Merry Christmas...

Stephen and I travelled to Katy, TX on Wednesday afternoon to spend Christmas with his family. Thankfully, our drive was relatively "eventless," and we arrived in a little over 4 hours. We've been eating, drinking and playing games ever since...so much fun! And very relaxing!

This evening we'll head to see "It's Complicated." Seeing a movie on Christmas Day is a Dotson tradition, and I love it. This year, we're going to Alamo Drafthouse, so we'll be able to have an appetizer or two while watching the movie (if we're even hungry after turkey and the fixings!).

Here's a pic of the "kids" before heading to Christmas Eve Mass...please excuse the dots--we'll clean the camera later :) For those of you requesting a bump, this is as close as your getting until I feel brave enough :) Knox is peeking out, though!!

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!

Love,

The Dotson Family

It's a...

HEALTHY BOY!

We're so excited. I was sure it was a boy, I've known since I found out I was pregnant. Not sure why I felt so strongly about it, I just knew. Stephen was iffy as to the gender, but eventually chose girl as his contender. As we watched the sonogram screen, holding our breaths waiting for his cute profile, he waved. How perfect is God's creation, and sense of humor. We continued to watch as he did jumps off of my bladder and twirled as we tried to see him head on...he's a stubborn one! We're a wee bit apprehensive yet EXTREMELY excited to start this journey!

Please keep praying for us, for the sweet yet-to-be-named Dotson, and for a safe pregnancy!

Happy Holidays!!

D-Day

Today's the day! We find out if we're having a boy or a girl...I can't WAIT :) We'll update of course, so stay tuned!!

Chasing Squirrels

It's fall around here, and that means more time outside running around in the leaves. Not for me, particularly, but for the dogs.

This also means more time chasing squirrels! Gracie and Bella LOVE to chase squirrels...and this picture captures their typical reaction. Please click on the picture to enlarge, you need to see Bella up close!!

So happy with this fall weather, hopefully it stays!!

Three years...

x

Conner William Kampen

Conner is here...we now have a nephew! Born on Monday morning, November 16th around 4:4oam, he weighed in at 7lbs 14oz. He's adorable, and we love him so much already! Congrats Jeremy, Lindsay and Mackenzie!!

(sorry for some of the blurry pics...as you can imagine, at 12 hours old he was a little squirmy!!)

How we found out...

A lot of you have been asking for the details on how we found out we were pregnant! I woke up, the Wednesday of the first week of school (yikes!) and felt a little funny. I just had this feeling, and thought that taking a test couldn't hurt anything. I wasn't necessarily late or anything, but just wanted to see if maybe my hunch was correct.

At 6:05am, the first test was a little fuzzy. It took a long time to go either way, but finally a VERY faint line appeared. I about fell over. Literally. I composed myself enough to walk out and wake Stephen up to get his opinion. My entire life I've wanted to be a mom. That's it. And I had dreamed of how I would tell my husband, the little clues I would give through fun gifts to make him guess. It would be so romantic and magical. Well, waking your husband up at 6:07am to look at a wet pregnancy test is not exactly the same. I just needed affirmation. His response? "I'm not going to believe that. I can't really tell one way or another. I'd have to see another one."

Nice...I don't have to pee anymore. How can I take another one. I took his brutal honesty as a sign that I needed to wait. I went about my day, surprisingly if you know me well, not thinking about it much. When I got home that evening, I decided to take another test. I figured if it came back positive at night, it was legit. I took another test, and by "another" I mean 4. They were ALL positive. Stephen was in the other room, so I collected them all and put them under a little note in his bathroom. Looking back, that's really gross. I bunch of pee sticks on his bathroom counter, where his toothbrush is. But I didn't care!

He came to bed a bit after I did, and went directly to take his contacts out. I snickered quietly as I watched him open his card...

He turned around, laughing. "You took 4? These are expensive!" We hugged, laughed and talked about the surreal reality that we were going to be parents. It still hasn't completely sunk in.

We're now 16 weeks (4 months for all of you out there that don't do things in weeks...I was a hater before this, too!) and thriving! Heard little Dotson's heartbeat today, a solid 153. Can't wait to find out what it is...just two short weeks :)

DART

Stephen and I, along with our "roommate" Brian, decided to take the DART on Wednesday night to have dinner in Uptown. Random, yes, but also very fun! It was full of awkward moments, like when a patron asked me if I "walked barefoot in the Summer," and then proceeded to walk away when I wouldn't give him my name. Would you have? Come on...and of course Stephen and Brian just laughed, leaving me in awkward misery alone.

I digress...the DART! We left at about 6:40 pm from the George Bush Turnpike location and traveled to Cityplace, where Stephen and I had our reception. We surfaced on the West side of 75, so we were able to simply walk to West Village. We had dinner at Village Burger Bar, then decided to hop on the McKinney Avenue Trolley to grab a drink further into Uptown. The trolley ride was awesome, you just have to typically wait 10-15 minutes for pick-up. Good thing for us...we had all the time in the world!! After the guys had a drink (yes, I had water...no judgement) we took the Trolley back to Cityplace and the DART back to Richardson. When we arrived home it was 10:07.

Overall, it was fun! It just took almost 2 hours of travel that we could have done in 30 minutes with a car. It makes you feel very fortunate for having a car, something we take for granted. The train was full of people both times we were on it, so it does make me think that it is useful for some. If you are a fortunate car owner...take your car. It's not terribly convenient.

My Sister's Wedding

Last weekend was my baby sister's wedding in Austin, TX. We drove down on Thursday night to be there for all of the festivities. It was a blast...though the weather didn't hold up. We didn't let it stop us, though!! Stephen and I love Austin, and being there the whole weekend, able to soak up all the great places the city has to offer was amazing! Here are a few pics from the beautiful wedding, and of the happy couple! Congrats, Hayley and Matt! We love you guys!!

Hayley with my Mom and Dad

My turn

The sisters'-in-law

Oh yeah...SURPRISE! Three preggo's at her wedding :)

My main men

The Happy Couple

Father/Daughter Dance

Sparklers to end the night!!!

It never stops...

We've been traveling like crazy lately! It's all to see fun people and do fun things, but I feel like we've been going nonstop. Two weekends ago I traveled to Horseshoe Bay for my sisters Bachelorette Party, last weekend we went to see Stephen's parents and this weekend we're heading back to Austin for Hayley's wedding. I'm loving seeing all of the family, but I also look forward to just staying home and laying low for the weekend!

Everyone asks me if I miss Europe. I do...and most of the reason I miss it so much is because we traveled all the time. If we were bored on a Saturday, we could load up the car and spend the afternoon in Paris, or head to Amsterdam for dinner. Here, I feel like our options are Sherman, Hurst/Euless/Bedford, or the occassional Ft. Worth. Not exactly the same. I was always shocked when people in Liege would say they'd never been to Amsterdam, some even Brussels. How could you not travel when you had so many beautiful things to see? Now I'm eating a humble pill, because I think of all the places to see this side of the pond, and I've got some work to do!! Hopefully Stephen and I can get away in the near future and see some sights! Cross your fingers!!

Time flies...

I'm so sorry, for those of you that read this blog, that I've taken such a hiatus! I have to say with all honesty that it was the farthest thing from my mind the past few weeks. That's not to say I don't miss blogging...it's just been crazy around here! We've had a lot going on--a 90th birthday party, two wedding showers, bachelorette party, a new roomie (for a bit) and WORK! It's been a crazy month or so, but so great as well!

Work is going great for both of us, the house is great, dogs are great...I'm just tired! Getting back in the swing of things was easy over the summer, but now that school is on full force, it's a mess! I've let the house fall to the wayside while I cart myself to class, after school meetings and training sessions, cheerleading practice and football games. You'd think I had two middle school kids and a mini-van...no, it's just my life these days! I love it...I'm just finding it hard to breath sometimes.

I promise I'll make a better effort to blog if you guys will keep reading...and hold me accountable :) Until next time friends...

Handy Manny?

Stephen and Jesse (Lyon, our neighbor and husband of my HS friend Lorie) decided to install our dishwasher. Gasp! Let me give you a little background first...Sears arrived and inspected our non-working dishwasher and found that they would not be able to install the new one due to 1968 plumbing--I would have to call a plumber out to fix it, then Sears would come back out and install it. I called the plumber and was told I was "on the list" for their services and the plumber would be by today. 7pm, no plumber. Should we wait until tomorrow for them to come and take care of it? Nah. Stephen and Jesse could do it!

8pm: We head over to the Lyon's to talk about the installation. Lorie and I checked out and grabbed dinner while the guys walked to our place to get started.

10pm: Lorie gets tired and heads home with Maddie, their dog. She asks Jesse how long he'll be, and he replies 30 min.

11:30pm: I enter the kitched to check on progress, and Stephen is holding a flashlight for Jesse, who is on the floor with tools I've never seen before.

1:15am: Expletives fly out of the kitchen while Jesse runs to the front door, water splashing all over our kitchen in a hurry to flood it. I freak. Grab towels. Dab. Water is shut off, guys are laughing! I'm not.

1:35am: Stephen and Jesse head to the Lyon household for "more supplies."

2:45am: Smell of fire coming from kitchen. I inspect the smell to find Jesse using a blowtorch to our pipes. Feeling like I'd said enough during our previous fiasco, I shut up and headed to the couch.

3:22am: After awaking to find Stephen and Jesse gone, on another supply run.

4:20am: With sounds of an approaching "Done!" I head to the kitchen to find a 2x4 in our wall charred from the blowtorch. Brings closure to the smell and my thinking the house was burning down.

4:30am: Finished product is running, without leaks. Boys high-five...I mutter something indistinguishable and curl into bed.

Moral of the story...we saved $150 bucks and lost 6 hours of sleep, but we have a perfectly working dishwasher and two guys that think they are something!

Our new house!

Stephen and I moved into our new house last week! It's been a crazy week so far, but we absolutely love it!! My mom came in town this week to help me paint and set it up...it took us forever, but we feel so at home now! Enjoy the pics, and come see us soon!!

This is our kitchen...i'm standing in the doorway of the study looking towards the breakfast nook:

Now opposite direction:

Breakfast nook--we antiqued the built-ins:

The living room, from the doorway of our bedroom:

Antiqued built-ins in the living room:

Living room from the dining room:

Living room:

Dining room:

Our bedroom, from the door...looking into his/her sinks! Room is empty, however, because our crate from Europe with all of our furniture isn't here yet :)

Bedroom #2:

Bathroom #2:

Bedroom #3:

Bathroom #3:

Bedroom #4, full of our junk :)

Patio view from our backyard:

Backyard:

Patio, looking into the backyard:

So, there you have it! Now...for real, come visit :)