Picture of the Week

French Quarter, New Orleans

Babymoon

Kyle & I decided to take advantage of a little thing we've heard called a 'babymoon'.  Basically it is just an excuse for parents-to-be to take one last vacation before the baby arrives and things are changed forever....gulp.  Which I might add that I just noticed our countdown says is in a mere 98 days.  Fourteen weeks seems so much longer than 98 days...Anyway.  We decided to go to New Orleans for a long weekend and celebrate the upcoming birth of our little guy and the ending of a two person family era.  

 I had been to New Orleans before, but Kyle had never been and I was excited for the chance to take him.   We set out early Thursday morning and arrived in New Orleans a short 8.5 hour drive later.  The Sale family loves a good roadtrip so we actually enjoyed the drive.  We stayed in the guest house of a woman that we found through a property search website and the place worked out great! It was about a block off the French Quarter in an area of town called Faubourg Marigny. 

House in the French Quarter

Our main goal of the weekend was to experience the New Orleans food and basically just explore the city for a few days.  Of course, we accomplished both! On Thursday night we walked around the Quarter and then enjoyed some delicious grilled oysters and hush puppies for dinner.  Divine.  I don't even really like oysters, but anything cooked in that much butter has to be from God, so I went with it. 

Friday we booked a tour (in an air-conditioned bus) and got the full view of New Orleans.  We explored some of the famous cemetaries and even got to see some of the damage from Katrina.  Our tour guide was very knowledgable and it was nice to ride around in the cool car for a few hours. My pregnant feet were very thankful! It was hot and humid all weekend, but surprisingly not as terrible as I had imagined.  Friday we managed to consume beignets, a giant muffaletta, jambalya, gumbo and crawfish etoufee.  It was glorious. 

Here are a few random New Orleans pics:

Saturday was our last day so we decided to explore the Garden District and see some of the beautiful houses there.  We also walked around Audobon Park and enjoyed the live oaks with spanish moss everywhere. 

Spanish moss on a live oak

The only picture I got with me & baby!

The childhood home of Eli & Peyton Manning

One exciting thing about New Orleans (at least for the non-pregnant members of the Sale family) is that you can drink alcohol while walking down the street.  And a can of beer is cheaper than a soda, $0.75 to be exact.  Needless to say, my husband was pretty excited to carry his can of beer in a brown paper bag down the street.  "Class, class, class"...name that movie!

Luckily for Kyle our camera does not have a time stamp, but I can tell you that it was barely noon.  And that this wasn't the only time this happened, just the only time I took a picture of it.  If you think I should be embarassed, think again- I am so proud. He's such a well-rounded guy.  He reads the weekly 'Economist' and drinks beer from a paper bag- what more could a girl dream of.  Hopefully these are things we'll pass along to our little boy. 

We had an excellend dinner recommendation for Saturday night and ate some famous 'Barbequed Shrimp'.  I had never even heard of these and don't even really like shrimp, but again the butter sold me.  Barbequed shrimp is basically these huge shrimp served in a bowl in a sauce that is essentially 90% butter with a little bit of pepper and worchestershire sauce thrown on for good measure.  It was absolutely delicious. They even make you wear a bib! The waiter was sure that the baby would be kicking me later, but like a true Sale our little guy can handle his butter! He wasn't bothered in the least. 

All in all it was a great weekend!

-Stacie

Surprise!!

This past weekend two of my college roomies came into town for a visit.  The three of us have gotten together every summer since we graduated and with us all living in Texas this year it was easier than ever! The plan for Saturday was to pick up our other friend Hilary, who also lives in Austin, and hang out at Barton Springs for the day.  Hilary said she'd be ready at three, so we put on our bathing suits and sunscreen and headed over to her house to pick her up.  Little did I know that this was not the plan at all.  If you can tell by my face below, I was VERY surprised to find out that we were actually heading over to my surprise baby shower!  

I'm a little confused here if you can't tell

It took me a minute but I finally got it

My sweet husband and thoughtful friend Hilary had planned the shower for when my roomies would be in town- aren't they the greatest! Pregnancy hormones or not- I was very touched by all their planning for the surprise and by everyone that came to the shower.  Before we ever moved to Austin, Kyle & I spent alot of time praying that the Lord would provide us with good friends and a community that we could be a part of and boy did he ever! We have been SO blessed since moving here to have made so many new wonderful friends as well as connect with old friends who we've missed as well! God is good.

Hilary had the cutest decorations-check out the little clothes hanging in the background!

Cupcakes made courtesy of Morgan- all I can say is "Wow".  She's so talented!

I know that I have mentioned my friend Hilary on the blog before.  We went to Baylor together and since moving to Austin we have gotten to spend lots of time with her and her awesome husband Ryan.  The best part is that we're both pregnant and due only 9 days apart.  Here we are comparing our baby bellies!

Notice the costume change- it pays to have a shower at a fellow pregnant friends house!

Meredith & Becca were such troopers to wear their bathing suits to go along with the ruse!

The shower was really wonderful and I was incredibly touched to have it planned for me and to have so many people there (you can't tell from the photos but people were there!). It is definitely a memory that I will cherish forever. Thanks Hilary & Kyle!

-Stacie

Picture of the Week

Belly Pics

Kyle & I have been documenting the baby's growth each week.  Here are the latest!  We are currently at 24 weeks, only 16 more to go. So far the baby & I are both really healthy and things are looking great!  

-Stacie

Picture of the Week

Fourth & Family

July 4th is an important day for Kyle & Me.  We whole-heartedly believe that America is the best country on earth and we are proud to be able to call America our home.  After living in another country and being fortunate enough to visit multiple other countries, we both agree that you just can't beat America. Now, I am not saying that America is perfect, far from it, but it is still an amazing country and a place that we should all be proud to call our home.  That is why July 4th is so special! Last July 4th, Kyle & I were traveling through Russia so we missed all the festivties. But this year we had my mom in town so it was really fun!  

After eating cheeseburgers and milkshakes ( which seems very American to me) we headed downtown to get a seat for the fireworks show. 

Some of the crowd at Auditorium Shores

We went with a group of friends from our Bible Study and just hung out on the grass to wait for the show. The Austin Symphony played for an hour before the show as well, so that was fun to hear!

My mom & Me

My baby daddy

It wasn't even terribly hot- you really can't ask for much for than that! It was a great Fourth, hard to imagine that next July 4th we'll have a little 8th month kiddo with us!

-Stacie

Picture of the Week

In an atempt to motivate myself to practice what I learned in my photography class, I am going to be posting a weekly photo. 

Shopping on 'The Strand', Galveston, TX