I didn’t know it would be our last day as just the 2 of us,  but what a special day it was!  (So glad I took my camera with me that day!) The day Owen arrived was kind of one of those days where I dropped the “to-do list” and just spent the day enjoying Izzy.  We had a snuggly morning, and instead of the grocery store we headed to the park.  She swang, dug in the rocks, and braved the slide.  She was such a joy to be with all day!  After naptime we snuggled in her chair and read books and played until daddy got home!

So I have been pretty emotional these last couple months about my one on one time with Izzy. I just adore that little girl so much, and it was so hard for me to imagine how things were going to change once Owen got here.  I’ve been so excited about this little guy and what God is going to do in His life and so thankful for the blessing of having a son!  Izzy and I just have our little routine and the things we love to do together, and these past 2 months she has truly just blossomed!  She is talking up a storm and able to communicate so much with us that it’s crazy.  Her little sense of humor is coming out.  I’m pretty sure she’s going to be a little performer…can’t imagine where she would get that from (her daddy for sure)!

She sure is a great big sister all ready…she loves to help change his diapers, and says “Baby sad!” as soon as he starts to cry.  So sweet!  Having 2 has been an adjustment for sure…can’t meet everyone’s needs all at the same time which is tough!  But both kiddos are doing amazing, Izzy is learning to be patient and how to wait if I am doing something with Owen.  And I guess the second child just grows up knowing how to wait since there is another sibling there already!

Little man is such a snuggler…I absolutely love it and am cherishing my time with him!!  I am definitely already in love with this little guy.  I couldn’t imagine how I could love another child as much as I love Iz but it’s amazing how you have just as much love for that second child as the first, and I know it will be the same with more kiddos to come! (No time soon though!)

Izzy LOVES the park…or I should say the swings at the park, that girl could swing for hours!  It is the cutest thing.  Probably takes her back to her infant days because that girl lived in her swing the first 6 months of her life, that girl needed constant motion!

So after about 45 minutes it was getting close to nap time we decided to head home…so Sean got all 3 of us loaded in the car and off we went!

Well, we decided to get out and about again on Wednesday.  We dropped Iz off at a friends to play for a bit (thank you Rachael) to play with her little buddy Eli, and Sean wanted to head to REI to look for some new running shoes.

So we get to REI and we get out of the car and Sean just starts heading into the store…I nicely said, “Umm, babe, we gotta get Owen!”  His response, “Oh gosh, yeah.”  Me: “Did you forget about him?” Sean: “Yeah, I actually did for a second!”  Poor guy!

So we then go to the trunk to get out the single stroller, and it’s not there.

Me: “Where’s the stroller?”

Sean: “I have no idea.”

Me: “Did you unload at the apartment?”

Sean: “No.”

Me: “You didn’t leave it at the park did you?” (Remember it’s Wednesday now!)

Sean: “Oh gosh, I must have.”

Me: “Are you kidding?”

Sean: “No…I don’t know where it’s at?”

So needless to say, we ditched going into REI to buy him new shoes and thought we’d head over the park just to see by chance if it’s there and if not we thought well we’ll post lost signs… ha!  It was just that “pit in your stomach” feeling to know that you’ve lost a really nice stroller!  Ugh!

So we pull up to the park and there it was… parked under a tree!  We had left on a main sidewalk along a busy street.  Thank you Lord!  And thank you to the nice person that parked it under the tree! Sean gets out of the car, walks very intently over to it, turns it upside down to shake the leaves out of it, walks it back to the car, loads it…all the while he got a few suspicious looks

Sean, as soon as he gets back in the car, “Good, now I can go get shoes!”

This Daddy has been working hard around here taking care of all the 3 of us!

That’s right, Owen Ryan is here!  He decided to come on his own terms rather than wait for the C-section that was scheduled for May 18th.  I honestly can’t imagine if I still had another week to go until I met this little guy!  Owen was born last Tuesday, May 4th at 2:56am weighing in at a whopping 7lbs. 3 oz. and 19 in. long!

Nothing like a little Jack Bauer that kicks things into gear!  We were home doing our normal Monday night, watching 24 together when contractions started coming every few minutes.  Of course I’m sure the intensity of Jack tracking down Renee’s killer while trying to expose the Russians had nothing to do with it.  24 was too distracting to start timing them, I just knew they were coming.  So after the show we started timing them…and they kept coming 5 minutes apart for about 2 1/2 hours, and definitely getting more intense.  But I kept thinking, surely this isn’t it.  Finally we decided to text my doctor to see what he suggested (the advantage of knowing your OB on a personal level (more Sean than I, just to clarify ) Anyways…he said head on in to the hospital and they’d let him know if this was time and he’d be there! (Once again, advantage of knowing your doctor and him being willing to come deliver even if he’s not on call!)

So we had to figure out what to do with Iz, so our good friend Chris Collins headed over to spend the rest of the night with her.  So by the time we left it was about 12:30 am, and let’s just say the contractions were coming.  We arrived at the Women’s Center having no idea where we were going once we got there…this is why you do a hospital tour before going into labor…oops, I guess that just kept getting pushed back!  So once we walked the entire building before finding labor and delivery, a lovely police man escorted us to the right wing.

They got me all hooked up to see where I was at…and I was shocked to hear that I was 4 cm dilated with my water about to break…so they called the doc and started all the pre-op stuff and we were on our way!

My doctor arrived, and there is nothing more peaceful knowing that you have a doctor getting ready to deliver your child who loves Jesus more than anything.  Sean and Dr. Garza have been in a small group together the past 4 months at The Stone and so it has been so cool to getting to know him and his family.  After Owen arrived Sean showed me where him and Dr. Garza sat and prayed together before they came into the operating room, they prayed over the surgery and even more importantly they prayed over Owen’s salvation…I mean that just gives me chills to know that my doctor was praying with my husband minutes before under-going surgery and praying for my son to know who Christ is and for God to make Himself known to him.

Anyways, once I got all my anesthesia they came in the operating room, and about ten minutes later Owen took his first breath…isn’t amazing just to hear that first cry!  At 2:56 am the Lord truly blessed me with this little guy!

More to come on our first week together as a family of 4!

Iz and her favorite boys!  For now both clans can fit in one minivan…but here in a couple months us adults are going to be outnumbered! Ha! Adrianne’s expecting a little girl in August..woohoo!  Iz will have a girl to play with…and our little guy can try to keep up with Reece and Gavin!  She goes absolutely crazy when she’s sees these boys, it’s so cute!

Waiting for Shamu!

I don’t think she was expecting this to come out of the water…

After Shamu we enjoyed a live Sesame Street show…which she absolutely loved!  She is in love with Elmo!  It was so cute to watch her reaction!

Another one of her faves...the seals and sea lions. One was swimming around barking and she started imitating it...it was so funny! Never heard that noise come out of her before!

And our last stop of the day was the aquarium…and by this point she was right on the verge of a meltdown, but she wasn’t about to let herself miss out and take a little snooze in the stroller. No way…she insisted on walking!  We had almost made it to the aquarium when all the sudden she just…

took herself a seat and wasn’t going to get up!  So we did a quick tour of the aquarium and bid Shamu bye-bye till next time!  It was a great day though!  We got to see Reece ride his first roller coaster which was the cutest thing ever!

Seaworld was offering a years pass for the same price as a day pass…so we’re hoping to get back a couple times this year!  Just a whole lot of fun! Thanks for going with us Collins! Hope to go again together soon!

Deconstructed Lasagna

from Clean Eating magazine

-1 lb. extra-lean ground beef

1/2 cup yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, diced

2 cups eggplant, unpeeled and cubed

1/4 cup carrots, peeled and diced ( I actually didn’t add the carrots to ours)

1 cup no salt added tomato sauce, divided

1/2 tsp. oregeno

1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1 cup fresh spinach, chopped

1 1/2 cups whole-wheat fusilli pasta (Iz had fun eating these for sure!)

1 cup whole-wheat elbow macaroni

1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese (I personally like cottage cheese better in lasagna, so I used the low-fat cottage cheese)

1/2 cup tomato, diced

10 fresh basil leaves, torn

1 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella, shredded

Additional basil leaves as garnish

Instructions:

In a large skilled over medium high heat, saute beef, onion, garlic, eggplant, and carrots until meet is cooked thoroughly, about 10 minutes.  Stir in 1/2 cup sauce, oregano and pepper.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.  Then uncover and stir in spinach until just beginning to wilt.

Meanwhile, cook fusilli according to package directions in medium pot. Drain and set aside in a bowl. Next cook macaroni according to package using the same medium pot. Drain and add to fusilli.

In a medium bowl, stir together ricotta, tomato, basic and oil.

In a large bowl, add beef mixture, both pastas, remaining 1/2 cup sauce and mozzarella, stirring until well combined. Then stir in ricotta mixture, until all contents are combined.  Serve, garnished with additional basil leaves.

This recipe does make quite a bit, so you can let it cool and freeze it in a resealable container for 2-3 months.  To reheat, defrost in refrigerator for 24 hours, then reheat in microwave or saucepan.

The following night since I had a considerable amount of the eggplant left over and a good amount of fresh basil I made one of our favorite things…Veggie Paninis…this is adapted from Giade DeLorentes from Food Network…

But basically, cook sliced eggplant and sliced zucchini in some olive-oil over medium heat, while they are still in the pan I put some shredded mozzarella over them to melt.  Saute red onion in olive oil until almost carmelized.  Toast some fresh sourdough bread.  On the panini, put fresh Pesto (recipe below), fresh tomato, eggplant and zucchini…and oh my goodness these are incredibley yummy!! These have been some of our faves!

Basil Pesto:

2 cups fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

2 garlic cloves, peeled

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup (about) extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

In a blender, pulse the basil, pine nuts, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper until finely chopped. With the blender still running, gradually add enough oil to form a smooth and thick consistency. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl and stir in 1/2 cup of cheese. Season the pesto with more salt and pepper, to taste. (The pesto can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Yield: 1 cup

Hope you enjoy some of these yummy dinners!

So Friday when we made our little stop at Babies R Us we walked by this Princess Pop-up tent…and immediately Sean says, “Oh my goodness, she would love that.  Let’s get it for her.”  And within 2 seconds it was in our cart…no questions…until we saw the Tinkerbell one and he says which one would she like better!?! It was so cute! (We went with Princesses since it was $5 less ha!)  It was just so cute to see this Daddy want to make his little girl happy!

This Daddy just couldn’t resist!

I had to introduce her to her new hang out spot!

I felt the need to show her how the tunnel worked since she was unsure...I barely made it through! Ha!

Of course the next natural thing to do was introduce Baby to their new place! It was so cute!

It has been so cute the past couple of days because she’ll grab her books and take them in there with her.  And yesterday I gave her goldfish and she carried them into her tent and sat and ate them!  Thanks Daddy!

Well, last weekend we were just home (you can read the previous post), but throughout the weekend I noticed that I was cramping some, nothing super severe but enough for me to take notice.  And it just kept happening throughout the weekend, so finally on Sunday I told Sean I was going to call the doctor Monday morning just to let them know and see what they thought.  Well sure enough they wanted me to come in, so the hooked me up to the contraction machine thing, and sure enough within 20 minutest I had a contraction, and it just kinda worried the nurse practitioner if I had been feeling those all weekend, so she didn’t put me on extreme bedrest, but I had definite orders to stay close to home with no major walking, grocery shopping (good thing I did that before I went to the doctor ha!), and no major lifting (don’t know how you do that with a 1-year old  )!  They just wanted to make sure I didn’t start having 4 contractions in an hour, then that would be bad news!  So needless to say we have really taken it easy this week.  This little guy needs to keep cookin’ for now! We have had some really sweet visitors this week which has been nice for Iz.  We only have about 12 more weeks until this little guy is going to make his debut and I am really just wanting to soak up my time with Iz.  I am going to miss this time of it just being her (not at all that I am not ecstatic about this little guy, believe I truly truly am) it is just this time with Iz has been so so special and we are just a little team throughout the day!  I have no doubt she is going LOVE being a big sister!  She is already so nurturing it is crazy!  She is going to love this little brother to pieces!  So all that to say I go back to the doc week after next and I’m hoping I will be in the clear and Iz and I can start getting back out and about again!  We did enjoy an outing with Daddy today, lunch at Chez Zee and a run to Babies R Us and oh it felt so good to get out of the house!!

I think she had some fun!

We’ve had one of those weekends where nothing was on the calendar…I LOVE weekends like that…no specific plans just hanging out and doing whatever comes to mind!

Friday I got out by myself for a bit and went and saw a chick-flick, When in Rome.  It was cute! A no-brainer type of movie! Ha!

Then came home cooked some dinner and made Valentine Sugar Cookies!  Since Iz has been born I have been so excited about baking cookies with her!  And she is finally old enough to where she can have some fun with it!  She absolutely loved it!  It was so fun to watch her!  We rolled them out and I had her “help” me use the heart cookie cutter…while I was placing one on the baking sheet, we look up and she had grabbed a huge piece of dough and stuck it in her mouth…hilarious! Sean had the camera ready so we captured it! So funny!  She loved I might add!

Her mouth full…it was a lot of dough!

She LOVED frosting them, she would crack up every time I let the frosting drip on the cookie, it was so cute!

She would make this face every time she would try to spread the frosting! We were laughing so hard!

I think she had some fun!

Gotta have some sprinkles!

And gotta brag on my hubby for a second who got me 2 dozen of the most gorgeous red roses! I have LOVED having these to look at the past couple of days! And he also got me this really cool necklace from local jewelry maker. He did real good! Love you babe!

Saturday we did one of our favorite things…went to Whole Foods to get yummy cheese, crackers, hummus, French bread, a bottle of wine (for Sean…none for preggers here, and not that he drank the whole bottle, felt I should clarify ha..anyways)!  We love to go there on the weekends and get all sort of yummy things to snack and eat on.  Oh how I will miss that place!  We then enjoyed our yummy good watching the Olympics, all in all, just a great weekend!

Hope you’re having a wonderful Valentines with your loved one!

-First off, I realized I never followed up from the previous posts with our friends the Ivey’s who were trying to get their little boy Amos from Haiti! He’s HOME!! He came home probably about 3 weeks ago! So amazing!

-So for the past 6 months we have really been seeking the Lord on where He was guiding Sean in his ministry and our family.  We have been praying for clarity and for God to give us direction…and about 2 weeks ago we finally felt like we had some clarity on what we were supposed to do.  Sean took his position in Austin as an Area Minister and Church Planting Resident with a 2 year commitment…and believe it or not in about 7 months that 2 year commitment would be wrapping up. (Crazy!)  We had been praying about if God was leading us to stay here in Austin (which we have LOVED) or to join our friends who planted a church back in Houston a little over a year ago.

-So about 2 weeks ago, we really felt confirmation that God was leading Sean to join the staff at The Woodlands Point Community Church, we are so excited about what God is doing there and feel honored to be apart of it.

-So…there were a lot of logistics to figure out though…when we would be moving back to The Woodlands…Baby Boy is due May 22nd…etc etc.  We have been living in a one-bedroom apartment since we moved here…yep…that’s right, little Izzy has been sleeping in the closet.  It took me forever to be able to admit that to people because I felt horrible about it…but my pride is gone, and we knew this was where God was calling us, and although it was hard to leave the comfort of our cute house and her nursery, in the end those things didn’t matter, we ultimately wanted to be where God was leading us and it has been so worth it.  God has taught us so much about Himself and His Sovereignty.  And Sean has loved being apart of The Austin Stone…God is doing AMAZING things through the people at this church, we couldn’t have been more thankful to be apart of it.

-So for the past year we’ve been in our little one-bedroom and it has been great, but the older Iz was getting it was getting more difficult, and we knew we could have one more little body in that apartment…so once we found out we were moving back we decided to move into a 2 bedroom for the remainder of the time we are here.  So we found out on a Tuesday that we would be moving back July 1st, so I talked to the apartment complex and there was a 2 bedroom available to move in…so we decided to go for it, we decided to move in that Friday…ahh, it was complete insanity.  Luckily my mom was able to come up and she took care of Iz and took her to a hotel so I could pack since Sean had to work that whole week. Craziness, but we did it.

-Then this past weekend we had the Verge Conference which was incredible and learned oh so much…it was overwhelming, but good overwhelming!  Iz went to go stay with her Grammy and Pops and had a blast!

-So now we are just really enjoying the time we have left in Austin!  There are sooo many things we are going to miss about living here…we just want to soak it all in these next couple months before Baby Boy comes!  So many great places to eat, great parks, beautiful hills (we have this incredible view out of our apartment..I’ll take a pic on a prettier day)…and of course the church and the great friends we’ve made here!  But we are extremely excited to move back to The Woodlands and be apart of what God is doing through The Woodlands Point!

Sorry for such the long post…

Some pics of Izzy from her time with Grammy and Pops!

And my favorite…(My mom sent this to me during the conference, Sean and I couldn’t quit laughing)! This girl looks like she should be walking on Hollywood Blvd! Ha!  All the necessities…sunglasses…check…cell phone…check…scarf…check!