Somebody likes Winsty....

New road, new carpet

Michael said our room looked like a hotel. Pardon the clothes on the bed...i didn't know he was planning on taking a pic. It is defintily an amazing improvement! Before was dingy, ratty, stained tan carpet. Now we have a luxurious darker tan..feels great on bare feet!

This is off trimmier...the road they've been "working" on for a year. One of the houses has a couple HUGE longhorns. Michael keeps envisioning those horns up on our wall...so far i've been able to defer him from any antlers or horns in our decorating. Well see how long that lasts.

2-8 CAV Ball

3.5 yrs and 1 baby later....dress still fits!! (Thanks for the dress Mom!)

Yes, standing in front of the truck was Michael's idea. Nothing says high class like your F-150 as a backdrop for your formal pics!

Micheal's sporting some new bling this ball...including his bronze star ribbon! If you're really good (i couldn't tell you), you can figure out which one that is :)

Michael & 1SGT Lopez

Last night we attended the 2-8 cav ball. Our sweet friend Jill kindly watched Gabe for us and we had a fancy night out. Michael had to get all decked out in his blues, i got to recycle an old west point formal gown (i wore this to Michael's 100th night) and i was mucho excited it fit post baby! It was fun seeing everyone dressed up and meet a bunch of Michael's soldiers from both Bandog and Sapper. The Sappers were definitely one of the rowdiest groups--which was very enjoyable. I especially liked that all the sappers stood when Nicole Shaw (the sapper commander's wife and FRG leader) was awarded for all her hard work during the deployment. We only joined sapper 1/2 way through the tour, but she was excellent at passing along information, encouragement and being very accessible to all the wives and families of sapper...so she really deserved to be recognized! The speaker...some general whose name i don't remember... gave a short and sweet speech which was awesome. After the social hour, greeting line, presentation of the colors, grog ceremony, dinner, awards presentation, slide show....it was getting to be a pretty long night by the time the general was supposed to speak. We left soon after the dancing begun, we were pooped! I guess were turning into lame, old, tired married people after all :)!
Us with our friends Billy & Sara

Michael and some bandogs

Michael & a bunch of sapper soldiers

Alexis & I

Pedernales Falls

Gabe LOVES the pack now...and fits really good in it now!

This is post toe-dipping. I had to coax him to give me a little smile since he thought Daddy might dip him again!

Mommy's safe...she won't stick me in that cold water

This past Thursday predicted low 70s /sunny. That, combined with Michael's desperate yearning to be outside hiking, led us down to the Pedernales Falls, a "close" texas state park that was a mere 2.5 hrs away. It actually was really fun and relaxing. We opted not to bring the dogs (seeing as it was spring break and this park had a leash law) and packed up a nice lunch, Gabe, baby sunscreen and headed out! Gabe of course, finally fell asleep 10 mins before reaching the park. So Michael & I ate our lunch in the truck bed while Gabe snoozed for 20 mins. Then we stripped him down to shorts and a t-shirt, an improvised sun hat, slathered him and Daddy in sunscreen and headed to the falls. The Falls were beautiful! I think it's the best park we've been to so far. I admit I was apprehensive at best...the past two parks we've visited were long drives and kinda lame (aka Colorado bend and lost maples) so i was pleasantly surprised this park was so nice! There was a beach, i got to lay in the sand and sunbathe a bit. Sun & sand = happy Laurie! Gabe was not so pleased about forced wading...everytime Michael dipped him in the water (and it was chilly) he screamed. But he was thrilled to sit on the beach blanket and play with stones and watch daddy skip rocks. He also doesn't like ANY sand on his feet. After Michael let me bask in the sand as long as he could stand it...(and one incident of gabe face planting in the sand and all on-lookers gasping..no worries he was fine!) we decided to head out for our hike. We did about a 4 miler and Gabe did great! He even drank out of the camel-back, little genius that he is! All in all it was a fun day, we enjoyed breaking in our new hiking boots and being in the glorious sun!

Texas can be pretty!

550 cord can be used for everything! Michael rigged up that chin strap which worked awesome. Not to mention is super cute!

Our little genius. started sucking out the water immediately. Michael kindly pointed out that it was probably instinctual..except when it came to nursing from me!!

Ahh, some yummy applesauce on the trail. Does life get any better? :)

Friday morning brunch

Eggs & bacon....$10.00

White-chocolate raspberry scones...$8.00

Gorgeous tile/grout/seal/quickset....$250

....Sitting down to a fabulous brunch on a FRIDAY morning atop a glorious completed tile floor using our china and sipping freshly brewed tea while the baby conveniently takes a nap so we can actually enjoy it....PRICELESS!

We've had a wonderful 4-day weekend so far, how about you?

Busy busy weekend

We've been SUPER busy all weekend...which explains my lack of blogging for a few days. Michael & I have been working like dogs to finish up the kitchen..which turns out is a big kitchen! It took 180 tiles, 1 large bucket of concrete, two bags of grout, 4 trips to lowes and 2 take-out dinners. But it is almost complete and that means i can start cooking again! The fridge and oven will go back in tonight and table and chairs will follow tommorow. All that is left is some sealing which is actually easy. Were really happy with how it turned out...it really looks awesome. Pics will follow as soon as everything is back in it's rightful place. Since we had either tile, or concrete or grout laying around, we had to barricade Gabe into the family. You can imagine Mr. social was none to pleased about this arrangement and on numerous occasions screamed bloody murder until someone came and played with him. That was fun. He also tried to wedge himself through the table to get to us. This meant i couldn't really help Michael until it was either naptime or bedtime! Anyways here are a few pics of him in the isolation chamber...

A Guest Bathroom: Makeover Edition

Ahh here are the photos you've all been waiting for! Well a few of them anyways. Michael did the wonderful/tedious/time consuming/money saving deed of tiling. His first project ever was our guest bathroom (aka gabe's bathroom). I was so sick of the yucky, stained, gouged linoleum that never looked clean after i mopped and scrubbed! SO here's a quick look:!!
Here are some before shots i dug up. Talk about disgusting! We put a new toilet seat in, new fixtures, fresh shower curtain and spent and entire weekend stripping that ghastly wallpaper. We painted it a nice turquoise-sea foam color and made it our tropical bathroom. But the floor stayed the same dingy white and kinda took away from the whole cheerful look i was going for.

Ta da!!! Looks wonderful doesn't it!! Michael did SUCH a good job (despite mistakes he claims he can find) he agrees it's quite the improvement! For his first time ever tiling with NO HELP at all... he did awesome. I'm totally in love. with Michael too :)

The pics really dont do it justice. You'll just have to come visit and feel the glorious cool tile on your feet and you'll be amazed!

Cameron Park Zoo

I love to ride up on Daddy's shoulders! Look at the tigers behind me!

My little gorilla



The guys in front of the bald eagles. The female was missing and eye and the male was missing a chunk of his wing. Since bald eagles are the national emblem they cant be placed in a zoo unless injured. Michael read that on the information plaq by the cage...it was interesting because Michael was angry at first that the ealges were given such a small enclosure. Then we read why and felt better. These birds wouldn't survive on their own in the wild.

Busy little man!

This past Saturday we decided to hit up the zoo in Waco rather than try to tile the kitchen (he'll get to it eventually). It was a well-deserved break for Michael who has tiled both bathrooms and the foyer (and they all look fabulous)! It was pretty crowded at the zoo, we called it the "stroller parade" because it was baby/toddler central. So we fit right in with Gabers. He was more interested in watching the ppl/children walk by him than actually looking at the animals. We want to take he back when he starts walking because the zoo has all kinds of kid stations for them to climb and run on. I had to restrain Michael from going down the slide himself :)

Grams & Gramps Pilon should recognize this teepee. Remember last visit? Gabe was 4 weeks old, freshly casted and slept through the whole visit! Ahh those were the days. My mom predicted we'd come back with Michael....We actually had a warmer day end of Feb when I went with my parents than with Michael. Crazy Texas weather!

Irish cream pie

Totally delish. And surprisingly nutrish (only 3 tbsp of sugar)! If you're lucky/ come visit, i'll prob make this for you!

Bragworthy

When you're a new mom, inevitably you're going to meet those other moms who LOVE to brag about their baby's achievements. I was warned. And they are out there..I'm sure you know who i'm talking about. Their baby does everything first...rolling over, crawling, walking...etc. Well great. I'm here to brag about my baby..who, by the way, is way better than any other baby out there!

What brought this on? you might ask. Well i had saved Gabe's first set of casts (to fix his club feet) and I brought them out to show Michael and it dawned on me how amazing Gabe is. He may not be a "high speed" baby in terms of gross motor (rolling, crawling, walking..) but he is the most friendly, tolerant baby i know. For example, at 3 weeks old when he was first casted, he barley cried. The doc. and tech were amazed. They said most babies almost blow out their ear drums! One dose of baby Tylenol and he was set. Usually babies are casted immediately after delivery...so they just have the casts on from day 1 virtually. Gabe had to adjust a little bit later. He also never cried when they had to be sawed off weekly (for 4 weeks). Then he was un-phased by the little plastic braces he had to wear. Only woke up a few times in the night when he was switched to the ghastly denis brown bar brace (looks like a medieval torture device).

He has been in the to new mexico and back twice. To new york and back twice. That's about 3500 miles in the car. with two dogs. and no dvd player. Would you want to do that with an infant? He'll eat on the go. He gave up formula and the bottle without a fight. He smiles at EVERYONE! No separation anxiety or mommy issues. He'll let anyone hold him, watch him, play with him. He's amazing! And he grew 12 inches in his first year and gained 22 lbs! Not to shabby for a mini-hulk.

Plus...he's just the cutest thing ever. Have you seen those glorious blue eyes? Also, he's a sharp little bugger. Tries to copy everything we do and takes in everything! here's the proof of his adorableness :)

The roses were from Michaels. He's a keeper :)

Bosque Del Apatche

So on our return home from New Mex we decided to take an alternative route and head south first and visit the Bosque...a gorgeous wetlands full of migratory birds. It was a great stop, albeit this new route was an 18 hr day in the car versus 12. Therefore i think we'll take the usual way from now on. No matter, we saw tons of pretty birds: sand hill cranes, snow geese (made me think of the notebook), bald eagles,golden eagles, a quail, bluebirds and all kinds of ducks. Very interesting place! The birds were torturing the poor dogs who wanted to hunt them very badly.