Hattie Lane is here!

Our second niece, Hattie Lane Gilbreath, was born July 29th at 11:30am.  She weighed 7lbs. 4oz. and was around 20 1/2 in.  I rushed to San Antonio that morning for Cara's scheduled induction as it was progressing faster than they thought it would.  I got there with maybe 10 minutes to spare before I heard her soft first cry through the delivery room door.  Unfortunately she was born with the cord wrapped around her next twice causing her to have fluid in her lungs and stomach, making it hard for her breath :(  She had to spend the first twelve hours of her life in the NICU where only parents and grandparents are allowed.  That made for one anxious aunt and a bored big sister!  I spent the day trying to entertain Ainslee in the hospital while everyone else took turns hanging out with Hattie.

On the plus side, I finally got to see her the next morning and got to hog her all day since the grandparents had already gone back to Kerrville.  She is precious and beautiful, and I still can't tell who she looks like.  I kept asking Cara, "Are you sure they didn't switch your baby at birth?".  She doesn't look like Ainslee as a baby, but does have the same hair Ainslee had.  Cara and I had fun playing dress up with Hattie with lots of hats, headbands, bows, and an extremely large flower :)  I spent the day eitehr holding her, staring at her, or taking pictures of her.  Trevor came in that evening and got to meet his new niece.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

We are already in love!

Ruby {7 months}

Ruby has been quite a busy pup lately.  She stayed at the vet all weekend while Trev and I were in Austin for Mal and Rob's wedding a few weeks ago.  She had surgery to get spayed on Friday morning and spent the rest of the weekend taking it easy.  We kinda felt like we owed her some excitement in her life since she was such a trooper :) Two weekends ago we went to Kerrville to help Cara and Jason fix up their new house.  Ruby loves my parents backyard and Cara and Jason's new backyard is huge so we took her along to play while we worked.  Lucky for Ruby Jason's parents just got a new puppy and were puppy sitting for the rest of the litter.  It was Ruby's first time to play with a puppy younger and smaller than she is.  She was so good with them, she was playful but gentle with the little ones!

I'm not sure who loved the puppies more...

This past weekend we headed to the ranch in Hempstead.  We got to hang out with the new Mr. and Mrs. Williams and they brought along their yellow lab, Jonah, so Ruby had a playmate!  We had so much fun that we forgot to take pictures :(  Jonah loved to fetch the tennis ball from the pool and Ruby wanted so bad to join him, but was a little timid to swim in the deep end.  She preferred to lounge on the steps :) 

Thanks to some great coaching from "Uncle Rob" Ruby finally got the courage to leave the steps!  She was so careful as she edged her way off the step every time.  It was so funny I had to take a video with my phone.  Sorry its sideway, I don't think I can flip it.

I got a few picture before we left on Sunday, and of course they are all of Ruby :)

Saying hello to Ritz kitty.

Barking at the horses

Getting a drink/ Trying to catch some goldfish

We brought home an old dog house leftover from some of the old hunting dogs.

Checking it out.

I think she likes it!

Little does she know, we brought the dog house home because she gets to spend her first weekend alone in the backyard :) 

My Best Friend's Wedding

Mal and Rob tied the knot this past weekend! We had a fun filled weekend in the Austin/Dripping Springs area.  We left Corpus early Friday morning and made it to Austin just in time for Trev to drop me off for manicures/ pedicures with the bride, mother of the bride, and sister-in-law of the bride.  Then we met up the rest of the wedding party that was in town for lunch at central market, and yogurt at yogurt planet (shhh! don't tell my brother-in-law!).  By the time we were finished it was time to head to the wedding venue in Dripping Springs to start getting ready for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Mal gave us all a quick tour of Vista West Ranch, the venue was beautiful and the girls got to stay in the "bunkhouse" which was just steps away from the ceremony and reception areas.  Everyone arrived just in time to go over all the details for the ceremony a couple of times.

Me and the beautiful bride-to-be.

I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures from the rehearsal dinner :( We ate at Jack Allen's Kitchen in Austin, and heard some wonderful toasts and roasts to the bride and groom.  We finished dinner late and then all the girls headed back to the venue to try and get some rest before the big day.

The next morning we were all woken up by Mallory singing us the "its time to get up!" song bright and early and started getting ready to go on a morning run.  We went on a good run/walk and then came back to start showering and getting ready for the bridal brunch.  It was so humid out there, I felt like was back in Corpus.  I had Mal's brother, Price, take our picture before we left for brunch and my lens kept fogging up!

We had a yummy brunch and started the day off right with mimosas!

After brunch we started the long process of getting all done up. 

Until we all looked like this.

Then it really started feeling like a wedding when Mallory put on a big white dress!

We posed for a couple of pictures, watched as the people started taking their seats right outside our window, and did some last minute finishing touches.

Sadly those were the last pictures I took all weekend :(  There was way to much excitement going on after this to remember to get my camera down from the brides room!  You'll just have to trust me when I say that it was a beautiful ceremony, followed by a crazy fun reception with wonderful food, yummy cake, lots of dancing, and loads of fun.  It all seems like a blur to me and I was only the matron of honor, I can't imagine what it was like for the bride and groom!  They are honeymooing in St. Lucia as I type this, can't wait for Mr. and Mrs. Williams to get home so we can hang out with them as two married couples!  We are so happy for them to start their lives together as husband and wife!

Happy 4th of July!

Mallory's Bachelorette Weekend

This past weekend we had Mal's Bachelorette party in Galveston.  Johnna and I headed to Houston on Thursday to get an early start to the weekend.  We did some last minute shopping and had our traditional thursday night salad takeout with Trevor parents and then watched and became addicted to the new show Boston Med.  We got up Friday and had our also traditional breakfast of bagels from Einsteins and then went over to check out Mal and Rob's new apartment.  We did a little more shopping with Mal and then got on the road to Galveston.  We arrived with just enough time to open up the condo and get it all decorated for the weekend before Mal and Sarah arrived.  We ate a quick lunch together and then headed straight to the beach!  We spend the rest of the afternoon soaking up the sun on the beach until Diana arrived that evening.  Once it was dark we went back up to the condo and got the party started.  We had pizza delivered and had a dance party all night.  Rob's sisters, Cindy and Holly, made it in just in time for bedtime.

Saturday we had a yummy breakfast, hit the beach, came up for some lunch, hit the beach again, came up to make some pina coladas, hit the beach again, and then came up to shower and get ready for the night.  After every one was showered and ready we took some pics on the balcony since we really hadn't taken any pictures yet and it was about to get dark.

Then we had a lingerie shower with gift opening, games, and more food.  After the shower we all went out to dinner at Salsas and then went out to the strand for some dancing.

We slept in Sunday morning and then had one last beach run before we all left.  It was so fun to spend time with just girls for the weekend.  We always have fun together no matter where we are, but it was nice to be able to relax on the beach all weekend.  It was so evident all weekend that we are all so excited for Mallory and Rob and their upcoming wedding.  I'm so happy for them and can't wait to celebrate with them starting a week from today!    

We're a mess

Our whole family is a mess right now!

I'm still getting used to my new job and still trying to figure out when I'm supposed to go the grocery store, cook, do laundry, clean, etc.  Needless to say our house in probably the least in order that it's been since we moved in.  I'm doing laundry today and I think I'm on my 4th load, and I still have one to go... and there are only 2 of us!  And I just looked at my blog and realized I only blogged 2 times in the month of June, where did that month go anyway?

Trevor is in his last class of the 1st summer semester right now!  He still has to turn in a take home test tomorrow, but after that he is finished with this crazy semester.  He has been going to class from 6 to 9:45 every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights.  So even if I did get my act together and figure out when I could cook dinner, he wouldn't be able to eat it!  On top of his full time job and class every night, he has also managed to join a church league softball and basketball team.  He has had to skip a few games since they were during his class time.  But he came home from his softball game the other night with a black eye!  Here he is with a bag a peas and a puppy who misses her daddy.

(taken with my phone..sorry)

Poor baby!

(also taken with my phone)

And lastly I think Ruby is the one who is the biggest mess lately.  I came home from work a few weeks ago to see her standing on the street corner!  I couldn't find a hole that she could have dug out, and was really confused... until I put her back in the back yard while I unloaded my car and saw her jump OVER the fence.  I caught I video of it but I can't figure out how to put it on my computer from my camera.  But heres a picture of her in action.  

Luckily we have a taller fence on the driveway gate, so we just have to keep it closed now.  We also found out that she has puppy mange, which is genetic.  So we are having to apply ointment to all her mange spots everyday.  One of the bad spots is on her back side where she can lick, so she had been licking all the medicine off and it wasn't getting better.  Then we had a genius idea...

We thought she was going to hate it, but I think she is actually proud of it! Here she is with her best friends.

She has also started a bad habit of chewing things.  She hasn't been bad about it until lately.  We give her plenty of bones and things that dogs can chew on, but I think she prefers cell phones, shoes, and power cords.  She chewed my computer cable in half, ate the toes and heels of my rainbow flip flops, the toes and heels of Cara's flip flops, and steals undergarments whenever she gets the chance.  Its been rainy the past few days with Hurricane Alex in the coast and we've left her locked in the kitchen while we've left for work.  The first day I came home to this:

My kitchen rug chewed on with the rug pad shredded and her stuffed animal on top.  So we took the rug out and the next day we left her with only her bed, plenty of toys, and her water bowl on the ground.  However, Trevor came home at lunch and found that she had somehow managed to find a green pen on the counter and proceeded to turn her mouth, feet, bones, toys and bed all green.  He cleaned it all up and pushed everything back to the back of the counters and went back to work.  He got home at 5 to find that she had found a black pen, the tub of her topical ointment for mange, and my pill bottle from my antibiotics!  Luckily my pill bottle was empty, but she did eat all of her ointment.  Trevor left for class and I got home to try to tame our wild beast.  Don't worry she threw up all of the ointment and whatever else she had eaten that day... all over the couch!  She is such mess... I think she is just trying to prepare us for parenthood someday!

We take her in a week from tomorrow to get spayed and spend the weekend at the vet while we are in Austin for Mallory and Rob's wedding.  I'm really hopping it will calm her down a little.  The vet said that a lot of people that want to use their dog for hunting don't have them fixed because they say it will make them lazy.  However, I don't think there is anything that will make Ruby lazy!  Hopefully it will take her down a notch from wild woman to normal dog!!

The Gilbreaths come to town

Cara, Jason, and Ainslee came to to visit us in Corpus a couple weekends ago for the last time as a family of three.  They are moving, selling homes and cars, starting new jobs, and having a new baby all within the next month.  So I'm pretty sure they won't be able to fit in another beach trip until after baby girl is here, making them a family of four!  We had a fun weekend with them here, but I didn't really take any pics to prove it.  I'm too nervous to take my camera to the beach, and that's where we spent most of our time.  Cara got some pics though, you can head over to her blog to check out more pics. I took this next picture with my phone so excuse the poor quality, but I thought it was a pretty funny seeing Ruby ride to the beach in her kennel with a potty on top.  (Ainslee is potty training right now... when you gotta go, you gotta go!)

Then I got a couple of cute pics of the cousins, Ainslee and Ruby!  Luckily Ainslee will have a sister soon so she will have something other than a dog to play with.  Poor thing, I think she honestly thinks having a puppy cousin is a normal thing :) But Ruby is so sweet with her, and only plowed her down a couple of times :)

Ruby had just yawned and Ainslee was copying her.

Ruby kissing Ainslee.

Ainslee kissing Ruby.