a little announcement...

Well hello there! You might have been wondering where the world I've been for the past few weeks. The main answer is working. But we've also been a little preoccupied in The Rose Household because...

We're having a baby!!!

I'm 13 weeks pregnant and we are overjoyed with the news! This is something that we have wanted for our family's future for as long as I can remember. We've been planning, and saving, and preparing for a little one for sometime and now that it's really happening - well, we couldn't be happier. I have always felt that I was put on this earth to be a mom and my heart swells when I realize that it is all happening.

Here are some details...

Due date:  Late September (a Libra!)

When/how we found out: I had a hunch about a week before we moved away from New York, but chalked up any irregularity to the stress of the move. But after another few days, we took the test the weekend we moved away. We joked that the only thing in our apartment was a couch and a positive pregnancy test. After a week in Kansas, a week unpacking in Texas, and a few days researching Dallas OBs, I finally found a doctor (who we love!) and made an appointment. Except that I couldn't remember or find my calendar with my dates in it, so we couldn't accurately figure out how far along I was. I guessed that I was maybe 5-6 weeks. A few days later I found my calendar and called the doctor back and we realized I was already 8 and a half weeks along! Time really did fly. I'm thankful that we were distracted with the move during those early weeks. It helped us not panic and worry too much in those early days.

How am I feeling?  I'm feeling great now! Although the first trimester was no cake walk. A few weeks of nausea and about two straight months of some serious fatigue. Let me just say that the struggle is real, my friends. I could barely stay awake to get through my work. (And thus the lack of any blog posting activity on here. Sorry y'all I was seepy.) So thankful that I was working from home so I could rest more. Bravo to those putting in full work days during the first trimester. I truly don't know if I could have done it.

Will you find out the sex? Of course! You know what planners Al and I are. I can't imagine not knowing (to all of you who can wait nine months for that surprise, I applaud you.) I like to have all the facts as soon as possible - so we will be finding out the gender here in a few weeks. Al swears it is a girl and I change my mind daily about what I think it is. We aren't rooting for any gender over the other - just a healthy baby is all we care about.

Any Cravings? SWEETS! And I'm not normally a sweets person. Nine times out of ten I would choose the salty snack over sweet. But that has changed completely. I find myself wanting donuts, pancakes, waffles, and pie all the time. Thankfully I don't indulge too much - that whole "eating for two" thing is a little misleading. I'm also craving fruit (a much better choice than donuts) and can't seem to get enough of sour fruits - pineapple, granny smith apples, key lime yogurt (?!). Overall, I'm trying to cram as many nutritious foods into my meals as possible...so that I can have pie for dessert. :) 

What will Lily think of the baby?! Lily has been the sweetest with me (per usual). She would nap every afternoon with me and generally stay near me at all times. Although, none of that is really out of the ordinary for her. I'm not too worried about how she'll be with the baby. She is great around babies and kids, and I think as long as she still gets some attention and isn't totally ignored when the baby arrives, she'll be okay. Fingers crossed.

Do you have a nickname or name for the baby yet? No pregnancy "bump-name". We tend to refer to it by whatever size fruit it is that week. So this week we have a baby peach. :) As far as real names - we have a few that we like but aren't even close to settling on any. I'm one of those people who always had a pretty good idea of my future children's names, but now I'm not so sure. It's so much pressure!! All I can say is that, for now, we mostly spend time coming up with names we won't use - names that absolutely do not work with our last name. (I.e. Any name that is a flower, color, season, month, our noun-like name). This is why we gave our dog the flower name. It's just not nice to name a human Lily Rose!

What do our families think? To say they are excited is an understatement. This will be the first grandchild for all six of the parents and boy are they ready. Phone calls consist of "what baby/pregnancy-related item can I send you" and "what should my grandparent name be?". Thinking this kid is going to be spoiled rotten!

The future: I have a few more weeks finishing up a project for work and then can really devote all of my time to this little baby I'm growing. :) I'm not sure what this means for The Rose Record just yet. I definitely don't think I'll be back to posting regularly, but I will pop in to give updates on my pregnancy and progress on our preparations for the little peach. But I also acknowledge that these next six months are the last in my life when I can really do whatever I want, without obligations or deadlines. I want to spend these next six months preparing and learning as much as I can. So I'll be around, but my focus will be on baby and not necessarily on TRR. If it seems a little quiet on here - you can always see what we're up to over on my Instagram.

But back to the point...we're having a baby!!!! Nothing in the world could make us happier. Both of us just cannot stop smiling. :) 

weekend recap

Hello! How was your Valentine's Day weekend? I had a long weekend (my office was closed yesterday) so my mom and sister came to visit and help set up our new place. I'm sure it didn't make for a very romantic Valentine's Day for Al, spending it with his mother-in-law and sister-in-law, but we've never been very big Vday people. And we got so much done; it was incredible! We also, of course, ate a lot (of Mexican food), laughed a lot, and shopped a little. Here are a few photos...

I received this lovely photo Thursday evening as my visitors headed South. Only an hour and fifteen minute flight and they still got slap happy. 

They arrived just in time for dinner - and to serve as our first dinner guests at our new table. I foresee many long dinners with friends and family around this table.

Friday we were up at 5:15am for our Camp Gladiator work out. Al and I have been going for two weeks now and really love it. Not only is it a good work out, but we are meeting new people too. I can't believe mom and Em (okay, mostly Emily) got up that early to come with us - especially because it was so cold that morning (the class is outside). We got there early, believe it or not; so what else do you do at 5:45am other than take a selfie?

Friday morning I worked and then we went furniture shopping (as you may recall, we need a lot of new furniture). We kind of struk out, but did get some ideas for things like rugs and end tables that I want to wait and buy until after our sofa arrives.  And here's Em modeling our new chair (kidding!).

Nothing to cure the I-can't-believe-we-didn't-buy-anything-blues than some Mexican food at Mia's. We'd been before when we came to Dallas to look for town homes, and thought it was the perfect hole-in-the-wall place for Mom and Emily. It was good (but not as good as I remembered - we had sort of a terrible server) and the margaritas strong. We'll be back, especially since it is minutes from our place.

Saturday - Valentine's Day! I made pancakes for the crew and we all opened our Valentines. Tea towels for the ladies and chocolates for Al.

^^ Lily got a special Valentine's Day treat too. As if she needed more toys.

And then we spent the entire rest of the day outdoors because it was 75 DEGREES! A walk on the Katy trail, followed by more shopping, and then a picnic on our roof deck (still no furniture, but we did get a cute outdoor rug). Perfection. Especially for mid-February.

Sunday started with a huge breakfast at Buzz Brews followed by the world's longest trip to Home Depot. 

^^ Roll your own breakfast scramble. Yes, please.

^^ Totally normal to make your brother-in-law cart you around the hardware store while shouting aisle numbers we need to hit.

Back at home, we put our Home Depot goods to work - a shelf and organized laundry room, a ridiculously tidy guest closet with Christmas storage (not pictured), and new flowers for our patio. I love that kind of productivity. Felt so good. But we were exhausted afterwards! Pizza and the SNL 40 special and we were out.

^^ I should have taken a before photo of the mountain of random stuff from which this originated.

^^ Lily was so curious. Also notice the spoon. We forgot to buy gardening tools.

^^ Quite possibly the three sleepiest girls of all time.

Monday after another early morning Camp Gladiator (for three of the four of us - I'll let you guess who slept in), we cleaned up and headed for lunch and a day of non-furniture shopping. Lunch at Mia Cocina (because it had been two whole days since our last dose of queso) and shopping our way around the West Village (the Dallas version, not the New York West Village). 

^^ One last back tickle for Miss Mayo from my mom.

And then we had to say our goodbyes and they were off to cold and snowy Kansas. A million thank yous to my mom and sister for all of the work they did while they were here. Our house wouldn't have begun to feel like a home without you! 

And now it seems so quite here today. Lily is keeping watch by her window to see if Mom and Em are coming back. 

Hope you had a productive weekend. Stay warm out there kids!

christmas recap

Hello!  Happy New Year! Hope you had a top notch holiday and a wonderful New Year. We sure did. I'll tackle our NYE recap in next week's Weekend Recap, but in the meantime we have lots to share from our week back home in Kansas. 

Here are a few photos from our Christmases with family...

After a rocky start - Why did we decide to take a 7 am flight? Why did our cab driver not know how to get to the airport? WHY did Newark decide to have only one metal detector for 1,000 people? - The three of us made it to Kansas City in time for a barbecue lunch.

^^ Lily does so well when we travel. She stays in her carrier and waits in line with us.

^^ This is how she rides in cars. The entire time. She loves her Deacon and Retta.

^^ Joe's BBQ. Burnt Ends yessssssssss.

That night we attended the wedding of our dear friends Kevin and Sarah. It was a great way to see some of our Kansas City friends and two watch two tremendously good people get hitched. 

And we can't be out in Kansas City and not see my favorite sister. This is just after she told all her friends to put their drinks on our tab. Love ya long time, Em!

The next day we were headed to Lawrence for five days and several family Christmas celebrations. The first of the festivities was with my favorite little faces - my aunt, uncle, cousins, and my cousin Allison's children, Luke and Grace. Look how big they are now! Seriously though, the sweetest, most well behaved, most loving little kids. I love every second I get to spend with them (especially playing with Barbie cars and/or Legos☺). 

And a warning - don't leave your phone unattended with these two. So many selfies.

The following day was one of my favorites. I got up early to hang out and cook with my mom. I love creeping upstairs when the sun is just coming up to find my mom putting on the coffee and turning on The Today Show. And for a few hours it's just us (and the dogs) - a stolen moment in the chaos of Christmas week.

We spent the day cooking lasagna (this recipe that literally took all day but it is so worth it) to have that night when Al's parents came over for dinner. 

Some extra time before The Roses arrived - perfect time for a festive photo shoot!

^^ My mom's Christmas decorations are incredible. Every last corner of the house is Christmasy. Love it!

^^ These two are always up to no good.

  

^^ Season's greetings from Emily and the dogs! Lily's eyes... ha

^^ So much love. All the girls of the family. 

^^ These two are just the cutest. Happy to welcome Penny the puppy to the fam this year!

We had such a fun dinner with Al's parents. So glad Deacon and Retta could make it for dinner! Thanks to my darling and gracious mother for hosting! 

Day four of our time at home was a free day. We spent most of the day wrapping gifts and taking the dogs on a walk with my dad & Melanie.  Dinner was Mexican food of course (my family's favorite) at the new Mi Ranchito in Lawrence. Presidente margaritas for all! 

^^ Do you like my new fake hair ponytail accessory? They're all the rage in Kansas. (It's a plant, y'all.)

There is only one thing women in my family do after two jumbo margaritas. Okay, well actually there are two options - we either sleep...or we dance (in our pajamas). This is our normal. And I love it.

^^ Next Christmas I'd like a pair of longer pajama pants please. 

We celebrated Christmas Eve during the day with my dad & Melanie. Mel made a ridiculous amount of crepes and we ate and ate and ate, opened gifts, visited with grandma and generally had a very festive and heartwarming time. 

^^  Isn't my grandma is beautiful? She is still as sharp as ever. 80 years old, nearly blind and she still uses an ipad, takes the bus, and works out!

^^ Nutella crepes are the best kind of crepes.

I am so proud of my step sister, Chara. She used her Christmas bonus and reached out to family and friends to raise enough money to buy Christmas presents for families staying at the homeless shelter. We drove out to the shelter to drop off the gifts and I can't even explain the feeling knowing Chara's work was able to help so many who would have had nothing on Christmas morning without her. God bless you sweet, Chara!

Poor Lily girl was out of sorts on Christmas eve. She scratched her cornea playing with Penny and was on some pain meds and eye drops. She burrowed all night in my mom's chair while we ate steak soup, prepped the cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and waited for my step brother, Lorenzo, to arrive. 

And finally it was Christmas morning! 

^^ Le Creuset for everyone! Look how happy she is!

^^ #fail

And one of all the Loyd-Ricketts kids. Love these people.

  

Three Christmases down, one to go. We headed off to Kansas City for a few days with Al's fam. And I drove! I truthfully haven't driven once in the past seven years. Obviously, I crushed it. Like riding a bike. 

Lily was excited to get back to her fenced yard. Our time at the Rose's is spent letting her in and out from the back yard every ten minutes. 

She also gets held a lot by Retta. This dog is so loved. 

We had a great Christmas evening with Al's family where we all regetrably failed to take a single photo. But we did work on our scratchers tickets (btw, since when did scratchers come with such complicated instructions!?!)

And after a weekend of eating, napping on the best couch ever (Retta's couch is SO comfy), and watching movies with The Roses, we packed it all up and headed back to the big apple. 

Thank you to all of our family members who made our trip home one for the books. Al, Lily, and I are blessed to come from families that provide unconditional love and support (with a side of killer dance moves). 

I hope you had a spectacular holiday and a very sparkly new year!