THE NURSERY IS FINISHED!!

So, Samantha's room is finished!! The pictures are up, and everything has been put away. Now we're just awaiting Samantha's arrival. Here are some pictures of her room. It doesn't really do it justice, but you get the picture. You'll just have to come visit when she gets here to see it for yourself. Enjoy the pictures!

COMING SOON... Samantha's Nursery

So, I need to get pictures of the nursery and will post them probably tomorrow. Hope you enjoy!

Baby Moon

For Christmas, Peter gave me a great gift!! I had casually mentioned in the fall that I would love for the two of us to get away one last time for a "baby moon" before Samantha makes her big appearance. On Christmas, I opened a card and it told me that we were headed to the Inn on the Biltmore Estate for an evening and then a day at the Biltmore House. So, last Monday, we headed off on our "baby moon." We ate dinner at the Corner Kitchen in Biltmore Village, and then headed onto the estate.

I may have gotten a little carried away with the picture thing, but I didn't have my camera on our actual honeymoon, so I was making up for it.

Our room at the Inn was beautiful!!

After we got to our room, we decided to go find dessert in one of the restaurants in the Inn. We ended up in the Library Lounge where we shared an apple cobbler and a housemade soda for me and a fancy concoction for Peter.

The next morning we got up and headed to the Chef's Buffet then over to the house. Our great friend Jeff, works for Biltmore, so he met us there and gave us our own personal tour. It was a great tour. He's had to go through the house so many times that he knows all kinds of tidbits of information that is not on the usual tour.

It was an AMAZING two days for Peter and I. We didn't get to go very far because of the lateness in my pregnancy, but it was awesome just to get away for a few days!!

So, in late November, I was 30 weeks pregnant, and our ultra fabulous, super talented friend Karri Ostergaard took some pregnancy pictures for Peter and I. They turned out better than I could have ever expected, and can't wait till we can get some of baby Samantha!! If you want to check out some of Karri's work and see if she can take some amazing pictures of you and your family, check her out at www.karriostergaardphotography.blogspot.com.

Greenhorn Family Reunion

In July, my family along with the Gwennaps, Whittemores, and the Mendezes headed south for a "magical" vacation. We had started planning this vacation to Disney in January and couldn't wait to be there!! We stayed in 2 brand new 3 bedroom villas at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. There were between 17-19 people there with us throughout the week, and so it made logistics interesting, and yet so much fun!!! We owe big thanks to LOTS of people for helping with the logistics of things, so THANK YOU for helping. You know who you are! We spent the week eating in all kinds of fabulous restaurants (we had the dining plan), well they did, I ate toast, tomatoes, and crushed ice. Anyway, we did Disney the way it should be done!! We saw Bucky Greenhorn at Hollywood Studios,

Sarah in Voices of Liberty at EPCOT

and Belle in the Magic Kingdom. We laughed, ate, relaxed, laughed some more, sang, and laughed even more!! We couldn't have asked for a better vacation. We can't wait till the Greenhorn Family Reunion 2010. Oh, and yes, we were that family with matching t-shirts. People were even asking where they could buy one.

Our "GO" trip

So, in early January of last year, Peter and I were sitting in a Cracker Barrel in Hickory, NC and talking about what kind of vacation we wanted to go on last summer. Peter all of the sudden said, "Let's just go." It was a very unexpected thing coming out of my very logical husband's mouth. I'm usually the one with the adventurous ideas. When I finally asked what he meant by that he explained. He said we should take 10 days and just go. Meaning we would flip a coin which would decide whether we would go north or west, and then every other day we would switch drivers and just see where we ended up. I thought it was a fabulous plan, and so we started not planning for our vacation!!

In June, right after school got out, and after I found out I was pregnant, we packed up a van with all kinds of stuff, not really knowing what we were going to need, and headed out. We ended up heading north!! Truthfully, it was the direction I really wanted to go, so I was excited!! Our first big stop was NEW YORK CITY!!

We got into New Jersey, and decided to go straight into the city to see if we might be able to catch a show that evening. Well, we got off the bus and went immediately to The Majestic Theatre to see if we could get in to see The Phantom of the Opera. When we got there the line was down the street, and when I asked an usher, he told me that the night's show was sold out. We went in to the box office and asked if there were any available seats. The man told me that there was standing room tickets or seats on the 8th ROW CENTER!! I looked at Peter, he says with pleading eyes, hoping that he would agree to the 8th row, well guess what? HE DID!! It probably helped that Phantom is one of his favorite shows, so he enjoyed it just as much as I did!! It was absolutely AMAZING!!

The next day we did a little sightseeing around the city, then headed to see if we could get tickets for another show. We ended up seeing the matinee of The Little Mermaid. Also, one I would recommend!! We could have stayed in New York for our entire trip, but we wanted to see a little more of the north, so we headed out the next morning.

We left New York, and ended up at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, CT. It was the first casino I had ever been to, so I was completely in awe. Our room was on the 14th floor, and had amazing views of the middle of nowhere Connecticut. We headed down to the casino, and played all kinds of fun stuff. I was getting a little frustrated because I wanted to WIN, so we sat down at a blackjack table, and my luck changed. I ended up winning $200!! Talk about one heck of a night!!

When we left the casino, we headed to Newport, RI. We visited some of the prettiest houses I have ever seen, and then toured The Breakers, which was the home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, the brother of George Vanderbilt, who owned The Biltmore House here in Asheville. The same architect designed both houses, so it was like being a in smaller version of the Biltmore House, but still very interesting.

This is us in Newport, RI. The picture on the left in on the porch at The Breakers, and then the picture on the right in standing on the walkway between The Breakers and the water.

From Rhode Island, we headed up to Boston. We are both big history buffs, and have both read "John Adams," and watched the John Adams series on HBO, so we ended up touring his homes and library. It was awesome to be in a place where everything has been kept exactly the same since he lived there!!

After going to his home, we went to the church where John and Abbigail Adams, John Quincy and Louisa Adams went to church and are now interred in a family crypt. We got a private tour by the president of the preservation society of the crypt. It was an incredible feeling to be able to stand there in such a historic place.

In Boston I began the "morning sickness, " ok, we'll call it ALL DAY SICKNESS of my pregnancy!! We had plans of doing the Freedom Trail, and then traveling farther north, but I couldn't make it anymore, so we headed south. Our "GO" trip was awesome for the two of us to do together, and something we'll remember, hopefully forever!!

My pregnancy

This is our first ultrasound of baby Kanipe!

We found out we were expecting Memorial Day weekend '09. We were at the beach with the fabulous Marshall family, so they were actually the first people to find out. When we got home, we went almost immediately to Party Blvd. (www.partyblvd.com) to share the news with our families. We saw my mom and dad first, and gave my dad a book called "Grandpa Rules." It took him a second to catch on, but boy my mom was really quick!! Peter's parents saw our car in the parking lot, and decided to stop by. We gave his dad the same book and of course his mom immediately got it. Aunt Judy and Uncle Dusty were there too, so it was a big family event!! At that point I was about 8 weeks along, but we couldn't wait to tell everyone!!

This at Disney in July...I'm 13 weeks pregnant, and sick as a dog!!

Myrtle Beach with mom, dad, and Maddison... 16 weeks pregnant

At school in the fall...23 weeks pregnant. We had just found out that baby Kanipe is a GIRL!! We had a PINK or BLUE party. It was pouring rain that day, but everyone seemed to have a great time when Peter and I cut the cake and revealed the PINK inside!!

My pregnancy pics that the AMAZING Karri Ostergaard took at 30 weeks.

I am now 37 weeks pregnant, and am just patiently, ok not so patiently waiting to meet our precious little Samantha York. I'm going to try to write some more updates of things throughout the last 37 weeks, and then I'm going to keep things updated when I go into labor and after, so that you all very interested readers can see our sweet Samantha when she is born.