We're homeowners!

Last month we closed on our very first house! We found an adorable 50 year old house that was recently renovated in the cutest little neighborhood. Best part is that we're still in central Houston, or inner loopers as people in the know would call us (since we're inside the 610 loop). The house is full of character and has plenty of room for our growing family! It's 3 bedrooms plus a study and an added on game room. Here are the pictures that were on the listing:

Our house! Look how pretty!

The dining room is at the front of the house.

Then the living room behind the dining room. The renovator opened the wall between the two rooms.

The study with gorgeous bay windows!

Awesome kitchen and breakfast nook!

The sunroom which is off the living room and the back of the house.

What will be the baby's room!

The guest bathroom, master bath is smaller but still very nice!

Master bedroom which is at the back of the house.

The backyard! Ready for our baby girl to run around in!

And that's our awesome house! I still can't believe it's ours! We're still unpacking and working on getting things like blinds but it's coming together well! I can't wait to have everything done so we can have a house warming party!

-Chelsey

Baby is growing!

Sorry for not really posting lately. Things have been crazy busy! Just to catch you up, we bought a house! I'll have to post pictures later but I'll just tell you that our house is awesome! Can't wait to have our little one running around in it (I'm sure I'll take back that comment later). So between buying a house, moving, and unpacking, I haven't been the best at documenting my pregnancy. I'm sure everyone's dying for some belly pictures so I will make you wait no longer...

17 weeks!

23 weeks!

Baby girl is definitely growing! I'm not feeling huge yet but I'm getting there. We had another ultrasound at 20 weeks and she was moving around a lot! It was really exciting to see her so active! It confirmed that it's definitely a girl! At the beginning of the ultrasound she was in the right position for us to confirm that. Then right after she crossed her legs like a good modest girl! It was hilarious and adorable! Everything looked normal in the ultrasound so that is great news!

I thought I would give a recap of how pregnancy has been for me. It hasn't always been the easiest but it's been exciting nonetheless. During my first trimester I didn't get too nauseous but I definitely had the chills. They would come more at night and were definitely tough to deal with seeing as this was the coldest winter in pretty much forever! The chills are normal with pregnancy though. It's actually more common to have hot flashes but chills are not uncommon. I was also super tired, another normal pregnancy symptom! I'd come home from work, put together dinner, and then crash at around 8:30. Jonathan did many dishes early on in my pregnancy haha. I couldn't believe how tired I was all the time. Growing a human being really is hard work! Nausea wasn't too bad for me early in my pregnancy but really ramped up at the end of my first trimester/beginning of second trimester. It wasn't really subsiding like you'd expect it to during the second trimester. Luckily my doctor had a few over the counter suggestions that helped a lot! I'm happy to report that I'm now feeling mostly normal and have been able to be productive and do things again! I'm not the type of person who just lays around so it was a bit difficult for a few months. Jonathan was the most supportive husband though. He would say all the right things when I was feeling bad and took care of everything while I spent a lot of time on the couch! Lately my main pregnancy symptom has been headaches. According to my doctor this is caused by all the hormones going through my body. Headaches are a nuisance but they are much easier to deal with! I also have another great symptom to report: kicks!!! It took me awhile to realize that I was feeling kicks as opposed to gas bubbles. They surprisingly feel very similar. It's really exciting to feel her move around! She goes crazy sometimes! Jonathan is really anxious to feel her too. He's tried but I think she's too small still for others to feel her. Well I think that gets me up to date with how she and I are doing. I'll be back soon with pictures of our new house!

-Chelsey

We have some news...

We're so excited to announce that we're expecting our first child sometime around July 24th! We've gotten to see our beautiful baby a few times on ultrasound. It's the size of a lemon already! Lucky for us, because of modern technology we've already found out the sex of the baby! Our amazing friends decided to throw us a gender reveal party so we could find out with a few close friends friends and family. They baked a cake that was either blue or pink on the inside so we'd cut into it and find out! Our place was decked out in pink and blue. It was adorable!

Is it a boy or girl???

According to the votes more people though it was a boy but....

It's a girl!!!!

We can't believe it! We're having a girl!!! She'll be the first Nassar girl born in over 60 years! We can't wait to meet our baby girl. Now we have to pick out a name! A task that seems very daunting to me lol. We'll keep you updated on her progress. Get ready to be bombarded with baby pictures once she arrives!

-Chelsey

One for the books!

This past Sunday was my birthday and boy was I spoiled! (So this is how long ago I started writing this post. Then I got a little behind so I hope you don't mind stepping back in time 2 1/2 months with me!) He started my birthday celebration early and we went straight from work on Thursday to the Bayou Bend Gardens and Collection for their Sip and Stroll event. We got to tour the entire house (previously owned by Ima Hogg) and munch on cheese and wine while strolling the gardens. The weather was amazing and I could have sat out there forever! Afterwards Jonathan insisted that we pick up tapioca tea which happens to be my favorite before we headed home. I didn't want to ask too many questions since Jonathan was being all secretive so I wasn't sure if we were in for the night or not. Well around 9 Jonathan said that we had to get going, to where I didn't know. Turns out he had made reservations for us a Uchi, a restaurant I'd been dying to go to forever! The food was amazing! Unfortunately none of my pictures came out too well since the restaurant was really dark.

I had Friday off so Jonathan took the day off to spend time with me. I started Friday with a boot camp class in the morning and it totally kicked my butt! Afterwards, I rushed home because Jonathan had made sure that I knew that I had to be home before 11. He brought me kolaches for breakfast, I quickly changed, and after 5-10 minutes we were back in the car. We didn't drive very far until we got to my next surprise: a couples massage! Jonathan was definitely spoiling me! We had a lovely 1 hour super relaxing massage. Afterwards, we went to lunch at Revival market and surprise, Rachel was there! She brought me flowers and a cross that she bought when she was visiting Zagreb, Croatia. Ok so after all of that I was sure we were done with the surprises. Except Jonathan and Rachel were acting all weird. Jonathan took my presents from me and said that I should ride home with Rachel. That was quite suspicious.... turns out Rachel took us to get our nails done! I think this was the most I've ever been pampered in one day! Funny story, while I was getting my nails done the lady was asking me about something but she didn't speak very good English. She said something about there being 2 so I nodded thinking she meant my hands or something. Yes I do have two hands... But then she said, there used to be 3. I kind of looked at her in horror but she explained more pointing at me then Rachel and saying, 'where's three?' She was referring to Colleen who often joins us. I tried not to laugh too much to make her feel bad but I was cracking up inside lol. Plus I was much relieved to hear she didn't think I had three hands. After all that pampering I was wondering if there could still be anything left but the rest of the day was pretty chill. Just what I needed because I was pretty much in a tranquil state after all that pampering. That night we went to my parents for a birthday dinner. They gave me really cool gifts from Alaska!

Saturday was day 1 of 2 of the scavenger hunt extravaganza! We signed up for 2 scavenger hunts that weekend that were both on foot and in the Midtown and Downtown areas. If you haven't noticed by now we're pretty obsessed with scavenger hunts. I especially like these official ones b/c you just show up and participate, no planning involved. It was really fun and the weather was beautiful! We were all exhausted by the end of it because the sun was so bright and zapped our energy. Sunday morning Jonathan surprised me one last time with a birthday brunch at El Real. He just told me that he thought he wanted to go there and then Rachel, Colleen, and Christine were there waiting for us! If I learned anything from that weekend it's that if Jonathan's decisive about where we're going to eat then something's up. We finished the weekend up with another scavenger hunt and I'm pretty a sure long nap for each of us. We were pretty spent. I think we'd walked about 10 miles total that weekend. So I think this birthday was truly one for the books! I truly have the best friends in the world and can't believe they'd do so much just for my birthday! I'm a pretty lucky girl! Check out our photos!

Chelsey

Opa!

This weekend we celebrated my dad's birthday by going to the Greek Festival. I had only been once before on a rainy day so I wanted a do-over. This morning was dark and rainy but around noon the clouds parted and the temps dropped to an amazing mid-50s! I have been waiting for this day since the temps moved to the high 90s in June and stubbornly stayed there for over 3 months! So with such great weather we had to head off to Greek Fest. We enjoyed gyros and baklava while listening to greek music and saw Greek dance performaces. It was well worth the trip. 

In line to get our gyros!

We got  the cathedral which was gorgeous.

I loved the stained glass.

So many people!

The dancers!

Their costumes were awesome!

We had a great time. Houston has so many festivals and I haven't found a bad one yet. Coming up next weekend is the Bayou City Art Festival. Hopefully we'll make it out to that one too! Ren Fest (Renaissance Festival) starts up soon too which is a required event for us every year. October's going to be a fun month!

-Chelsey

Channeling my inner Julia

As you're probably well aware I love to cook. On top of that I've developed a random obsession with Julia Child over the years. We have unlimited access to all her cooking videos thanks to Amazon Watch and we even got to see her kitchen on our DC trip a few years ago. I love watching her videos because a) she teaches a lot of great tips that you don't learn anything else and b) she's really hilarious to watch as she sends food flying or accidentally pours sherry in place of oil in a pan. My parents were nice enough to give me "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" for Christmas and I'm excited to say that I finally made one of her recipes! Much to Jonathan's excitement, I successfully made french onion soup. Take a look:

It's pretty easy to make, just a little time consuming. The key is to cook the onions for as long as possible. Julia says to cook them 30-35 minutes. I cooked them down for an hour and a half and they still weren't as browned as I wanted. However, it was 9pm on Sunday night and I wanted to go to sleep eventually. Then you just add either beef broth or a mixture of beef and chicken broth, salt and pepper, and a splash of sherry (although the sherry is optional). Then I broiled some toasted bread topped with gruyere to finish off the soup. Quite tasty! I know what you're going to say, "but you don't like onions!" Well I like the flavor cooked onions bring to dishes. I've always like french onion soup, but I can only eat so much of the onions. So I still enjoyed it and left the really onion-y soup at the bottom of my bowl for Jonathan to finish off. He didn't complain too much haha. 

I'm pretty sure this is the simplest recipe in Julia Child's cookbook. The rest of her recipes look pretty intimidating but I like a challenge. I just need to make the time to get all the right ingredients!

See, we're best buds!

-Chelsey

Houston Restaurant Weeks!

Houston Restaurant Weeks is an event that's become a yearly tradition! It used to actually be just 1 week but then it turned into the entire month of August. Each year, many restaurants in the Houston area participate and they each offer a 3-4 course menu for $35-45. Some even offer brunch/lunch menus for $20! We've gotten the chance to try 3 so far: Bistro des Arts, Sorrel, and Triniti. Of course I forgot to take pictures of any of the meals but trust me they were all great! You should totally check out the website and try a few places: http://www.houstonrestaurantweeks.com/. I doubt there's a single bad restaurant on the list! We had an especially great time at Sorrel celebrating Rachel's birthday! I just told her I would pick her up for her birthday brunch and surprised her by inviting all her friends to join us. My favorite line of the day was when Rachel said, "I love being lied to!" Haha I think that means it was a success. The restaurant was really great too. The waiter wished her happy birthday and even had the entire kitchen wave to her to acknowledge her birthday. We had a great time and ended the celebration by taking a trip to the sculture garden that's across the street from the MFA. (We were going to go to the Houston Craft Museum but turns out they're closed on Sundays during the summer. We'll have to make another trip sometime!)


How amazing!

Look, it's all of us!



Following the rules...

Not following the rules....oops!

 -Chelsey