Vacation

With the baby coming this summer, we weren't going to do much for a summer vacation this year. Then we decided if all went well at my doctor's appt. last week (which it did), and if he said it was okay for me to go (which he did), we would take off for a few days and have one last vacation as a family of 3. We left for the Twin Cities right after Church on Sunday, so we did our Father's Day celebrating on Saturday. I made Monte's favorite meal, Sweet and Sour Chicken, along with Father's Day cupcakes for dessert.

I didn't bother printing off directions for the hotel, because I figured we could just plug in the address in our GPS. Little did we know that it was a brand new hotel, so the GPS couldn't find it. It was quite the fiasco trying to find it, but after some help from St. Anthony, we stumbled upon it! It had an adorable little toddler waterpark area, which Isabella LOVED!

She got in the big pool with Daddy the first day, but the next two days she just wanted to be in the pool pictured above, she had so much fun!

We spent one of the days at the Mall of America, we went to Underwater World
there, and had a blast. Isabella could not get over the fact that there were sharks swimming over her head (you walk through a tunnel where everything swims all around and over you). This picture was taken there, the pictures taken in the tunnels didn't turn out very good because of the lighting.

We let her pick out a souvenir from our trip at the gift shop there. She chose a purple sea turtle, and that thing has hardly left her side. She took it everywhere with her while we were on vacation.

Here we're eating lunch overlooking the theme park, Nickelodeon Universe. I love that she loved just watching all the rides and activities, and never once wanted to go on any of them.

We also went to the huge Cabela's in the suburb we stayed at, ate at some of our favorite restaurants, and went to an amazing outlet mall

with 100 outlet stores! Monte told me I was an absolute pleasure to shop with while pregnant, since I wasn't about to buy any clothes for myself right now, ha! So I didn't have a desire to go in any stores for myself. Monte got some great deals on clothes for work at the Old Navy outlet. There was a book store there where I got two big Taste of Home cookbooks for $4 each! One is all desserts (of course!) and the other is all freezer cooking recipes, that might come in handy with a new baby.

The only bad part of the trip was that after walking around the Mall of America all day, I was up almost all night with contractions. I took my medication, which slowed them down some, but the medication has some bad side effects, so then I was up because my med was making me short of breath, and my heart race. But thankfully, all seems to be well, and I'm back to having my normal random contractions every now and then.

It was such a fun trip, and so much fun for us to see Isabella having so much fun!

This was in the hotel before we left, once again she's not letting go of her sea turtle.

What's your guess?

A couple of weeks ago, Monte's family threw a few dollars together, and all wrote down their guesses as to gender, weight, and birthday of our baby. I thought it would be fun to do that on the blog, too, although there's no money involved in this particular guessing game - sorry. S0 if you want, leave a comment with your guess. Some information that may or may not be helpful - I have a couple of different due dates, according to the ultrasounds it's August 21, according to my original dates it's August 30. The doctor never says a specific date, just the end of August. We DO know, if I make it that far, I'll be induced a week or two early because of my extremely fast labor with Isabella (which means I only have 7 or 8 weeks left at the most, yay!), they want to make sure I get to the hospital in time. More info - I'm almost 31 weeks right now, Isabella was born at 34 weeks exactly, and weighed 5 pounds 6 ounces (and we brought the itty bitty thing home from the hospital a week later weighing in at 4 pounds 15 ounces!).

Sweet Summer Days

We have been enjoying some great summer days lately. We have been spending almost every waking moment outside now that our rainy weather has (hopefully) ended for a while. I took these first two pictures this morning, she hit the 3 and a half mark, and is looking so grown up!

We have a lake that's only a five minute drive from our house. There is also a park there, since she and I both love going there, I try to take her there as much as possible. I usually pack a picnic lunch, so we can stay for quite a while.

I remember washing my toys as a child, and Monte said he did too, so she comes by it naturally. :) I don't think there's ever a speck of dirt on that little car of hers! One of the times she always has to wash her toys is when Daddy is changing oil in one the of the vehicles.

Some indoor dress up fun.

She and I eat our lunch every day outside on the porch - so much fun, and easy clean up too!

There's been a lot of bubble chasing.

And bubble blowing . . .

All this time outside makes for some awesome, long naps for her. I have even been squeezing in a cat nap for myself in the afternoons. The weather has been mild, in the upper 70's, which I love, but I am looking forward to being able to get out her sprinkler and little pool if it warms up some more.

I had to write this down . . .

Background information:



Isabella was running around the house one night after her bath, with a white towel on her head.



Mommy: "Isabella, you look like a bride, are you getting married?"



Isabella: "I'm not going to marry ANYONE! Well . . . but I am going to marry Jesus."

The Home Stretch . . .

also known as the last trimester!! I'm so glad to have made it this far without any major complications. All of the discomforts of the last trimester are creeping up on me, but they are SO worth it, of course. After I slept for 2 and a half hours during Isabella's nap today, I was commenting to Monte that I don't remember being this tired with Isabella. Then I remembered that at this point with her I was on bed rest, and dozing in and out of consciousness all day, everyday, ha! I am so, so grateful that so far things are going better this time around. At this point with Isabella I had been on bed rest for a month already, was on all sorts of meds that made me loopy and lowered my blood pressure so much I would black out, was dilated, had had several extended stays in the hospital, etc. This time around I have definitely had some scares, one very short stay in the hospital, contractions, am on one kind of medicine, but I'm NOT on bed rest, and I'm not dilated at all! As the doctor told me yesterday, this baby is making a much more welcome home for itself than Isabella ever did! :)

My appointment went great yesterday, it took over 3 hours because the ultrasound tech accidentally did my ultrasound under someone else's name, so after I had my appt. with my doctor I had to go back to do both the regular and TV ultrasounds all over again, then go back to have another appt. with my doctor to go over the results. There were no changes in my cervix, so I didn't have to get the steroid shots yet either. I drank the orange junk for my glucose test, and passed that with no problems, also. Monte stayed home with Isabella, and decided to take her fishing, what a good Daddy! They had a lot of fun!

I'm only 6 weeks away from when I had Isabella, and 8 weeks away from my goal of 36 weeks. Diapers and wipes are bought, nursing supplies ordered, pump and bottles are sterilized and ready to go, in case of another preemie who can't nurse. :( Baby supplies (swing, car seat, etc.) that have been lent out are now returned, I even have a few clothes washed and put away. With Isabella, we had the nursery all done and ready to go before she was born. It's funny how with the second one, I don't care about that as much. I figure the baby will be in our room for a couple of months anyway, so we'll probably figure out the sleeping arrangements after he or she comes. More than likely, we'll end up moving Isabella to the bigger spare bedroom, and the baby will be in what is her room now. I'm getting so excited to meet this little one!

Best Friends

I never had any cousins my age, but now I know what I was missing out on. Isabella has so much fun with her cousins! I'm so glad that my sister came out to visit, because Isabella had been saying everyday for a couple weeks before that, "I miss Rachel, she's my best friend."

Weekend of Firsts

We had quite the exciting Memorial Day weekend around here! Monte had Friday through Monday off, so starting out on Friday we spent most of the day and evening out at a lake near here. Our friend from college, who we haven't seen in over a year, invited us to come out since he was camping there. There is a really nice state park there, and Isabella had a BLAST throwing rocks in the water, swinging at the playground, roasting marshmallows, and fishing. We've taken her fishing several times before, but she hadn't ever caught anything. Her luck changed on Friday, though. She caught four little bluegills, they were tiny, but she didn't care, it was so much fun for all of us! Afterward, we went to a really nice restaurant overlooking the lake, and now I HAVE to go back. I can't believe we live so close to it, and have never been there before, it had the ultimate salad bar, right up my alley.

On Saturday, we decided to take Isabella to her first movie, the new Shrek movie. I think her favorite part was the popcorn and drinking Daddy's Cherry Coke, she had never really had pop before. After that, we went to a carnival that was in town for the weekend where she got to ride one of the rides.

Sunday was when our visitors came, my sister and her kids, and my parents both came out to visit. My parents stayed until Monday, and my sister stayed until Tuesday.

The girls spent HOURS on the swing set.

A random picture thrown in . . . because I like it. :)

We went to the zoo on Monday, also.

And that sums up our weekend, very fun, and also very tiring for this pregnant lady!