7 Months!

It's hard to believe that I'm almost 7 months pregnant with our second bambino! We're having a little girl and the due date is September 4th, which seems to be right around the corner.

I haven't started on her nursery yet, but we are in the process of working on our playroom/guestroom/office so that we can transition a bedroom for her. We just finished putting in some energy efficient windows in the gameroom, so now it is actually useable space! Hooray! I'll post pictures once we get a little farther along.

Gabe takes great delight in patting my belly and saying "Hi!" to his baby sister. I think he's gonna love being a big brother!

Other than that, we've been enjoying our summer. We had a great vacation in May down to Port Aransas and then to San Antonio and we're now swimming at my parents' house in Belton most every day.

That's about it for the update, but I'll try to be better about keeping you posted!

Gabe's 2nd Birthday

March 28th we celebrated Gabe's 2nd Birthday!

It was a wonderful day and we had such a fun time. Our families and some friends came over and we cooked out, told hilarious stories, and watched Gabe and his buddies enjoy the festivities. It was so much fun!

Oh, and I did a "Go, Diego, Go" theme, since Gabe seems to be rather obsessed with that show. I made the cake and had a blast doing it. Here is a random smattering of pics from the afternoon...

Here is Gabe with Pastor Tom, or as Gabe says, "Patah TOM!!!"

We all cracked up when we looked over at Grammy
and realized she was using TWO recording devices
to capture the moment. Classic.

Our friends, the Allerkamps

Poppa (pronounced "paw-paw) and Gramps, guarding the grill.

Jeff and Gabe next to the new train table. Definitely the hit of the day!

Gabe getting ready to blow out the candle.
He was so excited that everyone was FINALLY singing
the "Cake Song"
(although, you may know it as the "Happy Birthday" Song)

Lastly, my Diego cake. (Also referred to as the "Diego on Crack" cake...
his eyes were a bit bulgy and scary, ha ha!)

SPRING IS HERE!

I love spring! There is nothing better than the sunshine, the breezy weather, and the blooming flowers and budding trees...Ahhhhh....Life is good!

Well, after going without a camera for months, we finally broke down and bought a new one - hooray! (Our other camera met it's unfortunate demise when Gabe dropped it into a glass of water. It was a bittersweet moment...Even though I knew he had to be punished for ruining our camera, on the inside, I was ECSTATIC!)

We never liked that camera anyway!

But, now I can hopefully post some better pictures. Of course, that will take a while since I'm still learning how to use the new camera. Until then, here are some pics of us at the Ft. Worth Zoo with our buddies, Greg, Colleen, and Adom. We had so much fun!



Gabe and Adom were practicing their laid back cool-guy poses.





So was the orangutang, apparently. (And yes, I did spell "orangutang" correctly!)





Here we are waiting for the train ride. Obviously, the excitement of the moment was overwhelming for Gabe...





We all had a great time on the train. Can't wait to go again!

MERRY CHRISTMAS from US!

Thanksgiving at the Ranch

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving out at my parents ranch. Here are a few commemorative pictures of the event:






Mom and I looked out the window while cooking and saw my Dad, aka "Poppa" or "PaPa", driving about 4 mph with Gabe in his lap, just pointing at everything and showing him the ropes. We were pretty much crying into the gravy...



Here's the fam, chowing down.



We all have the glazed-over-I'm-ridiculously-full-of-food look in our eyes.



Gabe and I out by the tractors in Papa's shed. (Gabe LOVES it out there!)



The guys hanging out with the old jeep.



Story time is the best. (Notice the pile of tractors and trucks on Papa's lap!)



The little laddie looking quite content.



It was a great holiday. We have so very much to be thankful for!

Few house pics

I've been a poor picture taker lately, but since being hounded about posting about our new house (...ahem, COLLEEN!), I figured I'd put a few up here.

This is the lovely kitchen. We have since removed the gorgeous golden glass and will soon be painting the cabinets white.

We are really excited about our "second" Pecan house. The more we are there, the more we are so totally blown away at the handiwork of the Lord in preparing us such a sweet home. Pray with us that we'll be in it by Christmas! That's what we're really hoping for.


This pic is of the Smurfy Cat Carpet that we joyfully ripped out. Can't wait to see something new and clean in its place!!!!
We're enjoying the whole process (sometimes) but are ready to wrap it up...

And on a totally separate note, here is Gabe, trying his hand out at drumming....He seems to enjoy it. Our dream of a family band is coming to pass...THE GOSS-TONES!

I love it.

Sorry for the randomness, but it's rather late...

Life has gotten the best of me...

Okay, fellow bloggers. Once again, I've been a victim of life, which means that superfluous activities like blogging, reading magazines, and sleeping have been put on the back-burner. But, I am determined to at least write a puny post!

There is so much I want to write, but, suffice it to say, we have been pretty swamped getting our new house in order...We have a few weeks before we'll get new carpet put down, so we're using this time to clean and paint and fix up. The previous owners were OCO's - Obsessive Cat Owners. Barf.

Here is a little known fact about me. I HATE FAT CATS - and more that that, I HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE ARE OBSESSED WITH THEIR FAT CATS.

Don't think I'm a monster. When I was a little girl, I loved cats like all my friends. Heck, I even had a ceramic cat lamp in my room, for crying out loud. But somewhere between there and adulthood I began to meet people who were obsessed with their cats, and, frankly, it totally weirds me out. (See pictures below...)

I always have to be careful when I air out this opinion, because there are inevitably people nearby who are OCO's. If that's you, I'm sorry and please get help.




I think the two cats that lived in the house we just bought must have been the two pictured above. 159 pound mammoth cats. That's the only explanation I can come up with for the disgusting amount of cat hair that is EVERYWHERE. Not to mention that lovely smell of cat pee. Ahh....Home ownership!

Anyway, my computer is being slow, but I'll post pictures soon of the new house. We're really excited about it and can't wait to be in, but before that happens there is still a lot of work to be done. Just remember, we'll have a guest room so please come and visit! And I promise not to have any obese kitties around!