ITS A BOY!!!

So we found out earlier this week that we are going to have a baby boy. He is due May 10th!!! We cant wait to welcome this addition to our family! Sports gear is already being bought for him.

Pre-Christmas

So even though we won't be in DC for Christmas that didn't stop us from getting a tree and decorating for the Christmas season. We will be spending Christmas in Austin, Texas with Lindsey's two brothers and then heading to Colorado to spend New Years with the rest of the Searle family. It will be great to be able to see everyone over the Holidays! So here is a rundown of what we have been doing to get in the Holiday spirit.

We went to Home Depot to pick out our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving so we could get it up real early!

Putting up the Christmas lights outside our place.Our tree all decorated. Lindsey did a "Buddy the Elf" jump off our couch to get the star on top of the tree!

Since we are waiting for our fireplace to be built (we wish!) we hung our stockings on the railing.We went ice skating over Thanksgiving. Cambria, Lindsey and Whitney.

Lindsey and I at the ice rink. Lindsey is still learning how to ice skate, so she watched from the side!

The Neumann fam.

With my sister and cousin Chase.

As you can tell, we got an early start to Christmas this year. Since Lindsey is an organizational Nazi, we even have all of our shopping done! I am actually glad we are done with it, even if I was forced in to doing it!

Don't Go Halloween!

I LOVE all holidays, but Halloween is one of my favorites. Justin is such a good sport about letting me deck out our house and even dresses up in costume to go out that night. I wanted to have trick or treaters so bad. We got all of six this year (six more than last year). I was doing everything I could to recruit kids to come to our house. I even resulted to standing at our door yelling "We've got lots of candy!" Our neighbors probably think I'm some perv trying to bribe kids to come to our house.

This black little kitty is the nieghbors, but it likes to visit us. I have to enjoy it since Justin hates cats. He says he's alergic (totally faking it so I don't get one).

That night we went to Georgetown. It's one of the nightlife areas of DC that has tons of outdoor shops and restaurants. On Halloween it is totally packed with adults decked out in costumes. I love to see all the creative things people come up with! Last year the prize went to a rather LARGE man who shaved his head, painted his whole body green, and looked exactly like Shrek. This year my favorite was a guy that dressed up like the man from the game Operation. Who even remembers playing that game?!

Our friends Chris and Maeve came over one night for a little pumpkin carving compitition. Sorry guys, but we owned you.

GO VOTE!!!!

If you have not had the chance to vote today there is still time to take part in this historic election. Get out there and vote, even if you have to stand in long lines. Its worth it because the incoming leaders will be facing challenges our country has never seen and we need to make sure we elect the right people to deal with them. Take advantage of the agency we have to choose our leaders, something many in this world do not enjoy. GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I'm Justin Neumann and I approve this message"

Top ten reasons why I have the best sister in the world...
10. She is super mom and the best example ever
9. She is the most thoughtful person I know
8. She always does the right thing (which could go under the con side when you have to grow up in her shadow)
7. She knows how to cook anything you can think of and make it sound easy
6. She shoots guns and has her own pink shotgun... You're such a bad a
5. She is always truly happy for other's accomplishments and makes you want to succeed
4. She has the best full lips and crystal blue eyes (Thanks for robbing the gene pool before I came around)
3. She gets excited about little things- for example pancakes:)
2. She can drop into the splits in .03 seconds to win a contest for the whole Searle clan... where did that come from?!
1. She is always the one I turn to when I need sister advice... and she always is there for me. She knows the answer to any life question I can come up with.

Happy Birthday Arianne!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you more than I could ever say in words. You are such a great sister and I'm so lucky to have you for my best friend. I hope you have a great birthday complete with pancakes in bed:)

Weddings!!!

Two of my best friends just got married only a few weeks apart. It was SOOO fun to see my girlfriends again. It had been almost a year since we had all been together again. TOO long. First we were off to San Diego for Lindsey James, back for a few weeks and then off to Utah for Britt Poulsen. They both had absolutely beautiful weddings! I'm so lucky to have such great best friends. Now if I can get them into the blogging world...

It was already snowing in Utah that weekend so I was grateful we did most of the pictures INSIDE. They turned out really cool!

Bachlorette party part one at the Skybox. B was such a good sport in letting us embarrass her!



Here are some pictures from Lindsey and Jake's wedding in San Diego. It was such a beautiful area, it felt more like a destination wedding! It was so good to see our friends and enjoy some down time with our friends on the beach. I miss the ocean!!!

I loved her colors!
Justin with our friends Jake and Lynn's adorable little girl. She is WAY too cute. I'm nervous for when we have girls because Justin is such a sucker for them, he'll let them get away with murder.

Lindsey and Jake at the Luau the night before the big day.

The girls at the bachelorette party. Woo woo!!!

Boys playing football on the sand

We LOVE visitors... especially when those visitors are my parents!

Over Labor Day weekend my parents came to visit us! It was so fun to be able to spend time with them and to have them see our new little place. We got to do lots of fun stuff. We went to Mount Vernon, kayaking in the Potomac, hiking around Roosevelt Island, a Nats game (which was the highlight for my dad because he got to have a hotdog). We were so sad to see them leave but were just so happy to have some time with them. Thanks for coming to visit mom and dad. Come again soon!!

Jackson Hole

We are late as always in posting! A few weeks ago we went out to Jackson Hole, WY for a business trip I had. It was a last minute trip, but we figured it needed to be a mini vacation as well, so we used some frequent flyer miles and Lindsey came along with me. We had a great time out there escaping the hot and humid DC weather. I got to play some golf on the company dime and we had a great time enjoying the sights around Jackson.

This is a view of downtown Jackson.
A trip to Jackson Hole would not be complete without a picture on the town square infront of the elk antlers.
Million Dollar Cowbay Bar. This place is great inside. We went and checked it out for a little bit. They have saddle bar stools! Lindsey was a little freaked out by all the stuffed animals in there. Defintley a place you have to stop by if you are ever in Jackson Hole.
The cyrstal clear water reminded us of the Potomac River! Not really, but we loved how clean and crsip everything was. This was at Jenny Lake in the Teton National Forest. We hiked around the lake and forest there. It was gorgeous.
Lindsey with the Tetons behind her.
View of Jenny Lake.

And a few other pictures of us on our hike.




There is a moose hanging out in the water on the left side of the picture protecting the baby calves on the right.

We had a dinner one night on the top of the Jackson Hole ski resort!

We had a great time in Jackson Hole and loved being out west in the dry crisp air. Hopefully we will be able to make it back soon!

Chi Town's Finest

Two weekends ago I went to Chicago for the weekend. I had a conference there on Monday so I flew out on Friday to spend the weekend with Marshall and Lindsey Lunt! They were nice enough to let me crash at their lavish apartment in downtown Chicago. My Lindsey was flying out on standby later on Friday, but didnt make it there because there were a bunch of cancellations. Needless to say we were both upset because we were really looking forward to the weekend in Chicago since neither of has had ever been there. Below is a picture of Marshal and Lindsey along with Mike and Chantele Lunt, who came up from South Bend, IN. It was great to see all of them, but as you can tell, there is an empty space where Lindsey should be!

Reenacting the scene from Ferris Buellers Day Off when we went to the Sears Tower!!View of Chicago from the Sears Tower.
With Marshall and Mike Lunt.



I love how the Chicago River goes right through downtown Chicago. I loved Chicago and how clean the city was. It is now one of my favorite cities in the U.S., if not my favorite.