our weekend in austin

The A&M Softball team played Texas in Austin this past weekend, so Chris and I decided to make a weekend of it! 

We watched some softball...

Went to IKEA!!

Got some fun goodies there

Can you tell which scrubber I've had for much too long?? I loove the IKEA scrubbers!

I also got some storage buckets for our office.

Then we spent some time at the Outlets in Round Rock. I found some jeans that fit me! Haha, I know that sounds so silly, but being 5'10" has its challenges! Thank you Banana Republic Outlet! 

Saturday night we spent some time at the Red Poppy Festival and listened to Cody Morrow play.

Sunday was Chris' 30th birthday!! We celebrated at our favorite mexican food restaurant, Posados. We don't have a Posados in College Station, so it was a nice treat.

(anyone else love butter in your hot sauce??)

The Sunday game wasn't until 5pm, so we had a few hours to kill. We ended up just parking in a parking garage near campus and hanging out/napping/playing on our phones.
You can see I got some sun! 

It was a great relaxing weekend! Happy Birthday to my sweet husband! :)

the story of Brooklynn Maycie...

{disclaimer: this is (my) aunt lei's version of brooklynn's birth story. it's kind of long and if you want to skip to the adorable pictures at the end, I'll understand ;) }

Last week I worked Sunday, Monday, Tuesday nights. After going to bed around 9:30am on Tuesday morning, Chris came in and woke me up about 11:30am and told me Katy (my pregnant sister) had been trying to call me because she was in labor!

After only sleeping 2 hours, I was pretty disoriented but I knew I needed to get on the road since she was 3 1/2 hours away! I flew around the house and my sweet husband helped me throw some things in a bag. I was out the door in less than 20 minutes. {side note: I really should have had a bag packed and ready...just like the pregnant lady should. For clothes, I ended up with 2 tshirts and a button up shirt I only wear with an undershirt..and no undershirt! haha}
Katy had gone in to her 39 week appointment that morning thinking it was just a routine check. She actually hadn't been checked internally yet because she'd shown no signs of labor up to this point.

She had voiced NOT wanting a leap day baby, so her doc said he would be careful not to upset Brooklynn and make her come that day. ...so he checked...and said he felt Brooklynn's head! She was already 4-5cm and didn't even know she was in labor! They sent her over to the hospital to get ready to have a leap day baby! ;)

My mom kept me updated on my way and I got there with time to spare! When I arrived Katy was 6cm and had already gotten her epidural. She was tired but in great spirits.

The next couple hours passed quickly. (for me at least!) Katy was getting really uncomfortable because the epidural wasn't working well on her right side. After about an hour, she let the nurse know and she came and checked her. She was at a 9! She was uncomfortable because she went from a 6 to a 9 in an HOUR! Woah!

She started pushing at about 6pm and we had a baby at 6:21pm! She was a ROCK STAR. Seriously. I was honored that she let me be in the room for the delivery. I was so proud of her! :)

The new parents holding their baby girl for the first time!

My parents

(remember: she's the first grandbaby on this side!)

You can see in the picture on the right that it was love at first sight for both of us. ;)

left: sleeping on my chest  right: holding the lovie we got her

my favorite picture of momma and baby

little angel

top right: am I mean for messing with her wrinkles?? i LOVE this :)

mean muggin.

top: my dad (grumps) loving on his grandbaby
bottom: brooklynn watching the a&m softball game (gotta start her young!)

Ahhh it's crazy how this girl has stolen my heart! Look at those pretty brown eyes!

I am soo blessed that I got to be with my family for a whole week and be a part of Brooklynn's first week of life! It's hard living 3.5hrs away, but will just make our time together that much sweeter. My sister is keeping me quiet right now with updated pictures of her every day. :)

Before I left to come back home, I pretended to be a photographer and me and my mom had a photoshoot with Brooklynn. I'll be back with some of those pictures soon!

great news!

Chris defended his thesis this morning and PASSED!

He is now for sure graduating in May with his Master's degree! So proud!

Here's the text I got from him... Love that man :)

aaannd....

Brooklynn Maycie Warren, my precious niece, was born yesterday!!!

2/29/12 - 6:21pm - 7lbs 4oz - 20.5in 

Mom and baby are both doing perfect! Such a blessing. :)

New York City

This summer's vacation was to New York City! We both loved the Big Apple. It was warmer than I was expecting, in the mid 90's most of the time we were there...but much better than 105 degrees!

Since almost all airlines charge for checked luggage, we were able to pack in only carry-ons. I have to brag on myself for just a moment. I am known to over pack. You never know what shoes/shirt/pants you'll be in the mood for on the particular days you'll be gone. Not that my closet has an over-abundance of clothes selection, but I digress. We were able to pack in these 2 bags!

Of course, I packed in the bigger, roller one, but it's still a carry on size! 

Flying in to JFK

On the Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan

Lady Liberty! She's a little smaller than imagined her. But we didn't get any closer than this, so maybe she would seem bigger up close.

Times Square

We were waiting in this line to get Mary Poppins tickets. This ticket office opens at 3pm for same day, half(ish) off tickets. We got there at 1:30pm and there was already about 100 people in line!

Mary Poppins was AMAZING!!!! Magical. Awesome. I would absolutely recommend seeing it if you have the chance. Chris loved it too!

New Amsterdam Theatre, Mary Poppins has been here for 5 years.

Times Square at night. When you are inside a building and look out the windows, it looks like it is daytime because it is so bright!!

One World Trade Center going back up! They originally called it the Freedom Tower, but have since changed that to One World Trade Center.

Firefighter memorial outside the fire station closest to ground zero.

9-11 Tribute Museum. There is one picture for every person that was killed that day.

The plans for the plaza are so cool. The memorial will open to the public on 9/12, 10 years and 1 day to the attacks. The footprints of the world trade centers will be memorial fountains.

Empire State Building. It is sad that the first thing I thought of when I saw this was..ELF!!?

Gorgeous views of the NYC skyline from 80 stories up!

You can see the statue of liberty out there! You can also see the One World Trade Center going up on the very left of the picture. 

The Today Show studio

The city from the Top of the Rock!

Church at Hillsong NYC. It was in a club! Church was AWESOME. There was standing room only and when we left there was a line of at least 300 people out the door waiting on the next service.

After church we got a few dogs from Gray's Papaya.

Then walked down to Central Park to eat them.

This is SPRAY PAINTED! We were blown away with how this guy made his posters. We stood and watched him on the street in Times Square for about 30 minutes. Amazing.

Monday night we went and saw Voca People. It was AMAZING! It was described to us as a mix between Glee and Blue Man Group. It's all acapella and the sounds they can make with their voices is incredible! You can check out a video of them here.

We had a late flight back, so we had time to meet my cousin, Lindsay for lunch. She's lived in NYC for almost 2 years, and it had probably been about 5 years since I'd seen her!

 

After lunch, we still had a little time to kill, so we went and watched Zookeeper. It was cute. Not as dumb as I was expecting, but still had some dumb parts. I liked it a lot better than Mall Cop, if that's saying much! 

And now we are home. It's always bittersweet coming home from vacation. It's nice to sleep in our own bed and not live out of a suitcase. But the time away from everyday life is always a nice break. But...energy and money runs out...so, vacation must come to an end!