If I see one more baby picture on Facebook....

I'm gonna have to HAVE a baby!

For real though.... Baby fever is real disease. It's worse than the flu.  It consumes you!!!  Hunter and I have an active case of baby fever. Sometimes I carry Dale around like a baby and swaddle him in blanket.  By sometimes, I mean about 3-7 times a week. 

Let me preface this post to my ENTIRE family that wants me to have a baby... we are no sooner to having a baby at this time!  So just calm down now.

In all seriousness, I'm obsessed with babies and having a baby.  Hunter and I know that we aren't ready for a little bambino just yet though. So we are just going to let everyone around us have a baby for us this year! (AHEM... Leslie, Melissa, Chelsea.... everyone else that's super pregnant.)  DID I MENTION I'M HAVING A NEW NEICE/NEPHEW THIS SUMMER!!! (YAY!!!!!!)

My friend, Holly gave me the BEST slogan that I'm living by this year, "Baby free 2013!!"  This year Hunter and I are gonna focus on US and spending time together growing as a couple.  As a newly married couple there is ALWAYS pressure, "when are you guys going to have a baby?!?!!?" X300 times a day. 

However, Hunter and I are so happy and content right now, we just don't have room for a baby right now! We love the heck out of our dogs, treat them like the furry children they are.  Plus, we have so much on our "before were parent's" bucket list, we HAVE to stay baby free till 2014!!  We have a very exciting vacation we are planning this summer (EEEKKKK can't wait to tell!!) to celebrate our 2 wonderful years together.  Also, I want to take a cooking class and baking class so I can feed this said human.  Ultimate goal is to put off this babymaking thing until I get my CHT for Hand Therapy... but that can't happen for 5 year minimum... and I don't know I can wait 5 more years! (Did I mention I have babyfever?!?!) 

I'm sure sooner than later we are both going to wake up look at each other and be like "OMG let's have a baby!!"  Which is actually something we say frequently, but the idea fades by bedtime when we like going to sleep at 9 AM.  But when we are ready...I think the feeling will stay! Or...we just may get a lil surprise! Who knows God's plan and what's the point of trying to figure it out?!

Until then, we are in family planning mode!  I'm eating healthier, working out, taking Juice Plus, and even reading books about how to prepare my body to make it an awesome 9 month apartment for Lil J.  Hunter is also on the get healthy for baby train and is working out, eating right and taking Juice Plus with me.  I haven't let him read the books about growing a baby because it always ends with how the baby comes out and I just don't think he is ready for that kind of reality.

Anyone out there in blogland... What did you do/are you doing to get ready for starting a family???  How did you know you were ready to start a family??

10 Reasons I Love My Husband

I warned you about my sappy posts and here is one.

H and I have been together for over 3 years and I can truly honestly say its been the best 3 years of my life.  He makes me ridculously happy. 

1. He is SOOoooOOOOoooOOOO cute!!
When H and I are going out to meet friends, I'll look over at him in the car and think "DANG! I married that!" I seriously get butterflies in my tummy and all flirty when he's sportin' a collared shirt, his sunglasses and of course that super sexy wedding ring!  How many people can say they married tall, dark, and handsome?

Stuntin'

2. He Thinks I'm Hot
Yeah, yeah yeah. Every husband says he married the most beautiful woman in the world and she's the prettiest and smartest... blah.  My hubby thinks I'm a HOTTIE! (Moms reading the blog, skip this one)  Every woman wants to feel pretty... but deep down, we've all got a lil "Pretty Woman" in us and want to feel sexy.  Hunter makes it known to me every single day (usually at extremely inappropriate times) that he thinks I'm hot.  Around the house, I dare not wear my PJ short-shorts unless I want consistent booty grabs and nonstop flirting. This past year while studying for my boards, I managed to add a few pounds while studying.  I would cry and whine because my pants barely fit and I looked like a whale.  However, Hunter just couldn't get over how much bigger my booty was getting and he was loving it.  I mean a husband that isn't upset about his wife gettin' a lil chubbers?  Who wouldn't think he's the greatest?  I love that he that he thinks I'm hot.  Even if it means I turn bright red when he grabs my butt when his mom's back is turned ;-)

Checking out that boot-ay!  GEEZ Hunter! It's our wedding day! Keep it classy!

3. He is hilarious
OMG, H makes me laugh like nobody.  *Sappiness warning* Half of our jokes never completely make it out in full sentences because we are laughing so hard, but somehow we know what were saying to each other.  But for realz... the man is hilarious.  You try to sit throught one verse of the "Dale Song" and not laugh.  He can make me laugh at any situation whether it should be funny or not.  When I lost my grandpa last year, we made the 11 hour drive together up to St. Louis to be with my family and go to the funeral.  What should have been a dreadful, awful, tear filled ride, H made into one of my best road trip memories.  He kept me laughing the whole time, finding reasons to stop and get out and relax.  H is one of the happiest people I know and loves to have a great time no matter the circumstances. 

4. The way he apologizes

Those that know Big Hunt, know he is not a man of many words.  So when it comes to his apologies, they usually don't involve any words.  This is one of those things that aggravates me more than anything in the world, yet I list as one of those things I love about him.  Here's how it goes down: H gets crabby and grumpy and acts a fool.  He pouts for like 15 minutes so I just leave him alone and ignore his little whiney time.  At the end of his 15 minutes, he will come over and just hold my hand.  Never does he say a word, just holds my hand. Most of the time I can't hold back and just start laughing and call him out for being a baby about whatever he was pouting.  Again, back to #3, he is hilarious. 

5. His giggle

Hunter is gonna kill me when he reads this.  But it is so true!  He has the world's cutest giggle.  We'll be snuggled up on our respectable sides of the couch watching TV on our iPad and computer when he lets out the world's cutest chuckle.  Sometimes he's laughing to hard to even explain it, but usually it's some secret aggie thing I don't get much less care to know.  Either way, hearing his little personal giggle makes me just so happy.  I don't know what it is about it, but it's the sweetest thing in the world.

6. The way he loves our dogs

Dale Face

 

Not everyone is a dog person and I can respect that, but I don't get it.  H and I love our dogs like crazy.  We are "those" dog people and have absolutely no shame in our game about it.  Our dogs run our house and always will.  If you come to visit, we will do our best to accomodate for your strange dislike of our dogs kissing on you, but we won't understand it.  In our house, everything is dog proof.  When we buy anything new for the dogs, we think "will this work with the pups or no?" If its no, you know we ain't buying it. Anyway, H just adores our dogs.  He really believes we are just a newlywed couple, we are newlyweds with two children to care for.  I think its adorable.  It just makes me so excited to have lots of babies with him because seeing him be a Dad to our two dogs makes me see he is going to be the most incredible Dad ever.

7. His southern charm

The East Texas accent locked me in the first night I met him.  He calls my mom ma'am, says yes sir to the cable salesman on the phone, and always opens my door (unless he is trying to annoy me and slams it right on me).  I came to Texas hoping to find a cowboy, and I married the most handsome, southern drawl, boot wearing, country music lovin' man in the world. 

8. His passion for the Aggies
Man.... Does Big Hunt love his Ags or what!   I've never seen someone become physically upset because "his" team didn't win.  Sometimes I wonder if he thinks he is on the team or is actually a coach.  Really though, his passion for the Aggies is one of my favorite things about him.  He lives it, breathes it, sleeps it, all night and all day.  Our living room, bedroom, guest room and wardrobe is inspired by it. In my eyes this all carrys over into the idea that we should all have a passion in our lives and if you love something and believe in something, you do it big.  H is a committed fan and looks at his experience in college as something that has paved the way for his future.  The Aggies taught him committment, faith, passion, loyalty, and respect.  (His mother did all that, too!) All the Aggie traditions he practices are things he can't wait to pass down to his children and establish these traditions as part of our family.  I even love the A&M traditions!  H propsed to me beneath the Century Tree on the A&M campus with our family all around. What a way to make a woman love the Ags! It doesn't hurt that he looks absolutely adorable when he's jumping around yelling at the TV.  One time he got so angry he took his Aggie shirt off right then and there. Please reference #3.

Of course I said yes!

9. The way he loves his family

H is probably the most loyal person I have ever met.  When he loves you, he LOVES you.  He won't listen to anyone say a bad thing about someone he cares about true or not.  I love that our marriage is built upon love from both of our families.  We truly couldn't be more blessed that our parents love H and I just as though we were their own children, that our families get along fantastically, and that we love being with our families. When we got married, all three sets of parents let us know and really helped us create OUR family as a couple.  That can be a really difficult part of a new marriage, but our families really embraced and have respected us as a new family unit and support us as we try to figure it all out.  H once told me when we pulled out of his parent's driveway that driving away made his stomach hurt, he hated leaving his family to head back to Dallas.  We were only dating then, but that moment really resonated with me the importance of family and his committment to them.  He still teases me that everytime I leave my parents/they leave me I cry, but I know deep down he understands. 


10. The way he loves me

I am still in amazement that I have a HUSBAND!  Much less a husband that is sooooo crazy in love with me!  He absolutely adores me.  Yes, I'm gonna brag here.  H loves to hang out with me, spend time with me and talk to me! He tells me it all the time, shows it to me even more.  He goes out of his way to do the little things for me.  I get a bit stressed and overwhelmed at times and don't always handle it the best.  What gets me out of my funk is the way he gets so defensive of me when I get in my moods. Hell hath no furry like the husband of an angry woman. For example, I'll snap because the dogs have jumped on the bed and knocked off my books and papers so I'll let out my angry "UGGGHHH" not to seconds later Big Hunt has popped out of bed putting both dogs on their beds lecturing them to not touch us.  I break out into giggles and my funk is over and the dogs are back in the bed.  I can't get over the way he loves me. I never could imagine being so unconditionally loved by anyone but my family.  I don't know if any other wives out there feel this way, but I still look at him and just wonder WHY he loves me so much!  What could possibly make this boy so crazy and devoted to me.  Then I look at him the same way he looks at me and I get it.  ;-)

Coxons' Wedding 

Why a Blog?

For those that know me, I'm not much of a "tech savy" person.  We have an iPad and if it doesn't turn on the minute I tap the screen, I assume it's broken and we MUST get a new one ASAP.  Big Hunt has since educated me you must push the button first.

Also, I'm the worst person to ever text you back.  You text me at noon, I'll holla back about 7pm ready to continue my conversation.  I really love my dear friends that have learned to adapt and always respond without complaints about my absence.  Most of them know that it's because I've left my phone in my car for 5 hours or the ringer is off so I have assumed it's been stolen because I can't find it.

Reason 3: I'm terrible at grammer.  I constantly make up words and spelling to words and insist that I'm correct.  Therefore no one is to judge grammer or pretend to be Webster the Walking Dictionary when you read my blog (doing so will only exhaust you and confuse me because I'm positive I'm correct)

All that being said, I'm not your typical person to start a blog so many may be confused.  I decided to do it for completely selfish and vain reasons.  We have family and friends all of the place and we're so blessed that they love us and are interested in our life.  I figured a blog is a great way to share pictures and updates about our family without calling 35 people everytime I hang a picture in the hallway and call it redecorating. 

That's my vain, my selfish reason is I have been wanting to find a way to really capture these first few years of marriage between Big Hunt and I.  We know that these are some of the best years in marriage and the few we have as just us.  When I have a baby screaming at 3 AM and I'm wide awake and he's sleeping, maybe I can look back at some entries from the blog and remember I love him and I'll take the pillow of his head. (kidding)

So there you have it! If your interested in any of my home improvement stories, millions of pictures of my dogs, and sappy stories about my hubby then follow my blog.  If not, you should look at my favorite blog tags and follow them.  They are a few of my friends and wayyyyy more interesting than me.

Just as a teaser of the greatness to come:

Please try to handle yourself.   These dogs are adorable.  They are also mine.

I hate the person that owned the house before us

Ok ok.... Hate is a really strong word! I don't HATE them, I just wish they would have left well enough alone!

We live in a great small suburb of Dallas where houses were built from the mid 50's to late 1960's. Homes in the area are anywhere from townhouses, apartment, 1,000 sqft to 3,000+ sqft. The lot sizes are pretty decent and most houses have alleyways. It's a wonderful school district, great shopping in the area, and it's a neat age range of original homeowners to newlyweds like me and my husband!

Well before my husband bought our current house, the house was a rental for a few years. When the owners put the house up for sale, it seems that they watched a few episodes of an HGTV show and did all the quick fixes that are a complete pain to undo!

For starters, they painted all the baseboards and cabinets high gloss white. Which is not an awful thing, except they didn't sand or prime anything so its bumpy, chipping, and dirty looking.

Then they painted the entire house a "neutral" color which is more pink than it is neutral. I mean ENTIRE house. The closets, the shelves, EVERY SINGLE ROOM!!!

They did plant some bushes in the yard, except they were the overgrowing kind. Other than that they planted mostly crab grass and weeds.

In the garage they fixed the giant holes in the walls with cut up pieces of drywall (mismatched colors).

They also decided in the entryway they should install floors that you find in restaurants (its nonslip so safe if you walk in on a rainy day)

Don't get me started on the light fixtures! They didn't screw that up because in over 40 years they had never updated them.

So now were stuck trying to fix all their semi-fixes. I'm stuck trying to figure out how to get all the white paint off the baseboards and cabinets!

Has anyone else ever had any experiences with poor pre-homeowner updates? Or have suggestions on how to get gloss paint off cabinets? haha!

Looking forward to fellow homeowner stories!