The Birthday Boy and the Baby Boy

Today is Brandon's 29th birthday, and Kate and I successfully surprised him.  This is a very hard task with a 3 year old!  She spills the beans on everything.

First we made the surprises...

Then we went in for the main event...

I'm sure Brandon would love for me to have a baby boy as his present today, but I got him something else, just in case!  As of yesterday I'm overdue, but the doctor seems to think that he'll be here sometime very soon, and he IS on call this weekend, thank goodness!  I'll post pictures as soon as I have time and a little sleep (I'm sure after the baby comes I'll take sleep before posting pictures for a while).

An Important Lesson Learned

First, you must do this...

Before you can do this...

Thanks for clarifying, Kate.

End of School

Kate's first year of school has come to an end...already!  It flew by, and I absolutely loved her teachers and she made some really cute friends.  Overall, I was very pleased with this experience, and Kate seems to love school.  Here are some photos from her end of the year recital.

Two posts in one day!

After lunch, Kate told me that she wanted to play dress-up.  I can never say no to a good game of dress-up, since it's one of my all-time favorites.  So I went to my room to get some shoes, belts, hats, etc, and when I came back to Kate's room (a little worried because it had been very quiet the whole time I was gone), this is what I found:

To begin with, she was wearing a light purple shirt with short purple leggings.  When I arrived, she had put on (over her original outfit) some more underwear, her gymnastics leotard, and some church shoes.  Plus she has a very small (maybe 12 month) headband in her hands that she had been trying diligently to put on, but ended up getting frustrated and putting it back in the drawer.

Here's one with a better view of the headband, although she was done giving me pleasant looks by this time.

I also have to apologize about the drab look of Kate's room, but we sold our house and have already started packing :-)

Future Stars!

This is Kate and her BFF Brylen at gymnastics.  I think they're destined for great things, what do you think?

Just a few Photos...

The girl looooooves strawberries!

St. Patrick's Day - sorry, I think I meant to do a post, um, about 2 weeks ago with this picture.

Hates getting into the bath, but really hates getting out!

My Sadie girl.  This blog IS supposed to be about dogs, too!

Birthdays and Taxes...

We recently celebrated three years of Kate!  She had her party at J & R Gymnastics which turned out to be a great location because it was cold and rainy outside.  I had a designated photographer of the day (who shall remain nameless), and she has a really fancy camera so I told her to take as many pictures as she could.  However, she has yet to send me these pictures....(I'm not bitter or anything).  So the only pictures I have are of Kate opening presents at home after the party, I'll only post a couple since they all basically depict the exact same thing!

In other exciting news for our family, my husband recently bought an accounting practice in Seguin.  He's been doing taxes as a side business since he passed the CPA, but it's something he's wanted to do full time for a while.  He was really excited to get the opportunity, it was one of those "right place at the right time" kind of situations.  He bought the practice from an elderly gentleman who has been extremely nice and helpful during the transition.  He owned and grew this practice for nearly 40 years while he and his wife raised 4 children.  He told Brandon that tax season is hard, and he usually put in 60+ hours per week, but the rest of the year he usually worked between 10 and 20 hours per week (Kate and I are really looking forward to that part!).  Plus, Brandon was definitely ready to stop working for other people.  However, he's super busy right now, so we don't see him very much.  I guess that's just the down side to this time of year, and the light at the end of the tunnel is only slightly more than a month away!  There are 41 days left of tax season (not that we're counting or anything).  

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Kate and I take Brandon lunch after she's done with preschool.  We usually make sandwiches or something simple like that, and Kate definitely enjoys a little bit more time with him.  There have been many nights that he hasn't been able to get home by bedtime (actually most nights) and he may leave before she gets up, so any time we have together is really cherished.  Here's a picture of his new office, and his wonderful assistant.

Hopefully this tax season finds all of you doing well!  We're really ready for it to be done, but also thankful for Brandon's new opportunity!