oops...i forgot we had a blog!

A lot has happened in the past two months! For starters, the Rowe's had a beautiful baby girl - Ava claire! She was born on October 9th and weighed 7 lbs 12 ounces. Initially, she looked just like greg. As time goes on, she looks more and more like her beautiful mommy!! Greg, Gina, Ava, and Baylor live in round rock (just 20 minutes north of us here in austin). We enjoy getting together with them for dinner and football games! While at Baylor, greg and trey were roommates and gina and i were roommates. We treasure our friendship with them and are so excited to journey with them down the road of parenting! one day, when we jump on the baby-bandwagon, ava and young guinn will be best friends :)

The day after Ava's birth, Trey and I flew to Atlanta to help our best man Banes set up his proposal to Mary Grace!! MG didn't know we were in town until a few hours after banes popped the question! We were waiting with the Kimsey family at their house. Gracie called me to tell me the exciting news on their way to the house and was actually on the phone with me when they pulled up. Guinn and I were inside hiding in her room upstairs. Once they entered the house, Beans called Guinn to "tell him the news" and guinn loudly responded from upstairs with a "NO WAY!" Gracie responded "yes we are!" and then quickly realized that guinn's voice was not only coming from the phone but also from upstairs! We were able to spend the next two days with the richters-to-be and are very much looking forward to their trip to austin at the end of this month. More importantly, we are looking forward to May 30th when they tie the knot!!!!

The week we came home from Atlanta was dedicated to smithtoberfest...a reunion of the Guinn's and lolly. Laura is one of our close high school/Baylor friends. She moved to North Carolina for pharmacy school and we just don't see her often enough. Her time in austin was short so we all stayed up until 4am catching up on life, school, friends, family, and so much more. we also hit up anthro and urban and planned our next reunion in december when the smiths and guinns will all 4 get to reunite!

The weekend after smithtoberfest we were able to celebrate the wedding of Hayley and Justin Schwartz!! Hayley is another Castle Hills/Baylor friend. While at Baylor, Hayley registered for every class I taught and was a perfect student :) We were fortunate to get to know justin during our time in waco and couldn't be happier for both of them! The wedding was beautiful and LOTS of fun! Justin and Hayley live in Dallas and we enjoy getting to see them whenever possible!

The next week, Ryan Willard surprised us with a visit! He stayed for a few days and then actually came back again 2 weeks later. Ryan coordinates admissions at the Vanderbilt Law School. He travels all over the US recruiting and we can count on seeing him once or twice a year during his travels. This summer, we drove to Nashville to visit and experience "nashvegas"...willard style! Ryan is always up for a dance party and when he's in town we spend our time listening to good music and having dance-offs.

Halloween weekend was spent down in Pleasanton/McCoy. We skipped Baylor homecoming to be with the family on opening weekend of deer hunting season. When my grandmother passed away she left the land to my dad, aunt zoe, and uncle ted. We have grown up on this ranch and hold it near to our hearts. My great-grandfather Joe-K (born in 1898) bought this land and it has been in the family ever since. When my Dad closed down the family hardware and furniture business last year he took to tending to the land as his full time job. He's gone back to his cowboy roots..."farmer joe-go" and is loving every minute of it!

After a weekend at the ranch, the Gossett's came to the ATX! This was the first time they had experienced the UT life. Being the hardcore aggie family that they are, i was a bit nervous. But, they fell in love with the campus, our apt, and our little ut life. we walked all over the place, got coffee on campus, went and bought UT apparel for all, and then went to our very first game in royal-memorial stadium - Baylor vs. UT!!! Trey and i were kind of torn on what colors to wear. We decided that since the game was @ ut we would go with that....with pieces of green flair, of course.

The family was fully supportive and even managed to wear burnt orange!! Whether at A&M, Baylor, or UT...they are always rooting for our team!!
The weekend following the Gossett's we celebrated Quinton's birthday at the Madonna concert! Q's always had a little obsession with "madge". While in Africa this past may, her new album had just come out and it was all we listened to. After coming home i would find myself constantly listening to the madge tunes reminiscing and being filled with memories of Kenya!! Trey had a major exam and could not attend the concert so Quinton, Aaron and I went! We were on the floor only a few rows from the front of the stage and right next to the catwalk that she frequented (as seen here)!! it was definitely an experience i won't forget!

pre-concert-- we got there in plenty of time to soak in the closeness of our seats. Here i'm standing somewhat in the outfield of minute-maid park. I was able to introduce myself to Drayton McClane (the owner of the astros) and also was able to thank him for the McClane Student Life Center at Baylor (SLiC).