Taking time.

It takes time to develop things - relationships, careers, BABIES, life is an evolution, as is this blog. I have such high hopes to air the thoughts in my head, capture on paper, create a memory I intend to go back and read. But I suppose in my ability to try to take time to blog, which I have failed,  I have been taking time to enjoy other things. Like,

Beautiful faces.

Christmas trees.

Friends.

Moments.

Family.

My new house, my every day struggles to cook healthy, delicious food for my family. My time is more precious than ever and in the attempt to do it all I still find a way to feel like I'm not taking enough time. As I closed out 2010 I took time to just sit, in my house, with my husband, champagne in hand - and celebrated. As I welcomed in 2011 I did the same thing - spent the morning snuggling with my babies and took the afternoon for lunch and drinks with some great friends. Taking time is what I will do this year.

My resolution.

(**Note that all other resolutions I never can keep up with still apply - workout more, read more, blog more, make photobooks**) :)

Happy New Year friends, may it be your best.

Final Countdown!

Last Thursday I went to see my doctor, weekly check up, with no expectations. I left knowing that I was 3 cm dilated and thrown into a whirlwind of 'whooohooo - let the labor begin!' It's Monday...and still, no baby.

Over the weekend I was counting every ache and pain thinking surely the little man would grace us with his presence any minute. It's Monday, no contractions, no baby...yet.

I do believe in divine intervention and in my case I believe someone was telling me I needed to take a few days to decompress. Looking back at the last few months I truly don't know that I ever really was able to relax like I tried to do, primarily because work was just so nonstop. Throw the rest of life on top of that and I don't know that I ever allowed myself to get fully into new mom mode. This week I'm off of work and able to do what I want to do - mani, pedi, a little shopping at Sephora, lunch with friends, hanging with Brooklyn. Laundry can be done at my earliest convenience, dinner can get started before 6:30, life can go at a pace that I have more control of. As much as I'm ready to get into that hospital and get this done I am enjoying these couple of days to get myself back to normal. But...don't get me wrong, it's in the back of my mind always that I'm one step close to being a mom of two. I can't wait!!!!!!

Let the final countdown begin....!

That's what friends are for...

Remember that song? Keep smiling, keep shining, KNOWING YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON ME, for sure, that's what friends are for..........

Apparently this hot mess has never heard that song, neither have her friends. If they had they would never let her come out of the house looking like this.

AT SUNDAY BRUNCH.

I met some of my best friends out today for brunch and we had an absolute blast. They had bottomless Mimosa's, me, bottomless water. The weather was perfect, too perfect almost and I actually got some SUN. Uh, what?

Then this showed up:

Sorry I had to take it (pic doesn't even do it justice). I don't normally exploit people like this but seriously, can someone please tell her that this is the Lord's day! Any of my girls came out looking like that and I would literally drive my car off before they could get to the door. There was a little of her and a little of Jersey Shore going on. It was fantastic people watching today.

We named her Madonna Lauper, hot mess.

...and UGLY it was.

Our Ugly Christmas party was a success. As my dear friend KQ put it on her FB status update:

"you know it was a good party when everyone needs asprin the next morning, you go home in someone else's shoes, and you are drinking out of cups that say 'happy birthday jesus'. Good times!!! XOXOXO to all the partay peeps"

Pretty much sums up the night. Everyone brought their A game of ugly Christmas attire:

The white elephant gift exhange was a success:

Cookie decorating, not so much:

It's boring to act like adults all the time, right?

Happy Birthday JESUS!!!!

I'm alive!!!

Okay yeah, wow. That kicked my ass for realz. The flu sucks, go get your shot if you haven't already. Unless I suppose you like running 101+ fever and feeling like someone has beat the crap out of you, plus coughing, plus snot, knocked on your rear for 4 straight days. Up to you, I'm just sayin.'

It really put a cramp in my whole update the blog with fun weekend pics plan I had on Sunday. So, let's just rewind and pretend last weekend just ended, mkay. Mkay.

Because I work for a really cool company I had a ticket to see George Straight on Friday night. Said cool company actually had a suite stocked with food and adult beverages. Yet another cool move. I was on my best behavior since I was flying solo for a little while, then that got boring and the fun began.

On Saturday we welcomed another woman into our house. Dear blog world, meet my husband's new mistress.

Yeah, he actually said if the cup holders were any smaller I'd need to worry. YEAP. He said that. Because men say and think those things. He has been talking about this car for eternity awhile now and I think when he signed he papers that day slid into spot numero uno for the best day of his life. Brooklyn slid into 2nd, and our wedding day 3rd. If the Jets happen to win the superbowl I'll be in 4th. He spent the majority of the weekend out in the garage reading about it's 100 million features and gadgets. He's washed it at least 3 times this week, bragged about it to some random stranger at the Dr.'s office, and on Friday when we talked at lunch he was at Target buying car wax.

Total affair.

Okay so secretly I'm happy to have her in our life. He works hard and deserves it. And ultimately if she takes up too much time I will most definitely win. "What scratch honey?"

Fast forward to this weekend and it was full of fun too. Once I recovered I was ready to get out of my house. We had tickets to ACL fest so we grabbed a sitter for Friday night and went to listen to great live music and drink some beers. We met up with our rockstar friends Carrie & Audrey, saw John Legend and Kings of Leon.

It's been an awesome rainy weekend and I'm finally finishing this blog post. Started Friday but what the heck. Jumbalaya in the crock pot and football on the big screen, and I get to hang out with that little shit below. Feels good to be alive again.

On my birthday we...

Looked adorable...

Ate lots of yummy food...

Enjoyed delicious cupcakes!

Opened lots of presents...

Enjoyed time with friends and family...

Had an awesome day!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

This is one of my best friends, KQ:
She is, to me, the total package of a friend. She's beautiful, smart, hilarious, LOUD, not afraid to get in your face, will stab a bitch if she needs to, all around awesome girl. We've done smart things together, like running big accounts at our previous job. We've done stupid things together, like her teaching me to drive a stick shift in my neighborhood AFTER happy hour. Yes, stupid. We've done everything in between.

These are our daughters:

We know what we are capable of, but we have no idea what these two have in store for us.

At least we know we will be there to pour the other another glass of that mama vodka juice.

Oh what a night!

Had a wonderful weekend. Managed to relax, be productive, and party.

Saturday night we got a babysitter and headed out for our friend Brian's bday. Started with martini's at Peche, apps & more drinks at Saba, then off to Kiss & Fly for ... guess what? More drinks. Mama was feeling no pain...

I am so grateful for good friends, life would not be what it is without them. It was fun for Dom and I to have date night too. We hadn't been out downtown together in awhile so it was fun to reminisce at some of our old spots, pre-baby. The night ended in classic fashion too, he and I stopped for taquito's at Whataburger. You know it's been a good one when you are sitting on your kitchen counter scarfing down potatoe, egg, & cheese at 2:00 a.m.

Happy Birthday Brian! We love you.

If you need me, I'll be outside.

So I think we can officially say that the warm weather has arrived. As my friend Joanna put it - "getting a bunch of Mason jars in order to can this weather and be able to open it in the middle of July." I absolutely love this time of year, patio weather baby!
We've done our best at taking advantage - last Friday night we met my brother, Rob, at the Oasis and sat outside for about 3 hours (mostly due to wait time, but cold margaritas were available, so whatever.) Every time we drive up to the Oasis it doesn't matter how many cars are in the parking lot Dom always says the following "This place is a gold mine, look at all the cars...printing f***ing money in there, ridiculous." I'm not kidding you - no matter when we have ever gone, he says that at least 10 times. It was gorgeous and the view is stunning even though we are looking at a small pond rather than lake at this point.

Saturday we hit up Stillwood for their 4th annual crawfish boil. On the way there Dom and I were talking about how we would like to throw something 'annual' - like a fish fry, or even crawfish boil. Then we arrived at the party and laughed out loud at ourselves. These folks are for real with their get together. 300 lbs of crawfish, t-shirts for all that donated, 5 kegs, food for kiddos, a jumpy thing in the backyard for the kiddos or possibly drunk adults, and 3 live bands! We had an awesome time and hope to make the sponsor list on the t-shirt in 2010. So yeah, maybe we'll just throw a small xmas party and stay out of their way.

Sunday we worked in the yard all day trimming, planting, and fertilizing. It was a great day to be outside but man yard work is tiring. At least you can see our house now. So, sticking with our theme of annoying little things happening to us (as mentioned in our previous post) - we fertilized and went to turn on the sprinklers when we were done, and ... nothing. It didn't even pretend to try and turn on. Greeeat. If you don't water heavily it kills your yard once you put fertilizer down. So Dom was on the phone with the sprinkler guru's for two days before someone finally came out and fixed it. $700 later they are working. Apparently lightening struck the ground when we were in Mexico and fried everything. Ahhh...life. Our yard better look damn good this spring!

Time to close this one out and go sit on the porch. You all know we've got about 2 more weeks before the heat lamps turn on.

I may go run in the sprinklers too, just cause I can now.