May 2011

We had a great Mother's Day weekend.  Mike cooked wonderful meals as usual, and we lounged by the pool most of the weekend.  These are Courtney's Mother's Day flowers hand picked by Chase. 

A momma Great Horned Owl made a nest in a tree in our neighborhood.  She had two babies, and she caused quite a debacle with visitors coming in from all over to get a view.  National Geographic even came to film her.  She and the babies have since migrated away, but maybe she'll be back next year.

 
Here a few more Karate pictures from this month.

April 2011

Every year in April, Art Alliance puts on the largest outdoor art fair in downtown Austin.  We went with the Olivas family (Sal, Melissa, Sonny and Amelia).  The first few pictures are of an awesome break dancing show that we saw there. 

Courtney is 7 weeks pregnant at this point.

Chase takes Karate once a week, and he really enjoys it.  They start out with white belts and have to earn different colored stripes before they can move onto the next colored belt.  Shown below are photos of him receiving his yellow belt.

Chase took swimming lessons this month.  He learned to swim unassisted without any floaties, and he was very proud to get his first medal!

During Easter weekend, we had a full house with Yaya Rhodes and Grandpa and Grandma Biel in town.  Yaya took Chase to Inner Space Cavern in Round Rock where he saw his first cave.

This is a picture of him enjoying the spider man popsicle that Yaya bought him.

The night before Easter, Chase dictated to Meg (Courtney's youngest sister) his first note to the Easter Bunny.  This is what he said:

Easter Bunny,

I love you so much!  Thank you for coming.  Do you like our house?  I hope you hide the eggs outside.

Love,
Chase


Well, on Easter Sunday, Chase got his egg hunt in our back yard.  After he loaded up on candy, we then headed to Lake Austin with the Biel family for some fun in the sun.
 

Chase and Courtney were the only ones drinking non-alcoholic beverages, and they had to "cheers" to the moment.

March 2011

This month, we found out the unexpected that we are expecting!  We went to Horseshoe Bay during Spring Break for a couple of days.  On the first Friday night of our trip, Courtney expressed to Mike some unusual "feelings" she was having and that she was "late."  Mike nearly flipped out, and he said, "I have a weird feeling about this."  After struggling for many years to conceive with Chase,  Courtney didn't know what to think. 

The next morning, we drove into Marble Falls to get a pregnancy test.  Courtney took it after breakfast, and of course, it was positive.  It was a welcome surprise, and it definitely took a few days for it to actually sink in that our lives were forever changed. Our expected due date is November 16, 2011.

One of our most favorite family activities is to walk around Lady Bird Lake.  Here are a few pictures of Chase enjoying the ducks and swans at one of our stops. 

Chase loves the outdoors and nature walks.  Mike took him to Campbell's hole for an afternoon adventure where he found a cave and "lots of treasure."

Welcome Friends and Family!

I've finally gotten around to creating a blog for our little family.  I hope to keep it pretty up to date with our latest happenings and photos.  Enjoy!