Happy BIRTHDAY Mae-day

Can you believe our little Maebry is one!?!?!?! Neither can we!!!

Everyone tells you how quickly "they" grow up and how before you know it she'll be driving...it kind of all seems true now! Those first few months seemed sooooo long, waiting for you precious girl to come home from the hospital...and now, time is literally flying by!

Since you all know we call Maebry "bunny", we decided to do an bunny / spring garden themed birthday party for the Maester. LOTS of bunnies and carrots and all things springy. Christa really did an outstanding job collecting decorations from all over to bring the theme to life. Many many props to Christa for planning a great party...as always!

May was speeding by with XI Media working on our first broadcast commercial and radio campaign with the San Antonio Credit Union and Christa was uber busy with work and deadlines...as always.

The weekend of Maebry's big party, Deborah came into town with her little ones (Jaydon and Kaeleigh) and spent the weekend with us, helping get all of the party goods prepped and just spending some quality time together...it was very nice. All of our parents and bro/sis-in-laws, nieces and nephews showed up early to help prep food and decorate...helping us haul everything out to the park by our house. We wanted to say a big THANK YOU!!!!!!! to all that helped and another massive THANK YOU for everyone that came and made Maebry's 1st birthday such a special day.

The day of Mae's birthday party, I ran around picking up balloons and food, Christa kept Maebry on her schedule of eating and napping all the while getting tons of food and decor ready to go. We were able to set up the party location right on time and we had such an amazing turn out. Friend and family from all over.

The park where the party was going to be held had a decent sized play scape. So the older kids were able to go nuts while the little ones hung around with their mommies and daddies. The food went fast and the cake went even faster as Maebry decided to make her first foray into the world of desserts a massive success! Ohhhh Maebry, you definitely take after daddy in the sweets department! =)

After the party wound down, Keith and Michelle came over to the house for what turned out to be a really nice after party. Deborah, Keith, Michelle, Christa and myself had plenty of libations and great conversation after Mae went down for nice a sugar induced nap.

Thank you again soooo very much to everyone that helped make Maebry's party such a wonderful time!

On Maebry's actual birthday, we took her up to St. David's hospital for the first time since she got to leave the NICU last July. We didn't get to see too many of the awesome nurses that helped get Maebry home safe and healthy, but we saw Gabe (the front desk guy) and a few nurses who couldn't believe how big Mae was and how well she was doing! We thought going back to the hospital would be a pretty hard thing to handle, but it was actually quite nice, bringing up memories and feelings of joy...making us very thankful to have our little precious gift home!

Maebry, I don't know if you will get to read this one day...I hope you do. We are so very thankful for you every single day. When you hear us and other parents talk about loving you more than words can express...more than anything else in the entire world and beyond...it really is true. It doesn't seem possible, but you are the most amazing part of our lives and we can not wait to celebrate many many many more birthdays to come!!! Happy Birthday Maebry!!!!!!!

And now...on with the pictures!!!

Christa and the kiddos. My best friend and her sweet kids, Kaeleigh & Jaydon, came in to town to help celebrate Mae's birthday weekend.

The guest are gathering and the food is prepped to be served. Let's Party!

Savannah and I inspecting all the sandwiches. I think Savannah might be a hungry momma. Her little one is due at the end of May.

Here are some of Mae's party guest. In front you can Ms. Teri, Mae's nanny, then Mr. & Mrs. Kuebel, friends of Mae, Mommy and Daddy. I also see Mae's Mamaw & Papaw and our Uncle Ted is heading over to Aunt Pam.

Another view of all Mae's wonderful birthday party guest.

More guests...the Wonderful Wednesday kind.

Here is the wonderful bounce house brought, set up and donated by the Tuckers. Thanks guys you all are the BEST!! The kids loved it!

It is cake time! And IT begins!

What's this. It's something pretty and seems to be tasty.

Yep, it's tasty!!

See Daddy, I told you it's tasty.

Here momma you try it to. Thanks for making me a great birthday "Bunny" cake.

OK, now it's my turn. Let's get serious. I am ready to dig in.

Look how well I have done. I think I need more...CAKE. Just a little more, maybe right on my forehead.

Sweet cake and sweet kisses! Gotta love LIFE!

"CHAMPION!" Champion cake eater that is.

Hi there Aunt Linda and Johnny Paul, thanks for coming.

Papaw Gary why isn't your mouth open too. All the ladies are doing it!

Look at my cute bunny birthday guests. Hi Brody, Madison and Kinsey. Thanks for coming.

Look how sweet 2-month old Connor looks with his momma, Jess.

Mission complete. Bunny Birthday, we thank you. Thank you everyone for coming and for all my special gifts!! Maebry loves YOU ALL!

Here are few more pictures from Mae's actual birth day, day!

Mae wearing some of her bunny ears before her birthday breakfast.

Look how cute I look. Watch out Bunnies, Mae is coming to get ya!

Here is the whole Kraatz gang commentating in front of St. David's on Maebry's 1st birthday. We love our precious bunny girl. We are SO blessed!

Here is Mae on her activity walker, which is now ridable car trying to hold on to her favorite new stuffed animal Chewbie! Thank you Kuebels for my sweet monkey.

A Thank You to My Love

Hi there everyone!

Well, as most of you know, I (Dusty) am now the big 3-0! Scary huh?

I just wanted to take a quick second to thank my truly amazing wife for all that she did for my birthday.

Christa essentially put together an awards show honoring 30 years of D. Licious (me). There was an official program, signage, balloons, a HUGE group of my friends and family and one by one they honored me with awards such as "The AMAZING Award"...which highlighted the fact that I say MOST things are indeed....amazing lol.

We took over an entire room at Grin's here in San Marcos and it was just an absolute blast. It was one of those things that took a little while to settle in.

Afterwards we had the "Faded Fort" after party at our house. We stayed up till all hours of the night having great lifes, drinks and making great memories. It was truly an EVENT and I had soooooo much fun!

I can't thank you enough Christa for really making me feel so very special and proud of myself and our accomplishments together. I have no doubt that this took a great deal of time and you really just knocked it out of the park.

I already knew this, but this was yet another reminder of the absolutely AMAZING wife, best friend and PIC (Partner in Crime) that I have been lucky enough to be with for five years now. I can't wait to celebrate another 30 years and many more after that with you.

Thank you so much for all that you do day in and day out to help our family thrive. You are truly a ROCKSTAR!

I love you and thank you again!

Dusty

To all the "Aprils" we loved before...

Wow, what a month. April brought us bunny days, literally. We had a great Easter weekend at Dusty's parents house. Dusty and I shot a wedding for family friends. Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Schafer!

We know that Miss Maebry is officially the luckiest little girl in the world. She has her very own play scape with all the bells and whistles. Grandmommy and Grandaddy got Mae a wonderful wooden play scape with swings and a picnic table and climbing wall and a slide! I bet she just can't wait to tackle that thing! She was able to swing in her bucket swing and she really seemed to enjoy that.

Easter was very good to Maebry as well! She, of coarse, got quite a few bunnies, even a bunny cloth book! She had such a good time pulling items out of her basket and just going to town! We had to take her out on a photo shoot in her cute Easter outfit as well....we just HAD too! =)

The following weekend, Christa threw me a surprise 30th birthday party and BOY was it a blast! We had a whole room reserved at Grin's and so many of our friends and family came out, it was truly a very very special birthday! Thank you Christa! After dinner and the AWARDS! lol we went back to the house to celebrate some more as well as have a wrap up party for all of our Fader Fort crew! What a really fun and amazing weekend. Miss Mae got to spend the night at Grandmommy and Grandaddy K's, so she had a blast too!

The following weekend Christa went to Savannah's baby shower! They had such a great time at "Moonshine" in Austin! Great food and great friends. Savannah looks so happy and cute! Mae and I had some time to bond as well, just hanging out, playing and overall just having a grand ol time!

Maebry also decided it was time to go all out in her eating! Christa decided to be brave and just poured some blended spaghetti and sauce into a cup and let Mae go to town...you'll see the results below! Talk about a good messy time!!!

The rest of April was a blur as Christa and I were both super busy with work. Please enjoy the photos below from all the April goings on!

The scene at Dusty's 30th Birthday Party!

Daddy and Maebry enjoying one of the many D.licious awards!

Mae's new play scape with Grandaddy pushing her in her new swing.

Here we say the mighty Maebry is taking her spaghetti...very HANDS ON!

Grandparents and Daddy at the Schafer wedding...mommy making Mae smile behind the lens.

Here we find Maebry getting ready to pull up and stand on her excersaucer! A new trick!

She's making progress...almost there Mae!

Tadaaaa!!!!!

Prior to standing, Mae likes to take a break...it's hard work all that pulling up business!

Mae with her Easter basket just a swingin'

Momma and Mae out front spending some quality observing time.

Taking a walk in her grandaddy's boots

Maebry woke up to find the Easter bunny had brought her TONS of goodies!
"Hey...this bunny is almost as big as me!"

Below...Maebry - 1 / Bunny - 0

March Madness...Literally!

Hello there folks! Once again we had a month sail by and we weren't able to update...please forgive the delayed update and accept our cute pics as our gift! =)

So, March has become XI Media's busiest month of the year...and on top of that, C and I have to make sure to properly ring in another year together as two old married folk!

I spent a big chunk of the first few weeks getting ready for our Fader Fort shoot which I started prepping for in January, but it was go time!

Christa and I both worked super hard the first few weeks so that by our Anniversary weekend, we could spend some quality time together. We were celebrating our FIVE YEAR Wedding Anniversary! WOW!!! On our big day, March 12th, we had Ms. Teri stay into the night, and we headed up to Austin for a surprise dinner! We had a special booth reserved at The Melting Pot downtown. We had champagne waiting at our table and a really great waiter who took great care of us. Christa and I got a dinner that was labeled for two...but HOLY COW was it an abundance of food...but don't think we didn't do our darnedest to take it down! We had apples and bread with a cheese fondue to start with, then started our main course which included steak, chicken, sausage, shrimp and lobster!!!! DANGO! And to top it all off, we had a super yummy chocolate fondue for dessert with rice crispy treats, marshmellows, bananas and strawberries! Good grief! We literally HURT when we left lol, but it was totally worth it!

We wrapped up the evening like we often do, having a few drinks with Muzzy and Jason at The Den. We stayed up past our bedtimes recounting the good times and looking forward to the future.

Saturday C and I had a great lunch out with Mae Day, then headed to Sam's to get snacks and supplies for the upcoming Fader Fort week.

Sunday afternoon Jon Burke arrived and we had a great time playing with Maebry, eating dinner and playing board games, listening to great tunes on the radio / speaker set that he gave us for our Anniversary present.

Monday began our huge Fader Fort undertaking. To sum things up....we had a 17 person crew stream over 40 bands over four days. Our live stream had 800,000 unique viewers and was watched 1,000,000,000 times!!!! Christa even was able to join in on the fun starting on Friday thanks to Grandmomma and Grandaddy K watching Maebry for the weekend!

Way to go Daddy, Fader Fort was a BIG success!

We ended up having an amazing time and thankfully, the business has been able to keep up steam ever since.

The Sunday after Fader Fort, we headed to Johnson City to have lunch and pick up Maebry with the Kraatz's, then headed over to Shane's house for a good old fashioned Crawfish Boil! YUMMY! Maebry had a great time watching all of the kiddos play and showing off her newly acquired CRAWLING SKILLS!!!!

That's right! As of Tuesday, March 16th, Maebry was officially crawling...at a slow and steady pace, but crawling none-the-less!!! We were and ARE sooooo proud!

We spent the rest of the month quite honestly trying to get rest and get caught up on the day to day things.

Maebry decided towards the end of the month that not only was crawling everywhere pretty fun...but so is PULLING UP! On EVERYTHING!!! The coffee table, couches, entertainment center...you name it! She is SUCH a big girl. She's been walking holding on to our hands for a good while now and we know it is only a matter of time before she doesn't need the support anymore, and she starts walking all on her own.

Enjoy all of the March pics and we will make sure to upload Maebry's crawling video shortly! Thanks so much for all of your love and support!

Here are some Mae pictures. Please enjoy...

Maebry and her Papaw Lloyd at the Bastrop County Junior Livestock Show. Too sweet!

An excited Maebry looking at her cousin's water bottle.
This little girl likes water bottles.

I was surprised?! Were you?!

Ok daddy, I guess I will share my cookie with you. Happy Oscar Party!

Below are some pictures of our Mae-day in the park. We love our neighborhood park and hope to throw Maebry's birthday party here in May.

Mommy and me, 'just a swingin'!

Look at me loving to swing.

Adorable!

One, I mean, Twenty...these pull-ups are hard daddy when you are pulling me down.

A little R & R after my work out.

We love you TOO!

Here is a picture of Mae enjoying a fun Oscar gift from Jason & Kim.
And yes it's a pickle and it Yodles. Yep, a yodling pickle.


Hey gang, this is my friend Theophilus London the Frog. I like to make sure my friends taste good. Theophilus passed brilliantly.

I just crawled over here. I wanted to make sure my Dad's surround sound is up to par. "All sounds good to me Daddy."

Look at me taking a big girl bath. I sure do love my rubber duckies.

Our photo shoot with our favorite subject. Our "Bunny Baby" Maebry!