Diapers and Daddy Drinks

We have never had a party in Texas for Neal, when we got married our engagement party was in Kentucky, our wedding was in Kentucky and we had a girls only shower in Texas. So we used the birth of our first baby as a good excuse to have a low key, casual, barbecue so he could invite co-workers, friends and family that may have missed out on previous parties.  I was totally on board to help plan!

Neal's parent live on some acreage in Georgetown and have a barn that was built to look like a general store from the back. It is pretty awesome and a great place for get together! They also have a lot of antiques and signs so the rustic charm created the atmosphere for the party! Neal's Dads Model A "Jethro" is in the background 

The food was kept simple and very Texas: Brisket, sausage, potato salad, beans, pickles, Texas sheet cake and Homemade Vanilla Blue Bell ice cream. The Daddy Drinks were Shine Bock and other beers, Deep Eddy Grapefruit Vodka, Topo Chico, Tea and water.

The guest of honor requested pink camo napkins.

Quite a few friends from our time in D.C. have migrated down to Texas, it was so great to see them. Some of them had not even seen each other in years, we were so happy they made it and were able to reconnect!

The Weems moved back to Texas early 2014, we are thrilled to have them so close (3 hours instead of 24 hours). They graciously co-hosted D&DD.

It was a family party! C.R.C. has little friends waiting for her arrival and ready to play!

We are anxiously awaiting Miss Caroline's arrival. Only 5 weeks left!

Pampers was the clear choice of diapers, beat out Huggies 4 to 1. We are so grateful to have shared this unusually "cool" August summer night with wonderful family and friends, Thank You to All!

The Perfect Shower-July 19th

This post is to brag on my sister who hosted a perfect shower on July 19th!  I would not change one thing about it, she generously gave me free reign on ideas and we made a perfect team since she was planning it from Ohio I served as the liaison for ideas and arrangements while she kept the details straight and the budget. It was a wonderful day at the Four Season's in Austin!

Baby Caroline and I are so fortunate to have Mary Ellen as a Aunt and Sister.  My Mom and M.E. flew to Austin a few days early to help get last minute details wrapped up and most importantly spend some QT together. Most of our prep work was on this idea of a onsie decorating craft.  We had such a good time doing test onsies, it was hilarious. Neal vacated our house every night after dinner to go to the golf range and stay our of dodge of this project.  The level of craftiness in the three of us is vast, but we ended up with three onsie's and burp cloth as examples for the shower.

We used C.R.C's crib bedding as the theme for the invitation, not an original idea, one that was recycled from Barefoot Daydreams. The framed "Love you forever, like you for always" is taken from Love you Forever by Roger Munsch. The story behind the song is very sad, but the words are very true.

“I’ll love you forever,
I’ll like you for always,
as long as I’m living
my baby you’ll be.”

 The Menu was light with delicate sandwiches, fruit cups, AMAZING pineapple salsa, quesadillas, fruit tarts, cream puffs and from what I heard a delicious sangria made with rose wine with pink paper straws of course!

The decoration were kept simple and girly with petite roses, white hydrangeas and babies breath for the center pieces.

Old Friends (who have migrated back to Texas from D.C and college friends), new friends (who have been blessings since moving to Texas) and family joined us for this celebration and showered us with amazing gifts. We are so grateful to bring our baby girl in to a world surrounded with love, encouragement, fun ladies, and generosity.

We were shocked that upon arrival the ladies went straight to the craft and dug in. We tried to have an assortment of stencils and paint, appliques, letters and for the expert crafters fabric and templates.  It was so much better than playing shower games and we ended up with some super cute onsies from C.R.C to wear!

 GrAnna surprised us with a little Clifford gift, I was obsessed with Clifford growing up so Caroline with have the same opportunity to follow Emily Elizabeth and Clifford!

Hostess with the Mostess and GrAnna

Bestie who was in town from DC, love her!

 BFF from college, Erin, who got married at the Four Season's three year before. It was so fun to reminise about her big day and overlook the exact spot they said "I Do" from the room.

Neal's Sister, Aunt, Mom, Wife, GM and Cousin

 This picture makes me laugh because I am clearly the "in-law" the brunette with dark eyes in the middle of the blondes and blue/hazel eyes.

Cutest Onsie Award-I'm Knott Fussy

The generosity, love and support from these ladies is unbelievable.  We are as prepared as we can be for arrival of our little baby!

Baby On the Way

We found out January 5th, 2014 we are expecting a baby! The excitement and shock (even though we were planning this) was overwhelming.  I don't think anyone is prepared for the moment when the pregnancy test comes back positive.  We are almost six months in to the pregnancy and are busy making progress.  Here are some highlights from along the way!

We are excited to share Baby Carlton arriving in September!

Paint the Ranch Red Heart Association Benefit-16 weeks

Pink or Blue-Night before we found out.

Cupcakes to celebrate after we find out girl or boy. 

 Neal and I both said the night before we found out that we thought it was a girl!

It's a GIRL!

Easter Dinner with Neal's Family-19 Weeks

A lazy Sunday afternoon nap after our first visit to Babies R'Us

 Most of my Sunday's are spent napping while Neal watches CBS Sunday Morning after church. I kind of love it!

Running has been replaced with more of a run/walk but we are still out on the trails. (20 weeks)

Neal's closet is already displaying tiny little clothes. He will relocate his clothes before she is born.

Neal, Me, Emily, Joe

 My cousin and I are both expecting! Such a fun time for our growing family.  They are 10 weeks ahead of us so we will have a March baby (my niece), a June baby (Emily's baby) and the ours in September.  Neal and Joe are Dad's on patrol!

Celebrating the marraige of my cousin and Mother's Day-May 10
Mary Ellen, Mom, Me (22 weeks)

We danced the night away (22 weeks).

We were in Kentucky for my cousin's wedding and Mother's Day, one highlight of the weekend for Neal was a guy coming up to him at the wedding to say "If this was a dance contest, you all would be the winners. The flying bird was awesome!" 

Guardian Angel

October 31, 2013 was day for the record books, the record books of my life that is.  It started as a normal coffee, dress in subtle holiday colors, drive 50 minutes to work, forget to log in to g-chat to let Neal know I made it safely to work.  Neal calls office to make sure I made it.  I feel a little guilty for not remembering. Work a some through the morning, chat with co-workers, work some more.

Then at 12:15pm something you don't even think about because it is so absurd happened.  My office wall crashed in and an Ford F-150 drove right in to my office.  The office that I was working in, just sitting at my desk.  In about five seconds I was not sitting anymore, I was thrown to the floor, stuck in little corner of my office and had no clue what just happened but screaming my head off.  After about 30 seconds of screaming I realized I was the one screaming, so mentally told myself to stop screaming, did a brief self evaluation concluding I wasn't majorly hurt then wondered what the hell just happened.  From my position on the floor I couldn't see the bright red truck because fortunately there was a bookcase that protected me from the truck but was also blocking my view.  All I could tell was when I look to the right it looked like a bomb went off and went I looked to the left out my office door all was right in the world.

The next few minutes are all a blur. There were some repair men on the roof looking at our air conditions that of course heard the crash and heard my death screams that raced off  the roofed running to my rescue. They lifted me out my little triangle of safety over my desk that was wedged in my door and thankfully put me in a chair.  Now I could see what really happened and it was surreal, crazy and a bit humorous (only because no one was seriously hurt).  By this time all the rescue personnel had arrived and convinced me I needed to take a trip in the ambulance just to make sure everything was okay.  So I got strapped in the gurney and taken outside.  This was the view from outside.

 In the midst of the chaos my co-worker had called Neal saying there had been an accident but I was not seriously hurt and "there is no blood" she told him.  Neal then raced up to Temple with his flashers on, determined to make in record time.  On the way to the ER I called Neal to let him know I was okay and that he could lay off the gas a little so he made it safely.  From then on everything was pretty routine for an ER, I guess.  This was my first ride in an ambulance and first visit to the ER.  A day of many firsts!

The room I was taken to had just been cleared by a patient that had a code blue, not comforting and a nursed dressed as a bumble bee hooked me up to heart rate machine also, not comforting.  A doctor came in and checked me out.  My heart rate was back down to normal, my eyes were following his light, my heart sounded good from his view point I was fine especially since I never lost consciousness.  He did want to take some x-rays of my hips since that is the only thing I was complaining about hurting.

Neal arrived at the hospital so I was so happy to see his face, hug him, and pray with grateful and thankful hearts that there were no serious injuries.  I called my Mom, she didn't pick up.  I called my Dad, he asked if they needed to come to Texas immediately, such a sweet offer, but I was okay so need to call in special care givers. We waited for the X-ray tech, got the x-ray (no broken bones) and were discharged.  Neal took a video to embarrass me later for documentation purposes of course.

After all this fun we went back to the office just so Neal could see how crazy it all was. This is outside my office, my desk was wedged in the door so you had to climb over to get in or out.

From the trucks view. Can you imagine if you were the driver.

Under the light switch was my corner of safety.  A few more inches and I would have been crushed.

 Another office view, the construction crew is already in action placing support beams and boarding up the side so it isn't open the world.

Neal documented all angles.

As we drove home we were singing prayers of thanksgiving with only scrapes and bruises, God truly was watching over. I group texted with my family that night and my Mom said it was also "clean living" which we joke about but she right, all the glory goes to God!