April 2013

In April we celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary (which involves sparkling grape juice and a delicious Italian dinner when you're pregnant).

It's hard to believe time has gone by so quickly. Flash back!

After months of studying, Ryan traveled to Florida to complete his oral boards exam, where he not only rocked his test but also got to catch up with some friends from Loyola.

The following weekend we headed to South Bend to break in the "Annex" through the Hood/Buersmeyer baby shower. We felt so lucky to have so many family members present, traveling from KC ("Nana" Markey and aunt Laura), DC (aunt Claire), Maine (G&G Hood), Minnesota (Debbie), West Lafayette (GG&G Hood), Chicago (Julie), and of course, the locals (GG&G Buermeyer and cousin Ali). Such a fun time, topped off by a visit to campus.

As the month wrapped up, we packed for our big summer move from Chicago to Houston. According to the belly size you'll see below, it was about time!

March 2013

As Tyke and Callie learned to adjust to Megan's growing belly...

...and superfan Ryan received his graduation present (Blackhawks jersey!) a little early...

...we got to enjoy the extreme generosity of family in friends in March with 3, yes 3!, baby showers to celebrate the upcoming arrival of our little lady.

The adventures began with a baby shower held by Megan's friends from work, where we stocked up on cute personally decorated onsies!

The next weekend Ryan came to town and we enjoyed a super fun St. Patrick's Day-themed baby shower hosted by Murph and Brooke. In fact it was such a good time that we didn't even think to take any pictures! We walked away with some party goer-decorated washclothes, fun party games, adorable baby gifts, and our first visit with cutie Truman Kramer.

Over Easter weekend, Megan traveled to Kansas City to attend an amazing baby shower hosted by her mom and sister and attended by lots of wonderful Markey ladies as well as soon-to-be Gram Hood. Great games, food, and company can't be beat!

February 2013

February was our last laid back month before going into full baby-shower and baby preparation mode. We had a few fun social events, like going to brunch for Murph's birthday and having lunch with Aunt Julie when Ryan was in town. The dogs also got their first experience under anesthesia when they got their teeth cleaned (see Callie fighting the sleepiness below).

Megan traveled to Houston for the last weekend in February, which included our first visit with our OB in Houston. We also decided to stop the suspense and announce the baby's gender via Facebook.

Throughout the year, Megan was filling her time with craft projects, mostly inspired by Pinterest ideas. Feel free to check out some of the completed projects at her crafts blog.

January 2013

For the first month of 2013, we traveled separately for some great experiences. While Ryan traveled to Florida for Notre Dame's National Championship game (!!!!), Megan later headed to Puerto Rico for Train's wedding. Despite ND's rough loss, but trips were fun times. 

Other than traveling, January primarily involved continued check-ins with our little lady and a now-showing baby belly.

This month, Megan also hosted a game night with her dinner club and got to babysit Addy Conte for a day (good practice!). 

December 2012

December was pretty relaxed to start...

...but got busier with a fun Chicago dinner with Loyola friends...

...and a trip to KC for Christmas, where we got to spend time with lots of Markeys and where Tyke and Callie became Ryan's muses for our new fancy camera.

Just prior to heading to KC, we also got to celebrate some exciting news as we found out the gender of our little one in a creative way. Our OB wrote down the gender after looking at an ultrasound and we passed along the information to our waitress at Lucky's, a yummy Italian restaurant in our neighborhood. She then brought out our dessert with a (drum roll.....) pink candle!

November 2012

We started off November at a tense but exciting Notre Dame- Pitt game in South Bend, which included a fun friend- and family-filled tailgate.

We then had a less-than-impressive performance at Brooke and Beach's annual chili cookoff (next year will be better with Ryan present!), but luckily all of these ND games were starting a trend- would an undefeated season be possible?

Megan did some traveling at the end of the month, including to DC for a conference, where she got to catch up with some fellow SLU alumni (Andre, John, Aaron, and Lauren).  

And then she headed to Houston for a week-long visit for Thanksgiving. Ryan's mom and sister joined the festivities, which led to an extra-yummy holiday.

At this point we got a glance at our growing little Hoody (starting to look a little more human) and decided to announce our big news on Facebook in a quirky way. 

October 2012

In October we starting settling into our long-distance routine, with frequent use of Facetime and the dogs learning to cuddle in around one parent each night.

Luckily we still had plenty of fun events that brought Ryan into town. Including Pat Daily's bachelor party, which was held around the Notre Dame-Miami game held in Chicago (which included a great tailgate with New Jersey and DC visitors!).

Other fun events included a visit from Gimpy to Chicago...

 ...and a great time at Pat Daily's wedding in Indiana. 

And the highlight of the end of our month was getting the first glimpse at our little "gummy bear"!

September 2012

September was an exciting month, for a number of reasons!

We started the month by rushing back from Ireland in time to attend Pat Simon's wedding in Chicago.

The next weekend Megan went to the Contes to watch the Notre Dame- Purdue game with them and got to be a part of a big event as Murph started going into labor during the game! She made it to the hospital in plenty of time and the next day little Adelina Conte was born. Ryan happened to visit Chicago the next weekend and we got to meet little Addy Conte when her parents invited us to watch the ND game at their home.

This was a life changing weekend for us, as you can see from the pictures below...

Pregnant! We were overjoyed with this news and had a great time sharing the info with a few close friends and family members. This amazing news naturally changed the course of the rest of our year, in the most wonderful way.

Megan got to celebrate the news in person with some of the Hood/Buermeyer family the next weekend when she attended the Notre Dame- Michigan game in South Bend. Embryo's first ND game!

August 2012

August started off on a tough note, with Ryan balancing the start of fellowship in Houston with an unexpected 2nd surgery to repair his ruptured Achilles (see his Achilles blog for more details). His dad generously visited Houston for nearly a week to help him recover from surgery. On that note, the theme of August was probably "thank goodness for family!"

As Ryan was adjusting to Houston, Megan and the dogs were adjusting to him being gone. Luckily, Megan's mom and sister came to town mid-month when Aunt Kathee and cousin Kate happened to have a layover in Chicago from their trip back from Ireland. We had a fun weekend exploring Chicago.

Speaking of Ireland, we traveled to Dublin the next week for a week-long trip with the Hoods as they prepared to attend the Notre Dame-Navy game. We did a lot on this visit, including visiting the Guinness brewery and the Irish countryside. Ryan also found out that he passed his boards while we were in Ireland, hence the champagne!