San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo 2013

Brian and I had a blast taking Brayden out to the rodeo for his first time!  We read so many books about different animals that Brayden had never seen in person so it was really cool for us to show him all of the animals!!!  As you probably know our sweet son is obsessed with tractors and if you have ever been to the SA rodeo you know that Brayden was in tractor heaven!!!!  There were dozens of tractors in every color and size imaginable and Brayden would get so excited every time we saw a new one.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect and the crowds were minimal so it was a perfect day to spend at the rodeo!  Here are some pics of our great day at the Rodeo :

I LOVE this!  Brian has a soft spot for pigs because he used to raise them in high school.  Brayden seemed a little stand offish at first but warmed up to all of the animals pretty quick!

That pig must seem HUGE to a little boy like Brayden!

Of course he finds the only wagon on the rodeo grounds!

"TRACTOR!"

Look at that face and imagine the sound effect coming from him!!

And OMGoodness was the petting zoo a zoo!!!  There were animals and kids everywhere!  It was so, so much fun though watching Brayden chase the different animals around!!! There were so many baby animals that were absolutely adorable and so much fun to pet!  At one point though I turned around and there was definitely a deer chewing a hole through my shirt, what's that about?!  

And last but not least, pony rides!!!!  This was definitely a first for Brayden and Brian and I were not sure how he was going to do.  He was so cute and looked like such a BIG boy!  He wasn't smiling but seemed to be enjoying himself :)

Brian stayed with him while he rode

Ride em cowboy!!!

LOVE this boy!!!!  

SUCH a fun day and so grateful to have this time with my two favorite guys!  

Brayden at 21-22 months

It's crazy for me to think that this will be my last monthly post about Brayden as an only child!  Let's hope that Sterling doesn't rock this sweet boys life too bad!!!  Anyway, Bradyen only gets funnier and funnier everyday and always keeps us entertained!  He has so much energy and just runs himself till exhaustion both before naps and before bed at night.  Here is what Brayden is up to at 22 months (OMG in 2 months our baby will be 2 years old!)  

*Buddy is still picking up more and more words daily.  His absolute favorite word right now is tractor with truck coming in at a close second!  A lot of mornings when I go in his room to get him his first word will be tractor and he will point at the window.  Luckily there is so much construction around San Antonio so we are able to see tractors frequently!!  He also recently started saying I love you (sounds like "I wuv you") but it is the sweetest sound we have ever heard and it absolutely melts my heart!  Brayden has gotten really good at saying thank you when we give him things and is also getting better at using please, we are so proud of his good manners!  

*Brayden has gotten 4 new teeth in the past couple of months and we think that this explains some of the difficult phases we have been going through.  Brayden is usually a very happy, easy, fun loving child but lately we have had a couple of rough patches!!  He had just gotten very fussy, easy to anger, and extremely clingy a couple times and we kept thinking "where is our sweet child?!!"  Hopefully this little stage has passed for now and we are so glad to have our boy back!  

*Brayden still loves spending time outside and we have been so blessed by the most amazing weather these past couple of months!  Brian and I agree that the playground equipment is probably the best money we ever spent!  We usually spend an hour or two outside playing everyday after nap and before dinner.  Brayden loves to play on the equipment, play with balls, throw rocks and mulch, and he really loves to swing.  He will just sit there as you push him and will say "push" and "high" in the funniest little demanding voice!  Brayden also enjoys going for walks and for wagon rides and sometimes we will walk him over to the neighborhood park.  When we pull up he says "whee" because there are so many slides and I guess that's the noise he associates with slides!

*We still have Brayden in his crib and he is still such an awesome sleeper!  He gets about a three hour nap everyday after lunch, goes down for bed at night around 7:30 and usually sleeps till about 7:30-8:00 the next morning.  Brian and I crack up watching him on the video monitor because usually when he is ready to get up he jumps on the bed and makes all kinds of noise and yells mamma and dada!

*Brayden is still going potty on the potty every night before his bath and a couple of random times lately he has told us he needs to go and has used it then too.  Just a few nights ago he was in the bathtub acting really weird and I knew he had not had a number two all day so I asked him if he needed to go and he said yes.  I took him out of the bathtub, put him on the potty, and to my surprise he actually sat there the whole time and went!  When he got finished and saw it he said "uh-oh"!  We made sure to praise him like crazy!!!  We still don't think the is officially ready for actual potty training and we are taking it pretty slow but we are happy with the progress we have had :)

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

Crazy child is still a climber!

Of course cowboy boots and pajamas are always a good idea!

Brayden's four wheeler he got from our old neighbors The Oquins, he has his days but is still pretty unsure about it!

It is still the absolute sweetest thing in the world for me watching this baby sleep

Helping give Mia a bath!

Before we had shutters put on these windows in Brian's office this was Braydens favorite place to play with his cars and tractors 

Could play with these things all day!  It is so funny to us how it just seems like such an innate thing for little boys to make cars drive around the house and the sound effects and CRASH's that go with it are hilarious!

Halley and Carson came back in town for Sterling's baby shower, here they are watching cartoons in the morning together.  Brayden is on cloud 9!

In love with these two boys and their CHEESE faces!!!

Still lovin the trampoline!

Tractors in the sandbox

We leave him alone for 2 minutes and this is what we find!  He pulled down all of Brian's long sleeve shirts from the closet!

Some friends and I took the kids to Kiddie Park for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  This place has been in San Antonio for something crazy like 100 years and has recently had some updates.  It is basically a little amusement park for little kids 5ish and under.  All of the rides are little bitty and adorable.    The pictures crack me up because Brayden literally didn't smile once on any ride.  In fact all of the kids had very serious looks on their faces almost the whole time!  I know he liked it though because in between rides he would get excited and run to the next and happily climb on.  We all had a blast at Kiddie Park and will definitely be going back hopefully soon :)

Brayden and Evie taking a very serious boat ride!

Brayden and Evie with Hunt and Charlotte in the car behind.  Poor 14 month old Charlotte didn't appear to love this ride and cried the whole time!!!

Brayden's first carousel ride!

All of the kids :)

Me and my best boy :)

Yes I rode this ride with him because it seemed a little scary and yes I was definitely dizzy and maybe a little nauseous when we got off!  I am glad I rode with him though because the whole time he was digging his little fingernails into my leg!!!

Such a milestone for us!  After almost 2 years we finally turned Brayden frontward facing in his new car seat!  We all love it!!!

During wagon rides he often wants to get out and pull the wagon himself

36 week pregnancy update

We went to the doctor on Tuesday for our 36 week appointment and again this week had to see another doctor because mine was unavailable.  The NST went well this time and my stomach is now measuring right on.  We did not do an ultrasound this week but have one next Thursday so we will be able to see how Sterlings little tummy is measuring.  She checked me for the first time this week and I am 1 cm dilated and my cervix is starting to thin out, so very exciting that my body is getting ready after 9 months to finally have this baby!!!!!  The doctor that we saw this week had pretty much the same opinions as the one I saw last week that I should probably be induced at or by 38 weeks because Sterling isn't growing by leaps and bounds.  She said if I were her patient that she would schedule me for an induction and that she would send a message to my doctor regarding this.  Since I had not seen my doctor in several weeks, I had no idea if they were all on the same page.  Well sure enough my doctor called me later on that afternoon and scheduled Sterling's birthday!!!!!  If sweet baby Sterling has not come on her own yet (Bradyen was born at 36 weeks 6 days so its possible she may be early too!) then I'll be induced on Friday, March 1st!   I am so, so excited to know that no matter what I will be seeing my beautiful daughter's face in just over 2 weeks!  We are pretty much ready for her now, car seats installed, clothes washed, and all of the necessities have been bought.  Her room is still a work in progress but we are almost finished and I'll be posting pictures soon.  Can't believe we have almost made it through another pregnancy and I am sure these next 2 weeks are going to FLY!!!  Not getting any smaller over here and a I am pretty tired but overall feeling good at this point in my pregnancy.  I'll be sure to post another update next week after my LAST (it feels like I have had 100) ultrasound for this pregnancy!

Getting anxious, 

Pregnancy Update -35 weeks

I have been horrible about keeping good record of this pregnancy!  Not that I love little Sterling any less, I have just had less time to blog!  Since my last update back in December at 26 weeks I have gone back to the doctor for 3 more ultrasounds.  I am continuing to measure small and the ultrasounds have been showing that Sterling is measuring small so they have been wanting to keep a close eye on us.  At 30 weeks Sterling was 3.2 pounds and was measuring in the 16.9%.  The doctors start getting concerned when the baby is at the 10% or less.  Since we are very close to that number they went ahead and ordered another ultrasound for 3 weeks later.  Because it had not been a full month since our last ultrasound, at 33 weeks they just did a basic wellness check ultrasound.  On this day they did not do any measurements and only checked her breathing, movement, heartbeat, and the blood flow from the umbilical cord.  This was a really cool ultrasound because the tech mainly focused on Sterling's sweet little face.  It was just amazing watching her eyes open and close, see her little profile, and to watch her suck her little knuckles.  It was also really neat to see that Sterling has quite a bit of hair on that little head already!   I went back yesterday at 35 weeks for another growth check ultrasound and to start my weekly visits with my doctor. First things first, the ultrasound tech confirmed that Sterling is still indeed a girl (whew!  I have been having dreams that she is a he!!!!) The ultrasound also showed that Sterling is weighing in at a little over 5 pounds and is now measuring in the 19%.  I thought all of this sounded great and that we were starting to get on track but the ultrasound tech told us that her abdomen was only measuring in the 11%.    The circumference of her abdomen has been measuring small at every ultrasound and there doesn't seem to be any reason they can find.  The doctor said that they wanted to watch us even more closely and ordered a NST for yesterday and before each of our next appointments.  She also ordered another ultrasound in two weeks.  I asked her what we would do if Sterling's stomach continues to measure so small or worst case that it begins to measure even smaller.  She surprised Brian and I both when she said they would probably go ahead and induce at 37 or 38 weeks if Sterling does not appear to be thriving.  The NST went okay, Sterling was pretty chill for about the first 20 minutes and then luckily got really active there near the end.  When the doctor came in to check on us at the end she said she was glad Sterling had been so active all of a sudden because she was getting ready to send us over to L&D to have us monitored for another couple of HOURS!!!  We were so happy that we got to leave, Brian got to get back to work and I was able to go home to Brayden!!!  So we are just praying for sweet Sterling to continue to grow like she is supposed to and we are also preparing ourselves for the possibility of delivering a few weeks early.  We go back to the doctor next Tuesday and I will be sure to update then!  Until then please keep our girl in your prayers and that a growth spurt is coming her way!!!

Birthday Surprise!

So Brian's favorite thing in the world is probably a good massage.  He works hard, is often stressed,  and is always asking me to give him massages!  So for his birthday I thought I would  surprise him and treat him to a really good massage at the JW Marriott (they have the most amazing spa that we love going to).  He is constantly surprising me with things and it is rare that I am able to catch him off guard.    So I had asked Brian's parents if they would come over on Saturday morning at 9:00 to take care of Brayden while Brian and I went and had our massages at 10:00.  At about 8:15 Saturday morning I went and told Brian that he had better get ready because we had massages scheduled.  I was so excited to see his reaction because I had been keeping this a secret for weeks!!!  You can probably imagine my disappointment when Brian didn't look excited at all but instead like something was wrong!  He said "we have a problem..." Brian had also scheduled us massages, facials, and gotten us a room at the Marriott for that night!  He just thought it would be nice for us to get away and do something fun and relaxing before Sterling gets here.  So we both had the same idea on the same day and had absolutely no idea until that morning!  The funny thing is that Brian had also asked his parents if they would come get Brayden on Saturday and take him for the night, they were supposed to arrive around 11:00.  So, this whole time Brian's parents were laughing behind our backs and just waiting for us to figure out that we were double booked and had the same surprise for each other!!!  Luckily the spa let us cancel our morning massages without charging us and we went ahead and went in the afternoon instead.  Well we had a wonderful day, awesome massages, a delicious dinner, and just an altogether relaxing day away.  It was so funny and crazy that Brian and I had the exact same idea for the exact same day and same place to do something that we rarely get to do.  I guess after almost 6 years of marriage we are beginning to think alike :) Not to be a big mush but he deserves a shout out once in a while,   I am so grateful to be married to such a generous and thoughtful man!  

Happy 32nd Birthday Brian!!!