Happy Thursday: It's fall!

Ciao!

Just a small hello for today. We are settling into our new home, but we still have a very scary amount of boxes to go through. 

Jocelyn is doing great and will be transitioning to a new school. She is still a muffin/cupcake fiend. And, we are excited for fall. Exhibit A:

Her is J playing with her buddy Gianna. They have a good time together.

J had a gymnastics class and had a fun time last weekend!

Baby is growing well and she is 26 weeks along!! She is the length of a green onion. More pics of her and I to come.

Hope everyone is doing great. We miss and love you guys and more to come soon.

Hugs!

 

Happy Birthday Dad/Abuelo :)

Hola fam, 

Just wanted to let everyone know today is an awesome day: my dad's birthday!! 

Happy birthday Dad! Love you lots, and thank you for all of the love, sacrifice and genuine fun you have brought to my life and my little girls'. 

Some of my favorite memories over the years: 

1. Making a giant tipi out of ferns in the backyard.

2. Eating BBQ chicken at the dinner table (yes I know weird but it was really good!!) and one of our fav family meals. 

3. Hiking Wallis Falls with you, Eric and the doggies.

4. Learning how to ride a bike.

5. You braiding my hair.

6. You coming to all my graduations, band concerts, and tournaments. 

7. Playing in the woods for hours doing any and everything. 

8. Trick-or-treating every year in full costume!! Leprechauns, vampires, gypsies... The only fail was my lion where everyone thought I was a yellow Raggedy Ann with chest hair haha :) 

9. No matter what choices I've made you've been there to listen.

10. Day you met Jocelyn :)

Some recent photos :)

Hope you have a wonderful day :)  We at the McKeown house are thinking of you!

🌸💕

Happy Engagement Anniversary!

Morning!

Just wanted to make a short blog celebrating a big day four years ago (wow a lot of time has passed!) when Ryan asked me to marry him at the Art Institute in Chicago. He found one of my favorite paintings, Water Lilies by Monet. I've always loved Monet because I grew up seeing a lot of his artwork in my Grandma Violet's home.

It was a fantastic day, and I was 100% surprised. I posted the video below, but I'm not sure it will load. Colleen and Alex were extra sneaky and helped make the surprise wonderful. Here are some of the photos they captured.

Before at the Bean (thanks Alex for snapping it)

The big moment

My handsome man

We sealed it with a kiss! Let's see if we can reenact this one with me being 6 months pregnant! 

Now, it might look something like this! Ha :)

Wishing everyone some love and good vibes today. Hug someone you love. Hug you!

<3 McKeowns

September has begun: nature trek with J

Hej (pronounced hey, which is Swedish for 'hi'),

The normal hello was getting overused, so I decided to switch it up!

So we have lofty goals to go camping at the start of Sept but the rain kept us away. As a Washingtonian, I probably shouldn't have let it intimidate me, but the rain here pours like nothing I've seen. Plus, Ryan thought a pregnant lady sleeping on the dirt may not be the best company in a tiny, enclosed tent :) 

We had a great Labor Day weekend though. We hiked, ate a lot of food, and enjoyed some good ole fashioned family time at home. Here are some highlights from our hike. 

The day started our bright, sunny and sticky. Just the way we like it in Maryland (ha!).... but a breeze came by later so that was a plus. 

We walked through forest trails and along side this lake. Next time we hope to rent a little row boat and hang out some more.

Along the trails were these old school 'exercise stations'. Jocelyn loved them. Here she is practicing her Kung Fu panda moves, balancing on one leg! I used to do this as a little girl. She was awesome. 

Then J got Daddy to help her hop from post to post. 

Ryan showing us how it's done. He's quite the fit man :)

These rings were really low to the ground, so only Jocelyn got to play. But she had fun. 

Celebrated the end of the day with Halloween Oreos, aka orange in the middle. They were delish. 

Hope you all had a good Labor Day! And we are excited for fall. Here come the scarves and everything pumpkin. Yum!

<3 The McKeown's

More roaring August fun: McKeown's go to the DC Zoo!

Howdy!

Well, in the last few weeks of summer we all visited our local zoo. We hadn't been yet, and it was so much fun. I think Jocelyn's favorite were the elephants. Our other favorites were the pandas, lion cubs, and flamingos. Ryan was very excited to see the big cats. The tigers were also exceptional. We hope to take more friends and family here when they come to visit.

But first, it was Bao Bao the panda's birthday so we got to wear panda hats and have cake. Two thumbs up!

Here is baby, growing every day!

Since it was a bit rainy, we brought our favorite umbrellas. Thanks Grandmom and Grandpop!

Flamingos + monkey-ing around :) J knows how to have fun!

She really likes the elephant trunk. Next time you see J, you should do the 'elephant trunk' with her, i.e. stick your arm over your nose and do fun things with your trunk :)

I actually was a bit tired and didn't get a photo of the lion cubs, but here is the tiger. There were 3 actually, and they were very beautiful. 

Well, we can't wait to go back. We probably only saw 20-ish% of the zoo. Hugs to all!

<3

Dr. and Dr. McKeown--August was a fun filled month!

Hola,

So after the wonderful news about hearing we are expecting a baby girl, Ryan and I celebrated my PhD graduation. I have to admit, I should have hounded him to do his, but alas we didn't. Here is the throwback photo to August 2013 when Ryan finished!!! We were a bit excited here so it's a tad blurry.He is an incredibly talented, hard-working, handsome man and we are very proud of him. There are definitely more than 3 adjectives to describe Ryan, and I'm sure Ryan has at least a few favorites himself :) Kidding.

August 2013

But we both want to thank our families very much for being in our lives and helping us to get through it all from the beginning to the end. It was a big team effort, so thanks to everyone!!

Here we are after 6 years of graduate school, one pug, a happily married couple,

and two little girls later: Dr. and Dr. McKeown

August 2014

Family photo :) We didn't get one with the 'get up',

 but definitely awesome to get all 4 of us in one frame.

Ryan you are a rock star and my rock. I am really glad we found each other in graduate school. You always listened, encouraged, hugged, and fought for me to finish. Thank you. And to think, I have a murder mystery party and Ryan's wily charms to thank for meeting such an incredible friend and husband. Some of our best memories and moments in our lives as individuals and as a family took place while at Penn State. Like our Lady J! The friends we met there are like a second family to us. We miss you all very much, and wish you all the best on your new adventures. Looking back, State College was good to us. Thanks Happy Valley!

J thought my outfit was hilarious. I have to agree--it's unique! It's no Elsa dress :)

My two lovely ladies :) 

  Here is a throw back to my HIGH school graduation... love these two guys.  And thanks to my brother Eric for being my partner in crime and best friend growing up. I miss and love you to pieces.

It was wonderful to share this time with my Dad too. Love you Abuelo. It was great to share this time with you in person :)

Thank you Dad for all your encouragement, strength and guidance from my first days in Kindergarten until now!! My Dad reminded me of all the times I spent studying to get to this moment. If my math undergrad serves me right, it was approximately 25 years of schooling (with a few breaks for summer vacation and living abroad-- a girl needs a break once in awhile). It was all very worth it!! 

Here are some action shots going up the ramp. Thanks Ryan for catching these. My main goal: don't trip!

Thanks also to our incredible friends that came out for a celebratory BBQ. We feasted! Unfortunately, we were so busy there are no pictures, but here is a lovely morning shot the next day of Jocelyn and her Woodruff sister buddies Ellen, Anna and Lucy. Thanks for hosting us Kate and Matt  :)

Before the caravan arrived back home, we had an incredible reunion with my Aunt Maria Pilar, her brother Rafael, husband Jack, daughter Cassandra and her boyfriend Ryan. Many years had passed since all these faces got to laugh and tell jokes together. The weekend was truly fantastic.

We sadly had to say goodbye to Abuelo... until next time!

<3 <3

It's a girl :)

Hooray :) 

The McKeown family received wonderful news August 15th that we are having a baby girl due around Christmas 2014. We are very excited :) I have to admit my guess was boy and Ryan's was girl. It was a wonderful surprise and we found out via cupcake! 

Here are some belly progression photos. I think the light pink shirt hides some of the bump, but she is growing beautifully. Her due date was originally the 23rd but it may be closer to the 28th, so the 'week' estimates may be a week off. Oh well :) 

15 weeks, aka the size of an apple! 

18/19 weeks, aka the size of a bell pepper/ heirloom tomato!

21 weeks, size of a carrot!

Here are some amazing photos from the ultrasound. She was measuring right on target and weighed around 12 ounces. These are taken during week 20 (though the machine says 21), aka the size of a banana!

Leg and foot

Her spine

An awesome profile

Whole body shot :) She is comfortably upside down

Baby loves loves loves to kick. She is more of a kicker than Jocelyn. I am also a bit bigger this time around, which is fun because I get to wear comfy pregnancy clothes that much sooner.

We had a little 'reveal' by ordering cupcakes that had a color inside for the gender. We had the results in an envelope that we gave to the baker and did not look at beforehand. It was hard to wait but very fun in the end! Thanks everyone for all the happy wishes on our girl power family :) 

We borrowed this photo idea for Auntie Colleen and family. J was jazzed to show off her new purple boots, and I had these little shoes from years ago that just surfaced. Here are feet by baby and J!

Let's zoom in on these sparkly boots! Come on :) 

Jocelyn's current favorite dress. This lady lives in them!
Baby has quite the collection she will inherit. 

Playing with her favorite hand-made book by Auntie Molly

Thanks guys for reading!