FINALLY!!

Y'all. I have missed this blog & all of you (are there any of you left?? ;)) SO MUCH!

We have been without internet in our home since moving in in March, but I'm happy to say that the internet gods finally got their act together & spread lines in our neighborhood which means I CAN FINALLY BLOG AGAIN! Woohoo!! It's been a long 7 months!

There's no way I could ever make up everything that I've missed, so I'll hit the high points and go from there...

On April 18th we got a HUGE surprise and found out that our family would be growing!

 You may remember that we had trouble conceiving the first time around, and I think I'm still in a little shock that this "just happened" on its own. God is so good, and I think He knew that I wasn't quite sure when the "right" time would be, so He just went ahead and let me know that it was time!

 We found out this summer that baby #2 was a BOY!! And a healthy one at that :)

 I'm 35 weeks as of today, and our little man is expected to arrive around December 15th. Hopefully I can share more on this pregnancy really soon! I hate that I don't have the same documentation this time around, but I'm sure that baby boy will forgive his dear ol' mom.

Jaqs was a flower girl for the first time in a friend's wedding in June, and oh was it precious! She sprinted down the aisle then danced the night away. She had a BALL! And she'll get to do it again in February for her Uncle Will's wedding, so let's hope history repeats itself with her flower girl duties.

We had an awesome summer spent with old friends...

 And new friends...

 Then another football season began...

 It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but our Coogs got a share of the district title & will play their first round of play-offs this Friday!! GO COUGARS!!

 Jaqs also started Mother's Day Out twice a week this fall, and she is LOVING IT! I was unsure of how long it'd take her to adjust and enjoy it, but she jumped right in (without a tear) and has made me so proud. My sweet big girl. I need to do an update of my TWO & A HALF year old before she becomes a big sister!

I think that's about all I can muster for my first post-hiatus-post ;) I hope to be back SOON!

Rob's Birthday

 As I said Friday, we celebrated Rob's birthday this weekend! 

It's so hard for me to believe that we've been celebrating birthdays together for 10 years now...just crazy! There's no one else I'd rather grown old with though :)

 Rob is everything I imagined my husband would be and MORE. I feel immensely blessed every day by him and by the life we share...even on the days we drive each other bananas. There are so many good things to say about this guy; he's filled with wonderful traits: he's dedicated, he's passionate, he's silly, he's nurturing, he's strong, he's a hard worker, and he loves God and his family like crazy. 

Oh, and he's pretty easy on the eyes, too ;)

*****

Rob's twin brother, Will, was passing through town on their big day, so he stopped in for a few hours to hang out and see Jaqs. We went to the park, and I made a complete picnic to have while we were there. Of course, there was something in the air, and these brothers have awful allergies, so both of them became miserable after only an hour or so of being there.

 I felt terrible for them, so we packed up and brought our picnic home where they proceeded to go through a box of Kleenex in record time. Poor guys.

 We still had fun playing for a bit, and Jaqs was loving having daddy and "Wheel" around!

We put the little one down for her nap, Will went on to his destination, and I got dinner prepped for our wild and crazy evening in ;)

I love J in this picture...she had just woken up :)

I made some favorites for Rob's dinner: beef filets, PW's crash hot potatoes, roasted asparagus, and jalapeno poppers! Mmmm. Ended with chocolate cake, of course!

We didn't do anything super exciting and fancy, but we spent the day just how the birthday boy wanted to, (minus the allergies) and he said it was perfect, so what else matters?

Rob left town for the week super early Sunday morning, so the little lady and I were on our own for the day. It was SO WINDY, but we went to the park again, and had so much fun. I'm so thankful that we can be outside in the middle of "winter." I was stir-crazy after just a couple of weeks inside. We are Texas girls through & through ;)

 Thankfully, my dad is coming in today to spend the week with his girls and substitute in Rob's absence!

*****

Can I ask for a favor?? :) Will you go to Leah's FB page and like/comment on Jaqs' picture in her Simply Made With Love shirt?? The picture with the most likes & comments gets THREE free shirts, and you know I'm all about that!! PLEASE and THANK YOU! :)

Hope you have a great Monday!

weekend & a discount!

Happy (??) Monday, y'all! How was your weekend? As usual, ours flew right by.

Thursday was kind of a rough day around these parts, so I decided Friday was going to start off on the RIGHT foot, so once we were up and moving, the little lady and I headed straight to Starbucks for an iced PSL & Target. If only every day could start that way!

I must say, Jaqs was looking mighty grown up in her leopard jeggings. How do you think I would look in a matching pair?? ;) HA!

The football game was out of town this week, so another one of the coach's wives and her littles came over to have dinner, play & listen to the game. It was so fun, but unfortunately the Cats lost at the very last minute. Such a bummer!

Jaqs and I headed to the splash pad with the same momma & kiddos on Saturday morning since the guys were working (yeah--got home at 1:45 a.m. & back to work at 6:30 a.m!) to try to stay cool in the blazin' temps. She thought she was pretty big stuff going up and down the slide all by herself!

 We came home for lunch & the girl took an awesome nap! I mean, check out this bed-head:

 I guess sleeping for 3.5 hours will do that to ya! Now, let's do that every day, okay??

Saturday night Rob took his girls out for a family date night. We avoid any place that requires waiting a long time for food in the season of life, so we went to Chipotle where these two made googly eyes at each other the whole time :)

I mean, SERIOUSLY?! There is nothing better. Jaqs doesn't let her daddy out of her sight when he's home and gives him the sweetest hugs and kisses! Precious girl.

We also went for frozen yogurt and there was a little summer thunderstorm while we were there. We were playing outside when we got home and spotted a double rainbow! Of course, this iPhone picture is not the best, but my goodness, is God not SO GOOD? Wow.

 Sunday morning was low-key, just playing with daddy until he had to head back to the office. It's always so hard to let him go on Sundays, but we know he has a job to do!

 Now we'll look forward to the next! 

******

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway for the holiday kid's tee! Meredith was the lucky winner, but Courtney is offering the shirts at a discounted rate for any of my other readers interested! They will be $12.99 (+shipping) and available to purchase via email. If you would like to place an order, send Courtney an email with the subject "Katie" to courtneyrubino{at}yahoo{dot}com and let her know what you'd like! She has several options (with matching bows) that can all be seen on her FB page.

girl's day & a good-bye party

I don't know about y'all, but I had the BEST weekend! I'm kinda sad it's already over.

My dad was visited us part of the week last week, and of course, we loved it! We spent a lot of time at the little water park while he was here, and Jaqs even got to share a little ice cream with G-Pop. What are grandparents for, right? ;)

We had a cook-out with friends Friday night, and it was such a blast. All the kids ran around and played well together while the adults hung out & snuggled the newest baby in our crew. We had so much fun that we ended up being there until 10 p.m. which is like an ALL-NIGHT RAGER (or something) when you have toddlers. I have no idea how Jaqs played happily that late, but she did! Yay!

Jaqs & Tatum...these 2 will be besties! They have no choice!

On Saturday, I had an ALL-DAY girl's day with one of my best friends, Cassi. We had originally planned on going to float the river with some other girls, but our plans fell through, so we decided to have a day full of doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted! It was awesome.

We started our morning off at our favorite brunch place with another friend, then we moved on to pedicures. We decided to get real crazy after that and head down the road to Waco for some better shopping and Pei Wei. Of course, we're the wives of coaches, so we had to stock our kids up on some new football gear! Yes, I definitely dress my little girl in "boys" football gear...she rocks it and makes her daddy proud ;)

 We ended our epic girl's day by sneaking wine into the movie theatre to go with our mini Reese's and popcorn (which is the best combo ever, btw) like a couple of broke college kids. We saw The Heat and laughed the WHOLE movie. It was one of the most hilarious movies I've seen in a looong time. It is a little vulgar at times, but the Sandra Bullock + Melissa McCarthy combo is hard to beat! Definitely recommend. 

So thankful for one last "me" day before the grind of football season begins, and of course, our solo mom duties this week while the guys are away at coaching "school."

Yesterday I decided to hit the road to Abilene with my pea to see my Gram one last time before she heads back to Idaho this week. She's been staying with my parents since April, so we had a small "see ya later" party for her before she goes. I'm so glad that Jaqs has had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with her Great-Grandma in the last few months...it's definitely very special to see them together, and I know my Gram has loved every minute.

Happy Monday, friends! Hope you have a wonderful week!

weekend wrap-up {a day late}

 I'm a little late on my weekend recap this week because we went to Abilene, so I had to recover from my solo road trip yesterday! I was so nervous about taking Jaqs on a 3 hour trip alone because she doesn't normally sleep in the car, but she did SO WELL there and back! I was really proud of her and thankful that it was a stress-free trip for both of us.

My grandma recently made the {short-term} move from Idaho to Texas for a few months, and this was the first weekend we were able to get there to see her. Rob was busy with Spring ball, so it was just us girls this time. I was so excited for Jaqs to meet her great grandmother who she's named after :)

They were grinning at each other from first sight, and it warmed my heart to see them together!

Jaqsy girl also got some time in with G-Pop before he had to work all weekend. We ran some errands one morning, one of which was to the motorcycle shop where she picked out her next birthday present ;)

Afternoon napping at the GG's is practically non-exisistent....too much excitement! I put the girl in her stroller so she would at least rest for awhile, and she fell fast asleep. Tell me that sleeping face isn't dreamy? Ah. Angel.

We played lots of peek-a-boo with Grandma :)

 And, of course, we always have to go to Old Navy when we're home because we don't have one here. Jaqs "needed" some Summer clothes ;) She ADORES the mannequins, so we chatted with them for quite some time. She was petting and barking at the dog for the longest time then decided to hold hands with this little boy. Oh, and she also did some coloring with Grammie!

 We had Rob's grandparents and his mom over for dinner one night so Jaqs could see them, and she had her first taste of ice cream with Nanny. Oh my! Obviously she loved it and begged for more.

We did lots of playing in Grammie & G-Pop's gorgeous backyard, too!

 It was such a fun, whirlwind weekend as it always turns out to be when we're home. We loved every minute of our time with family and friends, but we were also excited to get home to daddy! Since it was Cinco de Mayo and Jaqsy's 13 month (WHAT?!) birthday, we decided to have dinner on the patio at Taco Cabana. What can we say, we're festive!

Hope your week is off to a great start!