Mother's Day Madness

I feel like I've been letting this poor thing fall by the wayside! 


Mother's Day has come and gone, and it was definitely one of the most well-orchestrated yet. Who knew that getting married made the simplest things so complicated to plan out? Brad's sister and brother-in-law came down to spend Mother's Day weekend here, since they hadn't been able to come down from Dallas in months. This meant that Mother's Day festivities with his mom were going to need to happen on Saturday, instead of Sunday, since they would need to be heading back pretty early in the day on Sunday. Hallelujah.


It was so nice not having to figure out both moms on one day....Lord know my mom demands a ridiculous amount of attention from me on days like this! Saturday, we had lunch with his parents, his sister and her husband. For her Mother's Day gift, his sister and I had been on a covert mission over the last month secretly working on a photo book. I had to sneak into their house and snatch pictures of the kids from the day they were born, til now, then Lauren worked on designing the book and getting it all put together.


So, all along I figured his mom would get super sentimental and most likely tear up a bit, but none of us expected her to start full on crying! She cried so much, it made me tear up! Nonetheless, it was absolutely sweet, Lauren did an amazing job putting it together, and his mom was so appreciative.

[Brad with his mom and sister after a great lunch at Fajitaville!]

 [Brad's "Then & Now" section of the book. Look at cute little baby Brad!]

 [One of my favorite parts - "10 Reasons Why You're So Loved"]

On Sunday, since Brad had to work, I drove my happy little self to Alice to spend the day with my mom. We did a whole lot of nothing...and loved every minute of it.We started the day at Agua Dulce Baptist Church, where Pastor Chris shared a perfect Mother's Day video...they even had snacks!  After church, we had lunch at Nortex Bakery and it was SO good. I hadn't eaten there in years; it definitely gave me nostalgia! After about a 3 hour nap we went to the Alice movie theater and watched Dark Shadows, which was not at all what I thought it was going to be. After the movie, we went on a mini-shopping trip, then I came home to get to bed for work the next morning.

After such an eventful weekend I was completely w-o-r-n o-u-t! I can't forget that this was also my first Mother's Day weekend also, well, technically ;) 

 [After lunch on Saturday, I came home to this beautiful little surprise from Brad <3]

[Brad's mom wasted no time in beginning to spoil her soon-to-come grandbaby.]

[She's also decided that her nickname will be "Cupcake".]

[Aunt Lauren isn't wasting any time either!]

[My mom went totally summer crazy with all these little suits! Also loving the Scentsy monkey!]

Brad and I have begun taking part in the spoiling also! We've been going baby-crazy with our shopping over the last week. I've actually found a couple of really good deals too. It's just so hard to not buy EVERYTHING WE SEE!

 [We had our eyes on this turtle for months. It's the first thing that made us really hope for a girl.]

[How adorable is that gaudy little bib? Can you believe I got it for $3.51?!?!]

 [Keeping with the monkey theme.]

 [Cute little crawlers in perfect fall colors! (That's brown, not black)]

 [Keeping with the cupcake theme!]

 [I am OBSESSED with these little sock shoe/headband sets from Dillard's!

I am bound and determined to get every color. Plus, for $5.99 per set, you can't beat it!]

 [We stumbled across this cute little sleeper at Kohl's on sale for $3.23!]

I still can't get over how much of a whirlwind this whole journey has been and now that we're more than halfway through it is even more crazy. I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that we will have a baby shortly after summer! Ah!

Oh, by the way, did I mention we're having a girl?!?! 

Our First Purchase for Baby!

We officially bought our first piece of "furniture" for little Baby Hajek!

I had been peeking around at high chairs for a couple of months, but wasn't really happy with anything I saw. I've always dreamed of having a pretty, antique, wooden high chair when we had a baby. So now that having a baby is a reality, I wanted to make sure to find the chair I'd always imagined.

I had been looking and looking to no avail and then, last Saturday, I found it! My mom and I were antiquing and came across the perfect little chair. The funny thing is that, just the night before, Brad and I were just noticing that since our dining set only has 5 chairs, it was like there was a spot reserved for Baby!

This is the chair we got. It was already completely sanded down.

I'm excited to refinish it into our own :)

What's perfect is that the style is very similar to our dining set. So I'm wanting to stain the tray and footrest the same shade as our tabletop, and then paint the rest an antique, off-white, just like our table and chairs. (See below)

It should fit in perfectly :)

March Madness.....and April's not looking much more sane!

Ayiyiyiyi, I don't even know where to begin! I've literally been trying to post something for WEEKS! Here's a quick run-down of March: Baby Announcement, Brad's Birthday, Mother-In-Law's Birthday, Best Friend's Birthday, Our 2nd Anniversary <3, and 3 different trips to San Antonio within a 7 day time span. Whew! I'm sure I'm still missing some things.


My Bradley James turned 29 years old this year! I cannot believe he's almost 30! You would've sworn he was turning 10 with all the ridiculous birthday presents he got. He was definitely the most excited about the electric guitar his mom got him...he's been wanting one pretty badly for the past couple of years.


A few days later I got home to an amazing surprise/early Anniversary present. Brad and his mom & dad conspired together to completely surprise me with his parents early Anniversary present to us, a brand new washer and dryer! I've mentioned before how I get wayyy too excited over practical things like vacuums, so you can imagine how much more excited I was about our first washer and dryer! It has been so amazing to be able to just wash things as they get dirty, rather than letting a few loads build up to make the wash trip worth it.


So about the 3 trips to San Antonio...it was crazy. On a Friday I drove up for my beautiful Brittany's bachelorette party and came back home on Saturday. On Monday, I drove back up with my mom for my Great-Aunt Lynn's memorial service and funeral, we came back Tuesday. Then, on Friday, Brad, Sookie and I drove up for Brittany's wedding weekend/our (belated) Anniversary weekend. It was my bridesmaid debut and I loved every minute of it........and cried every minute of the ceremony!

The beautiful Bride!

Baby Update: We have another appointment this Thursday. In about 3 more weeks we'll have our 20-Week sonogram.....to find out the gender!!! I absolutely cannot wait! Although we'll be happy with either, we're secretly hoping for a little baby girl. We've already picked a girl's name, but are still having discussions about a boy name.  What we have agreed on for each is a nursery theme!

If it's a boy!

  If it's a girl!

I've also started buying things to use at baby showers. Namely, these little guys (see below)! I went ahead and bought a few in both colors, because I didn't want to risk them being gone if we waited til we found out! Plus side, if it's a girl, we can use all of them since it's a pink and blue theme anyway!

  Aren't they the cutest things ever?

Also in baby news, my mom is officially baby crazy. She's been helping me "nest"! We've spent the better part of the last few weekends making our apartment patio beautiful. This last weekend we planted 5 more plants, put out a solar powered water fountain and laid down carpet grass. Here are the little goodies she brought this weekend!

I love the sound of running water...and I love these cute little gnomes even more!

Here's baby's first little present she got a couple of weeks ago. This little guy is adorable!   

 

I'm so happy 'cause I'm a gummy bear, GUMMY BEAR!

(If you have no idea what the title is from, click here. Slightly vulgur, extremely hilarious!)

Well it's been a very hard secret to keep for the last month and a half, but Brad and I are happy to finally tell the world that we are expecting! We found out on January 24th.......after I took about 7 pregnancy tests in one day...just to be sure. Yes, it was a little bit ridiculous, lol

We had our first prenatal appointment on February 16, and the next is on March 19th. Yesterday was our first ultrasound and there are no words to describe how amazing it was. I was completely expecting the baby to just be a little glob on the screen, which is why were were so surprised to see a BABY! I know that sounds weird, but we were not at all prepared to see a little tiny human already.

What was even more exciting is that the mini-person on the screen decided to entertain us. When the ultrasound first started, everything was still. A couple minutes later that little image was dancing around. It was so unreal to see the little arms and legs moving around and bending. I wish I could buy an ultrasound machine to have at home, so we could watch our little baby wiggle around every day!

Minor Details: Since my "cycles" are so irregular, the doctor is going by fetal development alone. So according to Baby's development, size, etc., he/she is approximately 10 weeks and 1 day. So, I'm technically 12-13 weeks pregnant. I still can't get over how confusing that whole system is! Based on that info, she has given me an estimated due date of September 27, 2012.....just in time for the holidays!

Our little Gummy Bear!

When did I turn into an old lady?

What happened to the days of counting down the seconds til my Tax Refund came in, because I just couldn't wait to blow it on meaningless items? A new wardrobe? Why yes, I think I need one. That gorgeous purse at Dillard's? Sure, I think I can find a way to justify it as a necessity. A straight week of expensive dinners every night? Brad and I do need to spend more time together.

Nope, this year I apparently turned into a homemaker...a grandma homemaker. Sure, there are a couple of dresses and shirts I'd like to get, and there's that Brahmin purse I've been fighting the urge to buy, but what have I just been dying to buy this year?


A steam mop.


Yup, a steam mop. A Shark Steam Mop, to be exact. That baby is a beast! We bought it last night at 10:30pm, and at 12:15am what was I doing? That's right, steaming the floors......and I could not have been more excited to do so.

So, I have a few recommendations - Part One

I recently finished re-reading Captivating by John & Stasi Eldredge for about the sixth time. I can't help it. It seems like every time I re-read it, it brings something new to life inside of me. It's a book about how woman is the "Crown of Creation"; the icing on the cake of God's masterpiece. It addresses every self-loathing thought every woman has ever had; those feelings of not being good enough, of not being beautiful enough, of not being captivating. As well as the feeling we get of being too much and not enough, all at the same time. It also addresses what we look for in men, what we need in men, and what we should require of the men in our lives. Now, before you start thinking it's just a woman, who probably doesn't live by a word she preaches, sitting there giving you false hope of what life could be...it's not. One of the most attention-keeping things about it, is that it's a husband and wife writing. She gives a woman's perspective on these issues, then he jumps in with a man's views, fears, and reasons why they do what they do.

It never fails, no matter how many times I read it, there are parts that always bring me to tears. I can personally connect with about 97% of the book, and I can think of so many women in my life that it would be such a benefit to. I personally think every woman should read it, and if you're in a serious relationship, your man should read it too! Brad has about one chapter left and it has been making such a difference in our relationship since he began reading it. This last go round, I read through it with a highlighter in hand. Everything I felt described, or applied to, an area of our relationship....I highlighted. So, as he's been reading through it, he knows that those particular areas are very important to me. I'm not a very confrontational person, so that has been a very useful tool.

Here are a few of the parts I highlighted:

A woman in the presence of a good man, a real man, loves being a woman. His strength allows her feminine heart to flourish. His pursuit draws out her beauty.

Woman is cursed with loneliness (relational heartache), with the urge to control (especially her man), and with the dominance of men (which is not how things were meant to be, and we are not saying it is a good thing - it is the fruit of the Fall and a sad fact of history)...Aren't your deepest worries and heartaches relational - aren't they connected to someone?...We are not inviting - we are guarded. Most of our energy is spent trying to hide our true selves, and control our worlds to have some sense of security...When a woman falls from grace, what is most deeply marred is her tender vulnerability, beauty that invites to life. She becomes a dominating, controlling woman - or a desolate, needy, mousy woman. Or some odd combination of both, depending on her circumstances.

We hide behind our makeup. We hide behind our humor. We hide with angry silences and punishing withdrawals. We hide our truest selves and offer only what we believe is wanted, what is safe. We act in self-protective ways and refuse to offer what we truly see, believe, and know. We will not risk rejection or looking like a fool. 

Whether we tend to dominate and control, or withdraw in our desolation and hide, still the ache remains. The deep longings in our hearts as women just won't go away. And so we indulge. We buy ourselves something nice when we aren't feeling appreciated...We imagine meaningful conversations or difficult ones where we speak brilliantly...Where do you go instead of to God when the ache of your heart begins to make itself known? Spending too much money, gambling, bingeing, purging, shopping, drinking, working, cleaning, exercising, too many movies, sitcoms, talk shows, even our negative emotions can become indulgences. 

Even if you can't relate to those last few, please read the following carefully. It is crucial for a woman to know.


Satan fell because of his beauty. Now his heart for revenge is to assault beauty. He destroys it in the natural world wherever he can. But most especially, he hates Eve [woman]...She is captivating, uniquely glorious, and he cannot be. She is the incarnation of the Beauty of God. More than anything else in all creation, she embodies the Beauty of God. She allures the world to God. He hates it with a jealously we can only imagine...The Evil One also hates Eve because she gives life. Women give birth, not men. Women nourish life. And they also bring life into the world soulfully, relationally, spiritually - in everything they touch...Eve is his greatest human threat, for she brings life. She is a lifesaver and a life giver...Eve incarnates the Beauty of God and she gives life to the world. Satan's bitter heart cannot bear it. He assaults her with a special hatred....He is the one who has dogged your heels with shame and self-doubt and accusation. He is the one who offers the false comforters to you in order to deepen your bondage. He is the one who has done these things in order to prevent your restoration. For that is what he fears. He fears who you are; what you are; what you might become. He fears your beauty and your life-giving heart. You really won't understand your life as a woman until you understand this: You are passionately loved by the God of the universe. You are passionately hated by His Enemy.

"You are passionately loved by the God of the universe." Wow. That sentence, in particular, brings me to tears every time. How amazing is that? How often has that thought even crossed your mind? Those ten words alone should give you such a different outlook on life. Here are the next few sentences:

And so, dear heart, it is time for your restoration. For there is One greater than your Enemy. One who has sought you out from the beginning of time. He has come to heal your broken heart and restore your feminine soul. Let us turn now to him.

Here are a few more parts that stood out to me...regarding men:

A woman becomes beautiful when she knows she's loved. Cut off from love, rejected, no one pursuing her, something in a woman wilts like a flower no one waters anymore. She withers into resignation, duty, and shame. The radiance of her countenance goes out, as if a light has been turned off...As women we long to be loved in a certain way, a way unique to our femininity. We long for romance...Our hearts yearn to be loved intimately, personally, and yes, romantically. We are created to be the object of desire and affection of one who is totally and completely in love with us.

The essence of a man is Strength. A man is meant to be the incarnation - our experience in human form - of our Warrior God. A God who comes through for us...Isn't that what we, as women, long to experience from our man, and from the men in our lives?...We long for the protection masculine strength offers. To have them shield us from physical harm, yes. But also to have them shield us from emotional harm...Strength is what the world longs to experience from a man.

Be careful you do not offer too much of yourself to a man until you have good, solid evidence that he is a strong man willing to commit. Is he walking with God in a real and intimate way? Is he facing the wounds of his own life?...A lot of questions, but your heart is a treasure...offer it only to a man who is worthy and ready to handle it well.

Hopefully this gave you enough to go out and grab the book. It's important to me that every girl/woman I know read it....I wish I would have when I was a teenager! So I leave you with this: You are beautiful. You are worthy of love. The God of the universe finds you lovely...He wants a relationship with you. He is captivated by you. Settle for nothing less, my loves.

A Christmas Story

I'm proud to announce that Christmas 2011 went off without a hitch and the festivities aren't even over yet! We still have to have our belated family time with the Hajek clan in George West. Lindsay, Santa Clause will be coming back to town! I'll also be sharing a little more Christmas cheer tomorrow when my best friend, Erika, comes to see me! I hope she loves her Christmas present!!!

First off, I'd like to showcase our Christmas decor. This was my first time full-on decorating our home for Christmas. We've had a Christmas tree every year, of course, but that's always been the extent of the cheerfulness of our humble abode.

Our lovely 7-1/2' Christmas Tree. Yes, I know it could have used more lights!

 I was so excited to have a fireplace to decorate this year too!

 My mother gave us this hutch last Christmas. 

Brad's mom gave us these sweet little Christmas dishes this year.

They turned out to be the perfect little combination!

Now to move on to the good stuff! Brad doesn't do very well at the whole "waiting to open presents" thing. So, we had to improvise. Friday night we opened our stockings and I went ahead and let him open a present too. He picked the box that held his new brown leather Vans. 

For those of you who don't know him, the phrase "close toed shoes" does not exist in his vocabulary. It's always flip flops, flip flops, flip flops. However, when we were up in Longview back in October for his sister's wedding, I refused to let him run around in flip flops! So we took a little trip to the mall and were able to compromise on some grey Vans Classic Slip-Ons. Needless to say,  they are now his favorite shoes.

 Apparently Brad decided on a Hello Kitty theme for my stocking.

I'm not complaining!

Excited about his new shoes!

The next day, Christmas Eve-Morning, it was off to his mom's house to open presents with his parents and little sister, Katelyn! He had to work from 11:00a.m.-8:00p.m. and his family was heading to his grandparent's in Victoria for Christmas Eve, so we had to do it early. We got all kinds of goodies! I got a scarf I had been wanting, Coach Poppy perfume (it smells divine), a Hello Kitty coffee table book, some money and a gift card. Brad got a cool new phone, clothes, a book and a few other things. His family also loved the gift we had picked out for them! Unfortunately, there was a down-side to the morning. His other little sister, Lauren, and her husband Blaine were unable to come down. They had just been down for Thanksgiving and that long drive from Dallas to Corpus Christi is a little too much to make more than once within such a short time frame. I wanted to take a picture of everyone making sad faces to send her, but time got away from us. This was her very first Christmas away from home :(

  His parent's house on Christmas Eve Morning. It was magical.

 Brad giving Charles some attention!

 Brad's mom teaching him how to play Holiday Town on Cityville.

Now I know where he gets his video game addiction from!

Every year Brad's mom gets us a new ornament. 

This is the sweet little baby she gave us this year!

Christmas Eve afternoon, while Brad was at work, I made a trip to Alice to spend some time with my mom. She was originally supposed to come to our place for the evening, but the weather was pretty icky and I didn't want her driving in it.She was really tired too, so it worked out best for me to go there. Plus, I got a homemade lunch out of the deal. What's better than that?!? We exchanged gifts and she loved what we got her. I really loved my gifts too! Namely the Sperry's and Season 1 of Ahh! Real Monsters!

Later that evening, Brad and I got home at about the same time and he was just itching to open the rest of his presents, so I finally gave in. I gave him the previously mentioned Vans, a Star Wars shirt, 2 Transformers (Did I mention he's almost 30?), a Lambicht gift set, and I know I'm still missing a couple of things. He also opened the presents my mom sent for him, which were a blue pair of Vans and a really nice wine tool set.

As for my gifts from Brad, he's never been a great shopper. He always gets me the most random gift or two, it's just too overwhelming for him. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I saw all those little boxes under the tree with my name on them! He did so well! He gave me a beautiful black and gold bracelet with rhinestones from Dillard's, 2 new additions to my charm bracelet from James Avery, the Taylor Swift - Journey To Fearless DVD, Kung Foo Panda 2 (Did I mention I'm almost 25?), and a big bottle of my favorite perfume in the entire world, Princess by Vera Wang.

Out of all the gifts he gave me, the perfume was the most treasured. I know I had mentioned to him that I had run out, but he's not one to remember those kinds of things. So I squealed when I opened that last box that had the perfume inside. Here's my corny little story as to why the perfume was the most special gift he gave me: It was the weekend before Christmas of 2007. My mom and I were in San Antonio for the weekend doing some last minute shopping. We went to Sephora at La Cantera Mall to grab a few things she needed. As we were walking into the store, she noticed the beautiful bottle holding this fragrance and stopped to smell it. We went about our business, gathering the things she needed, and as we were about to get in line to pay she asked me to go grab a large bottle of the perfume. When we got back to our hotel room she gave it to me as an early Christmas present. I, of course, put some on right away and put the little crown cap on my finger as a ring. Brad and I had been talking for a while at this point, as friends of course, I knew he had feelings for me, but I was still unsure of how I thought of him. That night, we were texting back and forth with random small talk and for one reason, or another, it just hit me that I really did have feelings for him. A couple short weeks later we began dating and, well, you know the rest of the story.

So, ever since that night, I've always associated that scent with my then new found love for that cute boy who is now my handsome husband.

Our new shoes from my mom!

My pretty bracelet. (No, my wrist is not as huge as it looks in this pic.)

I cannot wait to pop these in!

 Vera's going to have to learn to share with Poppy, because I love them both!

Since we were unable to go to Victoria and spend Christmas Eve with his entire family, we opted to head up for a few hours on Sunday. Although we missed all of his aunts and uncles, cousins and their babies, we did get to spend more time with his parents and grandparents, and we did still get to see his cousin Lindsey for a little bit. It's always nice to be able to just relax with family! 

Brad and I at his grandparent's house on Christmas Day.

I wish I were more photogenic!

Here is one last little gem to leave you with:

 This was taken in 1986 when Brad was 3 years old.

How cute was he? I guess he's still alright ;)

New Beginnings

I stumbled across my blog earlier today, only to realize my last post was from July of 2010. Oh how time has passed. I honestly thought I was only 3 or 4 months behind on my blogging.

As I read through the handful of blogs I had posted, I realized how drastically things have changed in the last year and a half. I decided that rather than resuming my posts, I would create an entirely new blog site. After all, I have had so many new beginnings since then and how better to keep up the trend than to say "Out with the old and in with the new"?

So here's a quick little update of the time that's passed between the last post on my old blog and this, the first post on my new one:

First off, I would like you to meet Sookie. She is our sweet little baby girl. Of course, by "sweet" I do mean she loves to destroy mommy's shoes, purses and basically anything else she can get in her little mouth. However, all she has to do is flash that poor little puppy face and all is forgiven. 

My precious little girl. (She's a Jack Russell Terrier by the way.)

Next on the list is my job. As my last post mentioned, I was working on a political campaign for Blake Farenthold who was the Republican candidate running for the Congressional seat for the 27th District of Texas. Well, he won. As much faith as I had in him and as much as I prayed, nothing could have ever prepared any of us for an actual win. He defeated the 28 year Democratic incumbent, Congressman Solomon P. Ortiz. Congressman Farenthold flew our staff to Washington, D.C., the first week of January 2011 for his inauguration as a United States Representative. That trip was priceless. Did I mention it was my first time flying...EVER? 

The work year has been a complete roller coaster! It's been go, go, go since day one and there doesn't seem to be any slowing down in sight. I'm just thankful to be getting a couple days off for the Christmas holiday!

I'll add a pic from DC when I get on my laptop!

My husband, Bradley, has 4 beautiful sisters. Their names are, in order by age, Katy, Lauren, Katelyn and Lindsay. I mention this now, because there will be plenty of references throughout the posts.

Lauren recently graduated from Texas Tech University where she was a fashion design student. In May we went up to Lubbock for her Senior Fashion Show. It did not disappoint. Not only were her pieces amazing, but she won a national award for her Men's Jeans design. Along with this award was a trip to Colombia and Guatemala to visit manufacturing plants, the winners even had about a dozen of their winning items "mass" produced. It was such a great experience for her!

 Lauren - Receiving the award plaque for her Men's Jeans design.

 

 The winning style in action.

In August I made a trip back up to Lubbock in August with Brad's mom to help move Katelyn into her new apartment. It was definitely a fun filled weekend. Everyone's inner interior designer came out and the final product was a masterpiece!

 Kate's cute little bedroom.

...and her matching bathroom!

Lauren demonstrating the new living area!

Katelyn's first day of her Sophomore year at Texas Tech University!

About two weeks after the move-in, Brad's family made a trip back up to Lubbock for Lauren's graduation. Sadly, we were both on the clock that weekend and weren't able to make it. We're still so proud of his little sister though!

 Lauren and her fiance Blaine on graduation day!

 Just two short months later it was time for our next road trip. This time, Bradley and I made the long drive to Longview for Lauren and Blaine's WEDDING! It was hands down the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to. They are so in love and it was just amazing seeing that love flourish into the next stage of their life together.

 The big kiss!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday of the year. There's just something about the season in itself, I just get that "homey" feeling when November rolls around. There's also the element reliving how much you have been blessed over the year and being thankful for your friends and family. This year was probably the most calm Thanksgiving we've ever had. It was just, perfect. We had lunch at Bradley's parents house. Lauren and Blaine were there, along with his parents and grandparents. After lunch, we went home for our post-turkey coma and then my mom came to spend the afternoon with us.

 Getting ready to enjoy our feast!

Finally, we're catching up with our timeline of the year! Last weekend, on December 17, Brad's sister, Katy, and one of my very best friends, Brittany, both graduated from Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. Katy graduated with her Bachelors in Psychology and Brittany graduated with her Masters in Education. I'm so proud of both of them!

 Our newest graduate - Katy Hajek!

 Not the best pic, but here's Brittany fresh off the stage!

So now we are completely caught up on the last year! I have a couple more posts to come regarding my recent craftiness, that will be a post in itself, and a post about the upcoming holidays! Hopefully I can actually keep up with this thing from now on! I envy my friend Sara for being able to keep up with hers so well.