Happies!

One of my friends, Allison, posts "happies" every Monday. Happies are just random things that she loves. Don't know if I'll be a weekly "happies" blogger, but here are a few things that make me REAL happy:

1. Starbucks-- yes, I am prego. Yes, I drink caffeine. I am working on it, but you know there other things higher on the list that take priority ;) I did SO good with Alex and never had caffeine. So, my current fave is the Caramel Frappuccino. See, that is just love. It has 90mg of caffeine and you can apparently have up to 300mg's of caffeine a day while prego. I don't think I've come remotely close to tapping out :)


2. Blue Bell Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream
There is a pattern here-- lots of fattening foods :) I wonder why Carson is kicking me to death?!?! Hmmmm

3. So You Think You Can Dance-- the best dance show eva!! Not really loving any of the girls, but Twitch & Joshua are my current favorites. I am bitter that Will got kicked off. VOTE PEOPLE!!! I never have but think it's time to step it up this week after Kherington & Will :(

4. Afternoon naps-- they are rare, but I've been indulging in an afternoon nap once a week at least. I know this is a limited time offer.

5. Salt. I like it. It makes me swell. Deal with it. And I like the Sea Salt. That's for hard core salt addicts.

6. Baby wipes-- are the best invention ever! I don't know how I survived without them! Now that my tummy is a "catch all" for everything, it's nice to have a wipe stashed for those embarassing spill moments.

Carson's Baby Shower - July 20, 2008

Can I just say I have the BEST friends and family in the world?! Last Sunday was Carson's baby shower. I had the most special day-- I really felt like it was the first time I could stop and celebrate the little man's arrival! With Alex being sick during the 1st trimester of my pregnancy, keeping up with her in general, and Nathan traveling over the past 5 weeks, it's been tough to just stop and take it all in. So, this was just an awesome, awesome day! 7 of my dear friends (including Erin who is family too) set up a beautiful cake, family pics, wonderful food, etc. The best part was seeing everyone of course! Rachel and baby Elijah came all the way from Austin which meant the world to me. Several Baylor girls hiked it from all over the area. Both of my moms were there too which was SO fun. I truly have the best moms in the world! Thank you Deb for driving all the way here just to be with me! Carson racked up all kinds of love. We have everything we need for his nursery now and got a ton of adorable clothes and other goodies. We just feel incredibly blessed and now we are ready to meet the little guy. Well, not really ready...but we are closer.

Randoms

Here are a some photos from the past few weeks. We made a trip to Little Rock for Deb's birthday and ABCDE (My brother and sister-in-law and the kids) all joined along with Nana, Granddad, Tyler, Lily and baby Logan. It was a total zoo! My favorite pic is the watermelon shot with Dru. He asked me if I swallowed a watermelon, so when I saw one sitting on the counter, I thought...photo op.
I hope you can see just how much fun we are having this summer!

Alex, Katie and Kaitlyn at a swim playdate

Our little Belle

Daddy & Alex share summer bonding time on the trampoline

The Darby Grandkids

The watermelon pic!

Ghetto princess

Alex loves playing dress-up

Tea Party

DeDe (Debbie) came down for the baby shower and while she was here, we went to Maudee's tea room in Highland Park. Monica, her mom, and Grace (one month older than Alex) and I got dressed up and decided to have a girls day! I have to say it was asking a LOT of two 3 1/2 year olds to have self control in a formal tea room for two hours. But, they did a great job and we had such a great time! VERY FANCY :)

Alex, our little princess!

We have had an wonderful summer! Alex is at such an awesome age. I think 3 has to be the cutest age. I can't believe some of the things that come out of Alex's mouth. One of the funniest things she says is she calls Baked Lays "pecker chips." I know... where did that come from? She has most of her vocabulary mastered now, so when she says things like that, of course we completely encourage it. I think she means potato chips or cracker chips...but the best is when she says it in front of someone that doesn't know what it means. "Mommy, more pecker chips please"-- hehe.
Alex has been doing great with mommy being pregnant too. She will actually come and ask to feel Carson moving. She did ask me where my lap went the other day because there's no place for her to sit anymore.

She's really into Disney princesses at the moment. We have daily dress-up time. Her favorite dress is the Belle gown and she loves to ask Daddy to dance. It's so precious. We call her our "ghetto princess" because she is usually a total mess with her hair everywhere, but wearing a fancy princess gown. She's too cute! We also catch her looking in the mirror and playing with her hair. AHH! We are just loving every minute!

Bahamas Vacation -- Baby Moon

Finally-- vacation pics! We truly had 8 days of heaven. We woke up one morning before 11am to get our facial and massage. It was rough!
We stayed at the Westin Lucaya on the island of Grand Bahama. Our resort was amazing.
A few highlights:

- flying first class and being introduced to the Admirals Club
- no alarm clocks or kiddo alarm clock ;)
- the mini bar raid at 2am
- beach walks
- taking a boat to the middle of nowhere and snorkeling
- meeting hilarious people from Arkansas and we became "the party" at the pool.
these kids were out of control and took us in for the day. very funny!
- having locals yell "it's going to be a girl" at my tummy
- our "heavenly bed" - they really called it that
- getting upgraded to a luxury ocean view suite b/c I am a "travel agent"
- hitting a jackpot at the casino
- Nathan smuggling Cuban cigars



We were just across the street from the City Square where all of the great local bars, restaurants and shops were located, so we walked over every night to try out a new spot.

We decided to renew our wedding vows one evening of the trip. It was so special and just us. I loved that we didn't make any plans...we just rolled with it. We found a special place on the beach and spent time talking about the past 7 years and what we've learned. The most amazing part was really reading the vows. We wrote our vows for the wedding, and we were both surprised to say that we wouldn't change a word of them 7 years later. It was a moment in time that is just ours and I'll never forget.

We decided to take a cab to the one and only movie theatre on the island. This was quite an experience!! We were the only "Americans" in attendance and we were hoping to see Wanted but it was opening night and sold out. So we decided on Get Smart because we were already on the other side of the island and didn't want to jump back in the cab. I am so glad we stayed. It was hilarious. The Bahamians were up on their feet clapping and cheering and yelling throughout the movie. The movie was cute and all, but the people made the movie awesome. We just sat and watched the groups of people get all riled up. TOO FUNNY!!

We had one of the best meals of our life at a restaurant named Lucianios. All I can say is that the staff thought we were a mess b/c we couldn't stop making "ummm" noises throughout the meal. Nathan thought it would be fun to stop and photograph every moment of dinner. We were hysterically laughing and having way too much fun.

Our babymoon was the perfect mix of staying active and being completely lazy. I am so thankful we had that time together-- our "normal" is about to have a whole new meaning!!

It's all jacked up

Hi all,
We are home from our amazing vacation! Ahh, it was heaven! I just can't believe it's over, we are home, and life is back in full swing. It doesn't take long to get thrown right back in.

So, my computer is completely jacked up and is being rebuilt. I have NO computer-- ahh! You don't realize how attached/dependent you are to something until you don't have it. So please forgive me for the lack of posts and pictures from the trip. I promise I will get them up soon-- I just need a computer to do that.
The funny thing is that we have 3 computers in our house...umm, okay. NONE of them work?! I am married to an IT boy. Maybe I should call the Geek Squad ;)

More soon-- but for now, I am 30 weeks prego and headed to the doc for a quick check up tomomrrow. All is great and we are thrilled to be home with our daughter again!