Random Updates

Sorry no new posts for such a long time. The morning after our last post we all three came down with the swine flu. Needless to say the end of that vacation wasn't nearly what we had hoped it would be! Praise God none of us had any complications and after lots of medication, tissues, rest, and TLC we are all feeling much better!

Jacob and I had a wonderful date evening in the Woodlands last weekend. We stayed at the Marriott near the mall and enjoyed fantastic food, shopping, Holy Mass, and lots of rest. It was a wonderful weekend after begin cooped up during our bout with H1N1. Curtis stayed at his Nana & PopPop's house and got some great quality time with them as well as a good chance to practice sleep overs for when Mommy and Daddy are in the hospital with Nicholas!

Jessica threw me a fantastic 'shower'. A few of our very dear friends and family and their beautiful children came together to celebrate our little miracle and it was a nice chance for me to thank them all for their support over the past year. I am still in awe of the graces that God has given us this year and feel overwhelmingly blessed that Nicholas is 'near completion' in the womb and appears to be healthy and thriving. Thanks again Jessica for all the thought you put into each and every moment of the shower. It was such a special celebration for our entire family!

As I said, Nicholas is 'near completion' as we approach the last few weeks of our pregnancy. I am feeling great and can't wait to meet our little man! There will definitely be a lack of posts from now until after he is born as I try to finish up some projects and most importantly get lots of rest! Be sure to check out pictures of the shower on our Picasa site :)

Glodeo

Tonight we attempted to join in on some on the hot air balloon fun by attending Glodeo where all the balloons take turns firing up and make a kind of light show. We quickly changed our plans when we found out it was going to cost us over $20 and the parking was backed up for miles an hour before it was scheduled to begin. So we followed the locals and found a great spot to view it from afar. We are really excited to go back to the same spot tomorrow to watch the mass ascension. We met a man that gave us two locations based on which way the wind is blowing in order to have the balloons fly directly over our heads and possibly land in the fields next to us. Hopefully we will get lucky in the morning. Check back for pictures tomorrow to see :)

Albuqueque

Quick post before we run out and have more fun :) weather is AMAZING! very cold in the mornings and makes it up to about 70 in the afternoon. Went to Explora on Wed, ate dinner at a local New Mexican restaurant with Jacob's co-workers (Curtis was fantastic and SAT patiently for an entire 2 1/2 hour meal...impressive!, Zoo and Aquarium yesterday, fancy dinner last night at a local place like Bennihana's where they cook in front of you (awesome food and great entertainment!), tons of hot air balloons everywhere absolutely breathtaking, off to do some shopping and have a more relaxed "normal"day today, Mommy and Curtis are both a little overstimulated by all the fun so we are hopefully going to have a more restful day today! Lots of love to all. More later...if I stay awake! posted a few pictures on our Picasa more to come

Weekend Renovations

Back from a fantastic weekend in Chicago, be sure to check out the awesome pictures on Picasa. Mom, Curtis, and I had a great time hanging out with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. They are a beautiful family and were such gracious hosts to all of us.

Super busy weekend that started with finishing up the grout on our new tile in the guest bathroom. Porous tile+dark grout=lots of hard work! But its done and looks beautiful. Hopefully tomorrow night we can get it sealed and put the baseboards back on oh and get our potty back also :)
We went to IKEA on Saturday to pick up a few things and decided it was finally time to make use of our Baylor/toy/computer/room. We bought this awesome new shelving unit and I can't even believe how much more useful the room is now. We took down our 'bar' that we used as a computer desk, touched up the paint, and reorganized everything. I am finally happy with how this room turned out...four years after buying the house! Not totally done yet but you get the point.

Now we need a weekend to rest from our weekend!

September

September has rolled in on us and found us extremely busy. We are all grateful to have such wonderful family and friends to keep us entertained! We had a wonderful long weekend in Minnesota with Mike, Emily, Anna, Willie, and Jacob's Grandmother and family. Mike and Emily are always such generous hosts and we all had a great time running around Minnesota and watching the kids play together. Anna and Curtis got along beautifully and were the best of friends by the time we left. In fact poor little Anna cried the entire way to drop us off at the airport because she knew that meant Curtis was going to leave...too sweet! Little Willie is such a fantastic little guy with nothing but smiles and laughs all the time. We keep telling Mike and Emily that they are really in for it with their next kiddo seeing how well tempered and easy going their first two have been :). We thank God daily for their awesome friendship and look forward to seeing them again soon! Jacobs Grandmother is doing wonderfully. She is such a sassy lady and time has not slowed her down one bit! We got to spend quite a bit of time with her this trip and we all love our GiGI!

As you can see from our pictures I am getting REALLY BIG! I can hardly believe we have less than 12 weeks to go. We are all getting super anxious to meet our little man and are especially grateful to have so many distractions between now and then to keep Mommy from nesting 24/7! Curtis, Nana, and Mommy are headed to Illinois on Friday to visit with some family. Should be a great time to see everyone and we are all ready for the gorgeous weather! During the week Curtis and Mommy have started our new St. Francis Nature Club which meets at various parks in the area each week with a science/nature themed unit for the kids. This week we read the Very Grouchy Ladybug and took our magnifying glasses out on the hiking trails looking for bugs. We are so blessed to have so many like minded kids and parents so close to our house!

I think that just about covers everything lately. There probably will not be too many posts in the next 12 weeks. Mommy is starting to feel very big and very tired and Curtis is almost ready to give up his nap time...this could be a dangerous combo! Happy Wednesday! Be sure to check out all of our pictures from all the above mentioned activities!

New Mexico

Jacob, Curtis, & I traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a few fun filled family days. We had a fantastic time and got to experience a bunch of really cool things before Curtis and I came home yesterday to leave daddy to his work (the trip was actually a buisness trip for Jacob, we just tagged along). We arrived early Saturday morning and ate lunch at a really neat local place before going to the hotel for nap time. Saturday night we caught the Railrunner train into Santa Fe. We were able to walk around town for a few hours, visit the St. Francis Basilica, and eat some more local cuisine. This picture is of Curtis's face when the train pulled up...think he was excited? Sunday, we went to mass and then headed to the Zoo, Aquarium, and Biopark. The Zoo was definitely one of the coolest we have ever been to. They had a bunch of really unique animals and the entire zoo was very kid friendly. There was a really neat little train that took you on a tour through the entire zoo. Two trains in two days=super happy Curtis! Monday, Daddy had to work :( so Curtis and I headed to Iexplora a really neat hands on exploration zone for kiddos. I was so sad that Jacob couldn't come with us because he would have totally geeked out over all the cool engineering toys to play with. Curtis is definitely going to be like his daddy as far as all that stuff goes. We spent almost our entire time there building things out of pipe, making mazes for marbles, and creating cars out of random materials. It was a fantastic learning experience for Curtis and just plain fun for me! Doesn't he look just like Jacob in this picture? He said building all of these creations was his "job" Monday night we went to an awesome local brewery and had a super yummy fancy dinner. Tuesday, Daddy had to work again :( so Curtis and I just played at some local parks until it was time to head to the airport. The weather was gorgeous and barely made it into the 80's most of the time we were there. The dry weather made for some great hair days for us all too :) Can't wait for Jacob to come home on Saturday! Lots more pictures on our Picasa site.

RIP Sharkie

Remember when you were in elementary school and you had a super cool classroom pet? All the kids counted down the days until it was their weekend to take the adorable little hamster/lizard/gerbil/fish home for the weekend? When I was in elementary school we had a hamster. I couldn't wait to take the little guy home and spoil him all weekend. I fed him and played with him and gave him tons of gerbil treats. We were off to a really good start...then I woke up in the morning to find the little guy had practically blown up. The poor little rodent had a sudden brain aneurysm and had brain matter coming out of his eyes/ears/you get the picture (did you know that could happen to hamsters? I certainly didn't!!!). So I was "that girl" you know the one that killed the classroom pet and had to break the news to all of her classmates. Well you see it looks like my reputation has stayed true even into adulthood. My awesome neighbors and friends got married last weekend and I am in charge of taking care of their house, checking the mail, signing for wedding gifts, and feeding their adorable school of fish. And I showed up this morning and one of the little guys was a floater. Curtis and I had a mini memorial service and sent the little guy on a whirling ride to the other side. Poor guy. Poor Tommy & Kelli...hope they weren't too attached to little sharkie. Looks like I get to be "that girl" again and share the news with the newlyweds. Sigh. And we are going to be out of town the day they return so I am going to have to leave a note...man I feel bad! I fed the little guys I promise I did! I hope Curtis will be okay with never being allowed any pet smaller than Gracie!