4 years later....

On Wednesday, John and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary!

We didn't do anything to celebrate and celebrated on Sunday since he was in Austin for work and I was home with Peyton....the more I think about it...it wasn't really fair!

We did celebrate with a nice late lunch/early dinner at Pappadeux's (minus Peyton) and then some shopping! We went and bought the rug for the nursery which I am so excited about! I love Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids but never buy anything from there but I loved this rug and looked everywhere for something similar and couldn't find anything so I caved and bought it! We then went to Ikea and got his bookcase and dresser! Next week it is painting and then putting furniture together!

These past four years have had many highs but many lows and it has been difficult figuring out this whole marriage and then parenting thing. But I am so blessed and happy to say that we are in such a good place right now! We have worked through some frustrating times and have learned how to be better spouses and most importantly learned that we need to serve, love and fall in love more and more with our creator everyday before we can ever expect to be the spouse the other person needs.

I am so looking forward to another 40 plus years with John by my side! I am a blessed woman!

Here we are over the years....I need to get a four year picture and am working on it! I will add it when we finally remember to take the camera with us and get someone to take it.

Leaving our wedding on Friday, October 13th!


Celebrating our One Year Anniversary in Puerto Vallarta

Expanding our family! Year 2!

Celebrating 3 years in the Hill Country visiting wineries....without Peyton!

Happy Valentines Day...weekend!

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Friday by going out to lunch at Chuy's, some window shopping at some of my favorite stores (Pottery Barn, Anthropologie, Crate and Barrel etc) and then seeing Avatar in Imax! It was a great day together and Avatar was amazing! I am still in disbelief how someone could come up with that! We normally don't do gifts so I was really surprised when John gave me an iPod shuffle! I have a regular iPod but it is huge and really a pain to run with. The shuffle is so small and can just clip onto my shirt! Since I always have pre made running play lists I can upload one and off I go! I can not wait to go for a run with it!

We went to my parent's to pick Peyton up and stayed to watch most of the Vancouver Olympic Opening ceremonies with them and while we were watching came up with the crazy idea that Peyton and I should go up to Vancouver! So...my parents have planned a trip to the Olympics for over a year. They have tickets to events and were leaving this upcoming Friday, the 19th. I was telling my mom how seeing the Olympics in Canada made me miss my family up there (who I haven't seen since our wedding and I haven't been to Vancouver in over 6 years). She looked at me and said, "why don't you come with us?" Well, I didn't give it too much thought because of the craziness of it but when we got home, I brought it up to John and he actually didn't think it was too mad. We looked at the prices for tickets and all the other expenses and then I made sure to look at what Peyton and I could do together since my parents would be busy with events for three days. I saw that the transportation system is amazing and very well prepared for the Olympics and there are tons of Olympic and non Olympic things we could do that would be appropriate for Peyton.

So...Saturday night I booked our flights and we leave this Friday! Craziness! I am so incredibly excited and feel so blessed that I get to see my family in Vancouver! I am so excited and the whole Olympic experience is an added bonus. We are flying in and out of Seattle so we will be spending a short time there as well which is exciting. Remember the last time I visited Seattle? I was 26 weeks pregnant! It is another surreal experience that this time I have a 17 month old and the last time I was huge! Can't wait to show her the original Starbucks store and I found a Children's Museum we could check out if she is not into the whole market experience.

So after booking the flights I started thinking about packing etc and realized that Peyton's coat is really just a Texas coat and since I was very confident that I would not find something in Texas in February...I found one online from LL Bean and ordered it with Express shipping to be here on Wednesday (or Thursday at the latest)! I was really impressed with their Outerwear for kids and need to remember that for next year. We have some friends that gave us a bunch of random clothes earlier in the year that their daughter grew out of and in that stash was some ski pants from LL Bean (which gave me the idea to look there for the coat)! How awesome and convenient is that! It is not that cold there and we won't need them unless we decided go to the mountains but it is nice to have.

I also borrowed a portable DVD player from some friends which saved us from going out and buying one and also is going to help so much! I also went on a search for boots for Peyton. Nothing too heavy duty but something a little better than tennis shoes. I stayed up until midnight Saturday researching where I could possibly find some and went out on Sunday and found one pair in her size in the whole area and I was told when I asked about a bigger size...the only ones in all of Houston! Crazy! I was having a hard time finding stuff online too so I am glad we found those and they were only $10.

We finished up our errands for the trip today and will be having a busy week before we leave Friday. We have to clean up the house, go and exchange money at our bank downtown (normally I ordered it online and they deliver it but it was too late for that), laundry, get everything ready at work for being gone and pack...all before we leave at 6:45 AM Friday morning!

Please pray that we have a good week getting ready and for a safe and smooth trip...did I mention that I am flying up there with my parents but am flying home ALONE with Peyton! So lots of prayer for patience and just a good trip together.

I am so excited!!!!!

The Weekend

We had a pretty nice weekend around the Acord house!

It started with our friend Laura from the Sherman Shoutout coming over to watch Peyton so John and I could go out on a date. We went out to a wine bar here in League City called Three Oaks Wine Bar that has been open for awhile but we just haven't had the chance to check it out. The owner was our server and he helped us find a nice Merlot that we both liked and we just had a bottle of wine and some yummy appetizers and spent some nice time just talking with one another. We ended up going somewhere else for dessert and coffee and came home around 10:00 PM! It was nice late night and we are so thankful for our many friends who ask to watch Peyton for us!

Saturday morning John blessed me and a friend with watching Peyton and her son Gavin. Lindsey's husband left last week on a business trip to China for three weeks and I really wanted to get her out and have some girl time minus babies! So, John had two kids the same age and he did great and me, Lindsey and our other friend Jessica got to have brunch with each other. It was a wonderful start of my Saturday and I love spending time with those girls!

Later that afternoon Grandma Martha came to visit and we took Peyton to Kemah for ice cream. She was so excited about the boardwalk, the birds, water and boats that for the first time in forever she didn't want to eat any ice cream. Her favorite part was walking into the Christmas store and seeing all of the "ho,ho,ho's" and even better than that was the display of the missing nutcrackers! Her face beamed with excitement when she saw them and made me take each one down to talk to her. When we left I told her to say "bye bye" to them and she waved good bye and acted like she was at peace now that she knew where they all went. Silly girl!

Sunday was a very busy day with church, our small group and then we had a family celebration dinner to celebrate two great achievements in Ashley's and Shannon's life. It was a day that Peyton really would need her nap and it ended up being the day that she didn't. She did amazing for only having a 40 minute nap in the car and was hilarious at dinner. She had tons of fun and I really thought she was acting delirious from lack of sleep!

A great weekend and hopefully we will have a great Monday...off to wake up Peyton and then go and work out!

November 2009

Hmmm....what happened in November....

Well, by November Papa had moved back to Texas! He was finished in Azerbaijan and was now around all the time which made Peyton a happy camper...us parents were pretty happy as well!

We started the month by taking a parents only trip to the wineries in Fredericksburg, Texas! It was our first time away without Peyton and it was fun. We did learn that in order to provide ultimate flexibility we need to look at refundable deals as Peyton did develop a slight cold that Granny and Papa had to deal with. We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast which was very cute and then spent the first day just walking around Fredericksburg and then day two was spent visiting multiple wineries.It was so much fun to learn more about the different types of wines and the flavors and tones of them. We visited Becker Vineyards, Grape Creek, Pedernales Cellars, and one other one. My favorite of the day was Pedernales Cellars Winery. It was beautiful there and I fell in love with their Stonewall Merlot! I loved sitting out on their deck and looking at the Hill Country. I could live there! You can only buy their wines online and of course they don't offer that one online and because of that if I ever go back there I am picking up multiple bottles.

We had a great time away but missed Peyton. We are so blessed to have my parents to watch her for us and know that she had a blast with them despite feeling icky! And hopefully they enjoyed her enough to have her again soon...!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with John's family and loved seeing all of his Aunts, Uncles and cousins and Peyton loved all of the attention. Following Thanksgiving we decided to hit the Black Friday deals. This was completly random and very unlike us but we have always wanted a new TV (we had John's from about 10 years ago) but never saw the need to go and buy one when we had one that worked. So, we saw an amazing deal at Target and decided to spend our Christmas money we allocated for each other on it. So, at 1:30 AM in extremly cold (cold for Texas) weather we stood in line (Peyton was with Granny and Papa) until the store opened at 5:00 AM. We were number 17 in line and we got our TV! It was a lot more intense and more stories to share but the madness of standing in line should give you enough to go on.

After coming home and resting we hooked up our Christmas present and started Christmas preparations!

What we did this week...

We had a pretty good week last week at the Acord house and since I run out time during the week to blog here is everything all at once ...

Monday, Peyton and I started doing some shopping her birthday party. Yes, I know her birthday is three months away but I am leaving for Canada the middle of July and will be gone for a month. So, when I get back I would only have about two weeks to do everything. If I have learned anything these past nine months...it is that everything takes three times as long to do so I better get started now so I don't lose my mind. Anyways...we found some great things at Michael's for invitations and I have a bunch of other ideas to keep me busy this month. She is having a cupcake themed party so if anyone comes across some cute stuff let me know!

On Wednesday we attempted to go to the pool with some of our friends but it turned out to be closed. Apparently when is says open week days starting in June they meant June 9. How we were supposed to know that...I don't know. We ended up having everyone come over to our house and played here which was fun. I love that we have friends at the same stage of life as us and it is so much fun to watch all the little ones running around!

Thursday we went shopping with Granny and Auntie Shannon down in Houston. Shannon wanted to find some cowboy boots and found some cute ones at Buffalo Exchange for $27! I found some really cute and completely impractical (given my stage of life) heels that I bought because I haven't gotten any heels in forever and they were such a good deal! Shannon had a solution for my heels obsession....be like a Desperate Housewife and wear heels to play dates, shopping and getting the mail. Tempting but I am thinking it might be a fall hazard with a 19 lb baby on my hip. The store that I found them at had so many cute shoes that I threatened Peyton with daycare so I could go back to work and have somewhere to wear heels to. We ended up having lunch at Empire Cafe and heading home! It was a fun day out.

Peyton was a trooper as always but maybe it is was because of the change in her sippy cup....

No worries...no babies consumed any caffeine in the above picture. Granny was done with her Starbucks and thought it was cute! She is never to young to learn to love Starbucks!

That night John and I headed downtown to happy hour with a former coworker of mine. Kate was hired at JWT when I was and moved to New York last year. She was in town with her husband for a wedding so all of us former and current JWT people got together for a night of drinks and catching up. I was so happy that my mom came over and watched Peyton for us because it was the first time in a long time that John and I were out together doing something fun with a group of people. It seems that it is always one person or the other out and it is fun to do stuff together more often. We had a blast at the Treehouse which is a rooftop/tree top bar at the Discovery Green park. The bar was really nice and had great views of downtown and we could hear Jazz music from Discovery Green. Most of all it was so much fun as always catching up with everyone. I miss talking with Kate and being around her infectious joy...she is the type of person that you can't help but smile around her. I love her passion for life and her joyful spirit! I know I say it all the time but I miss the people I worked with!

Friday we had a busy day with Peyton's doctor's appointment, Titus's yearly doctor appointment, lunch with our Group Guide for the small group we lead and then we headed to Auntie Ashley's second grade classroom to help her pack it up. I was going to go myself but with feeding schedules it worked out if Peyton and John came too. John kept Peyton entertained while Shannon and I helped Ashley. It was tons of work but we finally got everything packed up...now we just have to unpack once it gets moved to her new room down the hall.

That night although we were all exhausted John and I kept our date scheduled and Peyton again hung out with Granny. We kept it short since we were out pretty late the night before and visited a Mediterranean restaurant in our area called Mediterranean Chef. It had a great atmosphere and delicious food! We will be going back for sure! I really felt like I was transported to another country! Tons of fun! After dinner we all headed home and were all in bed by 9:00 PM and we all slept in with Peyton waking up at 8:00 AM this morning! That is two hours later than normal! It was perfect!
Next week we have some playdates, storytime at the library, dinner out with the ladies from our small group, attempting to go to the gym at least once, start running again so I can justify me registering next month for the Houston Half Marathon in January (if anyone has suggestions on fitting in running and an infant let us know) and getting stuff done before our week becomes full with swimming lessons starting the 15th!

Haak Winery

To make sure that we have consistent dates with each other we have decided that each month we will allocate a certain amount of money and that we would do a 60/40 spilt so one person will have 60% of the amount to plan a date and the other would have 40% and then the next month it would switch. 

This month I had the 60% so I started trying to find something fun and different to do. I did some research and found this winery in Santa Fe which is about 20-30 minutes away. So, on Friday we arranged for Peyton to visit Grandma and we headed out for a tour and tasting (after a gourmet lunch at Whataburger). It was pretty neat to see how the wine is made and hear the history of how the Haak's got into making wine. I also enjoyed tasting five different wines and we ended up purchasing a white and a red. It was something different and actually ended up being cheaper that budgeted which means more money for John to plan with or another date! I think we will for sure make another trip out to the winery but probably during one of their events. They have various weekend concerts, dinners and other events that they put on which sound like a blast. 

I would recommend it to anyone in the area as it is something fun and different to do. You can check out their website for more information.

Next date....at my request...the new James Bond movie!!

Happy Anniversary

Two years ago today John and I stood in front of our friends, family and God and were married. What a wild two years! During the first year we decided shortly after our wedding to put money down to have our house built, that January I started a new job, and we closed on our house in April. Then during year two we decided to start a family and found out we were expecting in January and have spent the year preparing for Peyton's arrival. It has been two years of many changes and many ups and downs but we wouldn't change it all. We feel so blessed to have had supportive families, encouraging friends, a strong church and a growing relationship with the Lord to help us navigate marriage. We are excited about year number three and have decided that Lord willing it will be a quiet year with no additional life changes...I think we need a break!

We celebrated our anniversary by going out to dinner Sunday night. We dropped Peyton off with Grandma with her gear and a bottle and headed over to a favorite local restaurant, Villa Capri on Clear Lake and enjoyed a great dinner out on the patio by the water. We actually went to Villa Capri for our anniversary last year and things were just as enjoyable this year but they have done a little remodeling and this year and we had some new patio decorations.....

Yes, that is a boat that was tossed up on the patio from the Hurricane! Crazy! It was a wonderful night out and Peyton did amazing for Grandma and devoured her bottle so all was well! Today we didn't do anything special and just enjoyed dinner at home and spending time with Peyton.