Day 3 with Daddy

Day 3 - Watch a rain shower
I was planning another activity for the day, but a line of rain showers in the afternoon gave us another opportunity. We sat by the back door as the cloudy sky opened up and some needed rain began to fall. It was just a shower with no thunder and lightning so it wasn't too scary for her. The cats had run inside to avoid the shower (we keep the back door open most of the day) and we all looked outside as the rain fell. I turned on CCR's "Have you ever seen the rain" and took Rebecca closer to the door so that we could smell the freshness and feel the cool breeze of the shower.

I hope you're able to take some time and enjoy some of the amazing creations in this world. It's easy to get caught up in busy schedules and miss the simple things that God blesses us with on a daily basis.

Day 2 with Daddy

Day 2 - Shopping for Mothers' Day

We ventured out by ourselves for the first time on Day 2 and went to look for some gifts for Mothers' Day. Rebecca couldn't have been better as she never fussed and was asleep for part of the time. We picked up a couple things for grandmothers and stopped at HEB to buy a few things for the house as well as some flowers and chocolate for Mommy. 

Rebecca, you come from a long line of amazing mothers. No matter what you do in your life, I hope that you do it with the love and passion that these wonderful women have shown in their lives.

Introducing Rebecca Clare... and Day 1 with Daddy

It's been a great year for us highlighted by the arrival of our beautiful daughter Rebecca Clare on March 11, 2013. Morgan was amazing throughout the labor and did it all natural, which many of the nurses remarked makes her a super-woman (of course I already knew that). I don't know if I realized just how much her arrival would change my life, but I feel so blessed to get to see this baby girl everyday.

We've already had a full 8 weeks since she was born as she has gotten to celebrate Easter with both of our families, was baptized in April and been introduced to many of our friends. Morgan headed back to work this week after her maternity leave, and I am taking about a month off from work to watch Rebecca until she goes to daycare.

During this time I had an idea to try to do something different with Rebecca everyday. It wouldn't necessarily be something big, but I would try to give a little explanation about its meaning. I don't know that she will ever read it or if I'll even think of enough things for every single day, but here goes nothing...

Day 1 - Write thank you notes
I've had a few thank you notes that I needed to finish for gifts that Rebecca had received from family and friends. She has received so many thoughtful and useful gifts that we are overwhelmed by the generosity of those we know. So while Rebecca was napping and content in her bouncer, I was able to complete a few. Morgan is very good at sending thank you notes, but I am not and before we met had only sent them for significant events like graduation gifts. I hope Rebecca has a good sense of appreciation and takes the short amount of time to acknowledge those who are special in her life.

Jumping back in

So it's been a while since the last post. Let's catch up:
- Played in a family golf tournament, celebrated Granny's birthday, and Ashley and Chase got engaged all in the same weekend in August
- Went down to Gruene to see Ward and Kristi get engaged in September
- Closed and moved (with the help of our wonderful parents) into our house in October
- Carved pumpkins for Halloween
- Kicked a field goal Thanksgiving evening
- Went to Vegas for a few days at the end of December (and didn't lose all our money)

And finally in January, we went to the animal shelter and added a couple of new members to the household. Introducing Shawn and Gus. As you can see by the pictures below, they are very energetic.

Shawn

Gus

One year later...

This post is a little long in coming, but it better late than never. This is one of my favorite wedding photos. I can't believe that it has already been a year (well over a year now). The first year of marriage was amazing and I hope that all of the years to come are just as good.

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to head out to Fredricksburg for the weekend. the weekend was such a nice break from our busy month.

Hayden pretending to be serious at our bed and breakfast. The B&B was apparently a getaway of LBJ and that was his favorite chair. So of course Hayden had to sit in the chair and do an impersonation.On our actual anniversary we broke out our wedding cake...err wedding cupcakes. Year old gluten-free cupcakes aren't great, but we had to keep with tradition. Hayden ended up eating most of mine.
One thing that we found out during our trip is that Hayden really likes German food. When you are in Fredericksburg you can eat a lot of it.

Sunday afternoon we drove up to Enchanted Rock and then had a late lunch at Coopers in Llano.
After treking up to the top we decided to find our own way down. Unfortunately, we may have picked the steepest way possible. I'm pretty sure it was about a 65 degree slope for a few hundred feet.
Finally we made it down and took a leisurely stroll around the main loop. After all of that hiking we were ready to dive in to some bbq and head home.

We're homeowners! At least we should be in a couple months...

So it has been a long time since we've posted anything, but we have a pretty good reason. The first part of the summer was full of weekend trips with family and friends. All of the rest of our free time has been spent looking for a place to settle down. It looks like we might have found it.

The future Migl's Nest on Wing Road

We started seriously looking with a realtor about a month ago thinking it would take a while to find a place, but she did a great job of narrowing down our search and showing us properties that matched what we're looking for. The place that we have under contract was on the market a day before we looked at it and was priced well for the neighborhood. She almost did too good of a job because the lease on our apartment goes through October. Luckily, the seller is still looking for a place so he is receptive to delaying the closing which works better for us.

It's in a nice looking neighborhood in southwest Austin so we should have a shorter commute which we both really wanted, and it is move-in ready. Although I'm sure there will still be some posts about some home improvement projects (Morgan is putting together her home binder with paint colors and decorating ideas :)

Birthday Madness

May is full of birthdays in my family- 4 birthdays on my side of the family alone, plus Hayden's birthday, Mother's Day, and our anniversary. So we have been a little busy over the past month.

Lucky Hayden has his birthday two days before our niece Avery's birthday, so he got to go to her Elmo party on his birthday. He even got to wear a party hat and we all sang happy birthday as he blew out the candles on his own cake.Avery wanted to have a Dora and Elmo party, but Elmo won out. Megan made all sorts of decorations for the big day.

All of the kids are getting so big and getting better at hitting the pinata. The girls are still dainty about trying to get the candy out so it took a few rounds of batters.