2010 Recap Carnival

Recapping 2010--The first sentence from the first blog post of each month. An idea I stole from Jo-Lynne at Musings of a Housewife.

January--It may be news to you if you have never seen such movies as Varsity Blues or Friday Night Lights that football is a big deal in Texas...NFL, college, high school, middle school, even pee-wee.

Our adventure to the Texas High School football championship game.

February--I wanted to do something with Mini-J other than going to the park because a)it was really cold yesterday and b)the park gets boring for Aunt Dana.

Taking Mini-J bowling.

March--My dear friend, Cam, is getting married in April! I have the honor of serving as a bridesmaid.

Debuting my bridesmaid dress for Cam's wedding which also made it onto our Christmas card!

April--Having Flat Stanley is a great opportunity for Nicholas and I to visit some places we haven't been in awhile.

Taking Flat Stanley to visit the Texas Capital building.

May--The hubby and I did not almost buy a new truck this week because we thought we could get a super sweet deal with 0% interest.

Not Me! Monday...something I haven't participated in lately.

June--This little guy likes to hang out in our backyard. (followed by a picture of a cute blue jay)


An installment of What' New Around Our House.
 
July--A couple of weeks ago, Mini-J came to stay with Aunt Dana and Uncle Nick.
 
August--August. A few short years ago August meant long hours of being out in the sun for marching band practice the two weeks before school, drinking lots and lots of water, getting a farmers tan, sweating profusely, and loving every minute.
 
August will have a whole new meaning for me again in a few years!
 
September--College Football...The promise of Fall and cooler temperatures...Wearing short sleeves instead of sleeveless shirts...maybe.
 
Here's to hopinig that the new year brings better playing from the Longhorns!
 
October--The past few weeks have been busy and filled with exciting events. We celebrated our 3 year anniversary and found out we will be having a boy on the same day. Nicholas has been furiously busy working in his studio the past few months.

November--We spent the weekend in Dallas visting the family and getting lots of niece and sibling love. Saturday we took a trip to two nearby pumpkin patches.
December--On Sunday, we brought our first "real" Christmas tree!


What a great way to start December!

Christmas in Austin

We woke up Christmas morning in our own bed. Then we headed over to Nicholas' parents house for hours of opening presents. Hours because they take turns opening presents and watching each other, as opposed to the free-for-all mass chaos I grew up with. We enjoyed yummy cinnamon rolls and coffee (water for me) for breakfast.

We came home for showering and sharing Christmas wishes with my family. Then we headed back over to Nicholas' parents house for Christmas dinner. It was a lovely day, and I have almost found a place for all our goodies (other than the kitchen table).

Preparing for Baby

In the midst of the holidays, we are busy preparing for baby. We have been doing some rearranging and lots of cleaning. Nicholas transformed the closet in the nursery. AND he has been busy painting. Here is a little preview. More pictures to come as we continue to work on the nursery.

We also bought a new loveseat for our bedroom so I will have a comfy place to nurse baby. We now have a bassinet in there, too.

Thanks to lots of generous family and friends (and some awesome baby showers) we have started to acquire many many baby things.

Now we have a carseat in the car! Happily (and little surprisingly) it fits perfectly and Nicholas and I can both still sit comfortably in the car, too!

There is still a lot more preparing to do, so stay tuned!

Introducing Miss S!

My mom has 5 kids. My family has always been very welcoming of everyone's friends. A few friends have stuck around and become part of the family. My brother's best friend, Steven and his wife Annette are part of our family. They recently (as in a week and a half ago) welcomed a baby girl, Miss S. Another baby niece!! Steven is currently stationed in Afghanistan but made it home just in time for the baby's birth. We were very excited to meet her while we were in town this weekend.

A certain other Baby who just relinquished her title of "youngest" was a little jealous, and not so happy that she couldn't do whatever she wanted to with the new baby.

Check out the pouty lip...

Aunt Dana and Mommy Annette (who looks amazing a week and a half after a C-section!)

Grandmom

Uncle Nicholas

Aunt Christy

My mom insisted on a picture of all the grandkids. Hopefully I won't actually have to be in the picture next time!

I felt kind of like I was in a zoo with everyone standing around the play yard taking pictures!

What a beauty!

In the Spirit

Christmas cards are stuffed and mostly sent out. The house sometimes smells like cinnamon candles, and twinkling lights are on the tree. Here is what I am looking at as I am sitting here on the couch.

The "Big" Reveal

It has been mentioned by more than one loving friend and family member that most of the pictures on my blog lately have been rather lacking in showcasing my baby bump. Rest assured that I do in fact have a baby bump. I can no longer deny it. I don't think I have been taking many pictures lately, and of course, I have to be positioned the right way in the picture for it to be saved from the recycle bin. BUT, now the blog will be complete. Last Saturday, Nicholas and I had a little photo shoot session with our handy dandy tripod. We took LOTS and LOTS of pictures. The location was the butterfly garden at our church where we had some of our wedding photos taken. Ironically, it was probably about the same time of day.

There were a few shading issues:

And a few focusing issues:

And a few picture composing issues since Nicholas and I are different heights:

And the sun kept changing positions:

And Nicholas kept playing with the different settings on the camera:

And I have some maternity clothing issues (especially when sitting down):

And I was pretty tired after an hour or so of shooting:

But we ended up with several nice shots that look even better cleaned up in photoshop!