hawaiian falls.

every summer, our church has a special deal on wednesday nights from 5:30-8:30 at the local water park - hawaiian falls. we went last year and had a lot of fun - but pretty much stayed in one area as b. was still pretty small.


{snack time.}



not the case this year. i was on my feet for 3 hours trying to keep up with the little man.


our friend caleb splashing in the water.


we had a blast - and the pictures really don't do it justice. we're hoping to make it one more time with daddy before the summer is over.

spring creek farm

on wednesday morning, i realized that it's the middle of july and we haven't even made a dent in our summer list. so brady and i looked it over to see what we could do.

we decided to head on over to owens spring creek farm in richardson, and we asked julie, sydney and harper to join us. i knew sydney would be old enough to enjoy it - and whatever she does, brady isn't far behind her, so i thought that would help him branch out a bit.




brady and sydney with their 'feed cups'. i had to be real convincing with b. that it wasn't his food.

this is b's reaction after the goats realized we were there - with food.
as soon as they jumped on the fence - he started crying.

sydney was pretty brave with the goats - they can definitely be scary... and that made brady warm up to the idea....


a little bit.




i fed the goats. i wasn't afraid.
it is kind of icky though.


this is all brady wanted to do.
transfer the feed from one cup to the other.


then they spilled on the ground.


finally getting close. but not close enough for the goats.



mr. joe then took us on a hay ride around the 'field'.
{and i use the word 'field' loosely}

i love sydney's curls in this picture.
all natural.
and look at b. in the background trying to be just like syd.

brady loved the roosters. every time they crowed his eyes would get really wide and yell "yeah!!"

we had a fun time -maybe not exactly what julie and i expected - but the kids had fun. and it wasn't too hot since we went way early in the morning. i'm sure there will be many a field trips here during our school years.

tell me a story thursday.

when i was 5 or 6 years old, i electrocuted my younger brother.... twice.

you heard me right. i electrocuted him. not once, but twice.

i told this story in our sunday school class a few weeks ago, and it always brings me to tears... good tears. as in laughing-so-hard-i'm-crying-tears. i don't think the story itself is necessarily that funny, it's just that when i tell the story, i go back there and i can see it happening all over again. okay, here they come again....

but i digress - onto the story:

i was probably 5 or 6, which would have made cam 2 or 3. i'm thinking we were more on the 6 and 3 side now, though, because i can't imagine brady being old enough to do this.

we lived in an old farm house in brentwood, tennessee. for some reason we were playing as if cam was picking me up and driving me somewhere - like a chauffer. and we somehow had REAL keys. {i don't know if they were actually my mom's keys or if they were extra keys she'd given us to play with - but the point is that they were metal}.

we had made some sort of car contraption that acted as the car and placed it strategically against the wall in my room so that we would have somewhere to put the keys like you do in a real car.... are you seeing where this is going?

cam put the metal keys in the electrical outlet! it shocked him.... and good.

he cried. i remember crying too - not because i thought he was hurt - but because i thought we were going to get in trouble. i remember it smelling a bit and making a quick, loud 'pop' sound. we went and got our mom and she explained why it happened and that we should never do it again because we could get really hurt.

flash forward 10 minutes after cam had calmed down:

we were playing 'car' again - and somehow i'd talked him into chauffering me around some more.

here's where it gets interesting: somehow... someWAY... i convinced my brother that if he put the keys in the socket again it wouldn't happen again. and he believed me!

unfortunately, i did get in trouble this time.

i don't remember what exactly happened, but i'm sure it was not fun. i'm sure it involved waiting until my dad got home - which is always the worst kind of trouble. daddy spankings were always harder than mommy spankings. and it always invovled a 'disappointing me' talk. but now that i'm a mom, i know 'wait until your father gets home' really means: "i'm so mad that i'm afraid of what i'm capable of so you need to sit in your room until your dad comes home and he can deal with you."

so that's the story. i hope you laughed at some point.

i'm sure that cam has some sort of repressed something due to this traumatic event in his life.

although - i'm sure he got me back...

zipper.

i had a sewing magazine that i had gotten for my birthday but hadn't made anything from yet.

then i saw this picture:



i thought, 'i could do that.'.... or maybe the thought was 'i could try that'.

so i ran up to joanns and got a zipper that matched some scrap fabric i had here.

my original thought was that it might be big enough for diapers/wipes. but no such luck.

then i realized i got the wrong size zipper. i got 6" and it said 9". i ran back up to joanns as soon as the hubbs got home. he even told me not to worry about dinner and brought this home instead. yum.



well, the 9" zipper was way too long. despite the fact that i cut the fabric from the pattern. exactly. so i ended up trying the 6".

i stayed up late on monday night trying to figure it out. it actually wasn't the zipper that caused problems, it was trying to figure out the directions in the pattern. i think they complicated it way more than they needed to... and when i make my own version next time, i will be doing it my way.


the zipper went on without a snag though {no pun intended! ha!}

it's just too short.


and then i was lazy and instead of hand stitching the lining in, i tried to do it by machine. that's where i got this trailing line of stitches on the back. again, too lazy to rip it out. i had already decided i wasn't going to be giving this to anyone so it wasn't really worth it.


anyway.... my kitchen and b-fast room looked like a disaster when i finished last night.


so thankful for an understanding and supportive hubby.

21 week stats.

how far along? 21 weeks, 6 days
total weight gain/loss? +3 pounds{that's right - time to start packing the poundage on, ladies!}
maternity clothes? loving tank tops, shorts and maxidresses. thanks terri!
stretch marks? nope - but i keep checking every morning to see if that nasty line is developing. i feel like it was right around thanksgiving last time which was right at 20 weeks. but no sign of it yet.
sleep? none. none. none.
best moment this week? getting started on brady's big boy room. we are super excited for him {and us} and can't wait to get it all settled. i love planning and rearranging so this has definitely been my favorite part of this last week. can't wait to share all of the fun!
movement? yes - and she's right on top of my bladder most of the time. on friday night, i went to the bathroom when i dropped b. off at my mom's and by the time i picked jeff up at his office, 15 minutes later i had to make another potty stop for fear of not making it to fair park. good thing i did too, because by the time we got to fair park, i was running to the port-a-potty as it was!!
food cravings? hmmm... it seems to be comfort food this week. {maybe it's to offset the emotional thing?} anything cheesy - which could explain the mega weight gain.
what i miss: sleeping.
what i'm looking forward to: deciding on a paint color for little miss's room.
how are you feeling? physically i'm doing great - but emotionally, i've been all over the map this week. that's why i'm under strict orders from the hubbs and my doctor to 'take it easy'. supposedly this will help the contractions to ease up... supposedly.
comparisons to last pregnancy? the movement is way different with charlotte than it was with brady. his were more soft, rolling movements and hers are like kicks and punches. and i'm hot almost all of the time. i'm sure that's the season we're in - but i'm dying for some football weather. seriously.
milestones? okay - are you ready for this one? heartburn started this week. my back started hurting this week - as in the syatica {sp?} started. by the end of the day, it feels like a shooting pain down my leg. all normal, but not fun. i've also realized that i'm done laying on my back to sleep at night - this may also contribute to my sleeplessness. i can't breathe anymore when i'm on my back or sitting down for long periods of time. since my torso is short {okay, my whole body is short}, she doesn't have much room in there... and i already am feeling the pressure on my lungs.

note: i have decided that i am DETERMINED not to swell toward the end of this pregnancy like i did last pregnancy. i mean, it's actually painful for me to look at those pictures from the hospital. PLUS it so happens that my 10-year high school reunion is the first weekend in october - just in time for me to be nice and big, right? last pregnancy, i ate terrible and i wasn't in great shape to begin with. we had fast food all the time, i never drank water, had 2-3 real cokes a day and ate pizza like it was going out of style. so i'm hoping that if i steer clear of fast food {which i really don't eat anyway}, drink a lot of water and continue being active i might avoid the major weight gain at the end? {i'm talking 10 pounds in the last two weeks} any thoughts on this one? i know there are people out there who don't swell... how do you do it? dr. wells told me that it's generally mexican food and pizza. my plan is to maybe cut those out entirely @ 30 weeks? i don't mind the poundage, but the swelling.... especially if i can try harder to avoid it..... any tips would be much appreciated!

weekend randomness

friday started off with a triple date night with the mccords & the reynolds. {can you believe they had a baby two weeks ago?!?} justin had gotten tickets to the taste of dallas down at fair park. too bad that although the website said it was inside, the FOOD was outside. in the pouring down rain. i mean, POURING rain. yuck. we lasted 30 minutes and then decided to go get something real to eat.

we went to cowboy chow in deep ellum. ummmm. delish. a pregnant woman's heaven. comfort food to the extreme. you must check it out. that's all i'll say about that.



saturday, j & i ran errands before picking brady up from my parents. we picked out two paint colors for charlotte's room. we don't like either one. bummer. back to the drawing board.



we picked up b. and then went to get all of his big boy bedroom stuff. we are so excited about this room, y'all. i mean... we're so excited because we know how MUCH brady is going to love it. we're actually afraid he might not sleep. he LOVES sports. so.... we have big plans for this room. can't wait for it to all come together.



but for now, the furniture remains in our garage. waiting until the transformation date.


until then i will hunt & gather. my favorite part.

in other news - i sewed all afternoon saturday. i'm planning on making charlotte's bedding, so i'm trying to get some practice with the 'minky' fabric since it slips so much on my machine. i actually did better than last time though. you have to look real close to see the big mistakes.

i made a blanket and two burp cloths. one that had my very first ruffle. i was so proud. i made jeff ooh and ahh over it a few times.



side note - it is my dream to have a craft room like this.

so that my dining room wouldn't always look like this:


a girl can dream, right?

speaking of dreaming, i did not sleep at all last night. neither did the hubbs. i kept thinking about all of the ideas i had for brady's room and charlotte's room. all of the projects between now & her arrival. my mind is bursting at the seams. i must make a list.

okay - last random thing, i promise.

as it has been raining oh SO much, my roses are starting to bloom again. i guess they like water. go figure.


but guess what else likes the rain? weeds.


i swear these weren't here last week. i walked out there this morning and there they were. virtually covering the entire bed. ugh.

so -there it is. our weekend. in a nutshell.

happy monday to you all.
if you have any ideas of fun projects for b. or miss charlotte... give me a shout. i'll add them to my list.

summer list: ice cream sandwiches

last week i made homemade ice cream sandwiches.

they're really easy and delicious.... so much better than the store bought kind.

but NOT better than the 'big kahuna's' at the rangers games.

well, maybe.

take one cookie {homemade or those fresh storebought bakery kind}.
it needs to be kind of soft.


put a dollop of ice cream on top.

squeeze another cookie on top.

the wrap individually.


and place in a freezer bag - in the freezer. let freeze for at least an hour before serving.


editor's note: for a special version - you can roll the side of the cookies {a.k.a. ice cream} in sprinkles, candy pieces before freezing. the possibilities are endless. they look pretty and taste special.

fireworks.

when we were almost home from lubbock, we stopped at a fireworks stand.

jeff and i had so much fun picking out the 'small' fireworks that we used to shoot off when we were little.




sparklers, black cats, smoke bombs, roman candles {against my better judgement, i might add}, snakes, tanks and two mini-fountains.





b. had fun picking them out too. but when it was time to shoot them off - he was less than thrilled.

he. did. not. like. them.

i tried to take pictures of us shooting them off - but he wouldn't let go of me for two seconds. he wouldn't even hold onto the sparkler!!! needless to say i was utterly disappointed.

don't get me wrong, i'm kind of glad he's not a dare-devil, but i also want him to be brave.

oh well - we'll try again next year. right?