Another Beginning

I officially have a preschooler.  Its crazy to think about. This year, she's the "big kid" at her school, I will be having parent/teacher conferences to know how shes doing as far as being ready for kindergarten, and those 4 year old's have a very busy day scheduled during school. This is big time.

Today Brian Maddie and I went to open house to meet the teachers, even though I already knew who her teachers were and I couldn't be happier. I also know all the kids in her class, either from church or from being in her class from previous years.  Maddie was hesitant about being in the 4's class and really wanted to go back to the 3's, but she warmed up quickly and I know she will have a blast.

This year she will be a Zebra with Ms. Dina and Ms. Robyn. I'm excited about hearing about her day on Tuesday and going back to having some quiet time to myself. Especially before the baby comes, because after that, I don't know when I'll hear quiet again. 

Zebras! 

Excited about finding her folder and her seat.

They had a bag of goodies for her along with her folder at her seat. 

They also had a coloring activity sheet for her. She was very happy to see all her friends again and who was going to be in her class this year. 

                                                

Vacation pt.2

We got home on Sunday evening with lots of stories to tell.
One funny thing is, I had mentioned to Brian before we left about the time we drove to San Antonio and spent a few days there for our first anniversary and how we were woken up in the middle of the night TWICE by police beating at our door who had gotten a call about some domestic disturbance. Turns out not only did they get the wrong room, but they got the wrong hotel completely. I asked him "what if something like that happens again?" We just laughed at the possibility. Maybe San Antonio is not a place for us to be spending the night.

On Monday, Brian and I took Maddie to the Allen Convention Center to go Ice skating again. Brian had taken the day off and since she loved ice skating so much from when I took her the week before, we decided to take the opportunity and go again. She got to show Brian all the tricks she learned, which really only included holding on to the side of the wall while the walked around the rink. But she had a lot of fun doing it and I was able to get some good video footage.

This concludes our summer vacation. Now, in just a couple of weeks, Maddie starts her last year at preschool and just a few weeks aft that, a new little one will be joining us and our lives will be changed forever. Again.

Maddie tried on a giant sombrero. I would have gotten it for her, but she wanted a pink cow-girl hat instead.

The Alamo

The River Walk

Above the river walk under the sign for Casa Rio. YUM!

Feeding the dolphins

The Shamu Show

Maddie was impressed.

Meeting Zoey

Shamu roller coaster

The splash area at Sea World

The Penguins

Maddie being silly waiting for the Beluga show to start

Her souvenir 

End to day 2 with a cup cake.

She slept hard after coming back from the parks

Our only family picture.....

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of us at Aquatica because, my camera is not waterproof. But, it was a pretty cool place. Looking forward to going again with both girls someday!

Ice skating on Monday. Great end to our vacation.

Vacation 2012 pt. 1

Sunday evening we returned from our last family of three vacation and we had so much fun!
We left here on Thursday morning around 10:30 a.m. and Maddie did awesome in the car. Despite asking "are we there yet" after only being in the car for 20 min. she pretty much kept herself entertained thanks to some new apps I got for the Ipad, the dvd player, books and colors I packed for her.  It took a little longer then 5hrs to get there, but we took our time. We stopped for lunch, then of course around 3:00, we got stuck in traffic in Austin.

We got to the hotel a little after 4:30, unloaded and freshened up, then headed down town to the River Walk for diner at Casa Rio. We ALWAYS go to Casa Rio when we are there. Its a Jones family tradition, now also an Edwards family tradition. We bought some souvenirs, walked around and got Haagen-dazs Ice cream and had a nice night out.  

The next day, we took a shuttle that our hotel provided to Sea World. This was awesome, that way we didn't have to pay for parking. We bought three 2 day, 2 park passes and If we would do this trip again (I'm sure we will) I would HIGHLY recommend doing this. Visiting the two parks was great. We did Sea World and some of their attractions during the morning while it was cooler, and when we couldn't take the heat any longer, we walked over to the new water park Aquatica. They had an impressive variety of slides and pools Maddie could go on and she loved every minute of it.

At Sea World we got to buy food to feed the dolphins, we saw the Shamu show and a Beluga Whale show, we saw penguins and Zoey from Sesame Street. We also played in a Sesame street water spray area and Maddie and Brian rode some rides. Maddie was just tall enough to ride a Shamu roller coaster and while at first she was determined NOT to ride it, she got up the courage after riding another ride she loved. She wound up riding the roller coaster about 3 times with Brian and it was her favorite.

It was VERY hot and humid this past weekend, so we were so glad we were able to visit the water park. There were a few more shows at Sea Word I would have liked to see, but I was willing to bypass those and go get cooled off. Not to mention, I was getting tired of walking and I know Maddie was dying to play in the pools. Aquatica had an area were you could buy food to feed the sting rays AND if you wanted to, you could make an appointment and get in the water with them. I'm assuming those sting rays had their stingers removed. We did not do that, but it was fun to watch.

Aquatica also had a ride that I could ride! It was a large tube ride that seats up to 4 people and Maddie was tall enough to ride it too. I figured, if Maddie could do it, I could do it. It was kind of risky, but Brian convinced me and I was really wanting to ride something. I'm so glad I did. This ride was so much fun and it was no worse then riding in a car. (bumpy wise). At the end of the ride, we ended up in a little lazy river type pool and it took us under where the the sting rays and fish were swimming. So fun!

At the end of our stay, Saturday night, it stormed big time in San Antonio. We probably wouldn't have even noticed except for around 1:00am the FIRE ALARM started to go off in the hotel. We all woke up to the terribly loud noise and wondered what in the word was going on. My immediate thoughts where "I'm in my maternity night gown, I don't have a robe with me, what am I going to wear to stand outside in the rain?" Maddie was afraid, but not panicking and Brian went to the door to see what was going on in the halls. All of a sudden the alarm stopped and we could see people walking back to their rooms saying it was a false alarm. We were very irritated to say the least, but then I also realized that if that had been a real fire, we would be the dumb family that didn't make it out because we didn't run out quickly like some families did. So we calmed down from the minor heart attack we received and went back to bed. About an hour later it happened AGAIN! the alarm didn't last for more then about 20-30 seconds, but that is a lifetime when its the middle of the night. This time Brian didn't even get out of bed and I called the front desk to ask why this keeps happening. I could hear the poor girl's nervous voice on the other end and phones ringing in the background. She said that there was water on the roof and they were trying to get it off as quickly as possible. It shouldn't happen again. Ok. I went back to bed. It took me a while to go back to sleep and two hours later the alarms went off yet ANOTHER TIME! It was around to 4:00 a.m at this point and I was tempted to get a refund and go to another hotel. But again, it was 4:00 a.m. so we didn't. Fortunately it did not happen a 4th time and all 3 of us slept till 9:30.  

When we went down to check out Sunday morning, there was a mile long line of irritated people wanting to check out or some sort of refund because of the sleepless night before. The hotel gave us a full night's refund and that was fine with us. We were wondering why water on the roof was causing the alarms to go off and later my mom mentioned that it was probably a problem with the water mixing with the electrical boxes or something like that, which now, makes sense.

We didn't rush coming home. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant (not fast food) and made many other necessary stops thanks to the De-caf I had earlier and the plethora of juice boxes Maddie drank.

end to part 1.

Maddie goes ice skating

Yesterday I got together with other MOP's as Brian likes to call it (Mothers of Preschoolers) and today's activity was to meet together for lunch then take the kids ice skating at the Allen convention center. This MOP group has been getting together once a week this summer with planned inexpensive activities to get the kids together to play and have something different to do throughout the summer. We haven't been able to participate in most activities because most were scheduled on Wednesday mornings when Maddie has gymnastics, but some were on Tuesday mornings and those worked out well for us.

Yesterday was our last get-together for this summer. We started off having lunch at Freebirds, which on Tuesdays, kids meals are free with a purchase of an adult meal, then we headed over to the skating rink. At first Maddie was scared and wasn't so sure about what she was about to do, starting with putting on the heavy ice skates.  Then it took lots of coaxing for her to get on the ice. She really wanted me to be the one to help her on the ice, but I had to explain that it wasn't safe for mommy to be ice skating right now. Alissa Pearson teaches skating lessons and she was more then happy to help Maddie out on the ice. It took Maddie a while to warm up to the idea, and after each time she went around the rink, she came out to sit on the bench by me to rest. By the third and last time she got out on the ice, she didn't need any coaxing or help from me getting into the rink. It took her 1 1/2hrs. to go around the rink 3 times, but she had an absolute blast. We will definitely be taking advantage of their open skate times in the future.

Maddie and Alissa

Maddie with Allisa, Kopelynn and Rachel Patterson

Maddie doing her thing all by herself

Maddie about to skate up to Robyn and Bethany England

Reese's Baby Shower

Yesterday was a fun day, we started off going to church, then lunch, then at 2:00 p.m. was a shower for me and baby Reese. I feel blessed to know how many people thought of me during this time and wanted to do something special for me and the new baby. The Shower was beautiful! There was a lot of thought, effort and planning that went into it and I had a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who came and for those who couldn't make it but sent something to open anyways. I'm glad Reese will have pictures to look at of a shower thrown for her when she gets older and know how loved she is.

The beautiful table and decorations

Me and the hostesses. Minus 3 hostesses that couldn't make it. 

Some of the nice gifts 

This is a pillow case that goes with the bedding.

Even Maddie got to open a few big sister gifts!

All the nice things for the new baby.

Me, Maddie, mom and Brian's mom, Rose. 

Thanks again to everyone!

31 weeks

Yesterday was my 31 week mark. I have 8 more weeks to go. It seems like a long time from now, but I feel like I have SO much to do before then.
Today Brian, Maddie and I had a 3D sonogram to go to. We decided at the last minute to do it, since all we had of Reese so far were the 20 week sonogram pictures. It also gave me peace of mind that everything was still developing correctly and that baby Reese is STILL a GIRL! I have been SO paranoid that the 20 week sono was wrong. She is measuring about 3 days early, but that shouldn't affect the due date. She is also about 4lb's, has a great heart beat and everything else is right on track.

I realize pictures like this are not awesome to anyone else but the parents, but here is a picture of our little girl at this point. It was a neat experience to have and Maddie was able to distinguish the baby's features on the monitor pretty well so that was a fun thing for her to experience as well.

So far, these last few weeks have been brutal with the heat we've been having. Maddie and I have been at the pool a lot. I thank heaven for the awesome pool that 24hr fitness has and that its only 5 minutes from my house. We have definitely been putting our money to good use this summer.

I was talking to Brian the other day about how much this pregnancy is so different then the first one. I feel like Reese is just about to fall out of me she's sitting so low. Which is also making my hips pop big time. One night I woke up to go to the restroom and I nearly fell on the floor I was in so much pain, then I got back into bed about to wake Brian up when my hips (or something around my back) popped and I immediately felt better. I haven't have that happen since, but at least now I know what it is. I still pop every time I change positions in bed, but never had the weird alignment pain again. I have been wondering if I didn't have a scheduled c-section that I would be able to deliver naturally since I have all these new symptoms I never had with Maddie, but...I also don't want to wait past the 4th of October to find out. So unless she comes even earlier, we will proceed with the current schedule.

We have also booked our little vacation for this summer. We are going to San Antonio for our last family of 3 vacation. When we were talking about vacations, I really wanted to go to Mexico, Bahamas or even Florida and take Maddie to Disney, but, for several reasons, right now was the only time we were able to go somewhere this summer, and since I'm 31 weeks traveling supper far is probably not a good idea. And Bahamas and Mexico would not be too fun for Maddie. So we settled on San Antonio. We are going to do the river walk thing, eat great Mexican food and take the traditional family photo in front of the Alamo. Then we plan on doing a 2 day pass to Sea World/ Aquaworld for Maddie. I think she will love it. We got a really nice hotel and spa so hopefully Brian and I will be able to take advantage of some of that as well. I'm kind of dreading walking around all day in the heat and my back is starting to feel the pressures of the baby, which neither of those factors were considered when we were booking this trip, but I think we can work around those little kinks.

Happy Friday.