What a Full Weekend!

This weekend was full of fun for Kayla and I.  (Unfortunately not for Jeremy, who was stuck on the couch with a hurt back.)  First up was Arley's birthday party at Kiddie Park.  Arley is the daughter of a former co-worker of mine.  We were lucky to be pregnant at the same time, on the same team, and next door to each other.  Kayla and Arley were born just 3 weeks apart.  So fun!  I was so excited to see how Kayla would like all of the rides at Kiddie Park.  The only one I was allowed to ride on was the carousel--most of the rides were kids only, which scared me to death!  The worst was the first one she rode--the boats.  She wasn't crazy about it and kept tipping it. 

I was impressed she actually wanted to ride the horses on the carousel.  She was scared but made it through!

 She loved the gun on the pink plane.  :)  She did great on the other rides as well...the school bus, the horse-drawn carriages, and the train cars.

 This was the best pic we could get of Kayla and Arley...ahh, toddlers.

After Kiddie Park we headed over to O.P. for Cheyanne's party.  Abby Cadabby was there and Kayla just walked around smiling up at her.  I didn't know she liked Abby that much!  She got a wand as a party favor and absolutely loves it. 

 Once again, a picture with the birthday girl was a little disappointing, but we had a great time with Cheyanne and her family.  I love that Kayla has these sweet little girls and boys her age to play with.










On Sunday we made a trip with my cousin and her son, Kyle, and my dad to the Botanical Gardens for their BOOtanica Event.  It was warm, but a lot of fun.  There aren't many places that don't look touched by the drought in San Antonio, but the gardens are one of those beautiful places.   

Our first stop was to make slime.

 My little cupcake!  She was a trooper with the hat and the tights.  I was surprised at how much she liked the tights--she didn't want me to take them off even though it was getting pretty warm.  Silly girl!

 A beautiful smile for the camera!  Rare that we were able to capture it. 

My sweet cousin Sarah and her baby Kyle. 

 We went through the butterfly maze, a special exhibit going on right now.  They had cute little things set up for them to look at, climb on, and peek through.

 Peek-a-Boo!

 Kayla was so happy to be with her grandpa.  She played with him under the trees as she ran away from him and hung on branches like a monkey.  Grandpa has always been her favorite entertainer.  :)

The weekend ended with some work in the nursery, which is coming along very well.  Can't wait to share some progress pics soon!

38 Weeks and Waiting

I am entering a stage of waiting a little more patiently for Sabrina's arrival.  I feel huge, tired, and have aches and pains while (trying to) sleeping, but with 2 weeks to go I am suddenly ready to have time go by a little more slowly. 

I have some not so good reasons for this, the main one being fear.  Having already gone through a tough labor, having a hard time breastfeeding, and remembering the sleepless nights of those first few months, I know better what is ahead.  I don't like being fearful, so I'm working on just trusting God to take care of me no matter what arises.
I have good reasons, well one really good reason, to really sit back and let time pass slowly:  Kayla!  She is such a joy in my life and I can't imagine her not being the central little one to my day. 

 She is such a helpful person, wanting to be a part of everything we are doing.  She is learning the difference between doing something "for real" and pretending.  Like any toddler, she highly prefers the real thing. 

 Her new love is bubbles, and now that she can blow her own I don't have to hyperventilate to please her.  :)  We have had fun making our own bubble solutions and taking advantage of the great weather in the backyard lately.

 Kayla loves to be in the kitchen (and loves tatoos, as a side note, uh-oh!).  This little apron and chef's hat were a birthday gift from my aunt and she just loves to wear it while helping me cook.  Her favorite chores are pouring and stirring.

 Here she is helping me with the laundry.  She pours in the soap and then rinses out the cup in the water.  She has watched me do this so many times that I haven't had to tell her what to do.  However, she did get a little gung ho about putting the clothes in for me and managed to sneak some dark clothes into this load of whites I was bleaching. 

For her birthday she got a slew of baby care toys and this, along with Sabrina's stuff, has revived her interest in taking care of her babies.  She is very gentle with them and tells me when they are crying.  We decide what her baby needs: a bottle, a clean diaper, or a bandaid (they get boo-boos often).  She tells them "It's okay!" and rocks them to soothe them in her rocking chair.




So, I will continue to wait, somewhat uncomfortably, until Sabrina arrives and enjoy my last few weeks as mommy of one.

Busy Day (But Not for Me)!

Nursery plans have kind of been on the back burner lately, which has made me sad.  This month has been super busy for every one.  Plus, my hands have been pretty sore with pregnancy induced carpal tunnel.  God knows how to slow me down when I won't do it on my own.  I was able to complete all of Sabrina's bedding, and we got our laundry room set up with shelving so that we had additional storage for things that were in our front room closet.  Jeremy and I also got Kayla's room fixed up a bit to be more of a toddler room.  So, it was finally time to work on Sabrina's room and we had to hit the brakes.
Today, however, my mom graciously offered her painting skills so that we could make one more step toward getting her nursery ready.  Yay!  Kayla was a big help.  :)  We found that gray is a tricky color, looking blue, purple, or gray depending on what light it is in.  The camera caught pretty true gray, which is what I was after.

We also got trees planted this morning, from Rainbow Gardens.  One guy came to do them all in about 2 hours!  I was super impressed, and glad that we didn't have to do this ourselves.  He mentioned the vast quantities of rock several times.  Although our grass is dead and our yard has been taken over by {green} weeds, the addition of trees makes up for it!

 What a busy Saturday...for everyone but me!  :)

A friend of ours was kind enough to take pictures of Kayla for her 2nd birthday.  She did an awesome job, as usual!  We went to the McNay Art Museum and were blessed with great weather and green grass.

There are more to come, she took a ton!