8.15.2010

Staying Cool

Summer is in full swing here in Houston. We've had a string of hot days with the heat index (actual temp + humidity) being over 100 degrees and haven't had rain in weeks. Here's how we stay cool. . .

Swim in the pool, play in the sprinklers, and play on the park (yes, the only thing she's wearing are her sandals, like I said, it's been hot around here).

Random Photos (again)

Here's a few random (and very rare photos) that we've taken lately. If you haven't noticed, we have a very random family (especially J) so we have lots of random pictures that are good enough to share, but don't really need a post all to themselves. So enjoy!
Here's an alternative use for food storage and family bibles: floor weights.
This pretty (or should I say handsome?) girl asked me if I'd marry her. Aren't I so lucky?!
This is the only belly shot taken this pregnancy (and you probably wont get another one until right before delivery). It was taken at 24 wks + 2 days.
And last, but certainly not least, I'm FINALLY finished with baby quilt #2! (I did baby quilt #1 years ago, but when we discovered we were expecting twins I had to get another one done. The quilt tops are exactly the same and will be used at the crib quilts in our "Peter Rabbit" themed nursery).

8.11.2010

Construction Zone

Now that I've kept you all in suspense for so long I'll get to my demolition story. So, we got home from Corpus Christ and had all of our stuff put away by about 4:00 in the afternoon and Erik quickly got bored. Anyone who knows my husband knows that he can't sit still for 5 minutes unless he's sleeping, so he needed a project to do. He decided that now was a good time to start tearing out our carpet, so he quickly got to work. Before he quit for the night, he had all the furniture from the dining room, hallway, and most of the stuff from the living room cleared (most of it was in the babies room, but there was some in our bedroom and some in the kitchen). He also had the carpet/pad ripped out of the dinning room. Now let me back up just a little, we had been planning on redoing our floors and had even purchased the wood already, but the original plan was to wait a week to start the demo because Erik had a 4 day weekend coming up so we would be able to demo on a Wed/Thurs (his normal days off) then start laying floors the following Monday (he had Mon-Thurs off). That way we'd only be in a state of deconstruction for a couple of days and he'd have 4 days to work on laying the floors. So starting demo when he did threw this schedule off. Anyway, back to the story, so he started demo on Thursday. Friday he had court all morning, but had the day off from his regular shift so that afternoon he came home and finished ripping out the carpet in the hallway (with the help of her highness)and living room and breaking up the tile in the entry. Saturday was spent running errand to get all the toys [ I mean tools] Erik would need to finish the floors with. The following Wed. Erik had court again that morning, but was able to come home and get started on the floors in the afternoon, and was able to finish the dinning room that evening. The following day, he did the entryway, hallway and most of the living room before he ran out of glue and had to stop for the night. And so we spent yet another weekend in a state of construction. Erik was able to finish the actual flooring on Monday, we were able to put most of the furniture back in place Tues. afternoon (only because I begged and pleaded with Erik to at least let me get some sense of order back). Wed. we picked up the molding and the tools Erik would need to finish the project, but will all the corners and odd angles we have that didn't happen, in fact, the molding still isn't complete, but we are hoping (keep your fingers crossed) that he'll be able to get it done tomorrow or Friday morning then we can move the rest of the furniture back in place and have everything back in order. Needless to say, I've said NO MORE PROJECTS until well after the babies come. So, if anyone needs projects done around their house, I have a husband-for-hire for the next few months, just shoot me an email and I'll send him your way.

8.10.2010

Vacation!

A couple of weeks ago, Erik was able to get a few days off of work so we headed to Corpus Christi for a short vacation. We invited Erik's parents to go with us and had a great time. We were supposed to use my parent's timeshare and spend a week at Disneyland the last week in August, but since I can't fly, plans were changed. Fortunately, we were able to transfer the time share to Corpus Christi and spent our 4 days in a nice condo on the water. J and I drove down Sunday afternoon with Erik's mom and step dad and then Erik headed down after work that night. While we were at dinner Sunday night, J decided to play with her cup of milk and spilt it all over my lap. It was a great way to start the vacation :(.


Monday morning we got up and went to tour the U.S.S. Lexington, it a retired aircraft carrier that they've made into a museum. It also happens to be the ship that my Grandpa Wahlquist served on while he was in the Navy. That afternoon, we headed to the beach. Our condo was actually located on South Padre Island and the beaches there can be tricky to access. They have access roads every few miles, but the roads end before you get to the beach and you have to drive in the sand. We didn't know this until we got there, and needless to say, the explorer ended up getting stuck in the sand. Fortunately some nice fella's in a truck came and helped pull us out (apparently having tourists get stuck in the sand happens so frequently that high school/ college boys with trucks drive up and down the beach all day getting them unstuck for a small fee and that's their summer job). These nice fella's also told us that if we drove to a different access road the sand was much more compacted and we would be able to make it to the beach easily with the explorer. While Erik was working on getting the car unstuck, the rest of us walked down the beach to the water and set up camp. J actually got in the water and enjoyed it (when we took her to CA 2yrs ago, she HATED the ocean). Then Daddy came and joined us and we went out a bit further and jumped in the waves. J really liked jumping the waves with Daddy, unless he went too deep and the waves got to high (he was holding her while they did this). After we all got tired we headed back to shore and let J dig in the dirt and look for seashells.


On Tuesday, we went to the Botanical Gardens, not something I'd recommend in the middle of summer. Not only was it HOT, but most of the flowers were either done blooming or wilted from the heat. They did have a butterfly garden and a park that J enjoyed, I on the other hand didn't last long and spent the majority of the time inside the gift shop standing under the AC vent. That afternoon, Erik, J and I headed to the beach again (and were able to actually drive up to the beach without getting stuck). Not long after we got there, we found a couple of jellyfish that had washed up on the shore, and that freaked J out and she didn't want to go in the water at all, but she still had a great time playing in the sand. Her and Daddy built a sandcastle, and took turns digging holes to bury each other's feet.


[Erik's camera died while at the beach and I completely forgot to bring mine so we have no pictures from the last 2 days, hopefully I'll be able to get some from Erik's mom and post them later on].


On Wednesday, we went to the Texas Stat Aquarium. I wasn't too impressed with it, but J seemed to enjoy herself. I guess I spent too many years being spoiled by the great aquarium that they have in New Orleans. Then we went on a paddle boat tour of Corpus Christi Bay. It was nice and relaxing, and probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.


On Thursday, Erik's mom and step dad got up and left early so they could take the scenic route home, the rest of us however took our time getting up and going. We had wanted to take J to the beach one more time but we woke up to rain so we just headed home.


A few other highlights from our trip would be the HUGE hermit crab that Erik found underneath the dock outside our condo. J enjoyed going out to the dock to watch the fish jump and all the boats going by. J wanted to bring the crab home with us, but we convinced her to help Erik put in back under the dock. Overall it was a nice relaxing vacation and definitely plan on using my parent's time share to go there again [if they'll let us ;) ]. I should say it was nice and relaxing until we got home and Erik started ripping out our carpet, but then again, that's a whole different story for another day!

8.09.2010

24 Weeks

We had an appointment today with our regular OB. I am 24 wks, but I measure 28 (oh joy). The boys are looking good. They are both currently head down (keep your fingers crossed that they stay that way) and have strong heart beats (Baby A 155 & Baby B 153). They are now fighting for who gets to come out first (the Baby A position), up until this point, the baby on the right has been labeled Baby A and the one on the left Baby B, but that was switched today. The left baby has moved lower than the right baby and is now in the Baby A position. [the Dr's label the babies according to which one would be born first if I was to deliver right then so while the babies don't actually switch sides, the titles of Baby A & Baby B can].

8.04.2010

Baby Shower

Erik has decided to take it upon himself to throw me a baby shower. Here's some of the ideas that he's come up with (and what he would name them):

1. A BBQ party - "Fetal Fire"
2. A water party with a giant water slide - Break-Your-Water Slide
3. A Karaoke party - ROCK -a-bye baby
4. A Velcro wall - (haven't decided a name for this one yet)

A friend of his suggested a buffet entitled "placenta buffet"

Aren't I lucky?!


*disclaimer: I don't think he's really planning a shower with these themes, at least I hope he's not, but then again he just might unless someone plans a shower before he gets around to it.

8.03.2010

Random Pictures

I was going through the pictures on Erik's camera and came across a bunch of random pictures of J so I thought I'd let you see what our funny little girl has been up to. We got her this floaty for the pool and she puts in on at home and walks over to the pool like this. Erik walked outside one day and saw J sitting in the dogs water bucket using her horse shoe pegs as oars, she has quite the imagination. Just today she decided to give herself a mud bath with her chocolate pudding. This is the result. Erik was upset that she'd wasted a perfectly good thing of pudding, all I could do is laugh. I was taking pictures of our new floors (look for them in an upcoming post) and J wanted her picture taken as well.