From our home to yours...

Merry Christmas!

It's a BOY!

Today was our big ultrasound, and we were thrilled to find out that we're having a BOY!!! Grace will have a little brother sometime in early 2010 :-) We couldn't be happier to add a son to our family, and we know Grace will be an awesome big sister!

Miss Bossy and Full of Sass

Grace is becoming quite a sassy young lady lately. There's no doubt that the Terrible Two's have arrived, although one minute she's telling me I'm mean and the next she's telling me I'm her best friend. I see a lot of parallels between Grace and myself as a kid. I was known for being sassy and incredibly stubborn, not to mention very bossy!

Grace loves to boss people around - from her Mommy and Daddy to her Uncle Billy to the other kids she spends her day with to our bassett hounds. When we're playing at home, she tells Martin and I exactly what she wants us to do.

• Sit down, Mommy. On the ground, next to me. Have a tea party.
• Daddy, play in my playhouse. Sit there.
• HUSH, Fred and Phoebe (which she tells them every time she hears them barking)

We get our orders very clearly from our toddler. She even asks me, "Do you want timeout, Mommy?" I thought I was the one who gave timeouts...Grace doesn't think so.

Clearly, we have our hands full, but in the best possible way. She's full of life, keeps us on our toes, and showers us with love :-) This is the life I always dreamed of.

Falling down on the job...

Remember when I promised that I'd do better at keeping up with my blogging. Well, clearly I've not been a woman of my word. Life has been a whirlwind this summer! I honestly can't believe we're quickly approaching September. Where did the summer go?

Alas, here we are! We survived my two weeks away at grad school in Minnesota. It was rough on all of us. I cried a LOT and missed Martin and Grace like crazy. Thank God for Skype video chat, which allowed me to see and talk to my wonderful family everyday. We all made it through, and I am even more convinced that Martin is the best Daddy in the world. He handled two weeks of single parenthood like a pro :-) So now I'm two papers and one online class away from completing my 2nd Master's degree, this one in Philanthropy and Development. Woohoo!!!

In other news, we had an AWESOME visit with Martin's friend, Ollie, from England in early June. You'll find some great pics from his visit in our June online photo album: http://picasaweb.google.com/amberfogarty/TheFogartyFamilyJune2009#. You can also scope out You Tube videos from one of his living room concerts at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejbyzg88zQQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTtfXi11uUU. Good times! We took a fun day trip to San Antonio, and Grace loved the boat ride on the Riverwalk.

All in all, it's been quite a summer! The heat has been unreal...we're just a few 100+ days away from this being the HOTTEST summer EVER in Austin! Needless to say, we're ready for the beautiful fall weather :-)

That's all for now, friends! Stay tuned, and I'll try to do better about blogging in the months to come.

Happy Baptismal Anniversary, Grace!

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of Grace's Baptism! It also marks the anniversary of the day Martin and I had our marriage blessed by the Catholic Church. It's a day that will always be special to our family. We were surrounded by the people we love the most and shared our incredible, unconditional love, now as a family of three, in the presence of God, our family, and dear friends.

This is one of my favorite pictures from that day, our sleeping beauty who managed to sleep through the entire Mass, even when Fr. Rick poured the holy water on her head!

I especially want to thank Grace's godparents - my brother, Billy, and Martin's sister, Caroline - who have made a lifetime commitment to Grace and our family :-) We're so thankful for all they do for our sweet girl (and for us too)!


Relive the memories with us:
http://picasaweb.google.com/amberfogarty/GraceSBaptismOurMarriageBlessing#

Sharing the joy...

Tonight we got to share in the joy of our dear friends, Adria and Michael, who just adopted sweet little Christian :-) We were thrilled to meet Christian and congratulate the new parents! We love you all and couldn't be happier for you.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day, One and All! We spent last night and most of today in Waco :-) We had a nice visit with the family. Grace's favorite part was jumping on the bed with Nana and Pop-Pop.

As you can see, she was having a blast :-) We got home in time to watch the big Austin fireworks show on TV and to catch a few smaller fireworks in the sky near our house. Grace isn't so sure about the fireworks...she mostly just says that they're loud. It was a great day! Now time for bed...

Potty Training is in full force...

Grace is slowly, but surely, mastering the art of going to the potty! We've been really impressed by how quickly she's caught on. And, of course, we're looking forward to buying less diapers!

There's a great potty video with Elmo and friends that Grace loves. We've watched that DVD a LOT, so much that we pretty much know it by heart. Martin and I can sing along with the songs, which makes Grace giggle :-)

My one beef with the Elmo DVD is when it goes through all of the ways you can talk about going #1 and #2. In the #2 section, most of the names are pretty harmless. Then a little kid comes on the screen and announces, "I call it dookie." And guess what word Grace has latched on to? Yep, you guessed it. Dookie :-)

More fun at the Austin Children's Museum

Grace and I have definitely been getting our money's worth at the Austin Children's Museum. We bought a membership awhile back and have visited quite a bit. Grace loves it, and so do I! There's so much to do and see. Today's trip was especially fun :-)

Grace loves the new slide!

My personal favorite, the big cow! MOO :-)Little hard hat girl :-)

I love making these special memories with my sweet girl. Being a Mom is such a gift!

A Message from Grace Calleigh

Hello, my name is Grace. I'm a one person human tornado. I can manage to wreak havoc on any room I enter in 2 seconds flat. My Mom tries to get me to play the "clean up game." How do I help her understand that cleaning up is not a game? It's SOOOOO not fun. I prefer making the messes. Please give her this very important message. Thank you!

The Whirlwind of 2009

Is it really June already?!? The last five months have flown by. The Fogarty Family has had a wonderful first five months of 2009; it's been quite a whirlwind.

The Highlights So Far (in no particular order):

• Grace turning 2 years old! (http://thefogartyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-2nd-birthday-grace.html)
• Amber (me) turning the big 3-0!!! (http://thefogartyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-turning-30.html)
• The Fogarty Birthday Luau (http://thefogartyfamily.blogspot.com/2009/05/fogarty-birthday-luau.html)
• Traveling to Phoenix in January with Martin to visit family and reunite with my volunteer community and visit the place where our Love Story started
• Celebrating Mother's Day in Waco with the fam
• All of the holidays - Easter (especially the Easter Play Date with Grace's new pals), Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day
• Joining the Austin Children's Musuem and spending quality time there with Grace
• Grace's first trip to the Austin Zoo
• Watching Grace grow and learn :-)

Life is good. Yep.

The Fogarty Birthday Luau

The Fogarty Birthday Luau was AWESOME! Last night we celebrated Grace's 2nd Birthday and my 30th Birthday with family and friends. You can see all of the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/amberfogarty/FogartyBirthdayLuau# or see a few of the highlights below.

Martin and Amber, ready to Luau!

Mom (Nana) and Anna, my niece

Kirinda and Grace

Isn't this cake awesome? It was made by my sister-in-law, Jen!! She's so talented. Thanks, Jen!

Blowing out the candles...

Jen, Dad, Anna, and Brian

Even Fred and Phoebe got in the spirit of the Luau!

Mom, Christie, Billy, and Martin

Ollie entertained us with his fantastic music! Check him out at www.myspace.com/oliverchilds

The best of the best!
Good lookin' people!

Thanks to all who made it a perfect Luau, especially my Mom, Keila, and Jo who all brought food. You guys rock!

All in all, a good time was had with wonderful family and friends - a great way to celebrate being born and giving birth to the most amazing little girl in the world :-)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Grace!

Today our sweet girl turns 2 years old! It's hard to believe how quickly the time has gone.

Martin and I got up early this morning and remembered the exact moment we welcomed Grace into the world - 6:09 am. It is a moment that is frozen in time, a moment we will never forget. That moment is imprinted on our hearts.

Relive the moment with us:
http://thefogartyfamily.blogspot.com/2007/08/graces-birth-story.html
http://thefogartyfamily.blogspot.com/2007/05/introducing-grace-calleigh-fogarty.html

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.

~Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family

We sincerely hope that Grace’s memory bank is filling up with wonderful memories. Her first two years have brought us countless blessings. Our life is more complete because of the joy she brings to us each and every day.

My Blog by Wordle

I discovered an awesome online tool that creates "word clouds." So here's a word cloud of The Fogarty Family Blog!

Image attributed to http://www.wordle.net/.

You can visit http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/869449/AF-Blog to see a larger version of this word cloud (and create your own)!

My Sweet Grace!

Here's a glimpse of my sweet Grace, who is 2 weeks away from turning 2 years old! This is a picture taken after Mass on Mother's Day. Grace is, by far, the best Mother's Day and birthday gift I could ever ask for! Isn't she adorable?

On my own birthday, I'm all reflective about everything, and I've come to this realization. Of all the things I've accomplished during the last thirty years, I'm most proud of my little Grace. Being her Mom has been the BEST experience of my life, and I'm so thankful for the blessing that she is every day (even during the increasingly frequent "terrible two moments")! My love for her is beyond measure.

On Turning 30

Today is my 30th Birthday! Many people have mixed emotions about turning 30. Not me! I'm excited to start a new decade of my life. Here's my perspective on the big 3-0:

My 20s have been an amazing decade! Filled with lots of great memories, some adventures (and misadventures), and discovering the type of woman I want to be, the last decade brought so much joy. I started my 20s much like everyone else...graduating from college with great anticipation for my future. I landed my first job doing marketing for a software company and worked myself to the bone. I started my MBA and pushed myself throughout the three and a half years it took me to finish. By 25, I had my MBA in hand, and I promptly quit my corporate job and embarked on the journey of a lifetime.

I started a year long volunteer program called Holy Cross Associates, which took me to Phoenix, Arizona, where I came face-to-face, for the first time, with the heart-wrenching realities of poverty and homelessness. That year was, by far, the most formative year of my life. I found myself during my volunteer year, but that’s not all I found. I got to know God in a way I never had before. I came to understand the importance of my personal relationship with Him. I learned to value my family and friends more intensely. I discovered depths of pain I never knew existed and the enormity of human need. I became more deeply conscious of the dignity of every life. I began to crystallize my priorities and how I wanted to life my life. I found my vocation, my life’s work.

And toward the end of that formative year, on June 3, 2005, I found the love of my life. A night out to celebrate a friend's birthday party at my favorite Irish pub led to meeting my soulmate. I will always remember the early days of our romance with a smile...we fell madly in love and knew that we were meant to be together, in spite of living in different countries with the odds stacked against us. Now, here we are, almost four years later - we've built a life together and are raising an awesome little girl who brings us such joy.

I couldn't dream of a better decade, but I will. I start my 30s with hope and anticipation of what's to come. I look forward to enjoying what I worked so hard for - the love of my wonderful husband and beautiful daughter, strong relationships with the best family and friends a girl could ask for, a vocation that I love, and an eternal optimism that helps me to see the best in all things and all people. It rocks to be me :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there!

I'm so thankful to be a Mother and to have such a wonderful Mother and Mother-in-Law!

It's been far too long...

Remember me? I'm the Mommy blogger who has totally slacked off on her blogging duties! I promise I'll catch up soon. Hopefully this week since it's Spring Break, and I don't have to teach on Tuesday and Thursday evenings :-)

To bring you up to speed, life in the Fogarty household has been busy but blissful the last few months! I started a new job at the beginning of February, which I LOVE, and I'm also finishing up my Capstone (thesis) paper for grad school, while teaching a Business Communication course at St. Edward's University, my alma mater. Yes, busy as a bee, but seriously loving life! I see the light at the end of the tunnel, as I hope to have a final draft of my Capstone submitted by the end of March, and the class I'm teaching ends at the end of April.

On the homefront, Martin and I are trying to keep up with our very energetic toddler :-) Grace constantly entertains us these days with her non-stop talking and active imagination. She loves to sing and dance, and we love watching her face light up when she hears a song she recognizes. Her favorites are "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," the ABCs, "Elmo's Song," and "If You're Happy and You Know It."

Grace has started to talk in complete sentences. Most often we hear, "It's dark in here," when she walks into a dark room, and "I want to take a walk," when she gets into her stroller and lets us know that she's ready for a walk. She can be quite the bossy young lady, and I can't for the life of me figure out where she gets that from ;-) LOL...clearly, she didn't inherit that trait from her mother. She did get her independence from me though. She's a little girl who always seems to take charge, and she clearly knows what she wants. Watching her personality develop has brought us great joy!

That's all for now...stay tuned though! I'm recommitting myself to blogging and am now dabbling with Twitter. Come follow me there (search afogarty2005)! Thanks for visiting!

Grace and Her Baby

Here's a picture of Grace on New Year's Day with her swaddled baby. She got the baby from her Nana and Pop-Pop for Christmas, and she's been carrying her around non-stop. My baby and her baby...too cute for words!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2009! We're excited to begin another year and to see what's in store. We expect nothing but the best - building memories with those we love and watching our dear Grace grow up. We rang in 2009 in the company of some of our nearest and dearest. It was a fabulous night!