Will I Be Banned?

Just wondering if anyone thought that the Blogspot folks might ban me from blogging since I post so many pictures? HA! LOL!! :) You know that I must take up a ton of space! :)

Just wondering!! :)

Wedding Nostalgia

You have to love the nesting instinct that kicks in BIG TIME when you are pregnant!! :) I think that sometimes even future dads get a little taste of it too! HA! :) And I think it gets stronger the closer you get to your delivery date as well. That overwhelming urge to make sure everything is perfectly put away and taken care of before the baby gets here. :) I can say that I have definitley had that urge!! I have not woken up at 2 am and tried to get things squared away like some of my friends have...but during waking hours, I have that STRONG desire. HA! :)

So since we have been confined to the Austin area for the remainder of the pregnancy, we have been working to make sure we have done spring cleaning on the house. We have cleaned out the guest rooms, and what used to be the office (now the nursery). We have tried to either give things to Goodwill or throw them away.

I spent some time a week or so ago tackling the downstairs guest bedroom closet...and I found so many things from our wedding that I needed to organize, hopefully scrapbook at some point, etc. I guess when we got married 2 years ago, I just threw it all in that closet.....and never really went back to it. Sad. :( Boxes and bags of wedding things overwhelmed me as I went through that closet!! :) I sat there and did some major reminising on that super fun time that Chris and I experienced. What a wonderful wedding weekend we had! We love all 360 of you that made your way to Austin for our big day!! We could not have asked for more...it was incredible!! I started going through pics, and all kind of keepsakes..and thought I would post some pics just for fun. Go wedding nostalgia! :) Gotta love it! :)

Happily ever after.. :)


Hanging out on the Capitol lawn....

Great photographers catch momemts like these... :)

More Capitol fun.... Laughing all the way.... :)Having such a WONDERFUL day!

Love that perfect smile on my hubby....... :)

A little bridesmaid love for Chris...... :)

Little groomsmen love for me......... :)

Katie posing with our precious flower girls-Carlie and Claire
Love this pic.....

Kyle, Claire, and Carlie stole everyone's hearts coming down the aisle....

Dad and I having a moment before the big walk down the aisle.....

Brother Dan is so funny...made us laugh throughout the entire ceremony! :)

Emotional moments........

Programs, programs, and more programs........

Trying to fit as many folks into the pic as we could. :)

All married... :)

Reception shot...my vendors did SUCH an amazing job decorating the Hilton downtown!! WOW!

Me and all of my freshman year dorm buddies from college!! Love these girls! :)

Cutting the cake.......
Chris's Groom's Cake....a big suitcase in honor of our favorite thing-TRAVEL!! :)

The Bugbee candy shoppe of course! :)

Me and some of my super sweet A&M ladies... :)

One of my fav pics...of Mom and Dad dancing....

We got married on Cinco de Mayo....so we loved that folks partied it up and got into the spirit!! Go Brenda, Russell, and the sombrero!! :)

On the balcony of the Hilton with Austin in the background......what an INCREDIBLE night! :)

Missing Out On Dallas....But Good Fun In Austin Too!

Well this weekend was the first "official trip" that I missed due to the pregnancy. I was definitely sad that I did not get to go with my hubby to Dallas to see his family this weekend. Chris went up for his Dad's 60th birthday party, and I had to miss it!! BOO!! :( 60 is a milestone birthday, and I was really hoping to be there. (Happy Birthday Papa Bugs!!).

I was cut off from travel the weekend of July 11th...but I thought I would push the limits and try to schedule just one more short roadtrip. :) When I talked to my doc on Friday at my appt, she was not a huge fan of that. HA!! She did not tell me NOT to go...but she was just not doing cartwheels or anything over me being 3+ hours away from Austin. HA!! She just preferred that I not go, as she is all about resting in the last 6-8 weeks. So I decided to go ahead and submit to that being she probably knows best. :) Plus, I had a thrown a baby shower for my friend Amy and her twins (yay!) earlier that day, so it was honestly probably a little bit too much to try to fit into one day. :) I am slowly learning, and I have been trying not to plan psycho busy days in the middle to end of the 3rd trimester! HA! :) So I stayed in Austin on Sat night while Chris headed up there....and I had a little R&R time. :)

Today was a nice day with some fun surprises. :) After church this morning, I was actually able to see my parents for lunch, as they were coming through Austin from their weekend trip to Fredericksburg. So we met for lunch down in South Austin...and I got to see my fun little Uncle Calvin and Aunt Pat too, as they were all together. :) I should have taken a pic of the happy gang....but I completely forgot my camera. :( Thanks for stopping to meet me guys!! :)

And then I got a call that our fun friends Lauren and Cody were in town. Yippee! :) They were passing through on their way back to Dallas (where they live now)....and they came by to play for a little while. Here is their pic, as they surprised us at our house with a little visit late this afternoon. :) It was super fun to see you both! We loved it! :) Happy Anniversary too!! The first year of marriage has treated you both very well..you look great! :)



And then Chris and I headed out for a fun birthday dinner to celebrate my best friend, Jennifer's, big 33!! YAY!! :) We actually celebrated more than just Jenn's bday....and that was lots of fun!! Many folks were all born around this time of year it turns out...so we had one big dinner party at Vespaio for that!! YUM!! :) Good Italian food, good laughs, good convo-cannot beat it. Happy Birthday BFF! Hope you had a great night! :)
Here are a few pics of some of the fun folks that came out to play. YAY! :)

Doug and Jenn.....still newleyweds...awww... :)


Sweet Carrie... :) Her hubby Jesse had to work and we missed him. Happy Birthday Jesse! He is a July baby too! :)


Matt and Amy....both have b-days in July too, and are also newleyweds!! YAY! :)


Jenn's cute mom Debbie and her boyfriend J.L....... :)

2 Years Ago..........

I just realized that 2 years ago right around this time, Chris and I were finalizing an offer on our first house together as newleyweds! :) WHOOP!! :) We had gotten married in May of 2007 and lived in his 2 bedroom apt at the Riata in Austin for the first 3 months of our marriage. We did this while we looked for our ideal first home together!! :) It worked out great living in the Riata b.c it cost a lot less than a mortgage...but it was also a super nice apartment community. It gave us the chance to not be so rushed with our house descision..and to pick the one that was PERFECT for us! :) We were also traveling on the weekends almost all of those 3 months..so it did not really feel like we were living in an apt afterall! :) So glad we decided to take some time with our decision and pick the casa that had our name written all over it!! :)

We closed on July 26th...so just a few days from now we will have been in our house for 2 years. I cannot BELIEVE how time has flown!! :)

Our humble abode... :)
We love not having any neighbors across the street..so nice. :)

We like to sit in our rocking chairs on the front porch. :)

Our living room where we tend to hang out most of the time... :)

Kitchen..........

More kitchen......

Downstairs guest bedroom.......

Downstairs guest bath......
Upstairs guest room....
The loft.....
Master Bedroom.....

Master Bath....

A Little Over 6 1/2 Weeks To Go....

So there are 48 days left for just the 2 of us, before our little man is expected to join us. :) More than likely he will not be arriving on his due date (as we all know), however, it is fun to have a countdown. :)

So I just went to my 33 week appt and it looks like all was good. Again, very thankful! :) They let me sit on the fetal heart monitor (the belts around your waist) for about 30 min, so I could hear the heartbeat, and they could see if I was having any contractions, etc. I had never done that before...and I liked it. :) I was not having any contractions (don't think I have had any yet)...... but it was so soothing to just sit there in a comfy leather recliner, and listen to the hearbeat for awhile. Reassuring as well, since you only seem to be able to hear it for about 5 seconds in every prenatal appt. :) So fun stuff. :) Everything still seems to be progressing well. YAY!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I have been frustrated to have not really "popped out" in the pregnancy. I mean when you are ARE pregnant, you want to have a baby belly, and not just look like you are gaining weight! HA!! So combined with the fact that I really have not gained much weight (only about 12-13 pounds), it made me worry that there might be something wrong with Braden's growth. The doctor was not concerned at all b.c my stomach seemed to always measure to my due date...and she said my height was helping me not to get a big belly. She also thought I might be carrying him more in my back, and that could be why as well. (Hope that does not have anything to do with having back labor-ha!)

But FINALLY around Week 32, I finally had a "pop" moment!! YAY!! :) I had this moment where I could put on things and my stomach would actually stick out noticeably. WHOOP!!! :) I am thinking the belly growth probably won't be slowing much at this point...since he is already between 4-5 pounds, and growing every day. :) So I guess you have to be careful what you wish for..hee hee! :) And in looking on the positive side.....not having a big belly really helped me to be more mobile until later in the pregnancy, so I cannot complain about that. But it is also nice to finally have strangers notice that I am pregnant vs probably just wondering if I had too big of a dinner! HA! LOL! :)

Here is a pic to track the progress. I will try to add more before the due date. :) Assuming I remember of course, as "pregnancy brain" does tend to kick in every now and then these days! :)

The best part of this pic is how the sunlight was shining on the top of my head...and it looks like I have a skunk stripe through my hair. Awesome! :)

Child Birthing 101

Oh yes...today was the day of the impending child birthing class!! The one that we all dread but feel like we need to go to....just so we don't miss some type of preparation along the way! :) We took the Infant CPR class a few weeks back, so that was our first introduction to these type of classes. And then today was the LOOONNNNNNGGGG one!! 5 hours of all kinds of fun stuff-the stages of labor, how to breathe, pushing through the pain, ways for your hubby to help you out during all of the craziness, epidurals, C-sections, vacumns, forceps, the signs of when to head to the hospital, etc. Oh yes...tons of info, and some fun videos as well. :)

Actually, it really was not that bad at all. I had heard horror stories about the classes and all of the bad videos they would show us of women giving birth, etc. But thankfully it was not like that! :) It was actually quite informative so I appreciated that. It was good to have a maternal nurse backing up some of the books I had read, and what friends had told me. I think Chris and I were both glad we went...just as an FYI. And during the "practice contraction times", I got some good head and back rubs from my hubby too! HA!! :) I think he might need to keep practicing for labor some more beforehand...just to be sure he knows how to do all of those good massages, etc when I am in pain!! LOL!! :)

We have two more classes to go-Breastfeeding and Newborn Care. And I am sure those will be quite insightful as well. :) Bring it on! :)

100% Complete-YAY!!

We are stoked about 100% completion in the nursery!! YAY!! :) We are so excited to really be done now!! :) I don't think this child has any chance of ever forgetting his name!! LOL! :) And I am looking forward to getting some pics into all of these frames in his nursery!! :)

We are looking forward to our family of three! :)