Thanksgiving 2013

For the first time in a few years, we were able to make the trip to Illinois for Thanksgiving. We loaded up the car after work on Tuesday, threw in the dog and the baby, and drove through the night. We spent Wednesday and Thursday with my family in Marshall and then headed to Robinson to spend time with Chris' family. On Sunday, we got up early and made the 12 hour drive back to Texas. It was a whirlwind few days but so much fun, as we got to see some of our very favorite people and celebrate all that we have to be thankful for. Monday morning following Thanksgiving definitely came to soon, but we are so glad we made the trip!! 

Crawling around on Grandma & Grandpa's floor

Just hangin' out before dinner

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Great Uncle David :)

I am thankful for a patient dog.

Titus in his turkey sweats

Chris' dad and brother help coach a high school basketball team so we spent part of our weekend going to watch their games. 

All ready to watch some bball!

Brooks' Men at the gym

Watching one of the games

Coach/Uncle Nick

Quality time with my sisters in law!

Back on the road to TX.
Don't worry, we were stopped at a gas station here... Chris was inside paying while I entertained these two.

We are so, so thankful for time spent with our families. We'll be making this long drive again in three short weeks for Christmas and cannot wait!!

-Alison

Titus' second first haircut

Titus got his first haircut at 3 weeks old. A buzz cut. By Chris. No, I'm not joking. Yes, I was angry. If you don't know the story and would like to, click here. Trust me, you'll want to see the before/after picture. 

Fast forward about seven months, and Titus was starting to look a bit shaggy (Not to mention we had all recovered from the traumatic first haircut experience). We decided to take him for a little trim up this weekend and of course had to document with some pictures. Enjoy! 

Pre-haircut

Post haircut

All trimmed up!

Until next time,

Alison

Life Lately

Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks! 

Family picture in front of our new home

Titus loves his new house and high chair!

My grocery shopping buddy :)

Ice cream aisle!!!

Hangin' out on the kitchen floor

T wearing his first daycare craft ;)

We took Titus to his first high school football game. So much fun! Texas high school football is unreal. If you are bored, just google "Allen, TX football stadium" to see some pictures/articles of our local high school football team's facilities. (The stadium cost $60 million dollars. No, that's not a typo. Like I said, unreal...) It's wild. Here are some pics of the games we have attended. 

These are tickets for the game. A high school game. What?!

Titus with his Allen Eagles gear on!

The stadium

Stadium/scoreboard shot

Go Eagles!

Friday Night Lights!

Halftime- The Allen HS band

Band/Cheerleaders

The band

You know what I love? Dogs. You know what else? Babies. Combine them and I'm in heaven. Really, there's no sweeter pair to me than a dog and a baby.  I realize not everyone is with me on this and I get that. However, in our house there's a lot of dog/baby interaction that occurs. See below.

It's safe to say we are getting settled into our new Texas routine. We are getting so excited for the holidays, as we'll be traveling back to IL for both Thanksgiving and Christmas to spend time with our families. Wish us luck as we drive 12 hours with our wild child and crazy dog! 

 Until next time....

-Alison

Pumpkins and Halloween 2013

Fall is my very favorite season. Each year that we lived in San Diego, I would get extremely homesick about the time I started seeing pictures on Facebook of leaves changing colors and my friends wearing sweaters and scarves. I would drink pumpkin spice lattes daily and light pumpkin scented candles in our house but it just wasn't the same. One of the things I was most looking forward to about living in Texas was the fact that they have a true autumn. 

As soon as we got into our new house I bought fall decorations and pumpkins. Before I stocked up on groceries and toilet paper our house looked festive. Then, the most obvious thing to do was take pictures of Titus with some pumpkins. 

This Halloween was one of firsts.... First Halloween in Texas, first with a baby, first in a neighborhood with lots of trick or treaters. The night before Halloween I took Titus to the local High School for an event that was going on. Chris was home with the stomach flu which I also had earlier in the week. (I am thankful to report that we are both back to our normal selves and Titus miraculously never got it. ). On Halloween night, we passed out candy to trick or treaters. Low key - just the way I like things. :)

Here are some pics of T and in his dragon costume!

Until next time. 

-Alison

Catching up...

So, my intention was to post during our moving process. However, things got so hectic, crazy, busy, and overwhelming that there were days I didn't remember to eat let alone sit down to write. The past few weeks months have been wild. We've sold a house, moved halfway across the country (again!), bought a house, left our jobs, and started new ones... 

...while responsible for the lives of a baby and a dog. 

That's the short version. I'll spare all of the nitty gritty details that went into each one of those steps and just tell you all that we are very blessed and thankful that things have worked out the way they have. We have a great family and support system and we are forever grateful for that. 

Our Journey

We now live in Allen, TX and are loving it! Chris and I have enjoyed our experiences living in big cities (Chicago & San Diego) and will cherish many memories from our time spent there...however, we are both originally from small towns and when it comes to raising a family we were looking to get back to something closer to our own roots. When the opportunity arose for us to move to the Dallas area, we decided we'd focus on living in one of the smaller communities on the outskirts of Dallas. Chris visited and fell in love with Allen. While it is not small in comparison to where we grew up (there are 80,000 people who live here), it has a great hometown feel while still having lots of diversity, shopping, restaurants, and things to do. Not to mention Southern hospitality. The people are so NICE!

Here are some photos that I snapped in San Diego, in the last few days leading up to our move! 

These pictures were taken at a park near our San Diego home. Titus' first time on turf. 

A lazy Sunday in CA. 

I can't believe the California chapter of our life has ended. What an adventure. I feel lucky that we met such great people in our two years there. I'm so excited to see what this next chapter brings!

-Alison