Lauren and Jimmy are Married!

Last Saturday, Kirk and I had the opportunity to attend Lauren and Jimmy's wedding.  Lauren has been one of my best friends since freshman year of college and it was really an honor to stand in her wedding as a bridesmaid (and we are especially thankful to Baby Duncan for holding off until after her big day!).  They were married in Lancaster, Lauren's home town, and all the details of the day were absolutely beautiful.  Lauren did a great job with everything.  Jimmy does need some credit too...one of my favorite moments of the day was when Lauren walked down the aisle to a song that Jimmy sang and recorded called "Nothin Fancy" by Dave Barnes.  I never knew he had such a great voice! It was a really neat, personal touch to the day.

Hair and makeup done and ready to head to the church.

If she looks this good in sweats, imagine how good she will look when she gets the dress on!

There it is!

It's almost time!

It took many hands to get this dress on! Luckily, her mom had practiced all the lacing up of the back of the dress...it was not an easy task!

Waiting for the Ceremony...

Is it time yet?

Her dress was perfect for her.  

I couldn't get over all the detail...even in the back!

She really did look stunning!

The flowers were so beautiful!

Lauren's sister and brother-in-law, Lindsay and Chad, just had twin girls, Riley and Sophia, 4 weeks ago.  I wish I had a better picture, but they are such a cute family!

The bride and me! 

First Dance ("Better Together" by Jack Johnson...love that song!)

The Duncans and the Herrs! We wish they lived closer!!

Such a good-looking pair!

Weddings are such a great time to see friends! We had the chance to hang out with several of our friends from college which is always a blast.  I am always reminded at weddings of the blessing of having such a strong support system of friends.  The pictures below are some of the Taylor crew of friends that were there.  Note how far they came to support Lauren and Jimmy.  Kelly, Brad, and Mal all came out from IN too but I don't have their pictures, sadly :(.

Darla and Brian (Minnesota).

Jeff and Rach and Baby Brooke, due in March(Illinois)!

Brad and Jacki (Hawaii) .

Kirk and Chrissie (Indiana).

Christmas with the Spiers!

We headed out to Rachel and Shane's the day after Christmas for our family Christmas celebration.  Rach and Shane made us an awesome meal including deep fried turkey (Kirk wants a deep fryer now), ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing (I'm sure there was more than that too).  After the meal we opened presents and enjoyed doting over Campbell and Glenn, the Mastiff (Rachel and Shane's newest addition to their family!).  As you can see, we were REALLY doting over them because there are no pictures of anything else.

Campbell was really enjoying her new toy from Uncle Shane and Aunt Rachel.  Also, note the background.  Jess is bleeding because her daughter scratched her in the nose.  Kirk said "Campbell won her first fight."

Glenn (who will eventually be over 200 pounds!) and Uncle Kirk. He is so cute (Kirk's not bad either).  

Attempting to change a diaper. She knew I had no idea what I was doing, but I have to learn sometime!

They really love each other.

Christmas Eve!

Kirk and I are so thankful we were able to make it out to PA for Christmas.  It was touch and go for a while.  It was icy the night we left and we had a little bit of a car accident. The good news is we are fine and the rental we got is nicer than our actual car anyway! So, after an eventful afternoon and a slow start, we made it home after 13 hours of driving over the course of 2 days.  We had a great time with my family...it's never enough time though! At least we know we will be seeing them soon upon the arrival of Baby Duncan!

Kirk and me at my parents after the Christmas Eve service.  I tried the antique finish on this picture and I think I like it!

Our precious niece all decked out for Christmas!

Does it get any cuter?

Girls Weekend, Guys Weekend

This weekend, Kirk headed to Chicago to spend some time with his buddies, Diepstra, Jeff, Paul, and Joe.  Paul, Jeff, and Kirk went to see UNC play Valpo at the United Center (the main focus of the trip), but they got to spend some good time together too.  Unfortunately, we only have one camera, and Kirk forgot to take it...so we have no pictures to share.  He said he had a great time though.  Thanks for hosting him, guys!

While he was gone, my friend Jess came down from Upland (about an hour away) to spend the weekend with me.  We had a great time.  On Friday night, we took Meridian downtown (Meridian is a road here in Indy that leads to the center of the city and has huge houses on it...particularly beautiful during the holidays) and went out to eat.  We ate at this great place called Old Spaghetti Factory.  In the middle of the restaurant they have a train caboose and Jess and I were especially excited we got to sit in it! So anyway, below are a few pictures.

Kirk and I have great friends.  We are extremely grateful for all of you.

The train!

Us in the train!

The Perfect Cheap Christmas Date!

On Saturday night, Kirk and I were feeling a little lame for being at home all night.  We decided to try to come up with cheap and fun date idea.  We decided to go grab some Starbucks and drive around, look at Christmas lights, and rank our favorites.  We had a lot of fun seeing all the beautiful lights (and some not so beautiful...).  

Nothing like a Carmel Apple Cider and a Peppermint Mocha for a chilly night.

Most of the pictures didn't turn out because of the lighting, but this was one of my favorite houses!  I love the wreaths in the windows.

Oh Christmas Tree!

Today, Kirk and I went out to pick out our Christmas tree.  I read online this week that the place we went last year no longer allows people to chop down their own tree.  Since we really enjoyed doing that last year, we had to find a new farm.  I'm so glad we did! We went up to Stoney Creek Farm in Noblesville and loved it! This place had so much Christmas character.  We loved it.  We will definitely be heading back there in the future!

Santa Claus drove us out to the tree fields in this tractor.

On a very cold tractor ride!

A good shot of St. Nick.

We found the perfect tree!

Kirk measuring the winning tree.

Getting ready to chop it down (he said it was WAY easier than last year).

Just a little guy, but I love it!

We can't wait to bring it home!

The grounds of this farm were beautiful! We had so much fun taking in all the sites.  

A view of just part of the tree lots.

It looks like the perfect country Christmas.

I thought this was so funny.  This one family had a HUGE tree (probably 11 or 12 feet high) and the guys were having a hard time netting it.  Leave it to Santa to fix the problem.  He jumped right in there...tis the season!

They had these cute little reindeer made out of wood.  I wanted one.  I didn't get one (I was overruled by "Where would we put it?")

I loved the holly berries! 

It Fits!

We got the tree home and it fits in our little living room far better than the tree we had up last year! We are really happy with how it turned out!

Kirk is putting the finishing touch on our masterpiece!

And there it is!

Some of my favorite ornaments.

I even have most of our presents wrapped!

Proud of the finished product!

I also love how our fireplace looks.  This is the stocking my parents gave us last year for Christmas (there is one that says Kirk too).

A look at the whole thing.

New Hair, Big Belly

Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera along for the Duncan family Thanksgiving.  Hopefully we will have some pictures sent along to us (hint, hint) and I will be able to update you all with pictures.  We had a great weekend and there is never a dull moment with the Duncan crowd!  The ladies of the family threw me a baby shower on Friday evening and we had a lot of fun! I am really blessed to have entered a family that cares so much! We know Baby Duncan is well loved...and he or she has quite the room full of "stuff" awaiting him or her.  

In the mean time, I figured I'd give you an update on my new hair (I chopped off about 6 or 7 inches) and my belly.  I love having my hair short again...it's so easy to take care of which I'm sure will come in handy when Baby D arrives!

And this is me, today, at almost 34 weeks! I am really popping.

A close up of the massive mountain that is my belly.