill Christmas but was a much needed one. Hope everyone had a safe and great Christmas as well.
Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Preston’s first days here
All packed up!
So around 4:00 PM on Saturday, Alisha was released by her doctor but we needed clearance from the pediatrician so that we could have Preston released. His weight loss and his jaundice were being monitored and that is what was kinda keeping us there. They had planned to test them both through the night (weight at midnight and jaundice at 4:00 am). After getting word that Preston had lost another ounce, we decided to immediately start supplementing formula with the feedings. He was still being breastfed to allow for Alisha’s milk to come in but we would feed him about 20 – 30 ml of formula afterwards to satisfy his hunger. He would SLAM those bottles down and it was obvious that he was very hungry. This was definitely the reason for his fussiness earlier that day and through the evening as well as his constant need to eat. After he would eat, he would PASS OUT for like 3 straight hours. It was crazy.
By 8 or 9:00 that night, he had already gained back an ounce and by midnight an additional 1/2 ounce. It seemed like the formula supplements were working which was good to see. We then just needed to be sure that he was not jaundice before being able to take him home. We woke up the next morning and once the pediatrician got there we were cleared to go home…. but not so fast. Getting released took FOREVER! We knew we were able to go home at like 8 or 9:00 AM but did not get out of there until around noon. That was frustrating. I was packed up, Preston was changed, and I was ready to get outta there asap… but it dragged on forever.
His going home outfit!
After getting released we headed home to spend time with our family and introduce him to Envy. She just sniffed him quite a bit and tried to lick him. We will not let her do that though as it is not all that sanitary. She didn’t seem to be a bit jealous or mind him at all. We really went out of our way to make sure she felt loved and appreciated. We gave her treats, gave her one on one attention, as well as attention with Preston. We had a great relaxing night with our families and then headed off to bed. Preston was not quite ready to sleep after being in everyone’s hands all night LOL. He was up for the long haul. He was quite hungry but before long Alisha’s milk came in. We are so happy to be able to feed Preston breast milk only! We were up frequently at first but by the middle of the night we were getting some pretty good rest.
All day he was great. He just slept, chilled out, and ate. He is such a good baby. The only times that he cries is when he is hungry, or is being changed. He hates to be naked. At least we know he wont be a porno star! This evening Alisha decided to give him a bath so we took some time to enjoy that. Poor thing cried for a good bit of it (hates being naked) but it was still kinda cute LOL. He is so cute! He loves to hold onto his blankets or clasp his precious little hands together while he sleeps. It is so adorable!!
We are having so much fun with Preston. We love him so much!!!
Cuddling with Envy
Thanks again to all of our blog followers. Our daily hits have quadrupled since we have had Preston without counting the day he was born or the day after both of which are just incredibly high. Thanks for caring about our little family! Feel free to comment on any pictures or posts even if we dont know each other that well or at all. Dont be shy!
On Sunday we headed out to see Alisha’s dad and my parents as I had not seen them for my birthday.
We headed out to Alisha’s dad’s house to hang out there for a little bit as he was back from Florida for a few days. We spent some time just hanging out and they gave us 3 boxes of liquor to take back home with us which is now stocked for when we have people over. After hanging out there for a bit we headed off to my parents house to have some matzah ball soup and potato latkas! MMM!!! I could eat that every night of the week. SO good! – Speaking of which, we need a good Jewish deli around here that serves bagels and stuff like that. We then had our normal birthday celebratory cake – Carvel ice cream cake of course! Those damn crunchies are like little black crack seeds or something!
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of the Gwinett Gladiators home opener here
We had a full plan for Saturday which slowly seemed to slip away. In the morning we headed over to my rents to give them our opinion about picking out tile for their master bathroom. It is currently carpet (i know it makes no sense, but that is what the builder did when the house was built) and they really want to do all tile. We went to Lowes, Home Depot, and finally Coastal Flooring to pick out what time we think will look the best in the house. They still have some decisions to make, but I think that they are making progress.
After looking at tiles, we headed over to IHOP at John’s Creek to meet Mike and Aubree for breakfast. Mike was in the area to help his parents as well and to hopefully sell his RX7 that he had on Craigslist. Let me just say once again that I love IHOP! Those pancakes are just unreal. mmmmm! After breakfast we realized that the rest of our day just was not going to happen. It was quite cold and it was just raining and raining all morning which would have made Burts farm a total waste of time. We were supposed to go with Andrea and Ryan to spend the afternoon with them and the kids and they agreed that it was just not worth it. We then gave Bobby a call. He was supposed to go to the Gwinnett Gladiators (local minor league hockey team) home opener that night. We asked him if he minded if we tagged along and he was more than happy to have us.
Mike and I watched the UGA game at the house (finally a win!) while the girls organized and went through Preston’s nursery. We then picked Bobby up and headed to the box office to pick up tickets. Because it is a minor league team, tickets are much cheaper and much more available. We walked up there 2 hours before the gates opened and picked up 5 tickets all together 1 row behind the glass behind the Gladiators team bench. It was awesome… and the best part – 18 bucks a piece!! 
We then headed out to dinner at Arena Tavern up the road. The food and service were both just mediocre but it was food I guess.
After dinner we headed to the game. We had a great time. We had awesome seats, great people, and great people to laugh at. We had an old smelly guy in front of us for a while followed by his daughter which we didn’t find out until we mentioned that there was an old dude sitting there before LOL.. whooops ohhwell.. it is what it is. Bobby and I took an immediate liking to the trash talking, big mouthed player named Tom Zanowski. He was always antagonizing and threatening people on the ice… heck that is what we are there for! We want to see fights and trash talking…. and we got what we asked for. It was a great game and the Gladiators walked away with a 3-1 victory!
It was a great day even if we didnt do what we had originally planned. Its okay though…we just pushed that back to Sunday which was expected to be a nicer day out.
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our day in Helen here
On Sunday morning we went out to breakfast at IHOP -MMMMMM! I LOVE IHOP! – before heading up to Helen for the day. Alisha’s grandmother (who’s name is Helen) had never been up there so we figured this was a perfect time being that it is Oktoberfest. We went up to the winery (which can sell alcohol on Sunday by the way!) to pick up some wine for her grandfather, and then headed to the grainery. I love this place. I don’t really care for the grains in all honesty. Grits and poridge are not my thing, but the place is so neat. It backs up to the river and they use the water to turn a turbine below the grainery. This turns one huge adjustable stone overtop of another one which grinds the grain so that it can be used for cooking. Behind the grainery they have a dam that they built which creates a beautiful waterfall and such nice scenery. It is awesome! A guy that works there is very passionate about his job. He loves meeting people there and really enjoys telling how the grain mill works and what modern technology has done to grains (the significant reduction in whole grain products because the parts of the kernel gum up modern machines). Yes they are much more efficient but also much less healthy.
After the grainery we headed into the city and walked around for a while. We grabbed some chocolate goodies and did some shopping as you always do while you are there. Afterwards we headed back home to make some dinner with Kara before calling it a day.
It has been great having our family come and visit us in Atlanta. We wish it would happen more often, but I guess we can take our happy asses up there as well LOL. Well, maybe after the pregnancy. Alisha is in her third trimester and is therefore grounded.
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of Alisha’s Family Baby Shower at pictures.neilnatic.com or here
This past Saturday was Alisha’s baby shower which was thrown by Kara and Alisha’s mom. Her grandmother and her Aunt were scheduled to fly in from Pittsburgh in the morning so Denae picked them up and headed up to the house to finish getting ready.
They were cleaning, cooking, and decorating which was my cue to get the hell out . I took Envy to my parents house and picked Dan up to head to Taco Mac to watch the UGA game. Mike and Bobby also met us up there for some lunch and drinks. We had a great time – until kickoff that is. The Dawgs played like total shit which really ticked me off! They have had a terrible season so far and it has been very tough to watch the games each and every week. Hopefully it gets better, but I have to be honest, it is not very likely. We may just need to write this season off and chalk it up to experience.
Well, obviously I was not at the shower, so I cannot say much about it, but I can tell you to here click the link above to see the pictures, and maybe it will bring back memories, or it will tell the story for itself
Thanks to everyone that came. It means a lot to us and your gracious gifts are SO appreciated. We cannot thank you enough.
After the shower and cleaning up, Denae and her mom had to go back to the airport. Yep you guessed it – she flew in and out in the same day and Denae was here for one full day. That was so nice of them to fly in for this shower. Once everything settled down, we headed to the Cumming fair for the evening. We had a good time people watching (a must at the Cumming fair) and just hanging out. We had some carnie food, walked around, and then headed out.
It was a great day!
Corn hole
On Saturday afternoon we headed over to Geni and Edwin’s house for our normal Labor Day Weekend party. We spent time with friends and family eating great food, having a few drinks, and relaxing. It was the opening week for college football so we were sure to watch some games including the UGA game which was a huge disappointment. Made me think about how tough this season may be to watch.
My dad passed out as always!
Bobby’s brothers were in town (Ted, Danny, and Danny’s girlfriend) for the holiday weekend. I had never met Ted or Danny’s girlfriend before and had not seen Danny in quite some time. It was great to meet / see them. We had a great time with everyone playing corn hole and just BS’ing around. We made fun of everything and just had a blast.
Labor Day is under-rated!
The New Pool Area!
This weekend was our much anticipated meeting of Justin’s new girlfriend.
She flew in this week to spend some time with him and meet the family and Edwin and Geni had sent out invites to have the family come over and meet her as well and enjoy the great day. We spent some time drinking, playing, joking, and just chilling. It was hot as hell outside, but it was all worth it. We had a great time as usual.
My Injury
Unfortunately I had an injury exiting the pool as I busted my ass hard on the new stamped concrete section around the pool. In doing so, my big toe dragged across the concrete leaving me without a chunk of skin. Yeah – it hurts so badly!
AnnaMarie!!
This weekend I had a bunch of family coming into town from all different areas. My grandfather, grandmother, uncle, and aunt all came in from Puerto Rico and my aunt, uncle, cousin and her two children all came in from New York. They were all here to come to AnnaMarie’s birthday party on Saturday and stick around to hang out with the family for another week or so.
After Matt and Laura’s wedding on Saturday we headed down to Hershey and Susan’s house to see everyone and hang out with our God Daughter for her 3rd birthday party. We had an excellent time. It was really nice to see everyone. It was just a lot of quality time with great people. Unfortunately we didnt get too many pictures of the family as it really just slipped my mind.
On Sunday we headed over to Edwin and Geni’s to hang out some more with the family. We cooked out, chilled outside, and just had a great day. It was a great and late wrap up to our great weekend… why oh why do Mondays always come so fast
Wednesday evening we had a flight out of Atlanta scheduled for 10:15…. let me reiterate scheduled. We got to the airport at about 7:30 or so and immediately found out that our plane was delayed until nearly midnight Fortunately this got moved up to about 11:45 or so.
Beer and a Smoothie at Sweetwater Bar and Grill
Since we had a fair amount of time in the airport we went on the search for some food. Alisha was starting to feel pretty miserable (typical Wednesday for her ) so we went on the hunt for some food for her. She was wanting a smoothie so we looked around for a while… not much luck. We found a Ben and Jerry’s that made some smoothies so we picked one up and headed for my establishment of choice: Sweetwater Bar and Grill!
We I had a few beers and we headed back towads our plane and got ready for take off. We ended up landing at nealy 1:00 and then an hour ride home back to Alisha’s mom’s house. Long day but we have a lot in store for the next few days… its going to be a blast!
Dont forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our Fourth Day in Pittsburgh at pictures.neilnatic.com or here
East End Brewing Company
On Saturday Alisha had plans to meet up with her cousin Denae to look at bridesmaid dresses down in Pittsburgh. Since they were already going to be down there Alisha’s mom wanted to take us to a new German restaraunt that just opened up in the city afterwards. We figured that I would go with her mom do check out a few places and then meet up with Alisha when they are done shopping and eating lunch.
Alisha left early to head to Pittsburgh with Denae and her mom and I left shortly after. We went to East End Brewing Company first to check out a local brewery. East End Brewing is a fairly well known small brewery in Pittsburgh that makes some pretty damn good beer. They only sell to bars and restaurants in the Pittsburgh area as they are a small brewery but their beers are rated very well on beeradvocate.com. Being used to seeing Terrapin, it was interesting to see how small the brewery was (and also makes me want to open my own). As you walk in they have a small area with many of their beers on tap. During posted hours, they do brewery tours and sell growlers of beer to the public. After tasting all of their beers they had I decided to pick up a growler of their Big Hop IPA. It was a great IPA! The growlers are half gallon glass containers poured directly from the taps at the brewery.
Church Brew Works Sampler
After tasting all of their delicious beers we headed off to lunch. Since we were in the area, we decided to head over to another brew pub called Church Brew Works. Church Brew Works is a brewery that took over a Catholic church and turned it into a brewery / restaurant. Great idea!! It is a gorgeous place! The pews are being used as booth seats, the confessionals are being used as a part of the kitchen, and the brewing equipment is setup on the alter. The food is excellent there and the beer as well. I ordered a jambalaya and a sampler of all of their beers and by the time I left, I was damn near hammered. After eating and drinking we headed outiside to their hop garden patio. They have their hops growing up the walls of the church and a nice outdoor area to eat and drink.
Pittsburgh Trolley
After Church Brew Works we headed over to the Heinz museum to kill some more time. We spent about an hour or so looking at all of the Pittsburgh, Sports, and State history. They had about 4 floors of stuff to look at many of which were really neat.
Hofbrauhaus
After the museum we picked up Alisha and headed down to a newer area of Pittsburgh called South Side. It is a newer area that used to be where the steel mills were and has many nice shopping areas and restaurants to go to. They were also doing a street festival when we got there which was pretty cool. We spent an a few hours looking around and shopping before heading to our dinner destination. It was a new German restaurant called Hofbrauhaus which is also a brew pub. They brew about 5 beers or so on location and also do it the typical German way. Long tables with people sitting together, music, beer, and fun! People were all standing on their chairs (benches) with their beers in hand chanting and singing along. The place was PACKED! we got there and there was a 15 minute long line to even talk to anyone about the wait. The verdict: 2.5 hours to be in the main dining area or over an hour for first available. We decided to go with first available and were seated in right about an hour maybe even less. Once we did we enjoyed a great meal. Alisha and her mom got a sausage of some kind… for me… I ordered the oh so German – fettucini alfredo and potato pancakes LOL. The food, beer, and atmosphere were excellent!
We had a hell of a time in Pittsburgh! It was perfect!
Monday was our last day in PA and we had pretty much done everything that we wanted to cram into the long weekend. We decided to relax for a bit and then go out to a store called Delallos which is an authentic Italian grocery store that also sells lunch meat, sandwiches, and pastries. It was a pretty cool store. Almost all of their products (canned or not) were all with their own logo. The sandwich was excellent that I had and the perogies that Alisha had were great too. We bought a few desserts and lunch from there and headed back to Alisha’s mom’s house to eat, relax, and finish my growler
Growler (1/2 gallon) of Big Hop IPA
Time wore thin and we headed down to Pittsburgh to make way to the airport. We went shopping at a nearby Ikea, bought Alisha some new sunglasses and then headed off to the airport. Our time in PA was great and memorable for sure…. we had a great time as always! We spent a lot of quality time with family and seeing the sights of Pittsburgh.
On Sunday morning we woke up at about 10:00 to head up to Alisha’s dad’s house to picnic and chill up by a creek a while past Helen in the North Georgia mountains.
View Sunday in the Mountains in a larger map
We got to Alisha’s dad’s house and packed up the truck to take up to the mountains. Kara, Lin, Danielle, Alisha, and I rode in the truck and the rest of the family and Tiffany’s friend Lochlan rode with Alisha’s dad in the SUV. Alisha’s dad led us on about an hour and 15 minute ride up past Helen and to a small turn off where there was a place to park and a nice creek. We unloaded the truck and setup our picnic area to have lunch and hang out. I spent some time playing with our camera (of course ) and for some weird reason loved the shot below. It was just an old / faded Bud can, but I love the colors in it.
We spent a good amount of time in the creek and just exploring the area. We all had a great time for about 2.5 hours or so before heading back through Helen for some wine for Kara and Lin and then to Alisha’s dad’s house.
It was a nice relaxing Sunday in the mountains. After such a busy weekend, we needed a chill day to relax and enjoy with family.
Don’t forget to check out our
photo gallery for pictures of Dan’s Graduation from UGA at
pictures.neilnatic.com or here.
At the arch!
On Saturday we headed up to Athens to watch Dan’s graduation ceremony from the University of Georgia. Dan we are so damn proud of you man. You have no idea.
We were out late on Friday night due to the game and post-game drinking, but we still got up at about 6:00 AM to get ready and head to Athens. Unfortunately we were still an hour later than we wanted to be. Once we got to Athens, we decided to take pictures of Dan in front of the arch so that we did not have to fight crowds and lines later. What a great idea that was. There were like 3 people ahead of us and it went quickly. After taking pictures we parked the car in the deck and then walked to Sanford Stadium. Dan had to be there before we did so we headed over to the bookstore and the kids loaded up on new UGA shirts and hats. We then headed back over to the stadium to watch the graduation.
- Filing in between the hedges
The graduating class was HUGE! Coming from North Georgia I was in awe watching how many people were graduating. The graduating class was bigger than the damn school Alisha and I went to LOL. The graduation was VERY long and drawn out but it was an honor to be there to watch my brother celebrate such a great time!
After the graduation my rents headed back to the house to prep for the party that night and Alisha and I took Dan out to lunch and some drinks downtown. All week I was really stoked about getting drinks at my favorite bar down there, Copper Creek. Unfortunately they do not open until 4:00 on Saturday I was crushed. Since they were closed we took the additional walk to Trapeze pub and chilled there for a bit.
UGA Cake
After eating and drinking we headed back towards home (which took FOREVER because of traffic!!!) to pick up Envy and then to Alpharetta to grab Dan’s cake. By the time we got back to my rents house it was like 3 hours of driving around . I ordered the cake from a bakery in Alpharetta that Geni has gotten cakes and cheesecakes from in the past. I was a little skeptical about it when I ordered it but was VERY pleased when we picked it up. The cake was very good and they did a good job with it. I also picked up some rainbow cookies and a death by chocolate cake while I was there
Dan's friends and fam up to something LOL
We got back to my parents house and celebrated with friends and family. It was a great time. My parents ordered El Porton for everyone which made for an excellent dinner and then we had cake. Dan’s friends got him a gag gift which we had him open. It was a Paris blow up doll and a dating for Dummies book LOL!! It was really funny!
We had a great time celebrating this awesome achievement with Dan. Dan we are very proud of you and we know you will continue to further your career over these next few years. Congrats buddy!
Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery for pictures of our time at the Renaissance Festival at pictures.neilnatic.com or here.
Alisha at the Renaissance Festival
On Saturday Hector and Reagan came over in the morning to head out to IHOP for breakfast before heading out to the Georgia Renaissance Festivaldown by Hershey’s house. After grabbing a nice breakfast at IHOP (yes we ate healthy) we headed out towards Peachtree City for the festival. As we got closer traffic was REDICULOUS! I noticed that the traffic seemed to not make much sense so I went with my own senses and hopped back into the moving traffic and took it all the way up to the exit. It turns out a few morons thought that they needed to be on the right side of some barrels blocking off a lane and it was backing traffic up for miles on 85. I just exited the highway the way you were supposed to and avoided it all. I was livid when I saw that all of that time could have been saved if 1 donut eating cop would get his / her ass up and direct the traffic the way that it was supposed to go.
After getting off the exit, traffic was still really bad in the right lane so I decided to take the left lane as far as I possibly could before getting back into the right lane. These two maneuvers literally saved about an hour and a half to two hours of traffic. It was insane!!
Once we got to the festival we headed in and went straight to a Pet adoption area that they had set up. Reagan happened to fall in love with a dog and within 20 minutes they had a new family member LOL. They told us to walk around and do our thing and to stop by there on the way out and they would give us the dog to take home.
Hector with a Green Thing
The festival itself is….well…..interesting. There is a game called World of Warcraft where people waste their lives playing an online game in a world of trolls and crap – this is the real life version of that game. The visitors all dress up like freaks with crazy costumes and parade around with fake accents like they live in the times. It was quite odd.
Thelma - The Carmona's New Dog
We spent about 5 hours there and had a good time before picking up Hector and Reagan’s dog and headed back home. Once we got to the house Hector and Reagan headed home and we headed up to Alisha’s dad’s house for dinner and meet their new family member – a mutt blood hound. We had a nice dinner and chilled out by their fire pit and headed to that house.
I spoke to Spencer on the way home and we was thinking of heading to Taco Mac. Alisha did not want to come along so she asked that I drop her off and then go afterwards. I did and met Spence there for about 2 hours and headed back to the house.
It was a nice and busy day. We had a good time for sure.
