Special Delivery....And A Sip And See!

Our sweet friends Cass and Dana were very blessed at the end of 2009. :) They had been working with an adoption agency in Houston, and they were very surprised that the entire process for them only took about 2-3 months. Then they had a sweet baby girl in their arms. :) What a miracle that everything happened so fast!! WOW! :)

Caris Averi was born the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and they were able to take her back home to Austin just a few days later. Since then they have been absolutely loving being new parents, and are adjusting to life as a family of three. :)

Caris is such a sweetie, and we decided that we definitely needed to have a celebration for her and Dana. Some girls from our small group hosted a Sip and See for her today, and Caris got some great presents and fun new clothes. Best of all...everyone got a chance to hold and love on her. :)

Here are a few pics of the shower fun... :) Gotta have the "C" cupcakes for Caris! :)
The hostesses with Dana and Caris.. :)Dana and her sweet baby girl......
Amy, Michele, and Jenn smiling for the camera. Michele is due with her baby girl in April! :)

Sarah just hanging out...
Jenny has to get some of the yummy raspberry lemonade... :)
More smiles.....
Alicia and Kathryn with Caroline....Caris was definitely "worth the wait" for Cass and Dana.. :)Fun toys!!Amy and Caris spending some alone time together....Brooke and Kathryn intensely in conversation. Brooke is due with her baby boy in May. :)

Monogram Love.....

I am sure you all know by now that I am obsessed with monogrammed things!! HA!! Seriously...I LOVE THEM! :) I am in need of own monogramming machine but I am afraid that my child would have great dislike for me after all of those outfits I would create. :) HA!! He would be 10 years old looking back on baby pictures and saying things like "Mom, did you EVER put me in anything that did not have my initial or my name on it?" LOL! :)

So you know that I was super excited when Braden got some super cute monogrammed shirts from his Uncle Cory and Aunt Jennifer, and he just had to show them off. :) Thank you guys so much for encouraging my wonderful obsession!! :)

I Can't Stay Little Forever....

Well Braden told us that he has to keep growing....and that he cannot stay little forever. :) Growing up is surely what he is doing. He is a little cutie. I know that I am a bit biased but he seriously cracks us up daily. :) Oh my goodness. :) He is about 5 1/2 months now...which in my opinion is too close to half of a year. :) Before we know it, August will be here and he will be a year old. Slow down baby!

He is really into "patting" these days. He wants to pat everything-our legs, our backs, our arms. It is so funny! :) He also rubs the back of Chris's neck hair which is cute too. He loves to grab our faces and tug on our lips, etc. Pretty much any part of your face that he can grab, he will. :) He still LOVES to sit up....everywhere. We can also stand him up and lean him against the ottoman or something similiar, and he will just stand there....smiling. :) He still smiles a ton, and laughs like crazy at the words "BOO" and "I Love You". :) And I swear he is saying "Mama" b.c it sure sounds like that sometimes! HA! :) How sweet would that be if it were true? :)

Braden still loathes rice cereal (we have tried it a few times now), and I think he associates a spoon with rice cereal b.c he does not even want to put one in his mouth anymore. And I am talking about a spoon with nothing on it. HA! We are thinking that when he turns 6 months shortly, that we might just move onto oatmeal and veggies..and leave those bad rice cereal experiences in our dust. :)

Here are a couple recent pics of our little man....

Hello everyone..... :)
I love hanging out with my godmother, Jenn. :)
Just a smiling...

Close up... :)
Do you think I could be in Cirque du Soleil one day? :) I am an acrobat. :)
Just hanging out in my jumperoo....
Just hanging out in my new highchair (which I apparently don't need right now since I hate rice cereal). HA! :) He is looking at us like "PUHLEASE do not feed me that stuff again!!"I do not even want to lay down anymore when I watch Baby Einstein. Sitting up is the only way for me...even in the bouncy seat. :)

The Three Amigos...

We had a little playdate fun on Thursday...and all of the babies enjoyed themselves. :)

We were not able to round all the babies up at the same time....but we were able to capture a pic of the Three Amigos. They kinda look like they are posing, right? HA! :) They are 5 months (Braden), 6 months (Caleb), and 7 months (Joshua).

Fun times are still a comin' with all of these babies being born. I just love Braden's plethora of friends that he is going to get to grow up with!! Hee hee!! :) Oh...and possible future girlfriends!! LOL! :)



****Sorry for the really bad photo!! i-Phones take the worst pics!

Dates ROCK!!

I don't think it is any secret that Chris and I love date nights! HA! :) We will take 'em anytime that we can. LOL! :)

Chris's mom was in town over the weekend and she is always so sweet to let us go out on date nights when she here. She spoils Braden, he loves it, and Chris and I get a night out. What could be better? :)

We saw a couple of movies this weekend which was nice-"Leap Year" (cute) and "Extraordinary Measures" (very good!!). We went out on Saturday night to a yummy dinner at Estancia Churrascaria (which is a smaller replica of Fogo de Chao and Texas de Brazil). Good meat......which is what you go to those places for, right? :)

Loved getting away to reconnect with my hubby....and thanks to Jan for taking care of our little man so we could enjoy our evenings out. :) Muchas gracias for sure!!!

A Celebration Of Life...

Today I attended a funeral in College Station. One of my sorority sister's husband's, Layne, passed away after a courageous 7 year battle with brain cancer. While it is truly heartbreaking that Layne is not longer here on earth, we can rejoice in the fact that he is pain free and loving his new life up in heaven.

The funeral was beyond anything I had ever seen, and it was such a wonderful celebration of life. The large church was practically standing room only....it was completely overwhelming and very emotional. I have never seen a man honored the way that Layne was that day, and I know that he must have been smiling down on that moment-with his family and friends all together taking time to remember him. It was amazing what an inspiration Layne was to so many people in his short period here on this earth. The stories that were told during his funeral were heartwarming and light...and it was obvious that he was loved and cared for by so many. The constant theme throughout his last days and his funeral was that when he stood at the entrance to heaven's gates that God would say "Well done good and faithful servant". And that Layne would know that he ran the race, fought the good fight, and won. There is a lot of joy in that!

There was a reception afterward that hundreds and hundreds of people stayed for....just to talk with one another, and with his wife Erin. I think that is what he would have wanted as well-people he loved and cared for.... just celebrating his life. Erin has been a true rock through this entire battle, and she has served her husband and children so well. I think we could all only hope to follow in her footsteps, if a trial of this magnitude ever came our way. The Caring Bridge site (that she so actively kept up for Layne and those that cared about him), was an enormous witness to so many people. I think it was viewed over 35,000 times by the time Layne passed away. My hope and prayer is that she and their 2 boys (Paxon-4, and Preston-2) will be engulfed in tremendous love by all of the people that read the site and knew their family.

Layne will be missed by so many but there is no doubt that he leaves a legacy that people will not soon forget. Please join me in praying for Erin and the boys over this next year as they start to walk this journey. We love you Erin!!

Go Easy On Him...

Braden just wanted to be sure everyone knew to go easy on him because he is new here. :)

Sleep Deprivation At Its Finest...

Oh yes....gotta love sleep deprivation, don't you? You know.....the kind that keeps you up multiple times at night (usually when you have just fallen into that deep sweet sleep). You have to love being startled awake on a regular basis throughout a peaceful sleep....where when you look back and realize that you have only slept about 6 hours in a 9 hour stretch. Oh and you have that nice lingering headache to take with you thoughout the day. Now this could only be more fun if this happened every night for a week.

Oh wait...this is my life that I am talking about and it has been happening!! LOL!! :)

Oh yes....this has been our last week with Braden and I am barely hanging on by today. :) Chris said I was snoring loud last night during the stretches that I got. HA!! Fun times! :)

I think I have mentioned before that we have had a great sleeper on our hands, and he has been since birth (OUTSIDE of these random weeks when he transitions from month to month). It is pretty weird b.c it seems like this happened when he went from month 3 to 4, and now again from month 4 to 5. I have no idea what sets it off but it is usually rough for about a week and then he transitions back to his normal self. I sure wish it could be more like a night or two at most....but too bad that is not the story. :( Each of these little sleep regression patterns varies and this one is no different. This time he decided it would be fun if he would wake up every few hours and cry/scream. Um yeah.... :( So we put him down around 8:15-8:30 for the night and one of two things has happened this week: he either falls asleep right away and then wakes up throughout the night every few hours randomly crying OR he fights and fights to go to bed period, and then he sleeps most of the night. I cannot seem to decide which is worse honestly. Wednesday night was the icing on the cake b.c not only did he freak out when it was time to go to bed, and cry from 8:15-9:45 (insanity)....but he ALSO woke up off and on throughout the night. Seriously!! What? So I think I woke up in a pretty rotten mood around 5:30 am this morning..when he decided that he was up for the day.

I finally decided to keep him home from school this morning to get a good nap in. It was imperative to me that he really slept before I took him up there...and I am hoping that it worked. Today seemed better than the rest so my fingers are crossed that we might be back on track. :) I am praying a lot too! :)

So here's to raising a child and learning all the craziness along the way. Here's also to SLEEP...which we hope and pray we get tonight!! YAY!! :)

Who Can Sit Up?

YAY!! We have accomplished another milestone and it is so fun!! :) Braden is sitting up on his own!! We love it and he is so cute to watch! :) We sat him up tonight and he just sat there for about 10 min or so and played with his toys. He was kind of looking at us like "what is the big deal.....I am just sitting here!" HA!! It was so funny! :)

He still rolls on occassion but is just not a huge fan of it. Sitting is what he has been trying to master for the past couple of weeks...and he did it. :) Go Braden! :)

Here are a couple of pics of his newfound freedom...... :) He is looking at us like "Is sitting up a big deal or something?" HA! :)

I just figured that since I am sitting up now that Dad and I should work on our laptops together. :)

Very Glad In Plaid.....

Braden thought it would be fun to match his Dad for church on Sunday. HA! :)

My two handsome boys.... :)

Remembering January Fun....

Ahhhh...I have just been thinking back to this time last year, and what an awesome time my best friend Jenn and I had with our good friends from LA out in California.!! :) We headed out to Cali to play for a long weekend for Jenn's bachelorette party (b.c she was getting married in March 2009). It is tradition to have a bachelorette party with our awesome LA girls...so of course we had to do it again!! :) The trips for my Lori and I's bachelorette parties were in Las Vegas, so it seemed like time to spice it up a little bit with something new....and of course Jenn was game! :)

And it was game on!! We had such a wonderful time out there for the weekend...just hanging out and eating well, visiting wineries, getting massages and facials, and laughing until our sides hurt! :) I had just found out that I was pregnant about 2-3 weeks before that, so I ended up being the designated driver and photographer!! :) HA!! I would not have changed it for anything...I loved it! :)

Here are some pics from our weekend of fun! :) Lori, Liz, and Amy-I miss you tons and cannot wait to see you again soon!! :)

We started out the trip in Santa Barbara.. :)

Little lunch on the wharf....yum! We stayed in greatest little place in Solvang, CA-The Hadsten House. Loved it! :)
How cute is this room?

Getting warm by the fire before dinner that night. :)
Saturday morning we had to get up and head to the little market for some yummy food for our winery picnic. :) Los Olivos, CA......
Consilience...mmmmm. :)
Pretty vineyards....Fess Parker....All smiles with that good wine...Looking good in coon skin caps! :)Girls just wanna have fun.. :)
Cute little Solvang...loved that town! :)
Mandolina..... Breakfast before heading out of Solvang...what a wonderful weekend!! :)