Going to William and Mary Law!

The oldest law school in the country...

The second oldest college in the country...

Founded in 1693 in one of the original American settlements.

We are so excited!!!

So, I applied to 14 law schools in January, and amazingly, William and Mary Law accepted me within a week of applying! (most schools took 2-4 months...) I found at work, and quickly called CheyAnn to give her the news. With many more schools to hear from, we began waiting and investigating.

I was really focused on practicing corporate law in Texas, so Southern Methodist University was probably my top choice at the time. I had visited SMU and really loved the campus, and it does great in Texas, so it was the front-runner.

However, the tipping point came when I received a call from a current student at W&M Law. She kind of caught me off guard in the morning on a day off, so I kind of groggily said I didn't have any questions, and almost hung up. However, I woke up a bit, and started spouting off all of my questions, and it was great. W&M sounded like a wonderful place, I loved everything she had to say, and I was officially very interested.

Over the next little while, I had several similar awesome conversations with students and alumni, all of whom glowed about the school. Lots of opinions like "It's the best place on earth!" "I love the school," and "The student body and professors are awesome." Not a single complaint. Not one negative point made about the school in talking to probably six different people.

When I received a generous scholarship offer in the mail, my decision was pretty much made. We decided to let the SMU and other schools' deposit deadlines pass without paying, which effectively meant the W&M was the choice, even though we hadn't even visited yet.

If you remember, our trip to Williamsburg was awesome, and it left no doubt in our minds that we were headed to the right place.

We've just about got all of our finances set, a cute house lined up, and are planned up until the day school starts, August 15.

So with great eagerness we anxiously look forward to our family's next great adventure: moving to the East Coast and (finally) attending law school at William & Mary!

Just turned one, shout HOORAY!

Saturday was Solana's first birthday!!! 

Birthday's are really important to us in this family, we make a big deal out of them. If we could have celebrated it all weekend, we would have. But instead we packed her birthday full of fun things to do. 

I can't believe how fast time has gone, and  I am even more surprised that in one year our little baby has grown and changed into this little talking, giggling, and running around the house crazy toddler. It has been the best year so far. Thanks Solana for being the greatest part our lives.

Happy Birthday!

Friday May 21st, 2010. 

I can't believe how much she's grown!

Saturday May 21st, 2011

I'm a big girl now.

So off to the zoo we went.

"I know this is fake guys, I am looking at real elephants right now."

The best Godparents in the whole world. She loves her Heather and Matt

Oh surprise! It's a goat!

Oh maybe I will go pet it.

Aunt Sarah saved the day! It was hot and humid and we were all sweatin'. But Sarah found some shaved ice to cool off the birthday girl, and boy did she suck it down!

We had a 'Little Miss Sunshine" party.

All she wanted to do was play in the yard the whole time.

"Thanks Grandpa Ross for my new pink chair, it's just my size"

It took her awhile to love opening her presents. She was so impatient, (We don't where she got that from, lol) she just wanted to see what was inside after we opened it for her.

"I love my new pal Violet"

Banana split ice cream cake anyone?

I am embarrassed to say, but we actually took her cupcake sampling the week before her birthday, I just wanted to make sure she liked it. Well I am glad we did, cause she had no interest in it. So Adam suggested an ice cream cake because she LOVES cold things (she is always drinking my smoothies) and she ended up loving her ice cream cake, hooray!

This is a face of pure enjoyment

"Get that cake in my mouth!"

"oh a spoon is so much better"

She actually enjoyed feeding us some cake too. 

She loves to share!

"Well that was great!"

"Happy birthday to me!"

Another birthday?

My First mother's day was like having another birthday. I was especially excited for my first one, because I didn't know what to expect. And it ended up being so fun, and full of great surprises. 

Happy Mother's day to all!!

We went to the park and she did lots of new things, like this spinning carousel, and riding a horse. It was pretty hot, so she was over the whole park thing rather quickly.

 For those of you that know your love language, mine is QUALITY TIME! So I was in heaven all weekend getting to spend time with my 2 favorite people in the world. And I cried when I got a book that Adam made for me. It was similar to one of Solana's favorite books, and he wrote it from her perspective. She loves to have it read to her before bed. 

One of Adam's excellent food creations. Five cheese pizza with caramelized onions and balsamic vinaigrette.

I'm getting hungry just looking at these. Mmmm......

The Solana tote. Aunt Sarah sure knows to have fun. We have LOVED having her back for the summer.

Our fabulous weekend came to a sweet end with these treaties. Raspberry frappes!! 

Easter loveliness

Easter is pretty much the ideal holiday for a little baby girl.  (11 months old, she’s still a little baby girl, right?)  Think about it: The mascot (for lack of a better term) of Easter, is a giant fluffy bunny – basically a pink stuffed animal.  The official colors of Easter are light, girly pastels – perfect.  The weather is great for playing outside. You hide bright colorful yummy things around randomly, then go chase them down with great excitement for finding each one.  

Also, Easter is like the perfect “size” holiday for little ones.  It’s not epic, like Christmas, where numerous events and travel are planned for a full day, and after 14 hours packed with family action time your baby looks, and acts, like she just rolled down the stairs.   No, Easter is like the perfect balance of big enough to make it special, but not too big to disrupt the nap schedule.  It’s the perfect size holiday.

Bunnies, pretty colors, Easter-egg hunting – Solana’s first east was perfect.

"Surprise, I got a bunny jack-in-the-box! I love this whole Easter Bunny thing!"

"I was watching daddy hide my eggs, and then my Sammy dog joined me for the hunting party."

"Mama had to hold me back from finding my eggs early."

"Let's go find those eggs!"

"Mmmm.....this dye is so tasty!"

"Daddy helped me find all my eggs. He is so smart cause he knew where they all were!"

"My spoon is ready for some food on it"

"Best Easter ever.....well it's only my first."