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You must of thought that I let the Southern California mentality get to my head a little too much and swore off all electronics including computers. Well that is not true, but kinda true. I took the month (and then some) of December off from blogging, emailing (except with clients of course), online shopping (well, it was Christmas so this one is not totally a truth), tweeting, facebooking and reading other blogs. It was quite nice, but has definitely been difficult for me to introduce my laptop back into my life. I truthfully did not miss it much. Have you ever taken a hiatus from technology? You get a bit shaky at first, which is to be expected, worrying about your inbox filling up and having your small, but dedicated group of blog readers be disappointed with your lack of posts. Soon enough you forget all of that and it becomes the norm, then you get annoyed with everyone else on their phones tweeting, answering emails, and keeping up with the techno savvy society. People like husband, that is :)

Alas, I am back though, and happy to be blogging again. It feels good, and I have oh so much to tell you. Including the biggest news of all, which you may or may not have seen from husband's tweets...

Yup, that's right, we found out end of October that we had a little (big) surprise on the way! Crazy. Stone and I are thrilled to be welcoming a little baby boy (we found that out recently too) this coming June. Truthfully, it took a while for me to get to the emotion of being thrilled, I had a few more I had to cover before getting there. After taking 5 (yes, 5) pregnancy tests just to be sure this was actually happening I went into panic mode first (But, how are we supposed to put a kid through college? Will we ever get to go on the European vacation we have wanted to take? How did this happen again?) The morning and following weeks after the panic turned more into a tearful hysteria... trust me you would not have wanted to be around me during this phase. Husband was a saint throughout of course. After I began to tell people about our little babe that phase turned into more of a 'scared to be a mom, but excited all at the same time' phase. Then I got the morning (which, really is all morning, day and night) sickness, and it hit me hard. Just now, I feel like I am coming out of that and every day I get more and more excited about welcoming this little guy into our lives.

I hope he looks like his dad :)

We also spent the past month preparing to be parents by welcoming our new little niece, Ruthie and nephew Liam into the world.

Stone photographed the C-section, changed his first diaper, and fed and burped the babes like a champ.

I learned all about other lovely post pregnancy things from my sister... things nobody really prepares you for when you are blissfully pregnant. Like the fact you spend more time with your motorized breast pump (which looks way too similar to how farmer's milk cows... way too similar) than you do sleeping in the first months.

We could not have been more happy being able to spend so much time with them and have serious heartaches every time we miss them, which is a lot. We are a bit obsessed with being an aunt and uncle... I cannot even imagine what it will be like being a parent!

I mean, how could you not have a heartache when you are not spending every waking minute with this little one...

it is just impossible!

Sooo we got a lot of Texas family and friend time in...

(Stone, me, my sister Lindsay and her husband Preston)

and then also, headed to Colorado for about 10 days to spend time with our family and friends there too...

(Stone and the boys headed up to their cabin one night for a man's night)

This is definitely one of the benefits of owning our own business, and it does not go unnoticed. We realize it is a huge luxury for us to be able to pack up and leave for a month to spend the holiday with both of our families in two different states and we are ever so grateful for that. I know I say this often, but we just love what we do and could not be more tickled (okay, Stone would never use the word tickled, but that is how I feel at least... my grandma, Nonnie, uses the word a lot and I am trying to bring it back...) by the fact that we are able to make a living doing it!

By the way, I hope you had a Merry Christmas and wonderful New Years!

Some of the highlights of our holiday were...

- Picking out a Christmas tree with my sister and Preston.

- Having my mom take care of me when I was voming from nausea!

- Meeting little Ruthie and Liam.

- Going to the Nasher with my dad.

- Indulging in homemade food for a month straight (thank you mom and Wendy!).

- Seeing all of my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents at my dad's annual Christmas dinner.

- Getting great seats at A Christmas Carol for less than half of what everyone else spent on their tickets.

- Having a dinner reunion with all my college friends at Oddfellows in Dallas. I highly recommend this place!

- Enjoying a few days of snow in Colorado.

- Getting a manicure with my mother in law and two sister in laws!

- Playing games with the Crandalls... this is a rarity, but we found a game that everyone loves! Hooray.

- New Year's eve at my sister-in-law Kelsey's house complete with sparklers and non-alcoholic champagne. She and her husband, Buck, are the best hosts... she even made homemade Indian food that was insanely good!

We have a lot to look forward to this coming 2012 and I hope you have not given up on me and this blog already because I promise if you stick around things are going to get good. I will be posting some baby inspiration, but this will not become a blog all about baby... promise :)

Talk to you soon. xo.