I ♥ Faces: Pets

Well, I finally got up the nerve to enter an I ♥ Faces contest. I usually don't have a good photo to submit to the category, but since I'm obsessed with our boxer Nacho, I had plenty of options for this week's theme of Pets.

Head over to I ♥ Faces to check out some amazing photos of people's amazingly cute pets.

 

In other news...

Schub informed me last night that my belly button is slowly but surely disappearing. Like magic.

25 week (almost) belly picture to come soon.

Coachin in KG

I somehow don't think I ever mentioned it on the blog, but one thing that kept us quite busy this spring was soccer. Jason and I were asked to assistant coach a youth soccer team through King George Parks & Rec with a guy from our church who was head coaching. I grew up playing soccer so I was definitely game, but Schub only played one season in 8th grade, on a team where the goalie was also the leading scorer (?!?). I had never coached before, though, so it was a learning experience for both of us.

[My favorite story from the season is the time when the coach asked us to stand in as defenders while he had the kids running a drill. He said "give about 50%"... in other words, challenge them, but don't make it impossible to get by.  The next thing we know, Schub has the ball and is doing crazy tricks around this 13 year old girl. Me: "where in the world did you learn do that?" Schub: "I saw it youtube this afternoon and wanted to try it out.  It works!"]

Last weekend we had an end of the season pool party at the head coach's house.

As you can see there was plenty of middle school flirting to be had.

We honestly had a great time. The team was coed (only 4 girls on our team), ages 12-15 No, our team wasn't very good. I think we only won 2 games all season (though we came close many times). But it was really fun to get to know some more families in the area, to do something outside and active 3 times a week, and to hang out with the kids. Now we (including Schub who understands a lot more about the game of soccer now) are excited about World Cup time! Go USA!!

How does your garden grow?

This year for the first time we have been able to plant a garden - like a real one with vegetables and stuff. We have tomatoes (red and white), bell peppers (green, yellow and red), cucumbers, and bunch of herbs (cilantro, sage, basil, lavendar, and couple others I forget).  These pictures were taken about a week ago and I wish I took some more pictures today because everything REALLY grew this week. The tomato plants are at least 3 feet tall and we are getting some real live cucumbers (they look like those little mini pickles right now - about 2-3 inches long).

Schub and a guy from church built those raised beds because the drainage is so terrible in our backyard. I helped fill them with dirt and I have helped pull weeds once. Other than that, Schub has literally done everything and he is doing an awesome job keeping it growing.  We have already started cooking with our fresh herbs, and I can't wait to harvest our veggies!

We also have this great hydrangea bush that was here when we got here. And of course the infamous peach tree that we'll have to be much more careful with this year; Nacho has already begun sniffing at it as it ripens (it's worthless to put chicken wire around it b/c it's so close to the ground that Nacho would still be able to reach the branches).  Jason also got a bird feeder for his birthday from my parents and that went up today. 

And here's a cute picture of Nacho in the garden just for fun.

More cuteness

I promise I won't put up pictures every time we get a cute outfit or a baby cookie, but since everything is still so new and we have such generous friends, I just had to show off a few of the cute little girly things we have gotten recently.

These adorable little socks that look like little mary jane shoes in an assortment of cute colors :-)

All these adorable girly onesies that I literally cannot wait to use. They are just that cute.

A purse complete with cell phone and compact that are soft and make noise. And some NC State socks that I will permit because they are just so little and cute :-)

An adorable adorable little dress with matching leggings...

AND... drumroll please... 

an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini!

I mean, seriously. Does it get any cuter than that little thing?? It makes me wish she were going to be here to come to the beach with us in August. Then again... at the rate we're going, we won't have a nursery ready or even a carseat to put her in by August. We'd better just wait til October :-)  But all these goodies make me extra excited about our little girl!!

Memorial Day Weekend

This past weekend we headed down to Charlotte to visit the fam. It was such a great time. We got to see both of our families as well as Jeannie, Hunter, Sawyer, and Matt (Crabby, as Schub calls him), Holly, and Julia.  Unfortunately I only took like 10 pictures all weekend. There was too much fun going on to bother with the camera. Definitely check out Brooke's blog though for some awesome Clerico family pictures and a fun(/embarrassing) little video... especially if you'd like to really see how large I have become.  The pictures I did take were of Schub's little surprise party at the Browns on Sunday night. I only wish I could have caught on camera Griffin running into the living room when the cake was ready saying "Uncle Jason! Uncle Jason! It's your birthday!" So cute.

oh so appropriate ice cream cake for the man who could live off ice cream alone.

Mom serving everyone up

The boys enjoying their ice cream cake.

 The happy host

The newlyweds :-)

Daddy-o

Where was Mike? I didn't get a picture of him for some reason. He was probably hiding... or cleaning up the melting ice cream :-)

Anyway, as usual, it was much too short. We really need to make it a goal in life to live closer to family some day. And I need to take more pictures. It really was a wonderful weekend and it reminded me once again that I have a most wonderful family.