Meeting Laney

Almost a month later, I'm finally getting around to writing about our Easter weekend trip to Brett's parents' house.  Not only did we get to celebrate the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross, we also got to meet Laney for the first time.  This post will be full of pictures of Laney.  I won't even apologize for it because she's so adorable.  You need to see her.

We got to Gail and Yogi's very late, thinking it would just be them and Sam at the house.  We were so excited when we saw Will and Laura's car outside.  We were finally getting to meet Laney.  Brett held her first.  He is just enamored with her.  I was a little cautious holding her.  Mind you, I haven't held a baby since my cousin Kate's daughter Daniella was born almost 2.5 years ago.  

First time holding my niece

Laney is simply precious.  I don't know how else to say it.  She has the quintessential Hickman nose.  Her dark features are beautiful.  Needless to say, Brett and I fell in love with her pretty quickly.  After 10 minutes of me holding her, Brett asked if he could hold her.  Silly uncle.  We said goodnight after midnight, knowing we would see Laney the next day.

Before visiting Will, Laura, and Laney, Brett and I were able to meet up with my bestie Megan for lunch.  We killed two birds with one stone by eating at Bart's so we could see our future sister-in-love Maggie too.  It was wonderful catching up with my best friend.  It had been too long since I had seen her.

How beautiful is she?

Our good lookin' waitress

After we had lunch, we headed over to Will and Laura's.  Let me just say, they are naturals as being parents.  Will has a gentleness about him when he's holding Laney.  Laura knows exactly what to do with her.  There is just something beautiful about watching them be parents.  We hung out for about an hour or two.  Brett fed Laney, Laney pooped while I held her, then we watched her play with the activity mat we bought her for Christmas. Perfect afternoon.

She's practicing her touchdown motion for this upcoming season.

Wide awake

Uncle Brett loves her.

This is an Uncle Sam expression.

Love this face.

A daddy's love.

One of my favorite pictures.

Laney, Laura, and Will came over to Gail and Yogi's later that night for our early Easter meal.  Brett's parents are smitten with their first grandchild.

Laney and Nana.

We went to church the next morning, remembering what took place over 2,000 years ago: Jesus dying on the cross for our sins so we could be reconciled with God.  What an awesome thing to be reminded of.  After church, we had another lunch.  We spent a little more time with the family and then headed home.  I cannot wait until I get to see Laney again.  She'll be at least three months old before that happens.  Wow time flies.  Thanks for sending us pictures regularly, Will and Laura!

After Easter service

Laura is such a beautiful mom.

Kate isn't exactly sure what to think about Laney yet.

Laney in her Easter dress.

Another one of my favorites.

The happy family. Laney was fighting sleep again.

Love my niece to pieces.

Our Smooth Move

As you may have read, Brett is now coaching at Gardner Webb University.  This was my first moving experience as a coach's wife.  I honestly did not realize how fast things move when your husband works in the college coaching profession.

Brett heard from Coach McCray on January 26th (a Saturday) that he was taking the head coaching position at Gardner Webb, his alma mater.  Coach McCray offered Brett a position there to be special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach.  Over a sleepless night and lots of prayer, he accepted the position at GWU. 

We had to keep it silent for what seems like eternity even though it was only a couple of days.  I told Megan, my best friend, about our move the Wednesday after Brett accepted the position.  Her friend Downey actually lives near the school.  Megan gave me Downey's email address, and we got in contact.  I had looked online at the rental market around the school, but there were hardly any listed.  I asked Downey if she knew of any realtors, and she said that one of her childhood best friends is a realtor.

I contacted Melissa, the realtor on Thursday.  Within a couple of hours, she had sent me multiple listings for rental and for sale.  Given the prices of the rentals, we decided to buy.  We found a couple that we liked. We got pre-qualified during one phone call, and went to look at houses a week after Brett told Coach McCray he would go with him.

Downey jokingly sent me a text saying the house next to her was for sale, not knowing that was one of the houses I had selected for Melissa to show us.  We LOVED the house next to Downey's.  We prayed about it and decided to put an offer on the house the day after we saw it, on Sunday.  The sellers countered our offer.  We went back with a little bit of a higher offer, to which they countered again.  By Monday night, we got a counter that we all could agree on.

One condition of the offer settlement was that we pay for repairs.  We got the house inspected, and there were a couple of issues (none of which were back-out-of-the-contract issues).  The sellers asked for the inspection report, and ended up paying for most of the problems! Praise God!  With our trip to Montana and knowing Brett was having surgery at the end of February, we knew our wallet would be a little thin.

Our realtor was AMAZING!  She was so attentive, very responsive, and understood our situation.  We closed Mach 18th on the house.  Melissa even left us a housewarming present that day.  I was able to move some things over during the week.  My parents drove up on Friday to help with moving, and Brett's parents came Saturday to help.  We were able to get a lot moved before we rented the moving van.  Thankfully, six of Brett's players and coaching friends helped us move from our third floor apartment.  Four of his GWU players helped with furniture at the house.  This is when I am very glad that Brett coaches football. 

It is amazing that three weeks before we bought our house, we had no inkling that we would be moving. We saw God's hand throughout the whole process.  From Megan knowing Downey to Downey's friend being a realtor to her neighbor's house being on sale, God made our path clear to us.  We are so thankful for His direction in what could have been a very confusing time, especially for me.

Being married to a college football coach is a whirlwind, but I'm glad I don't have to do it alone.

Our beautiful house

Homeowners!

Our sweet gift from Melissa

The infamous purple/pink room

Dad is a rockstar and painted the room in a couple hours.

First dinner in our house. Reminds me of all the times I moved as a kid.

Yogi with his new hat

So glad these NGU players/coaches helped us move out.

My parents are amazing. Forgive how rough we look.  It was a long weekend

Precious Laney

While we were in Montana, little precious Laney (our niece) was born.  Laura was induced Monday, March 11th, but Laney did not arrive on Monday. We anxiously awaited all day on Monday, but no word. Brett woke up super early on Tuesday because he was worried about Laura. We received sporadic texts from Yogi, Sam, Will, and Maggie throughout the day with updates about Laura's progress.  We got one text that said they could see a full head of hair, and then we didn't get anything for a few hours!! I was so nervous (not knowing it was normal).

We finally got the text that Laney had been born, that mommy and baby were healthy, and daddy was doing alright too :)  We waited for a picture of precious Laney, but got something even better: FaceTime.  This is when I am very thankful for technology advancements.  Below is one of my first interactions with Laney.

Look at those precious cheeks!

We officially met Laney Easter weekend.  I'll have a post with more pictures up soon.  Brett and I are so, so in love with our little niece.  She is beautiful and perfect.  We can't wait to spend more time with her.  Thanks for making such a perfect little girl, Will and Laura :)

Happy Birthday Sam!

Happy 26th birthday to my brother-in-love Sam!   Sam has brought so much joy and laughter into my life since the first day I met him.  He is one of the funniest people I have ever met; I promise that is not an exaggeration.  He is the life of the party, but never excludes people.  Sam has such a caring and giving heart,  which has been more apparent since Maggie has been in his life.  He would do anything for that girl.   He is a great supporter of Brett and his career too.  Sam and Will are now the #1 and #2 Runnin' Bulldog fans (y'all can decide who is 1 and 2). I know he jokes around a bunch, but he really has a heart of gold.

Sam, I'm so sad I can't be there with you to celebrate, but I'm glad my better half can be. I cannot wait to see what 26 holds for you.  It will undoubtedly be a wild and exciting ride of becoming a married man.  You have made my life immensely better, and I am so glad to call you my brother.  Have a great birthday bro! Love you.

I love these next two pictures. 

Big Sky Country

On March 9th (yes over a month ago) Brett and I had the privilege of flying out to Montana to visit my brother.  We planned the trip before Brett got the job at Gardner Webb.  I knew it would be a tight month financially, but I'm so glad we could go.  It turned into a family affair when we learned that my cousin Kyle was going to be there too.

Getting to Billings was no fun at all.  We were supposed to fly to Billings via Denver.  I checked the night before our flight, and the airline said Denver was under a travel advisory.  Thinking everything was going to be fine, I didn't bother changing our flight.  I woke up the next morning, and the early flights were cancelled but our flight was still on time.

We drove about 1.5 hours from Greer to the Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.  When we exited off the highway, I received a call saying our flights were cancelled! Oh my goodness.  I was a wreck.  Brett was trying to figure out how he would be able to see the Duke Caroline game and dealing with me freaking out.

I called the airlines, and they said the soonest they could get us out to Billings was the next morning, but we had plans to go skiing Sunday morning.  We decided to go ahead to the ticket desk.  They put us on a flight from Charlotte to Atlanta to Minneapolis.  We were told that the flight into Billings that night was completely booked but that we could check once we got to Minneapolis to see if there were any seats available by the evening.

When we got to Atlanta, I decided I would check just in case to see if there were any seats.  The lady at the ticket counter said there were two seats next to each other!! I was so giddy that we would be able to get to Billings that night.  Even though it was a 17 hour travel day, we would be able to go skiing the next day.

Baggage claim in the Billings Airport. Quite fitting.

After our eventful travel day, we got up early Sunday morning to head to Red Lodge Mountain Resort for some day skiing.  Chris' friend Tim joined us on this adventure.  Tim is a trip.  I'm so glad he could join us.  It was nice to meet the subject of one of my brother's bromances. Seriously, they act so much alike and have a pretty similar sense of humor.

It was a blistering 30 degrees and was supposed to get in the mid 40s (I was sweating while walking to the lodge from the parking lot). We were trying to make it to the morning ski lessons since I have never been skiing, but missed it by about 5 minutes.  The fellas tried to teach me the basics.  We went up to one of the green trails, called Miami Beach, about 30 minutes after I had put on skis for the first time.  Needless to say, I took about an hour to get down the trail.

So...I decided to go to the afternoon lessons.  I was one of two first-time skiers; the other girl was in middle school.  As I'm taking the lessons, I see three year olds who are skiing and snowboarding (with the guidance of parents)!  I was feeling a little self-conscious, but I'm so glad I did it.  I did one more pass down Miami Beach, got pretty frustrated (my husband is so patient) and called it a day.

I had no idea how sore I would be.  My calves KILLED me from the ski boots.  Holy cow. Talk about a workout.  Anyway, we stopped on the way home to get a f'real. Tim and Chris were all about the f'reals.  It's basically a milkshake that is made in the gas station with some special machine that has really creepy graphics.  It was pretty good if I must say so myself.

Scenery on the way to Red Lodge

The lodge. You can tell how warm it was just by looking at the picture.

Tim and Chris

Don't look so enthused Kyle.

I survived my first day!

The wonder that is a f'real

We got some good 'ole steaks that night at this yummy steakhouse. I'm pretty sure Brett was in heaven.  There's nothing quite like a Montana steak. If you go to Montana, getting a steak is a must. So fresh.

The next day, we got up early again and drove to Big Sky Resort, which was a mere three hours away. Seriously different kind of travel up there than on the East Coast.  We stopped in Bozeman on the way there.  Brett was determined to call someone a Bozeite (those of you who watch Big Bang Theory will appreciate that). 

Driving up to the mountain, you could see... the Lone Peak (elevation 11,166 feet).  Kyle was eying that thing like there was no tomorrow.  He kept on saying he was going to do it.  It's a double black diamond trail that is pretty much straight down.  I wish you could see his face.  We were trying to talk him out of it but he seemed pretty determined.  While we were driving up there, we saw a black dot (skier)  traveling down the peak.  It looked terrifying.

Big Sky Resort was more of a destination ski mountain than a local ski mountain like Red Lodge.  The ski boots were significantly more comfortable and lighter at Big Sky.  I did one run down a green trail then called it a day and sat in the lodge.  I have to say, skiing may not be my thing.  I'm not a risk-taker and have bad knees.  Brett says the greens in Montana would be blues in Boone.  I'm hoping he's correct.  I'd like to try it again.

Brett, Kyle, and Chris spent the afternoon out on the slopes.  Kyle and Chris ended up going up to the bowl, at the base of the Peak.  That was as close as Kyle got to the Peak.  He did snowboard a black diamond though.  Brett was like a little kid.  He was having so much fun.  I loved seeing three of the men in my family having such a great time together.

On the way home, we stopped by Montana State University's football stadium.  MSU is one of the premier Division 1AA schools in the country.  Brett enjoyed seeing it.

Kyle still eying the peak.

No pictures do it justice

Chris in front of the village

I did it!  Brett was so supportive and patient through my frustrations.

My view from inside the lodge.  I enjoyed this :)

Yep, that's my brother

Kyle with his foe in the background.

Checking out MSU's stadium

Kyle flew out the next day (Tuesday).  Brett, Chris, I had a down day of relaxing and watching basketball.  Brett and I were also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Laney, Will and Laura's baby (our first niece).  Future post on sweet Laney.

Chris took us to the airport at 6 a.m. on Wednesday.  We had an uneventful trip back to Charlotte, aside from a very bumpy landing.

I so enjoyed getting to spend some time with Chris, Kyle, and Brett.  It was neat to see my husband get to experience something he's never done (skiing in Montana), especially alongside my brother and cousin.  Nothing warms my heart more than seeing Brett get along with my family.

Thanks to all you who survived the long post.  It's been a month coming.  More updates to follow soon!