It's a BOY!!!

This weekend, we had our gender reveal party to find out if Baby Waters is a boy or a girl. Our good friend Jennifer Merrill made our cake and did an EXCELLENT job! We had a great time finding out that we will soon welcome a sweet baby boy into our lives. Here's the video from the cutting of the cake!

Online Shopping

This week I feel like I've done a bit more than my share of online shopping! We are headed to Knoxville next weekend for the TN v. UGA game and I've been on a search for something to wear. It's a 7 pm game and some of my regular options are feeling a bit tighter lately :)

I went with this, and its supposed to arrive today, so I hope it works!

We also ordered a new crate for Hattie! We've been calling her Hurricane Hattie lately because she's had some "separation anxiety". We'd been leaving her out because she was able to chew through her wooden crate and get out. This time we opted for a more durable option but still with the wood accent on top so it can double as an end table. Gotta save space in the city! Here's the one we got her!

Finally, we are headed to Clemson in October for the Clemson-UNC game and Hattie is coming with us. I had to be sure she is fully ready to show her UNC spirit so I ordered her a little something, but I'll keep that secret for the game! :)

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Recap!

Ok, I'm trying to make good on my promise to keep this thing updated!!

We had a great weekend! Friday night we went to a going away party for our friends Jeff and Kari who were moving back to Texas. We will certainly miss them! Kari was so sweet to have Cherry Limeade for me at the party!

Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed out to church for the Basic Needs Giveaway! It was such a great event to be a part of. I got to help three different people/families go through the things to get clothes and food. It was a great blessing to us all! We also were able to talk to one lady about giving our desktop computer to her for her two grandsons! All in all a GREAT day. God definitely worked through everyone there!

Sunday was fun too! Went to church and I helped in the nursery, good practice! Then had lunch and headed to watch the Panthers get a VICTORY! Its about time. Unfortunately, Sunday night I discovered I had a pinched sciatic nerve and that part was NOT fun. Justin has taken good care of me so far though! :)

Have a great week!

BIG NEWS!

Ok, so its been since our last really big news that I've even blogged, but I REALLY promise I'm getting back to it! Justin and I are expecting our first baby in April!!!

Baby Waters at 12 weeks 2 days

We are absolutely thrilled, scared and excited all in one! :) We just had our 12 week scan and got to see our little guy/girl wiggling around and hear and see the heartbeat! It truly is amazing and makes us both feel so blessed by this tiny (2 inch right now) gift from God!

I'm going to be better about updating the blog to keep family and friends in the loop along our journey to becoming parents!

Meet Hattie!

Well our furry bundle of joy has finally arrived! We picked up Hattie on Friday morning at 10 am in Durham, NC. Justin and I both leaned to her immediately so it was a pretty easy choice! We were able to have lunch with our good friend Ryan and then we of course had to go introduce Hattie to her favorite place: Chapel Hill. We got some great pictures at the Old Well and then headed back to DC. She was a sweetie the whole way home and slept on our laps. We had a good first evening with her and her first night was pretty rough. She cried almost the entire night...she missed her brothers and sisters!

We had a great first weekend with her....we played and tried to teach her to potty outside. She had a few accidents but I think she's getting the hang of it. We are also working with her on sitting. She's a smart girl and we are so in love with her! :)

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Hello All! So sorry for not finishing out the blog with the tales of our trip. The internet in the final two places we stayed was quite expensive and we ended up not having it as freely as we thought we would. The trip was in a word, amazing. We had such a wonderful time learning about religion, culture and finance (for Justin) and experiencing new things and trying new cuisine! Our camera memory card was corrupted AS WE WERE LEAVING. The memory card has been sent off in hopes that we will recovery our precious pictures from this once in a lifetime trip! We have settled back in fairly well. We have gone to bed before 8:30 EVERY night this week! Our goal is to make it until at least 9:30 tonight, we'll see. We have a pretty uneventful weekend ahead of us, which is good. We've got a lot to do around the house to get ready for Hattie! I will hopefully have some pictures of our trip for you shortly! Meanwhile, here is a picture of two of the pups from our litter, one of them MIGHT be Hattie, but there are 4 more! :)

Phuket, Thailand! Day 2

We woke up on day 2 and had an interesting and yummy breakfast at the hotel and then headed straight for the beach. We stayed out on the beach until lunch time and headed back to grab some money and explore the area of Karon Beach for lunch. We ate at a place called “The Little Mermaid”. I had Phat see euv and Justin had Phat Macaroni. Both were delicious! We explored a bit more since it had started raining and then decided to just read by the pool. There isn’t much to say about our afternoon. We went from the pool to our room and continued reading and napping until dinner time! We went to a nearby resort and had pizza and wine for dinner! We grabbed an ice cream cone on the walk home and went to bed early!

Phuket, Thailand! Day 1

We arrived in Phuket at around 10 am after about a 2 hour flight. Getting through customs and immigration was a breeze. The trouble we found was finding our airport transfer! The area outside the airport was a zoo! We never actually found the person who was supposed to be picking us up so we just hopped in a taxi. Little did we know, we hopped in with Dale Earnhardt Jr! He was speeding all through the island. I was car sick, we were both scared at times, but we made it to our hotel safe and sound! Our room wasn’t quite ready yet, so we changed into our swim suits, had a wonderful Thai lunch and headed to the beach! The beaches here are absolutely gorgeous. We checked into our room and went to our hotel pool, complete with a swim up bar. We relaxed by the pool for a few hours and got cleaned up for dinner. We explored our little area of the island called Karon. We ate at a Thai restaurant for dinner and came back and crashed! We are looking forward to another beautiful day on this island!

Singapore! Day 2

We again woke up pretty early and started our day with breakfast at the hotel. We showered up and made sure we were presentable and hopped in a cab to head to the US Embassy in Singapore. We had an appointment to meet with the Ambassador at 11:00. It was so much fun. The embassy was huge! Ambassador Adelman was so nice and gave us a lot of information about Singapore and the US’s relationship with them. We really enjoyed it. Sorry, no pictures from this, they held our camera the whole time!
Then we went to the National Botanical Gardens of Singapore. They were GORGEOUS, so many beautiful plants and trees! We saw a few swans, some beautiful flowers and a really unique bonsai garden! We enjoyed it, but it was EXTREMELY hot, so we cabbed back to the hotel for a change of clothes. We ate lunch at our hotel which allowed us to explore some of the different tastes of Singapore. We had things like BBQ’d Stingray, Fish Curry and Satay. We liked most of it! After lunch, we went over to Chinatown to see some of the most famous Hindu and Buddhist Temples. They were absolutely beautiful. I had to wear a shawl on my shoulders and around my waist. The Buddhist temple was very big; it had four stories with a beautiful orchid garden on top. After that, we walked around Chinatown shopping a bit; there are so many interesting small shops! We headed down to Marina Bay to see this REALLY neat building we had seen the night before. Our cab driver said it was a hotel, but we’ve never seen anything like it! After the bay, we headed to the famous Raffles Hotel, which was named for Sir Raffles, an Englishman who was considered to be the father of modern Singapore. Here, there was a bartender who invented the Singapore Sling to be a drink for the women of Singapore and now is the most famous drink of the country! We had to go get the original. After drinks, we went over to Arab street, another interesting small area representing a group of people. We ate Moroccan food for dinner which was delicious. After a full day of sightseeing, I fell asleep at 8:30 pm! We had to be up bright and early the next day for our trip to…..Phuket Thailand!

Singapore! Day 1

Our first morning in Singapore we woke up rather early and went downstairs for the Hotel Breakfast! It was very good, mostly traditional American breakfast but lots of other interesting treats as well. We set off into the city to go to the National Museum of Singapore. We found out that it wasn’t open yet so we decided to walk down Orchard Road, the high end shopping area in Singapore. Well, it wasn’t open yet either, so we just walked around and enjoyed the sights until it was time to go back to the National Museum. The museum was great! We learned a lot about Singapore history and how they came to be the country they are today. After the museum, we decided to go to Little India. Singapore is really neat in that they have little communities all over the city that uniquely represent a group of people. Little India was very interesting. We ate at Banana Leaf Apollo and had some WONDERFUL Indian food! I was able to find what I order at Rasika (our Indian restaurant at home). We ate off of real banana leafs and really enjoyed ourselves! You are supposed to eat with your hands, but both of us used silverware. We then walked around little India and enjoyed all the neat little shops and sights. It was certainly a different place. I even got some sunglasses for about a dollar!
After Little India we went to find the Church of Christ of Malaya. We saw it on our tourist map and thought it was so neat that it was near our hotel! We took a few pictures and went on our way. We tried to find the Mint Museum of Toys, but were VERY unsuccessful. We then went back to our hotel to rest our legs a bit. Well, that turned into a two hour nap! We had no idea how much the trip and time change had affected us! We washed up and went over to Clarke Quay (pronounced key) for dinner and drinks. Clarke Quay is a unique little waterfront community full of amazing restaurants and bars. On our way to dinner we passed the giant swing that you can ride in. Even the President took a ride on it for New Years! We ate at a lovely Mexican restaurant right on the water. You knew we couldn’t go the whole time without Mexican! Then we went to a bar called The Forbidden City for some drinks and live music. It was so much fun! The band was very entertaining. At one point, they pointed me out in the crowd and called me up on stage to sing with them! I sang Mariah Carey’s “I can’t live”. It was too much fun, and don’t worry, we have video.

Traveling to the other side of the WORLD!

Well this was quite a journey over to Singapore! We arrived at Dulles Airport at about 5:15 to make sure we were able to get through security in time to see the Music City Bowl!

We had no trouble checking in and getting through and were able to find a sports bar in no time!

Unfortunately, we had to board our flight at the begining of the 4th quarter. We kept up on our phones until about 2 minutes left and Tennessee had the lead 20-17, but North Carolina was driving. Our flight from DC to Paris was about 7.5 hours, so we had no idea what the outcome of the game was until we landed in Paris! We both had quite a few text messages that popped up and we quickly realized it was probably best we didn't see that ending before getting on a LONG flight!

We arrived in Paris at about 12 pm Paris Time. After a quick run-in with a crazy man from Boston who was trying to get us to help him play a trick on his wife, we finally made it on the RER train to the city! We got off at the Luxembourg Jardin and had lunch at Palidor. It was delicious!

Then we started walking through the city, we went through the Luxembourg Jaridn. It was beautiful, but neither one of us knew too much about it. We continued our walk and really enjoyed all the sights of downtown Paris! It was FREEZING, but we just kept on walking and finally made it to see the Eiffel Tower! Unfortunately, we couldn't see the top of it because the weather was so bad, but it was still worth it!

After the Eiffel Tower we took a cab to Notre Dame. Now, that is a beautiful place! The detail on the building is absolutely amazing! We were able to walk through and even hear a few songs inside.

Then we made our way down one of the little streets near Notre Dame and had the most amazing Nutella Crepe and some Hot Wine. It was the PERFECT ending to a very cold, very wonderful day in the city of Paris! We took the train back to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and waitied on our flight to Singapore! They had these really neat "movie stations" in the airport, so our wait wasn't too bad! We boarded the plane in Paris and took off around 11:30. The pilot came over the loud speaker during flight to let us know it was 2011! We ordered champagne from the flight attendant and had a toast to 2011 (A year that I would say is starting out PRETTY GREAT!).

We arrived in Singapore around 7 pm Singapore time after a 12 hour flight. We both slept fairly well on both of the flights and enjoyed a few movies and tv shows. We took the train to our hotel in Sinagpore and got settled and finally had a SHOWER! It had been WAY too long! We ate at a little local restaurant by our hotel and got to bed early! We will be exploring the sights of Singapore today! Happy New Year Everyone!

Justin's 30th Birthday Week!

Justin turned the BIG 3-0 on Tuesday Dec 14th! I had so much planned for him! The night before I gave him the first surprise, Wizards-Lakers tickets 10 rows from the court! A co-worker friend of mine's husband's boss had them and wasn't going to be able to go! So, I gladly took them off his hands for a fun birthday date night with my hubby! The plan was to go to eat at Corduroy, a neat restaurant we've been wanting to try and then head to the game! At about 4:00 pm on his birthday, I began feeling sick. I ran home to lay down for a bit and hopefully shake it off for the fun night ahead. I made the mistake of checking facebook and seeing that 10 people that had been at the church party I went to on Sunday night had food poisening/stomach bug. Welp, I did too! Justin called his friend Travis last minute and they were able to enjoy the game. Needless to say I was out of commission for about 2 days!

All along, I had also been planning a surprise birthday party for him. It went AMAZINGLY well! He had no idea! I had about 25 or so of his best friends waiting for him and he was very surprised! My brother and his girlfriend even came into town for it! My good friend Holly took a lot of pictures (since crazy me forgot the camera) and I've got to get them from her to post on here! I promise they will come!

We capped off the birthday week with a ginge

rbread house making party at our friends' Ross and Catlin's. It was so much fun and our house turned out pretty well!

We had ANOTHER big event during Justin's birthday week! We had put a deposit down on an English Cream Golden Retriever puppy and she was born on Thursday December 16th! We aren't sure which one will be ours, but she will be one of these cuties (maybe, this is a picture of 4 of the 6 puppies from the litter!)

Tis the Season!

Here we are tonight at Ford's Theater after seeing "A Christmas Carol". It was wonderful and we got to see our good friends Matthew and Ingrid! What a great Christmas Surprise!
These are backwards, but here's the man of the house putting the star on the tree!

GO HEELS!!!

We walked down to the tree lot about 6-7 blocks away with our "city" shopping cart and pushed it all the way back to our house the true "cityfolk" way! :)

Merry Christmas!

End of the Year Resolution

Hello Blog Friends! I've decided to make an "End of the Year Resolution" to post on our blog regularly! I stopped around April, which is when I started my new job! I absolutely love it, but its also kept me MUCH more busy! I'm going to make an effort to keep up with it from now on and let everyone know whats going on in the Waters lives! :)

Tonight we are going to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater! We are so excited! We've got a busy December going on right now but I'm going to keep up with this and post some pictures! Tonight I'll post some of our house decorated for Christmas and us decorating the tree!

We're Back!

Ok, so the last post said we hadn't posted in a month and now this one is a month later! AH! We've been so busy! I started my new job and I absolutely LOVE it! It's such a great fit for me. I'm still trying to figure everything out, but I'm getting the hang of it!

Justin has been SO busy with school. He's doing an extra consulting project for work and working very hard!
My parents came to visit near Easter and we had a blast having them in town!
Recently, we got tickets to the White House Garden tour and I had my friend Libby's bachelorette here in DC. Here are some pics!

We missed a whole month!!

Apologies for the lack of posting! We've had a pretty busy March! Our camera however, saw its final days. I'm going to try and get some of the pictures from March and post them later, but we will hopefully have a new camera VERY soon! Things have been mostly normal in the Waters' Household. Work/play and school (for justin). Sarah finished up her second cake class and REALLY enjoyed them! It was a lot of fun! Justin has started his second set of classes for the semester! AND..Sarah got a promotion at work! She is going to be starting her new job this coming Monday as Political Programs Manager! She is VERY excited! More posts to come! I'll try not to be so slack!

Sarah's Chapel Hill Weekend and Valentine's Day 2010

This past weekend I went to Chapel Hill for Courtney's birthday and a girls reunion! Here are some pictures from the trip! We had such a great time! :)

I booked a flight back to I could hurry home to my valentine! He was so sweet! He came to pick me up and brought me BEAUTIFUL roses and a REALLY cute cake!

Then he had planned out a meal for the two of us to make together and had gone to the grocery store to get the ingredients! We had SO much fun cooking together! We made Chicken Parmigiana with HOMEADE noodles and caesar salad and yummy wine!

And here I am at our candlelit table ready to eat! HAPPY VALENTINE's 2010!

OH! And he was so sweet and got me the cutest card that made me tear up, sweet "I love you" stones and tickets to GREASE the play! :) We're going tomorrow night!

Snowmageddon!

Well as you've ALL heard I'm sure, DC got a LOT of snow last week! We were out of work for 4.5 days due to over 2 feet of snow and then another foot that arrived about 3 days after the first snow! It was absolutely crazy! I've never seen that much snow! We had a great time, got some SERIOUS cabin fever, and enjoyed getting to spend so much time together! Here are some pictures from the snow! :)

Snowmageddon Absence!

Sorry for the long time with no posts! I have a quite a few pictures from our adventures during snowmageddon and snowverkill, my chapel hill weekend and Valentine's Day! I'll be sure to do a few posts for those really soon!!

As promised...

Culinary Victories! This week I made a Sweet Caramel Cake for my book club meeting. I think it was rather tasty and it proved to be a hit at Book Club and at work the next day! I got the recipe from http://topwithcherries.blogspot.com . Her blog is fabulous!

Here is the Sweet Caramel Cake in all its Glory! :)

And, I made homeade Salsa last night!!! It was mighty tasty and super easy to make! I got this recipe from, you probably have already guessed as she is one of my favorites, The Pioneer Woman! You should really check out her blog if you haven't!

Tonight I'm making Beef Stroganoff and might try and bake something new! Justin has some homework for his Saturday class, so that leaves me to the kitchen :) Tomorrow we are going to try and go see the Georgetown/Duke game, but tickets are MIGHTY expensive right now, so we'll see! Tomorrow night we are going to Michelle and Jarret's housewarming party/Michelle's birthday party, it should be a blast! Sunday we've got church and a game watching party for the Tennessee Game! Fun filled weekend for the Waters!