Christmas 2009

This is a long overdue post. I have not posted any Christmas pictures and figured I'd post them all at once. There are a million pictures!

Mom, dad, Matt and I went to Fantasy in Lights at Callaway Gardens over Thanksgiving. We had a great time, albeit cold! This is me and Matt in the little village before going out and braving the cold.

Mom and dad Pulver in the Christmas Village

Our holiday schedule rotates every year. This year we spent the 23rd, 24th and morning of the 25th at the Hendrix's house in Aiken. The Aiken time started with game night at the Parks house...it definitely was a spirited crowd when it came to Catch Phrase.

Dad Hendrix opening his knife we gave him. We laughed at the picture because it looks like a violent Christmas day :)

Not sure why I posted this, but Justin apparently found something interesting on his blackberry. My guess is he and Matt were playing sports trivia.

Ahhh, the problem we have with the dogs....Sophie (the Hendrix Dog) and Hogan don't necessarily get along. This visit went much smoother but they aren't exactly the best of buds now.

I got a precious night light for the baby! Can't wait to put it in Chase's room!

Midmorning on the 25th we made the trip to LaGrange. Usually this is a dreadful trip because I-20 is so incredibly boring, but we had fun! Hogan slept the whole time and Matt and I enjoyed talking. We opened presents and such on Christmas night but saved all the delicious eating for Saturday.

Mom and Dad Pulver had a stocking made for Chase...how cute!!!

Matthew and Leslie's stockings

Our presents from Leslie and Matthew! They did such a good job and we LOVE all the gifts for Chase! They also gave us a precious blue bag...I think they had spy cameras on us because as we were packing, I told Matt that we have to invest in some blue bags since I will clearly be outnumbered in this house in February!

Mom and dad know I love to curl up in a blanket and gave me a Snuggie...one of the best presents ever!

You know you are old when you are excited about getting a ladder for Christmas :)

Matthew and Leslie gave mom a songbook for the baby...

Mom and her new digital picture frame!

Matthew and Leslie opening their map of NYC. They didn't know yet that their gift was a trip to New York City!!

Leslie was sweet and showed excitement for the used New York mug mom and dad gave her. Again, she didn't know what the real present was...Off to NYC they go!!

Pregnancy Update

Figured I should give you an update on the pregnancy...not that there is anything really new to report. I've now started to go to the doctor every 2 weeks so that means we are getting closer! Hard to believe Chase will be here in only 9 weeks (well, 9 weeks according to the doctor). My blood pressure and weight gain is great (only time weight gain is good :) ) and Chase's heartbeat is nice and strong. He weighs about 3.5 pounds and is about 16 inches long!

These past few weeks have been incredibly busy and stressful around here. I found out about 15 days ago that we had to be out of our office at work because the landlord was renting the building out to other people...thanks for the warning! He said we had to be out by December 29th and none of us had a place to go. So, Matt and I worked diligently to get my office moved to the house. This is nice because I can work in my pajamas some days :) but will have to be disciplined. In all this mess, we decided to move my office to the room downstairs and move the nursery to what was the office. And cleaning out the old office was a task! So many trips to the dump! And I have discovered what a hoarder I am...though I have turned over a new leaf and am now throwing everything away.

SO....now we are ready to get started painting the nursery and put everything in it. We still have to get a dresser and a rocking chair but hopefully we'll have those soon!

Pictures to come!!

BABY HAS A NAME!!!!

We have finally named Baby Hendrix!! We have had the name for a while but wanted to explore all options. Matt and I wanted to use family names and had to make sure that if we had more boys, we had more family names available :)

Drum roll, please.......

Baby Hendrix's name is Charles Bryant Hendrix and he will go by CHASE!!

My grandfather Pulver and greatgrandfather Pulver were both Charles and Matt's maternal grandmother's maiden name is Bryant. Funny enough, we both have Charles and Bryant as cousins.

We cannot wait for you all to meet sweet Chase and he cannot wait to meet you!!!!

And another long week begins...

Today is the start of the second stage of Qualifying School for Matt. He is out in Dallas, TX and teed off this morning at 10am. Needless to say, Mother Nature hasn't been very cooperative the past week, making it hard to get much practice in. Matt was home and practicing but then the remanents from the tropical storm blew thru, completely soaking every course in town. When he finally got to practice, the wind picked up. He flew to Dallas last Sunday morning only to find that the PGA Tour has a ridiculous rule that if you did not have status this year on the Nationwide or PGA Tours, you could not practice on Sunday. What a way to make an unfair advantage for other players. Had we known that, Matt would have stayed here, practiced and flown out later.

A cold front blew thru Dallas on Monday and Tuesday and turned the temperatures to the 40s. The wind blew up to 30-40 miles per hour, again making it hard to practice. A lot of guys didn't even go out on the course. Needless to say, it's been interesting, but then again, it is Q-School. Why would it go smoothly?!

So, today begins the Q-school second stage journey. My prayers go out to Matt this week. We're thinking about you, rooting for you, and behind you 100%!! Please keep him in your prayers.

Here is an article someone found in The Spartanburg Herald today.

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20091117/NEWS/911189988/1088/SPORTS?Title=PGA-Tour-Qualifying-Clemson-s-Hendrix-sticks-to-it

The Best Family

I have to say I have the best family in the whole world! I got home today after a 15 hour work day only to find my four aunts had sent me a "care package" for the pregnancy! I opened it with SUCH excitement and found clothes for me and a book for Matt!!! They sent me maternity pajamas (which I'm wearing now...and mind you I walked in the door 20 minutes ago), a VERY cute maternity shirt (very "hip") and a white camisole. They must have been reading my mind because I've been needing to get all of those things (especially the camisole) and haven't found time to do it. They gave Matt a book about how to pamper the new mom. Ha!!

Thank you SO much Maura, Gail, Abby and Anne!! We cannot wait for Baby to meet our wonderful family. Love you all!!

Hogan is a star!!!

Camp Bow Wow wrote us today to let us know that Hogan is going to be featured on the Camp Bow Wow blog. Of course, Matt and I think it is the funniest thing and have told everyone to look at it. Think of how obsessed we are with Hogan - how are we going to be with baby!!!

Below is the link for Hogan's fame :)

http://campbowwowgreenville.wordpress.com/

Mountain Weekend 2009

We had a wonderful opportunity to go to Bright's Creek for a weekend and just hang out and relax. Mr. Amick, owner of Bright's Creek, gave us his beautiful house to use and boy did we enjoy it!!! It is SUCH a wonderful house in an awesome location!!

The Rostins and the Carters came up for Friday night and Saturday night and then Matt and I stayed thru Monday morning. It was a great getaway and much needed! Needless to say, neither of us wanted to come back home.

I couldn't pick pictures, so I just put a lot of them on here. Of course, I can never figure out how to post in chronological order so they are all out of sorts.

On Sunday afternoon, we hiked to a waterfall and tested out our "new" camera. Guess the timer works!

Matt rock hopping in the creek :)

My hiking stick I found along the way. The distance was not far but I felt like a true hiker with it!

Being so close to Q-School, Matt had to practice all three days. Saturday morning, he, Mike and Chris went out to play. Here is Matt in action...

Paige and I walked out to meet the guys while they were playing and I had to take a million pictures along the way. This was the creek...Bright's Creek, I'm assuming :)

Me preparing for motherhood. Sweet Eliza was a joy to have around!

Taking a break from playing pool!

Looking down into the main den from the balcony! Beautiful, huh?!

The downstairs "Mancave"

Another view of the Mancave

The Poker Table

The bar

The house...

The den on the main level

The kitchen