a whirlwind...

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy. It all started when we moved in to Teddy's parents house last week. You can read about that here. Of course, if you want a more detailed run-down, you can always email me! :) Just know that it was a total answer to prayer, especially in this housing market...and something we are very thankful for :)

Speaking of being thankful, Thanksgiving didn't exactly allow us to slow down any. It was a non-stop weekend that started with Jamie and Josh coming in town Wednesday night! Thursday morning we had breakfast at my Dads house and then headed to Teddy's Aunt Carol's for the traditional Thanksgiving Feast! (the opposite of how we did it last year...) It was sooo good!

Thankgiving 2008

Friday morning I headed out bright and early with all the crazies on Black Friday. I have to be honest, I pretty much live for this day. Whoever created this 'holiday' is a genius! It's becoming a tradition to get BREW and then head to the Galleria with Lauren and Jen! 2 years going strong :)

Jen, Me and Lauren in front of BREW, gettin ready to tear it up! ha!

After a long day of shopping (and some great deals!) We had a very relaxing sunset dinner cruise on the sailboat down off of Key Biscayne with Teddys family.

On the boat

just a funny one taken at the dock...
On Saturday Teddy had a volleyball tournament down on South Beach! It was the perfect day to just lay around and get some sun! And yes, at almost 36 weeks...Im still rockin the bikini! yikes! They came in second...way to win back all the money I spent on Black Friday babe! :) ha!

Teddy in the final game...

On Saturday night we celebrated the wedding of Todd and Stephanie. My sister was the maid-of-honor and the wedding was beautiful...and full of tattoos!

The bride with some girlfriends @ our table...

And finally Sunday came, after church we stayed East for the afternoon and hung out with some friends that we never got to see before we 'headed west'. The highlight was definitely meeting little baby Eva, born on 11/23/08! Too cute, and I can't believe we'll have one of those in just a couple of weeks...

Teddy holding baby Eva for the first time...

Now I leave with you a few 'randomosities' for the holiday season...

• I love the smell of Christmas trees, and the Evergreen scent @ Bath & Body
• Has anyone ever noticed that they sell fire wood @ Publix...really?
• The Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate @ Starbucks is life-changing...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! And here's to a wonderful Christmas season!

~The Cooks

:best shower EVER:

This past Sunday my sister and friends hosted what I like to consider the best baby shower EVER. I love when all my worlds come together. Friends came from North Carolina, Orlando, even Oklahoma to celebrate the very near arrival of Little Reese. It was absolutely perfect! There was great food, more then enough pictures taken to satisfy my photo obsession, and the best part, massage therapist giving mini massage to all the guests...sweet! Below are just a few pictures to get you started! Can't wait to meet our little girl...7 more weeks!

High School Friends and my Cheer Coach!

Lauren, Amanda and Kathy...cooking up some great food!
mmm...startin the day off right!

Me and the best planners in the world!

The Cake (after mom saved the day!)

The adorable diaper cake Amanda made

Reese's first American Apparel Onesies!

::Taylors Closet::

This past Saturday night we attended the Taylors Closet Fashion Show Benefit and Gala. What an amazing night! The entire gala was done with excellence and we already can't wait until next years show! It was held at a hanger at the Ft. Lauderdale Executive Airport, such a cool setting!

I also managed to sneak in a 29 week picture! :) Enjoy!

29 weeks!

My latest concoction...

I love the beach (I love to be tan more then anything...) But lately my tan has been restricted to just the 'front' of me! If Im at the beach with Teddy (being 7 months along now, those days are few and far between) I will just dig a small hole in the sand and lay on my stomach that way, not incredibly comfortable, but it works! However, this past weekend I created this...my "pregnant ladies beach chair". I took a cheap, $15 dollar old-school plastic beach chair from CVS and cut a nice big square out of the center of it and wha-la, the pregnant ladies beach chair! I know what youre thinking...genius! Yes, thank you! And its super comfortable not to mention!

I wish....

I wish I was a little better about posting things when they actually happened, instead of waiting for 3 or 4 exciting things to build up then overwhelming you with one long post, but here we go!

A few weeks ago we celebrated our neighbors 6th Birthday! We love their family and she is a total ham! She had a mani/pedi party. The 'big girls' (6th graders) from her school came over and gave all of her girlfriends manicures and pedicures, it was too cute! Then they all changed into their 'fancy dresses' and had a 3 course dinner! Everyone had steak, Carmella's choice! Good thing the UM game was on in the living room....it was a little much for Teddy. Later that week we went to Buca di Beppo for her actual Birthday dinner with her family.

Here she is opening her present from us:

The Cezaras and The Cooks

Just this past weekend we celebrated the wedding of Julie and John Adams! Our great friends Jeremy and Julie Cox came in town to marry them and of course, hang out with us! I love the way weddings bring people together...


Julie, John, Jeremy and Julie

Julie is also expecting! It was so much fun to get to 'compare notes' since we're so close together. Their little girl Lola Kay is due January 10th and we are due January 3rd! She is exactly one week behind me! We did lots of maternity clothes shopping and lots of eatting! :)

Julie at 26 weeks
Teresa at 27 weeks
(yes, shes actually pregnant, I know it doesnt even look like it!)


Meanwhile, Teddy has been keeping busy making us millions as a pro-beach volleyball model. Okay, Im kidding about the millions...., but below are some amazing pictures that a sports photographer took of him last week.

Finally, we are making progress on the nursery! The sad news is we had to find a new home for our dog this weekend (we are definitely going through withdraws) but he is with a great family and has a new friend to play with all the time! Ive been painting some furniture and getting ready to put the final touches on the room. I will be sure to post pictures of it when its finished!

Have a great week!

~The Cooks

24 weeks...

::Baby Update::

• we actually saw my stomach move last night when she kicked!
• she got the hiccups for the first time...crazy

6 months pictures coming at ya soon!

Our little girl...

her profile at 22 weeks :)

It's a...

GIRL!!

The suspense is finally over, our first baby will be a little girl :)

~Katherine Reese Cook~

We haven't decided if we'll call her Reese or K.C., but the name is definite!

(after my best friend Kathy)

Can't wait!!

::Happy Birthday Jen::

Jen's 30th Birthday at Texas de Brazil

Having fun in the office...

One of the Attorenys I work with recently asked me if I have been measuring my progress? No, I told her, I didn't really think that was that important? So we decided to grab a tape measurer that was laying around and go to work! I was shocked at the results...from 26 to 35 inches ... Ive grown 9 inches! Which according to progress calendars, thats how big the baby is at 20 weeks...9 inchs! Guess Im right on track!? :) (who needs doctors...)

35 inches doesn't look that big when youre just holding it up...

Catchin up...

We had a great weekend in the Cook house!

Friday night was like a big Hollywood reunion for us. Our friends the Byrds hosted a BBQ for my old pastor and his wife who are in town to celebrate the birth of their 8th grandchild (born on 8/8/08..mmm?) along with the San Francisco McCords, great times! A couple other familiar faces from FBC stopped by throughout the night and before we knew it it was a full out party. There is truly no substitute for old friends, like my husband so wisely says: "proximity and time". No substitute.

Saturday I spent the entire day with my sister doing some serious maternity clothes shopping. Yep, my very first pair of maternity jeans, ouch. Im almost 20 weeks and it was definitely time. I held out as long as I could...


Sunday was the first day of the fall semester for our Home Fellowships at church! I love this Sunday, its like the first day of school! Since we attend a home church this is truly the DNA of our body. So exciting!


Finally, I got around to picking up my pictures from the 3rd annual girls trip to Mexico! Picking up...? I know what youre thinking. One of our 6 glorious days was spent at a protected water park in Mexico, Xel-ha (pronounced shell-ha). This is a natural lagoon off of the Riviera Maya. Amazing is an understatement. So since we spent the day going from one water activity to the next, you had to purchase an old-school underwater camera! yah! I finally picked up my prints! The last few pictures of the set are the Xel-ha pictures, the rest are the other 5 amazing days in the Caribbean. Its good be home. Its even better to be home and tan! :) Heres a few pictures to get you started:

Layin by the pool - Secrets Capri, Mexico

Mayan Ruins - Tulum

Have a great week everyone!

::Welcome to 2008::

The Cooks finally got text messaging...holy crap.

Atlanta, its good to be home!

Please don't let the title mislead you, we had a great time in Atlanta, but we are glad to be home...finally! Our 4 day trip suddenly turned in to a 5 day trip when our flight home Sunday night was canceled. After waiting around the airport for several hours, having our 8:50 flight delayed until midnight, then, no, wait...its back to 9:30! Only to have it pushed back to 11:40 again 15 minutes later, and ultimately canceled later that night, we threw in the towel around 10:30 and decided to take a flight home the next day. Delta tried to make it up to us by putting us on first class for our flight home Monday, however, we have both vowed to never fly them again! Monday turned in to a great day, one more day with the family, and we got to go to the Georgia Aquarium, not bad! The wedding was beautiful and it was great to spend time with our Tallahassee family as always!

The Cook Gang

The entire Cook/Wyrick Gang

::Baby Watch::

A lot of you have been asking for pictures of my progress, especially those of you that are far away, well here you have it!

My 12 week baby bump:

My almost 16 week baby bump:

I still feel great, and a lot bigger then I know I probably am...

Only 24 more weeks to go!

:) Mommy

BBQ, "Tick Checks" and Boiled Peanuts in a Can...

...only in Birmingham! Teddy and I just got back from celebrating 4th of July in the deep south, Birmingham, Alabama! We stayed with our great friends George and Marina and got to spend some time with one of our favorite families, the Crumps! The fire works were great the night we got in, and the BBQ just got better and better.... we piniced at Oak Wood Mountain State Park, had dinner with Linda, got to visit Matt at the station and spent the last day with Matt at lunch and just hanging out...it was a blast! We got in way too late last night, but just in time to unpack and pack again for Atlanta on Thursday! It never ends....but we love it! :)

Oak Wood Mountain State Park

Me and Linda, one of my favorite women!

Me and my two favorite guys!

Happy Anniversary JLB!

My Firm just celebrated its 8th Anniversary last week! Needless to say this is not an anniversary I will soon forget. Or anyone for that matter...

Our Anniversary is July 3rd. We always eat lunch out and then have a big Happy Hour at the office for all of our friends and family. Good times! This year we had lunch at Casablanca Cafe on Ft. Lauderdale Beach. It started with Calamari, Shrimp and Escargot, and of course, Margaritas overflowing.... Now, I have to tell you, I questioned the Calamari at first, being pregnant and all, but I went for it! I also had grilled Mahi with rice and a papaya salsa. Yummy! Until about 20 minutes after the meal. My boss, sitting just to the left of me, screams "oh my gosh, you're breaking out in hives!!" (he's a little dramatic at times). Well to my surprise I was breaking out in hives! Red bumps and spots all over my left arm, neck and back that quickly made its way to my chest and face! Scary! Immediately I think 'the calamari'. Or maybe the Mahi? It was panic mode there for a minute since everyone knows Im pregnant of course. With a quick call to the doctor, and a Benadryl, the hives were fading within 30 minutes! Below is the 2008 group picture of our Firm. As you can tell, my face and chest look like a lobster, and you can almost see the bumps down my left arm! After all the madness, it was narrowed down to the Papaya! So no more papaya for me! Bring on the Calamari....

Later today, Ill post about our weekend in Birmingham!

The world will never be the same...

...once Baby Cook arrives :)

Due January 3, 2009!!

and it only took me three tests to believe it...

another one...

Happy 1st Birthday Little Judah!

Love you buddy!

(look at that kid....are you kidding me???)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Teddy!

I love you so much!

::New York City::

We just got back from five fantastic days in New York City! This was my first time in the city, Teddy has been there a few times. The weather was perfect (70's and sunny) and we did literally everything, and then some. Great food, shopping in Chinatown (well...shopping in every town), going to the top of the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Statue of Liberty, The Today Show, Central Park, Rockefeller Center, a service at Redeemer and almost a Yankee's Game. We walked pretty much the entire city! So much fun! It's always good to be home...and NYC sure makes Ft. Lauderdale feel like Paducah! ha! Below are a few videos of our adventures, and of course, pictures!!

Alanis Morissette: "Thank You"

Alanis Morissette: "Ironic"

My fancy foot work on the Giant Piano @ FAO Schwartz!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary Teddy!!

Thank you for three of the best years of my life! LOVE you!

74 more days...

First of all: three posts in one day!?

It must be something about "threes"...
Speaking of, the third annual girls trip has officially been booked!

Just the three of us again, but we're taking it back to Mexico!

Ahh sweet Mexico, I can taste you already! :)

Family Camping Trip

This weekend we headed back up to Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine Florida to do a little family camping. Minus the downpour on Friday night, it was a ton of fun!

If you're in to camping, this is a great place to stay in North Florida!

Happy Camping :)

::New Kids on the Block::

Don't act like you didn't watch them on the Today Show Friday morning....

and because you know you want to watch it again (and again, and again...)