Sunshine and Flowers

Spring Break was wonderful! John and I spent some time in Houston visiting my family and friends (pictures and details to come) and then we got to relax and be productive for the rest of the week.

Being in Houston with the sunny warm weather spoiled us. We actually wore shorts home on the airplane hoping that we would be pleasantly surprised when we got off the plane....but that didn't happen. We ended up in baggage claim digging through our suitcases looking for our pants and sweatshirts to layer on before we went outside. This past weekend I just about had a cow when it snowed (yet again..) blizzard style on Saturday. Don't get me wrong..I love the snow...in December when you want to be stuck inside and snuggled up...NOT in March (nearly April!) when you want to be outside playing and wearing shorts! Thankfully, all of my gripping on Saturday payed off because Sunday was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed the day outside. In fact, we spent the day (yes the ENTIRE day) installing new outdoor lighting. It actually turned into a neighborhood gathering with half our street camped out in our driveway keeping us entertained while we trudged through the very detailed and looong assembly process. We are so very grateful to have such great neighbors! Here are a few shots of our schizophrenic weather and light installation!

Saturday...





Sunday...













I must admit though, the best part about Sunday was getting to go spend time with our dear friends Kate and Dave and their new baby boy William who arrived on Thursday! I didn't get a chance to take any pictures while we were there, but these were some that they took when leaving the hospital...precious!

Redneck Baby

Owen got to spend the day playing at his Oma and Opa's (John's parents) house on Saturday. I didn't pack a hat for him to wear outside, so they improvised with what "head gear" they had laying around the house that would fit a three month old. This is what our child looked like when we came to pick him up...can we say redneck baby?



It was not just a camouflage hat..oh no, it was better than that because it was actually a camo doo-rag. The best part is that John and I thought he looked so funny in it, we decided to let him wear it out to dinner with us. Thankfully, we were going to dinner at our friend's house and they promised to not judge us. We got lots of laughs on Saturday at Owen's expense. If you missed it the first time you looked at the picture, make sure you look at Owen's right hand. Oma and Opa suggested that we save this picture for a slideshow at Owens's wedding!

Just Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of Owen...he is now weighing in at 16 lbs 5 oz!!!

Unexpected Additions

After two weeks of being extremely busy, we finally had a weekend without obligations. It was glorious! We had a visitor literally walk into our house uninvited last Tuesday night....fortunately it was a very cute visitor.



John came home from work and pushed the door open with his arms full of stuff and right after he walked in the door this little guy (who has been affectionately know as "puppy" for the last week) walked in right behind him. We think the stray dog community has put our house on their "favorites" list because this is about the tenth dog who has graced us with its ever needy presence. My parents and John's parents are both PROUD owners of two of the strays...and by proud I mean that they kind of got suckered into taking them, but I assure you despite all of the complaining they wouldn't trade those dogs for anything. This "puppy" got along fairly well with Tanner and Kona. Every once and awhile we would hear a very unnatural scream from the backyard and go running to make sure there wasn't any blood shed.



This is what Tanner thought of our visitor :)



Thankfully, one of John's coworkers is a Corgi lover and decided to give him a home. John spent some time this weekend "playing" with his new toy.




A little scary right? You should have seen the look on my next door neighbors face when she walked in the door and John was sitting on the couch with it! Yes, he hasn't put it down since he came home with it on Wednesday. Wherever John is...the gun is. As much as I don't understand his love of guns, it makes me smile to see how giddy he gets when he gets a new one. The rest of the weekend was relaxing and productive. Owen came to school with me for a few hours on Sunday so I could get some work done. It makes working on the weekends a bit less depressing when I have him laying on the floor next to me giggling.

Weekend de Love

Chocolate, chocolate, candy, chocolate, flowers, chocolate...are what cover our kitchen counter right now! One of the many perks to being a teacher is the outpouring of presents you get at every holiday and milestone throughout the year! Even though John and I didn't do anything particularly romantic for just the two of us, we did have a very entertaining weekend. A friend of mine from school got married on Saturday night, so we spent the evening celebrating with friends and reminiscing our own wedding days. The night was filled with funny stories and many laughs. I must say that watching two people so in love say I Do on Valentine's Day was pretty wonderful.



We celebrated Valentine's Day again on Sunday by attending Lettie's (Owen's nanny) church V-Day Banquet. The youth group put on a play and served dinner. Four of her kids were in the play and they did a GREAT job! It was fun to see the kids of all different ages enjoying themselves so much.



We were so excited this weekend because Owen got to start using his much anticipated Bumbo seat! He is finally able to hold his head up on his own enough to sit in the chair and truly enjoy himself. He absolutely LOVES it! I took several pictures of him in it this weekend and he just wouldn't stop moving so most of them were blurred one way or another. I am currently learning how to use photoshop and how to better use my camera so hopefully more artistically sound pictures will be coming in the near future!




I took some time to organize Owen's room today and I finally got the chance to hang a panting that our friend Brooke made for Owen.



Owen is growing so fast that it makes me cry if I think too much about it. I spent the morning packing boxes full of his newborn - 3 months clothes because he is now officially in the 3-6 month size. I had to take a picture comparing his newborn outfits to his current size :(

I even had to go to Wal-mart and buy him bigger socks because his feet are getting so big!

Our baby is starting to look more like a little boy and less like a little baby every day. John and I often have to stop and remind ourselves to cherish every one of his moments because we are watching them fly past us faster than we ever had imagined...

New Discoveries

Here are some recent videos of Owen.He has definitely discovered his hands and is contemplating the idea of thumb sucking. Don't know how excited I am about that part, but it sure is cute to watch him try and get his thumb in his mouth!

Super Bowl to baby showers and everything in between

Well, I have officially made it through my first full week back to work. The week was started off by hanging out and watching the Super Bowl with our friends Kate and Dave. We have unanimously agreed that when the four of us hang out together, we eat REALLY well! We made a ton of finger foods for the night and ate them continuously for many hours. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! I think I had somewhat of a romantic idea of what my students would be like upon returning to work...you know, organized, well behaved, experts on all things taught while I was gone, and of course excited to have me back. Unfortunately, only the last thing listed was true and for most of my students that only lasted about 10 minutes! They were all excited to see me until they realized that the sub was gone and it was back to business...my way. The good news is that kids thrive on structure and routine so even my students who enjoyed having the sub (because they didn't have to do work too hard) are glad that I am back so that they can have that structure again. On Wednesday, the staff celebrated the upcoming births of two of my dear friend's babies. It is super fun to be able to buy people baby gifts now that I have experience with baby products and can buy them stuff that has worked well for Owen. I am very lucky to have such a great group of girlfriends that work with me. Here we all are at the shower on Wednesday.



John and I have a wonderful community group through our church that has provided us with many friends and fun times. We are tagged the "young married with no kids" group at the church, so as you can imagine when John and I found out we were expecting we pretty much thought we would be exiled from the group just based on the name! Fortunately, our friends love us enough to keep us around and as it turns out we started a trend in the group. Another couple in the group found out that they were pregnant not long after we did and their baby boy will be here early this April. The other group girls and I got to shower Jamie with baby well wishes on Saturday....all of the hostesses took a picture together and they had to gather around me because Owen had just fallen to sleep on my chest:)





After a busy week full of baby showers and school work, John and I were able to kick back on Sunday and relax. We took Owen for a walk in the park and then headed off to community group for some fellowship!