Preggie Piggy Party

There are quite a few pregnant girls at church right now. It is so much fun to be surrounded by friends going through the same things you are. I am one of the only ones expecting my first, so it is nice to have lots of friends to get advice and ideas from!

My friend, Megan, came up with this fun idea to have a party for pedicures and snacks to pig out on. Our sweet non-pregnant friends washed and massaged our feet and then painted our toe nails. I will admit that I was a little nervous about having someone else take care of my feet for me, but it was a fun night with a great group of girls! We laughed, ate, and shared lots of fun stories. Thanks Megan for your great idea, and thanks Kaylee for a great pedicure!

Here is a picture (in order of due date) of some of the preggies from a shower a few weeks ago.

Britney (August), Amber (September), Keri (October),

Me (October), Mindi (November), Julie (December)

Man's Best Friend

Mat loves having a dog (most of the time) and George loves Mat. When Mat leaves in the morning, George grabs his leash and sits by the door waiting to go too. He loves to be chased around the house by Mat, and he loves when Mat sits on the floor with him and scratches his belly. George is in for a rude awakening when Baby comes home, but I think he'll adjust and love having someone else to play with (eventually...). Here are a few pictures I've taken of George and Mat over the last few weeks.

George watching Mat work in the yard. I open up all the blinds, and he moves from window to window following Mat around the yard.

Mat holding George's bone while George chews. I love how George puts his paw on Mat's arm just to make sure Mat isn't going anywhere.

Waiting for Mat to come out of the bedroom. The other day (while Mat was at work), George fell asleep by the bedroom door waiting on him.

Playing before bath time

Happy Birthday Mat!

Mat loves to try new things around town and experience Austin. For his birthday this year, he wanted to celebrate by eating at one of his favorite Austin restaurants- Shady Grove. He loves anything with Green Chile sauce, so this is one of his favorites. We don't eat there very often, but we enjoyed it!

As Mat was getting ready for work that morning, we were talking about how birthdays just aren't the same when you're older and have to go to work on your special day. I said something about how you don't even get to take cupcakes to work with you (like you do in 2nd grade!). We decided this was a perfect time to try a new Austin favorite, Hey Cupcake, for a birthday cupcake.

Mat ordered 2 cupcakes- a Standard (white cake with chocolate icing) and a Red Velvet- one to eat there and one to save for later.

Baby Kelso enjoyed his share of the cupcake too! He was doing flips after I finished my Michael Jackson (chocolate cake with white buttercream icing) cupcake.

After our cupcakes, we drove around downtown and even stopped to see the bats fly out from the Congress Avenue bridge. We were a little late and ended up having to watch them from the parking lot, but it was still impressive! My mom was here for the night, and I know she enjoyed getting to celebrate with Mat and see a different side of Austin than she is used to!

Sneak Peek

Mat and I spent this past weekend in Kingwood. Our goal for the weekend was to get plans started for the nursery bedding (which Mat's mom is making). We had picked out this bedding set that we liked, and luckily we were able to order the coordinating fabrics to add in other parts of the nursery.

Before we ever started the nursery, I told Mat that he had to be a part of the planning. He has very specific ideas about what he does and does not like. Even after being together for so long, some of the things he picks out still surprise me. I don't think he was excited about spending the day looking for fabric and decorations for the nursery, but he survived!

Saturday morning we went to the fabric store and picked out more fabric to go into the quilt, window treatment, and other elements of the nursery, and that afternoon we went to an enormous baby store in Houston to get some more ideas for the room. It was a neat store that had tons of nurseries set up. We picked out a glider, found some decorative things for the nursery that we loved, and found a quilt pattern.

We are so excited to have bedding made with love especially for Baby Kelso, and we can't wait to see what it all looks like in his room!

The 4th

This year to celebrate the 4th we had a house full of visitors- my parents, my grandparents, and my sister and her husband.  It wasn't a very relaxing weekend for our visitors because we put them to work while they were here!  

We picked up the nursery furniture and put it together.  

Pop, Dad, and Mat figuring out the instructions

Supervising

Putting on the finishing touches

Finished product (minus a mattress and bedding!)

We installed 3 new ceiling fans and dimmer switches.  

Mat and Kyle working 

Mat and Pop

Me, Blair and Gigi

I know Mat enjoyed having Pop and Dad around for their expertise and knowledge of electrical work!  They even helped diagnose a problem with our air conditioner Sunday morning before church! I realized that I have no pictures of my mom from this weekend.  She kept herself busy (as usual) by cooking and keeping the house cleaned up so that I didn't have to!  Thanks Mom! 

We had a few games of Scrabble (very important for any Herman family gathering), played with the Wii, and enjoyed catching up.  Blair even managed to study for her test on Monday! Saturday night we enjoyed an old-fashioned American meal- hamburgers and hotdogs, peach cobbler, and homemade vanilla ice cream.  After dinner, we went out into the backyard and watched the Pflugerville Pfireworks from the comfort of our own home!  I loved not having to deal with the crowds and traffic after the show.  George even enjoyed watching the fireworks! We loved having everyone here for the weekend! 

Hot! Hot! Hot!

George is not a fan of the record-breaking heat we've had around here the last few days!  The other day I was putting him outside to eat, and he went and crawled into his kennel.  I guess he was trying to tell me, "I'd rather be locked up in here than be sitting in that heat!"  Sunday, Mat and I decided to get a small baby pool to help George cool off and give him some entertainment outside.  

At first he wasn't exactly sure what to do and just thought we'd gotten him a huge new chew toy!  

We threw the ball in the water, and he enjoyed splashing around.  

Finally, after the sun went down, (and we were ready to bring him in for the night) he figured out that he would cool off just sitting in the water!

San Francisco

Mat's family celebrates 30th birthdays with special trips.  A few years ago the girls went to New York to celebrate Mindy's birthday, and this year we got to go to San Francisco to celebrate Marilee's 30th!  

We left early (4:30 am) Thursday morning so we could maximize our time in San Francisco! We drove to Sausalito to check out our condo for the weekend.  It was amazing... I wish I had taken some pictures.  We had a great view of downtown across the bay.  That afternoon we took a harbor cruise under the Golden Gate bridge and around Alcatraz. The water was rough, but there were quite a few sail boats and kite boarders out on the bay.  I can't imagine swimming in that cold water!  After the cruise, we had some delicious clam chowder in a bread bowl at Fisherman's Wharf and took in some more beautiful views of the bridge at an overlook.  

Friday was spent driving into the wine country and exploring 2 different wineries.  We enjoyed the drive and taking in the views.  At the first winery we had beautiful views of the wine country, got to go into their wine caves, and learned a lot about the process of making their wine.  I didn't participate in any tastings, but I heard that the wine was good!  After lunch we visited a second winery and got to ride a tram up the hill to the winery. We took a self-guided tour (and didn't learn near as much!) but enjoyed the views here also.  

Saturday we drove up to Muir Woods.  It is a small grove of redwoods just a few miles from downtown San Francisco. This was one of Mat's favorite parts of our trip a few years ago.  We took a short hike through the park and enjoyed the amazing trees.  The picture to the right is of all 4 of us inside a tree!  Saturday night we headed to AT&T Park to watch the a baseball game.  It is a neat ballpark with great views of the bay!  Once the sun went down it was a chilly night, but we enjoyed the game.

We spent Sunday finishing up our list of "must-dos" before heading home.  We drove down Lombard street (the crookedest street), shopped and enjoyed some crepes at Pier 39, and took in some more views of the city on a trolly ride.  It was a wonderful girl trip!  Happy Birthday Marilee!