Seven in Heaven

Monday marked our SEVENTH anniversary! I felt like showing Jason that 7 years of being married to a Texan has changed me, so I surprised him by a trip to a shooting range and then to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.

It was a unique date, but I have to say I'm still not a fan of guns. I wanted to duck and cover the entire time we were there. I did shoot about 8 rounds, and hit the target guy straight in the nose, but I let Jason do most of the gun-handling. Here he is looking all James Bond-like with a 9mm Barretta.

I saw this anniversary questionnaire on Sara Hejl's blog (who incidentally was married on the same day and year as us) so I thought I'd fill you in on our relationship details:

1. Where we met: The first time we both remember meeting each other was in The Bean at ACU in January 1997. An ex-boyfriend of mine introduced me to him and then we talked for 2 hours. Ex-boyfriend left awkardly after about 15 minutes.

2. First Date: We went to Olive Garden and the re-release of Star Wars. I was a bit frightened because Jason was mouthing every line of the movie, including all the Ewok chirps.

3. Number of Years we Dated: 4.5 years if you don't count the year and a half we were "broken up" but still seeing each other every day.

4. How He Proposed: On the icy wing of an airplane at the Abilene Airport. Security was a little more lax before 9/11. He gave me a sympathy card that said he was sorry he couldn't be my boyfriend anymore (since he wanted to be my fiance).

5. Where were you married. Trenton, Michigan at the church I grew up at.

6. Reception? At a garden on Grosse Ile. I LOVED having it outside.

7. First Dance? To Mark Knopfler's "A Night in Summer Long Ago." It starts out "My lady may I have this dance."

8. Honeymoon. Canada! We stayed at a cabin on a lake for a few days, in downtown Toronto a few days and drove by Niagara Falls on the way home.

9. Where have you lived. Denver, Normangee, College Station, Denver Again, Austin

Round the World in 30 Days

July has been nutzo...in a good way. Here are some updates for (all 12) of my curious fans.

Travels: Maizie and I went to Michigan July 9-17. She stayed up there for her first (tear) week without us. Maizie and my mom fly back on Saturday. Jason and I went to a lake house last weekend with the Young Marrieds. It was tons of fun and I even got a tan (burn).

Flipper: The newest George is growing! My belly is popping for sure and we find out the sex on Monday, July 28! I can't wait.

Firsts: This week brought a lot of firsts for Maizie: First week without Momma, First throwing up episodes, First allergy--we just found out today she's allergic to amoxicillin/penicillin. Yippee! Even though she's been a handful for my parents, I know they're having fun and she's having fun and Jason and I are having fun being young and free again. We've been on kidless dates Monday night, all day yesterday and are going again on tomorrow night.

House: The progress on our new house is AMAZING. When I left, they had laid the formwork for the foundation, and when I came home the framing was up! They were even starting to install some siding when we went by on Tuesday night. It's so cool to watch the progress of our first little house in action. No solid news on move-in day, but we'll keep you posted.

Alright, here's the picture parade:


Jason and Maizie at Taco Bueno on the way to the airport. Sweetest picture ever.

Hard at work or hardly working?

Me, Maizie, Jodi and Cecilie (isn't she the cutest?)

Me and my friend Emilie attempting a self-portrait.

Maizie enjoying playtime with her friends Addison and Ryley. Check out that belly. Looks like someone else in the family is expecting a baby! Let's just say she eats like a king around her Nana and Papa.

Maizie coming in for the kiss from Cecilie.

My Paw Paw and My Maizie. She loved hanging out with PawPaw and wanted him to read her tons of books. He didn't really like the Dr. Suess book, "Wocket in my Pocket" because he felt like it taught kids made-up words. But that made watching him read the book 100% more enjoyable. He had a comment for every page...."Zelf up on the Shelf....now that's not even a real word!" Good times.

Maizie SHARING with Addison, who is few weeks older than her. Yeah, Maizie! I guess we'll need to get a twin play stroller for her and her friends at home.

Cous-union, Etc.

We've had a busy, fun week at the George house. Aunt She-She and Uncle Alan (aka Pedro) came to visit before we all headed up to Dallas for a Cousin Reunion. All 6 cousins on my dad's side got together to celebrate the 4th. It was pretty momentous since most of us hadn't seen each other in 10 years. All except one of us is married now and all but two of us have kids, so there was a lot to catch up on.



I don't have tons of pictures from the reunion itself (Maizie runs toward the camera any time I take it out), but we had fun playing Guitar Hero, Wii Tennis, darts (i almost won), nertz (i won by a whole lot), and Trivial Pursuit. The 7 couslings (1st-cousins-once-removed) all got along and had fun chasing each other around the house. My dad watched Maizie and her closest cousling, Kaden, so we could join the family and watch Wall-E on the 4th. On Saturday, we hit some Dallas tourist spots, like visiting the spot where JFK was killed and going to the free day at the Nasher Sculpture Center. All and all, Maizie did really well, caught sleep where she could and stayed fairly happy. She did win the prize for loudest cousling. Go Maizie!


This was the first day. Maizie wasn't quite sure what to think of Alan yet, but she was immediately taken with She-She. We celebrated my brother's 35th birthday at Schlitterbahn (where we got caught in a downpour), took a road trip to San Antonio to introduce Sheila (who had never been to Texas) to the Alamo and the Riverwalk, and had tons of good barbecue and
Mexican food. It was lots of driving, but Maizie enjoyed playing with her Aunt and Uncle in the
back seat of the car. My brother taught her to put crayons in her ears. My sister-in-law taught her to say "elbow" and "knee" and draw the sun. We're very happy my brother got married.

This little car was the source of quite a bit of frustration for Maizie. I asked her if she could get in the car, and she spent the rest of the weekend trying and then crying when she didn't fit. She kept asking me to please help her get in. It was hilarious and sad at the same time.


Here's Maizie in a patch of Bamboo outside the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.


Maizie has recently become fascinated with shoes and clothes--such a girl. She is getting particular about what you put on her. On Sunday, she absolutely wouldn't have it any other way than one pink shoe and one brown shoe. I let it slide until we were ready to go out to lunch.


At Babe's Chicken joint in Carollton. Just thought it was a cute picture.

Lost in Translation

Maizie turns 20 months tomorrow, but I guess I'm in the blogging mood today, so here goes.

The main development this month has been speech. She learns new words every day. Since she is fascinated with cars and trucks, we taught her to recognize police cars and say "Po Po." I actually recommend this to all parents of toddlers. It's like having a radar detector in the back seat, because she sees them way before we do. The only problem is that saying "Po Po" reminds her of another new word, "Poo Poo." She'll say "Po Po" and then "Poo Poo" and point to her diaper. My #1 fear in life right now is that we're going to see a police officer standing near his car and Maizie is going to yell "Po Po" and point to her lady parts. It's really not an excellent start on the road toward good citizenship, but I'm sure things will sort themselves out soon.

Another interesting development is that she is saying lots of words backwards. She says "Tah" for "Hot" and "Ee-Zay" for Maizie and "Kee-Coo" for "Cookie." That last one amazed me, because family lore is that I called Cookies "Gee-Coos" until I was 7 or 8. I guess speech dyslexia runs in the ily-fam.

Happy (Belated) Father's Day

Just wanted to send a shout out to the two best dads in the world--my dad and Maizie's dad.

There's nothing in the world I love to watch more than Jason and Maizie interacting with each other. She adores him, wakes up saying his name, and lights up when he comes home. She's Daddy's girl, and I'm Ok with that, since I was one myself. Jason brings consistency, gentleness and patience to our parenting and there's not much he wouldn't do for our little girl--including rolling around on the floor of the portrait studio last month. He loves spending time with her and I can't wait to see all the trouble they get into in the future.

Happy Father's Day!

Decision 2008 - Vote for Flipper!

I've added a little straw poll to the side of my blog. I'm curious to know whether you think Flip is a girl or a boy. It sounds cliche, but we're seriously happy with either gender (which is good since the choice isn't really ours). We'd love for Maizie to have a sister, but a boy would be fun and new, too. Let us know what you think. We find out in July.

Summertime and the Living is Easy

Here's some cute shots of Maizie enjoying some summer fun.

Playing with a tractor while wearing beads. This tomboy has some style!

I'm addicted to baby bikinis. I think this is my favorite this year. Look at that cute belly! Maizie's developed a little wariness of deep water, so I'm having to be patient with her. We tried to take her on a paddleboat this weekend and she seriously freaked. I guess she's not as big of a water bug as her mommy. :-(

Wheee!

Daddy and Maizie proving to me that our future tub is bigger than it seems.