May 2014

So as many of you know, Matthew's birthday was this month - which basically means that we've been pretty busy with family visiting.  So I'm pretty impressed that I am getting this update posted so soon.  We also just got back from visiting the Peytons for the baptism of their newest son the weekend before...so we're definitely playing catch up on general rest and recovery.

Update for Matthew

Other than turning 1 (which was an awesome milestone to reach, btw), our little man has been growing more and more confident with his mobility.  He's truly becoming more and more interested in independent movement, although at the moment that is basically crawling and 'walking' with the assistance of his walker (or just about anything that he can easily push around and use as a 'walker').  He's also playing more and more independently (although sometimes this results in us needing to be more vigilant on what 'toys' he's discovering around the house) as well as becoming more and more interested in playing/cuddling with our dog - although she's still trying to figure out just how she feels about this.

Update for Anna

Anna is starting to gear back up for her return to the classroom here in the next few weeks - something that I know she's pretty nervous about...although she's going to be awesome (but don't tell her I said that).

She survived another tax season (this time with two people needing her to take care of them, instead of just me) and I know that this break between the end of the working craziness and the upcoming insanity of classes/work/taking care of Matthew and I is something that she's treasuring.  So hopefully we didn't stress her out too much with all the traveling and partying that Matthew and I did over this last weekend (there was cake.  And lots of sugar...)

Update for Jay

While I don't have the excuse of more classes to explain my running around and forgetting just about everything that I do after 12 hours have passed (which is why we have checklists, smartphones, and emails, right?) - I can't deny that it's been an eye-opening experience.  I never realized how much is needed to keep something alive and moving...or that it was something that our team was capable of (trials by fire are truly...interesting).  That being said, the experiences are not something that I would give up - they have truly opened my eyes to what we are capable of when we get pushed to the line and asked the impossible.  Our team has risen to the challenge each time (even those that require some extra coffee and burning the candles at both ends in order to keep up at the office and at home).  I couldn't be more proud to work with who I do or more impressed at what we've managed to accomplish.  And it only looks like we're going to be moving forward.  That's what truly is exciting - not what we've accomplished, but rather what lies in store for us to conquer.

As usual, please let us know if you're in our corner of the world - we'd love to catch up with you!

April 2014

In the same vein as the last month's update - this is probably going to be a pretty short post.  We're nearly through the worst part of the tax season...but there's still a week or so to go before we get free from that particular beast.

Update for Matthew

The little guy has really started moving on his own, both with crawling and 'walking' (with his walker/anything else that is about knee level in the house).  He's basically all but mastered the turning of the walker, and really can get just about anywhere that we don't want him to.  This past weekend we finally had to put up a gate to cut off access to the mystical stairs which hold a good level of his fascination (and when we're downstairs, we're having to constantly 'help' him to steer clear of trying to climb them.

In other aspects, he's quickly becoming more and more interested in playing independently (which we're not all that disappointed with, to be honest) and exploring the areas of the house that are opening up to him as he becomes more confident in his ability to move around.

Update for Anna

While we're getting close, we're still in the thick of the dreaded tax season.  Anna is doing amazing with balancing being a mom and the demands of work - although she will probably be to busy to actually acknowledge anything other than the details that require her immediate attention currently.  Lots of weekends with Matthew and I playing while she helps out at the office and keeps everything and everyone above water.

Update for Jay

Work has been a steady rate of a blur of activity for the most part.  Between the new projects that our team is being pulled into for assistance/advice, the maintenance of our live system, and the design of the new phases that we're getting ready to either roll into production or implementation for a later deployment this year...I'm not sure sometimes if we'd still be able to walk around at the end of the workday without the coffee that we imbibe.  But it's still an amazing process to be a part of - the growth is undeniable to anyone who looks at the situation we're in and it's exciting to be a part of such a vibrant environment.  Stressful sometimes, but exciting none-the-less.


As is usual, I want to let anyone who is passing through our area to know that we'd love to see you - so please don't hesitate to shoot us an email, text, or call Anna or I.  

March 2014

Well this is probably going to be a pretty short update - to be honest, Anna and I have both been super busy at work, so there hasn't been much that has occurred for us since last month's update.

Update for Matthew

As many of you saw on Facebook in these past couple of days, Matthew has finally started getting more and more impatient about not being able to move around himself, and has started to really show some interest in walking.  Just this morning, we stroller-walked around the house for about 20 minutes - with the only assistance needed when it came to making some turns and transitions between our carpet and hardwood floors.

He has also started to eat more 'grown-up' food, mostly due to his not really being all that interested in baby food other than his cereal (which we're having to supplement with the fruits and veggies due to his not wanting anything to do with them on their own when they're pureed).  It's pretty fun to introduce him to some of the more basic foods that we eat (mostly rice, mac and cheese, some meats from time to time, and, one of his favorites, stew).

Update for Anna

Again, this update is pretty much summed up with the phrase: "Tax Season."  Anna has been running nearly full speed for the past couple of months - and it doesn't look like she's going to be able to slow down until at least the end of April...at which time, of course, her classes are going to resume.  Thankfully, she and Matthew have both seemed to gotten over the never-ending bug that was plaguing them finally, which means that her energy is starting to somewhat come back (although between the tax season and having a 10 month old demanding her attention, I don't quite understand how she can move without an inordinate amount of coffee to assist her).

Update for Jay

Work is definitely starting to pick up for me as well, with most of the preliminary planning complete, we're now starting to identify which gun barrel we're going to be staring down for the foreseeable future in regards to oncoming projects for the next phase.  Which is both exciting and rather daunting at the same time - sometimes the sheer amount of information that is required to be processed is rather unnerving...especially when it feels at times that there isn't enough hours in the day to get the tasks that we already have on our plates finished.  But our team is amazing, and we haven't come up against anything yet that we haven't been able to overcome, so my hope is that, while it's tough, we're going to continue that track-record.


As is usual, I want to invite anyone who's passing through the area to give us a shout - we'd love to see you and catch up (and, in light of this weekend's forecast, give you shelter from any literal storms that are about to hit our small corner of the world).

February 2014

First off, I wanted to apologize for the lack of a post last month - we were all super busy with holiday travels and then all got sick, so there wasn't a lot of free time in which to sit down and compose.  Hopefully, I'll be able to cover everything in this month's update.

Update for Matthew

Needless to say, Matthew has gone through quite a lot these past couple of months.  We drove down to Dallas to visit some close friends for what has become somewhat of a new tradition for New Years Eve - which was no small event this year.  Of course, even without an infant in the car, an 8 hour drive can be tedious...and Matthew did a great job both on the way down and back up.  We got to finally meet the Case's new arrival, as well as catch up with the Hornsby and Mech families.  Overall the trip was a blast that ended too quickly.

Of course the next experience for Matthew wasn't nearly as much fun, as soon after getting back home, we all got hit by a bug and have just recently gotten back to our normal healthy selves.  Both Matthew and Anna got hit a bit harder than I did, but we've all been down and out for the most part of the last couple of weeks, so it's nice to start seeing everyone getting back on their feet.

Matthew has also started attending daycare twice a week, to better help Anna survive tax season, and has been doing quite well, from what I've heard.  the other development that has been going on is that he seems to finally start to show some interest in getting independent mobility - although he still obviously prefers the big people to carry him around.

He just recently got his two bottom teeth in, so we're also having fun getting through the pain of that whole process (him obviously moreso than Anna or I) as well as starting to really become interested in chewing on just about everything that he can get his hands on (food and otherwise).

Update for Anna

Tax. Season.

No, seriously.  It's tax season - so the fact that she is able to take care of Matthew and I on top of keeping her head above water at work is beyond impressive.  And she does it with a smile (generally...unless I do something that I shouldn't) - which is only more amazing.

As I mentioned in Matthew's update, Anna has also been going through some illness (the weather is definitely not helping the situation).  So that, on top of the normal load of stress that is present around this time of the year has not improved matters. But we're getting through it (with the help of a lot of hot tea and cough drops) and are getting closer to the end of the tax-tunnel every day.

Update for Jay

As is normal, work has been pretty busy for me - though now that the holiday season is coming to a close and everyone is back from vacation, it's calming down.  We're looking at another few projects that will probably be starting here soon and will be taking at least a few months to design and implement - which is one of my growing points of interest.  In my mind, the development and implementation of systems have kind of always been more my cup of tea when compared to maintaining the systems after they go live - I'm definitely guilty of having more interest in design than in maintaining new programs and procedures.



As usual, I want to invite anyone who is passing through our area to give us a shout - we'd love to see you and catch up over a cup of coffee (or hot tea).

December 2013

Another busy month for our family (and I’m sure most of you all can relate)!  Hopefully I get everything down that has gone on.

Update for Matthew:

We’re at 7 months!  He’s been getting a bit of "stranger danger" but with all the family members holding him over the Thanksgiving break, he got over that pretty fast.  He is growing so fast – not quite crawling yet, though Anna and I are pretty sure he has the strength to do it.

One of the cool things he does now is turn pages in a book.  I read to him every night before bed and every time, even when he’s not necessarily paying attention to the story, he wants to turn that page to the next one.  It's pretty adorable.  He has also recently started to drink out of a sippy cup, which is pretty hilarious – we haven’t explored too much with food (still on veggies for the most part, though we’re starting to introduce fruits now), but he loves to drink like the ‘big people’ do.

Update for Anna:

The semester is over, so Anna’s got a bit of a break (just in time to start getting ready for the insanity of tax season) to breath before she heads back.  I know she’s getting excited to be so close to getting done with the classes (and we’re not going to talk about the ridiculous test that she’s going to be needing to start studying for).

She also just got a new vacuuming robot (one of her Christmas presents) and is super excited about it (so anyone who has any advice or tips on how to best use one, shoot us an email!!).   So we’ll see how that turns out.

Update for Jay:

Not much is going on in my corner of the world – other than work and keeping up with Matthew, there isn’t much time left over for anything else.  November is always a bit insane around the office; throw in the new systems that we’ve implemented and we have a bit of an overflowing plate.  Though it was nice to have a solid break for Thanksgiving (I took off a few days to make it a 5 day weekend with my family coming in).

Other Updates:

Other than the busy holiday visiting schedules, not all that much occurred – though to be fair, there wasn’t much time left after all the visiting and eating for anything to occur.  We’ve gotten to put our fireplace to a bit of heavy use with the cold weather that we’re having (though most of you in the South have had it rougher than us, interestingly enough) and we updated our entertainment hardware (yay for Black Friday sales).  But that’s really the big things that have happened.  Now it’s time to start gearing up for the Christmas holiday!!

As usual - if you’re ever in the area, please let us know so that we can try to get out to see you or have you over for a cup of coffee/tea to catch up!

November 2013

Been a busy month!  Matthew's growing by leaps and bounds and work had been crazy (for both Anna & I).  I'll try to get all of it down in the breakdowns below:

Update for Matthew:
Matthew turned 6 months old and is doing really well.  On Halloween, he had his 6 month doctor's appointment and he weighed 18lbs 12oz and was 2 feet 2.75 inches long.  He can pretty much sit up unassisted and does it all the time now.  He can even reach for toys without tipping over.  He's not showing a ton of interest in crawling just yet, but he is doing some wiggling and pre-crawling movements when he's on his tummy, so it's only a matter of time.


The biggest thing is that we've started him on baby food!  He's been eating rice cereal for the past month and we just switched him to oatmeal twice a day.  After his doctor's appointment on Thursday, we started him on veggies.  First to go was green beans.  The first two days he wouldn't have any of it.  Made all sorts of yucky faces.  But by the third day, I think the newness of the flavor wore off and he gave it a chance and ate it and I think he liked it.  Then we tried peas, which he loved.  No wonder he's almost 19 pounds already!

Update for Anna:
Work is starting to ramp up in preparation for tax season and, from what I can tell, class is starting to become a little easier (with the semester starting to draw to a close).  Other than that, and starting to mentally get ready for the Thanksgiving holiday (which we're having our family come up to visit us instead of driving down there, due to Matthew's probably not being ready for that long of a car trip), she's got tons of "free time" (yes, that was sarcasm).

Update for Jay:
As is usual for my updates - work is predominately what is going on in my world at the moment.  We went out to our Colorado locations a few weeks back for some follow-up training - which was actually a rather nice change of pace.  Granted, being gone for nearly a full week wasn't the ideal thing for Anna & myself, but she did an amazing job of holding the fort while I was gone and the chance to spend a three day weekend with her and Matthew was well worth the hassle of having to figure all the logistics out for the traveling.  With the holiday season coming up, we're expecting a rather full work-load at the office, though the days off that we have are going to be welcome; the days that we are going to be there are sure to be filled to the brim.

Other Updates:
Thankfully, after the small fiasco with the bathrooms needing to be resealed, there hasn't been really anything big needing to be redone around the house.  Leaves are coming off the trees like nobody's business, so my weekends have definitely been filled with the more mundane yard work (which Anna has taken the opportunity to take some adorable shots of Matthew in - though he's still somewhat nervous about being put in a pile of organic matter that goes over his head).  As I mentioned above, we're having my family in for Thanksgiving - which should prove to be an interesting change of pace for the three of us.  Still, looking forward to getting to catch up with everyone and see what all has happened in the last few months since we last saw them!

As usual - if you’re ever in the area, please let us know so that we can try to get out to see you or have you over for a cup of coffee/tea to catch up!

October 2013

I am getting the feeling that this whole thing isn't going to be slowing down anytime soon – so as much as I try to keep to a strict update schedule, I am going to just have to get used to being a few days (or a week or two) behind it.  I hope you all can forgive me for that!

Update for Matthew:
We’re definitely becoming a bit more aware of things recently.  I've managed to get Kyara to stay still for a few moments and we got to pet the puppy (which I don’t think she realizes is going to be a gateway for chasing and playing with the puppy when we finally get mobility mastered).  We tried to introduce some avocado…which didn't go over too well (I think it was mostly the texture change) – but we’ll probably be revisiting this here in the near future.

Vocally we've become much more focused on making sounds (which means a nice little break from the normal screeches) and socially, we definitely require all the attention to at least include us.

Update for Anna:
Class has become a rather stable matter now – I think that the overall layout of the class in general has helped a ton in our easing back into a more balanced schedule that affords Anna some time away from everyone.  I know that work has started to pick up (October deadlines looming) and that soon we’re going to be looking down the barrel of the next tax season – so the more we can start getting ready for that, obviously the better off it’s going to play out for everyone.

Update for Jay:
Work has been actually moving back to a more manageable level of insanity – we've surpassed the 3 month mark of being live on the new system, which is pretty much a soft deadline that our team has put into place to mark when we would expect the new users to start becoming more comfortable with the system.  And so far, it definitely has happened in the same general direction that we were expecting it to – I know that on my end of the design and implementation of issue-resolutions we’re starting to see more and more technical requests (instead of the general usage inquiries that we were being flooded with).

Other Updates:
What with the busy schedules that we have, thankfully we haven’t had too much happen in regards to needs on the house side of the picture – I’m going to be redoing some work in our master bath this weekend, but nothing huge that should take more than a couple of hours to take care of.

In conclusion, we've been busy.  But we’re all happy and enjoying the insanity that is our life!  If you’re ever in the area, please let us know so that we can try to get out to see you or have you over for a cup of coffee/tea to catch up!