My Little Brother's Wedding

This past weekend was Matt & Anna's wedding. It was a great time with my family and the wedding was beautiful! Here is a rundown of the weekend events:

Thursday night we invited out of town guests and wedding party to join us on Lady Bird Lake for a bat cruise. The largest colony of Mexican Free Tail Bats live under the Congress St. Bridge and come out at dusk each night to feed. It was a beautiful sunset that night and good times we had by all!



Me with my cousin and Aunts


Friday morning we had the Bridesmaids Luncheon at Tarry House in Tarrytown. It was a beautiful morning and a beautiful event.


That evening we had the rehearsal at the church and then the rehearsal dinner at Mercury Hall. It wasn't too hot and the BBQ was great!

The bride and groom


Mom and her kids


Dave and me (7 months pregnant)


Saturday was the BIG day! The wedding was so pretty and everything went really smoothly.















On Sunday we had a brunch at my parents house for out of town guests. The porch was wonderful for everyone to enjoy!



All in all, it was a wonderful, celebratory weekend!!

Finally...a crib choice!

As the title may imply...we have finally decided on a crib for baby Ruback. We've been doing a lot of research and looking around but I think we've finally made our decision. It's a good thing we finally did because it will be delivered in 8-10 weeks and we don't have much time after that to get the nursery ready.

We've decided on....




The Peyt*n Lifestyle Crib by B*navita.

It was ranked highest on Consumer Reports and it is available in white which is what we have wanted.

Now to pick the bedding and decor...

Moving Road Trip

So I have been MIA from the blog recently, but for good reason....Dave and I are now officially Austin residents! It's been a long time coming and I'm glad it's finally here!

Dave started his new job in the middle of June but came back up for NY/CT the last week of the month to help with final pack-up and the drive down. His new company was completely flexible with him taking time off and made sure to give him plenty of time to pack, drive, and settle in. He went back to work yesterday and I am a full time stay at home...something! I have been helping out my parents with stuff around the house (Goodwill runs, organizing, stuff like that), closing out our house in CT, and helping my brother get ready for his wedding in a month. All this to say, I'm not bored!

On our drive from CT to TX we made a few pit stops. Here is our trip in pictures:

1st stop: To visit our 1st newphew! This is Dave's sister and husbands first child. We are so excited to have little boy cousins so close in age!


On to Nashville and south to Lynchberg, TN....the Jack Daniels Distillery. This was a really neat thing to see!


Our tour guide, and Mr. Jack


Here I am 24.5 weeks pregnant


Then on to Memphis & Graceland




Our last stop...to see Lauren, Sam, and baby Eli!


It was such a nice road trip and we get to take our time and not drive more than 8 hours in a day. We were able to enjoy the cities for dinners and really enjoy time with one another.

House Hunt: Under Contract

Wow! I never thought we would find a house in the first weekend looking, but we did! I was visiting Dave in Austin last weekend and we went out with our realtors to see 7-8 houses in 4 different neighborhoods. The main objective of the day was to get a feel for the various neighborhoods and then narrow the search to look in our favorite ones.

As chance would have it...one of the houses we were supposed to see was already under contract so we picked to see an additional one that was in a neighborhood we'd never heard of and was only on the market 1 day. This turned out to be a wonderful blessing! As soon as we walked into the house we knew it was a house for us, we were just unsure of the neighborhood since we'd never heard of it. We continued to think about the house and on Monday of this week Dave went to visit it again along with 3 others. He continued to say it was the best one and as I did research on the neighborhood and the area we decided it would be a perfect choice for us! After a few more days of "sleeping on it" we put an offer in and it was accepted the next evening (with a few negotiations done by the Realtor). We are so happy!!

We are now under contract and have the inspection scheduled for this coming Wednesday. If all goes as planned we will close on July 29th!

Here are some pictures:

Front of the house:


Living Room:


Kitchen:


They already have a baby boy nursery!


Back of house:


Patio:

Baby Shower

Today I was thrown a surprise baby shower at work. It was a wonderful event and I feel so special to work with such an amazing staff. The picture above are 2 cakes baked in the traditional Dominican way and made/bought by parents of High Schoolers who I don't even know.

I got a lot of cute little clothes and a nice gift certificate to Pottery Barn Kids! It was so sweet!

Baby Update & Picture, Week 21

Belly Pic - 21 weeks. Please excuse the cut off head. It's the best one I could do with the self timer.

I'd thought I'd try and get better about documenting my pregnancy better. I know one day I will want to know how I was feeling at different stages. Sorry if it's TMI, I have seen this on other bogs and thought it was a nice, easy way to document.

How far along? 21 Weeks
Total weight gain/loss: + 6-8 pounds, depending on the time of day
Maternity clothes? I have a mix. The best invention is the Bella Band which allows me to wear my normal clothes with the button un-buttoned. It may sound strange, but it is a clothes saver!
Sleep: I usually wake up once around 1 am to make my nightly bathroom run but other than that, my body pillow is a great help.
Best moment this week: Going on a crazy shopping spree with my sister in law to buy baby boy clothes!
Movement: on and off - I feel him about 3-4 times a day, but I have an anterior placenta which means it's more difficult for me to feel the kicks.
Food cravings: Sweets. Cupcakes, ice cream, Nerds, the list could go on...
Gender: boy!
Labor Signs: none, thank goodness!
Belly Button in or out? in
What I miss: Going to Quiznos!
What I am looking forward to: Going to Austin this weekend!
Milestones: Over half-way there!

Coming Soon....

Yep, we are so excited to finally know how we can start planning to welcome our little boy into this world!

I was 90% sure we were having a girl and Dave was always referring to the baby as "he" so we were sure to get one or the other. I must say I was quite shocked when we saw those boy parts, but I was so excited and it made it that much more real!

Now we have started thinking about names, nursery decoration, and the essentials. It's fun but somewhat overwhelming with all the new changes headed our way.

This last ultrasound was really neat - we saw his heart chambers, kidneys, brain, face, legs, arms, OK you probably get the point...it was very through! He was faced down for most of the scan so I had to move around at different points for the tech to get all of the measurements. She mentioned that we already have a stubborn one on our hands!

Yesterday we went to Buy Buy B*by and B*bies R Us to get started on what we might need/want. There are soooo many choices! We also subscribed to a subscription to Consumer Reports to get their reviews on major products. I think it will come in handy!

I am officially 20 weeks now, halfway there! At the ultrasound, the tech measured that our baby boy was actually measuring a week ahead (he's a pound!) so now my new due date could be 10.18 not 10.24. It will be up to the doctor if they want to officially change it, but I'm not concerned about it. I was a preemie myself so I am just looking to carry this one to full term.

I'm planning on taking a belly pic later today, so stay tuned this week to see the progress. I really feel like I have officially "popped!"