Babies, babies everywhere!

Our posts have gotten a little sparse lately, but we have a great excuse for that… and it's name is Nemo:

the many faces of Nemo

Ok, so it's name isn't really Nemo. That's just what we're calling this little one for now. We could actually use some help coming up with a real name. The sex of the baby is going to be a surprise, so we need boy and girl names. Nemo's name will be _____ Bravo Wiri, so we don't really need another middle name, but whatever we pick has to go well with both names.

We have an amazing boy name that we both love (and that we're keeping a secret), and if that name doesn't fit then our backup boy name is Henry. We need a Thai nickname for a boy though. For a girl we need a lot more help with a first name, but we think we have a Thai nickname: either Nam or Som (probably Som). When we were talking about different Thai names after Christmas Hope joked that we should name the baby "orange juice" since we both drink so much of it now that the baby must be at least 50% OJ by this point. Well, in Thai orange juice is nam (water) som (orange) and it turns out that both of those are very common nicknames for girls. That was easy!

So let's back up a little. Most of you already know about Nemo, but here's the long version of the story:

We knew, after five long years together, that we were ready to start a family as soon as we were married. In fact, Hope visited her doctor and started taking prenatal vitamins back in June to make sure she'd be in prime shape for incubating a little one when the time came. Well, according to Nemo's due date, the time came right smack in the middle of our honeymoon. (Because of this, we joked about naming the baby after one of the Galapagos Islands) We did the math before we left and decided that it would be a perfect time to try because the baby would be due right at the end of the school year and Hope could take the whole summer off after the birth. Plus, May/June is a great time to be born since babies have a lot of time to get strong and healthy before winter and flu season roll around. Fortunately for us our plan worked out (Suthee's boys can swim!) and all the pieces came together on the first try, but if it hadn't worked we would have just tried again the next month (which would still give us that good summer timing), or waited and tried for an October baby (that's a pretty good time to be born too, since you get to be one of the oldest in class at school). As of right now the due date is May 18, 2014… but babies are rarely that predictable, so we're prepared to welcome this little one any time in May (or even late April, but any sooner might catch us off guard a little).

After we came back the waiting began. We got home the first week of September, but had to wait a whole week until it was time to take a test. On Friday the 13th we saw this little gem:

it's faint, but there's a vertical line there

And five days later we got extra confirmation:

this one was definite

We had our first appointment at 5 weeks to confirm, first ultrasound at 8 weeks, and we heard the heartbeat on the doppler at our 10 week appointment. Knowing that not all pregnancies are successful, and that the first trimester is the riskiest part, we elected to keep quiet about Nemo for a little while. At 13 weeks we did the first trimester screening and everything came back looking great. After we got such good results from this screening we decided it was safe to spread the news.

two arms

two legs

a strong heartbeat

We told all of our parents about the same time, and Suthee's aunt Na Nid got to know a little early too since she joined us for lunch the day we told the Wiri's. We told both of Hope's parents over the phone (simply due to the distance), but we were able to tell Suthee's parents face to face. When we were at the 14 week mark we were all in Oakland, CA for Suthee's cousin Eve's wedding so it was perfect timing.  After that we waited until Thanksgiving to go public with the news so that we could tell more people face to face or over the phone before they found out on Facebook. While we were in California for Eve's wedding we visited Hope's friends Ethan and Robyn (who you may remember were her bridesdude and one of her bridesmaids) and they actually helped us to come up with the nickname Nemo (based on the one little "flipper" we could see in the 8 week ultrasound). On Thanksgiving day Suthee's uncle said grace before dinner, and then we busted out a picture of Nemo and showed everybody what we have to be thankful for this year!

our shirts that we wore to make our big announcement

Nemo's first Facebook post

At 18 weeks we had an elective ultrasound to try and find out the sex of the baby before Christmas. At first Nemo was super active, then baby fell asleep... sitting cross-legged... on top of Hope's bladder... with the umbilical cord right between the legs…

those little legs were crossed tight
(the two parts to the right of the belly are a thigh and the opposite foot)

At 21 weeks we had our anatomy scan and again everything looked perfect. According to the measurements our ultrasound tech took it looks like Nemo has ten fingers, ten toes, and appropriately sized body parts and organs. We couldn't have asked for more! Nemo has also been very cooperative posing for ultrasound photos. We got very nice profiles, and this baby had a hand by it's face in nearly every picture… except the 8 week one, because Nemo only had limb buds (which Hope referred to as "flippers") at that point and they weren't long enough to reach it's face. (Sorry about saying "it" so much, but we can't say he or she so "it" is really the only option)

we thought it was amazing that you could see all four chambers of that tiny heart
it was even more awesome seeing it in action

Nemo isn't the only baby news happening recently. There have been a few births in our families. We have welcomed two new nephews and a new niece since the last time we posted:

Hope's brother Nicholas and his girlfriend Crystal welcomed their first baby: Timothy "Timmy" Nicholas Bravo on June 23, 2013. 

Suthee's brother Tom and his wife Susan welcomed their first baby: Aiden Tirapat Wiri on August 20, 2013.

Hope's sister Sara and her two older children, Desiree and Anthony, welcomed baby #3: Katherine "Katie" Elizabeth Fields on October 6, 2013.

Hope was able to meet Timmy when she visited California in July, we both met Aiden at Christmas in Texas, and Hope met Katie when she visited Georgia just after Christmas. Even though we're all so far apart we're looking forward to Nemo growing up with so many cousins so close in age (it'll be less than a year from Timmy's birthday to Nemo's). Hopefully we'll have them all together soon.

Post-Wedding and Honeymoon update

Wow! We haven't updated since May. It has been a busy few months. May - August were consumed by wedding planning, then there was the honeymoon, and after that we were pretty exhausted. We've spent the last few months just enjoying married life, working, watching football, and of course traveling a bit.

The wedding was awesome! Thanks so much to everyone who came and those who were unable to make it but sent their good wishes. The ceremony was short and simple, and the reception was so much fun. We danced, we ate, there were wonderful toasts... It was exactly what we had hoped it would be. Our amazing photographer made this awesome slideshow.

We have been so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family. We were showered with so many generous wedding gifts, for which we are so grateful. It took us at least a month and a half to unpack and start using all of our new stuff. Our dishes actually match now, both bedrooms have full sets of matching bedding, we have a full set of matching towels, our pots and pans are amazing, we have a ton of new kitchen gadgets, and we just cannot express how grateful we are for all of it. Before this all of those things were just a mish-mash of unmatched things that we had both collected through college and it kind of looked like college students still lived here. We've been joking that it's starting to look like grown-ups actually live here. 

Hope cooking fajitas on
our new griddle with a
new bamboo wok stirrer 

Suthee using a new pan and
thermometer to cook up some fish

a rainbow of Fiestaware in our
kitchen cabinets

Guest bedroom

Master bedroom 

Since the rest of the house was looking so great we
decided to update some of the furniture too

A few days after the wedding we headed off on our honeymoon. We went to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. One of the nice things about this was that the islands were in the same time zone, so we didn't have any jet lag. We saw tons of amazing animals, beautiful views, and really just had a great time. There are too many photos to share, but Suthee made this awesome video that sums up the whole trip pretty nicely. 

on the plane and ready to start this honeymoon!

 Since getting back we've been to a few football games and a wedding, but this entry is long enough so we'll update you on all of that later :)

we both changed our middle names

when we got back from our trip.

Grill Masters and sand dunes.

     As an early wedding present Suthee's brother Tom and his wife Susan got us a grill. After we got back from our weekend trip we picked out a Weber Spirit e210 and brought it home (with some difficulty). Tonight we made and ate our first grilled meal!

deliciousness

     Since the grill was Tom's gift we asked him to choose what the first meal would be and he picked NY Strip. Hope seasoned it pretty simply with a rub of fresh chopped garlic, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a little bit of lemon pepper all rubbed on with a little olive oil. We eat steak once in a while when we go out, but it's mostly chicken and fish in our house with the occasional ham steak or block of tofu for our main proteins. Since we are a bit unexperienced at cooking steak we cut into them and found them to be nearly raw... which is exactly how Hope likes her steak. Suthee put his back on the grill for a few more minutes. 

steak #1

steak #2

     As sides we made grilled asparagus with bacon and what Hope calls "Camping Potatoes." They are a take-off on hashbrowns that her mom used to make when they went camping when she was little. You put grated potatoes, onions, and carrots into a foil pouch with a little bit of salt, pepper, and butter then you throw them on the grill, or straight into the campfire. We probably should have cooked them a little longer or maybe greased the foil a little better to brown them, but they tasted delicious. Overall it was a pretty awesome meal. 

veggies first
since they take a little longer 

look at those perfect
grill marks!

     

     

     Before the "Grand Grill Adventure" we spent our Memorial Day weekend with Suthee's parents at their cabin in southern Colorado. We fished and ate trout, saw some elk, deer, and geese, and generally had a nice relaxing weekend. Hope caught a fish on the first cast the first day they went out. On Sunday they visited Great Sand Dunes National Park where Suthee "sandboarded" and Hope and Suthee's parents sledded (the video below is Suvipa's attempt at sledding). There was sand everywhere for a couple of days after that trip. 

Here is a video of Suthee sandboarding     

Suthee's mom elected not
to fish, but she helped us
catch, clean, and cook everything

3 fisherfolk with our catch

Suthee fishing

Hope enjoying the sand

New car!

We are the proud owners of a 2010 Honda Fit Sport. We looked up safety ratings, owner reviews, consumer reports, and any other bit of information we could get on good small cars and the Fit came out on the top of our list. According to all of the reports it is very safe, very reliable, comfortable, and spacious inside for being so small outside. We also figured that this would be a great car for kids. It will be a while before we have any, but we tend to keep our cars for a long time so we figure this will be a family car in it's lifetime. As an added bonus, installing carseats in this car is amazingly easy. We discovered this because Hope was babysitting some little boys for a while and the job involved picking them up and driving them home.

screen shot of a new fit in "midnight plum pearl"
from Honda's website

"Fitty" (as we've been calling it) usually lives in the garage
but we pulled him out to the driveway to get a picture

It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the car is purple. Honda's website calls it "midnight plum pearl" but it looks black, navy, or deep purple depending on the light. Suthee's parents thought it looked like the color of a mangosteen. Hope originally wanted this color when we were briefly considering a new car, but Suthee wasn't thrilled with the idea of a purple car. Hope argued that it would be easier to find in a parking lot (how many purple cars do you see every day?). When we decided that we were getting a used car we figured we'd just buy whichever car was the best deal and take whatever color we got... and it happened to be the purple Hope wanted. Suthee hadn't actually looked at the color beforehand, so when he actually saw it he was fine with it since it's so dark and not some crazy bright shade of purple.

smile for the camera Fitty!

Fitty in the daylight

fancy "sport" steering wheel

Whoever purchased the car new paid for a lot of extras: tinted windows, door visors, all-season floor mats, cargo cover for the rear hatch, sport pedals, fancy trim on the instrument and door panels, and more. The previous owner also took great care of this car. It looks new (well, it did before Hope put two toddlers in the back seat with a snack every afternoon for a month).

We've had the car for nearly a month and Suthee has been so gracious as to let Hope drive the Fit on a daily basis while he drives the Civic. Before this Hope was driving the Civic and Suthee was driving his Envoy. There were two big issues with this set up. One: the Civic was having some technical difficulties and wasn't very reliable. Two: the Envoy gets an average 17mpg... not so great for commuting. The major issues with the Civic have been fixed so we're hoping he has a couple good years left in him, and now we refer to the Envoy as a "sometimes car." He mostly stays in the garage, but he comes out for "special assignments." We recently took it to Moab, Utah for a weekend camping trip and he's the only one of our vehicles we trust in the snow.

our faithful Civic "Flip Flap" is still going strong
(named for the solar powered "plant" on his dashboard)

the Envoy (aka "Snowmobile") just waiting to be
called on for a special assignment

Wedding progress and lots of new babies

It's been a while since our last update, mostly because life has been pretty calm at Casa Bravo (& Wiri).

We have been making some progress on wedding planning:

--We booked a photographer. A parent at Hope's school recommended Stacey Adams and when we saw her website we were astounded. Once we saw her work we weren't going to settle for anyone else; compared to her all of the other local photographers looked like amateurs. You can see her work here: Stacey Adams Photography

--We have a room block reserved at a local hotel, the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid North. There are more details under the "Getting Here" page on our wedding website (which has a lot of new updates).

--Our catering is set. A local caterer who owns several local restaurants has worked with us to create a delicious menu that we're sure you'll all love. The menu will include a lot of options, including many that are vegetarian and kid friendly. We have also booked a local DJ who was recommended by our caterer.

--We have our invitations and rsvp cards! We ordered them in January and received them in the mail about a month ago. When we opened them we found a printing error on every other invite, so the company immediately sent us reprints, which were perfect. We used a little photoshop magic to really personalize these invitations. We love the results and we think you all will too. Right now the plan is to get them addressed and try to send them out the first week of April.

--The only big thing left is Hope's dress, but we're working on that. We've been having trouble finding something that we like because Hope is not interested in any of the gown styles that are popular right now: strapless, drop-waisted, mermaid... none of these styles really flatter short, curvy girls. Do you know how hard it is to find a wedding dress that isn't strapless right now?

Aside from the wedding planning Suthee has been skiing a lot and Hope has been crocheting a lot. Since almost every couple we know is either pregnant or recently had a baby, Hope has been making hats for them. Between new babies, gifts, and a few items commissioned by friends and coworkers Hope has made 44 hats and two scarves since September.

Speaking of babies... we want to wish a big congratulations to all three of our siblings. They are all having babies later this year:

--Hope's brother Nicholas and his girlfriend Crystal are due to have their first child in mid June. They are planning on naming their little boy Timothy Nicholas Bravo.
--Suthee's brother Tom and his wife Susan are due with their first child in mid September. They don't know the sex of the baby yet, but we're sure they're thinking up some great names.
--Hope's sister Sara is due to have her third child in early October, and also does not know the sex of her baby yet. Grace and Elizabeth are on her list of girl names, no word yet on any boy names.

We hope that all of these mommas and babies enjoy good, healthy pregnancies and we can't wait to meet all of these new additions to the family.

a trio of hats made for Hope's cousin's three sons

Kirby hat (alongside a picture of the actual Kirby) made for Suthee's cousin Selah

a pair of Notre Dame themed hats for two sons of one of Suthee's ND alum friends

Holiday Card & Save-the-Dates

Hi Everyone!

     We had a wonderful holiday season and we hope that you did too. Visiting with Hope's family in Atlanta was fun. We enjoyed our time with the kids, especially our trip to the aquarium. Texas was nice too, very laid back the whole time.

     We sent out our holiday cards right before we left on our trip and we assumed that they would barely reach you all in time for New Year's Eve. To our surprise we found out that most of you received them before Christmas. We realized after we sent them that maybe we should have labeled the pictures. The two on the top are us crossing the finish line at the Warrior Dash. It was a 5k mud-run and obstacle course that we did in Hawaii in March. The two bottom pictures are from our trip to Europe in April. The picture on the left is us enjoying some tapas in Barcelona, Spain. The picture on the right is over one of the canals in Venice, Italy. Last, but certainly not least, the center picture is us in front of our new house here in Albuquerque right after the sale closed and we officially became the owners in October.

     We also sent out our Save-the-Date magnets along with our holiday cards. We have been engaged for over a year now (since October 2011), but we never got around to taking engagement pictures. Since we didn't have a professional picture of ourselves (and since we figured you didn't want to have our faces staring at you from your refrigerator for the next eight months), we went with the picture you see here. Suthee wrote in the sand and took this picture on a black sand beach on the Big Island of Hawaii during a visit there last year before we were engaged. 

    We're slowly but surely updating our wedding website. Right now it just has a few things, but eventually it will have all of the details that you will need. We have a link to the site under the "Wedding Plans" tab on this blog. 

We're in! Then we're off!

     We finally moved in! The floors were finally finished on Thur Dec 7, so the weekend before last (Dec 8 & 9) we packed stuff up, rented a truck, enlisted some help, and finally moved our butts into this house. We started Friday night and finished Sunday afternoon. Moving 5 miles across town is waaayyyy easier than moving 2500 miles across the ocean.

     One of Suthee's coworkers helped us to move the big stuff with the u-Haul on Saturday and one of his friends helped us move the last few medium sized things in his truck on Sunday. They both asked "where's the rest of your furniture?" To which we replied, "this is it, dude." We had enough furniture to make our 500 sq ft apartment in Honolulu look cramped, but this 2100 sq ft house looks pretty sparse right now. The only things upstairs are the extra bed and a bunch of unpacked boxes. We've been warned not to worry about this, as the accumulation of stuff will happen without any intention on our part and before we know it the house will be full.

     Speaking of unpacked boxes, that seems to be the theme of our decor right now. The kitchen is completely unpacked (because we like to cook) and the bedroom is mostly unpacked (because we have to sleep and get dressed), but everything else is still mostly packed. This isn't going to change any time soon either, since we have been and will continue to be busy traveling.

     This last weekend (Dec 15 & 16) we drove to Vail for the weekend... which we will never do again. Driving seven hours each direction is not worth it to spend Saturday in the snow. We did enjoy spending time with the Epsteins (a family whose children Suthee tutored when he lived in Vail in 2002-2003) while we were there and they were eager to finally meet Hope. We also were able to stop at Ikea in Denver on our way home and pick up some furniture and other items for the house. The stop also provided dinner (and dessert) in Ikea's lovely Swedish cafe.

     This coming weekend we're off again. We leave Saturday morning to spend time with Hope's mom, sister, niece, and nephew in Atlanta for the holidays. After that we have a quick stop in Texas to see a lot of Suthee's family who have come in from Thailand to see his cousins graduate from Texas Tech university. We'll be back in Albuquerque Dec 30 and Suthee will be right back at work, but Hope has another week off from school so she doesn't have to go back until Jan 7 (so maybe a couple of boxes might get unpacked).

     Hopefully we'll be seeing a lot of you soon!

p.s. Our holiday cards finally arrived, so we'll finally be sending those out with our save-the-date cards later this week.

the realtor let us keep the sold sign

Floors! And holiday plans! And cards!

We're moving next weekend!

We've been waiting for the floors to be finished and they're nearly done.

The carpet has been installed on the stairs and in all of the rooms upstairs. It's very nice, but we haven't remembered to take a picture of it yet. We'll do that soon and post it. It's a nice medium brown, like a teddy bear.

The master bathroom has new tile and all of the carpet downstairs has been removed. Now we're just waiting for the flooring that we ordered to come in and be installed. That should hopefully happen early this week and we'll move in next weekend.

After that we'll be off to Atlanta to spend Christmas with Hope's mom and sister, then a quick stop in Texas on the way home to see Suthee's family. While we're in Georgia, Hope has an appointment to try on wedding dresses at "Lori's Bridals" which is the shop that's on Say Yes to the Dress on TLC. It's a cheesy show, and all of the dresses are waaaayyyy out of our budget, but it will be fun to go try on some fancy dresses.

We are ordering our holiday cards right now and will be sending them out soon with our save-the-dates. We may need some addresses. If your address has changed or you think we might not have it please let us know so that we can send these to you.

See you all soon!

Last time we were in Atlanta (Jan 2010)

Thanksgiving and another house update!

     Just a few updates:

     We picked carpet! We picked some non-carpet wood-type flooring! We bought a washer and dryer! Things are finally moving along. The washer and dryer will be delivered the Monday after Thanksgiving and then the floors are going to be done the weekend after that. That means we will probably move in right around the first week of December. We'll take pictures of all of these things as soon as we have them. 

     We will be in Levelland, TX for Thanksgiving so hopefully we'll see a lot of you soon.

     We're going to send out our Save-the-Dates with our holiday cards soon and we'll update the wedding website too.

This picture was taken last year at the Notre Dame v Air Force game,
right before we got engaged.

House update

We still haven't moved into the house yet. We're currently trying to decide on what flooring we want, and after that we have to actually have it installed. Do you know how many options there are for flooring? That stuff is just crazy. 

It'll probably be a few more weeks before we move in. We'll keep you all updated as it progresses, but in the meanwhile here are a few random pictures of Suthee: 

How cute is the bow tie?

Polynesian Cultural Center

random iron dinosaur sculpture
somewhere along Highway 1 in California

New House Pictures

Here are some pictures of the house. They are all screen shots that I took from the listing company's website. I'll post more of the ones we have taken later. 

-Hope :)

front of the house

entryway and stairs

top of the stairs, office on the left

left to right: entry to master suite, living room, dining room, kitchen counter

living room

more living room

kitchen

view of kitchen, stairs, and entry to master from dining room

master bath

master bath

middle of the stairs, that window looks into the office

office, with a window looking out onto the stairs

back yard, porch

back yard, view from the porch

side view