The Many Adventures of Home Ownership: Fence Edition

A couple of months ago we had a very intense "wind storm" here in Austin.  Now, I know what all you guys living in the midwest or on the east coast are thinking...how can anyone in Austin complain about the weather?  And you're right...except that the crazy wind knocked down a portion of our fence and broke a piece of our storm door!

Luckily, adjacent to our back fence is a wire belonging to that property, so we were in no hurry to fix it.  Especially since Marcie likes the new view! 

Jump forward to 2 days ago when another insane wind storm came through town.  More fence down and this time it is the fence adjacent to our eastern neighbor.  Boo! 

As you can probably see, she has a very nice yard with no weeds and it is well kept...whereas we have a dog and a new baby and little experience with landscaping.  So we really don't want Marcie pooping in the neighbors yard.  Time to call in the fence repair experts.  Hope it won't be too expensive! Any suggestions from those of you that live in Austin??

We brought in all of Marcie's toys from outside (for some reason she always takes them out there and leaves  them.)  She was watching me the whole time.  I think she was trying to figure out what we were doing!

Once everything was inside it didn't take her long to make a mess!  She doesn't seem to like when her toys are in the "toy box."

Logan & Marcie...best friends :)

I just had a few minutes of time (Nora is sleeping!!!) and I decided to get pictures from the camera memory card onto the internet.  I was thinking of pictures of Nora, but I discovered some adorable pictures of Logan and Marcie that Shawn took last week sometime.  They are precious!  Logan just adores Marcie and she loves him...even when he is being a pest ;)

Marcie was just minding her own business.  Enjoying her moment relaxing in the one sunny spot.  But oh no...here comes Logan!

Here's a cute picture of Logan sitting in his special chair with a juice box in his jammies.  Perfect!

Best Dog Ever!

My sweet Marcie has been so patient these last few months as I prepared for the arrival of little Nora.  She totally knew something was coming, but I don't know if she was exactly prepared for another little person to arrive.  Especially since I would have to start dividing my attention...although she did know that I was distracted already.  The last 6 weeks of the pregnancy she decided she would start acting out around the house.  Getting into the trash was her favorite thing, but she also started getting into stuff she never had gone near before.  She got my sunglasses out of my purse and destroyed them.  She got a box of cookies off the high counter in the kitchen and ate them all.  Girl Scout cookies.  Bad dog.  I am sure it was all related to the imminent arrival of Nora, so I was hoping all would be better when she came.  Luckily she won't have to be alone much for the next few months since I'll be home on maternity leave.

So Nora's here now and Marcie has been great with her so far!  She likes to give her kisses but is not really sure about Nora's tummy time yet.  During tummy time when Nora's little legs get kicking Marcie gets kind of weirded out :)  She stays right there though and watches her.  She has been using the bed I made for the nursery and lays in there with me during the night when Nora and I are awake.  I think Marcie has adjusted great to our new bundle of joy and they are gonna be great friends!!

Since I had Shawn take Marcie to get her nails cut today, I decided we would go for a walk and Marcie, of course, was totally pooped out when we got home (but she totally loved it!).  She decided to take her nap in Logan's tent, which she hasn't done it awhile.  I got a couple of cute pictures I wanted to share.

My beautiful Marcie Moo!

Here are some random pictures of the other loves in my life too.  Nora hasn't taken over everything yet :)

Look at that face...he's getting ready to start some trouble making!

My baby brother snuggling with Marcie.  I can't believe he's gonna be in college soon...

Logan decided that laying on Abuelita's back would be the most comfortable spot?

Packing away Christmas...

It is that time again.  Time to pack away all the Christmas stuff.  Normally I am so fast about getting everything up and that gives me a lot of time to enjoy it...not so this year!  I was so pokey about getting my decorations up, and now it's time to put them away already :(   I could leave them out longer, but seeing as the baby is coming sometime in the next month, I figure I should get everything put away otherwise it may be out until summer!

This year I did get a few Pinterest Christmas projects done (and partially finished another).  Here are my Christmas projects for this year.

This garland looked like it would be so easy...not so much!  I struggled with this but I knew it would turn out great so I made myself keep at it...and it did turn out great!  I am going to make some more for next year so it goes all the way up the stairs.  Love it!

I thought this would be such a cool way to display Christmas cards we received.  Just attach ribbon to the cabinets and attach cards with little clips.  Easy!

Easiest project yet...especially since we already had the wreath!

Didn't quite get this one finished, but next year there will be 4 knobs across the bottom to hold stockings.

Now for a few of Logan that didn't get posted from Christmas.  Shawn went over to Mimi's house Christmas morning and took some pictures since I was at work.  Here he is enjoying his new bike in his Christmas pj's.

Could this kid be any cuter???

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Cookies and Hallmark

The annual cookie tree turned out beautiful...and delicious...as usual!

Ingredients ready!  That box of cookie mix from Costco was one of the best purchases ever!!

The pregnant holiday chef...ready to go :)

Rolling and cutting out the cookies.  The cookie tree kit we use now we got 2 years ago from Crate & Barrel.  It is awesome!  We had an older one, but when I found this one I had to have it!

Ready for assembly.  Now is when Eric helps :)  Mostly so he can beg for cookies though!

The finished product!  Santa always enjoys his tree :)

Shawn and I were friends before we became a couple, but once we were a couple I started buying Hallmark Christmas ornaments each year.  I thought it would be a nice tradition to start and each year that something significant happened in our relationship I would try to find an ornament that "fit."  As I was putting up our ornament for this year on the tree, I realized that it would be nice to share our ornament journey.  So here it is:

2008: Our First Christmas Together

2009

2010

2011

2012:  New Home

Next year we'll start a yearly tradition for Nora too!  So excited to buy a Baby's First Christmas ornament!  Plus we are heading out for some after Christmas deals today and I will hopefully find Nora's first stocking too :)

Had a Holly, Jolly Christmas!

Another Christmas has come and gone.  This year I had to take my turn at work, so I spent today at work with wonderful coworkers and beautiful tiny babies and their families.  It was a nice, quiet day in the NICU and we had an amazing pot luck meal...that was DELICIOUS!  I work with some fantastic cooks!

We didn't have any extra family around for Christmas this year...mostly because everyone wants to come visit after Nora and Amelia arrive.  So we'll have lots of visitors in Feb, March and April, but we had a quiet Christmas.  We did our family Christmas on Christmas Eve.  It was great!

We opened all the gifts from each other and from our out of town family that sent them to us.  Logan opened his gifts from his Mom and Dad....and Santa....this morning.

Merry Christmas!  The 34 week baby bump is getting big!!

The McLachingson Family (Shawn coined this name but we like it!).  Logan did not want to cooperate, and neither did Marcie!

 

Marcie looked so festive in her pretty scarf :)

She certainly loved her Christmas bone!!  She barely got through one of the knots on Christmas Eve, but we'll let her munch it for a little while each day til she's done!  The gift that keeps on giving!

The babies even managed to get some loot!  Gifts for Amelia and Nora (mostly from Abuelita...of course!)

Logan's favorite gift of the day...this cool wooden train with farm animals.  Uncle Shawn picked it out and Logan loved it!!

As soon as it was time for us to open our presents the little man decided he wanted some attention.  So he emptied this red "toy chest" and decided to wander around the center of the room posing for the camera.  Could he be any cuter???

We basically had a great day and ate yummy food.  I made the annual cookie tree with Eric, but I'll post that another day.  Now it's time for sleeping for me!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Christmas!!

We finally managed to take pictures for our Christmas card.  Finally!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Hopefully we'll get them in time to get them out before Christmas...