Saturday, May 31, 2008

Mama's Helper

Little One is totally all about being "Mama's Helper" these days. He is always by my side wanting to help in any possible way. Last week when my parents were here we went to Ikea - and I picked up this fabulous wooden stool. Little One loves it and pushes it up to the counter constantly. Here we are making pancakes on Memorial Day.
The stool has another use - the minute we had it put together he sat right down and used it as a table. It's the perfect size!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Sea World

Two weekends ago we spent a couple of days in San Antonio. We had a great time - and realized that we need to take time away more often. The weekend started with a stop at the outlets in San Marcos - which was quite a site to see. We didn't go into all of the outlets that I would have liked - simply because we ran out of time. But we did go into the Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, and Williams Sanoma Outlet - and OH MY WORD! There were some good bargains to be found - so many things that I have seen in the PBK catalog marked down to super cheap. The outlets that I didn't go into were Crate and Barrell and Restoration Hardware to name a few. San Marcos was a great find.

We arrived at our hotel - which advertised to be a hotel close to Sea World...ha ha ha. It was in not the greatest area of town, and we didn't have the greatest accommodations - to say the least. I hate to admit it, but I am a hotel snob. Twice now (and the only two times since we have been married) we have checked into a hotel planning to stay for a few days - only to check out the next morning to find something better. I told Hubs that he could pick the next place - and he took us right to the heart of downtown and stayed in a beautiful hotel on the River Walk. It was such a treat - and so much fun!

Okay, so here are the pics from Sea World. Little One was absolutely overwhelmed. He didn't say a word all day (except at lunch) and just took everything in. It was quite an introduction to a major theme park.
This is how he spent most of the day - on top of daddy's shoulders.

We were able to catch two shows during the day - the first one had belugas and dolphins and acrobats. It was so cool! This was my first time at Sea World, and a couple of times I had to choke back the tears because I was sitting there watching this amazing show - with my son and husband. It was just a little too much. I didn't get very good pictures - but here's one of the dolphins dancing.Little One waiting for the Shamu show to start. He has a little Shamu puppet in his hands - who he calls "Chaw moos"




This show was amazing too. The whales were incredible. Here are just two shots of the "Believe" show.




This is in the in the parking lot on the way out of the park. The eyes behind the sunglasses are not open. :)

I am sure you'll be seeing more pictures of Sea World - in future posts. The season pass was only four dollars more than normal admission, and with it being only 1 1/2 hours away, we couldn't pass it up.

When we got back to the hotel, Little One started talking. He chatted on and on:
"Saw show - dolphins!"
"dolphins jump!"
"and ice skate" (anything that glides along water is ice skating)
"Beluga's EEEEEK" (the belugas made some great sounds for us)
"Penguins"
"Whale jump Splash!"

And we've talked about it every day since.

The River Walk

Here are pics from the River Walk - we were surprised at how beautiful it was - and how much history was there! We would love to go back - just the two of us, for a weekend getaway.

If you look closely you can see my big belly resting on top of the bridge with Little One practically sitting on top of it! :)

Little One was fascinated with the boats that went up and down the river along the walk-way. He just had to sit down and take it all in.Little One's first boat ride.
I love these next two pictures - A common thing around our house is a game Little One and his Daddy play where they look for clues (Taken from Blues Clues) and run to find them. It goes something like this:
Daddy or Little One
"There's a clue!"
Little One or Daddy
"Where?"
Daddy or Little One:
"Right There!" (Person saying this points in a specific direction)
Little One or Daddy:
"Thanks!" (complete with sign language)
and they take off running. Here they are playing their game on the River Walk.

This game is very useful when we have to go somewhere - like at the end of our day on the River Walk Daddy said "There's a clue!" and they took off running up the escalator to the lobby of the hotel, onto the elevator, up to the 20th floor, down the hall and to our room with no stopping. :)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Learning lessons on the way to church

One of the main priorities on our to do list this weekend was to go to church! Finding a church has been much harder than I thought it would be. In between weekends filled with out of town guests and having a sick toddler, we have not attended any one church that often. And boy, can we feel the effects. I am so hungry for a good sermon and corporate praise and worship - along with the sense of connection that comes with a church family.

I believe that we have narrowed our search down to two particular churches - both are pretty far from our house, but really, at this point, I don't mind so much as both have small groups that meet in our area. It's funny, one day last week Little One walked to get the mail and met our mailman on the way. We ended up talking about area churches, and he attends one of the churches that we are considering. He really encouraged us to try the church again - and that is what we decided to do this weekend.

So, we got up on Sunday morning - and I checked the church's website to confirm the service times. Shoot! They had changed the early service time to 8:30. We prefer to attend the early service as the late service completely destroys an 11:00 naptime. Being that it was 7:45 and we needed to leave no later than 8:00 - we all got dressed in a hurry and were out the door by 8:10. Well, it had been a while since we had been to the church, and we ended up taking the longest way possible. At 8:50 we were still in the car and the church was no where in sight. I recommended that we just get back on the interstate and head towards the other church -
surely we would make it to that service in time. We headed that way - only to discover that there was some kind of triathlon being run in the middle of downtown. My sweet Husband took every road he could to get us there - only to be denied by a road block. We could see the church and the church parking lot had cars in it - we have no idea how they got there! Every road we knew to take was barricaded. After an hour and fifteen minutes in the car, we gave up and went out to breakfast.

So, after about six months of not attending church on a regular basis, I learned this weekend that going to church is not as easy as it used to be. It is now going to take a lot more effort and planning. It may seem like common sense, but we realized that we need to have a deliberate plan on Saturday night - know for certain what time the service starts, what roads to take - and all of that. When attending the same church for years - all of these kind of details are taken for granted. It becomes more of a habit and routine. And oh how I desire for our family to get back to that place again.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Busy Day in the Backyard - soaking up the sun!



Yes, we are still sporting the spiderman boots - even in 100+ degrees. Man, do they stink! But, this morning the spiderman boots were trumped for a new pair of flip flops...we'll see how long that lasts. :0)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Music for Momma

I have been on a quest to find some new music for us to listen to during the day. Little One loves Raffi, Veggietales and Hermie. But, seriously, how many times can you listen to The Wheels On the Bus and the VeggieTales theme song in one day?

Well, this week my sister sent me a lullaby album by Plumb called Blink. I'll admit that I was very surprised - because Plumb is an alternative Christian group - something I don't listen to. But, I love this album! I find that many of the songs are similar to my own heart's cries and prayers when it comes to motherhood. Plus it's nice (although different) music to have in the background - and even Hubs commented that he liked it.


Check it out - and let me know what you think!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A Fabulous Idea!

One of the things I appreciated most after Little One was born was all of the wonderful friends and family that brought us meals. A fellow mom in my MOPS group just had a baby and we all signed up to bring her a meal. Even though I didn't really know her, I was happy to help out.

When thinking about what to fix, I was reminded of when one of my close friends in Colorado had a baby and she told me that one of her friends brought her a breakfast dish - which was so perfect - because they had a ton of left overs from dinner - but nothing for breakfast.

So, that is what I did for my friend in the MOPS group. I made this breakfast casserole (so easy), cut up some watermelon and had hubs stop at a bakery close to his work to pick up some breakfast goodies. The bakery is called Kneaded Pleasures...isn't that so cute? Anyway, it was totally ideal because I could drop it off to them, uncooked, the night before. I wasn't feeling the pressure to get them a warm meal at a certain time when I needed to do the same for my family. They could put it in the oven the next morning on their time schedule. Also, it was super easy to double the recipe so we had a warm breakfast the next morning too!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Where I've been.

About two weeks ago my little guy was diagnosed with Strep Throat. It was no fun. Long nights with high fevers...

The doctor put him on Amoxicillin as a means to get rid of it. This is the first time he's been on any sort of antibiotic. After nine days of being on the medicine, he broke out in a terrible hive-ish rash. I took him back to the doctor and he's allergic to the Amoxicillin. The reaction was worse than the strep - as he looked so miserable - and itched! I felt so bad for him. Today the rash seems to be mostly cleared up - but he is now running another low grade fever. I hope it's because he is cutting his back molars (I know! On top of all this!) - I am hoping that's the cause and the strep hasn't come back...

I am so tired of Little One being sick. In Colorado it was very rare for him to go to the doctor. In fact, I think we only went twice besides well-baby check ups. Oh well, we'll get this figured out.

So, the time when I am not taking care of a sick toddler, I am trying to get things done, or I am resting myself. Last week was consumed with getting mother's day gifts in the mail - and that gave me a little taste of what Christmas is going to be like! I've never had to send all of my gifts before - and boy does it require extra planning and thinking. However, I am most happy to report that everyone got their gift on time and I didn't spend an arm and a leg on postage.

I am now in my third trimester - and am so very tired. My belly seems to be enormous. Today I put on one of my fav maternity shirts - and it barely fits. When did that happen? Surely I left it in the dryer too long?;) About twelve more weeks to go - and we'll have a baby brother here!

I am so amazed at the difference of my thinking between the second pregnancy and the first. With Little One I was consumed with every movement of the baby - I was taking every birth class I could, I'd show up at each appointment with a list of questions for the doctor. Hubs and I would practice labor and delivery plans... now, granted we know that this time around we will have a scheduled C-section, so that cuts out on the labor and birthing plans. But, I am so much more confident and sure this time around. I love how my body just seems to go back and remember what's going on. It's pretty cool.

Saturday it was over 100 degrees here! I was and am so very thankful for air conditioning!!

We had a pretty relaxed mother's day - I was showered with lots of accessories for my coming I-pod (I'll have to tell that story in another post). We didn't go to church because of Little One's rash - and we just laid low. However, next weekend will be a fun one as we are planning on heading to San Antonio for a little family vacation. I am super excited because we are going to visit Sea World - something I've always wanted to do and haven't- and we're going to stop at a huge outlet mall in San Marcos. I've heard there is a Pottery Barn outlet and Williams Sanoma among other finds there ...I've wanted to go there since moving here but haven't wanted to drive the hour or so to get there. It's on the way to San Antonio - so it's perfect!

I am ready for a break - and I think the rest of the family is too.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,
Rebecca

Not exactly that...but good try!

I have my computer screen saver set on the option to scroll through pictures. This picture is one of them - as it is the first time I was able to see my son. We had a very long labor and delivery ending with a c-section - and I literally passed out seconds after this picture was taken. This picture is such a sweet memory - it is so dear to my heart.

Right now Little One's vocabulary is growing daily. He is constantly studying things and trying to put a name to an object. It's so fun to see his mind and world blossom. Today as he was walking by my computer this picture was on the screen. He studied it and exclaimed:
"Football!" It still makes me giggle.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Great Finds - Whoo Hooo!!

Warning - much randomness ahead! :)

In the past month, we've found some real treasures. My sweet husband won a gift certificate to the restaurant Romeo's - pictured above. The day he won the certificate we had childcare scheduled through the y - perfect! It was a delightful place, live pianist, great Italian food, reasonable prices and wonderful service. The pianist even came to our table to ask if we had any requests! We'll definitely go back. I'd like to go back and sit on that sweet balcony. We'll have to do that before it gets too hot...

While my parents were here we took a day trip to attempt to find all of the infamous fields of Texas blue bonnets. (Similar to going to look for fall colors you only have a certain window of time before they are all gone.) We weren't very successful. I'll have to learn more about it and try again next year. However, we did end up in Fredricksburg - a town about 90 miles away. It is a sweet German town - and I could spend a lot more time there. Susan, I thought of you often and wondered what you would think of my Texan-German town. There were a ton of fun stores - so many that we didn't get to them all. I am thinking that it will be fun to go and spend the weekend there around Christmas time and do most of my Christmas shopping there. We found a market stand from a local farmer that was full of homemade/homegrown jams, pickles, butters, honey, and nuts. I bought a pound of freshed-shelled walnuts for $6.00. Such a deal!

Another thing my mom and I did while she was here is we went to a garage sale. And this garage sale was a jackpot! First of all, it was run by a lady who comes to your home and hosts and runs your garage sale. You can sign up to be on her email list and she lets you know where she is going to be - and what kinds of things she'll be selling. This last weekend she was at a home where the dad of the family worked for a golf store - and Hubs is getting into golf and needed a few things. So, we headed out and jackpot again! He got a golf bag, glove, balls, and a bunch of other things that are in nearly perfect condition for $55.00. Now, I don't know much about golf but hubs said that the balls alone would have cost that much.

Okay - so for some of the fun things that we found at the first garage sale:

This old bucket - it was perfect because someone had already drilled holes in the bottom...making it the perfect planter.

Here are my gardeners - Gree-ma and Little One.Lovely china mugs - I love how they just say summer! Thanks Mom! :)

And this tray - My favorite flower is the daisy - and I can't wait to find something fun to do with this item. I love how whimsical it is.


And lastly, I am learning to check out our local Goodwill often - I found this Little Tykes toy for $3.99 - and Little One loves it - especially the mailbox. It's really a toy that is made for smaller kids, but no worries - little brother will get lots of use out of it.
And this is the major bargain - we were dropping some goods off at Goodwill and my mom spotted this Radio Flyer tricycle - and it was marked $4.99! It is in perfect condition - it has a little bell, and a sweet little basket in the back. Little one is learning how to peddle - and he calls it "my bicytricycle!" Which is the same word he uses for motorcycle. Thanks for indulging me and my show and tell. :)

Have a wonderful day!

Rebecca

Friday, May 2, 2008

Happiness is...

You have spent most of the night up with a toddler who has a high fever. You spend most of the next day at the doctor discovering that the little guy has strep, and then running back and forth to the pharmacy to pick up his prescription.

Your hubby comes home and you send him back out to the store to pick up things like an extra medicine dispenser, apple juice and chicken noodle soup.

While at the store, he sends you a text that reads "cheesecake?"

And not only does he bring home cheesecake, he brings home the little sample cake that has four different types.

We were so tired we didn't even dive into it last night. But this morning, I opened the fridge to look for my breakfast - and there it was. I had cheesecake for breakfast.

I couldn't resist.

It was divine. It's the simple little things that make my day. :)