happy new year :)

happy 2006. and i've had a great time ringing in the new year.

it was wonderful to visit seth and leigh the other day and help her out with calming him down and giving her some free time. seth was about a month old and is a hefty 12 pound baby. he's got a set of lungs, some active arms and legs, and the beginnings of some killer blue eyes. can't wait to see how this kid grows up... (by the way, this is a picture of jennifer and seth, not leigh and seth--but it's a cute one!)




friday night was spent hanging out with the church crew for the first time since the middle of december. i had spent enough time on my own at the apartment and was ready to be social again. so we met at bear rock for some dinner and then headed back to my apartment to watch football and play some games. i had asked for some board games for christmas and had gotten scattergories and pictionary. so after playing a couple of rounds of scattergories, everyone else headed home and i got ready for new year's eve.


honestly, new year's eve was pretty calm. justin and i had waited until the last minute to make any plans because we were waiting to see if anything would work out with his friend kenny or if the young adults group would do something. young adults ended up coming through and was much more low key, which is what we needed since we were traveling to raleigh at way too early in the morning on new year's day. so we went over to kenny and jennifer's for tacos, more football (isn't it over yet?) and video games. the guys had a great time with joe's new xbox 360 while the girls stayed occupied with seth, gracie and cara.



but that didn't keep me from trying it out, too. i'm always the girl who's willing to give it a shot, even if the guys beat up on me. and as you can see, i give it my full concentration....







sunday morning, we hit the road bright and way too early for north raleigh united methodist for baby joseph's baptism. i hadn't seen my cousin in about 2 or 3 months, and he has grown quite a bit since then. i must admit that i am absolutely smitten by this kid. he has the longest lashes that shouldn't be allowed on a baby and the most laid-back, easy going personality. made it through the entire service without getting fussy, can be passed around from person to person with no problem, and is woken up from naps smiling and cooing. justin said he should get a little onesie that says, "yeah, i'm cool with that."
afterwards, there was a drop-in reception at billy and maryanne's where we got to meet lots of their friends and also do a little belated christmas. i'll be taking a trip to beaufort next weekend to pick out some artwork from the alan cheek galleries--very nice! i also got lots of great pictures of joseph and the rest of the family, which i'll add here at the end. i love the ones of him with my grandfather, the older joseph william. there is definitely an uncanny resemblace going on...

now it's just a matter of getting ready to go back to work after two weeks off, which involves laundry, dishes, taking the christmas tree down and all sorts of fun stuff. it's been a great break and i'm ready for the new year :) hope everyone else's vacations went well, too! later...