Andrew and I went to a baseball game this weekend! We sat with others who have been vaccinated and enjoyed the nice weather, great friends, and a live sporting event - we haven't been to one of those in quite some time. We are very grateful to be able to attend sports again - both of us were athletes in school, and both of us appreciate a good competition. The hot dogs and nachos don't hurt either! We look forward to sharing sports with our future child - we hope soon ❤️

The weather has been simply perfect the past few days so Brie and I spent a lot of our weekend outdoors working on our garden. The peony bushes around our house are in full bloom right now and helps the garden seem even more lush and vibrant than usual. It's nice to clip a few to have in the house, give to friends and family, or simply pause and smell. It's also nice to have a pleasant distraction from our least-favorite part of a garden: pulling weeds! 🤮 It can be a lot of effort, but the upkeep of the garden is worth it to have a nice little oasis to relax in as a family after a hard days work. 

Wishing all the expectant mothers, birth mothers, step mothers, mothers in law, mothers we've lost and mothers we love a happy Mother's Day. Andrew and I celebrated with family - including our niece and nephew. And what celebration could be complete without silly picture time? We're looking forward to celebrating Mother's Day with a child in the future, but for now we're fortunate to have the loving family we have around us.

Brie and I made ravioli over the weekend. The recipe comes from Brie's side of the family and is now four generations old. It's certainly not easy to make, from making dough from scratch and rolling it paper thin to carefully spreading the hand-made filling, but the results are simply divine. It's a great way to spend a few hours together on a rainy weekend, and we make a big batch so we have extra ravioli to cook throughout the year. Brie and I have enjoyed sharing each other's family traditions with each other, as well as creating our own, new traditions as a family. We'e looking forward to making more with our child, and hope they in turn are able to pass traditions to future generations. 

Andrew and I are incredibly fortunate to have received our second COVID vaccine shot this week! We celebrated by eating seasonal and local for dinner - grass fed sirloin steak and these beautiful fiddlehead ferns 🥰 We make time every single night to have dinner together and catch up about our days - I love talking through work challenges with Andrew and sharing home cooked meals with him. Family dinners will always be an important communication and care touch point for us with our future family - we can't wait!

Brie and I went down to the Finger Lakes (Seneca Lake) this weekend to enjoy some fresh air and a few local restaurants we really like. It's always great to get out of the house and take in some of the splendor that is right in our own back yard here in Upstate New York.  It's an area that can sometimes get overlooked, but we look forward to sharing it's beauty with our future child. 

This weekend Andrew and I purchased an olive tree! We love our outdoor garden - so thought we'd try our hand at an indoor (for our weather at least!) plant. We should get black olives in another 18 weeks if all goes well - and a lot of them. Andrew and I are excited to share these with friends and family - such a unique gift. 😄 We're thrilled for this fun new opportunity, and look forward to all the ways to cook up our homegrown olives with our future child. 

Brie and I kicked off Easter weekend by having our first backyard fire of the year. It's not just having a warm fire to sit around theough. We pick a theme for music listen to and alternating songs that we play for each other while enjoying the outdoors. Sometimes it's after a hard day of yard work, other times it's after a relaxing day. While our yard is on the small side, it's easy to fill with happiness during the warmer months in Upstate NY, and Brie and I look forward to sharing it with a child in the future.   

We're so excited to start to see flowers blooming in our gardens again! We spent most of our weekend outside nurturing our many plants, flowers and soon-to-be expanded veggie garden - the fresh air was immeassurable and we're feeling fulfilled with the progress we made. Andrew and I are looking forward to the 30-40 different types of blooms we'll get this year, as well as the updates we plan to make to our veggie garden - that means more tasty tomatoes, salads and more! Maybe we'll even try a few new types of vegetables this year. 😃 We look forward to sharing this garden with our future family ❤️

Brie and I enjoyed the long Memorial Day Weekend by seeing several friends we hadn't seen since early last year, as well as hosting a family gathering. It was a busy, exciting, and beautiful weekend.  We hosted my mother, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, and my sister-in-law's mother as well. I grilled up a bunch of burgers for everyone and Brie set up a fully stocked burger bar in the kitchen so everyone could make just the right dinner for themselves. Our nephew had his first-ever bacon cheeseburger and loved it. We even had some lettuce that Brie picked fresh from our garden with the help of our niece and nephew. We really enjoy hosting family or friends and look forward to sharing these joys with our future child.