Seafood Spectacular

There's a new store, called Land & Sea, and it's like a candy store for seafood lovers. We had a fantastic

seafood feast of grouper,

swordfish, scallops, and salmon.

Dessert was perfect as well...ice cream for Corrie and oysters for Phil. We were both perfectly happy.

Birthday Dinner at Bonefish Grill

This was Corrie's birthday celebration at Bonefish Grill. Mom and Dad treated us to a fabulous meal at one of my favorite restaurants, and it was a delicious evening.

Official Due Date = 08/08/08

These pictures are just before 15 weeks, and I can feel my belly growing.Unfortunately, it still looks like bloated pudge, but I know there's a little baby inside that pudgy home. We had another doctor's appointment on Friday and got to hear the heart beat for the first time. WOW! In addition to that, the doctor gave us the official due date of 08/08/08 (which is what we were secretly hoping for...especially with a 07/07/07 wedding anniversary). I'm feeling MUCH better, and I understand why they call the second trimester the "Golden trimester"). We're enjoying the journey!

The "Secret" Garden

Phil surpised me with an amazing gift for my birthday. I've always wanted a garden, but I've never really had the right space or location. "Having a garden" has been on my life list for over five years, and Phil LOVES helping me check things off of my life list. To make a long story short, Phil secretly took the entire day (my birthday) off of work so that he could do all of this work without my knowing it. He spent hours rodatilling and preparing the ground for our enormous garden (the poor guy was sore for days), and then he surprised me with it when I returned home from work. What a gift of time, service, and love.

The garden is loaded with corn, tomatoes,

broccoli, carrots, green beans, cantalope

peppers (red, orange, and yellow), raddishes, spinach, romaine, and snap peas.

In the beginning stages of The "Secret" Garden!

My parents are in Florida for part of February, so we spent the weekend with them in Orlando. We enjoyed a wonderful day at Sea World. The weather was perfect, the park wasn't too busy, and we had great seats in five of Sea World's amazing animal shows.

Corrie and Phil in the park and with the penguins

Walking through the park.

The Dolphin Show

SHAMU at Sea World

Playing Euchre...the girls were victorious!

Pregnancy Updates

We are just finishing our first trimester, and that feels like a big milestone. I'm not throwing up anymore, and I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself. YEAH! Our baby is about the size of a lime, but he/she clearly looks like a baby at this point. We are continually amazed with the miracle taking place inside my body, and we're having a lot of fun as we anticipate the upcoming journey. Many of you have asked for belly profile pictures, so here you go. The pudge seems to have popped in the last two weeks, but that's probably because my appetite has rapidy increased. Phil made a feast for breakfast the other day (eggs and toast, pancakes, fresh grapefruit, and decaf Chai), and I ate ALL of it. At that rate, my belly will grow quickly.

Growing Baby Belly

These pictures are at the end of our first trimester. Clearly, my belly is starting to show a little pouch of our baby. It looks more like pudgy than preggo, but I know that will change soon.

These pictures are at six and eight weeks.

The Grapefruit Mission

This is the grapefruit tree that started it all. We woke up this morning, and Corrie had a craving for grapefruit. Her cravings are unpredictable and sporadic, but Phil loves taking care of them. This grapefruit tree is in our backyard...KIND OF. There happens to be a large fence in between our yard and the tree. Therein lies the challenge. For those of you who know Phil, you know that he loves a challenge. Still in our pajamas, we trekked outside for the grapefruit mission. The following pictures show the sequence of events.


This is Phil attempting to climb our fence...with a shovel (his grapefruit picker) in one hand.

Successfully on his way...

Doesn't he look excited? Perhaps a bit possessed?

WHERE'S PHIL???

If you look closely, you can see Phil in the middle of our little jungle. He has the prize in hand!

At this point, Phil started tossing the grapefruit over the fence. Only one of them split open, but the rest were okay! (Corrie was taking this picture through a tiny hole in the fence, since it was too high for her to see over...go figure.)

SUCCESS!!! This is the first one we tried, and it was DELICIOUS! Phil is holding all the seeds from just ONE grapefruit. It was incredibly juicy.

Happy Corrie with her grapefruit. :)

I now have a supply to last me until my next craving surfaces.

First Baby Picture

We just had our first official ultrasound, and this is a picture of our 10 1/2 week old baby. WOW! It was AMAZING to see the little heart fluttering as we watched our little boxer float around. Doesn't baby look like he's ready for a fight with his hands up in the air? Yeah, we're partial...but we think baby is pretty adorable!

This one had better resolution, and we think it really resembled daddy...or the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Sorry for the scary sight...hope it brought a laugh to your day. :)

Christmas in Florida!

This was our first Christmas together, and it was wonderful. We enjoyed time with our families, and we loved the mid-70 degree weather.

SURPRISE!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here's a picture from our Christmas celebration. Surprise!!! We're pregnant! This is how we showed our parents, and it was quite a shock for everyone. :)

Grant's Baptism Weekend in Michigan!

Dinner with The Durhams and Margaret

The Hillary Gang

This is handsome little Grant Mitchell Hillary. He is our precious Godchild. We just wish that we lived closer to him...and the rest of the family.

Fun this FALL!

Phil, Corrie, Chad, Kim, Mike, Jessica, Eric, Meredith
Ross, Prego Rachel, Sara, Don

Part of the Zwemer Clan...at Kim and Chad's wedding!

All of the Hillary cousins (and spouses) at Adam and Elissa's wedding.

This was Thanksgiving, and Phil woke up VERY

early to begin preparing the turkey. It was GREAT!!!

Thanksgiving dinner with the family...at least part of it.

David Scranton, a friend from Michigan, joined us for dinner on Tuesday. We had a nice time, and Phil showed off his master chef skills. Gotta love it!!!

Our very FIRST BLOG!

Okay, we're trying this whole blog thing. We love viewing the blogs of our friends, but we don't know if we'll be able to keep up with all of you. We'll start with baby steps. Here we go...

We love living in Florida, we love being married, and we love hearing from our dear friends and family who are so far away!