.lazy family weekend in texas.

.i LOVE how we have done something as a family every single weekend, and since it seems we have been going, going, going to big places, and spending a lot of money...we decided to have a low key weekend.

.thursday i had my doc apt, and she checked me and i had no progress (not a big surprise). well when i got home, i was bleeding. i didnt want to stress out, but was a bit worried. so i called my sister, and she just told me to take it easy, and watch it, if it gets worse, than i should call my doctor. anyways- i had cramping through the night, and started to stress about all the things i dont have done in case i were in labor.

.friday morning i took andrew to work, so i could have the car in case my doctor wanted me to come in. called the doctor, and she said it was probably from her checking me, totally normal and a mix of my body getting ready for labor. . . anyways so i am not TMI... things are good, we are good. no baby. it was normal, i had just never experienced that with brooklynn. different pregnancy.

.so saturday. we slept in until 9. than went down and had breakfast, and than headed to an indoor play area. some girls from the ward went there friday (but since i was taking it easy and not feeling too hot, i didnt get a chance to take b). so we took her. parents are free, and brooklynn was $3....LOVE THIS. ..AND...you can leave and come back the same day and not pay a re-entrance fee. so $3 for the entire day...DOUBLE love this.

.the play area is maybe 5 minutes from our place, and has AC. it was a cute little place that had lots to do. brooklynn was in love. there was an infant/toddler area, but brooklynn wanted nothing to do with it, she got bored. so andrew chased her around the big area, and she did everything like a champ. she LOVED the slides, and would climb to the top, sit down, and go down by herself. 

 .infant toddler area.

 .infant toddler area... last 5 minutes.

 .and than she moved on to the bigger and better.

 .they have a little movie area.

 .thats my girl.

 .baller baby.

 .daddy helping her shoot a basket.

 .she LOVED the slide.

 .she went alot faster than daddy thought..i caught the action of daddy flipping out trying to get to her, i laughed SO hard.

 .haha. she pressed her nose up against the window when she saw me taking a picture of her.

 .pirate ship playarea.

 .castle playarea.

.tractor play area.

.she also LOVED the basketball area (thats my girl). she spent probably 20-30 minutes, chasing the basketball, bouncing it, kicking it (yea...SOCCER TOO!...thats my girl)...and just loved it. i was such a proud mommy. loved seeing her loving basketball. awesome.

.well afterwards, we headed out, and brooklynn was worn out. we decided to head up to the temple, so i could get a few thing at the distribution center, and just check out the temple and the area around it. we looked at houses and it was fun to see what houses we could probably afford, and others there was no way we could. gave andrew and i an opportunity to talk about our future, what we liked, didnt like, and explore more area around us. 

.we went out to lunch. we NEVER do a sit down restaurant, and i told andrew i really wanted to today, to get out of the car. we tried a chinese restaurant and loved it. it was soo good, and we havent been to a good place in a long, long time. 

.we drove around to other places 15-20 minutes from USAA (in case we did move down here, we want a 15-20 minute commute for andrew).  we looked at more houses and just talked. it was so nice.

.it was a nice, low key weekend. we have 4th of july and our last saturday as a family of 3 this weekend, SAD. so i hope we have alot of fun this weekend. 

.brooklynn has been playing with toys this week...poor girl, this momma is worn out and so we have not got out to the pool all week, but we have a goal to try and change this, this upcoming week. 

.i got this car for 6 bucks at a secondhand store called kid to kid. LOVED this. she wanted it so bad, and she drives it around, it sings 2 songs, and she takes some of her animals for rides too. its adorable, and i love that...these pictures are from her "shopping"...i looked over and she had her purse up on her shoulder and driving her car....i asked her if she was going shopping and she smiled.

.she also has rediscovered her swing (well meant to be her bothers). look how big she is. she LOVES it. she will climb up in there by herself with her blanket and rock and rock. many times she fell asleep in there, its ridiculous how big she is in that swing... i see some fits being thrown when her brother is in there. thanks andrew, for showing her how cool her swing is.

.thats it for today. we will hopefully have some posts from our 4th and this weekend.

.our seaworld adventure.

.we talked about seaworld since we moved here. but looking at prices ($80 per adult), meant a lot of money. we put it off for a few weeks while we were here, but andrew kept insisting we go and experience it.

.so we did.

.and it was worth every penny.

.we ran errands until 10pm friday night, so by the time we got back, and i packed lunches for the following day, and we got b down, and go to bed, it was close to midnight. i figured we would get up around 8 or 9, and that was fine.

.i had everything set out for us, and everything ready to go for our adventure, just needed to stop at the ice machine in the hotel on the way out to fill the cooler (thanks to my friend Maren, from church, who let us use her cooler). anyways around 7:15am i woke up to run quickly to walmart to exchange some swim bottoms...well miss b was wide awake, so i took her with me and left andrew to sleep longer. we got back around 8am, and andrew was up jumping in the shower.

.we head downstairs. ate. came up. changed. and headed out. we arrived around 10:30am...and my goodness is was HOT and PACKED. it took an hour to get through the ticket line and inside the gates. brooklynn was grumpy because she went to bed so late the night before, and woke up so early. i thought, "great this is going to be the longest day ever, and not going to be any fun with such a grumpy child." good thing i was proved wrong.

 .b at the enterance of seaworld. it was really pretty.

 .under the towers.

.me and be about ready to head into the waterpark. it was so hot.

.we went to the waterpark immediately because we were hot and knew how much of a water baby brooklynn is. we walked around for a good 30 minutes trying to find where to purchase a locker....FINALLY we found it... sucky thing was out locker was RIGHT next to a smoking area. YUCK! But we survived for the day and tried to make any locker stops as quick as possible and not with brooklynn around if we could help it.

.brooklynn touches a sting ray at seaworld.

.the waterpark was great. obviously the park is more for older children and adults...but we still had such a great time. they had a few different kid areas, and brooklynn just loved every minute of it. we went to a first kid area, and brooklynn laughed and screamed and squealed while she played and her daddy chased her around and mommy took video. when andrew picked her up to take her to another kid area, she thought we were done and cried and cried.

.brooklynn throwing a fit to leave the waterpark.

.luckily she realize we were not done and taking her to another area of the waterpark. this area was kid friendly as well, but alot older kids too. it was pretty much a 2 story playplace that always had water dumping down somewhere. brooklynn LOVED it. every 5 minutes or so this HUGE HUGE HUGE bucket of water would fill up and dump down... andrew took her in it and i thought she is gonna drown in how much water force was behind it. . . but my gosh that girl just took it and clapped with excitement afterwards. she is SUCH a water baby and will just go right in (scary sometimes how much she has no fear). but she loved it.

.brooklynn and the big bucket of water.

.after about 2.5 hours at the waterpark we decided to head out to the seaworld park of the park and watch some shows. we realized we had about an 1 or so to kill before the next show of what we wanted to see was available so it was a perfect time to get lunch. poor brooklynn was WIPED after just the waterpark of it.

.well andrew and i realized we could drive out of the park, and come back... and there was a mcdonald's right outside the park, so we packed up brooklynn and headed down. we both got a dollar burger, and shared a cherry berry chiller...than came back to the park, and ate some of the food i packed as well. i throw the leftover food in the bag, and we headed back into the park.

.we went to "azul"...the dolphin show. brooklynn was memorized. she loved watching all dolphins, and  the girls, and the "jumpers" it was a great show. i loved it. the show was a lot smaller, so we were probably 3-4 rows back. it was great. brooklynn watched the entire thing. no fussing at all. it was wonderful. i loved all the different things they had going on. really kept our attention.

 .azul stage, it was really pretty.

 .dolphins doing their tricks.

 .this lady reminded me of Tammy Kirby because she was hanging in the air from practically nothing.

.more dolphin tricks.

.azul dolphin show.

.more azul dolphin show.

.than we went to a whale show. those animals are HUGE. my goodness. it was packed, so we were not as close, so brooklynn didnt pay AS MUCH attention... but she still did awesome watching. we then headed to an elmo show for brooklynn. at this point she was done...but we were right in front, and they told all the kids to come up front and dance with them (just below the stage). So we could let brooklynn  stand and dance and so it was not bad at all.

 .b's face the entire show. she was awesome.

 .see the spray from the whale's tail??...it SOAKED the audience.

.more soaking.

.seaworld whale show.

 .elmo rocks show.

 .b getting hydrated before the show.

.elmo show at seaworld.

.anyways, at this point we were DONE with shows, and ready to get back in the water. i was ready to get in the water too. (i didnt really get in the water the first time, because i was taking video). so we went to the locker, dropped our stuff and got in the water. it was COLD but felt good (if i had my feet in it). lol. i did chase around brooklynn for a bit, but i was SO tired from walking around 37 weeks pregnant, it didnt last too long. luckily andrew was awesome and chased her around for me. 

 .b and i after a long day.

 .andrew and i after our day at seaworld.

.thanks seaworld. it was alot of fun.

.we ended our day with dinner at carl's jr. yes. carl's jr. its one of my FAVORITE places to go when I am in the mood for a burger. i love love their teriyaki burger so much, and when this mama is pregnant, she LOVES herself a good pineapple burger. i was so thrilled when andrew said we could go. we got shakes too...we usually only get something off the dollar menu. it was just a great day.

.overall, our trip was AWESOME! it was a lot of money. it was alot of walking. it was alot of sweating (it was over 100 that day). it was a lot of patience. but overall brooklynn's squeals, and smiles, and face was priceless. she was SO tired by the end, we all slept so good. it was a great place to go. and another place to check off out to-do list before we leave and before our baby boy comes.

.thanks seaworld for the fun. i think we all decided it was our favorite thing we have done in texas.

.zoo.swim.usaa party.

.this weekend was going, going, going. which was fun, but also made it go by WAY TOO FAST. 

.andrew told me I was in charge of planning this weekend. So Friday night we actually went out to eat (only because Andrew had a coupon for buy one get one free...and it was all you could eat.) It was REALLY good because it was different from the hotel food. It was so nice to get out, Andrew and I were able to talk, Brooklynn ate and ate and ate, and we did too. We also took Andrew to get a haircut cause he was in dying need of one. Than we headed back to the hotel, and played with Brooklynn until bedtime, and went to sleep.

.i could not sleep at all. it was horrible. i think i ran on 5 hours of sleep total Saturday. which is not horrible, but not the best either. I got up early and took our laundry down, and started it, so we could have clean clothes for the day. i packed a lunch for us for the day, and we headed down to get breakfast. ate. and headed out the door for our adventures for the day. 

.we went to the san antonio zoo. it was SO HOT. we ended up getting there around 11, and stayed until 1:30. we saw enough animals to keep brooklynn entertained, and to get a bit of a tan. i was not amazed by the zoo, but i wasnt disappointed either. they didnt have giraffes, and that is one animal i was really looking forward too. but oh well. brooklynn enjoyed herself, and thats all that matters. we finished off with a little train ride around the zoo, and decided to get b home for her nap.

 .i love this picture of b.

 .b at the zoo... for the FIRST TIME.

 .dad and b at zoo.

 .mom and b at zoo (i cannot wait to have a GOOD picture with b).

 .flamingos.

 .b was pretty interested when she could see the animals and they would move.

 .black bear.

 .this monkey just posed on the fence like this.

 .fish.

 .sharks.

 .i thought this fish looked sweet.

 .b looking down at the fish.

 .b girl.

 .can you spot the cheetah? 

 .zebras.

 .rino... poor thing just wanted shade.

 .elephants... they were awesome. walking around and getting really close.

 .elephants.

 .b-sippy in one hand, and pushing the stroller with the other.. she LOVES to push the stroller.

 .tiger...right when we got there he got up, and came to get a drink of water.....he also turn around so his butt was facing everyone and took a dump.

 .can you spot the lion?.

 .train ride... she LOVED it.

 .san antonio river... part of train ride.

 .train ride.

 .our little train that took us.

.b worn out and HOT... she fought me to put her hair up.. so she wore it down)

.brooklynn was SO READY for a nap by the time we got in the car. we were hot. (it was like 96), and so we stopped at Sonic on the way home and shared a slushee. it tasted GREAT and cooled us off. and was cheap! once we got to the hotel, brooklynn was wired (i dont know how, she slept maybe 20 minutes in the car)...so Andrew decided he would take her down to the pool while i got to lay out next to the pool. she is awesome at holding on to the floaty ring, and she it is getting easier. but she is still a dare devil and will just jump in, so you have to watch her. most of the time this girl has learned to hold her breath. i am so impressed. she kicks her legs too. i need to get video. anyways, it got too hot for me to just lay, so i got in the pool and relaxed while in there. we were there for about 1.5 and than decided we should head up to get b down for a nap.

.nope. she didnt want anything to do for a nap. we showered and got ready to head to andrew's work event. so we folded laundry, and just took our time getting ready for his work event. than off we went.

.i wish i would of brought the camera to the work event. it was HUGE and so much to do. if brooklynn was just a bit older, it would of been more fun for her, but she danced to the music and ran around and we got yummy food. i am pretty sure all they do at USAA is eat. they had so many little stands. (serious- they had hot dogs, hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches, pizzas, veggie bowls, fries, cookies, shaved ice, fried rice, grilled corn on the cob, italian ice and the list goes on). They also had different events for different aged kids... bouncy house, bubble station, inflatable slides, photo booth, etc etc. it was crazy. they do it every year.... this year they were celebrating their 90th year. and they have a different theme for each year....people say its awesome and alot of fun to make a tradition. they end the night with a firework show. they have 15000 employees (not including interns) and they all are invited with their families... busy busy, but their campus is SO BIG it was not a big deal, or too crowded. 

.unfortunately, after 2 hours there, we were done, and b was done. so we stopped at the mall to look at a sale, and than headed home. i told andrew at my next doc apt she is gonna ask what i did this weekened because i will be more dilated. lol. he told me not to get my hopes up. haha. 

.my mom booked her flight to come here when baby comes. i am SO THRILLED. she is staying for 13 days! i could not be more excited. she is coming in the day before i get induced, and this just calms me down, knowing someone is here for b.

.b skyping with grandparents.

.we skyped with our parents last night. said happy fathers day to our dads. went to church. relaxed. put b down for the night, and finished the night watching a movie together. it was such a great weekend. i cannot wait for this upcoming weekend. 

.count your blessings.

.i would not be a good person if i did not write a post about how thankful i am for prayers, and for the Lord hearing our family prayers every night.

.i had my doc apt yesterday, and i was stressed. i think i slept maybe 3-4 hours between not being able to sleep because of worry, and for some reason brooklynn could not sleep either. so i was up ALOT.

.getting to the doctor was a task on it's own....brooklynn pooped in the tub, than i had to figure out snacks that would keep her happy during my apt, than i got dressed, than brooklynn pooped her diaper, than it was a fight to put her hair up. all in all, it was a nightmare, but we did it.

.waiting game. i hate that. wait upstairs, get sent downstairs to get my ultrasound. waiting. go in. see the baby boy instead of you... blessing. him measuring ALOT bigger than i could even imagine. blessing. they tried to get a 3D picture.. but little man likes his hands up at his face... he still looked cute for what i could see. the tech took another picture of his manhood just for andrew. blessing.

.going upstairs, talking to doctor... she telling me that she has no worries, that he isn't the biggest baby... but he is not in any worry to her like he was 2 weeks ago. blessing. her checking me and telling me that i am dilated to a 1. blessing. calling andrew after my apt to tell him his son is healthy and will make his arrival july13th unless he decides to come early on his own. blessing.

.that evening i took andrew to urgent care, he has been complaining about a spot in his throat for over a month now. i forced him in the car and we drove to urgent care. i wanted answers. andrew was stressed about how much an urgent care visit was going to cost us. he has a deep sinus infection, and is now on antibiotics twice a day for 10 days. our total visit because of the insurance through USAA (his internship). $11 dollars. blessing.

.last friday (after being told our son was VERY small)...andrew and i were talking about insurance, and possibility of him being in NICU incase of premature. the bills, and just looking at our finances. andrew than remembered how his manager mentioned that he thought i was covered as well through the insurance Andrew has from USAA. Andrew got on the phone, and talked about his options, and how it all would lay out, and if i was covered. we found out that it would cost an extra $83 dollars a month (more than what we were currently paying for JUST brooklynn and i) to cover our entire family. also, that there is no co-pay. there is a 1500 deductible (through what i had it was 5000) and because i was pregnant again, the deductible was waved. we pay 10% of our bills. blessing.

.last night, we held brooklynn in our arms (she was sleeping) as we said family prayer. it was andrew's turn. him thanking the Lord for our blessings in our lives, and for our healthy baby boy. blessing. we are in a great place right now. even though it is really hard for me some days to be in a hotel room with brooklynn. its a blessing. i get to be a stay at home mom, with my daughter (and soon son), because my husband is hard working, and makes it possible for me to do what i want to do. be a mom. blessing.

.videos & funny faces.

.i am posting some fun videos from this weekend. brooklynn has been in such a good mood, and so much fun. she laughs...and laughs hard. and she fake laughs...its too funny. she is really at a fun age, but also challenging age. she has mommy's attitude, which is hard to deal with (ops!).

.anyways. enough of me, you all want to see pictures and videos of brooklynn. they are long... just an fyi...but stinkin funny, she is always laughing.

.so andrew and i play with photobooth when we are bored...here are 2 of my favorite pictures.

....what would brooklynn look like if she had HUGE sad eyes??...well here ya go.....

..what would brooklynn look like if she was a chunky baby??....well here ya go....

.brooklynn thought it was the funniest thing when she would put her dad's phone on his shoe and he would make some weird sound and shake it....

 here is video of it.

.brooklynn LOVES ice... she learned this from grandpa westensee, when he would give her ice from his pop...so one night, andrew got her a cup of ice and let her go at it. well after she was done, she climbed on dad, and touched him with her could hands... he flipped and she thought it was the most hilarious thing ever.

here is video of dad pretended her hands are still cold.

.our last video is of brooklynn looking for daddy after work. she stands at the window and watches for him, and when he see him, we walk down the hallway and meet him halfway. she puts her hands up when i ask where is daddy...and she reaches her hands out and does a "come here" kinda thing when she is running towards her. 

.video of where's daddy?

.well i am sure there will be a blog post tomorrow or thursday of how the apt goes tomorrow. i am anxious and have a list of questions to ask the doctor. hoping all goes well    :)