love deeply

a sunday stroll

2012-01-31T17:24:00.000-06:00

i am not sure about the weather where you live, but the weather here today was pretty much perfect. we loaded brendan up in the stroller and set out on a walk through the neighborhood. we tried out our mini playground area with him, but there is only so much a 5.5 month old can do and only so long his attention span will last before he just wants to eat every last little piece of padding on the ground.

after the playground, we walked around the rest of the neighborhood...taking in the gorgeous day and perfect temps. i think everything is better on a beautiful day...even

on the way back, i noticed that brendan was quite relaxed...laid back, with his foot propped up on the stroller. i think he enjoyed the walk too.

five (and a half) months

2012-01-29T20:07:00.000-06:00

each month, my goal is to take a picture of brendan at each monthly stage...preferably on the 14th of each month. i have not done a sign or patch on his outfit like some trendy gals do (although, i think those are super cute), but i take his picture with a baseball blanket behind him each time. the past couple of months i have been slightly "late" in taking the monthly pictures. i.e. the four month picture was taken at about four months, three weeks.

today, i took his five month pictures at about five and a half months. what can i say?! life has gotten busier...but, better late than never, right?

enjoy!

"mom, i'm not so sure about this photo shoot thing..."

thunder thighs :)

getting bored on his stomach...

...getting there...

...almost..

...done. and so proud!

that smile melts my heart

talking quite intently to his fingers

bye mommy. bye now. no more pictures! :)

surprise houston trip

2012-01-25T08:06:00.000-06:00

over MLK weekend, emily surprised jonah and emma with a trip to houston. emily had some shopping to do and planned to bring their oldest two kids along, unbeknownst to them.

jonah and lee filled the weekend with xbox playing, emma filled her time helping with brendan, and (i think) emily enjoyed a relaxing weekend :). we cooked some meals here at home, including a yummy dinner from emily, and of course hit up some favorite places as well. crave cupcakes is just a given at this point, but we decided to introduce them to a favorite local kingwood restaurant...sharky's. the seafood restaurant right on the lake was a big hit.

our last full day together, we had lunch at pappa's burgers, shopped at the container store, and then headed to the paddle boats between the zoo and japanese gardens (i am sure there is a name for this area, but sadly i do not know it). lee and the kids had a great time on the water while brendan, emily, and i looked on from shore. crave was the perfect post-park pick-me-up, but our day was not over just yet. we headed back to kingwood and introduced the allens to the wonderful toy store we finally discovered at Christmastime (this is where we saw santa). seriously, this place is amazing...practically every toy you can think of and many more. plus, it has a sweet candy section (pun intended). you would think that would be enough for one day, but we had one more thing to show them. this time, we headed to the morrow's house...more specifically, their backyard. they have built an unbelievably awesome castle in their backyard. after completing their new deck and backyard landscape they added this major kid-friendly element. the castle has a slide, swings, and huge playspace inside. emma had a ball!

emily may have gone back to louisiana empty-handed from her shopping endeavors, but we all walked away from the weekend with many laughs and full bellies.

ringing in the new year

2012-01-23T07:55:00.001-06:00

(and the blog is now making its way into 2012...please pardon our delay...)

our Christmas celebrations rolled right into our new year's festivities...literally. there was only about an 8 hour break in between :)

a welcomed addition to the new year's weekend was a visit from my sweet college friend, caitlin. we missed her hubby, rob, but enjoyed a couple of days with a first-time visitor. we realized during her visit that she is actually the first of my college friends to visit us in texas, at least for an overnight stay. since most of lee's friends still live within a short driving distance, we see them often, but my friends have been kept away due to time and distance (caitlin and rob now live in fort worth). we hit the most important stops in houston during our one full day with her: le peep for breakfast, rice village, the japanese garden, crave cupcakes, the galleria, the waterwall, and pappa's burgers. thanks again for a fun visit, caitlin!

during catilin's visit, katy and emily garrett stopped in for a place to stay before going on to the a&m bowl game with the rest of the garrett family. emily was so great with brendan that she even chose to sleep in the twin bed in his room and never even heard him wake up during the night!

oh, i can't forget that as caitlin was leaving for fort worth, and we were leaving for the ottinger house, caitlin's car would not start so she had to buy a new one. thankfully, lee got it installed and we were all on our merry way after an unfortunate delay.

at the ottinger house, we watched the kids play together, ate yummy food, and watched football until it was time to welcome in the new year. sadly, we had to put away the Christmas decorations when we got home and get ready for work to start back after a long, lovely break.

we did not really set resolutions but do hope this year can be a year that we be more proactive in seeking God's will and digging into His word regularly and better well-managed in our time at home in the evenings. plus, we love being brendan's parents and cannot wait to see how he grows and learns in 2012.

we are family

2012-01-04T20:30:00.000-06:00

the day after Christmas we had began our Christmas celebration with my side of the family as they made the trip in from alabama.

with an assortment of finger foods too tasty for pictures ready for their arrival, we welcomed them in after the long ten-hour drive. brendan was happy and a little overwhelmed at first over all the excitement, but he quickly remembered how wonderful it is to have everyone around.

we decided to open presents after we ate...ok, i decided we should go ahead and open presents. we opened brendan's presents first. wow. the kid was loaded with new clothes, books, light-up toys, and more! we are so grateful to everyone who came (and had to stay back in alabama) for thinking of him in such a sweet way. afterward, lee and i opened our gifts...which we were very much appreciated as well...and the rest of the family opened their gifts from us, which i was really pumped about. i think everyone was very pleased.

after a good night's rest, we shared a Christmas meal of ham and some of my mom's casseroles that she made extra of in alabama just for our meal. i must say that my first time to bake a ham was successful, but that was largely due to the help of my mom.

after our yummy lunch, we all loaded up in my mom's suburban and took off for college station. tyler was the only one of my family to have ever been to college station so we drove to campus and walked around for a while. katy met up with us, and lee pointed out some of his favorite places on campus and we ate dinner at wings-n-more (a typical college station pit-stop for us). the main reason for the drive was to visit santa's wonderland, an awesome drive-thru Christmas light display. seriously, if you live in texas, you need to experience this. santa's wonderland is, by far, the coolest light display i have ever driven through. the great part is that they also have santa town that you can enjoy if you have more time and the weather is nice. we opted for the drive-thru version in the car so brendan would not get too cold.

during our last full day, we made an IKEA shopping trip for my mom to use her Christmas gift card and capped that off with freebirds and crave cupcakes. a big thanks goes to grandma and papa for hanging out with brendan that night so the rest of us could go hang out with erin and zach for a little while.

we had a wonderful visit! it was such a treat for me to host Christmas for the first time and show off our decorations here to my family for the first time. thanks for making brendan's first Christmas so special!

brendan's 1st Christmas

2012-01-03T22:05:00.000-06:00

we had an even more special time this year celebrating Christmas as everything we did was brendan's first time.

we decorated the tree as usual and then added a couple of new ornaments as he received them.

we made a visit to see Santa at a local toy store.

we bought new stockings to hang on the mantel.

we enjoyed the very nice Christmas eve candlelight service at our church and sent Christmas wishes to family afterward.

santa came for the first time and worked hard on Christmas eve building brendan's new jumperoo.

brendan also received the Jesus storybook bible so we enjoyed reading that version of the Christmas story to him for the first time.

we really had a wonderful Christmas, especially sharing it with our little guy this year. can't wait to see what next year's will hold!

better together

2011-12-30T22:15:00.000-06:00

this is the first of several Christmas posts to keep from having one insanely long one...

anytime the pilgreen clan can get together there is always laughter and good food on repeat for the duration of the visit. these times are few and far between with everyone living in three different states and across the country from each other, but they are just as special each time.

this Christmas, we were all able to spend 4 nights together in louisiana. each couple took a night to cook dinner as a gift to everyone else (and give emily a break from the kitchen). the kids went bowling, saw a movie, and played at the park together. we gave each cousin our traditional gift of a new book. we celebrated asher's birthday the first night with cupcakes and a couple of presents. the football was thrown, the babies were passed around, delicious food was eaten, and more memories were made. i'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

before the Christmas celebrations began, brendan got to meet his mimi for the first time, which was very special for all of us. also, be sure to make it to the last one...it's the first of all ten grandchildren together :).

surprise!

2011-12-13T15:00:00.000-06:00

our dear friend, katy, celebrated her 30th birthday in january. katy is one of the most selfless people i know. she is generous, always willing to help out, and super fun to be around. with all of that going for her, i figured the least we could do was throw her a fun surprise party for her birthday.

our friend, tiffany, also celebrated her 30th birthday in november as well. lee knew tiffany and her husband, aaron throughout their dating days in college and into marriage, and i have gotten to know them both since lee and i have been together. tiffany is a great person, passionate about the things she loves.

so, what's better than a surprise 30th birthday party for one awesome friend? a surprise party for 2!

after a few hitches along the way and changes in plan, the weekend came and the party was a huge success! we had friends from houston and dallas make it by. the garretts were wonderful hosts (and secret-keepers). we loved seeing wyatt and brendan meet...they are exactly 8 months apart! we made birthday posters out of little notes from all us to the birthday girls recounting favorite memories and leaving birthday wishes.

we capped off the birthday weekend with breakfast at rudy's because it had been far too long since we had enjoyed some wonderful breakfast tacos at our favorite breakfast place in college station.

thankful for...

2011-12-01T21:23:00.001-06:00

-brendan's first flight being smooth and easy and family who drove to jackson, ms to pick us up

-friendships that state lines can't falter and babies who are also destined to be great friends

-brendan meeting his great-great grandmother, re-re. we had all prayed for this moment since we found out i was pregnant with brendan.

-catching up with family and friends...and introducing brendan to some of those people for the first time

-seeing family again in a month

-this sweet boy and his dad :)

peace

2011-11-21T23:55:00.000-06:00

i do not typically write serious posts, i.e. posts that do not include pictures or updates on life events. however, i shared this with lee today and we both thought it was worth sharing here.

every morning when brendan wakes up to eat, anywhere between 4 and 5:30, i get up and go to him when i hear him on the monitor. during the night, there are always the occasional sighs or grunts in his sleep, but i know he needs me when they turn into a sort of cry. i get up and go in his room, using my phone as a light. lately, i have started holding it near my face so he can see me. when he does, he is calm and eager to be held. we spend the next little while together as he eats and then falls back asleep.

the moments between him falling asleep and me laying him back in his crib are some of the sweetest times of the day. i love sitting there feeling his sweet little baby breath on my cheek. i know this is one of those phases of his life that will not last forever so i cherish each morning like this.

last night, i started to think that sometimes our relationship with God can parallel this. God desires for us to cry out to Him in our moments of distress, trouble, uncertainty. however, i feel i fail at this more than i succeed. all too often, i think i can handle it on my own. my first reaction is not always to go to God before trying to figure it out myself. God is waiting to bring us a peace that passes all understanding. He is our greatest comfort and in His arms we can find those sweet, still moments of peace in life. i pray that i can live life in a way that calling out to God in the hard times (and the good) is second nature. the peace i can find in His arms is far better than anything i can attempt to create myself.

family photoshoot

2011-11-20T15:59:00.001-06:00

last weekend, we had family photos taken for the first time. my friend, amanda jones, is an amazing photographer whose skill is just phenomenal. i wanted to share these with you...some have already been seen on facebook but others are new. if you are in the houston area, you should definitely look into having her take your family shots or child's photos. if you don't live in houston, it would totally be worth bringing her to you, but that's just my opinion :). she said turn-around for the fully-edited CD of prints would take about ten days, which i was totally fine with. they arrived less than a week after we took them. awesome! i ordered a 16x20 photo canvas of one of the shots that i bought with a groupon-type deal (there is currently a new deal on savemore.com for a 18x24 canvas print for $38!), and i cannot wait for it to come in and go over our fireplace. also, some of these or others yet to be seen might be showing up on our Christmas cards!

lately

2011-11-20T14:55:00.001-06:00

life has been crazy busy the past few weeks, as i mentioned in the last post. busy is not necessarily a bad thing though. we have done a lot with friends from our small group class at church. we have also had a couple of football watching hang-outs with people i work with.

meeting his friend, titan, who is only 9 days younger (his mom, jenn, and i work together)

we are loving life with brendan as he has reached 3 months old and developed his own routines. he sleeps pretty well through the night most nights, which is a huge help to us. he loves his sitter and she is wonderful with him. he is smiling and laughing ALL the time. just last night, he rolled over from stomach to back for the first time, and then proceeded to do it two more times before tiring out.

first time in the bumbo!

check out those lips!

first time facing forward in the baby bjorn

last friday night, lee and i went out on a date to celebrate our three year anniversary...wow! we ate dinner at a wonderful restaurant in houston and enjoyed some really great quality time together. the evening out was good for us individually and even better for us as a couple. many thanks again to our good friends, austin and emily, for watching brendan so we could enjoy such a special evening.

zeppole: doughnuts with nutella for dipping; our dessert on our date. YUM!

if you are still checking in to see how we are, thanks and please continue to do so. just forgive me if the updates are not as often as they should be :)

uncle ben and aunt shauna

2011-11-19T23:42:00.001-06:00

first of all, i apologize for the lack of blogging lately. to be honest, i never really have time to even get on the computer during the week, and if the weekend are busy....well, that's how i got here.

anyway, a few weeks ago we were so excited to welcome ben and shauna to houston and introduce them to brendan. this is the first time they have visited us here in houston so we treated them to all of our favorite restaurants and took in all of our time together during their 48 hour visit. for those of you who do not know, ben was actually my boss in college, shauna was one of the women who invested in me in college and became a dear friend in the process, and i babysat elijah and sam long before lee and i were together. we find it very special that we are all now family.

we ate far too much good food and shared way too many laughs to stop and take many pictures but here are a few. brendan had a blast with his uncle ben and aunt shauna and cannot wait to meet his three cousins at christmas. in fact, brendan was quite mesmerized with shauna as you can see by some of the smiles she caught on camera.

ben & shauna had trouble saying good-bye so they tried to take brendan with them :)

happy halloween

2011-10-31T22:03:00.001-05:00

brendan's first halloween was a multi-day event. we kicked it off with our ss class party at our friends' house saturday night. the flame, as our class is called, is a really awesome group of people that have become some of our really good friends and always love on brendan. they were the first to witness his awesome costume specially made by grandma and mailed just in time.

i also want to include a couple of shots of the adults who dressed up for the party...some of the costumes were really impressive! check out the shrek family and our friends who are expecting (and incorporated that into their costumes).

i decided the best time to buy a holiday-themed shirt is about a week or two before the actual holiday because babies r us will have it marked way down. brendan sported his first halloween shirt today at his sitter's house, and his costume made an encore appearance this evening as we greeted trick-or-treaters at the door.

touchdown!

louisiana road trip

2011-10-28T13:56:00.004-05:00

last weekend, we made our first out-of-town road trip with brendan to visit GJ, the allens, and the morrows in louisiana. we made great time and brendan was just about perfect on the drive there except for when we encountered standstill traffic in shreveport and he thought we had arrived. brendan and GJ got in some quality hangout time before bedtime, but saturday was full of hanging out with family.

we started the day with joe's soccer game and followed that up with lunch and trampoline time at the morrow home. we tasted some of emily's wonderful goodies at a local coffee shop that afternoon. seriously, if you are reading this you should be said that you do not live in ruston, la and cannot enjoy emily's amazing cookies and muffins (not to mention everything else she bakes or cooks). saturday night, emily cooked dinner and nutella pie for erin's birthday. we topped off the night with a visit from fred and allison at GJ's house. i know lee loved to introduce his son to one of his oldest and closest friends. fred and allison also loaded brendan up with some very cute outfits that we cannot wait for him to wear. sunday, we said our goodbyes and completed every louisiana trip the way they all should be capped off: with a little johnny's pizza! (thanks to emily for sharing some of her great pictures since i forgot my camera!)

friends, pumpkins, and cousins

2011-10-20T20:39:00.001-05:00

october is full of fun-filled weekends for us, and this past weekend was entertaining, low-key, and full of babies.

saturday, we spent the day with the ottingers. first, we watched the aggie/baylor football game together and played with all the kids (in between nap times). kason and emily loved on the little babies and kyle, jamie, lee and i got in some good time to catch up and hang out.

later in the afternoon, we had to great idea to take all 4 kids to the pumpkin patch at their church. did i mention this would be 4 kids, 3 and under? yep, it is. of course, the babies slept through the group picture time until we were done. luckily, i still got a picture of brendan by a pumpkin that is pretty cute if i do say so myself. kason and emily enjoyed walking through the rows and rows of pumpkins, picking their favorite mini pumpkins as they went. not sure if jamie ever got a picture of them together with their pumpkins, but they seemed to have a good time in the process. great idea, jamie!

sunday evening, zach and will came over to hang out while they were in town. the first time brendan and will met, brendan slept pretty much the whole time so it was nice to get them better acquainted this time. most of you already saw these pictures, but these little guys were too funny when we tried to take their pictures together.

celebrating twenty-six

2011-10-15T21:24:00.001-05:00

with age twenty-five, God blessed me with another year of marriage with lee, the pregnancy and birth of our sweet son, my second year of teaching & my first year of cheerleading sponsoring, and our first house.

only time will tell what twenty-six will bring. i am looking forward to every minute of it.

last weekend, my parents came to visit. their visit was huge on two levels: the first being that my dad had only seen brendan for about 30 minutes of his life the day he was born, and the second being the fact that this birthday would be the first in quite a few years that i would actually spend with my parents. they flew in friday night and we drove down to hobby to pick them up, sign and all (made courtesy of the 5-year-old daughter of one of lee's co-workers). our plan was to eat at pappasito's afterward but since they had an hour-long wait when we arrived, we decided to take them to zachary's, a local cajun restaurant.

saturday was spent watch lots of football while my parents took turns holding brendan. brendan is so smiley now. in fact, he smiles so much that i am usually bound to catch at least one when i pull out the camera.

whether my parents realize it or not, they gave me one of the sweetest gifts they could by letting lee and i go to dinner just the two of us. it was nice to get a little dressed up and enjoy some time together that was not as we were falling asleep at night. we went to cafe express (one of my faves) and house of pies for dessert.

sunday, my parents wanted the breakfast buffet at humble city cafe that they remembered being so tasty, but apparently they quit the buffet several months ago. oh well, we all still found tasty menu items instead. we enjoyed a much-needed rainy day until dinner time when we succeeded in finally having our pappasito's dinner.

sadly, lee had to work on monday. while he was at work, my mom, dad, brendan, and i went to chick fil a and IKEA. this was my parents' first trip to IKEA and my mom fell in love. they also bought me these little beauties for my birthday:

i have wanted them for a really long time but always talked myself out of buying them whenever we would go. thanks, mama & daddy!

also, a big thanks to all of my wonderful family and friends for the kind texts, calls, and facebook posts. my birthday was definitely enhanced because of all of you.

for birthday dinner, i chose j christopher's. this is a long-standing local italian restaurant here in kingwood that has the best pizza, and i found out, the best pumpkin cheesecake (my birthday dessert).

i could not have asked for a better birthday weekend. i am so thankful my parents were able to come visit. i am very grateful to have celebrated my birthday with them and my amazing husband and son.

pinterest party

2011-10-09T13:02:00.001-05:00

who does not love pinterest these days?! last week, the girls from our sunday school class got together for a pinterest party. most of us made wreaths, some fall and some Christmas, and others worked on other projects for their homes. most of our snacks for the evening also wound up being pinterest-found recipes. i made peanut butter chocolate chip crescent rolls...yum yum!

i loved getting out for an evening with the girls, and we all had lots of laughs as each of our "creative sides" came out as the night unfolded. i was nervous about making a wreath for the first time so i went with a mini one in hopes that i would not waste too much money if it turned out terribly. however, i think i am pretty proud of my first attempt. the rolled fabric flowers were definitely a first as well and fun to make. maybe i will try a bigger one for Christmas...maybe...

photoshoot

2011-09-27T12:30:00.001-05:00

with our last few days at home together, i am taking advantage of this time with our little guy. this means the times i hold him are a little longer than normal, but it also means the camera is coming out more too. on monday, we had a little photoshoot to try to capture some of the adorable smiles we have been seeing lately. enjoy!

funny face :)

another silly face!

one last catch up post

2011-09-19T11:27:00.000-05:00

i realized that i neglected to cover one of the weekends of first time visitors that brendan had a few weeks ago. while my mom was still here, our friend katy came to visit. brendan and katy technically met at the hospital, but they were able to get a lot more bonding time during this visit. we sadly never got a picture of brendan in his "i love my honorary aunt" shirt that katy so cleverly designed for him.

during katy's visit, we also enjoyed a visit with the ottinger family. kyle, jamie, and all three kiddos brought us lunch and spent the afternoon with us. we had a great time with four kids 3 and under...ha! katy and kason had fun reading & flipping, katy and emily enjoyed the baby lotion (ok, that was more emily), and noah & brendan just enjoyed being the cuties that they are. only six weeks apart, we all decided they will be the best of friends in no time!

grandma

2011-09-16T08:57:00.000-05:00

for the first two and a half weeks of brendan's life, we were fortunate enough to have my mom stay with us and help us get adjusted to life with a baby. not only did she keep me company during the day when lee went back to work, but she washed dishes, did laundry, cooked some meals, cleaned the floors, helped take care of brendan (even in the middle of the night), and more.

even though she had to leave a little sooner than planned for unfortunate circumstances, we appreciated the time we had with her and are so grateful for all she did to help make our transition to a family of three as smooth as possible. we love you, grandma! can't wait for you and papa to visit again :)

one month old!

2011-09-14T20:49:00.001-05:00

seriously, we have a month old baby?! the past month has flown by. it seems much longer than 3 weeks ago that we were only getting about an hour of sleep at a time because you did not like pack n play. silly us. now, he does great sleeping in his bed...not all night yet but hopefully that will come soon.

brendan has the cutest smile now...that of course he only gives when he wants to and not on command :). he is a great car rider, an awesome eater, and a sweet cuddler.

(yes, these were posted on facebook but this blog documents life for us so i wanted them here too)

family introductions

2011-09-09T18:28:00.000-05:00

labor day weekend was a big weekend of introductions for brendan. friday, he met aunt erin, uncle zach, cousins joe, miles, and will, and the morrow family...but slept through almost that entire visit.

saturday, we kicked off the day with the start of football. shortly after lunch time, maw, aunt beth, wesley, and hannah arrived from alabama. lots of kisses and holding and pictures quickly ensued and continued for the next two days. we were very excited to have more family meet brendan, and of course have the extra helping hands as well. we stayed in saturday to watch football but sunday we took brendan and the fam to le peep for the first time. we think brendan was definitely a fan and already wants to go back :). we also made a stop by crave...because that's what we do :). from there, wesley and lee drove to see the texans stadium, took in part of the astros game, and drove on to college station for the first half of the a&m game. meanwhile, the ladies and brendan drove around a little bit of houston, shopped at target and enjoyed a movie at the house.

sadly, the end of their visit came monday. goodbyes kisses and hugs to brendan were given out, the van was loaded, and the last few pictures were taken before we had to see them off on their journey back to alabama. we can't wait to make our first trip to alabama in a few months to see you all again!

first weekend visitors

2011-08-25T13:00:00.000-05:00

last weekend, brendan was able to meet walter, emily, jonah, emma, and eva. we were pumped to have more family meet him. we had a really low-key weekend of good food, hanging out, and sweet baby-holding.

emily went over and beyond in cooking for us on saturday including homemade blueberry whole wheat pancakes, HOMEMADE BREAD, and this amazing pork tenderloin for dinner!

the kids enjoyed their turns at holding brendan...especially eva, who has a slight (but very cute) baby obsession.i am very glad we got a picture of everyone together before they left since group pictures are few and far between when we are all together and we often just take pictures of the kids (however, i believe i picked the most unflattering pose to possibly stand in). and for laughs, we also got a picture of lee and walter holding their "baby boys".

brendan's story

2011-08-21T19:48:00.005-05:00

our sweet baby boy is already a week old so what better time than now to recap how he became a part of lives.

on tuesday, august 9 i had a doctor's appointment. we knew going into this appointment that we would "talk about" induction with my doctor, but we were not really trying to have high expectations in case i had not progressed any in terms of my body preparing to have him. however, she immediately presented us with the option of induction on thursday, august 11 even though i had not progressed any. we made sure she thought this was really a good idea since it was not for a medical reason or emergency. the most ironic part of it all was that lee had asked his dad what he wanted for his birthday and all he said he wanted was for brendan to be born on his birthday....august 11.

the plans were made, the calls were placed to our families, family began to make their way to houston, and last minute details were taken care of as we got closer and closer to our check in time of 8pm on august 11. at 5:30, while eating our "last meal before baby" at pappasitos, i received a call and voicemail that our induction had been canceled due to an unexpected influx of women in labor. needless to say, i was devastated. preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for something like the birth of your child is quite a difficult thing to overcome when those plans are suddenly changed.

with no answers about when it would happen, we went back home, my family continued their travels into houston, and we waited until the next day to talk with my doctor and make new plans. thankfully, my doctor was able to work out some details and get us a new check in time on friday, august 12 even though it meant she would not be there to deliver brendan. after being canceled on, we were very much ok with another doctor taking care of everything if it meant seeing our son sooner rather than later and our family still being in town for his birth as well.

with our breath held all day, we were in fact able to check in and get the process started at 8pm on friday, august 12. saturday morning we woke up and the induction officially began with the start of pitocin. saturday was a very loooong day with very sloooow progress. luckily, we were making just enough progress for the doctor to continue on with everything. he broke my water sometime in the evening and within a couple of hours everything was ready to go to welcome brendan into the world.

unfortunately, my body and brendan had different ideas for just how he would enter the world than the rest of us. after pushing for an hour with little results, the doctor decided the best and safest method of delivery for brendan and myself would be a c-section. my contractions were very painful at this point, especially since brendan's shoulder continued to wedge itself into my pelvis with each contraction and i could no longer push. this period of time felt like an hour to me but lee says it only lasted about 10-15 minutes. i was moved into the operating room, drugged up, and prepped for surgery when they finally let lee rejoin me.

at 12:27am brendan jack pilgreen made his appearance. however, he was not crying at first so they had to help him clear his lungs a bit since his umbilical cord had gotten wrapped around his neck. we were both so thankful to finally hear his cry. poor lee should have an entire post to tell his side of the story because apparently brendan and i scared him half to death between his struggle clear his lungs and me having to be cut open unexpectedly.

our little boy is a fighter. he cleared his lungs out on his own enough to avoid going to the nicu, and we finally got him all to ourselves at 5:30am.

a long, long day but so incredibly worth it.

less than one hour old

one week old

the nursery

2011-08-02T21:09:00.006-05:00

since the nursery is about 99% finished and his due date is slightly more than two weeks away, i thought now would be as good a time as any to show off the nursery. (and yes, that is his bag & boppy you will see below all packed & ready for the hospital )

i must say that it all came together very nicely. even before we discussed it together, i told people the nursery would most likely be sports-themed once we found out we were having a boy. if you are reading this, you must should know lee well enough to know he was already telling people it would definitely be sports-themed (and predicting him to be a boy before we knew for sure, as well).

as a compromise for things to not get too out of control and for it to not become solely baseball-themed, we agreed on a vintage-sports look. we decided the colors for the bedding and then based everything else off of that. i love that almost everything was either a gift, either directly from someone or through gift cards, or i bought it on sale. the only splurges we really had were the bumper and forward-facing bookshelf, both from pottery barn kids. we also decided to keep a twin bed in his room because 1) we had it and did not want to put it in the attic and 2) it will be useful for when we have visitors. i will say that i want to fill the basket beside the twin bed with baseballs and possibly get a bedside table for it to sit on. also, my amazingly-talented mom is currently sewing a crib skirt to add to the bed.

the view from the doorway:the view from the opposite corner :a close-up of his bed:a close-up of the changing table:a close-up of the locker bins:

in case you are wondering...
crib: target (awesome gift from GJ)
pennants: land of nod
mobile: pottery barn kids (thanks mike & suzi)
football blanket: (thanks gran & granddad)
baseball blanket: handmade (thanks co-worker of lee's)
little duck lovey peeking out of crib: store in san francisco (thanks pilgreens...esp sam for choosing it)
locker bins: crate and barrel outlet
shelf holding locker bins: IKEA but we already owned it (i think it's less than $10 right now though!)
changing table: wal-mart (thanks to those who gave gift cards)
wire baskets: the container store (thanks to those who gave visa gift cards)
sports hooks: target (thanks katy)
changing pad and cover: target (thanks aunt rachel and those who gave gift cards)

a little housekeeping

2011-07-27T21:40:00.001-05:00

call it nesting if you must, but i call it having lots of extra free time. we have definitely put this second half of summer to good use.

after a major hardwood floor cleaning overhaul, we decided to try our hand one more time at an IKEA purchase we attempted a few weeks ago. this time the piece we wanted was in stock so we brought it home and set it up. now, our coffee table can serve as a coffee table again and not as a tv stand!

i took some before and after shots. several pieces were moved around in the living room giving it a new feel.

fireplace before:

shot of fireplace after:

TV and bookshelf before:

TV with new stand after:

last set of unpacked boxes plus table before:

bookshelf relocated & books shelved (some also went to 1/2 price books) after:

relocated table and mirror hung beside front entryway after:

the transformation is not quite complete just yet. in a couple of months, i hope to order a big canvas print to go over the fireplace. i also want a little clock or some sort of trinket to go to the left of the tv (and i secretly just want a clock in here because i got so addicted to having the clock on our DVR box, but we got rid of cable so no more clock...ha). i also want to get a tray to put on the coffee table...any suggestions on where to get one? lee has mentioned putting a rug down as well...at least in time for when our little guy becomes mobile...but i have NO idea what kind or color would look best so suggestions are welcomed here as well.

lastly, i also FINALLY did some decorating in our bedroom. i put together a project i first saw on pinterest and also painted a $7.99 white IKEA table to use as my bedside table so i no longer have to put everything on the floor.

before/what our room looks like on a typical day (plus an unmade pack n' play):

after:

nature

2011-07-25T18:47:00.004-05:00

all summer long, lee has worked so hard to make sure our grass and plants do not die off in this miserable houston heat. almost every single night for weeks, lee would turn on the sprinklers in the front and back yard, move them to different spots to make sure every part of the yard was being watered, and check everyday for any remote hint of growth. we even purchased some "weed and feed" (if that's even the correct name for it) for the more difficult areas, as well as rosebush food for the plants in the backyard.

lo and behold, we have finally received some summer showers over the past week or so to quench the thirst of our yard. last thursday, we looked into our backyard and saw this wonderful site. multiple blooms at the same time on our rosebush and deeper pink blooms on the plant beside it! (that's right, i don't have a clue what kind of flower it is)we were perfectly content with God showing off in such an amazing way, but He decided to one-up Himself and really give us a show on friday. with the beginning of what seemed to be a simple summer thunderstorm upon us, lee ran out to grab us an afternoon snack. no big deal...just some rain and a little rolling thunder. or so we thought... while he was away, i was trying to make sure a project i had been working on was staying dry from the rain under its cover when lightning popped right in our backyard and sent pieces of bark flying across our deck. from my view point, i could only see the tip of the tree that received the powerful blow but was still amazed at what had happened. the sound, the wind, and the lack of cable/internet in our house were plenty shocking for me.

however, once lee got home and the rain died down, we decided to venture outside to get a better look at the yard. remember, i assumed only the top of the tree had been affected. but i was wrong...thankfully, we have some wonderful neighbors who not only came to check on us but also assisted lee in cutting down most of the mangled limbs. we are so grateful for their help as well as God's provision that none of it touched the house or messed up the fence.

pinterest: a new found love

2011-07-19T14:49:00.001-05:00

*update* - i totally did not copycat my sister-in-law and post on the same subject on the same day she did. however, as you will see, i do credit her with my addiction :).

once i finally tried the wonderful site known as pinterest that my sister-in-law had been raving about for weeks, i was hooked. i love all of the ideas that people share through this site...the crafty side of me that i did not even know existed has been brought out and is dying to try new projects.

a couple of posts ago i showed these off but did not credit the source of inspiration. thanks go to the person who first introduced them to the internet and pinterest. they were a huge hit...i just need to better master the art of applying the sprinkles after dipping the strawberries into the white chocolate.the more recent project i have attempted is a little DIY project that can show someone how much you care. when i first saw this project, i honestly thought about doing it for lee at some point in the future. however, i thought about it a little longer and realized with a little bit of a twist, it could be a really cute gift for my dad's 52nd birthday. i mentioned the idea to my mom, sister, and brother of us all compiling a list of things we love about my dad. they liked the idea as well so i bought the supplies and it all came together. the best part about this gift was that the four of us made our lists separately yet shared several of the same characteristics as things we love most about my dad. i think this could be a fun gift for anyone, for any occasion and it's super easy to do!

isn't my mom the sweetest?! :)

anyone else have any projects or new recipes they have completed or tried out lately? if you're interested, go to pinterest and request an invite or let me know and i will send you one myself!

a beach getaway

2011-07-10T17:33:00.010-05:00

for our last "hoorah" before brendan's arrival, we decided to get out of town for a few days and just relax together. lee knew my most favorite place to relax is the beach and chose corpus christi as our destination locale (since destin, fl is just a little too far away for just a few days).

he chose the perfect place and time of the week to go because our quiet condo was just outside of the main part of the city and the beach was never packed. i loved it! the jellyfish were slightly overwhelming the first day and covering much of the beach, but we found some space away from them to soak in the sun.we found several local restaurants to try for dinner and a local cupcake shop...that we frequented more than once :).by the second full day, the jellyfish had mostly subsided to the point where we could put our chairs close enough to the water for the waves to hit our feet. lee even braved the waters for a while...until he found out that some jellyfish were still around after all and very quickly swam back to shore.i do not often post pictures of just me but i knew lee would not be ok with me just posting one of him. so, for all of you who enjoy baby bump pictures, i guess this one is for you.we also discovered a couple of interesting elements to corpus christi while in town. whataburger was founded in corpus which makes it home to the only two-story whataburger...supposedly if you dine on the second floor, waiters bring you your food and serve you at your table instead of at the counter. also, a methodist church that looks out onto the bay is known for their statue of jesus calming the seas. lastly, corpus christi bay is home to the uss lexington which apparently had quite the lengthy career before retiring here. what you cannot see in this shot is all of the pretty amazing jets on the top deck, but the only way i could have gotten a shot of those was while driving on the bridge that overlooks the ship...and that just was not going to happen.our last night, we took in a corpus christi hooks baseball game. the hooks are one of the astros' minor league teams, and they were playing the tulsa drillers who had a former aggie as their left-fielder. following the game, we were surprised by one of the best fireworks shows we have ever seen off of the uss lexington from the luxury of our balcony.beach, baseball, food, and even a little golf for lee made our beach trip a wonderful and relaxing finish to our summer travels. feel free to come see us anytime...before or after august 18...because this is where we will be for a while :)

fun with friends and family (even without fireworks)

2011-07-04T19:20:00.012-05:00

even though most of texas is currently under a burn ban and fireworks are pretty much banned in most cities, we still found many reasons to have a great Independence Day weekend.

last friday, we headed to college station and enjoyed a dinner at wings n' more with the garretts, benolkens, and katy. after dinner, we played some intense rounds of four square and scooter races. although lee saw him a few weeks ago, i had not seen little wyatt benolken since he was only two weeks old. he is quite the chunky cutie now!saturday was our big party day. we had a delicious lunch at the garretts and i contributed my fruit cookie pie which seems like its becoming a yearly tradition. we swam lunch off for several hours that included jump contests, several rounds of "categories", sharks & minnows, boogie board balancing, and more until we all wore ourselves out. we topped off the day with burgers by phillip and ben & jerry's.sunday, we finished up our college station visit and headed home. with a pretty packed weekend, our actual 4th of july was pretty low key. i tried another patriotic dessert that turned out to be quite a hit. we also took erin & joe to crave cupcakes for one last visit before they head home to louisiana. joe loves crave as much as his mom and aunt...especially the icing. after the cupcakes, we got in some good snuggle time with will. the morrows were kind enough to include us in their dinner plans so we hung around for a some pappasito's to-go and sprinkler-bounce house-bubble fun from the kids.who needs fireworks when you can have great times with friends and family without them?!

showers

2011-07-03T22:46:00.001-05:00

over the past couple of months brendan has been showered with love and gifts from many people. lee and i are so grateful for the kindness we have received as we prepare for his arrival.

i waited to post all of the showers in one post so without further delay...

shower #1 at AHS (lindsey's school): i am really blessed to work with some really awesome people. they definitely outdid themselves with the shower for brendan...especially since they threw it right at the beginning of finals week. we received blankets, outifts, diapers, gift cards, toys, and more. not to mention, my friend liz knew of my love for crave cupcakes and tucked a box of those away in the gift stack as well :).shower #2 at crippen (lee's school): lee is also very fortunate to have worked with a great team this year, and i think they like having him around too :). they got to know him so well that they knew the perfect theme for our shower...the chicago cubs, of course! neither of us had any idea they had gone to such great detail to plan the shower, but we were so impressed and surprised with everything they did. we received clothes, diapers, gift cards, the SWING, and the first gifts with his name on them (just to name a few).shower #3 at ABC (lindsey's parents' church): i was fortunate enough to grow up (7th grade through college) at a church full of caring and giving people. in june, we were fortunate enough to receive a shower from some of these sweet ladies. we received even more clothes, books, and blankets, the changing pad, sound machine, humidifier, and many more awesome gifts. my aunt also made this adorable cake that i was sad to have to leave in alabama.shower #4 with friends from CFBC (our former church in houston): when we moved to kingwood last summer, we knew we wanted to get connected to a church in the area where we lived. unfortunately, that meant not staying at cfbc where we had made some great friendships. no worries, though. God did not make us friends just because we went to the same church together :). these sweet girls hosted a little luncheon in spring and graciously gifted us with books, clothes, an awesome sports mobile, bottles, blankets, and more.these words are not enough to express how thankful we are to have such loving friends and family who are already crazy about our little guy like we are. we cannot wait for him to meet all of you!

louisiana love

2011-06-30T20:09:00.000-05:00

this weekend, we drove to louisiana for a long-overdue visit with family and friends. we stopped to see the new and improved allen home in ruston (well, actually its residents...the house was just a plus :) ). we had not seen walter since february and the kids since april so we picked up right where we left off...eva loving uncle lee, emma & jonah sharing all of their latest stories with us, and mario kart on the wii for the guys.

we later made our way to mr. joe's house, grabbed some dinner, played with the kids, and settled in for our first night. monday morning, we woke up to a delicious breakfast from mr joe...but of course i was too excited about food to stop and take a picture.from there, the guys went on to play a little golf while the girls went shopping. let me just tell you, if you ever need a shopping buddy or two, our nieces are the best! seriously, even at 18 months old, eva is an excellent shopper and picks out all the "cute" clothes and shoes. lee also spent a little time in the afternoon working with jonah on his pitching technique.monday night, mr joe and emily whipped us up a delicious catfish & shrimp dinner. we were all sad to say goodbye after such a fun day but it was only for a few hours.tuesday, we met fred and allison for lunch. fred is one of lee's oldest friends and allison is his wife. fred and lee are hysterical when together and today was no different. i had every intention to snap a picture of at least fred and lee, but alas, no picture captured.

we stopped by in ruston again for one last, quick visit with walter, emily, & the kiddos before getting on the road to head back home. our last detour was in shreveport to see lee's mimi. with such a large family, i am continually impressed with how well she keeps up with everyone...all the way down to her many great-grandchildren.

we were both very thankful we were able to squeeze in such a great visit before traveling becomes obsolete for us for a couple of months.

in the kitchen

2011-06-20T21:46:00.004-05:00

as may came to a close, our school years ended, and summer began, i promised lee that i would get back to cooking more. our lives were crazy throughout the spring for various reasons...mostly good, just too many to name here...and cooking was generally the last thing i wanted to do at the end of a day.

with summer in full swing, i did not think the excuse of spending too much time at the pool or perusing target was going to justify as a reason to not cook dinner. plus, we are also trying to eat healthier and eat out less (which i realize are pretty much the same thing). i have stocked up on lots of fruit, chicken to grill, and salad greens to mix for tasty eats throughout the day, and i am trying to think of filling, healthy meals for dinner.

over the past few days, i have really amped up my time in the kitchen and begun to follow through with my promise. not all of my recent adventures in the kitchen have been healthy, but they have been tasty :).

saturday night, i made delicious peanut butter chocolate chip cookie bars from the website healthy food for living.
sunday morning, i woke up and made lee a scrumptious father's day breakfast of almost-made-from-scratch biscuits (bisquick mix), scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and fresh fruit cups. monday night, i made the baked ziti from cook this, not that that we love so much.
AND, for my grand finale (at least up to the point of writing this blog), i made homemade whipped cream for the first time!!! i was nervous it was not going to turn out since i only had enough of the ingredients to make a little bit, but it was delicious & the perfect topping for a dessert fruit parfait!

sadly, i did not take a single picture of any of this food...it was just too good to stop to capture it before digging in!

summer in alabama

2011-06-17T22:18:00.002-05:00

after a weekend together in college station, we quickly came home, repacked, and headed out on our summer trips. i went to alabama, and lee headed out to san francisco for a week with his dad and brother...hopefully, he will guest blog again about his week soon :).

my week was full of family time...swimming, shopping, eating...everything we do best :). i also got to catch up with dear friends as well...more to come on that. the (almost) week flew by, but we managed to squeeze in everything we could along the way. even though the camera was on standby the whole time, i forgot to take pictures at a few stops...
-my first day in town, my brother gave a speech to the rotary club my dad is a member of that awarded him with a college scholarship. can't believe he is going to college in a couple of months...
-my aunt and cousins came to swim one afternoon. she will kill me for saying this on the blog, but my aunt swam for what i can remember as only the first time since i was about 4. silly as it may seem, it was a big deal to us! yet, i did not take a picture!
-one morning, i met my dear friend andrea for breakfast at chick-fil-a. we have so many stories and memories together from waaaay back, but it is always so good to catch up and share stories of our lives now.
-that same day, my mom, brother, and i met my grandmother for a quick shopping trip and lunch at red robin. our waiter seemed to have drifted away from our table for a while so we had more than enough time to take a picture but just never did.

now the photographed parts of the trip...
i have mentioned them before, but two of my oldest friends are erin and kimberly...erin, i have known since kindergarten and kimberly, i have known since 7th grade. whenever we can, we try to get together when our schedules allow. they both still live in the prattville area so (unfortunately for them) these times occur whenever i am in town. they have a standing invite to houston anytime which could make for a very fun get together! we went back to the tea room we visited last october, and i think we had an even better time than we did then. the place is adorable, the food is delicious, the hot tea is tasty (and i am generally not a fan of hot tea), and the old ladies who also meet there are hysterical to listen to.of all places, i was able to meet up with shauna & the boys at the cracker barrel in prattville! remember, lee was the one in san francisco, but i got to see most of that pilgreen family. the boys are as cute as ever and were freshly tanned from their week at the beach in georgia. shauna and i got to catch up and share a precious hour-long, breakfast-for-dinner time before i had to leave and they had to finish their journey up to birmingham. can't wait for ben & shauna to make their way to houston in october!my sweet cousin hannah had a piano recital, and i was so excited to actually be able to attend! i do not think i have been able to attend anything like this for her since her kindergarten graduation and dance recitals when she was little. she is very talented and just this year has begun to learn to play by ear. i am very proud of her and so glad i could be there to support her in person.my dad decided he wanted to do father's day about a week early since all three of his children would be home at the same time (for a very small window of time), and this does not happen all that often. we went to his favorite mexican restaurant in town and gave him his presents then. he is a pretty awesome dad, if i do say so myself. he tends to work too hard but always wants to do the right thing and take care of his family so it is hard to fault him for that.lastly, brendan was blessed and showered with gifts once again by the ladies at my parents' church, the church i grew up going to. more from this shower (including photos) will be in a later post...

like i said, a busy week but a sweet, sweet time with many of the people i love dearly.

summer is here!

2011-06-08T13:51:00.000-05:00

we officially kicked off our summer with a long-overdue weekend in college station. we had not seen an aggie baseball game in person since probably march or early april. however, with summer upon us and the aggies hosting a college world series regional (i do not even know if that is the right name for it), we were itching to get out of town.

we made it in right after the first game had started and sat down just in time to see a sweet in-the-park homerun which was soon followed by quite a few more runs that evening. the aggies played my favorite kind of baseball game: quick and lots of runs!saturday, we began our day with breakfast at rudy's because you just cannot start a day in college station off any other way. boy, had i missed those yummy breakfast tacos! we went shirt shopping, caught a couple of heats at a swim meet while 2 of the garrett girls competed, and finished that up with a swim of our own at the garrett house. saturday night was capped off with another aggie victory and possibly hotter temps than friday night....we were excited to see 93 degrees on the scoreboard...at the end of the game!

with both of us about to leave on separate trips (posts to follow, of course), we decided it would be best to head back home before the last game of the series so we could get everything packed up and ready to go. even though we may have jinxed the aggies by not staying (they received their first loss of the weekend sunday night), we did get to spend some quality time with baby will which is infinitely better than a baseball game :).

will

2011-05-31T21:03:00.005-05:00

with perhaps the most eventful lead-up to birth, william zachary morrow entered the world on may 16 and became the newest member of the pilgreen family; boy #3 for his family and grandchild #9 for GJ.

most of you know of the times before will was born that caused erin to be in the hospital, and we all thank you for your prayers for she and will over those weeks.

everyone was very aware that will would need surgery when he was born, but the doctors could not be specific on when the surgery would be until after he was born and they got a better look at him. turned out, will was much more developed than the doctors anticipated and he was able to have surgery the day after he was born to fully heal his little body & get it working properly. from that point on, he has continued to improve with each and every day. just last night, erin & zach got to hold him for the first time. he is a fighter and totally beating the odds everyday. before we all know it, he will be home playing with his older brothers.

we love you baby will!

(a couple of these are courtesy of zach & erin. others are grainy due to cell phone camera with no light, sorry.)
one day old

ten days old

2 weeks, 1 day old

my baby brother is not a baby anymore!

2011-05-27T17:12:00.002-05:00

last weekend, we were able to take a long weekend trip to alabama to celebrate tyler as he graduated high school. both graduation night and his party (and party preparation) were spent with family and friends and so many memories & laughs in between.

i still sometimes find it hard to believe that he (and my sister) are no longer little kiddos. instead, they have grown into fine young people who are going to do great things in this world.

i'm sure my parents would say that it seems like yesterday that we were this young. i just couldn't resist this picture though (of my brother that is)...

and he is so handsome now! congrats tyler! we love you

after the storm

2011-05-26T19:38:00.001-05:00

while in alabama last week, we made our first stop in tuscaloosa. we realized on this trip that we both love tuscaloosa for different, but equally good, reasons. i love tuscaloosa because of all of the memories of going to school & living there for six years, as well as the friendships made all along the way. lee loves it because of the friendships we made during our first year of marriage there. so not only do we visit campus when we are in town, but we also often drive out to our first apartment. not that we can go inside, but it is still fun to think back to everything that happened that first year and has happened since.

on this particular trip however, we had our nostalgic moments but shared more moments of shock and awe as we drove through the storm-ravaged city that we hold dear. for the first time, we got to see the devastation in person from the tornado that passed through one month ago. i could not even remember some of the businesses that used to be along 15th street because there was nothing left of where they once stood. so many houses were destroyed. so many lives have been changed forever in that city and state. i pray our little package helped a few people. the city has so far to go to recover. i hope we can continue to help in some way.

one last positive note...we did conclude the day in tuscaloosa with lunch at city cafe and a long afternoon visit with our dear friends, adam and coriell, as well as their two cuties. such awesome, awesome friends.

playing at the park

2011-05-07T21:17:00.005-05:00

life has been busy lately...for various reasons. sadly, this busy time of life has not warranted its fair share of pictures. however, i decided to document a low-key night of playing with our nephews and capture a few fun moments with them.

a little back story...to respect their privacy but help the situation make sense, one of the reasons this night was so fun is because zach, erin, joe, and miles were altogether and able to enjoy a relaxing evening together (and we were fortunate enough to enjoy it with them too). life has been a little unusual for them over the past month or so since erin has needed to stay in houston so doctors here could monitor her and baby will (whose arrival is just barely a week away). unfortunately, that has meant time away from zach and the boys. the moments they do get during their long weekends are extra special, particularly when everyone is healthy and enjoying their last few days as a family of four.

after sharing a little pizza, we all headed to our neighborhood park. these are just a few shots i got on my phone but i think they tell a pretty good story.

the aftermath

2011-04-27T22:09:00.002-05:00

my heart is burdened and relieved for the state of alabama right now. my sister, her boyfriend & my friends who live in tuscaloosa, friends in birmingham, and my family in prattville & wetumpka are all safe.

others are not as fortunate as the state has reported at least 40 deaths, 15 of those in tuscaloosa....i know the numbers will be completely irrelevant by morning but it is all that has been said at this point. the city of tuscaloosa that i love so dearly is completely devasted...parts of the city are literally demolished. i cannot imagine being a parent of a student at ua and having to wait to hear from them...it was hard enough being a sibling & not knowing details at first.

please be in prayer with me for people in this state...and the surrounding states who are still currently being affected. this is far from being over although the storms have passed.

if you're interested, al.com has video, images, and more from today's devastation.

a spring visit to alabama

2011-04-24T21:56:00.004-05:00

i made the most of my four-day Easter weekend and decided to fly to alabama for the first time since Christmas. sadly, lee was only given a three-day weekend and could not take off so i went solo.

the trip began right away with an airport greeting & pickup from my mom and brother. we drove over to tuscaloosa from there to stay the night with my sister. tyler scheduled several tours and meetings at ua for thursday and rachel had class so i had perfect little pockets of time to catch up with friends and former co-workers while we were there! before everyone's day began though, we made sure we got the most important meal of the day covered with breakfast at the waysider. oh man...a little out of the way, but oh so good!i got to catch up with all of my former co-workers at calvary which was really great. i always feel so welcomed there and it holds such a special place in my heart for so many reasons...jobs in college and grad school, our college ministry, meeting lee by working for ben, our wedding, and our awesome ss class after we got married. speaking of that class, some of our dearest friends just recently welcomed 2 new additions while other friends just recently moved back to tuscaloosa, and i got to see 3/4 of those friends as well as the twins.we finished off our whirlwind stay in tuscaloosa with gigi's cupcakes. now, these are no crave cupcakes but they certainly were not too shabby either....and more than enough icing!

friday, we met the extended fam for lunch and shopping. luckily we had our own little corner in the restaurant so we had plenty of space for this little photo-op.also, many thanks to my sister, grandmother, and great-aunt for the goodies for brendan! :)

the justice league

2011-04-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

it is hard to believe that joe is now 5 and miles is 3. these guys are by far the cutest superheroes i have seen. don't you agree? our day was filled with the biggest superhero bouncer i have even seen, yummy cake pops & cake balls, more bouncer time, presents, ping pong, crawfish later on in the day, and eva & the cat...

go cubs go

2011-04-19T22:07:00.002-05:00

last week, katy and i got to see the cubs live and in action here in houston. one of lee's coworkers gave us awesome seats...3 rows from the field!

this was my first time to see the new and improved screen at minute maid...check it out + the cubs star player so far this year. seriously, this dude is batting over 400...right, lee?
the rest of these shots are action shots from the game...just hate i forgot my big lens.

not my favorite picture of me, but the only one of us from the game...

when alabama meets texas

2011-04-04T21:16:00.006-05:00

we had our very first visitors in our new house this weekend...my parents!!!

they got offered final four/national championship tickets at a steal of a price so it gave them even more reason to come visit us! also, we had not seen them since january so it has been a long overdue but wonderful weekend with them. they started the weekend with their first experience at pappa's seafood house...yum! saturday, we went to humble city cafe for breakfast...delicious breakfast buffet by the way. we had no idea that a little arts & crafts festival was also taking place in downtown humble so my mom and i ventured through the booths after our late breakfast. then, lee took us all out to his school so my parents could see where he works now.

afterward, we had to head back to the house for the guys to grab their tickets and head to the final four! they had a great time...even if their seats were literally on the highest row possible. my dad even survived a stumble down a couple of rows on the way out...thankfully, he just walked away with nothing more than a little soreness, both to his muscles and his ego ;).meanwhile, my mom and i made our first trip to babies r us for brendan. we scoped out a few strollers and of course picked him up a few outfits in the process. we drove over to target to compare stroller prices and went to my school to see of my sweet current and former students in their dance show. my mom had only ever seen the outside of my school so she was quite taken aback when she saw just how massive it is from the inside.

sunday, lee made his awesome pancakes for breakfast and then he and my dad headed out to the shell houston open. did i mention this was going to be a sports-packed weekend?! they were two happy, tired, and sports-filled guys by the end of the weekend. anyway, they were thrilled to watch phil mickelson pull out the win and get up close and personal to quite a few big-named players. others, like tiger woods and ian poulter (one of lee's faves) were not present because they use the week before the masters to get prepared in augusta instead of at another tournament, but both of them said it was still a cool experience.my mom and i continued our shopping by heading to the old navy in the woodlands since they have their maternity section in the store instead of just online like most. brendan may or may not have also wound up with a couple more outfits from this trip as well :). we ended our sunday early with dinner at pappasito's after the guys finished at the tournament. by the way, check out all the loot that brendan wound up with from gran and papa this weekend (these names may or may not be final...):sadly, lee had to go to work on monday because of TAKS testing but i was able to take today off. i introduced my parents to smashburger, tutti frutti, and homegoods (new fave store). we enjoyed the day together...a rarity that has not happened in many years but was very much treasured. as i type, my parents are currently at the national championship game! they head back to alabama in the morning, but we could not have asked for a better weekend with them. we love you both!

we are having a.....

2011-03-30T19:28:00.006-05:00

boy!!!

meet brendan jack pilgreen:in case you are wondering, brendan is after lee's mom brenda and jack was my granddad's first name. also, in case you were wondering about more...his heart rate is about 150 right now and he's in the 50th percentile for weight!

we thought it was so funny that by the end he was crossing his arms like "i'm finished with these pictures!" all you can see is his arms and abdomen in this shot but it's still pretty cute.even though he is crazy curled up (again toward the end) in this picture, i love how clear it is of his face so i thought i would include it too!please pray with us for a healthy second half of the pregnancy and a smooth delivery when the time comes. thank you.

home improvement

2011-03-29T19:33:00.004-05:00

so, i know the last post on our new house was not very in depth nor was it decorated much. i thought i would let you see what we have been up to over the past couple of weeks. since i am writing this after it is practically dark outside, i still do not have a very good outside shot (because i did not think to take one ahead of time) but that will come for those of you still curious.

here is a better shot of the living room - yes, lee is playing the xbox and yes, those are boxes off to the side. i should have moved them but that's part of it right now...they are boxes of books that have no bookcase to call home yet so for now they reside there. i also need a good "something" to go over the mantle.

our new table and a look into the kitchen - anyone have any thoughts on a cute (but not too tall) centerpiece for the table? we may also add cushions to the chairs at some point for comfort. the tall fruit basket you see to the right through the kitchen opening as well as the corner stand you cannot really see due to the coffee maker in the back left corner are my steals from hobby lobby...one was 30% and one was 70%!the guest bedroom, complete with a bed (yay!), a new desk for the computer, and lee's sports memorabilia (with the future addition of a couple more prints that still need frames). the bedding in here was also an amazing deal...$29 for nautica bedspread and sham from homegoods!and, the guest bathroom - i'm pretty pleased with the color scheme in here. random, but it just needs a little trashcan and it will be complete. ha!come see us!

spring break: san francisco style

2011-03-20T21:46:00.011-05:00

in an effort to consolidate our week in san francisco into one post, i am going to categorize the pictures...i think this could be fun. if somehow the pictures do not convey it, we had a wonderful time and loved every minute we got to spend with our san francisco family.

first things first...let's start with the food.
(1) i finally enjoyed my first (and second) taste of in-n-out burger...yum, yum. (2) barney's is a local sf burger place near elijah's school...also delicious. (3-4) a fabulous cookie bakery...and no, the boys are not throwing gang symbols or anything. that is what brian wilson of the giants does after he pitches well (5) my "regular" at mama's...i love that i have a "regular" in san francisco. (6) an excellent pizza place that lee & ben visited before they... (7) ...brought us back some delicious cupcakes.
now obviously we don't love food more than we love the boys (and ben & shauna), so without further ado:
(1) sam, the bird-scaring monster (shauna & i decided we should create a monster book during this trip) (2) sweet brothers on a playground before elijah's first baseball game (3) more cool kids on a different playground (4) sam being sam (5) asher loving life (6) a rare moment of all three together & still (7 & 8) asher & uncle lee (that kid loves him some uncle lee!) (9 & 10) elijah and sam's swim lessons (11) a cool crosswalk (12 & 13) the very first epic church life group i mentioned baseball before. elijah did not just have one baseball game but two! and an opening day parade!
(1 & 2) opening day parade for san francisco little league (3-4) game #1 (5) sam bunting & asher giving the signs to uncle lee (6-7) game #2
the sights of san francisco...
(1-2) elijah's school play yard (3) the painted ladies! (full house theme song, anyone?) (4) coit tower (5) this house says a lot about the city (6) epic kids :)

the pacific ocean! (see if you can spot baby pilgreen)

a first look at our new HOUSE

2011-03-08T15:02:00.000-06:00

Here is a brief tour of the new house via the iPhone (which explains the poor picture quality):

-This is the view from the front entryway. The kitchen is to the left, the pile of boxes is close to where a table will go, and the doorway you see leads into our bedroom. -The kitchen & the view out of the kitchen: -Our bedroom (not really sure why i didn't think to clear that stuff off the bed first) and AWESOME closet (sorry for the weird lighting - it doesn't really have a red tint)! -Our bathroom. -Our backyard. I don't have great shots of the other 2 bedrooms or guest bathroom, mainly because they aren't set up yet...just an even better reason for future decor posts, right?!

We are so thankful this worked out, and we LOVE living in a house!

aggie opening weekend

2011-02-28T11:41:00.000-06:00

that's right, folks. it's baseball season again. this means a couple of things: the weather is getting a little nicer and lee is even happier than he was before.

the aggies started the season off right with three wins: 3-1, 10-2, 14-0.

my new camera and our good seats on saturday made for some pretty nice shots, if i do say so myself.

the kiddos got "jobs" running out with some of the starters and standing with them for the national anthem

the next three were a sequence of shots taken with my continuous timer. after several tries, i was pretty proud of my results:

overdue update #1

2011-02-26T09:09:00.000-06:00

before too much time passes us by, i wanted to recap our weekend in louisiana from a few weekends ago. we had not been back for a visit since christmas, but had seen almost everyone here in houston since then.

we were excited to see walter and emily's new house...with emily's creativity, that house will be the cutest house in the neighborhood before too long! they have a lot of space and a great backyard that i know the guys will have fun working in. the near-perfect weather was already in effect that weekend (just a week after freezing temps for us in houston and few DAYS after a snowless snow day for them in ruston). we enjoyed time outside all weekend long as well as a sleepover with jonah and emma at mr joe's house (but missed zach and joe who were sick all weekend).our morning at the park...

(a little bit of tuscaloosa in louisiana!)

big changes

2011-02-24T06:44:00.000-06:00

we are moving into a house!!!!!

for those of you who do not know, we currently live in a THIRD floor, one-bedroom apartment. with a crazy, yet perfect (thank you, Jesus) course of events, a rental house belonging to one of the assistant principals at my school is available, and we get to move in! the breaking of our apartment lease turned out to be much less painful than anticipated so we will be in our new space in march instead of july (the original end of our lease).

our new home is a 3-bedroom, 2 bath house no more than half a mile from where we currently live so it does not impact our drives to school and we already know & love the area.

this house and all of the details that have fallen into place are truly blessings. please know that this emphasizes our open invitation to all friends and family even more! now we have space for you! :)

pictures to come soon!

our newest little friend

2011-01-30T17:02:00.005-06:00

this weekend we got to spend some time with our friends, the benolkens, and their two-week-old baby, wyatt. all three of us (me, lee, and katy) had many opportunities to pass around and take our turn holding baby wyatt since being held is probably his second favorite thing right now.tiffany and aaron seem like they have been doing this parenting thing for way longer than just two weeks. it was fun for us to get some tips from new parents as we get closer to being in their position.
saturday's weather was so perfect in dallas that wyatt got to enjoy his first trip out to lunch. we went to freebirds and of course he slept through the entire meal, but he was a pro at riding in the car.so crazy to think that we will be doing all of this soon. ...did i say that already?

also, one non-wyatt-related note, aaron and tiffany were given this awesome gift from her grandfather and we got to take a ride around the neighborhood in it! it is a 1928 ford model a, and it is in pristine condition! so fun!

18th birthday celebration - Houston style

2011-01-27T17:20:00.011-06:00

so last weekend, my not-so-little-anymore little brother came to see us for the weekend. this was his birthday present from us as we knew he had really been wanting to come back since the whole family's visit last spring break.

my parents were cool enough to let him miss a day of school so we took friday off as well and made the most of our time with tyler. we began with breakfast (well, i guess it is considered brunch when you do not arrive until 10:30) at le peep. seriously, those of you who live in houston, if you have never experienced breakfast at le peep...you are missing out! they have several houston locations so find a time to go. you can thank me later.back to the weekend with tyler. after le peep, we ventured over to the galleria. if only had more opportunities to visit the galleria during the week...no crowds! we went into a minor sugar-induced coma in dylan's candy bar, watched tyler flirt with a girl in border's (you're welcome, tyler), and became little kids again while browsing through the lego store.

after hearing me rave about and tweet about crave cupcakes, tyler wanted to try them out for himself so we went to the location near rice village. (sidenote: i like this location because it has more room to sit inside...also, another place houston residents should try if you haven't!) we thought tyler was going to be disappointed with his crave experience because his espresso cupcake was way too bitter. luckily, lee was kind enough to share his white chocolate macadamia nut cupcake and redeem the entire experience. i must add that i tried their ice-cold bottle of chocolate milk for the first time...yum!we made our way into rice village to shop at their awesome gap & gap body stores. from there, we took the scenic route over to hermann park to let tyler see the japanese garden...one of our favorite places in the entire city as you may remember from this post. being the artsy photog that my brother is, he got some pretty cool shots in the park...and i got a couple on my phone because i forgot my camera battery that day.if you're still with me, we capped off friday with dinner at pappasito's and the boys beginning their harry potter lego saga.

saturday was all about college station. we drove to town in time for some breakfast tacos at rudy's, and then we gave tyler a tour of a&m's campus. we got to witness an aggie victory in basketball and enjoy some birthday celebrations with katy and the two youngest garrett kids before heading back to kingwood. major props to katy for thinking of and including tyler in the birthday celebrations.tyler, we had an awesome time hanging out with you & showing you a little more of what we love. we cannot wait for you and the rest of the fam to visit again!

growing

2011-01-19T20:32:00.000-06:00

our family is growing...

yep, that's right. baby pilgreen is on his/her way! we are looking forward to meeting the newest member of our family in August.

quite the photogenic little one, don't you think?!

we know how to plan a good weekend

2011-01-12T19:19:00.006-06:00

seriously, if you live out of town or out of state, we would love for you to come visit. our motto with visitors is if you get yourself here, we will take care of the rest.

last weekend the allens came to town. this is our second year in a row to host the now 5-member family in a one-bedroom apartment. was it a little tight? well sure but no biggie. did that make it any less fun? heck no! we watched football, played xbox, cooked dinner, watched a movie, and shared shipley's donuts in our cozy one-bedroom apartment. everyone even had hot water for showers (all in the same morning)!

we began saturday with lunch at pappasito's (emily's food request). (was their any doubt that place made its way into a weekend with us?!) lunch was followed by a trip to the zoo. we did go when they visited last year, but we were all interested in the new "african forest" exhibit that just recently opened at last month. all 7 of us made it about halfway through the zoo, including the slightly disappointing new exhibit...houston friends, we just did not think it lived up to all of the hype. overall, the zoo was as great as its always been. from there, walter, emily, emma, eva and i decided we were ready for cupcakes and outlet shopping.we headed to crave cupcakes so they could enjoy the deliciousness i love so much. and enjoy they did. after that, we drove out to the outlet mall in cypress where walter and emily found some great deals.while we were cupcaking-it-up and shopping, lee and jonah finished the zoo and then headed to the museum of natural science. this was a perfect choice for jonah. at 8, he loves animals and discovering new things. the rock/crystal exhibit was a huge hit for him as well as the gyro-meter ride. they capped off their night with the always delicious pappa's burgers.the main purpose for their visit was to purchase some new furniture at ikea. sunday, we all headed for that wonderful shopping experience. they left with the furniture they needed, eva found a new friend, and we even walked away with a new shower curtain (first one in our marriage). we sent them on their way back to louisiana with full bellies from lunch at freebirds (walter's food request).as always, a great weekend was had and we cannot wait to see all of you again. to everyone else, remember the invitation always stands for you to come visit! :)

deck the halls

2010-12-29T12:33:00.012-06:00

we began and ended our time in louisiana with johnny's pizza. for those who don't know, this is literally the best pizza around. however, pizza is only a very minor detail of our christmas in louisiana. lots of nerf gun wars, wrestling, baseball, football, good food, laughs, presents, and more food were shared by all.

i must add a note that these pictures (and the ones from alabama in the previous post) would not be nearly as great as they are without the awesome new camera i received from lee for christmas. also, there are A LOT of pictures coming!

every time we get together, it is so special to watch all the cousins play together and pick up right where they left off from the time before. they even enjoyed singing happy birthday to Jesus and blowing out the candles on His cake.christmas eve was a special night filled with a candlelight service at the church where the morrows and allens attend, a delicious spread of heavy hors d'oeuvres & a hot chocolate bar at erin & zach's, a dance party, and a giant coloring book.christmas day, the kids opened their books from us and mr. joe opened his presents from everyone, as well as passing out his own gifts.we ended the stay in louisiana with eva's 1st birthday party. she was too cute in her brown tutu and birthday shirt. she was a little unsure about all the attention while opening presents but soon embraced it when she realized she could put on a show for us while eating her cake. emily did an awesome job decorating for the party!

simply having a wonderful Christmas time

2010-12-23T08:19:00.000-06:00

we finished up the first semester of the 2010-2011 school year last friday and began our trek to alabama. we stopped off first in louisiana to a wonderful dinner of steak, baked potatoes, and salad by mr joe with emily, emma, and eva.

saturday, we finished the second half of the drive to prattville for christmas with my side of the family. we had a yummy traditional christmas dinner and exchanged presents with all of the family. we were showered far too well with gifts from my family. as always, we shared lots of laughs all night long. my grandmother even had a sleepover at the house and stayed to go to church with us the next morning.my mom also wanted a picture with her children while we were altogether. taking a quick picture with us is never quick though. i think this was about the 6th shot. hope it's the one everyone likes!my great-grandmother could not make it to the get-together, but we did make a special trip to see her before we left. can you believe she will be 99 in february?! (p.s.- she's not jamming out while taking a picture with us. those earbuds are connected to a sort of amplifier that helps her hear the conversation better)

it's the most wonderful time for baking

2010-12-17T11:31:00.003-06:00

christmas is such a good excuse for me to do lots of baking. i generally bake regardless of the season, but christmas time is the perfect reason to bake almost everyday!

my first christmas creation was for my advisory (homeroom) students on our last pizza party day the week before finals. i was very proud of my efforts but so sad when i opened them at school the next day to discover the mints had melted a little onto the icing. the kids said they still looked cool, but that's just because they didn't get to see them looking like this:
what you can't see in this next shot are the christmas cookies i iced and decorated for my cheerleaders to hand out at our christmas party. the bags are cute though, right?!i decided last year that baking/do-it-yourself gifts would be perfect for our co-workers since both of our teaching teams are made up of quite a few people. this year i found a yummy, easy hot cocoa mix recipe to make for everyone and complimented it with chocolate-dipped spoons for stirring. i wanted to add a little more to the cocoa so i attempted (for only the 3rd time ever) to make oreo balls again. this time i thought i would try white bark for the dipping and give myself time to let the oreo/cream cheese mix to harden in the refrigerator before forming into balls. turns out, the third time really is the charm. these were the best yet and i even went so far as to "drizzle" chocolate on top (although my drizzling skills leave something to be desired).with christmas not even here yet, i'm hoping there is still more baking in my future!

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

2010-12-06T20:07:00.004-06:00

perhaps for no one but lee and myself, i set out our christmas decorations this weekend. so, i'll share them with you!

the tree finally received its ornaments.our awesome nativity set (christmas gift from my aunt for our first christmas...it's made from real olive wood!) is displayed and our stockings are hung.the presents are under the tree.i may knock those who listen to christmas music before thanksgiving, but let me tell you it is all i listen to these days.

this week brings christmas baking and my first (well, perhaps only) christmas party of the year...and perhaps a christmas baking post!

giving thanks

2010-11-29T20:28:00.006-06:00

at thanksgiving and all throughout the year, we are thankful for the following...

dear friendships that distance cannot waver (and 2 future babies will make even better...meaning adam and coriell are having TWINS, not one baby from each couple!)
true fall in all of its glorious colors
sisters...and japanese hibachi grills :)
family...the extended family with open arms to all and those closest to us
football and everything that rivalries bring

2

2010-11-22T08:00:00.002-06:00

today is our 2nd anniversary.

our second year of marriage brought laughs and tears. death and birth. travels, dark times, and restoration. we moved again and still live in texas. we took on new jobs and roles at work. we grew closer, and more importantly, grew stronger as a couple.

God's hand on our marriage was ever-present and we are so thankful for His guidance. we still don't know all the answers and probably never will, but we do know God does have an evolving plan for us as individuals and as a couple that we are willing to follow.

just as the past two years has made us the couple we are today so will the years to come mold us into a better wife and husband.

to our family and friends who pray for us daily and encourage us often, thank you for your love, support, and friendship. we are so fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful examples of Godly relationships.

lee, thank you for this journey and for always leading us as a family. i love you.

impact

2010-11-15T18:23:00.002-06:00

we are impacted by so many people around us...those we encounter everyday, those we see/hear through media, those who helped us become who we are today. today and november 30 mark the days that two special people who impacted our lives left this world for one even better.

i would have counted it a huge honor to have known lee's mom. i see what i can imagine are glimpses of her in my husband and his siblings, as well as our nieces and nephews. hearing the laughter that follows the stories describing her sense of humor and practical jokes always makes me happy because i can tell how much she loved to make those around her happy.

my granddad was a man who taught us about working hard, loving those closest to you, and laughing as much as possible. always willing to lend a hand, he never met a stranger and never left a task unfinished. he was so proud of his family. plus, he (the biggest auburn fan around) willingly visited tuscaloosa, al. TWICE to show his support and love for me.

these two special people will continue to impact our families and lee and i. God blesses us with such close and intimate relationships that we can continue to witness glimpses of them in a laugh or a moment. their legacy lives on through each of us as we pass on their stories and share their wisdom with others.

a cup of tea with a side of football & an extra helping of family

2010-11-03T18:34:00.006-05:00

last weekend, we had the opportunity to spend an extended weekend in alabama. we flew in just in time to enjoy a nice cool weather weekend...a welcomed change from the 90 degree weather we were having here in houston.

friday was a big day for all of us. lee and hunter played golf and enjoyed moe's for lunch (a delicious place we miss dearly in tx). i met two friends from high school at a tea house for lunch. yes, it was as girly as it sounds but so fun. these girls are my oldest friends. i have known erin since kindergarten and kimberly since 7th grade. we never skip a beat when we see each other and have supported each other over the years through relationships, college, death, and birth (for erin, anyway). i treasure the friendships i have with these girls and love any opportunity we get to meet up. here is our food tray of scones, sandwiches, brownies, cookies, and cheese straws. yum yum. even the hot tea was tasty, and i am not a hot tea drinker!the rest of friday was all about tyler. i still cannot believe he is already a senior in high school. even though a concussion prevented him from playing the last three games, he still participated in senior festivities. the senior night pep rally has included a special ceremony that (i think) began when i was a senior in high school. the youngest students in the school are paired with each of the seniors for a time of recognition for the seniors and encouragement to the youngest group of students. tyler was paired with some of my friends' son who is too adorable for words. tyler also has some longtime friends who have grown into nice young men themselves so it was special to catch this shot of the three of them.prior to the football game, they again recognized the senior football players and cheerleaders and had their parents stand on the field beside them. my parents are still getting used to the fact that this year is the last time they will participate in all of these events as tyler is the baby of the family.saturday, my cousin hannah and i celebrated our birthdays together with our extended family. ever since her first birthday, hannah and i have shared our "family birthday parties" with each other. my aunt makes the most amazing cakes of anyone i know, and for the first time, i had a big special request. she MORE THAN came through for me! this was an AMAZING cake! if you know anything about me, you probably know my love for peanut butter so you can see why i am so excited about this cake. i even had a piece for breakfast before we left for birmingham sunday morning.we also decided to take some family pictures since the times we are altogether are somewhat rare but oh so special. aren't we a good looking bunch?!

fall fun

2010-10-29T21:43:00.006-05:00

we are currently in alabama and a future post will come from this weekend. first, i wanted to cover the past two weekends.

two weekends ago, we spent the weekend in college station. much to my surprise, it was also the weekend for the recruiting tailgate for pine cove, a camp i worked at in college. it was a great chance for me to see old friends including my friend pair who was also in our wedding!following the game, we went to the garretts' house to enjoy the birthday festivities for their youngest two kiddos, abby and jennings. they ripped through their presents faster than any kids i have ever seen!sunday brought a surprise trip to the pumpkin patch. katy knew my desire to visit one this year and we made an unexpected stop after breakfast by the one in college station. this very farmer's market/pumpkin patch is also home to the largest pumpkin in texas weighing in at a hefty 1198 lb. we rounded off the visit with choosing a couple of pumpkins to carve, racing through the hay maze, and gazing in awe at the array of fresh fruit & vegetables.last weekend we traveled to louisiana for the first time in three months to visit with mr joe, the allens, and the morrows. we love visiting family and are amazed each time at how much the kids have grown between each time we see them. i forgot my memory card for my camera so the only picture i have from the weekend is jonah proudly displaying his bird house project from the weekend.speaking of jonah, we are so proud of his new cross-country efforts. he's making better and better times with each run. we are so proud of each of our nieces and nephews, including the ones in san francisco. we can't wait for everyone to be together at christmas!

p.s. - sorry that all of these pictures are fairly poor quality. i did not have my memory card in my camera for two weeks so they all came from my phone or lee's.

a quarter

2010-10-12T22:20:00.007-05:00

i just recently celebrated my 25th birthday. for whatever reason(s) why, i was looking forward to this milestone. some would say 25 is not much a milestone but for me, it seems to be a marker for a significant amount of life lived...although i hope there is so much more left to enjoy! it also makes me a little bit older than the students i teach and somehow (magically) makes me look significantly older than them so the times i am confused with students are less and less...maybe?

i am very grateful for the twenty-five years thus far: an amazing family, fun childhood memories, an awesome college time, a wonderful husband, and many fabulous friends from different times in life.

this year's birthday weekend began with my school's homecoming game...my awesome freshmen cheerleaders got to cheer during the first half of the varsity game. they even had their picture taken with one of the taco bell hot sauce packs that races at the astros games! (houston people know what i'm talking about) they did a great job, and the game led right into the beginning of the three-day weekend (sadly, not for both of us). katy kicked off right with a yummy homemade birthday cake.saturday, we enjoyed lee's fabulous blueberry pancakes for breakfast and later watched some football...one game in particular that i will not discuss. sunday might have been the best combination of someone's favorite things...i got to watch the extra scene from the LOST series finale via my new bluray player, we had le peep for breakfast, made an IKEA shopping trip, picked up some delicious cupcakes, went to see a chick flick, and enjoyed dinner at pappacito's.
katy and i rounded out the weekend with a trip to the outlet malls and a new set of tires on the jeep!

decor update

2010-09-27T21:53:00.004-05:00

for those who may remember, i mentioned a very smart method of hanging a picture frame collage on the wall a few weeks ago. i attempted this method but had to wait a while for the pictures to come in. well, they came in and now they are finally up on the wall!
also, the cooler weather rolled in this morning which means it actually feels like fall around here! my thought is if it feels like fall outside, it should look and smell like fall inside. therefore, out came the fall decor tonight...thank you, aunt beth, for the fall decorations as birthday presents last year! we do not have a table right now so i improved and spread my fall table runner out on the counter...is that ok, decorating friends? :) (i feel the dish of pretzel m&ms completes the look). i also added this delicious-smelling candle and its fall wreath to our end table. combine that with a tasty cup of hazelnut coffee tonight, and i would say fall started off just right.

quite possibly the craziest student quotes ever

2010-09-25T11:10:00.002-05:00

this is a very similar shirt to the one i wore to school on friday. you know, just supporting my team...no biggie, right?!

crazy quote #1
4th period student: your shirt is missing the O.
me: what?
same student: your shirt is missing the O. you know, the O in obama.
all students then erupt into hysterical laughter.
me (pointing to the alabama flag on my wall): it's bama. as in short for alabama.

crazy quote #2
6th period student walking into class walks all the way around me (i'm standing on the other side of the door from where she walks in) to read my shirt and says: "oh good, i was making sure you shirt didn't have an O on it"

i guess i need to get a new shirt that fully spells out ALABAMA.

the most wonderful time of the year

2010-09-16T18:28:00.001-05:00

no, not christmas. the other best time of the year. fall.

fall means football and changing leaves and my birthday and cooler weather and even better reasons to go to starbucks. well, as i mentioned last year the two about cooler weather and changing leaves never really happen here in houston until somewhere around december.

football, in particular, is something we both really enjoy and enjoy watching together. when we are not at kyle field in college station cheering on the aggies, we are watching as much as sec football as we can on saturdays and the texans (and others) on sunday or monday. such a great sport!

last saturday was our first saturday in college station together (lee went to the first game but took no pictures). lee's dad was also in town so we all met up with katy, tiffany, and aaron for lunch. later, we headed to campus for pre-game festivities. i had never experienced "step off" where the people follow the band from campus to the stadium, but katy, tiffany, and i met up with the garretts and did just that. first, there was a loud cannon and then lots of people trying to follow a loud band...very interesting experience.

the aggies did a really nice 9/11 tribute and a sweet flyover before the game began. thankfully, the aggies pulled out a pretty significant victory despite quite a few fumbles on special teams. we left at halftime and got to watch most of the second half of the bama game!

roll tide roll

2010-09-12T09:21:00.000-05:00

due to unfortunate circumstances and living several states away, the 2009 football season was the first season in almost 10 years that i had missed an alabama football game in person. that streak did not continue for two years.

i made it tuscaloosa a few hours before the first game of the season. i met up with my family, spent some time on the quad, saw some friends tailgating, and got to see the crimson tide take the field against san jose state. i know, just a no-name team, but it was still alabama football. i will not be able to make it to any other game this season so i took it all in.

fans waiting for the "walk of champions" to begin outside bryant-denny stadium

my beloved denny-chimes standing tall over the tailgaters

the newly-finished endzone upper deck, bring capacity to over 100,000

i also got to spend the weekend with my sister. yes, for the first time, i spent the weekend with her. we had a great time, and she was a wonderful hostess...making biscuits for breakfast and letting me invade her apartment for a couple of days.

as much as i enjoy taking pictures, i completely forgot to take pictures with all of my wonderful friends i got to catch up with. sunday was a wonderful day for my soul with the opportunity to worship at calvary (a place always dear to me) and step into our former small group, spend time with the hendersons at their new house, and visit the proud parents-to-be and beth (also known as the weeks) at their new house.

rachel and i ended the visit with breakfast at panera and shopping in the bama stores for me to find a flag to represent with in my classroom. silly us realized we had not taken a picture together all weekend so remedied that quickly before i left. love you lots...thanks again for letting me stay!

update

2010-09-09T20:17:00.001-05:00

just to keep you posted on our life, lee was hired to teach 5th grade at a school in new caney this week! thank you so much for your prayers during this process.

for those of you not in texas, new caney is right next to kingwood, where we live now. it is a different district than where i teach but still very close to where we live.

keep him and his soon-to-be students in your prayers next week as they start a new class together!

(more posts are coming very soon!)

friday night lights on saturday night

2010-08-28T21:20:00.004-05:00

high school football season has begun in the state of texas.

when multiple schools in the same district share the same (really nice) stadium sometimes you play on friday night and sometimes you play on saturday nights.

we enjoyed a fun and relaxing saturday and finished it off tonight with the first game of the season for AHS (the school where i teach). we met up with some teacher friends, saw some former coworkers, and enjoyed a night of football. can i pause for a second to say i am so stinkin' excited for the beginning of football season of all kinds?! thanks. anyway, i enjoyed the opportunity to point out all of my current and former students on the team to lee. one of them scored a touchdown and others were in on quite a few plays on both sides of the line.some of my female students were also on the field during halftime performing. i have many girls who are "patriettes". they dance along with the band during the game as well as on their own at halftime. i was so into watching their performance and talking to friends that i forgot to get a shot of them. they are a really talented group of girls though.

oh yea...the eagles got their first win of the season with a 38-18 victory over south houston!

first day of school

2010-08-24T18:20:00.001-05:00

*update: pictures of lindsey's classroom added!*

today was the first day of school in texas!

we are both teaching math. lee with math strategies at the middle school level, and I am teaching algebra II and math models at ahs for the second year. ~~i keep meaning to take pictures of my very first classroom, but by the time i leave, i have a one-track mind on heading home. i promise to try really hard to take some.~~ i remembered to take pictures while the kids were gone to lunch today! i actually like this better than if i'd taken a picture at the end of the day because you can see that work is being done (well, before and after lunch that is).i am excited for the opportunity to teach another year, and i hope that even those students who claim to not like math and think they are no good at math will dissolve those ideas and find even just one aspect of the course with which they can achieve success.

i guess i should also mention that i am the new freshmen cheerleading sponsor at my school! since i do not teach freshmen, this will be a neat experience for me to get to know a few of the freshmen girls. i am looking forward to being involved at the school outside of the classroom. go eagles!

interior decorating

2010-08-19T20:00:00.003-05:00

between moving into a new apartment and setting up my own classroom for the first time, i have had to search for my inner-decorating self lately.

first things first, let's talk about our apartment. we still have a few boxes sitting around, but just about everything that can be unpacked at this point is in its place! we need to get drill-happy soon and hang some things on the walls that need something stronger than just a nail. i am excited to say that ordered some prints from snapfish (they have a deal until the 17th where you get free shipping on everything and a free 8x10 photo collage...which you can still get as just one picture if you want) to make a photo collage on the wall. ever since we met and began our travels together, i have always wanted to do a photo collage of all the places we have traveled to. now it is finally going to happen! i read a great idea from a friend from college for arranging the frames to ensure they are aligned. because of that, this is what our wall looks like until the pictures arrive!i also finished part of our sunroom area this week. the sunroom is extra space off of the living room. the other half will eventually turn into the perfect spot for all of lee's sports memorbilia to be displayed. in our last apartment, he set it all up in our room so it did not get as much visibility as it deserved.here's one more shot of our kitchen too!

look for classroom pictures coming soon!