kai's first birthday

i realize i'm like 3 months late with this... but we've been busy. :-)

here's a few pics in case you couldn't make it... and if you did make it, thank you so much for coming and for all of the wonderful gifts! we felt so blessed to have so many people want to share in kai's special day!

this is my first attempt at making a cake for a child... kinda rough around the edges... but i did the best i could! the cupcakes above were lovely thanks to annie's cupcake decorating skillz!


kai didn't seem to mind that it wasn't aesthetically pleasing...


and ate mostly frosting...


but didn't take long to say in her own words - enough's enough!


kai had lots of friends and family come to the salem house for her shin-dig







kai opened some awesome gifts...with the help of bff, noli... (this picture is awesome)


and crashed pretty quickly in her swing outside!



pics of the move and such coming soon... maybe this week if you're lucky!

****ps... if you're picture is on here and you would like it removed, just email me and i'll gladly take it down... no questions asked, no hard feelings!****

Arizona bound!

so... we're about 99% sure we're heading to arizona on may 11th (we're still waiting on the "official" details from shawn's company - say a prayer we get them tomorrow!)... we have that date because it's the date we're closing on our house! we sold it in about a month, without a realtor, and for 15% more than we paid two years ago! we're pretty proud of all the work we've done and feel very blessed that we will get back what we've invested into it in this market!

so... on to more exciting stuff!

we went out to phoenix to visit (shawn's first time - he loved it!) and find a place to live... we will be living here until we find a house.... which hopefully will be in the next seven months!

we did a little sight-seeing, but mainly drove around different parts of town to get a feel for where we might want to buy a house. shawn also spent a day at his new office and met some of his new coworkers. when i picked him up, he was like a giddy school-boy... we're very excited about the move!

shawn was only there for the weekend... we stayed in this funky hotel (very reasonable) in scottsdale.

and then i headed down to agritopia to spend a few days with my friend jill from college... our girls had so much fun together! i'm so excited to be able to see them more often and to let the girls "grow up together"

i drove back yesterday and today and came home to a mess! shawn started "packing" - it looks like the house exploded! we have so much to do before may 11th! shawn did sell his truck today (even made some money on it!) and we've sold some of our furniture... we're having a moving sale next weekend (may 1st - 3rd)... so come by and take a look... we may have something you just can't live without! and tell your friends too! 1815 salem st 75061

ok... i'm off to watch a couple of episodes of lost! i'll try to get some pics of the little darling up soon, but life's pretty crazy right now!

a-town

So... We went to Austin for my 30th and kai's 1st birthday. I realize
I am over a month late in posting this, but I've been trying to go
through some 300 pictures that I took that weekend and edit some good
ones. I'm still learning how to use my new camera... So it's taken me
a while to sit down and play with them on photoshop. But you guys
aren't all that interested in all that, are you? Here's what we did...
With some pictures in case you are one of those "I don't read unless I
have pictures" kinds folk (shawn).


2.19.09

Started the trip off with a bang... stopping in pflugerville to visit cousin melissa! she was so gracious to let us stay with her and even slept on her sleeper sofa so we could have the comfy bed!


2.20.09 - suzy's 30th birthday!

melissa left early to head to oklahoma to be with her dad... so we didn't get to visit long... but we did stop by her store - which is the nicest wally world i've ever been in - and shawn picked up my cake while i got a really decent pedicure!


after the morning's errands, we met up with kari and rob to head down to lockhart, texas... home of the country's best bbq and filming local for one of my all time favorite movies, waiting for guffman!
the bbq places there are not typical restaurants... you enter through a soot-covered hallway and go through a smoky room where you buy your meat by the pound...




then you go into the actual restaurant and order your sides and drinks and dig in... no forks on premises!


we filled up on yummy meat, white bread and iced tea and walked around downtown for a bit... it's like most small-town downtown squares in texas... not much to see or do.

we headed back to a-town (about 15 minutes north) and checked into our home-away-from-home that we found on this awesome site... www.homeaway.com... we split the very reasonable rent with our friends, the anderson's and my buddy tyna who flew in on a whim from phoenix.... so it was great!






friday night, we went to the original chuy's on barton springs for my birthday dinner!





with full tummies, we headed back to the house to rest up for a busy day on saturday!

2.21.09 - kai's 1st birthday!

we woke up and headed up the street to juan in a million's... yummy cheap breakfast tacos!

and then headed out to visit catherine on the farm! they had six-day old piglets which kai thoroughly enjoyed with an excited "eeeee" the whole time we were here. we also visited the chicken coop and toured the veggies that were planted!







after the farm, we headed back to downtown and hit up so-co for some fun window-shopping and of course, more yummy food! we visited hey cupcake! to get kai's birthday "cake" and grubbed on some yummy pizza!


saturday night, we took it easy and lounged around the house with some wine and good
conversation (after the babes went to sleep!)


sunday morning we woke up and packed up and cleaned up... we stopped by zilker park for the mini-train ride before we ate our last austin meal at huts and headed back to the plex!






it was an awesome trip and i am so thankful for good friends that ventured out with us and made my thirtieth and kai's first so memorable!

our little monkey's birthday party coming soon!

our house, is a very, very, very fine house!

so... some of you have heard the news that we are most likely relocating to phoenix in a couple of months! it is exciting and scary to think about... and nothing's official yet, so i hope we're not getting our hopes up in vain... but we've put the house on the market anyway. we scrambled like mad, and thanks to the habitat for humanity store, were able to put our finishing touches on updating the home before sunday... when we had our first showing!

here are some pics of the house in all it's glory:

our austin trip, kai's party and a trip to the arboretum coming soon!