LA:

I went to LA for work this past week. We had to film promo spots for the new Warner Brother's film Fred Claus with Vince Vauhn. When I took the job in DC I did not know that I would also be working on Warner Brother's projects and was thrilled to find this out.

I flew out on Saturday for a meeting that was cancelled while I was in flight, so I called our old friend Elizabeth Carpenter to meet up with her and her boyfriend Stephen. E met me at my hotel in Santa Monica and we went to have brunch at a great little spot that had the best veggie burgers ever. We then went to her place to chill before having dinner with Stephen downtown at a great spot called Greengrass. We had a great time. E is like my older sister and Stephen is amazing. I am so happy that the two of them have found each other. Stephen is a composer in Hollywood for TV and movies and also plays the pipe organ at Beverly Hills Presbyterian where they both attend. I am headed back to LA in early November and look forward to seeing them again. This time I will be taking Nicole and it will even be more fun with the four of us.

The next 3 days were pinch yourself type days. I love filming TV commercials and have a blast on set. It is so cool being on a Hollywood lot with movies and shows being filmed all around you. I saw Al Pacino on set, Brittney Murphy walking to her car, and Jacqueline Smith filming a new commercial for K-Mart. One of the guys in our Fred Claus commercial was the bar tender from Grey's Anatomy. He was great and had all sorts of gossip to share from the set. I have a few images of the set so that you can see what I do for a living. I am mostly sitting in the lounge area watching flat screens to make sure that the director is getting what the client, creative director, and I want. Look for these spots to start airing the middle of October!!

LA is a great place to visit because it is so much fun, and the shopping and food are great, but I was glad to head home to DC to Nicole and Bleeker. More to come!

Brad

4 Months Pregnant!

We finally decided to start documenting our pregnancy. I guess up 'till now, I didn't really look pregnant. I certainly felt pregnant (nausea, horrible headaches, and acne!) but didn't think that I was showing very much...Brad thought I was. Funny thing is, I was complaining all weekend about thinking that my stomach looked like it had gotten smaller! So, I asked Brad to take a picture of me this weekend so that I could see for myself what he was seeing. I was shocked! I cannot beleive how poochy it is...oh, does Brad love it! So, enjoy the pictures...Nicole finally has a belly!

Nicole's Friends Come to Visit

Our first week here, we were really blessed to have the Barden family in DC for a visit, just by chance the same week we were moving in. We moved in on Monday and the whole family arrived on Wed. I went to junior high and high school with Cristie and her younger sister, Angela. Cristie was actually a bridesmaid in our wedding. So, I've known her whole family for a long time. They ironically had already planned a trip here because they hadn't been since Angela had her 3 sons. So, mama Cathy, daddy John, Cristie, Angela, Justin (her hubby) and their 3 boys (Trae, Colby, and Journey) all came. It worked out perfectly, b/c their first night, they stayed at a hotel in our neighborhood and we were able to do dinner with them at Bertucci's (a great Italian place in Old Town). Journey really seemed to take to Brad at the restaurant too! All of their kids are just precious but Journey is only 10 mths old and really loved Brad. It was really sweet to see Brad with him and made me imagine how great he is going to be with our own kid!

Anyway, they stayed somewhere else the rest of their trip but it didn't prevent me from hanging out with them. On Thurs, they were so kind and allowed me to join them on their day out. They had already arranged a tour of the Capital Building and had a ticket for me, which was great b/c I had never been before. Unfortunately, Brad had to work but was so happy that I could get out of the apt and hang out with old friends. The rest of the day, we spent walking around DC, seeing the White House, the new WWII Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and the Lincoln Memorial (another place I had never seen and so worth it!). So, it was overall a great first week here, spending time with friends. Brad and I were thrilled that they could come and see our place and be our first visitors and hope that they come back to visit us soon!

Level 7 (3 yr olds) during our Spanish lesson
My girl, Windy in my classroom

My co-teacher, Ashley in our classroom

My Teaching Days...Goodbye Suzuki!

Atlanta was a difficult place for Brad and I to feel at home in, but it did have some wonderful opportunities for us. The biggest blessing to living there, aside from frequent visits from one of my best friends, Ashley Freer (Atlanta is her hometown and she came back and forth on seminary breaks), was the opportunity that I was given to teach at The Suzuki School, a wonderful preschool from infants to kindergarten. The Suzuki staff was wonderful to me and was willing to give me the chance, despite no teaching experience, to teach their 3 year olds. Had we not moved, I was going to move up to teach the 4 year olds in our new school opening this fall. This level is such a strong teaching age and I considered it a great compliment and an honor to be trusted with it. I miss my kids and co-teachers there and valued that job more than they will know. It made me realize my love for kids and actually made me want our own even more! I have never changed so many poopy pull-ups and underwear in my life, but what a great experience for the times to come! Miss you guys!

Dinner With Leslie

Seeing that we are playing catch up on our blog, this posting should have been posted back in mid-July but time got the best of us in Atlanta during our move! A good friend of mine, Leslie Johnson, from Lee University came to Atlanta for the weekend on 2 occasions while we were living there. The last time was with her family to visit the Market, the wholesale place for people with businesses (if that made any sense!). Leslie is from Mobile, AL and was in my sorority at Lee, which seems like ages ago. I was thrilled to have dinner with her before we moved to DC. She is a great friend and always full of conversation. She has a cutie daughter and always has good stories for us, and advice! So, Brad and I picked her up and had a yummy dinner at Maggianos. I do love the food there...baby seems to really like Italian food these days! It was a great, short visit but we're so thankful we got to see her. We'll miss her visits for sure!

A Morning at the Farmers' Market

This morning, Brad and I decided to rise and shine a littler earlier than expected on a Saturday, by our standards that is! We wanted to check out the farmers' market in the Old Town Square of Alexandria, so off we went! We had to make our pit stop at the bagel shop for breakfast...baby needs food first thing AM! Of course, I've always been like that! :o) It was just as wonderful as we thought it would be and reminded us of our days in NY and London, visiting all the markets there. It's the place to get your fresh produce and veggies, local art, and to simply enjoy being out and about with all the locals. We stocked up on things for us to make this week for dinner and can't wait to do it again next week! I think this is going to be a tradition!

We Love This Place!

So, this is our second week in our new neighborhood of Old Town Alexandria, one of the most quaint and charming towns we've ever seen. We absolutely adore living here. Our place has 2 floors, 2 bedrooms and a great outdoor patio area. It's going to be the perfect place to start our new family! Which by the way, can you believe that we are already 4 mths pregnant?

Just a 15 minute drive to the heart of DC's museums and monuments and another great neighborhood, Georgetown (where Brad works), Old Town has it all. Something we really missed while living in Atlanta was the opportunity to walk out our front door to all of the restaurants and shops like we used to do in NYC and London. There is nothing like walking to the bagel shop for breakfast! We hated being car bound in Atlanta, so this is a welcomed change. We are 2 blocks away from King Street, the main shopping and dining street and 5 blocks from the harbor on the Potomac River and a beautiful waterside park. Our cute little townhouse is surrounded by 2 and 3 story rowhouses from the 17-1800s, some older than that. Robert E. Lee's boyhood home is just 2 blocks away from us! It's just bizzare to be surrounded by so much history...we love that! We're now on a hunt for a great church and will visit around until we can find a place that fits. It's extremely important to us to find a place to plug into. So, hopefully that will come soon.

After years of Brad bringing his computer home for us to use, we finally got our own personal laptop! So, hopefully this will make it easier to update our blog! Watch this space for pictures soon!

Oh the Joys of Moving! Welcome to DC!

So, we apologize for the delay in updating the blog lately. We've been a little busier than usual these days and haven't had the chance. We moved from Atlanta on July 24th and went straight to visit my family in NC. I was there for 2 weeks and Brad was there for a week...he had to fly to DC earlier to start his new job. Since our townhome wouldn't be ready for us to move in, Brad stayed in a hotel while I stayed with my family.

Our movers came last Monday, Aug 6th, so we were busy unpacking and getting settled last week...quite a feat! There are so many joys that come with moving...unexpected costs by the moving company, furniture that doesn't fit up a small staircase, ah...nothing like it! But we should be pros at this by now right? Ha! Oh, did we forget to mention that we still have a condon for sale in Atlanta? Yep, the market is so horrible right now, that even a cute place in Buckhead won't sell! We thought we would rent it for a while until the market improved but who knew that our Home Owners Association had such tight rules on renting your home? We regrettably found out that only 80 units are allowed to be up for lease in the complex and there is currently a waiting list in which we are #28! The #1 person on the lease has been there since last Aug...a year ago! So, that gives you some insight as to the predicament we are in. We had no choice but to sell it, for less than what we bought it a year ago! So, if you think of us, please say a prayer for a miracle to happen. We simply want to get rid of it! We know God is in the midst of it!

One on the Way? Yep!

So, most of you already know this, but just in case someone has slipped through the communication crack, Brad and I are pleased to announce that we are going to be proud parents! We are finally expecting our 1st baby, due Feb 6th! We were waiting for the right time to start trying and it certainly happened faster than we thought it would. What a blessing! We can't wait to get our family started and are thrilled to share it with all of you that keep up with our blog. So, be sure to keep up with our blog to get all the updates!

Our Summer Holiday in the Dominican Republic

A few weeks ago, Brad and I ventured down to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for our summer getaway. We arrived on Sat night and stayed through Wednesday. What a beautiful place with crystal blue water, white sand beaches and palm trees everywhere! We were both really excited about the trip we had planned several months for. However, we only really enjoyed one full day there. The rest of the trip, Brad and I did not feel very well. Sunday was great and wonderful, but come Monday, I began to feel sick and that night, poor Brad came down with something horrible. Despite the way we felt, we still spent our time on the beach or by the pool, as we felt better when we were in the water, strange enough. So, this would somewhat explain why we are so late on updating the blog with our photos. Neither of us could bare to upload our photos and funny enough, this is the first time I've seen them!

Regardless, the trip was amazing and the resort was gorgeous. We even got to take a canoe out into the ocean and test our endurance...not so well! Ha! The two of us had such a fun time out there, trying to maneuver this boat against the current and just laughed! We had only hired the canoe for 3o minutes and half that time we were trying to make it off shore...ha! We did it though and loved it. The people were really friendly and they had a market right on the beach with local artists and vendors selling stuff from the island. The resort had a plethora of activities always going on which kept us visually entertained. Punta Cana is visited by so many different people and believe it or not, we were in the minority and it felt great! We haven't heard so many different languages since we moved from London. We will likely never go back b/c the memories aren't the greatest, but we're so thankful we had the chance to see this place that so many have boasted about...it certainly does resemble paradise! So, enjoy the pictures!

Seth loves to go cross-eyed without warning!

Ben with my dad.

Lindsay and Ben

Drew and Seth

Seth on his motorcycle!

My Neice and Nephews

Okay, so it's obvious that we love my neice and nephews and while we were home this past weekend, we took a lot of pics of them! Lindsay is 10, Ben is 5, Seth is 4, and Drew is 2 1/2. They love the camera, so it's easy to get some fun pics of them while they're hamming it up! Enjoy!

Daddy's 60th Birthday Bash in NC

This past weekend, Brad and I travelled to NC for my daddy's big 60th birthday party. We had been planning this for about 2 months and wanted it to be something special for him...it's not everyday you turn 60! So, we invited his entire family and close friends to come over to my brother Brian's house to hang out. We had BBQ catered in from Wilber's BBQ that is quite the place for NC BBQ, along with fried chicken, potato salad, cole slaw and yummy desserts. It was a typical party back home...pig pickin's aren't unusual in that part of the country (although, we didn't eat the pig straight from the cooker).

Later, my dad, uncle and his son played the guitars and sang a little. Playing the guitar is just part of being in the Daniels family...most of the men in my family do. So, it was like being at a blue grass concert, or maybe more like a honkey tonk! Ha! My dad was overwhelmed by the turn out, over 30 people came, bringing banana puddings (daddy's fave) and shocked him with gifts. It was really a great night for my family to get together. We had rain, but at least it waited until we all had a chance to eat outside. Then we had to move the party indoors. Thanks to everyone who came...it was great to see all of you! Not to mention my awesome neice and nephews that Brad and I adore!

Nicole's Birthday in Charleston, SC

This past weekend, we travelled down to Charleston to celebrate my birthday and Memorial Day Weekend. This is a place I used to travel to frequently with my parents when I was young, so it was great to revisit it and see the changes that have taken place over the years. Wow, we absolutely loved it!! Brad and I were both amazed at how cosmopolitan it has become. It was a hip, chic southern town bubbling over with culture and the arts...of course we had a great time! We were pleasantly surprised that an arts festival called the Piccolo Spoleto Festival would be happening this weekend as well. It was a great weekend for the performing and creative arts to show their talents and we were excited to see some of it...we even found a gorgeous, impressionist style painting for our house! On Saturday night, they had a reggae concert out by the US Customs building that was so much fun! You couldn't help but dance!

So, on from that...we stayed at a great place called the Fulton Lane Inn, an old warehouse space, circa 1900, off of King Street that was converted into an inn. It was the perfect location in the heart of the historic district and around the corner from the Market. If you know Brad and I well, you know we love our food. Well, we had a plethora of good eats to choose from in Charleston. This town has become quite the place for wonderful restaurants...from low country shrimp and grits (a favorite of ours!), to oysters on a half shell, to the ultimate foie gras and beautifully plated dishes!! I had the best strawberry shortcake on the house at A.W. Shucks oyster bar to celebrate my birthday! Brad and I planned to only "taste" it but we just kept going and going!!

It was an awesome weekend. Charleston is truly one of the prettiest cities in this country and so rich in history. We took a carriage ride to tour the town and hear it's history and were taken back by how pretty the homes were and how friendly everyone was. It was so great to visit this town together as a couple now...it's even better when you're with your mate!!