The Last Days of 2008

To close out 2008, Andy and I spent some time relaxing in Medina, Texas with our friends and neighbors, Tomy and Medana. Tomy runs a ranch in Medina and invited us out for two days to explore, fish and help feed the animals. Andy was the one in charge of helping feed the animals.

We got to Medina Tuesday afternoon and drove around looking at the vast 525 acres of beautiful hill country. We ate lunch and then drove around looking at all the wild animals and scenery. This ranch is eventually going to be an exotic game ranch. There are black buck antelope, elk, white tail deer, syka deer, and various other creatures. The rest of Tuesday we fished (see pictures below) and then enjoyed some time visiting with Tomy, Medana, and Nell over dinner. Wednesday morning Andy got up and helped Tomy feed the animals and work on the ranch. He had the time of his life. Tomy and Medana's son, Troy and his girlfriend, Kali came up and we fished again with them. These fish are some of the biggest large mouth base I've ever seen. Andy was the king of fishing, catching over a dozen fish just today. Unfortunately, it's all catch and release.

Needless to say, it was a nice and relaxing way to end the year. As 2009 is on the brink, we can only wonder what God has in store for us. We are looking forward to the last 3 months of pregnancy and to the arrival of Lyla. It's hard to believe this is our last New Year to ring in as a couple without children. Ironically we are spending the New Year's Eve at home, resting and watching movies. In fact, Andy is already asleep...I'm suppose to wake him at midnight, if I'm still awakw.

I hope you all have an enjoyable New Year. See you on the flip side.


Pictures of the scenery and some of the animals...





Some pictures from our fishing adventures...
Me reeling in a big one.

My reward.

One of Andy's many catches.

Troy, Kalie, Emma and Doolie.

It's beginning to look a lot like a nursery

Well, it's official. Friday night our guest bedroom turned into Lyla's nursery. I went to make the final payment on our furniture and they had it ready to pick up. So, my dad met my mom and I at Burlington and we packed it up in his truck. Later that evening Andy and our friend Jason helped my dad load up our guest room furniture (which will be stored in my parent's garage) onto his truck and then Andy and Jason set up the furniture. Paige, Jason's wife helped me put the bedding on the crib. The bedding was Lyla's Christmas present from my parents. Today Andy and I hung some decorations and the curtains. The nursery still has a long way to go. We need a glider, a rug, and more "stuff" for the walls.

Andy is concerned that the room doesn't look girly enough. I have to work on bringing in some pink. He really wants to repaint the room, but I love the shades of blue. I told him to trust me.

I feel much better now that the nursery is under way. I was starting to stress that Lyla will be here in 14 weeks and the room wasn't close to being ready. It was sad for Andy and I to say goodbye to our spare room. That bed got slept in whenever one of us couldn't sleep. Now we are down to the couch. Ahh, the things we do for our children.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas. Andy and I sure did. Below are some pictures of the process and the room thus far....


Andy and our dear friend Jason Patrick worked to put together the crib and dresser. Don't they look excited?


The masters of the crib!!


Yes, that is the Christmas tree coming through the door. I told you it was huge. The little bookshelf will eventually be replaced with a better one. But I needed somewhere to put the books.


Here is a view from the bathroom door. I love the big window seat. Andy did a great job of hanging the new curtain rod and valance. He is becoming quite the handyman.


Here is the crib. The picture above hung in my nursery and in my mom's when she was a baby. It will be re framed and will actually hang on the right of the window. It's just hanging on a previous hook for now. In the corner is the cradle that will go in our room. On the door is my cute Vera Bradley Baby Bag. Ignore the Christmas boxes on the left and the stack of diapers under the cradle. They will all be put away soon.


Here is a better picture of the dresser/changing table. The TV will eventually be replaced with a glider. The Norman Rockwell painting is one of my favorites that use to hang in my room.

Belly Pictures

I had my second set of belly pictures taken on Friday. You can definitely see how the belly has grown. The sad thing, you can see how much weight I've put on in my face. I find that any time I put on weight it always shows up in my face first. I know, I know, when Lyla comes it will all be worth it, but that doesn't stop it from stinking! I still have 15 weeks to go...how much bigger and rounder will I get. I guess my dream of just having a little basketball in my tummy is gone forever. Oh well. The other thing that will be interesting is watching how my hair changes over my pregnancy. For those of you who know me, I never keep it the same. The next set of pictures in 6 weeks will show a bigger belly and yet another hair style. I just get bored.

So anyways, below are a few pictures from the shoot. Promise to look at the belly and not the face....

This is what the picture will look like when all is said and done. Right now you just see the first picture and 3 of the second. Eventually there will be two more belly pictures.


A couple single pictures

Pregnant and Sick

As a rule I think pregnant women should be exempt from getting sick. It just doesn't seem fair that a cold has to take over my body when a baby is already doing the same. I came down with a cold on Friday that has only gotten worse as the weekend has come. My sweet husband has been so good at taking care of me. He is grocery shopping, building a fire, rubbing my back, and even woke up in the middle of the night to make sure I was okay when I had a severe cough attack.

On top of being sick we had another busy weekend. Friday Andy and I went up to Austin to a cocktail Christmas party. Our friends Michael and Sarah got engaged at the party. Michael pulled off a great proposal. Everyone in the room knew what was going to happen but Sarah. He pulled it off and everyone did a great job of keeping the secret. It was so good to see all of our Austin friends.

Saturday Andy had his studio recital. His students did a great job, and Andy sang too. I always love to hear him sing and watch him perform. It's so great to see my husband truly enjoying and sharing his passion of music. Following the recital we headed on over to my dance team Christmas party. The girls always look so beautiful all dressed up. Watching them in play white elephant always makes me laugh. Not to mention we have a great Santa Claus that comes every year.

Here are some pictures from the party....

My Team


My Officers and me (looking very pregnant)



My annual picture with Santa

Busy Weekend

Andy and I had our first of a few busy weekends. It started Friday with a performance by my dance team officers at a DR Horton community holiday party. It was kind of weird. The girls had to perform in a unlit grassy area and there was hardly anyone there, but oh well, we did our good deed. Then I met up with Andy and my parents at our friend Sarah's house. She was having an after work happy hour that went as long as people wanted to hang out. Andy and I spent some time visiting and enjoying some good food. We left there to meet our dear friends, Jon and Emily, at Jim's for coffee. They were in from Houston. It's always good to visit with them. Jon and Andy have been close friends since high school. We love getting to see them as often as we can. We didn't get to see the boys this trip, but it was nice to visit just the same.

Saturday I had a baby shower for my friend Jamie. Her daughter Amelia is coming February 5th, 2 months before Lyla. Jamie is in our couples bible study. Out of the 8couples, 4 of us are pregnant. It's going to be a busy spring. After the shower I met Andy and his Friend Dee and husband Brett at Pei Wei for a quick lunch. Dee and Brett were in from Arizona (I believe that's where they are from). Andy met Dee at an Enterprise conference last fall and they have remained friends ever since.

After lunch we headed off to my friend and co-worker, Amy's daughter Jayme's second birthday party. Jayme was a little overwhelmed by all the people in her house. Andy and I stayed after the party to visit with Jay, Amy and Jayme. Jayme finally came out of her shell and started playing with her new toys and talking up a storm. She has such a cute personality.

Jayme before....


Jayme after...


Andy and Jayme playing with one of her new toys.


From Jay and Amy's, we headed out to the social studies Christmas party at the Becker's house. Stacy Becker was my high school dance team director and her and I now work together at O'Connor. She is one of my good friends and mentors. I have been adopted in the social studies department since the fine arts department doesn't do much. We had a blast seeing people who had moved on from O'Connor. My friends Ravae and her husband Casey and I got into rearranging Becker's house. It happens to whoever hosts the Christmas party. I can't wait to find out if she has found everything we moved. She is as anal retentive as I am, so I know it's driving her crazy.

Sunday we got to rest for the morning before our couples bible study pot luck dinner. Andy forced me to take it easy instead of cleaning. He's a good husband. He knew I needed to put my feet up and take it slow. I'd had an emotional weekend filled with a haircut I'm not happy with and too much on my plate. (Bad hair days and pregnancy do not go well together...needless to say not Christmas pictures in our Christmas card this year). At 3:45 we headed out to the pot luck. We enjoyed great food and fun with our friends. Instead of a White Elephant we did a toy exchange. Everyone in the group has kids and Jamie and I are about to have kids, so we thought it would be fun to bring in a used toy and then each child got to go home with a "new" toy.

We finally got home about 9:00PM and I was ready for bed. I have a busy week at work before the break and another busy weekend. Ahh, the holidays. It is fun to see so many people and enjoy our friends and family over the holidays.

On a side note, my doctor's appointment on Friday went well. No issues. She wasn't too concerned about my sciatic nerve causing my thigh to go numb, so I guess I won't worry either. I put on some serious weight this past month, which I'm not happy about, but my total weight gain is still minimal. I just need to lay off the sweets.

Snow in Boerne

Andy and I woke up this morning to this.....


That's right, snow in Boerne.

We were so excited to see that we had actual snow. We missed it falling, but we got to see our front yard and cars covered in snow. I hope my plants survive. So after I got ready this morning Andy took some belly pictures in the snow. After looking at these pictures I realize that I need to lay off the sweets....man my face is getting round. Time to hit the gym.

Here I am in all my pregnant glory in front of our oak trees.


And another in front of the railing that Andy had built for my birthday this past summer. I've always wanted a porch with railing and rocking chairs.


If you watched the news this morning you would have seen that the snow was all they could talk about. WOAI even sent a poor guy out to Boerne to continue to do live feeds on the snow. I bet people up north just laugh at us for stopping all news for some snow on the ground.

Well, since I'm here I'll tell you that the belly is getting quite big. It's starting to cause some lower back pain. I've already got mild scoliosis which causes a sway back, and the growing belly sure isn't helping. Also, by the end of the day my stomach feels very stretched. I told Andy I've decided this is as big as I need to get. (insert laughter). I know, I know, I'm only going to get bigger, but a girl can dream can't she.

Enjoy the cool weather.

Window Seat

Since we moved in to our house two years ago, we've wanted to add a window seat in front of our kitchen window. Our kitchen is so big and it was just empty space. Well, with Lyla coming, we knew we would need more storage. Our living room is too small to add a toy chest, and we don't have a ton of closet space. I decided what we needed was the window seat with space to store baskets underneath. The baskets will be toy storage.

So, Friday, the building took place. My dad came up and worked with Andy to build my beautiful window seat (see pics below). I came home to a seat that was a little bigger than I thought, but beautiful just the same. Sunday Andy and I worked at staining the seat. Yes, I know, I shouldn't be close to the fumes, but I'm not very good at being told I can't do something. Just so you know, we opened all the windows and I spent a lot of time sitting outside on my rocking chairs and enjoying the beautiful day. Andy sealed the seat yesterday and today we purchased my baskets.

The seat is far better than anything I could have imagined. Andy and Big Guy, thank you so much for working so hard to make me a beautiful seat. I can't wait to enjoy the my red bud while sitting on my seat. And the baskets are going to be a great place for Lyla to store toys and have easy access to them.

Maternal-Fetal Care Specialist

Thursday Andy and I met with Dr. Higby, a specialist for high risk pregnancies. Don't freak, we are not high risk. Andy's family has had some heart conditions, so Dr. DeLaGarza (our OBGYN) felt we should meet with Dr. Higby to have him take a look at Lyla's heart. The fun part, we got to see Lyla again. Andy's uncle had a heart murmur that he had surgery on in his late forties and two of Andy's cousins have had Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome (a complicated, but not life-threatening heart condition). Unfortunately, he could not detect either heart conditions through ultrasound, so at this point he has given Lyla a clean bill of health. The only thing he found was a calcification on her heart. This is found in about 3-4% of all pregnancies and is a marker for Downs Syndrome. Out of the four markers he could have found through ultrasound, he only found this one. This gives us a strong hope and confidence that Lyla will be just fine. Basically we have 1/400-1/1600 chance of Lyla being born with Downs. Looking at my age and the one marker that was found, he narrowed it down to a 1/575 chance, but still nothing to be concerned about.

If Lyla is born without Downs, the calcification will not affect her development or her heart in any way. He says there are many theories as to why these calcifications develop, but no sound reason at this point. I feel very confident that she is going to be just fine. Andy was a little bummed by the news. I think it shook him more than me. We talked and I told him not to worry, that we just need to have faith and continue to pray for a healthy baby girl. My sweet husband just doesn't like any bad news.

Other than that, we are doing well. Lyla is growing and moving all the time now. Her movements are getting stronger so Andy can feel them more often and we can even see them. We still don't see body parts, but after our latest ultrasound I know how she is positioned so I can guess when it's her arms or her legs based on where I feel the movement. I think her favorite game is beat up on mommy's bladder. I can't believe that we are 17 weeks away from her arrival. I know that is still 4 months away, but 17 weeks doesn't sound like a lot of time. We will be getting her furniture at the end of January. We are both very excited to start putting the nursery together.


Lyla's latest ultrasound. 22 weeks and 4 days. It looks like she is sucking her thumb.