what kind of a wife i am

i think this shows how amazing of a wife i have been this week:

where can i find that magic laundry button?

daddy now in support of the second amendment

the votes have been tallied.
the poll has been closed.
the sonogram has been confirmed.

daddy's getting his gun license and a WNBA agent.
we are having a GIRL.

the last day

so today is the final day.
the final day of the unknown.

the last day before g and i find out our most frequent phrase we'll be saying over the next 5 months (and, well, forever): baby girl or baby boy.

tomorrow everything will be different.

we will know (almost) everything there is to know about our baby until they arrive in this world.

we won't type "it" or "they" or "him/her" or "him or her" on our blog ever again.

we won't wonder what color to paint the baby's room.

we won't shop for neutral-only baby clothing or toys or accessories.

we will start talking about names.

we will start picking out nursery furniture and bedding.

we will talk about the baby as "he" or "she".

we will have a completely different mindset than before.

we will KNOW.

and that makes it THE most exciting day.

going on 21 weeks

for all of you who have been loyally following our blog, in nail-biting suspense of what size our little fruit is this week...

junior is about 7 inches long and nearing 11 ounces...

three and a half days left

i am on the edge of my seat. WE are on the edges of our seats.
and have been for nearly 2 months now...

WE GET TO FIND OUT THE GENDER OF JUNIOR IN THREE AND A HALF DAYS!

(or as my baby daddy says, we'll find out "WNBA or NBA".)
that means there are only 3 days left to vote for what you think it will be - so cast your ballot! and on tuesday, watch for the outcome...

will team us be chewing on pink candy cigars or blue candy cigars on tuesday??

hurley hearts the snow

the hurls and i are the only ones in our family enjoying this beautiful snow, for sadly geoffrey is in atlanta missing it.

cabin fever will probably hit sometime late today or tomorrow, so i decided we'd remedy that by getting some fresh air...

the lovely, peaceful snow before hurley:

the snow after hurley:

what i saw when i woke up today

i know for some of you, this might be a normal winter occurence. one of these people is my husband. you grew up looking at the snow in the winter and loved the rare days when you had school cancelled because of snow. you skiied on it, sledded down it, and made some pretty darn awesome snowballs with it.

but there are some of us to whom snow is completely foreign. we never had "snow days". if we did, it was because some rancher saw one white flake, called the news station, and then no one in central texas left their house all day because it was "snowing!". trust me, folks, this is how it works in the south.

so today i am loving (and will love) every moment i look out the window and see the snow falling. it is truly beautiful. there is something so magnificently serene about it, watching it fall. so keep coming, you glorious frozen white flakes.

hooray for real snow days....

christmas in teXas

and to continue a great holiday season... we headed to the warmer weather!

on the 20th, we drove from kansas city down to austin to spend the rest of the holiday with my family. while we were there, we did a few "musts" that you have to do while in austin during christmas. the first was going to see the lights on 37th street. each house on 37th street (well these days, almost every house) is decorated with lights, and not just 4 or 5 strands or in a "normal" way. check it out:

yes folks, that is a sock monkey nativity scene.
man i love christmas in austin...

more from 37th street

the house at the end of the street had this throne, so of course we had to sit in it!

the zilker park christmas tree

an old austin tradition: the zilker park tree.

the best way to enjoy it: (besides watching the little kids enjoying it) hold your lover's or daddy's hands, look up, and twirl!

christmas morning in austin

on christmas morning, we woke up and "did" our stockings first - my brother had to leave to go to church late morning, so we decided to save the rest of the gifts for later that afternoon. stockings are always a blast in my family, mainly because my dad goes to town in this store near the UT campus in austin called toy joy. we receive all kinds of old school candies & gum, and toys that wind up and make you laugh until it hurts, yet have no other purpose on this planet.

thank you dad, for being so fun and totally random.

(as for the photo above, don't ask me why i look so confused and both reed and geoff are dying laughing...)

my brother reed, ever so pleased with gift cards that offer free coffee.

geoff, proud of himself at the balancing act he had just accomplished.

and me, and that beautiful stroller!

thank you, mahm & dad!! and thank you to little oliver's family from craigslist - no idea we would own the stroller of our dreams... (of course we felt the stroller needed a passenger for it's first ride, so we installed the stuffed reindeer that resides on my parents' fireplace most of the season.)

christmas in kansas

what a christmas we had...

we first got to go to kansas for a couple days and see geoff's family. we celebrated his grandpa's 94th (!) birthday and his 73rd (!) anniversary with geoff's grandma (did i get these numbers right, terry & nancy?!)

the next evening we went over to matt (geoff's brother) and sarah's for "christmas" to open presents and basically watch hannah go nuts over her presents. (tip for those with kids/nieces/nephews: wrap their gifts in paper, not gift bags. it is so much more fun for them - and you - as they get to tear away all the paper!) among the things we got hannah, and the gift we were most excited to give her (especially after dinner the night before when we saw a santa down at the plaza in kansas city and hannah told him she wanted a computer), was a "computer". it is this little pink kid computer we found and i had told geoff we had to get it because she is always wanting to help daddy with his computer - not always a good idea...

so she tore away the multicolored snowflake paper to reveal, "A -PUTER!! GUYS I GOT A -PUTER! WOW! WOW! A -PUTER!" i think that was the best part of geoff's and my christmas in kansas.

later, as she was typing furiously at her little pink keyboard, we asked her what she was doing. she replied, "just emailin' to see what's up with aunt rosie..." when she was done with that, she asked each of us if we wanted to skype with her and rosie... or the squirrel.

it was a good christmas

and we are glad to be home.

little girls really ARE cute

can we talk about how obsessed i am with this precious gap commercial?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNabu9daJUc

almost 4 1/2 months

we have decided to stop slacking and get better about taking pictures of The Belly, so please enjoy the joyful exploitation of our unborn child...

i apologize, folks... i struggle to take a serious picture. therefore this turned out to be the longest Belly photo shoot ever.

the sweet shot

of course hurley wanted to see what all the fuss was all about...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

shame on you, my dear target

soooo...
last night, the hubs and i were doing a little christmas shopping (can you tell who we were shopping for by the aisle we were in? if your name is hannah and your uncle's name is gt and your aunt's name is lala... look away!) at my own little personal heaven, target, when we stumbled across something quite interesting...

yes, my friends, barbie now enjoys martinis while playing with kids.
now, i grew up loving my barbie dolls (so i am not hating on barbie here) and was a little shocked that they now include a fancy blue martini glass in clothing and accessory sets.
are they teaching kids that early on that drinking is super cool?
and if they are playing with alcohol as early as 3 (barbies are for 3+ fyi) when are they going to expect to partake or share with mom & dad? REALLY?!
i mean if barbie does it...
too soon, mattel. way too soon.
all i could think as we walked away was "i am SO blogging about this."
thoughts??

what geoff bought at the nike outlet

we have long struggled with the christmas tree topper situation.
over the last few years, we have searched high and low but never found the one that was meant to be on the team us tree.
eventually we settled on and purchased one last year, but as we got out all of our christmas decorations last night we could not find it anywhere.

luckily we had an alternative for our tree topper...

Foreshadowing?

I kid you not, as Wifey & I are driving to our 4 month baby appointment, I stop at a red light and have my future staring me in the face. I am convinced that I must begin training now to prepare my gag reflex for our future child's early contibutions to the world. Although Wifey finds my "gagflex" endearing now, I know it will quickly lose it's charm when she ends up with 2 messes to clean up rather than just one. To begin with, I think I'll start with a few reps of standing near dumpsters for 1 min. increments and work up to extended times in public porta potties. Stage 2 will consist of simulations (i.e. handling "gooey substances" like chili and potato salad while blindfolded in a freshly fertilized stable as Wifey blasts me in the face with spray from a water hose...or something like that). Stage 3...Game On! My mantra during this workout..."I will not spew on our baby".