How we told the Arisco's...

One of the hardest things was our decision to wait to tell our parents about the baby in person. And not tell anyone else until they knew. Planning a weekend with our parents is not an easy task as Josh has school and our parents live over 5 hours away. The plan was to tell them on September 18, the weekend of Bree and John's wedding. Josh and I discussed for hours how we would do this. We finally decided to use a card since my Dad's birthday was pretty close by.







After driving from SA, we met my parents in Beaumont to eat Sushi at Tokyo and BOY were we nervous. My Mom told me after she found out "Y'all were so calm at dinner!" So I guess we're good at hiding things. We got home and gave them the card when we were all sitting in my Dad's man-cave.

I wish I had it on video for you, but a play-by-play will have to do:
(Jim & Lisa reading his "birthday card" out loud)
(both finally realizing what's going on)
(Lisa) "Are you pregnant!?!"
(Ashley shakes head)
(Lisa) "Oh my Gosh! YAYYY!! Hang on." (runs out of the room)
(Jim - stares at the TV in silence)
(Lisa comes back with a gift, Baby's first golf bag) "I've been so excited to give you this one day."



Yep, so that's how my parents react to big, life changing news. My Mom was somehow prepared even though she had no clue, and my Dad (who doesn't love surprises) wanted to figure out how he knew before I told him. Once he soaked it in he was thrilled. They even told me that they had "grandbaby fever" but didn't want to say anything to pressure us. In case you don't know them, Here is a little tribute post I did on my parentals a while back.

As for my sister, I ended up telling her over the phone. I emailed her a picture of the knitted hat below and asked her to make me one. (that girl can knit!) She called and asked who this is for and I said "your niece or nephew!" She is really excited and knows more about babies than me! She really does her research. I know Baby will love Aunt Lala :)

UTHSCSA Chili Cook-off 2010

So one day Josh tells me he and Craig signed up for a chili contest at school. They decided to use Craig's Uncle's famous recipe and spruce it up with chipotle and chocolate. I took a hands off approach and let them do this all on their own. It was so cute to watch them in the kitchen making their 9 quarts of chili. Josh even stayed up late to clean the entire kitchen! (score!) On the day of the cook-off, Alyse and I had planned on going by to wish them luck and then go walking. But once we got there and saw how big it was, we decided it would be fun to stay.

See how many people there were?


Our boys had lots of customers ready to try their chili


Look at their creative display...bones from Craig and Alyse's house in Castroville


Josh presenting the chili to the judges


So proud of our boys and their hard work!


Charles and his teammate Ata. Their group was called "Burning at Both Ends". They ended up winning the spiciest chili division. He used dried ghost peppers! No, I didn't try any. But I'm sure that once April rolls around I will be knocking on his door for some. (doesn't spicy food make you go into labor?)


Jonathan and Sarah (and Baby G!) Their chili had some interesting ingredients like coffee and brown sugar.


The tooth fairy even showed up! (she had hot pink tights with white fish nets over them)


This group was called the Haiti Mateys and they won best display


We were proud to know the spiciest chili winners! Kristi, Charles, and Ata (Hello Chloe and Wyatt!)


Overall we had a lot of fun. There were free drinks, good music, and our team will be reimbursed for their expenses. Josh can't wait to try again 4th year. Maybe he will get in the Halloween spirit like everyone else and pull out his Larry costume...

Larry and his white trash arm candy, Halloween 2006 (yes I'm wearing ankle boots)

Trip to North Carolina!

**OK, so this actually happened July 8-11, but better late than never!**
This past summer we would entertain the idea of visiting Matt & Kristen in North Carolina. They were so gracious to travel a long distance to our wedding. Late one night we decided to just book it! We flew out early on Thursday (big shout out to Paul O. for driving us!) and got to Jacksonville around lunchtime. We were so excited to see our favorite Aggie couple! Matt had just had PRK (form of lasiks) the day before, what a trooper! We went to lunch and then headed to their house to chill. I must say Kristen's lasagna was to die for. She started to feel bad that we ate some at every meal after that, but we were excited to! lol

The next day, Matty took us on a private tour of the Camp LeJeune Air Station. We felt like VIP! Other weekend activities included: SkipBo, driving around camp LeJeune, Wii tennis, fish fry, Cranium, NCIS, New Bern, playing fetch, girl's trip to Wal-mart for ice cream, and the commissary.

**Kristen I'm embarrassed of our pictures from the trip. Nothing compares to you camera!

Mr. Matt had to keep his sunglasses on after the surgery


I loved how his girls would take care of him


The staircase was narrow to get up to the control tower. (Kristen, I hesitated to post this picture because he has your camera around his neck with no lens cover...ahhh luckily nothing happened.)


Meeting the people in the control tower.


Look what we found on Camp LeJeune (Josh wanted me to sit on it but we felt it first and it was HOT!)


While visiting New Bern we went to a yummy seafood restaurant. Cap'n Ratty gave us a tour of his wine cellar. It was cold in there!


We are so thankful for our good friends M & K. Thanks so much for having us!!


I hope Kristen doesn't mind me posting this...but you can see some pictures of the trip here. You see, (ahem) our camera took a big hit that weekend. I can't wait to have a nice camera like Kristen's. A certain someone has promised to be extremely careful with it and not leave it on top of a car. See this post in case you forgot.

Baby Russell

Well the good news is out! Josh and I will be welcoming a bundle of joy in late April. We are so excited and cannot wait for baby Russell to be here. I'm about 14 weeks now and we will find out what baby is in about 4 weeks.

My first trimester wasn't too bad. Let's re-cap:
-I was extremely tired and could have slept those first 12 weeks straight. There were times where Josh would say "let's put you to bed" and this was at 9 p.m.
-I've been lucky in that I've had no severe morning sickness. However I did have a stomach bug the day after we found out I was pregnant. I was glad for that to pass! (Josh got it 3 days later)
-No serious food aversions, it just depends on what I'm in the mood for.
-I've had some random cravings including Cheetos, cucumbers and bagels with cream cheese. (not at the same time, of course)
-No weight gain yet! (YES!) I can also still fit into my same work pants thanks to Zumba 4x a week. (2 of the classes I take are at 5:30 am) My Doctor said exercise is a requirement, not an option when you are pregnant. And honestly, it makes me feel better after I go.

Ok, so now to the good stuff. Sonogram photos of Baby Russell at:

5 weeks 6 days




9 weeks 6 days



12 weeks 2 days



It's been so fun to see baby grow at my doctor appointments. As for my belly, there is a little bump which I MIGHT post. It just seems a little weird to me.

We love you baby Russell and cannot wait to find out if you are a Peyton Allen or Adilynn Hazel! (top name choices of the moment...)

Life is always full circle...

Earlier this year, I found out our wedding planner Erin is moving to San Antonio. (her husband is in the military) They were here house hunting for about a week and wanted to meet up for dinner. After much contemplating we decided on Mi Tierra. When I was younger we would eat there while in San Antonio for my Dad's annual ADA conferences. It has really grown popular over the years.

Here is Preston enjoying a virgin strawberry daiquiri. Her daddy paid for the Mariachi band to play "La Cucaracha". (The men figured this song was the closest to her original request, "Itsy Bitsy Spider") I wish I had taken a video of her shaking he shoulders. She is a great dancer!




She is so precious!


I can't wait for more fun times with Erin once she finally moves to SA in the late fall.

South Texas Maize

Yesterday afternoon after some shopping we headed to Castroville to meet up with the Lilies. Their friends Denise and Josh were in town and we thought it would be fun to venture the South Texas Maize. We have heard about this attraction from many people in SA and were excited to get discounted tickets on Groupon. So everyone piled in the Russell car and we were on our way! If you get a chance, you should check out aerial view photos of the maize. It's George Strait's face!



I loved this sign...



All the kiddies enjoying the tractor ride.


Some pretty flowers by the entrance.


The Lilies with Denise and Josh...entering the first phase of the Maize.


Lilies and Russells!


Throughout both phases of the Maize we kind of switched off on who the leader was and here is our turn! Notice how dusty our shoes and jeans got. There were also lots of nats...we carefully calculated that we each inhaled about 3.5 million.


Josh P. trying to scare Denise.


This guy was in the viewing tower to make sure there was "no cussin', no smokin' and no kissin'" (our group broke 2 of the rules)



Pretty sunset from the observation stairs right before we finished phase 2. (Just in the nick of time since we didn't have flashlights)



"WE FINISHED" success pose...


AND finally we took Christmas card photos. (It was dark out and we didn't realize that the men were in the woman's cut out lol)






We had such a fun evening. A word to the wise: If you want some of their homemade kettle korn, make sure you order it before going through the maize. There was over an hour wait! Sad day. If you ever go, help a pregnant sister out and buy me some!

P.s. A blog post on Baby Russell is underway...I've had multiple requests!

Turkey 2010

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