Well Done, Edgar

In 2004, Edgar Renteria of the St. Louis Cardinals grounded out softly to the pitcher on a play that gave the Boston Red Sox their first World Series title since 1918. The Cardinals took the title in 2006, but I know I'm not the only fan who was a little disappointed that Edgar wasn't celebrating with them. That was corrected (a little bit) tonight.

Two years after Willie McGee's retirement, the position of "favorite active baseball player" was open (after briefly being filled by Tony Gwynn), and Renteria stepped in nicely. I was, I believe, the first person to sponsor his page on Baseball-Reference.com, and he was the first player I ever chose in a fantasy draft. Congratulations on winning the 2010 World Series MVP--you deserve it.

Week 24

Today Brandi is at 24 weeks, which puts us at the precipice of the third trimester (most say the third trimester begins at 28 weeks, which is mathematically problematic, which is why many others say 25 or 26 weeks). Lately the baby has started kicking Brandi quite a lot--for her it is very exciting to be kicked all of the time, and for me it is very exciting but also like a cop on a stakeout, placing my hand on her belly and waiting patiently for something to happen. She has gained 11 pounds thus far, and I think you'll agree she carries it well. Here are some pictures of the belly:

Week 21


Week 23


Week 24

It Never Rains in Southern California

Sunday Brunch in Old Town

http://picasaweb.google.com/daniel.lauve/SanDiegoSeptember2010

September is usually about the time that we decide it's time for us to get away. As an event planner, my work load is cyclical, with one of my busiest times of the year coming at the end of the summer. This year the largest event I manage moved to early September. So when we thought about going somewhere, it worked great with my schedule to plan a vacation right around the middle of September.

I wanted to go somewhere that would be relaxing, with mild weather and with a laid back agenda. San Diego fit that description perfectly. Once we decided where we are going we invited my parents to go along with us, and Daniel got set on mapping out our trip.

I might be the professional event manager, but when it comes to vacations, Daniel takes the lead. He does the research and figures out the best flights, routes, schedule and sights for us. While I do have some veto power, I am so grateful for all he does! My parents learned how great this was too, as Daniel worked up an itinerary for us prior to our leaving:

Friday A.M.-Flights arrive in San Diego
Friday P.M.-Lunch in Balboa Park, San Diego Zoo, Dinner in Gas Lamp
Saturday A.M.-Morning run in Mission Bay
Saturday P.M.-Coronado Island, Dinner in Little Italy
Sunday A.M.-Church & brunch in Old Town
Sunday P.M.-Chargers game for Daniel & Dad, Trolley Tour for Mom & me
Monday A.M.-Breakfast at the hotel, Mom & Dad depart for Jasper
Monday P.M.-Reading & pool time for Daniel and me, depart for Austin

One of the highlights of the zoo was getting to see the elephants; as you can tell from the other pictures I was on an elephant kick! The panda cub wrestling with his mom was really a sweet moment to witness.


Here's my daddy and me before our Saturday morning run on Mission Bay:


Coronado Island, with it's hotel, The Del, is an impressive part of San Diego's history to visit. The beach is beautiful, and SO COLD.




Mom and me getting time to stop and smell the roses (read: shop) while the guys went to the Chargers game.


It was such a nice long weekend, and when we returned home we celebrated our 3rd anniversary on September 22, 2010. It was a special night as we realized it was our last anniversary where it would be just the two of us. Daniel and I feel so blessed for the growth of our relationship and the love that we have for each other in our early years of marriage. This San Diego trip was the sweet culmination of our first 3 years together before the official beginning of our family!

p.s. We both thought this would be a good title--for different reasons. Daniel associates the title with a 70s AM pop standard from well before he was born, and Brandi thinks of the 90s R&B hit from Tony! Toni! Tone!

The Gender Reveal Party

This past weekend we had a great party where we revealed our baby's sex by cutting into a cake. Now, expectant parents haven't always been able to reveal the gender of their child-to-be by means of a cake. Early humans resorted to painting the results of the 20 week sonogram on the walls of a cave.

The idea for a gender reveal party came about when we decided that we (read: Brandi) wanted to find out early whether the baby going to be a boy or girl. I was somewhat indifferent, wanting to know but lamenting the loss of the moment where you storm out of the delivery room and announce, "It's a ____!" Enter the gender reveal party.

When we went in for our second trimester sonogram, we asked that the sonographer (not, as the name suggests, someone who draws sonograms but instead someone who reads them) let us know when she was going "down there" so we would not accidentally catch a sneak peak of the thing (or lack thereof) that we were going to reveal to our friends and family a week later. We had nothing to worry about. She detected the gender without our knowing about it, and the fact that we couldn't waltz in there and read a sonogram as well as she did definitely spoke well for the job security of sonographers. She wrote down the sex of the baby, put it in an envelope, and then put that inside another envelope. (Once we discovered we could not read sonograms we immediately developed a fear of being able to see through envelopes.)


We then took the envelopes to our friend Jenny Baer, who also baked our delicious pies and wedding cake almost three years ago. She then designed an amazing cake based on our invitations and used pink or blue icing on the inside of the cake so we would find out the sex when we cut into it.


We had the party at my aunt and uncle's house, and they did a great job decorating to the theme. There was a table with a spinner (you spin a spinner that lands on either a pink or blue section of the tablecloth, and then write your name where the spinner landed), a raffle for pink and blue gift baskets, and his and hers baby Texas A&M outfits.

(Sadly, these pictures were taken after half the party had departed. We wish we had thought to do a pink picture/blue picture earlier.)

Everyone was encouraged to wear a pink or blue shirt as a way of indicating a guess. Brandi wore blue and I wore pink, in accordance with our initial gut feelings about what the baby would be. As for the rest of the guests, there was probably a little more blue than pink (owing partially to the lack of pink shirts in many men's wardrobes, an affliction, I'm sorry to say, I also suffered until a few weeks ago).


The cake cutting was a moment we'll never forget. I cut out a good sized wedge, and while I was trying to get the knife underneath it, Brandi spied a little bit of blue icing. As I lifted the piece of cake, we all saw what Brandi had--there were three layers of blue icing amongst the inside of the cake. It was such a great moment to share with loved ones, and now we can spend the next 20 weeks planning for our baby boy. This will include painting the baby's room, stocking up on miniature sports stuff, and building a tolerance to SpongeBob SquarePants (half accomplished).


Thanks to Teresa for taking such great pictures of the party. To see the rest of the pictures, here's the link:
http://tree-of-souls.smugmug.com/Love-Nuggets/Its-a-Boy

Also, thanks to Courtney for taking our second trimester pictures out at Town Lake. They turned out awesome!

She's not sure if you're a boy or a girl

Today marks 19 weeks in the pregnancy! Monday was the special sonogram where we had the option to find out the sex of our baby. We chose to keep it a secret from ourselves for this week so that we could have many of our close family and friends join us in Houston for a Gender Reveal Party. Now I know what you are thinking, how could you possibly not peak inside the envelope? Well for one, I love surprises. I am the type of person who if you tell me to close my eyes because you want to give me something, I don't need a blindfold. And Christmas presents are always safe under my tree! If you know Daniel, he is cool as a cucumber. He is quiet and patient, and is the calm of my storm. The idea was brought about because we were discussing whether or not we wanted to know the sex early (I was never in doubt) and he mentioned that it was sad that the waiting room announcement was gone from the birth experience. So this party gives us the chance to say, "It's a ____!" Stay tuned for the details after Labor Day!

Monday was a big day for us and especially for me. I received two envelopes--one to tell me what the next greatest love of my life will be, and one that held the results of my hard work the first half of 2010. Again it was great news!! Both me and my study partner, Stormi passed the Certified Meeting Planner exam. All of our months of studying paid off--which made for a somewhat tiring first trimester--whew!

Enjoy these new belly pics from week 18 & 19!

17 Down, 23 To Go

This blog entry is a bit overdue, because today I am 17 weeks pregnant and well into my second trimester! On May 20th, we got the call from the doctor’s office that we have been waiting for for over a year. Our experience with infertility was many things, exciting, frustrating, stressful and sad. But most of all, we know now that God was preparing us to feel complete elation and gratitude when we got to hear the words “Your test result was positive—you’re pregnant!”

Over the previous several months, we had gone in for several IUI treatments, but we felt really good about the one in early May. It just seemed fitting that in the midst of lots of life changes (selling our first house and buying another to name a couple) I would get pregnant. Or maybe it was using injectable fertility drugs for the first time. Either way, Daniel and I both had wide smiles and butterflies at TFC that day.

The first trimester was pretty rocky--it included a trip to the emergency room and several follow-up doctor appointments for some very painful cysts (one positive was that we got to see the baby practically once a week via sonogram). In June, I got to sit (read: sleep) on the sidelines while many of the renovations were happening to our new house. There was nausea, which I learned I could keep at bay by eating protein snacks through the day, and overall lack of energy. Oh yeah, and my cravings included four different kinds of milk in one night (regular, chocolate, strawberry, and banana, which Daniel sought out for me on a whim) and my taste for salad became much like it had been as a child: unappetizing. The end of July and early August have felt better in many ways. My running has suddenly become easier again, even though it is hotter now; I had struggled to get my workouts in during early July. Sleeping has been a little tough--I think my body is just preparing itself for night feedings! In just two weeks we get to find out whether it’s a boy or a girl, which will really make it real, huh? So what are we leaving out? Hmm…oh yeah, the baby is due on January 29! We’ll compose a blog to talk about how we revealed the gender in September. For now, here are some pictures to show my progress, now 2 lbs and 2 inches in.


12 Weeks


15 Weeks


17 Weeks

South Bound

So we've been very busy in the last few months selling our house in North Austin, buying a new house in South Austin, and moving all our stuff into it. We are really settling in, and we love the new house so far. We've made a number of changes, and it's amazing how different the house looks from when we first bought it. Here is a list of the changes we have made:

• Tore out old (and pet stained) carpets; replaced with wood floors (downstairs) and new carpet (upstairs)
• Purchased a refrigerator
• Purchased a table for the breakfast area
• Cut down a dead tree in the back yard (thanks to Brandi's dad)
• Took down curtains
• Repainted the study and dining room (thanks to Brandi's parents)
• Repainted most of the living room (thanks to Brandi's parents)
• Spackled and touched up paint in the rest of the house, after an arduous color matching process
• Got a gently used bed for the guest bedroom upstairs (thanks to Daniel's parents)
• Replaced all downstairs door hardware
• Installed two ceiling fans upstairs
• Purchased a sectional for the living room

Daniel worked hard, can you tell?




Here's a few before and after pictures of the house:

Dining Room
Before:


After:


Kitchen
Before:


After:


Breakfast Area
Before:


After:


Living Room
Before:


After:


Master Bedroom 1
Before:


After:


Master Bedroom 2

Before:


After: