Austin's Birthday

We celebrated Austin's 9th birthday today! I realized that all boys his age act the same....silly and loud! The kids had a great time bowling and even Michael and Katelyn were able to participate. I had fun watching them all and Ahser seemed like he enjoyed it as well. He gets excited when he sees a bunch of kids playing. Austin got some great gifts and seemed to be excited about them all. After the party was over I was pretty tired, so we went to the grocery store then home. Overall it was a nice and relaxing evening. Too bad I don't get more of those!

Chance is home

Stephen went to the vet Friday night to pick up Chance.....boy was he excited to come home! He's lost 30 pounds, so he really looked different. I haven't seen him that skinny since he was a 6 month old pup. He was having a hard time keeping water down, so we had to give him Pepcid and Gatorade. He's probably only eaten about 1 cup of food since he's been home, but has had 2 Greenies (green dog bones) and devoured those! He's acting a little tired and just lays around mostly. He's not letting that get to his voice though.....lots of barking and sometimes in the middle of the night too. That's what I didn't miss! When Asher first saw him come into the house he just looked at him and smiled and said "Dog!" It was so sweet. Asher has been crawling all over the floor playing with him and Chance doesn't seem to mind too much. I'm so glad to have him home so he'll start to get better.

6 Month Checkup

I had my 6 month checkup this morning and was able to hear our little boy's heartbeat at 147bpm. Sonogram shows that he is on the large side, in the 91% for growth! Dr said that we'll watch closely to make sure he doesn't get too big too fast. My blood pressure is also looking great, 128/68. I was a little concerned since over the last few weeks I've noticed my resting heartrate was higher than normal. I've only gained 2 pounds so far, which has me thinking that I will put on most of my weight during the last trimester. Dr said to be watching for pre-term labor signs. I had to laugh for a minute and remind the Dr that I never had contractions or went into labor with Asher, so I wasn't real sure to look for! Over all, Baby and I are doing great. Next appointment on November 30th. Only 125 more days to go!!

NICE WEEKEND

Friday night we stayed home and watched a movie and had Chicken Parmesan, yummy! On Saturday we were doing stuff around the house while watching the beating Texas gave Tech. Boy that was a great game! Around 5pm we started getting ready to head to the State Fair. It was nice, good weather for walking around. Was there for a few hours and Asher seemed to have a good time. Sunday we celebrated Katelyn's 2nd Birthday. It was a lot of fun watching the kids play. Asher was scooting all over the house trying to catch up with his cousins. The weather turned cooler and it looks like it's here to stay. This is my favorite time of year. The holidays are getting closer which makes it extra nice that it's not 90 degrees outside!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHER!

Today makes it official....this little monkey is a year old!! My how the time goes by. We really enjoyed everyone celebrating with us over the weekend. I could tell that Asher had a great time too. Happy Birthday son!!

IT'S A BOY!

Asher is so excited that he's going to have a brother to play with! We made our announcement on Saturday at Asher's birthday party and everyone was very surprised. At no fault of my own, all the ladies were convinced that we were having a girl. We were all in the kitchen and my mother-in-law thought that since I was wearing a pink shirt that meant I was having a girl. I couldn't deny it since then they would for sure know, so I just smiled and let them assume away. We were still waiting for some of Stephen's family to get to the house and I knew that he wanted everyone there. When we made the final announcement, you could tell some people were a little upset. We are still mulling over some names, but will let everyone know when we've decided on one.

EXCITING

We went to the Dr this morning to have a sonogram. Baby is doing great, all organs and limbs plus fingers and toes. Heatrbeat was 137 bpm.....baby was sleeping. It was exciting to see everything and the little bit of movement once those sound waves hit my belly!! More baby news to be announced tomorrow.

Busy Weekend

We spent all weekend with friends and family and it was nice, especially since we were at our house. Friday night we prepared an 18 quart pot of chili for Game Day. Everyone started to come over around noon for the TX/OU game, after that we turned over to the Tech/Nebraska game, which turned out to be a pretty good, sit on the edge of your chair, kinda game. One of our good friends Scott, a Tech graduate, looked like his head was going to explode there at the end when we thought Nebraska was going to win their 37th Homecoming in a row! Oh, but the Raiders took em down! We turned over to the Stars game after that, which was another good one until that stupid ref called the penalty on Dallas for the brawl between the two teams. Turned out that Dallas couldn't pull it off with the 7 min power play given to Colorado. Oh well. I did a lot around the house while the games were on. Stephen was really sick all day and ended up going to bed after the Tech game. Went to a Bridal Shower on Sunday and Asher had fun getting passed around to all his Great Aunts on the Schnitzius side & his Great Great Aunts on the Leverette side. Did some more around the house after that, trying to get prepared for our friends coming in from Phoenix. We're having immediate family and close friends come over on the 15th to celebrate Asher's first birthday. I'm really looking forward to it.

Asher giving Fish Kisses to his Aunt Michelle

Asher playing Paddy Cake

New Play Yard

Stephen and Asher met me and Melissa for lunch today. Asher was a hoot making faces at his Aunt Melissa. She was sharing her roll with him and he loved it. The squash casserole on the other hand, was a different story. It cracks me up to watch his expression when he tries new foods and textures. After lunch we went to Babies R Us and got him a new play yard. He is cruising in that thing like it's easy. Still wont take steps on his own, but that's ok with me!

Amazing!

We finally got some rain last night and a Beautiful lightening storm as well. It really reminded me of living in California the way the sky lit up. The storm also brought us some much needed cooler temperatures. The high yesterday was 104 and this morning when I got out of bed it was only 61 outside. Looks like the high for today is only going to be 75. Hopefully this will set the pattern for cooler temps in October.

5 Month Checkup

I had my 5 month checkup this morning and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat at 142bpm. My blood pressure is also looking great. I've only gained 1 pound, very exciting! Had some blood work done for CBC and a Liver Panel just to check and make sure the levels are still normal. We're scheduled for the sonogram to find out the sex on October 14th. We are really looking forward to it. Only 2 more weeks!!

Say Cheese!

Asher is such a HAM! He just loves to get his picture taken. We were in the car, sitting at a red light and Daddy turned around with his camera phone and as you can see, Asher put on a great smile. We were on our way to the vet to pick up Chance, he's been there for about 13 days waiting for his tail to heal. The vet felt like he was doing good and said we could take Chance home. Stephen went in to get him and of course Chance was so happy to see his Daddy that he wagged his tail and banged it around and it started bleeding. SO, he's still there. We had to go ahead and leave him for a few more nights to see if they can get it back to normal. We're thinking they may have to cut his tail off at the base in order for it to heal 100%. We've got a great vet and are just following his instruction. Makes me sad that we've had to leave him there for such a long time. It's been really quiet around the house and no one misses Mommy yelling Shut Up all day long!! We'll see how it goes.

Shelly's 27th Birthday

Yet another September birthday! Today we were all at Shelly's for her birthday party. Had a great meal and cake. The kids were too funny playing with Asher. He especially likes Katelyn and follows her all around. Asher crawled over to her and stood up hanging on for dear life to her little dress. Then Katelyn leaned over and kissed him! Too sweet. We had a great day and a nice way to end the weekend.

Ryan turned 20!

Today we celebrated my nephew Ryan's birthday. We cooked fajitas and hung out with the family. Had a great time and we're all glad that Ryan was home safe from the hurricane that hit Natchitoches, LA where he goes to school. I really enjoy when we're able to spend time with the kids and especially now since they're getting older. I was talking with them tonight about how different they all were 11 years ago when I met Stephen. It's been fun watching them grow up. I'm sure glad that our kids are going to have such great role models to look up to!

Another Baby

My cousin Steven and his wife Jackie just had a little boy about 2 weeks ago. This is the first picture I received. Nikoli Ryan Setrak. I can't remeber how much he weighed exactly, 8lbs and some change. He was 24" long though! That really tops my 5lb sack of sugar at 18".

Awesome Picture

My best friend, who happens to be pregnant right now too, sent me a link to a website that shows 3D pictures. This is what our baby looks like today! Pretty neat. Only 3 more weeks until we find out if it's a boy or girl. I'm getting a little anxious.

Home with Asher

I took the day off to spend with Stephen and Asher! Stephen haulled hay on Sunday and didn't get home until around 2AM this morning. I though it would be nice to stay with Asher so Stephen could get some much needed sleep. This afternoon we decided to do some running around and got some stuff for Asher's birthday that is coming up in a few weeks. We had a great time going to Party City and looking through all the Halloween stuff. Asher is fearless! He was not scared of the "monsters" and kept giggling at the things we showed him. It was a hoot. Then we decided that it was time to start looking for a Big Boy car seat. Whew, there were so many to choose from. We found one that we really liked and went ahead and installed it. Asher seemed to like it, for a while, the closer we got to home the more he began to cry. Not sure if he was just tired or what. We've got 90 days to return and I'm sure we'll figure out before then if he really likes it or not. All in all, it was a great day to spend with my two boys! We had a lot of fun and I told Stephen that I'm really looking forward to being home with Asher and the new baby.

Grandpa's How Old?

Today we celebrated Grandpa's 86th birthday again! Since he was an orphan he doesn't have a copy of his birth certificate and always thought he was born in 1918. Well, Grandma decided she was going to see what she could find out and made some calls to the church where he was baptized. Their records show he was born in 1919, so now we really aren't sure. We had a great time spending the day with the family, it was nice. Grandpa got to look through all the pictures from his recent trip to Las Vegas with Mom and John. It was a great day.