road trip!

this weekend we made a quick trek to austin.  

friday night jay and i enjoyed a relaxing evening downtown and a nice dinner at ranch 616.  saturday morning we went for a hike in the greenbelt with the pups.  we had a great hike on a newly discovered trail, ran across a very scary snake ("red and yeller kill a feller" - remember that this time of year in texas, those coral snakes scare me, along with all of their slimy friends) and after some sweat and quick get-away tactics from the snake, we survived the trail unscathed and with a good workout behind us.  anyway, good times.

at lunch jay dropped me off at the beautiful barton creek resort for an overnight getaway for my good friend, mary's bachelorette party.  what a great time we had!!   a lot of pool time, hula hut, and a whole truckload of funny moments and mary giggles made for a great trip.  i can't believe we are a mere month away from the big wedding day!!  woo-hoo!

jay, jill and i topped of the trip with breakfast tacos at maria's on our way out of town with the burpo clan...complete with our first meeting with sweet baby eve!  she is so incredibly precious.

sooooo it was another great weekend in austin, a town that has, over the years, become our home-away-from-home!  gotta love that place.

i have posted some pictures below, courtesy of  the organizer of the weekend, sweet cali-girl, brooke and below that, pics from our good friend, mollie.  

some of the ladies from the weekend with the guest of honor, mary!!

mollie and me at hula hut

a pic of baby link, the baby bump goes public!  thanks, mols!

mommy things

well jay and i got our first dose of parenthood this weekend.  we stayed home for memorial day to shop for and register for our little man, and do/get some house stuff.  yes, normally these weekends are filled with time on the boat, getting a suntan and having hot dogs and brews...we were a little freaked out that we were doing the "responsible" thing, but i must say, we had a pretty good time and got a lot accomplished.  plus, i'm sure next year we will just take him with us, lather up the sunscreen, and go back to the lake.  ;)

so anyway, we have been quite the parental units lately.  i got a mom car (see below).  a total mom car.  i will say unless it is beyond my control, i plan to never have a mini-van.  so don't have a total meltdown on me...it's a very, very cute mom car, but alas, it's a mom car.  the volvo XC90.  i love it so far, it's my favorite car-color, black, and the leather is oh-so-plush.  volvo does the job there.  and of course, it's safe, the main concern of my over-protective husband (the man who asks me to leave any event to drive home early in the case of rain.  yes, i said rain.  he worries.  it's sweet).  so anyway, step one, mom car.  CHECK.

me, driving on the autobahn, or a stock photo, whichever...

step two, register, get a crib and a dresser, then name the kid. CHECK, CHECK, CHECK.

well, we at least started the registry. i am sure some of my mom-friends will help me with all the stuff we missed, but we had fun. so far, we have baby bliss and babys r us started. baby bliss is fun, babys r us is kind of a whip, but i guess it's a necessary whip. :)

crib is in tact, and without any tears! jay put it together in about an hour. dresser is still in boxes, but purchased.  it's all perfect. my mom was sweet enough to purchase our dwell bedding a few weeks ago, so we now have a crib, ready to go, just need little man to come and SLEEP, LOTS OF SLEEP. i'm thinking he will be a sleeper like his parents, maybe come home ready for nine hours straight? sleep until 9am on saturdays? what do you guys think?? ; )  hey, i can dream, right?

and speaking of little man, although we have yet to settle on his full name, we have one thing for certain, and that is what he will go by...it's always been in the back of my mind as a perfect name if i had a little boy, it honors my AMAZING family, plus it's a really cool name. and jay INSISTS on us using said name because he thinks it's pretty darn cool, too. so anyway, we bought letters this weekend for his room, so i guess we can make it official...

this weekend was f-u-n. it was filled with wedding showers, parties, events, and great weather.

we did the showers and parties friday night, saturday morning, and saturday night. they were all fun, and the weather was mild, but a bit rainy. i woke up this morning to brilliant sunshine, green grass, and blue skies. we were off to church, brunch, and then an afternoon outside.

first we hit the cotton bowl for the "dog bowl" with the pups and their friend, lucy (who you will see in some pics). i guess they do this every year before they re-sod the field. whatever the case, it's a great time and the pups could not love it more. next we hit the east dallas garden tour (i know, who would guess that we would like this, but we do!) in little forest hills. if you aren't familiar with this neighborhood in dallas, you should be. their slogan is "keep little forest hills funky," need i say more? it's cool, with hills, unusual lots, beautiful gardens, and best of all, unique homes. the area is just about five minutes from us, on the other side of white rock lake near the arboretum. i highly recommend the garden tour if you like that sort of thing. lots of fun. we made a brief stop by lakewoodstock, the festival in lakewood, and i have a feeling that once our little man gets here, we will be there a lot longer...they had a bounce house the size of our actual house, looked like a lot of fun. anyway, great weekend, great weather, and i am so thankful for it!

more pics from the dog bowl...

norm enjoyed the many pools, just got right in!

mckenzie wasn't too sure how she felt about all this...

norm exiting the tunnel to the field, just like the OU players will in a few months...ready to thrash the nashhhhhhty horns

jay would not let norm take off his sooner jersey - but i will say, it helped me keep track of him!

what do historic homes on swiss avenue, a pregnant woman, yard signs in the middle of the night, and a very hectic work weekend all have in common? this weekend, they were my life! having a hubby who runs campaigns and a mother who deserves a great mother's day all meant that this weekend was going to be a crazy one. we started it off friday with a car full of yard signs for the vote no! campaign here in dallas. jay's and my duty was to go to all the polling places and get signs out before saturday's election. this means you have to go at odd hours so that the opposition doesn't try to take them down before morning. crazy! so here i was in all my glory, running around schools, churches, and various public buildings putting up yard signs in the dark. ha! but on saturday, it was all worth it. that night jay and i attended the election party and they pulled out a victory! this was huge because jay's firm was hired two weeks prior to the election to bring this campaign out of the gutter - and that they did! i'm so proud of him and happy that our city will finally have a hotel for the convention center...so host your company conventions here!

we got home late saturday/early sunday morning and i started putting the touches on sunday's mother's day lunch. we had jay's mom and family and my parents over for lunch at our house. after a great lunch, we headed out to the historic swiss avenue home tour. anyone that knows my mom or has ever even heard of my mom knows how much she loved this...it was quite a day for her. ; ) she also brought us the bassinet that I SLEPT IN, (yes, that makes it ancient, i know) for our little guy. pretty neat!

speaking of our little guy - we are now to the halfway point and could not be more excited! i can't believe that i am finally getting a little baby bump and our little man is getting closer to joining us! oh my goodness, i can't tell you how excited jay and i both are for him to get here! oh, and i've also started to feel him move, which is the most amazing thing i've ever felt. ; )

hope you are all doing great and had a happy mother's day.