Lunch Downtown With Samantha

Samantha Hall was in town for work last week and we got a chance to catch up over lunch near her office building. Seeing friends from home is always such a treat. Samantha was my sister Chelsea's bridesmaid and through the years has become good friends with the entire family.

Yes, you can say it -- my bangs are looking pretty funky in this picture. I'll blame it on the wind. It was pretty bad that day. Samantha's lookin' fine though, as usual.

Easter Sunday Gathering

Well, I, Ivy, attempted to make an Easter Sunday dinner just like my mother would make if she had been back East for the occasion. Was I successful? Well, that's another story. The best part was probably the orange rolls and then the peach trifle we had for dessert (which was a group effort anyway).

Below are pictures of the dinner crew, which consisted of Miss Emily Gerratt, a treasured friend, and the Gilbert's -- my sister, Chelsea, and her husband, Justin (who recently found out they are expecting the first Glen and Amy Sellers' grandchild).

Em and I smile for the camera

the beaming parents-to be

cute Emily and her curls

Shane cracking me up as he refuses
to give a "real" smile for the camera

Baby-Naming Wizard

I should probably preface this post by saying: No, we are NOT expecting. This is a site Shane pointed out to me a while back and I was having fun playing around on it earlier this evening. I figure it's worth linking to because so many of our friends and family are in their child-bearing years. And besides, this is just plain entertaining!

Here's the website: http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

It's a great tool to help you figure out how popular a certain name is now a days (in case you are like me and don't want your kid to be known as "so-and-so" plus their last initial throughout elementary school.)

Now get to it. You know you want to.