The long trip home...

They say that the trip home from the hospital is the longest drive you will ever take! Here is Liam outfitted in his Texas Tech gear.

Introducing Liam!

William Edward Pate was born via cesarean section at 9:02 pm on Monday, April 20. He weighed in at 5 pounds 2 ounces.

More details to come!

Our Little Man’s Room

I finally finished it! Yes, that’s right ladies and gentleman, the nursery is now completed. When we started planning for the room, we really did not have a central theme, but we knew what colors that we wanted…blues and browns. Gabi’s only requirement was that the room needed to be calming and light-filled. Since the room’s window faces the East, the bright morning sun was also something to consider. We started doing internet research independently of each other to see our likes and dislikes in nurseries. We both tended to lean towards the more “modern” rooms. That does make a lot of since; our home is more on the modern threshold of things. After receiving several images for inspiration, we like the concept of using blue hues on the wall and I wanted to have more of a “structured” look with overlapping rectangles on the walls. It can be interpreted as a modern spin on clouds on the walls. Gabi then found some great fabric for the curtains at a local store that also had a horizontal element (to complement the wall paintings). After I made the curtains (yes ladies he can sew), we also lined the curtains to help with the direct sunlight (refer to East facing windows noted above).

Like most rooms in our house, the furniture was selected and assembled from various retail stores. The crib and changing table is the Olivia series from BabyMod furniture at Walmart. The bookcase is something that I built back in college. The glider chair, well that is the only splurge that we did in the room. The Luca Glider is made by Monte Designs out of Canada and this was a chair that Gabi found about six months ago in a modern shop here in Dallas. We spent the next several months looking for a chair that was comfortable, modern, and less expensive than the Luca. Needless to say, we could not find anything that we wanted. After several months of deliberating, we decided to save up and purchase this chair. I will say, it is worth every penny and this is coming from someone who like to do everything on a budget.
To assist in the light-filled aspect of the room, I installed new lighting on a dimmer in the room while leaving the central ceiling fan (those of you who have been thru a Texas summer will understand why).

Some of the details of the room:
The two elements that we wanted in the room are this star light and the wooden roadrunner.

The metal star light, Gabi and I purchased on one of our trips to Mexico about a year and a half ago. When we saw it in market place, we knew that we wanted it in a nursery someday as a nightlight.

The wooden roadrunner is from one of my father’s trips to Africa back in the early nineties and the roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico, both home to Gabi and myself.

9 months

In keeping with my usual fashion, I am posting my 9 month picture over a week late. Now that I am in my 37 week I am technically full-term. At my last doctor's appointment, my doctor even told us that she would be surprised if I went much past 38 weeks. Obviously, we want the baby to stay in my belly as long as he needs to, but we fully trust our amazing doctor. Pretty exciting, but it definitely threw both me and Eric into a frenzy to prepare for the arrival of our little man. Thank God Eric is such an organized individual. These past few days I have felt like I wanted to do is take naps. Nighttime sleeping has become difficult, which leaves me groggy during the day.

We will do our best to keep you posted with updates during these final days/weeks. Stay tuned for pictures of our completed nursery!

Drinks and Diapers

Saturday night our good friends, Joseph and Rania, hosted a couples baby shower for us. To get into the "Drinks and Diapers" shower you had to bring a bottle of wine or six-pack of beer and a package of diapers. In attendance were the hilarious members of our supper club, a few of Eric's old co-workers, and a good buddy of ours from Texas Tech. The night was a blast, filled with good food, awesome friends, lots of diapers/gifts, and fierce competition in pool and shuffleboard.

For some reason my captions did not turn out on the slide show, but special thanks to Joseph and Rania for hosting us in their lovely home and for the great attention to detail they took in putting together the festivities. Joseph was especially proud of his contribution in assembling the diaper cake. And we are still thinking of Rania's chocolate chip cupcakes and Lebanese inspired cuisine. Whenever this group gets together, all bets are off. Thanks again!

Ladies Baby Shower

This past weekend, my two amazing friends, Deanna and Joannie, were kind enough to host a baby shower for me. I always kid Deanna that she is Martha Stewartesque, and she definitely went above and beyond! Despite the fact that she has only been in her new home for four months, she is completely unpacked and decorated. One of the fun projects for the shower was assigning each guest with a particular future birthday and having them make a birthday card for our little man. The idea is to have him open a card from each of these individuals for each year of his life so that the guests always play a part in his life. I love the idea behind that! I also received some amazing "new mommy advice cards." I will definitely take all the advice I received into great consideration.

Living so far away from family is always a challenge. However, having these amazing friends and co-workers in our lives makes life a lot easier. We are grateful for their love, support and generousity. We look forward to the role these individuals will continue to play in our lives and the life of our baby!

Albuquerque Trip

Eric and I just returned from a trip to our native Albuquerque. While in town we attended my best friend from high school, Stephanie's wedding. Despite some minor drama, it was truly a beautiful event.

Here is a picture of Stephanie's lovely bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner. It is obvious how much they care for Steph and Gabe and each one went out of their way to make sure she was taken care of on her special day.

A picture of the happy couple shortly after the ceremony.

Here is a picture of me wearing what I fondly refer to as my bridesmaid tent.

This last weekend was also my first baby shower, hosted by my wonderful and generous family. My Aunt Lydia graciously opened up her lovely home, which we thank her for. The hardest thing about living in Texas is being away from my close-knit family. When I go home it is wonderful to catch up with everyone. My cousin Rachel and I are actually only about two weeks apart from each other on our due dates, so it is fun to have someone to commiserate with. Also, my cousin Debbie has a baby under a year old so I look to her and all of the other young mommies around me for guidance.

Many thanks to everyone who attended and made this shower so special for both me and Eric. I appreciate all of the great gifts and well wishes that came from our family and friends who were able to make it.

Here is a picture with my mother-in-law, Becky, and my mother, Gladys.

Every time we return from an out of town trip, I scold myself for not taking more pictures. This is one such instance! I meant to get lots of pictures with our families, but alas...