.riverwalk.alamo.pool.relaxing weekend.

.this weekend was fun, and not so fun. just because we had plans for the weekend to go to the pool and to the zoo, but miss brooklynn took an extra long nap (never happens)...and so it would not be worth paying the money to go in for 2 hours.

.anyways....friday we headed back to the riverwalk, to see it at night, it was alot of fun, and really pretty. looking at these pictures i realize i look HUGE (dang it.) got to remember white and stripes do not do things for my pregnant body. oh well. we also visited the alamo which i guess is a place where a war happened for 2 weeks. this small little town was in a war for 2 weeks. it gave me the creeps...andrew said it was just old and thats why it gave me the creeps.. WHATEVER. it was cool to see though and check off our list. brooklynn was SO good, and just sat there and looked around. it was a great night full of walking.

 .andrew and b at the riverwalk.

 .me and b and baby boy at the riverwalk.

 .riverwalk.

 .westensee fam at the alamo.

 .westensee fam at the alamo...i look so big, but i can say its all belly cause i am still wearing my american eagle jeans. thank goodness.

 .front of alamo.

 .more alamo.

 .alamo.

 .andrew and b in front of a waterfall at the riverwalk.

.another riverwalk waterfall.

.we went to the pool on saturday. i laid out in the non existence sun (it came out AS SOON AS WE LEFT). lame. andrew took brooklynn out in the pool and she loved it. afterwards we came up to the hotel, got lunch, put b down for a nap... and folded our large load of laundry together. brooklynn slept WAY longer than we thought, so we couldnt do the zoo. boo. so i needed to get out, so we walked the mall. it was nice to get out, and enjoy time with andrew and b. we ended our night with ice cream.

 .dark b and white dad.

 .pool time.

 .we got her this beach ball for the pool for .97 cents... andrew would go down in the water and pop up...

.she LOVED it... momma aint that cool, i just cant do things like that with a belly too.

.speaking of ice cream...so the hotel offers self served ice cream at dinner every night. thanks alot hotel. ice cream is my BIGGEST weakness. and b has learned how much she loves ice cream cones too. andrew has become quite an ice cream cone perfectionist. 

 .she LOVES ice cream.

 .ice cream on her nose...laughing..

 .she is SO much fun.

.she fake laughs now...not sure if this is fake or real.. either way its hilarious.

.sunday we went to church. took naps. relaxed. relaxed and relaxed. brooklynn was in the best of moods. she played forever by herself. she played forever with her daddy. she just played and played and played, and laughed and laughed and laughed. it was so enjoyable. oh and she played in her basket too.

 .playing in her basket.

.overall, i cant say our weekend was horrible. now to just get through this week and have the weekend get here fast! yahoo. wednesday is the big doctor apt as well, so we are praying and crossing our fingers that we get to meet out little man on my due date, july 13th.

.no sleep.

.i am not sure why b has been up. honestly, i have NO CLUE. if i knew i would change it real fast (oh the joys of being a parent).

.i have been putting her down for a nap around 12-1. she sleeps MAYBE 45 minutes if I am lucky... sometimes 1.5 (which i am thrilled for).

.and no nap after that until bedtime.

.bedtime comes around and she is wired, and not even wanting to go to bed. but we finally get her down, and she is up halfway through the night. i rock her, sometimes i give her a bottle if she really wont go down, i snuggle/cuddle her. 

.but last night was different. she had ALOT to drink last night between her nighttime bottle and drink at dinner. i figured, she is thirsty fine. right?

.she peed out her diaper, up her side, all over her blankets....needless to say, i had a mess on my hands at 4 in the morning. 

.changed her, threw the blankets in the hamper, made a bottle and let her lay with us. drank the bottle. threw the bottle. wide awake tackling her dad (who has to get up in 2.5 hours)

.bring her to family room, shut the doors to bedroom, let her play. hour passes, wide awake, 2 hours passes, wide awake...what the heck?

.6:15...out....finally. 

.put her in her bed with a CLEAN blanket. climb in bed. uncomfortable. toss, turn, toss turn. loose it. cry. awesome.

.fall alseep around 6:30. alarm goes off. snooze it. 6:45 alarm goes off. andrew gets up. fall back to sleep.

.7:15 brooklynn wakes up ...what the HAIL!

.i get up. go have breakfast with andrew. andrew leaves for work 15 minutes later... and here we are. worn out momma, and b is playing.

.now to post pictures of what we have been doing...aka, pictures of brooklynn, so i can smile a bit, and not be totally frustrated with her.

 .we went to a park on monday with a friend and her two kids. 

 .brooklynn was SO happy and get out of a hotel room and run around.

 .and climb on things.

 .it was a HOT HOT day.

 .poor girl was all sweaty.

 .luckily on Tuesday/Wednesday we went to the swimming pool. 

 .all you have to say is, "do you want to go swimming?" and she runs to the door, she knows what your talking about.

 .b LOVES playing in the laundry hamper.

 .going in.

 .coming out (and loosing her bow).

 .yesterday she pushed her basket of toys over and sat in the corner and played with toys and read a book.

 .realizing mom pulled out the camera.

 .she has to come get a closer look.

 .smile through the paci.... this girl's skin takes in the sun SO well. i put sunscreen on too.

.this is what she does when we watch for daddy to come home. she stood there like that for10-15 minutes. it was adorable when she SAW her daddy (we met him halfway down the hallway)...i will have to get video.

.texas beach trip.

.when andrew and i decided to come to texas, we decided we would do something different every saturday as a family until baby got here...it was to keep us all together as a family, but also give me SOMETHING to look forward to throughout the week. 

.the beach it was.

.i have been to seaside (oregon) beach once, with andrew... the day we went was probably the best day EVER. its usually horribly cold, and windy and ugly....but the day andrew and i went, it was SO hot... but the water was still FREEZING.

.i have also been to maui, hawaii for our honeymoon. i will NEVER forget how beautiful the beach was there, and how warm. i CANNOT wait until we have the funds and our kids are old enough to take there.

.so we decided the beach it was for our saturday outing. i didnt know what to expect. it was a 2.5 hour drive, so we PLANNED to head down and grab breakfast at 7 and head out around 7:30. fail.

.i got up at 7:30 and made sure everything was packed, and got dressed. 8 rolls around and andrew finally rolls out of bed. he has been SUPER tired lately... we kinda think he may have mono because of a sore spot in his throat and how tired he is ALL THE TIME. (do not give it to me!) so we finally headed downstairs for breakfast around 8:15, and got on the road by 9. of course i drove (because andrew was "going to do his religion homework" and also we all know i speed and will get us there faster.

(dont you LOVE how i am the only one awake)

.we got to the beach at 11:15, grab something small to eat, and headed to the actual beach. it was a really pretty drive, and had lots of city before you actually got the the beach... when we pulled in i was confused...no road?? where do we park. than andrew is like, "drive on the beach" WOW! drive on the beach...SA-WEET. so we drove down the beach for a bit, until we found a spot and parked. 

.i didnt think brooklynn would like it that much. WRONG. this girl kept turning around and running into the water and the waves. she didnt care about getting splashed or anything. it was crazy. at the very beginning she did whine because she didnt like the feel of seaweed on her feet, and didnt know exactly what was going on (she just woke up). the water was SO warm. bath water. i loved it. we changed into our suits and i took pictures and videos while daddy and brooklynn played. it was really nice, and i enjoyed taking pictures.

.video of brooklynn experiencing the beach for the first time.

 she would run down the beach....she loved it.

 andrew played with her all day, it was a nice break for me, and i know brooklynn LOVED her time with her daddy.

.yum, salt water.

.after about 2 hours brooklynn was done. so was it (hated being in a bathing suit 8.5 months pregnant). we got back in the car and decided to drive further down the beach just for the drive. brooklynn fell asleep, so it was just quiet and pretty. at one point the sand was so deep we had to turn on 4X4...i LOVED driving in it. i felt more in control than like it is in snow...so i was totally taking it all in. andrew was jealous.

.more video of brooklynn playing on the beach in the sand.

 .love this picture of these two.

.we stopped at sonic on the way home for half off slushies.

.than we headed back home....andrew and brooklynn fell asleep again for the first hour or so, and than woke up and watched a movie together. i wish i would of got more in the water with the two crazy kids, and got more pictures of me and brooklynn together...but i failed. i am not suppose to exercise at all because of the situation baby is in, and just walking out against the waves was a workout, and the waves hit my belly hard. so i took it easy. 

.driving on the beach.

.but all that matters is brooklynn experienced the beach for the first time, and we were all together as a family. we took time away from everything going on around us, forgot about it, and just enjoyed US. 

.and it was SO nice.

.sincere prayers & trials.

.isn't it funny how suddenly your prayers become more heartfelt and more powerful?.

.at the ultrasound on wednesday, as i were watching our sweet little boy (still in shock) move around on the monitor, i noticed he was measuring small. 32 weeks it kept showing on the monitor, which did not surprise me at all, brooklynn measured 2 weeks small my entire pregnancy as well. just to make sure i was seeing the right thing i asked the tech, "baby is measuring small huh?" she said, yep. and asked me if brooklynn measured small as well and how big she was when i had her. 7 pounds 1 ounce.

.i went about thinking there is no way my doctor is going to induce me if this baby is measuring small. and began to worry. coming to texas was a HUGE step for me. it was away from friends and family and becoming totally reliable on my relationship with Andrew and with God. my mom and sister both told me their doors where totally open for me to go live while Andrew came to Texas. It was always an option in the back of my mind, but i didnt find it fair to Andrew and to Brooklynn. I figured Brooklynn should not be separated from her daddy that long, and I would feel horrible if Andrew missed the birth of his daughter (oh wait, SON).

.once i got into my room and was waiting for the doctor, i immediately felt a sense of calm when she walked in. i LOVE her, she is younger and sat down and said, tell me what your worried about, and what your needs are. and just let me talk. i explained that we are here while Andrew does an internship at USAA for 10 weeks. Andrew has 1 paid day a month to take off....so we really would like to be induced. also, i need my mom here to watch little b while i am in the hospital...she totally understood but also explained some things that she is "concerned" about from the ultrasound. 

.so he is measuring small. 2 weeks. no biggie....but his torso area is measuring even smaller.. like 3 weeks. this has her not worried yet, but just concerned and wants another ultrasound when i come back in 2 weeks. she said at this point, he is not really low percentile wise, but definitely something she is going to watch. she said at this point, we can plan to be induced, but really decide at my next apt. 

.this little man has already put a scare earlier at his 20 week ultrasound (you know, when they said it was a girl)...the tech kept looking at his heart...and than had another tech come in and look. she never said anything to me, but between the both of them they said, "yea, you can see it in motion, but i cant get a still frame of it." i didnt ask questions, just listened. as we drove home, i cried thinking how my baby could have heart problems. when they called, they said everything looked fine and the ultrasound looked great. we have kinda dismissed it from our minds, but always have the worry. 

.andrew and i the other night were talking about why we ended up in texas. we both know what each other was talking about. we know some of the best doctors are here, and we both think that if our little man is to have problems, he would be well taken care of here. obviously, its not something we want to talk about, or think about, but some of our peace has come from this. 

.i have noticed when we say family/couple prayer, how much our prayers has changed since wednesday's apt. we pray that baby boy gains some weight and grows healthy. the main reason i am posting about this, is because i need to get my feelings out, and i want to be able to look back and see this experience our family went through. also, because family and friends read my blog... and i am asking for prayers for our little baby e. we thank you in advance. 

.we rely completely on the Lord. we know He knows our needs/our wants/our concerns and wont give us any trial we can't accomplish. already, i have seen the blessing from this trial we are dealing with at this time in our lives. andrew and i have grown closer together. our family has grown closer together. we know we are doing all we can do on our side, and changing a few thing in our lives to help us become closer to God. we have started making it goal to STOP WHAT WE ARE DOING at 8:30 (sometimes 9) and read from the scriptures and say family prayer. even if brooklynn is running around. 

.we know this trial is only a small moment in our life. we are just trying to keep an open mind, and learn what we need to from it. we are so excited for our little family to grow, and to meet our little boy in 6 weeks or less. 

.here is b yesterday, chilling by the window with momma, waiting for daddy to get home from work.

.here is me pregnant with baby e at 34 weeks today.