Hayden Family Vacation

We decided this year not to try to take a "big" (see Airplane travel) trip with my family. Between 2 toddlers, 2 pregnant women & all the stuff that requires it seemed like a better idea to stay close! Cole & Kristin had been to Lost Pines Resort is Bastrop a few times & suggested it. It was PERFECT! David described it as going to camp, but with a comfortable bed & good food!

My sister-in-law did such a good job of putting together these collages I just went ahead and stole them from her blog :)

We spent LOTS of time swimming! They had great little "beach" areas the kids could play in, a lazy river, and a SUPER fun slide.

Collage: Kate's squishy face, splash pad fun, sweet cousins,

sliding fun - Nana & Kate and Cole & Connor

Our Family

My brother Cole's family

Every night after dinner there was so much you could do - kayaking, sports, s'mores, outdoor movies - tons!

Collage:basketball, that's right people the bottom left picture is of David & I playing tether ball. I cannot tell you how hard I was laughing. SO MUCH FUN!

On our way home we stopped for Bar-B-Que, then Kate slept for 2.5 hours in the car! We were shocked! She hasn't done that since she was an infant! We wore her out with too much fun!!

Thank you Poppa & Nana for graciously taking us all on vacation so we could spend time together! We had so much fun!

19 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 19 Weeks

Size of baby: 6 1/2 inches
Maternity Clothes: still in normal pants/shorts with a belly band. My maternity shorts are too big. A lot of shirts are still too big, but fitted maternity shirts are definitely in my wardrobe these days!

Gender: Looks like we've got a girl! We have another sono in 3 weeks, so we'll know for absolutely sure then, but I don't think there's much doubt :)

Movement: Little bumps :)

Food Cravings: Nothing out of the ordinary
What I miss: nothing this week

Sleep: sleeping great

Symptoms: round ligament pain, back pain, heartburn

Best Moment this week: finding out the gender!
What I am looking forward to: starting to work on nursery & things now that I know that it's a girl

17 & 18 Weeks

Who's surprised I'm behind.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 17 Weeks

Size of baby: 5 inches
Maternity Clothes: using belly band a lot, and a few shirts so that they're longer, but shorts & pants are still too big

Gender: I really will be surprised if it's not a boy.

Movement: maybe some small flutters?

Food Cravings: none this week
What I miss:

Sleep: Sleep has been really bad, but I think it was from all the stress of moving. I see hope for better sleep soon!

Symptoms: round ligament pain

Best Moment this week: maybe feeling movement?
What I am looking forward to: really feeling the baby kick & my college best friends coming to visit.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 18 Weeks

Size of baby: 5 1/2 inches
Maternity Clothes: using belly band, and a few maternity shirts. mostly still normal clothes.

Gender: I'm still leaning towards a boy, but David is NOT.

Movement: Yes! Still just small, but finally!

Food Cravings: is candy a food?
What I miss: not much this week - really love being pregnant!

Sleep: Much better! Still some weird dreams, but I don't have to get up anymore very often.

Symptoms: round ligament pain, back pain

Best Moment this week: definitely feeling the baby move!
What I am looking forward to: finding out what we're having NEXT FRIDAY!!!

Bandit Reunion 2010

We started getting together with this group of friends 6 years ago! Hard to believe it's been that long! Once people started graduating & moving off, we didn't want to lose touch, so we started a rotation of going to everyone's houses for New Year's. The holidays quickly got too busy, so we moved it to the summer. Even with 2 months of summer, b/t these 3 families we only had TWO weekends everyone was available! This happened to be our year to host & we had already asked the Mitchells if we could borrow the pool house & backyard for the weekend before we knew we'd be living here. It turned out to be WONDERFUL! The littlest kids could be inside taking naps, while the rest of us played in the pool, we could put them down at night & still hang out without having to be quiet. We had just outgrown our own houses! I think we've decided to keep coming back as long as the Mitchells will have us!

Everyone came to town late Thursday afternoon. David grilled hamburgers while had a chance to catch up & play in the pool.

Friday morning after breakfast we headed back out to the pool. We also used to just get together for one night - this year we made it two & we were so glad! It gave us a chance to really get to relax on Friday night & not feel like we had to stay up until 3AM (even though we still stayed up way too late!)

sweet friends! Maybe roommates someday?

It was sooo funny to watch these little mini-me's of their mommys!

(Madison Vest, Kate, & Kendall Dane)

Madison & Kate

Courtney & I were roommates in college

Kate & Madison playing in the fountains. Madison is so sweet with Kate!

Kate fell in love with Cooper - or at least saying his name. She called all little boys Cooper for awhile after this - even her cousin Connor the next weekend. She would just periodically look at me and ask "Cooper?"

Friday night we got all dressed up to head to "Big Dave's" - ha! Big Dave's is a Bar-B-Q place here in town that we had taken the Danes to before. They have a sandwich called the "hot-pucker" - beef, sausage, & jalapenos. Randy has talked about it since the last time they were here, so we definitely made the trip back.

The Whole Group

Kate, David & I (with Baby #2),

Courtney, Cooper, Trent & Madison Vest

Ashley (with Baby Girl #2 - Cooper), Kendall & Randy Dane

We sure did miss the Johnsons & Michelle - looking forward to having some of them back next year, having more babies, then the next year ALL being together! We definitely laughed less without you Michelle!

Our New Home

We are finally settled in to our new apartment & I thought I'd show you around our new place!

We mostly used the furniture that they already had up here, but brought a few of our own pieces & decorations. Enough to make it feel a little like home, but not all of it since we'll only be here 4 months (hopefully!)

This is the view from the door. If you look straight ahead, you see through the kitchen, through the living room, through the bedroom - all the way to the bathroom! The dining area is over to the left of this picture

The living room to the left.
If you turn around, this is Kate's little play area. It's been perfect for her!
Looking into our room.
From the other corner of our room.

And finally...Kate's room. Also known as the closet! We didn't think it would be good to share a room with her for this long, so since the closet it so big, we just stuck the pack 'n play in there & voila! Kate has a room :). We'll be moving her to a toddler bed soon in there.

We are so grateful to have this place to stay while our house is being built. Kate has loved getting to swim all the time. I think the only negative is the STEEP stairs while being pregnant & carrying around a 25+ lb toddler! We are definitely looking forward to being in our new house & spreading out a little!!

More new posts

6 posts in 2 days...maybe I'll actually get come up!!!

We moved!

Dream Vacation

Father's Day

We've moved!

We did it! I'm pretty sure most people thought we were crazy when we put our house on the market planning on selling within a month. Well, we did it. We put our house on the market June 2nd. We had an offer June 5th!!! We accepted & set our closing for July 14th. Well, we moved out on Saturday & closed yesterday - July 13th.

It was a crazy process of packing everyday, moving in many different "shifts". David took different loads of boxes many different nights & had friends help him move furniture several different times.

My mom came in last Monday to bring Kate back, and stayed for almost a week to help me get the last minute stuff out, unpack the new apartment & help with Kate during the move. I COULD NOT have made it without her. It was great having her here. Now, if only I could finish these last 5 boxes that are left...

This was our makeshift place to sit once all the furniture was gone...

David & I in our 1st house for the last time...

Signing a million papers...

For the next 4ish months, we are living in the apartment above the pool house at David's parents house. It's such a blessing to have a place to live while we build where we are comfortable. They have been so gracious letting us stuff our extra clothes in some of their closets, putting our couch downstairs when it wouldn't fit in storage, etc. We are so thankful.

So, hopefully the house will be done before December. It's a great place to live in the mean time...just not where I want to bring a baby home to...

I'm catching up!

Life has gotten in the way of blogging these days...ha! But, maybe I'm finally catching up. Be sure to check out these posts I got am finally getting up. Many more to come!

15 & 16 week pregnancy update

5th Anniversary Date

Visiting Nannie & PawPaw

Many more to come in the next day or so!

Happy 19 Months Kate!

NEW RECORD!! I am OVER a month late with this one! Hopefully that won't happen again! I worked on this while she actually was 19 months, but I'm sure I missed a bunch being late. Oh well...

--Language EXPLOSION! All of the sudden, she just started saying words we didn't know she knew - "durtle" turtle, cow, out, "ah mess" - my friend Bethany says this & she picked it up from her & now it's one of her favorite phrases, keys, "berwies" berries - she refers to a lot of fruit as berries,

--started calling David "daddy" instead of "diddy". I was sad to see this one go.

--knows where her knees, hands, & fingers are. When you ask her where her fingers are, she wiggles them - too cute!

--discovered her big cheeks & squeezes them - too funny!

--got rid of the pacifier - not a terrible process, but I'm glad it's over!

--dropped her morning nap - sad, sad day in my life. She happen to drop it right after we weaned from the paci, so it took me a little while to figure out what was going on. So, at this point, she's only taking one 2-3 hour nap.

--says "um..." a lot. (I didn't realize that I apparently do too...). When she started saying it, I would say "what?" to her, so now she also says "um...what?" so sassy!

--spent her last night in her crib. She is in a pack-in-play right now, but will be moving to a toddler bed at the end of the month.

15 & 16 weeks

Being in Cancun & moving kinda got in the way of my weekly updates, so here are weeks 15 & 16 together. I BLEW UP between weeks 14 & 16 so I decided to start taking a picture every once in awhile to keep a record. This pregnancy has been so different - with Kate I gained weight very steadily, from the VERY beginning, so it was like I just steadily grew. With this one, I didn't gain anything right at first, then all of the sudden after week 14, one day my shorts fit, the next day they didn't! Thankfully my weight gain is still normal, just a popped out belly! My dr. said it's because all my muscles are all stretched, so they just give way!

Anyway...I was showing David how to take my picture, so I took one of him. So, here is David at 16 weeks :)

...and me at 16 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 15 Weeks

Size of baby: 3 inches
Maternity Clothes: definitely put the belly band to use this week with my shorts

Gender: I'm still leaning towards a boy, but David is NOT.

Movement: maybe some small flutters, but nothing that is obvious

Food Cravings: none this week
What I miss: not much this week - really love being pregnant!

Sleep: Much better! Still some weird dreams, but I don't have to get up anymore very often.

Symptoms: round ligament pain

Best Moment this week: being with my husband 24 hours a day on vacation!
What I am looking forward to: being done with moving! and still can't wait to feel this little one move all around.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby: 3 inches
Maternity Clothes: wore a few shirts this week, not totally necessary, but nice to already have my maternity clothes instead of having to buy all of them!

Gender: I keep growing in my ideas of having a boy. Who knows! 2.5 more weeks til we find out

Movement: maybe next week? please?

Food Cravings: nope
What I miss: medicine! My allergies were horrible this week & it was hard not being able to take the stuff I usually do. Tylenol is lame.

Sleep: I have been sleeping horribly. I think it has more to do with all of the details of moving though than with pregnancy.

Symptoms: round ligament pain

Best Moment this week: being DONE with moving
What I am looking forward to: Dr's appointment on Tuesday - love hearing the heartbeat.

5th Anniversary

Our actual anniversary is July 9 - which we celebrated in the middle of the moving chaos this year. This will tell you how crazy it's been - if you know me very well, you know how much I love presents. Well, not so much the actual present, I love knowing that someone was thinking about me & took the time to find something that showed that. ESPECIALLY when that someone is David. I also EQUALLY enjoy getting to do the same thing for someone else. A celebration without gifts is difficult for me. Well, a week before our anniversary I asked David if we could just chill on gifts for our anniversary this year since I hadn't even THOUGHT about what I was going to do. Normal in some people's lives - absolutely INSANE in mine!

So, we took advantage of my mom being in town & went out for the night. David made some of my dreams come true - we went to dinner at Barrons (which I've been BEGGING him to do for a year) then went back to the theatre at his parents house and watched New Moon. What a man!

We enjoyed getting to have a night to just visit & catch up from our busy week - we missed each other after having spent a week straight together on our vacation! We spent time dreaming about our new house, remembering the past year, and making plans for the next. Our sixth year includes finalizing the sale of our first house, living in a 1 bedroom apartment for 4ish months, moving into an amazing house, having a baby (hopefully in that order!), and that's all before the new year. I am excited about what else is on the horizon & can't imagine doing it with anyone else. He is the man of my dreams.

A Dream Vacation

Amazing. That's what our trip to the El Dorado Royale was.

We wanted to do something special for our 5th Anniversary & were thrilled when our friends Bethany & Trevor decided to join us!

Here are some shots of our hotel...

our room...

It was the best vacation. We had never been to an all-inclusive before. It was so great to lay around on the beach all day, take naps, then get dressed up to head to dinner.

I always wanted to go to a beach with huts that you sit under...
There were also different events scheduled throughout the day that you could participate in. Bethany was so excited when she heard about the sand volleyball...



This is me during sand volleyball...
We also played some water polo - I actually played this one!

The day we were leaving was quite the adventure. We checked our bags before lunch b/c our flight was supposed to be leaving within the hour - we were told we had a 2 hour delay. So, we busted out the Settler's game & enjoyed our time.

When we got to the airport, turns out there was no delay! So we got to the plane, boarded & headed home! CRAZY!

We thoroughly enjoyed just getting to be together. Can you tell?

We were so thankful to my mom and dad for keeping Kate while we were gone. Thankful that we knew she was being well taken care of, spoiled, and treasured while we were gone. We are blessed to have parents who value our time together as a couple and time with their granddaughter!