Saturday Morning Scene

This is Will sleeping with abandon until it almost wasn't Saturday morning anymore! I was getting so bored that I contemplated waking him up so I would have someone to play with but I refrained. He did finally wake up about 30 minutes ago and is sitting with me listening to 90's radio on Pandora and admiring pictures of himself. Normally Brian and I would sit on the deck and drink coffee and capitalize on our baby's late sleeping habits, but he is in Corpus for his drill weekend, then drill two-weeks starts tomorrow. I'll be heading down there to join him then.

Does anyone know if it's possible to blog from an iPad? I haven't figured out how yet and that's all I'll have available to me for a while.

Our 4th of July weekend in pictures

Grammy and Gramps came in town

we hung out at the lakehouse

we watched the parade downtown

anyone can make a "float"

We watched the boat parade from the dock. Megan and James rode in it

We rode on the boat and went tubing

We were having so much fun we decided to skip the Riverwalk and just go to dinner in town. Then we decided to skip dinner in town to have bbq at the lake. So the anniversary wasn't celebrated in the traditional sense, but we enjoyed each others company very much and we did exchange gifts. I got an iPad!

Happy Anniversary, my love!

I've spent the two best years of my life married to my wonderful husband! 4th of July 2009 was the day that we created our family and I couldn't be happier with the life we lead. The fireworks you see tonight are for us, don't you know?

Happy 11 Week Birthday

For Will's birthday this week, I made a tri-berry trifle out of angel food cake, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. I asked for suggestions on Facebook and my sweet cousin Janice recommended it in celebration of 4th of July. It was super easy and I might make another one to take over to the lake house on Monday. I got some other suggestions that I'll be making in coming weeks. Here's how it turned out.

And here's part of how he spent his day- cooing.

Since I forgot to blog about them the last couple weeks, I made a devils food cake for his 9th week and a pineapple upside down cake for his 10th.

7 Quick Takes

~1~

The blueberry soup I made on Wednesday for dinner sort of flopped even though my husband and our guest said they really enjoyed it. The leftovers, however, made an excellent cocktail last night blended with rum and Sun Drop soda. I might make another batch just for the drinks.

~2~

I'm not at all ready to leave Will for "date night" and certainly not over night yet. The fact that people keep insisting they be allowed to babysit soon is starting to piss me off. It's like they want to spend time with my baby but want me to gtfo.

~3~

I am slowly and surely becoming "greener" and "crunchier." It seems to follow easily from wanting a natural start for my son. Whatever efforts we undertake in that area or changes we implement I can swear on my mother's life it will stop short of using family cloth. I draw the line way short of laundering my husband's you know what.

~4~

I'm thinking about getting this monogrammed jon jon in her wedding colors for Will to wear to my cousin's wedding. Wouldn't that be darling? But the fact that I spent sooo much money and wasted energy ordering my bridesmaid dress makes me want to throw a $3 onesie on him and call it good. I said I was going to write a separate post to tell you about that experience and I did, but didn't post it because it was one big whine fest. Being blogging-style girls though, I imagine a lot of you have probably done a good bit of online shopping. Have you ever had to call to confirm an order you placed and paid for online? After receiving an email confirmation for a phone order, have you ever had to print it, sign it and fax it back? No? Me neither until I dealt with this dress company. Plus I had to spend $40 rush shipping because I didn't follow those directions right the first time and the dress will only get here about 2 weeks sooner than it would have, still almost 3 months. Ok, apparently I wrote the whine fest after all, but it's much better in a quick take I think than a whole devoted post.

~5~

These are our plans for this weekend:

Friday- finally go to the free dance class I've been wanting to go to for weeks and haven't been able to.

Saturday - take a trip to the farmer's market, more for entertainment than actual shopping this time. Have dinner somewhere on the Riverwalk and spend the night at the Drury Plaza there for our 2 year anniversary (which is actually on Monday) Yes, Will is coming with us. No you can't babysit.

Sunday - meet my mom and dad at Mass and hang out with them. Maybe play at the river, I hope!

Monday - watch the 4th of July parade in town, then go to the lake house to watch the boat parade. Grill and play with Brian's family and my parents. Celebrate our freedom. Make up times that Will needs to eat just so I can get some hold time in with him away from all the baby-hungry loved ones.

~6~

I desperately want an iPad. I was just about ready to talk myself into deciding it was too expensive and I shouldn't get one when my husband said he thinks "it's necessary" especially for the 2 weeks we'll be in Corpus with no tv or internet. So now it looks like I really will get one! Sure, I'll likely just use it to play games and maybe read books, but I'm excited that I'll be current with technology for once!

~7~

I'm super sad that my bestie moved to North Carolina to stay. I know I wouldn't have actually seen her anyway since she lived in Denton before this, but knowing that she's that far away makes me miss her like crazy. I wish we were back in the days when a quick bike ride was the only thing that separated us. Chatting a long time yesterday helped, but I want to start planning when we can take a trip up there so we can meet each others babies! Her's is coming in October!

Family Photos

I mentioned that our friends the McNabbs came to town this weekend and that we had a great time with them! I can't wait to meet their little boy Pierce who is due in September. Jared McNabb has a photography business and offered to take pictures of William as a baby gift to us. We were so glad to accept and we spent a good part of the weekend taking pictures of our little boy and then of the whole family. None of us is particularly photogenic. Brian and I found that out about ourselves when taking engagement pictures and confirmed it during wedding, and then maternity pictures. William has been known to smile beautifully right up until a camera is held up and then make as dull of face as possible. He did that for Jared too unfortunately, but he was so much better than any other photographer we've worked with at helping us look natural in front of the camera and waiting for us to make just the right face before taking his shot. I was very comfortable posing and had so much fun with it. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the baby shoot and from our family shoot.

I'm having the hardest time trying to pick which pictures I want to print to display in our home, but I'm pretty sure that last one will be our Christmas card this year.

Please go check out the rest of the pictures on his blog www.jaredmcnabbphoto.com/blog. If you're looking for a photographer I strongly recommend Jared! He's located in Houston but he and Erin love to travel.

What a lovely day

Will and I have been enjoying a particularly nice day today!

It started out with our sweet friends Brooke, Maggie and Clare coming over to play. They had a good time. I am really looking forward to the day when Will can actually play and interact with me or with other kids. I think it will be so fun. For today though Will and Clare chilled on the activity gym while Maggie enjoyed exploring the dog water and my lazy susan. Can you see the dry mustard she has in the picture of the three of them? Brooke agreed to look after Will during the days that I'm teaching next year, which I couldn't be more thrilled about. He's going to be in such good hands!

By the time they left, it was nap time so William caught some zz's while I made the blueberry soup for dinner and Mommy and Grammy chatted. I also got to talk to Neely for the first time in a while. I just wish she had happier news. I love you, lady! You have so many "real" friends who are here for you.

After that we made a quick stop by the florist to pick up some "welcome baby" bouquets. We had not one, but two new friends born at the same hospital. We took a trip up to meet them and congratulate their families. Barrett James and Rhett Archer are the most darling little boys born since my own. They are normal baby size, 7 lbs 8 oz and 6 lbs 10 oz respectively, but they seem so teeny tiny in comparison to William. I never got to see him all fragile like that. Their mommies are doing really well too. Here is me, Laurel and Rhett. Barrett was eating so I didn't get to take a picture with him.

From the hospital, we went over to the church to say a Rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Of course we prayed for a healthy start for these little boys, but also a prayer for Pope Benedict because today is his 60 anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood. Today is also the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul so that made our little chapel the perfect place to pray today. Will did so great letting me get through the whole prayer. I was prepared to stop one decade in if need be, but he held strong.

We're home now and will stay put the rest of the evening I assume, but we will have company here. Brian's college roommate, Cain, has a new job at Valero where Brian works too. He'll have to move closer to San Antonio (he lives in Austin now) but he's staying with us while he finds a place. We've been enjoying his stay for a few days so far.

One last thing that has made today great is that I got to see the sneak peek of the pictures Jared took of Will this weekend. You can check out the sneak peek too on his blog, but when I see the rest I'll post some here. This is my favorite one so far.

I hope you're having a great day too!