Happy 4th!

Heath and I both had the day off from school and work so we set out to have a fun day. Early in the morning we went to our church's annual Pancake Breakfast. We saw lots of friends and ate yummy food. After that we headed home to rest and let Heath complete a paper for school-you're never truly off right :) Then we ventured out to our favorite place to eat and play games-Dave and Busters-with my brother Matt! Matt and I truly become kids again when surrounded by arcade games. Of course, we had to end the day with some fireworks so we met a family friend downtown and enjoyed the show from a bridge over Lady Bird Lake. It was a perfect place. It was a really great day and nice to take a break together. Heath has been working hard to graduate this weekend and it will be nice when he is done with school. Then it's on to job hunting! He has lots of applications in, but city jobs are VERY slow to respond. Just keeping the faith and praying that an opportunity comes soon. So proud of him though.

We are grateful for those men and women who have or are currently serving our country in any capacity so we can continue to have the freedoms we have today. Happy Independence Day!

(Us waiting for the fireworks to start.)

Houston, We Had A Fun Weekend

We have some friends (Joey and Kira) who live in Houston who we've been promising to go visit for years now. We thought Memorial Day weekend would be great since it was a 3 day weekend. We drove down there mid-day Friday and met up with my brother's friend Lindsey or should I say Dr. Hicks. She is graduating from med school this month and works at some Dermatology clinics right now. She stayed after work to take care of us. Kira got a cyst excised from her shoulder and I got laser hair removal and a chemical peel. Lindsey has been a family friend for years, but I've never seen her in action as Dr. Hicks. She had great bedside manner which really put both of us at ease for our procedures. Love her! The rest of the weekend we did all sorts of fun stuff. We went shotgun shooting, saw Men In Black III, looked at houses, and ate some yummy food. Kira was healing from her stitches and I had a peeling face so we took it easy and had fun chilling at their house too. It was so fun to visit them-we wished we had gone earlier! It was nice to get to know the area too. We looked at possible neighborhoods since Houston is one of the places Heath is trying to get a job at when he graduates in July. It was a fun weekend! Thanks J & K!

Best.Weekend.EVER.

We had so much fun this weekend. My parents came into town and we just cruised around Austin hitting up all the fun spots. We started it off by eating at one of the many food places showcased on TV travel shows- Torchy's Tacos. It did not disappoint. It was delicious. I had The Democrat and The Independent. I'm not political at all-they just sounded awesome and they were!

Our yummy food from Torchy's

 Next, after we were about to pop from all the yummy food, we headed over to Peter Pan Mini-Golf. It's this cute little mini-golf place tucked into a corner of a busy road with brightly painted ceramic animals beckoning you to come try out your putting skills. I did horrible. Heath did okay. My dad acted like it was the final hole of a PGA tour tournament the whole time.....and came in second. That's right, my mom got first place thanks to her 2 hole-in-ones!!

Me next to one of the putting green statues. It's an odd picture, but it's the only one I had so it gets published :)

After all that fun we headed over to one of many Austin's food trailer parks for a little treat. Arrested Development is one of our favorite shows and some girls who are also huge fans opened a banana stand in it's honor. So Heath finally got his chocolate dipped frozen banana with nuts!

Heath with his "Gob". He couldn't finish it because it was so big.

To finish off the weekend we met my brother at our favorite movie theater- Alamo Drafthouse- for The Ultimate Willy Wonka watching party!! We got to quote and sing along to the movie, eat corresponding candy, blow bubbles during the Fizzy Lifting scene, throw streamers when Veruca Salt throws her fit in the golden egg room, and pull a popper firework when the elevator broke through the glass ceiling! Then afterwards we got signed posters and met two of the original cast members who played Veruca Salt and Mike TeeVee. It was AWESOME! This is why we love living here. There's always something fun going on.

My brother Matt, Mike TeeVee, Heath, Me, and Veruca Salt.

So thanks for a great weekend mom and dad!

The J's Visit Austin!

Heath's brother Jeremy and his wife JaeLyn stopped by to visit on their way home from San Antonio. It was Sunday so we just hung out at the house and fed them dinner, but we had a great time. They are expecting their first child so we set around talking about babies and nurseries and all sorts of fun stuff. It was just good to get to spend time with them and we're grateful they were able to stop by and visit. We love our family!

(This is an older picture of them-we didn't get one this weekend-but it's so them-lovey dovey!)

Nursery Sneak Peek!

Heath here with a breaking nursery update,

Well I finally got around to painting the top of the nursery where Adrienne and the sister missionaries couldn't reach when they started a few weeks ago. So that makes phase one of nursery remodel complete. The walls are all one baby pleasing color. At first we weren't so sure that the color we had picked would work. We thought it looked like the color green worn by crossing guards, but as it dried it changed to the color we thought we had bought and now we are pleased with our cheerfully bright baby cocoon of happiness. Next we are going to paint trees on two of the walls and maybe add a few owls or something to tie in with the bedding we are looking at getting. Adrienne also found a cool idea where a shelf is placed right on one of the tree branches so it looks like the tree is supporting whatever is on the shelf. So we are going to try to do that on a couple of the trees.

As for the layout of the room it is still up in the air. The crib is against the inside wall but that could change and when the dresser is done being painted we will need to finalize where it goes as well. That should leave just enough room for a chair. Adrienne wants something big and comfy, but we are not sure on which one to get. Here are some pics to show you what I'm talking about.

These first two pictures make the color look more yellow then it actually is. The picture below shows that it is really more green. Strange what a difference the time of day makes.

Visiting Family!

Last weekend we went home to DFW to visit our families. We started Saturday off with a trip to the shooting range. I'm not big about guns, but Heath talked me into it and it was fun. The shooting range was really nice. We don't own guns so we rented one of theirs and went to the practice range to shoot clay pigeons (considering their disc-like I shape I wonder how they got that name).

Here's me in my expert stance :)

And here is Heath:

After that we went out to eat with my mom and did a little shopping. We got a gift for a family friend who just bought a house, my mom got our nieces/nephew an Easter outfit, and I bought my friend a baby gift for her brand new little boy. I used to hate looking at baby things. Now I love it. I touch the soft clothing and dream of the day when we know what gender we'll be having so I can go crazy spoiling them with tiny clothes. We have given in a couple times when we find stuff we cannot let go so boy or girl we already have a good collection going.

After that we went to Heath's brother's house to visit with his family. My mom gave the kids their gifts and we hung out a bit. Heath's other brother was also there with his wife. They are expecting a baby in October and we thought about how cool it would be if we were also placed this year and the babies could grow up together. We feel very blessed to have family so near and are excited for the day when our kids can play with their cousins. My mom and I left and Heath went with his brothers to see 'The Hunger Games'. We had already seen it so I opted to save the money and not go.

We also got to see my best friend Tami, her husband, and their 4 month old baby Jaxen. He was born last November and it was my first time seeing him. So much fun! He was such a good baby-just chill the whole time. It's hard for me sometimes to see my friends become mothers. It is bittersweet. I am so happy for them, but sometimes it's like salt in an already stinging wound. Infertility is like a chronic disease. Although I will never be completely free from its grasp I have slowly learned how to live with it. Also, some days/weeks/months are better than others. Mostly it is good though. I truly feel that the Lord has been preparing me for adoption all my life and I am giddy with excitement to meet our birth family. Infertility is painful. Deciding to place your baby must be a very difficult decision. I feel that adoption brings together these two families who have this unbelievable understanding for one another even though their circumstances are very different. I think about this all the time. I hope our birth mom knows how much we already love her. How anxious we are to begin this life long relationship with her. How even though we wouldn't wish this pain on her, we know adoption is Heavenly Father's plan for us, and we hope she finds us. The expectant moms click through hundreds of profiles online. It must be like picking a needle from a haystack, but I have faith that she will find us. It's an odd place to be. It almost feels as though you are trying to "sell" yourself as parents. I hate that. I feel like a cheesy car salesman. We simply want to be parents. We know that Heavenly Father wants us to adopt (and we feel blessed to go down this path). We have faith that we will be chosen.

Before I go I had to share a picture of our nieces/nephew all dressed up for Easter. They were adorable.

And we wanted to send a big Thank You to Heath's family for the surprise box of goodies we found in the mail. They were delicious!

No more vacuuming....the living room!

We had been planning on replacing the living room carpet with wood since we bought the house. Last week we finally did it! We actually bought the flooring about a month ago, but never got around to installing it. So we finally gave in, and had a company install them. We love it! Although, I didn't realize how close to color our couch is with the flooring. Oh well! The dogs, however, are having a harder time getting used to them. It's a lot more difficult for them to gain traction on them while running, so play time has become quite comical around here :)

Here are some pictures. I apologize for the quality-our lighting is horrible in the living room.

(Before: Note the vinyl at the door.)

(The Start: These guys were fast and did a great job!)

(Done: Wood all the way to the front door!)

(Done: A view into the kitchen)

(Finished: A view into the kitchen. New rug.)

(Finished: View to the front door.)