Happy Holidays

We would like to wish all our friends and family a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! As you can see we've been terrible about updating the blog lately...can you guess what our New Year's Resolution will be?

One of the latest big purchases for our new home was our bedroom furniture. We bought the bedframe, night stands, and dresser from Crate and Barrel and the comforter/sheets are from Bed, Bath & Beyond. It almost looks catalog worthy, right?!

The family that blogs together, stays together

Oreo spell checking

Blogging is hard work!

Mommy-Daughter Dress Alike Day

While she doesn't contribute financially to the Berger household (or at least not yet), Oreo does her part by helping Greg pay the bills online.

Daddy, Daddy...you forgot to pay my toy bill!

Pool Time

A few weekends ago we were in Austin visiting Greg's family. Meredith and Spencer were in town as well so it was great to catch up with them. We had only learned a week or so before the good news that Meredith is pregnant and will have the baby in April so it was nice to congratulate them in person.

Saturday we spent the day out by the pool. While Em and Brad's dog, Cocoa, is practically half fish and loves the water, Oreo was very hesitant about the whole thing. She eventually was peer pressured by Cocoa and got in, but only stood on the first step. With a bit more coaxing from everyone she did manage to get in all the way and swim a bit.

Do it...do it! (using your best Starsky impression)

Oreo and Cocoa

Home Projects

So we actually finished painting the entry way a while ago, but here's the completion photos. We got compliments on the color from some kids trick-or-treating on Halloween :) They also said our pool table was cool...they had good taste.

Gardens By Moonlight

A few weekends ago we joined our friends for an evening of, as Phil would say, "hot gypsy jazz!" Gardens by Moonlight was an opportunity for the public to visit the San Antonio Botanical Gardens during the evening and enjoy live music.

Since the event sponsors had organized a shuttle pick up at a shopping center right by Lauren & Phil's house, we all met there and enjoyed some yummy strawberry margaritas and fajitas before heading off.

Word must have gotten out that this was the event year as the parking lot was packed and the line of cars stretched for about 1o miles. We felt lucky to have taken the shuttle!

The gardens were very pretty at night and we were able to get some cool photos.

CSI: San Antonio

The crime scene

Evidence #1

Evidence #2

Evidence #3

The confession

The 2nd Greatest Show On Earth

A few weekends ago we decided to get in touch with our inner children and join our friends at the Alzafar Shriner Circus (try saying that three times fast!). It was no Barnum & Baileys but we still had a lot of fun and most imporantly we got to take photos with elephants! For a detailed account of the circus check out Lauren & Phil's blog.

Don't you just love the hats?! They were only $2.00!!!

Sleeping Like Her Momma Part Deux

Our New Dining Room Table

Needless to say, I'm the coolest wife ever :) A few weeks ago Greg persuaded and I agreed to buying a used pool table from his boss. Since we don't have the need, nor the money, for dining room furniture, we agreed the addition of a pool table was the only solution for our giant empty room. This past weekend we even got a sweet Miller Lite pool table light (Thanks Travis!)

Oreo likes to watch the balls come down the rails to the ball return.

How To Sniff Butts Through A Fence

This past weekend Oreo finally met some neighbor dogs. We were out back sitting on the porch with Jennelle's parents when Oreo started talking up a storm. Our neighbors behind our house had let their two dogs out and Oreo wanted to meet them. It is hard to sniff butts through a fence (believe me I have tried ;) ), but they managed. It was really cute. The three dogs took turns sticking their heads through a hole in the fence, but then I think Oreo actually sniffed a butt. Amazing. Pure doggy genious.

Look at that tail go! It is a blur!

Kissin'

And the grand finale!

It took a while, but she managed to do it. She is definately a persistent little thing.

Labor Day Weekend

We spent the weekend in Austin visiting family and friends.

On Saturday, Greg went to the UT vs. North Texas game with Travis while Jennelle drove to the exciting town of Waco to have lunch and spend time with Gretchen and Ashley. Gretchen shared stories of her new life in Bangs, TX (pop. one stop light) and Ashley shared photos and stories from her first year working abroad in Bangladesh. It was great to spend time with both. The last time Ashley was home in Texas was for our wedding nearly a year ago so there was a lot to catch up on in each other's lives.

The girls after lunch at Ninfa's

The rest of the weekend we spent time with family. Surprisingly enough, not one game of Settler's was played! Very unusual for that bunch.

Jennelle, Greg and Abby

Greg also had some quality time with the family dogs as you can see below.

Since our new furniture didn't quite fit in our car, Travis was persuaded to help us out. Upon arrival to SA and after unloading all the boxes, Oreo and him had a fun time wrestling. She may be small but she definitely held her own. What a tough girl!

Our little lady...

She sleeps just like her momma

Home Sweet Home

So yes, it has been a long time since we last posted to the blog. And yes, part of it is because we have joined Blockbuster Online and have been addicted to watching "24". But we have now finished watching Jack Bauer save the world yet again (this season ;) ) and are ready to keep up with Lauren's demands. haha

First off, here are some more photos of the house:

The house!

The Office

Our bedroom

(pre our new furniture from Crate & Barrel)

Our bathroom

(we just love the Crest blue toilet and swirl on the counter tops)

The garage (aka Norman's new home)

Home Ownership

There are many joys to owning a home, but there is also a ton of responsibility to maintain one as well. This weekend we decided to rip up the deck that was in the back yard as well as an old worktable that the previous owner had built. That was a royal pain in the butt. I thought that since they were both rotten they would be easy to tear apart. I was wrong! I spent all day doing what I thought would only take a couple hours.

We haven't taken the "after" picture because after ripping the deck up I didn't have the strength to push the little silver button on the camera. Today I was still tired and it was hot so we were going to continue this evening, but then it rained (Hooray!). This is what followed...

You think this is dirty?

Jennelle and I didn't realize that it had started raining yet, so we let Oreo out to do her business before the rain started. Big Mistake! The rain came and Jennelle nor I heard it, so we continued making dinner and doing laundry. Our little booger decided to dig a hole right at the bottom of the drain pipe from the gutter.

You can't really tell, but the hole is about 8 inches deep and there is a pile of mud that she kicked up while digging. Good thing we haven't layed any sod there yet, or we would be having milk and oreos for dessert!

Our New House

We know it's been almost a week since our first post to the blog but we plan to make a stronger effort to keep it updated. So here are a couple photos of our new home the day we got the keys. We brought Oreo over so she could see her new backyard. As you can see, she sniffed everywhere!

Oreo's Crib (aka Family Room)

Oreo's Wood Chipping Plant (aka Back Yard)

After Oreo sniffed everything 45 times, it was time to go back to the apartment and finish packing all our stuff. We have so much stuff! We didn't even remember that we had half the things we did since we had no place to put them all in the apartment! By the way...weddings registries are sweet.

My sister just started a blog and I was only trying to reply, but I needed to create an account and thus the blogging begins.