A Look Back at 2015

2015 was a really wonderful year for us. I haven't posted updates about our life this year on the blog nearly as much as I used to, mostly because I'm still figuring out exactly how I feel about putting a ton of photos and information about Connor's life on the internet. His life is so intertwined with mine right now that I can't really write about what's going on with me without writing about what's going on with him, so there's not a lot of blog updating going on.

But, I do want to post a sort of year-in-review update like I've done for past years. So here's a "big picture" view of what we've been up to since January 1, 2015! It's been a year full of lots of love and smiles and wonderful memories, and I'll always remember it as the first year we enjoyed as a family of three!

2015 marked 5 years of marriage, 12 years since Jeff and I first met, 26 years of Katie, 28 years of Jeff, and 1 year of Connor!

January

We rang in the new year and celebrated Connor's 2-week birthday at our house (and did not host our usual big New Year's Eve bash, haha!). 

Throughout January, we mostly just hung out at home and cuddled with newborn Connor. I think that's what you're supposed to do for the first couple weeks of a baby's life, but we were so busy with Christmas festivities and Jeff's brother's wedding right after his birth that we didn't get a chance to just be at home and enjoy life with a baby until it was already January!

February

February brought more newborn Connor cuddles and lots of visits from family. 

We celebrated Valentine's Day.

Jeff went on his first post-baby business trip. I survived! :)

Connor was baptized, and we had a party at our house to celebrate with our families.

March

We road-tripped to Dallas for my cousin's wedding.

We took bluebonnet photos.

April

We celebrated Easter at my parents' lake property. 

Jeff turned 28. We celebrated with a (just the two of us!) dinner out at Peli Peli.

We took a trip to South Carolina (Connor's first plane ride) to visit Jeff's parents and go to a friend's wedding.

May

We spent Mother's Day with both of our mothers and celebrated with brunch at Hungry's, a visit to Bayou Bend, and dinner at Chimichurri's.

I turned 26. Jeff planned a party at our house with our families, but we moved it to my parents' house at this last minute when our air conditioner broke. My favorite birthday gift? The warranty on our very expensive A/C unit that was just weeks away from expiring, but hadn't expired yet!

We spent Memorial Day hanging out by my parents' pool, where we learned that Connor does not like swimming. At all.

June

Our dear doctor friends Pilar & Shane came for a visit before moving to Illinois for residency.

We celebrated Father's Day with our dads (another dinner at Chimichurri's!).

We celebrated Jeff's dad's retirement at a fancy luncheon where Connor totally stole the spotlight. Jeff's parents officially moved away from Houston to their new lake house in South Carolina.

We took Connor to his first Houston Astros baseball game.

July

We travelled to South Padre Island with my family (the 16th annual trip we've made there!) and spent Connor's first July 4th at the beach.

We travelled to Lake Palestine for a weekend with my extended family on my dad's side.

I finally added the finishing touches to Connor's nursery.

We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary with a visit to the chapel where we got married, dinner at Tony's (thanks to a gift card from my law firm) and an overnight stay and brunch at Hotel Zaza. It was my first night away from Connor (who stayed with my parents and didn't miss me at all).

August

We visited our local fire station and delivered treats to the firemen.

We took Connor to the park for the first time.

Blue Bell Ice Cream returned, and Connor and I were among the first to get our hands on some!

September

We spent a weekend in College Station, introduced Connor to all things Aggieland, and proved to ourselves that we can still host a pretty fun tailgate, even with a baby in tow!

October

We took a trip to Brooklyn, NY to visit my sister.

We took Connor to the pumpkin patch.

We spent Halloween weekend in College Station with many of our family members for the A&M/South Carolina football game. Connor dressed up as a football for Halloween (and perfectly avoided having to choose sides for his parents' rivalry football match-up!). The Aggies won (again). :)

We sold our old Pathfinder and bought a new (to us) Pathfinder. Definitely a boring car purchase, but we're happy to have one with 110,000 fewer miles on it.

Connor took his first steps!

November

Connor and I took a trip to College Station just the two of us (while Jeff was on a business trip). I was super worried about making the trip alone with a baby, but it worked out so well and we were able to enjoy my sorority's alumni tailgate.

We spent a Saturday at Jeff's company's new office complex for their family open house.

We somehow managed to get both of our families to have Thanksgiving in Houston, and we were able to celebrate with all of our parents, all of our siblings, and all three living sets of grandparents! 

December

We weren't planning to take Connor to see Santa, but when a photographer friend from playgroup offered Santa photos as a fundraiser for another playgroup family with a sick child, we couldn't say no! Connor surprised me by smiling sweetly rather than crying instantly!

We celebrated St. Nicholas Day with chocolate coins and new Christmas ornaments.

I officially parted ways with my law firm, cleaned out my office, and said goodbye to being employed as a lawyer (for now). It still feels a bit odd to say that out loud (especially after all of the time and effort that I've put into my career so far), but it was a decision Jeff and I made after lots of prayer and discernment, and it feels right in my heart to be prioritizing my time with our little boy over everything else.

Our sweet friends Amy & Ben came for a weekend visit.

Connor turned one, and we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party at our house to celebrate.

We went to see the new Magical Winter Lights exhibit at Sam Houston Race Park for my mom's birthday.

We celebrated Christmas with our families.

We spent New Year's Eve with extended family in the Dallas area.

Throughout the year, we enjoyed attending various birthday parties, baby showers, bridal showers, and gender reveal parties for our friends and family. We went to band performances and awards ceremonies for my littlest sister, Karoline, and I loved doing her hair and makeup for a few school dances! We were thrilled to have my other sister, Kristen, visit often from New York, and we've enjoyed hosting Jeff's parents, who come visit often from their new home in South Carolina.

Connor and I joined a local playgroup for babies born in 2014, and we've been attending lots of playgroup events as well as baby storytime at our library. Jeff has continued his schedule of traveling for work about 25% of the time, and this year he's taken multiple trips to a few countries in Africa, as well as a recruiting trip to South Carolina.

We're so excited for 2016! Life with Connor has been so, so fun so far, and we're really excited to keep experiencing the world with him. We have some great trips planned this year, and who knows what else 2016 will bring! We're loving our life so much right now that we can't wait to spend another year just doing life together.

Here's a look back at my previous year-in-review posts:

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

Kappa Theta Beta Reunion

When I was in college at Texas A&M, I was part of a Catholic sorority called Kappa Theta Beta (KTB). KTB was (and continues to be) a huge blessing to me. Because of KTB, my faith was greatly strengthened during my college years, and I am so, so grateful for that. My best friends today are girls I met through Kappa Theta Beta, and my friendship with them means the world to me. They're the most supportive, prayerful women, and I thank God all the time for putting them in my life.

KTB celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, so we got to go back to College Station for a reunion. It was so amazing to spend time with old friends (with boyfriends and husbands and babies tagging along!), celebrate the beautiful sisterhood of KTB, and see how much the sorority has grown and developed since I graduated!

It was really special to be back at St. Mary's. We often go to Mass there when we're in town for football games, but it had been a really long time since I set foot in the Activity Center (where we had our weekly meetings).

This is five of KTB's former presidents. It was so fun to talk with these girls about what was going on in KTB during each of our years as president and take a walk down memory lane. 

My sweet friend Pilar is in med school, and between the craziness of med school and the craziness of law school, we haven't been able to see each other nearly as much as we would like during the past few years! We were absolutely thrilled to finally be in the same place at the same time for more than just a super-quick lunch!

And, of course, Jeff and Pilar's fiance were thrilled as well. 

Hehe. 

KTB hosts "The Hoedown" every year to raise money for the Good Samaritan Gabriel Project, and the reunion was planned for the same weekend, so we got to put on our cowboy boots and dance the night away for a great cause! We also got to take this awesome photo of us riding ostriches:

It did my heart so much good to spend a weekend celebrating something so near and dear to me. Jeff and I spent the entire drive home trying to figure out how we could get jobs in College Station and be there all the time. Probably not going to happen, but we sure do love it there!

Tailgating at A&M: Alabama and SMU

We were out of town for the first couple football games of the season, but now that we're back we're LOVING tailgating at the Texas A&M games. We started going to all the home games last year (it's about a 90-minute drive), and this year we've improved our set-up a bit. My parents gave us a maroon tent for Christmas, so now we have two tents (yay more space!), and Jeff built an awesome TV box/stand that makes transporting and watching the TV easier and better.

Jeff's new TV box (complete with dry-erase back and removable/adjustable legs!)

We even made a Facebook group to share updates on where exactly our tents are each week so our friends can find us (cell phone service is pretty awful on gameday, so this is a giant help!). Our first game of the season was the big A&M-Alabama "rematch," and it was SO fun to be in College Station that weekend. We went to College Station on Friday night and took my littlest sister with us. We staked our spots in Spence Park, then went to Midnight Yell Practice (definitely the most crowded one I've ever seen!)

Jeff and Karoline staking our tents in Spence Park on Friday night!

Midnight Yell!

Karoline at Midnight Yell

Jeff and Me at Midnight Yell

On Saturday we got up bright and early and spent the entire day in Spence Park! Since the Alabama game was a big deal, there were a LOT of people in College Station from out of town, so we got to see lots of friends and family. My parents also gave me a tailgating cookbook last Christmas, so I was able to try out some new tailgating-friendly recipes.

Food!

My cousins (both current students) and Karoline

Some of my sorority sisters!

These are my dear friends Pilar and Amy (they were both bridesmaids in our wedding). The three of us live in three different cities now, so this was the first time all three of us had been together since my wedding! My heart was so happy all day to see them both! 

...and one with the boys! :)

My aunt and uncle!

My parents and Karoline!

Two of my friends from college - we all met in our dorm freshman year right after we moved in!

My friend Emily (who also happens to be dating Jeff's brother)!

It was like a giant reunion and we had such a great time!

I feel like Jeff and I make a really good tailgate-hosting team. I love to cook and plan, so I take care of the meals and coordinating with friends and family.  Jeff loves football and building/engineering stuff, so he takes care of the TV-satellite set-up (which is actually pretty complicated) and transporting everything from our garage to Spence Park. We both love college football (he actually loves the sport... I love the atmosphere and traditions!) and hanging out with friends and family, so tailgating has kind of become a shared hobby for us, which I love!

The SMU game was much more low-key. College Station wasn't nearly as crowded, and we watched the game with just my parents and littlest sister (although a few other people stopped by to say hello!). Spence Park seemed pretty empty after the chaos of the Alabama game the week before, so it was really relaxing to be out there just hanging out with family. So fun!

Gig 'em, Aggies!