The Big News: Baby Rand

While this is big news, I also realize this is kind of old news that you all have probably known about for a couple of months now - Clint and I are expecting our first baby in March 2012!

We found out back in July, two days before we closed on our brand new house - nothing like getting a few major life changes out of the way in one week! Needless to say, Clint had to handle the majority of the move since I wasn't really supposed to be lifting a whole lot. After a stressful couple of weeks, we finally visited the doctor and found out that we were three weeks farther along than we thought - hello second trimester! Not long after, we found out that we are having a little boy (whose name has been decided but won't be announced to the whole world until he is born in March).

Baby Boy Rand at 13 weeks

We're incredibly fortunate that everything has been going very well, I've been feeling great and our little guy is perfectly healthy so far (and becoming very active!). We can't wait to meet him in March.

I'm going to put some more effort in updating this blog so we can keep up with everyone and keep the big news a little more current!

Some House Photos

We're making some progress getting the house decorated and finished up. This weekend we had our housewarming party brunch / game watch for the A&M vs. Arkansas game, so that was a little motivation to get some decorating done. My mom was in town last weekend and helped a ton in decorating the house. We're finishing up our bedroom, so upstairs photos will be next!

Downstairs guest bedroom - ready for visitors!

Living Room

Dining table all set for fall

Slightly Out of Date

After this weekend and seeing all of our friends in Dallas, I realized how terribly out of date this blog is! I find that I've managed to put a ton of time into The HSS Feed (here), but not so much into this one. This week I'll post new photos of the house and work on getting better to get some updates!

We've got a lot going on, so there's really a lot to show and talk about! More to come this week...

Almost there!

These will be the last photos of the house that I post before we move in and start decorating. We're closing on Thursday and will start moving on Friday after work. Clint and I are so excited to get moved in and share more photos of our decorated home. More to come soon!

Until yesterday it had been 3 weeks since we checked out the progress on the new house. They've made a lot of progress: the whole house is bricked, sheet rock is complete, cabinets are in the kitchen and all bathrooms, and the granite is in the kitchen and all bathrooms.

Master bathroom

Master bathroom again

Kitchen - granite and cabinets are in!

Another view of the kitchen

Our beverage center - wine refrigerator to come soon!

Hawaiian Holiday

Well, we're not exactly thrilled to have to come home from vacation in Hawaii. We had a great time with my parents and Maria and Brett. A lot of time spent at the pool sipping girly drinks and just relaxing around the villa. Here are a few of the 100 + photos we took while on vacation - we're really hoping to go back again soon!

View of the pool

View from our villa

Dinner on the first night

All ready for our helicopter tour

All of us and our helicopter

Playing at Mama's Fish House

Another pool day

Dinner at the Fairmont

Everyone after dinner on our patio

A first look inside the house

It has been a busy week but we finally got over to the house to take a few pictures. The siding is on the back of the house, the shingles are on the roof and we actually got to walk through it! Here are a few updated photos for this week:

Our kitchen!

Welcome to our house!

House Update

The house is moving right along and we're excited to see progress every time we drive by. As you can see, the framing on our house is complete and they've started to do work on 4 other houses in the neighborhood. We took Harlow along with us to see the house today and she was very excited to see where she'll be living in a few short months.

Neighbors!

Harlow checking things out. Clint thinks this looks like a political ad for Harlow 2012. 

Our house as of today

Happy Anniversary!

Clint and I celebrated our first anniversary this weekend - it is hard to believe that it has already been a year! We had a great weekend with a little staycation and fancy dinner.

The flowers Clint delivered to my office on Thursday

Champagne and glasses from Maria and Brett

Us in front of the sign at Hotel ZaZa

Celebratory cotton candy at Tony's

What a Difference a Week Makes

Our house is actually starting to look like a house! They are up to the third floor with framing and should have the roof on by the end of this week. The brick has also arrived on site, so they'll be ready to start the exterior before we know it. We're really excited to see the progress! 

Here are a couple of photos of where we are as of today:

Project: Easter

When I was growing up, my mom would grow grass in a basket every Easter. We would color eggs and put them in the decorated basket, which would then become our centerpiece for Easter breakfast.


This year my mom sent a big "Happy Easter" box filled with all of the supplies (and a perfectly laid out instruction packet, of course) to grow our own Easter grass.


The process went like so:

Easter basket with plastic liner 

Fill with potting soil (see previously mentioned instructions in the background)

Add wheat grass seed (soaked overnight) and water

Cover with plastic wrap

Day 2: A little sprouting

Day 6: Easter grass!

Making Progress!

Well, after 8 long months of waiting for them to start, we’ve finally started to see some progress on the new house! They poured the foundation last Thursday and began framing. We’re told that, by mid-next week, they’ll be up to our second floor. Here are a few photos of the foundation, framing and the model of what our house will look like in a few months (with different brick and accent colors). We’re excited!

The Dirt

Clint and I are in the exciting, and painfully long, process of building our first home. The latest update is that it MAY start in the next two weeks and we’re hoping to move in some time in July. Clint is optimistic about an on-time completion, but I am just anxious for them to get started! Here are some photos of us signing the papers last August and the first pictures of our dirt. Some progress has been made since this photo was taken, and I’ll take some updated photos once we have something to show you all!