Houston Weekend

This weekend Kyle & I drove to Houston to meet up with two of my college roomies & their husbands.  Every year since we have graduated, the three of us have gotten together and had a 'girls' weekend. But, since Becca got married last June we decided to have a couples weekend this year, in addition to our girls weekend. 

My roomies- Meredith & Becca

We all spent the day together on Saturday just relaxing. We watched some of the World Cup and played some Wii.  We also drove down to Galveston for lunch and some sightseeing. I had never been to Galveston and it was really a cute little town. 

Some of the Wii action!

Look how serious Kyle is- Chris seems much more relaxed...

The beach in Galveston reminded me of the beaches in Virginia.  Except for the fact that is was ridicuously hot and none of us had brought suits for swimming.  Needless to say, we didn't walk on the beach for too long. 

Here's the bump in all it's 22 week glory :)

We just couldn't resist a roomie pose!

After walking on the beach we walked around what is the called the 'Historic Strand'.  It is a street running through downtown Galveston full of old shops and restaurants...and air conditioning, which was what I was most interested in at this point if we're being honest.  

The Strand

Kyle pretty much likes anything that relates to beer, even a sign! He's dedicated- I love that about him.

After our walk, we drove the hour back to Houston and spent the rest of the evening indoors eating icecream.  That is more lke it! It was a quick weekend, but they're coming to Austin in two weeks for our girls weekend so I'll get to see them again soon!

-Stacie

Watermelon entertainment

One quality that we share with our dog Deacon is his love for food.  He is a "foodie" as they call it.  He's not picky either- he will eat anything that you offer him- meat, vegetables, fruit, chips, icecream- you name it he'll eat it.  However, we have recently discovered that he loves watermelon.  And by love I mean that he is absolutely smitten with it. Normally when we give Deacon a treat we make him sit and he gets excited and starts to cry and then gobbles down his treat. 

But watermelon is a different story. Three is no crying or pacing, just sitting and waiting with this look on his sweet face that could melt an Alaskan glacier.  Which is funny. But the funniest part is that he actually eats it off the rind.  He munches it all the way down just like you or I would.  Kyle & I have found it particuarly amusing to feed him watermelon lately.  Now that 'Modern Family' and 'How I Met Your Mother' are on break for the summer, this is our entertainment.     

Look at that clean rind, he didn't leave a drop!

And we know that not all dogs do this because as you can see in the first photo, little Mercedes is in the background uncertain about what is going on and clearly not as enamoured with the watermelon as her tubby brother. 

-Stacie

The Nursery, Part 2

This weekend Kyle & I did some more nursery remodeling.  Actually, it was mostly Kyle, but I did help a tiny bit.  We had decided earlier on that we wanted to have a fairly neutral toned nursery (so we wouldn't need to do any remodeling for furture children of a potentially different gender) and have a painted crib be the focal point.  So, we chose on a fairly gender neutral shade of turquoise to match the curtains that my wonderful mother is sewing us! Here are some of the action shots of painting the crib...

And after a few coats of paint and lots of hard work on Kyle's part, the finished product...

This will pretty much do us for DIY nursery projects. Everything else is really just purchasing and decorating type stuff.  We'll post another update next time we get something accomplished on the nursery front!

-Stacie

We're having a...

Is Vegas a girl or a boy?

We find out officially tomorrow if our little Vegas is a boy or a girl! Up until now I've been having fun reading all the old wives tales and taking online quizzes to see which way my pregnancy symptoms are pointing. Here are the old wives tales and their predictions:

• If you have morning sickness you're having a girl- check!
• If you're craving sweets or citrus it's a girl, salty or meats it's a boy-  I've been craving mostly fruits and tomatoes.
• If you're skin breaks out you're having a girl- let's just say I feel like a teenager again with this skin.
• If you feel more graceful it's girl, more clumsy it's a boy- definitely clumsy!
• If you gain weight in your face it's a girl- it's too soon to tell
• If you prefer sleeping on your left side it's a boy, right side it's a girl- I usually flip back and forth, does this mean we're having a hermaphrodite?
• If the maternal grandmother doesn't have grey hair it's a girl- she's a natural brunette, not a grey hair yet!
• If the heartrate is above 140, it's a girl- it's been between 160-175 everytime so far.
• If your feet are colder, it's a boy- Um, it's in the 90's every day in Texas, how could anyone's feet be cold?
• Mayan Tale- add your age at conception to the year of conception- my number is 39, so odd means boy!
• Justmommies.com- 92% chance of girl
• Childbirth.org- 85% chance of girl
• Babygenderprediction.com- 64% chance of girl
• Chinese Gender Predictor calendar- age at conception and due date = girl

Count:  Girl- 9         
              Boy- 2

With all this silly data and the fact that during our 12 week ultrasound they predicted it is a girl, I am thinking Vegas is a girl. Kyle is not quite sure and vacillates daily. We’ll find out tomorrow and let you all know! Either way we are pumped to get to meet Vegas in only 5 short months! This week marks the half-way point till our little one joins the family. We’ve got names picked out too so little Vegas won’t be Vegas for much longer.

-Stacie

Our weekend with Justin

This weekend my little brother (and by little I mean age, not size) came to visit.  He's been to Texas quite a few times during my Baylor years, but he's never visited Austin so he was excited to come spend the weekend with us.  He's pretty laid back so we didn't plan too many activities, but we did a few things.  We of course took him out for some Tex Mex on Friday night and to our newly favorite restaurant 'Chedds' on Saturday.  We also went to a local swimming favorite, Barton Springs Pool.  The pool is man-made but is filled with water from the local Barton Spring so while you're swimming in the chilly 68 degree water, you'll see plenty of algae floating around the clear water. 

Here are a few photos of the spring that I swipped from the internet.  It was close to 100 on Saturday, so it was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.  Saturday evening we went with a group of friends from our Bible Study to see the Austin Aztexs take on the Puerto Rico Islanders in soccer.  The Austin Azetexs are a professional soccer team in the second tier of the American Soccer league, right below the MSL as I understand it.  But my soccer knowledge is slim at best. 

Here we are enjoying the game

Sargeant Pepper

It's not the greatest picture, but I would like to point out that the Aztex's mascot is 'Sargeant Pepper'.  That's all I'm going to say about that... The rest of our weekend went by quickly.  We went to church on Sunday and did a bit of shopping at the outlet malls. I know, I know, I am an incredibly lucky woman that so many of the men in my life love to shop.  I acknowledge this little gift that the Lord has given me.  Along with the gift of a flamingo that can be dressed up for holidays.  Check out Felipe's newest look...

He's so patriotic

-Stacie

Seattle Weekend

Friday afternoon Kyle & I said goodbye to the 95 degree temperatures and sunshine and headed to one of our favorite rainy cities for the long weekend.  Once upon a time, Kyle & I called Seattle home and we were excited to go back and visit with some of our wonderful friends that still live there.  Seattle really is an awesome city (despite the rain) with tons of fun things to do. One of our favorite places in Seattle is the famous 'Pike's Street Market'. 

This sign is the entrance to the market

The market is famous for its abundance of fresh fish

They also have beautiful flowers from the surrounding valley farms

This was the only Seattle attraction that we really partook in. The rest of our weekend was spent catching up with friends and getting to meet quite a few new babies! When we lived in Seattle we spent a few years in a Bible study with our friends the Dobbins.  We were there when Natalie told us she was pregnant with their first child and we were there on the first day little Blake came home from the hospital.  It had been almost a year since we had seen them and in that time they have added to their numbers a sweet little girl named Claire.  

 

Here is Natalie, Me & Claire

This little guy is my gage for cuteness, we have been in love with him from day one! I just hope little Vegas gives him a run for his money.  He warmed to us really quickly and we were even chosen to read him his nightly stories.  Although he wouldn't refer to us by our names, we were "those guys" all weekend, funny. 

Storytime with Blake

It was rainy and cold most of the weekend, but we still got to enjoy a little bit of the outdoors despite the weather. 

Kyle was pretty excited to see the type of scenery he's used to...

Can you see the brown & white lump in this photo?  That is Frank.  Kyle & I used to go on our long runs out by this field when we were training for the Portland Marathon and we dubbed the two llamas in the field 'Frank and Dolly'.  Frank is the dark one and the white one (not pictured) is Dolly.  Much to Vegas' disadvantage, I have quite the active imagination and like to assign names and personalities to animals and often inanimate objects as well.  For instance, you may not have guessed that Frank used to have a problem with recreational drugs or that he likes to wear his old school legwarmers on particulary cold days (this is my mother's fault, she does the same thing and passed it along to me)  Over the years, Frank & Dolly have become a part of our reoccuring conversations and needless to say- Dolly is even my friend on Facebook.  What can I say- I love llamas.  I really do.  How can you not love an animal with ridiculously long eyelashes and buck teeth.  I mean seriously- have you no heart? If you were one of the people who thought that Mercedes' 'My mommy is pregnant' t-shirt was inaccurate then you may want to stop associating with us now.  That was only the tip of the iceberg my friends. Only the tip...

On a different note.  Kyle & I are super-spiritual people. You may not have realized that about us, but we were in two Bible studies when we lived in Seattle. That is right- twice the spitiruality.  I'm kidding of course, it just worked out that way.  But we were fortunate to have two wonderful Bible studies and we got to hang out with our old group on Monday night for a Memorial Day BBQ.  One of the couples just had a baby about 11 days before so we got to meet little Alaina too! 

I'm not sure why I have this crazy look on my face- please ignore. 

And of course, how could you have Bible study without beer?  Kyle & I believe that alcohol brings you closer to God. Those silly Baptists have it all wrong...

Well, as you can see we had a wonderful weekend in Seattle.  We've kissed the rain goodbye and we're back to sunny, sultry Texas- which I must say is kind of a nice place to be.

-Stacie

Sweet Potato Baby

Baby Vegas is the size of a sweet potato this week!