A grand adventure is about to begin!

The news is out! Baby Liles will be arriving near April 11, 2012! We are overjoyed that we get to finally share the news with everyone. It was so hard to keep it a secret for the first 8 weeks! Chris recently got a new car and at every dealership we told the salesman we were pregnant just so we could tell someone!

So far everything is going great with the pregnancy. As far as symptoms, I have been fairly lucky in that I haven't had much nausea, only a little aversion to certain foods every once in awhile. Ofcourse I have been very tired this first trimester and as Chris told the OB "a bit moody." We have had a couple ultrasounds throughout the first trimester but the most recent one at 11 weeks, 6 days was the best! When the sonographer started, the baby was asleep so it took some coercing but once he/she finally woke, poor thing had the hiccups! It was surreal to see actual movement and to hear the heartbeat. That is when it became real for us!

I have included a few pictures below of the journey so far from when we first found out to the first sonogram as well as my growing belly. I will be starting a pregnancy/baby website on http://www.babyjellybeans.com/ in a few weeks once we find out the gender, which by the way will be November 10! Until then, here are a few to tide you over. Love you all!

Exactly 4 weeks pregnant!



Announcing the news to daddy to be

First time cousins!



Sonogram at 11wks 6 days

Bump at 12 weeks - baby is size of a lime!

Recent and new happenings

Wow, the last couple months have flown by! We have had ice/snow storms out the wazoo in DFW this year, but thankfully those have ceased for 2011 and we are on to spring time! During the month of February we had several family visits but unfortunately didn't get any pictures. Here's a recap.

We had the Smoker family in town the first weekend of February and since we had just had an ice storm, we didn't get to do much exploring. We are hoping their next visit to Dallas we will be able to show them the Fire Safety Town since Ella and Henry were really looking forward to that. While we didn't get to go out much, we definitely had a lot of fun with the kids playing games, coloring, and watching movies. The kids are growing up so fast and we cherish every minute we get to spend with them. Shortly after the Smokers left, Chip and Cami came in town for a very short visit. We had some great dinners, did a little shopping and watched the All-Star festivities and our favorite movie, Inception. Since it was a short visit, we are hoping to see them again sometime this summer. This past week Grandpa Kent and MaryLou were in town so we had them and their friends over for dinner. It was great to see them and catch up on what has been happening with them. That is the close of our family visits for now, but we look forward to seeing everyone again soon.

On a side note:
I have started a new blog for family and friends to share their favorite recipes so check it out if you are interested! It is called The Flavor Connection and can be found at TheFlavorConnection.blogspot.com. If you would like to become an author on the blog, please click on Email Us link and we would be happy to get you setup to contribute your works of culinary genious!

Love you all and more to come from Loving Liles soon!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It is now officially winter in Texas! We have had our first snow and wanted to take a few pictures of our house and neighborhood in all of its winter glory.

Christmas 2010

We hope everyone had a great Christmas! We were blessed with a terrific first Christmas in our new home. Chris did a great job decorating our house while I was entrenched in training for a new job (now at Teva Pharmaceuticals in the Respiratory Division selling asthma medication). He went all over town searching for red lights for our front yard trees and we also spent a great amount of time in Garden Ridge and Pier One making decisions. We think it turned out beautiful and wanted to share a few photos with you. See you in the new year!

xoxo,
Candice & Chris

Autumn Activities

While the calendar states it should be Fall, it definitely doesn't feel like it here in Texas. We are still at highs of 85 and lows of 65. It actually feels more like spring instead of fall, but at least we see fall decor all around. Many of our neighbors have decorated their yards and we even got "booed" last week. If you have not heard of this, it is when someone rings your doorbell, leaves a Halloween themed gift on your doorstep and runs out of sight. There is a note with the gift that says you must return the favor to 2 fellow neighbors within 24 hours and also post a ghost on your door that says "We've been booed." Chris and I had a lot of fun with this and were seen running through our neighborhood at full speed trying to get out of sight. It was quite comical!

Other blog-worthy news...Chris was told last week that he is getting a management position and begins November 1! I am very proud of him and so happy that all his hard work is paying off. He will be moving to another department so there will be a change of scenery with his new position and could possibly be on another end f the building. He doesn't have a lot of details on it yet, but is very excited for what this new change will bring.

As you all know, the Texas Rangers are competing against the NY Yankees in the ALCS and as you can imagine, that has posed some question on who Chris would root for in this series.  In celebration of his promotion, I surprised Chris with tickets to Game 1 this past Friday night. As we were getting ready for the game, he said he was going to wear his Yankess shirt and I said, HECK NO! We drove straight to the mall to get a Rangers tee for him to wear to the game! He picked out the Claw & Antlers shirt...you have to have watched the Rangers to know what it means. Even though the Rangers lost that night, they tied it up on Saturday and....it's currently 3-0 Rangers in the top of the 9th with 2 men on base. A win tonight would mean the Rangers lead the series 2-1. Go Rangers!

On Saturday we had a Farewell Party for Kelly & Cice who are moving to Shanghai next weekend. We had about 30 people go out for dinner and then to a favorite hangout spot for drinks. We had a great time and will definitely miss them. One great thing that is coming out of their move is that they are giving us their grill! Yipee we will be able to grill by the weekend!

Spelling China in sign language :)

That is about all that is going on here. We have our blinds being installed on the 25th and hopefully we will finalize our living room furniture plans soon. The house is coming together, slowly but surely. We can't wait for Donna to come visit for Christmas and the Smoker family in February. When will the rest of the fam plan their visit?! :)

Love you all and we wish you a happy Halloween! Can't wait to see pics of the kids in costume!

XOXO,
C&C

Home Sweet Home

As I am finishing up loading photos of the house, I realize now more than ever that I can't wait to get blinds. In the glare of the computer screen I see some woman looking into our window and as I turn around, she heads back to her car and drivers away. Creepy! We will be getting blinds installed in the next two weeks and they can't come soon enough!
Here are  few photos of our new home. Some were taken before we moved in and some after. Enjoy!

Let's play catch up

Wow, I haven't been keeping up with this blog very well. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I can do a better job at updating.
Let's see, a lot has happened since April when I last blogged. Chris turned 32 in June, we went to DC for the 4th of July, Chris has finally finished with school, we took a trip to the Virgin Islands with the Smokers and Liles families, and...what elese? Oh, yea, WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! Thats the summary, here are some details...

For our 2 year anniversary and 4th of July weekend, Chris and I decided to take a last minute trip to Washington DC for a long weekend. It has always been on my To Visit list so we decided to cross one off! While it was very hot, we enjoyed all the sight seeing and 4th of July festivities in the capitol of our nation.




As a great ending to the summer we also just took a trip to the Virgin Islands. It was fabulous! We arrived the first day, got situated in our room at the Marriot Frenchmans Cove in St. Thomas, and didn't waste a minute as we immediately headed to happy hour (2 for 1 drinks). Our entertainment the first evening consisted of a live band that Ella and Henry loved as they danced the night away. We also met a family from Boston that quickly became good friends. The second day, Cami, Jen and myself had quite an adventure grocery shopping with Anne Marie from Boston. The next day we decided to take a boat tour to the British Virgin Islands where we visited the baths at Virgin Gorda, ate lunch/snorkeled at Scrub Island and then finished the day at Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke. It was a phenomenal trip, that unfortunately for me ended with a skinned knee and was followed by a full day of illness for Cami, Chip and Chris. After the Smokers left on Friday morning, we took the ferry over over to St. John for the day where we snorkeled at Trunk Bay for the day. We left the following day to go back to Dallas.



After returning to Dallas we closed on our house 5 days later and moved in Labor Day weekend! We are very excited about our new home and are in the process of getting unpacked. Within the first few weeks, we have purchased a refrigerator, lawnmower, a large mirror and some media equipment. With it being a new house, we also have no window coverings so we are working on ordering some blinds for the many windows in our house. Speaking of windows, the guest room in the front of the house has a beautiful view of the lake so start planning your trip to visit! We can't wait to share our new home with you! Photos of the house to come soon.