Since I've been without home Internet for what seems like ages now, I obviously haven't been able to update my blog much.....which is okay. I'm so busy these days...
Tomorrow I'm going to my first appointment at Austin Area Birthing Center. I've considered them long and hard, and have now decided to go with them for this birth and prenatal care.
I'm anxious and excited to (hopefully) hear the heartbeat tomorrow!

Ponytails

Today was the first time I thought to fix her hair in two ponytails. I have no idea why. It's so cute - I should have thought of it a long time ago. (of course, they're a little uneven. I have some improving to do :)

New Baby (doll)

Eliana is getting ready for the new baby. ;)

Hannah's "Apartment Warming"

Hannah just moved into her 1st apartment several weeks ago. I helped organize an aparment-warming party for her. It was great! We invited some ladies from church and had a wonderful time.
She received some great gifts!

Had great fellowship and food!

And played a couple fun games before people started leaving around midnight!

It was pretty difficult to get a good picture of everyone, they were always laughing about something. It was a great party - tons of laughing and fun!

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Can't believe it's 2010!! So much has happened this past year, it's ridiculous! A lot of good and some serious, hard struggles. But God has been beside us every step of the way and blessed us in so many ways!
2009 ended with some incredibly hurtful things going on in my life. But it also ended with some really wonderful things! And the best one is that Travis and I are expecting baby #2 in August of this year! We are both so happy and excited and feeling blessed! God is sooo good!
Now if I could just start feeling better....morning sickness, fatigue and dizzyness....I'm starting to remember how not-fun pregnancy can be. :)

I've been on a long break...

I realize I haven't entered a blog post in over a month. I just haven't felt in the mood lately. There's stuff going on - I just don't feel like sitting down and writing about it. Maybe the new year will bring about a renewed interest/love of blogging for me. Right now, not so much. Sorry folks ....(all 2 of you)...I'll be back soon.

Happy 45th, Mom! ( and the latest bad news)

We had planned on surprising my mom with a meal, cake, ice cream and gifts after the service at church today. Butttt....Sarah broke her collerbone yesterday! She was rollerblading at the skating rink and fell hard on her shoulder which broke her collerbone and ripped the ligament in her shoulder. An ambulance took her from the skating rink to Brackenridge hospital for the evening to take some x-rays and make sure she was okay before going home. She is most likely going to need surgery, so please pray for her and the recovery process. Sweet Sarah has remained completely optimistic and decided that since she's always wanted to learn how to write with her left hand, now would be the perfect time to do so. Especially since she will still have the same amount of schoolwork. Poor thing. :(

Back to Mom's birthday plans....since Sarah had that skating accident and was doped up on pain killers, Mom was staying home from church Sunday morning to be with Sarah. So we all decided to bring the party to her. It worked out really well and we all had a great time - lots of food, talking, laughing....just good old family time together!

Continuation of House Project + Yard Project

These last several weekends, Travis and I have been working around the yard clearing where our yard fence is going to be built. We need to have it built by early next year for when we put cows back out here - we're going for that agricultural exemption once again. We had several rotten trees that needed to be taken down because they were close enough to inevitably fall on the newly built fence at some point. Our biggest project was the 100+ foot tall Cottonwood in our front yard. We cut the rotten side down quite easily, but the clean up took a really long time. We also uncovered a Copperhead snake hiding under some logs.

This is our continued house project - baseboards and door trim lying out to be painted.

And after the first coat of paint. Can't wait to get the floor cleaned up and get those baseboards on. Our house still isn't put together properly.

We got our piano back!!

My friend, April, gifted us this piano when we got married. When we were packing up to move back to Round Rock, April took the piano back to her house until we figured out where we were going to live permanently. Now that we've bought this house, we had the piano moved back here!

Popcorn girl

When Eliana woke up from her nap completely cranky this afternoon, I knew exactly what to do : pop some popcorn. The girl LOVES popcorn. She would eat herself sick on popcorn! I love the way she methodically eats it out of that little cup, looking so content. She even scraped the bottom for crumbs and asked for another cupful of the stuff. Of course she got it - who wants a cranky 1 1/2 year old on their hands?

The (almost) finished product!

We still have some touch-up painting to do and the windows/doors need to be trimmed. Other than that, we're finished!! After receiving our next to final bill, we've decided to wait on getting our hardwood floors refinished. Maybe in a couple years we'll invest in that. For now, we'll just make the best of what we have.

Yummy!

This is the first salad I've ever grown myself! And it was delicious! :)
I've never been able to grow anything ever - everything always dies, usually due to neglect and forgetfulness. Well , not this time! I may have a green thumb after all! ( of course, lettuce has to be the easiest thing to grow....hah)

(Notice our new countertops in the background! - I'll post more house photos later)

It's raining, it's pouring.....

The "pond" that has formed in our front yard over the past week of on and off rain:

Hog Eye Festival

This is the first year that Travis, Eliana and I went as a family to the Hog Eye festival in downtown Elgin. It was great! There was a barbecue cook-off, carnival, food, live bands (which weren't that great), a petting zoo, pony rides, a car show, and lots of booths full of locally handmade items!
Eliana went on her first carousel ride and loved it! She went with Travis first, then tried out the boats, then back to the carousel (with me the second time).

Just random stuff.....

Look who showed up at our house last Thursday!

Isn't he cute? I spotted him showing off for our lady dogs. The scenerio was causing our dogs to be in quite an uproar. I though they were barking at a squirrel at first, but nope - at this cute little guy. I took him the next day to Bastrop County Animal Control. It made me really sad to do that. He deserves a good home and there's not much hope for him at the animal control, but we just could not keep him. We're pretty certain he was dumped on our road. No one living near us recognized him. Unfortunately, dumping animals happens a lot out where we live. It's so awful! And he was such a sweetie - even loved Eliana.

Speaking of Eliana....this is one of her latest hobbies: On first impressions, I'm sure you're thinking "Wow, she's already potty-training?". But no. She just like to sit on the toilet....just sit. Weird kid, I know. I guess it makes her feel like a big girl, but she has yet to pee in there on a regular basis. It's only happened twice so far, out of the many times she insists on sitting there. I think she mostly likes wiping with the toilet paper. Maybe I should stop letting her make it into a game. But then again, I keep thinking if I encourage it, maybe she'll potty train sooner.....I don't know.

And this is her popping bubble wrap for the first time! Very fun activity for a little 1 1/2 year old! :) Well, even for a 22 year old ( yes, I admited it).

I spent too much at Walmart today...and other news...

I had not been to a Walmart in such a long time that I kinda forgot why that's a good thing....until...I went today and spent waaayyy too much money. Not stupid money - I will use everything I bought, but still....
These adorable boots were one of the items I just had to buy. I may or may not have bought an additional pair of boots of a different color and style...

I mean - can you blame me? How cute are those!
Here are our new cabinets - stained and finished!! Next step - countertops!

The end is in sight!!

This was taken Saturday, while Travis and I were painting the house. My mom kept Eliana overnight for us, which was really great! We got a lot accomplished that first evening, including a decision to switch from yellow to blue in the kitchen and from green to yellow in the living room area. Unfortunately, that decision was made after paint was already purchased and on the wall. For some reason, I always have a difficult time picking the right colors to match the ideas I have in my head. After picking up Eliana at church the next morning, we went to get some different colors of paint with the plan to try again. Shorty, Travis' mom, came out to help us paint and/or watch Eliana. That was such a help! We finally finished painting on Monday - all that's left is a little touch-up where the ceiling and walls meet.
Hannah and Nicole came out for a visit Monday night! It was such a spur-of-the-moment thing, and it was so great to spend time with them! They stayed until they felt their homework couldn't wait any longer, and then headed back into Austin.

This morning was definitely busy, as you can see. Trucks backed to the road. Our cabinet people and electrician came out and worked all day.

The cabinets aren't finished yet and we're still waiting on the appliances. But it's coming together and I'm getting excited to finally have a kitchen again!

Grapes and Yogurt in the AM = One messy, but very happy little girl.

She loves to eat! And when she gets to dip her food, it's that much better. :)

1st of October

I think I'll always remember the first of October. This day, exactly a year ago, I received the horrible call that my father-in-law had died suddenly from a heart attack. I was the one that made the call to Travis. He came home from work as soon as he could and we went to be with his mom in Shiner. That week/weekend was one of the hardest we've been through since we've been married and the first time I ever saw Travis really cry. Even though I knew Pat Caka for only a little while, I grew to love him and I still miss him dearly. We all do - there's still an empty hole where he used to be. Everything has changed since his passing and we're constantly reminded of what we're missing. I would have loved for him to see our sweet Eliana grow up - he was so proud of her.
There is such great comfort in knowing that we have a sovereign God, who ordaines everything to happen according to His perfect will. This wasn't what we would have wanted, but God knows better. God is always good and He heals the broken hearted.

Relaxing Weekend at the Lake....ahhhh....

Doesn't this look like a great place to be over a "no-commitments weekend"? This is the same wonderful place that I've posted about before on Lake LBJ. Adriana and Nicole's grandparents graciously let us come visit again and again...and again...well, with Ana and Nicole's invite obviously.
This time it was only Nicole, Hannah, Melissa ( an old friend), Melissa's baby Abigail, and me. It was a great time getting to relax and just enjoy the outdoors on the lake. I spent a lot of time with Nicole - talking, laughing, star gazing, etc. It was great! And where was my baby, you ask? She spent her first weekend with her Granny C. and the cousins - Bryce and Addy. Didn't mean to plan it that way necessarily, but it worked out wonderfully. And of course, I think Travis enjoyed his alone time at home, getting things done around the house. All in all, a pretty good weekend.

Little Abigail sleeping in the hamock, with Hannah on the dock in the background sunbathing/working on school homework.

Melissa and Abby.

Sweet Nicole.

And still more progress.....

Here are some more photos from the progress over the last two days. Yesterday, the guys insulated the exterior walls. Today, they hung the sheet rock.

This is what's left of our kitchen at the moment. Everything that was in the cabinets and pantry are piled in the guest bedroom, mostly on the bed. Our "kitchen" sink is now the teeny, counter-less bathroom sink. The house feels very un-functional at the moment.....to say the least.
It's been interesting trying to keep Eliana from touching the insulation - I guess pink and fluffy must be one of the most tempting things for a little girl to touch.

We're starting to get a better idea of what it's all going to look like when it's finished! Exciting!!

I will never understand the things that entertain little kids for hours......

Yesterday, Eliana played with the grill for most of the late afternoon. First, she was fascinated with opening the lid and putting blades of grass and rocks inside the grill. Then, she discovered that it had wheels and could be pushed around the yard. Somehow, that was so entertaining for her. I stopped the whole thing when she started learning how to push the grill over and make the charcoal spill onto the ground.

Mount Bonnell

My friend Alivia and her new husband visited us over this last week. She lives in Ohio and we got to know eachother mostly as pen pals. The only other time I had ever seen her in person was 7 years ago when Mom, Hannah and I took a detour through Ohio on our way to Pennsylvania. It was so great to see Alivia again and to meet her husband!
Mt. Bonnell was one of the places Alivia, Colt and I visited while they were here. I had never been, even after living near Austin for 11 years now. It was beautiful!

More progress...

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

And here's Travis tearing the cabinets out of our kitchen to save some money. In the process, he also broke a hot water pipe which flushed a rat snake out of the wall. Such wonderful memories we'll have....

Our new (old) highchair

My mother-in-law came to visit over Labor Day which was really great! We don't get to see her all that often, so it was nice to have some time together. She brought us some canned pears (yum!) and an old (80+ years old) highchair that her father used when he was small. She painted it and put the cute cushion on it for Eliana. I think it's adorable!