Sunday, April 19, 2015

26 weeks pregnant

a sleepy just-woke-up-for-work picture just because I was 3 weeks behind!

How far along? 26 weeks 
Total weight gain: 17 pounds, eek! I know thats a completely normal range at this point in pregnancy.. I'm just trying to comprehend that it's okay and recommended to gain weight ;)
Maternity clothes? oh duh. Except I accidentally threw my favorite maternity jeans into my "take to Goodwill" pile a few weeks ago :( So I've been wearing pre-pregnancy clothes with the belly band. Anytime I'm home though, you know i'm in yoga pants asap.
Sleep: this last week my sleep was not as great.. between waking up 4-5x to go to the bathroom and then for work I couldn't sleep past 3:30pm. After a week of traveling then straight to work for 4 days, I was beat.
Best moment this week: Last Sunday I had a beautiful baby shower (see previous post) then worked 4 nights in a row. I was worried about a few pregnancy symptoms that could turn bad, but I got that checked out and no worries. (thanks blood pressure of 90/60!) Yesterday we enjoyed a crawfish boil at a friends house. All in all, busy but fun!
Miss Anything? sleeping on my stomach, haha! And drinking all the coffee I want! 
Cravings: nothing to particular this week, maybe a milkshake last night?
Symptoms: I've found that I feel like I'm about to explode if I eat a big meal, and lots of congestion/heavy breathing this week. Of course the lovely sciatic pain and heartburn is sticking around too ;)
Looking forward to: working on the nursery, yay! I have so many ideas that I can't wait to put into place!

Friday, April 17, 2015

glitter and gold

After our trip to Austin then back home to baptize some of our youth kids, Cody and I headed out to Ft. Worth for a youth pastors conference at Southwestern Seminary. Since Cody is an online Masters degree students at Southwestern, it was neat to see the actual campus for a change. While in Ft. Worth we were able to meet up with some friends and catch up. Cody and I also checked out a delicious vegan dinner called Spiral then Rodeo Goat for dinner, yum! 

The conference was great! We were able to see a favorite speaker of ours on Friday night and talk to him personally then attend a few breakout sessions on Friday night/all day Saturday. All the sessions were pertaining to how to talk to our students/how to overcome obstacles in ministry or marriage, so it was very encouraging!

Saturday afternoon after the conference we headed north to Sherman to my parents house, ate at my favorite restaurant, and showed my parents my new belly growth ;) On Sunday we went to my hometown church which was fun since we hadn't been there since... Cody and I have been married at least! After the shower my best friend and college roommate Claire and her mom had me a beautiful baby shower! I can't believe I am having baby showers, it is all approaching so.fast.

We got lots of adorable outfits for baby girl and tons of necessities for the nursery. I'm so grateful for everything, now to organize it all! 










 they had set up a few things around the shower 1) had the guests write their name and address on envelopes, that made sending thank you cards out so much easier!! 2) cards that people could fill in the blank of "hopes and wishes for baby" and 3) write a sweet note on a dot that would later become a picture of a balloon bundle we can put in the nursery

 Claire also made these adorable name tags for myself, my mom, and Cody's mom with our new names ;)









 ^^me and claire
 some of my highschool friends and I (and my belly button)


 my grandma, myself, and my mom
 Cody's family and I 

after the shower we went out to eat with my family and Cody's family which is great since our visits with everyone are so few and far between! After that we went back to my parents and had alittle backyard photoshoot. We hadn't "officially" announced her name yet so we decided to take advantage of the E balloon from the shower for our little 

Evynn Claire


26 week update coming soon!

Thursday, April 9, 2015

the babymoon

the babymoon aka the "austin food tour"

We had planned to attend a youth conference for months now, but the closer we got we decided to turn the whole week into a "babymoon" and I'm so glad we did! We know our traveling will get less often and more difficult so we wanted to take advantage before the time comes. So, we left west texas after Easter service and headed southeast towards Austin!

**lots of food pictures up ahead!!

We first stopped in Llano, Tx at Coopers BBQ. Cody was told by a friend at our church to go there, but once we pulled up I knew I had seen the place and been told by others how good it was... and it definitely held up to its name! We ordered way too much pork chop, brisket, and sausage and a few sides. We really weren't prepared to eat that amount of food, haha! But we did and it was worth the experience ;)

We got into Austin about 8pm that evening and got to our hotel, habitat suites. I didn't take a picture, but we recommend it. It was a suite setting (room, kitchen, and living room), very nice, all organic products, full hot breakfast (that we did not take advantage of) and tons of pretty landscaping around.

First thing Monday morning we went to a local breakfast place, Texas French Bread, that was recommended to us. It was very good! I got the breakfast tostados and ate them all up.


After breakfast we went to the capital and found a tour group that was just starting. I'm not one for history, but it is neat seeing where so much takes place.











After the capital we headed over to South Congress to see lots of the "must see in Austin" stuff! Of course, the "i love you so much" wall was first.

**24 weeks pregnant!



We then went to Perla's seafood for lunch. I read so many recommendations for this place, but it didn't stand out to us by any means... and was really expensive! we would rather spend less money on better and more unique food next time

We only shared an appetizer at Perla's so that we could try other well known foods in the area. We then stumbled upon "hey cupcake!" and HAD to get the strawberry cupcake that this little girl in my belly always wants ;)
...then we went to Amy's ice cream and shared a little treat there too :)

just adding that I totally got us a free topping by knowing that quote was from Goodburger ;)

We drove around Austin for a bit after that and stumbled upon Rainey street where we found tons of food trucks and had to try some tacos, so glad we did!

That night we met our college friends at Hopdoddy's for burgers then Gordough's for dessert. That donut may have been my favorite of the trip!


The next morning we hit up the originial Kerbey lane... on kerbey lane ;)

 I ordered the baked potato omelet which was delicious but Cody is still talking about the fried chicken eggs benedict!

We then headed over to the river and rented a canoe for a bit


 couples who squint together stay together.. is that how it goes? ;)

We hit up a few more food trucks for lunch. I had heard about the lobster rolls from Dock and Roll so we shared one and then got a few tacos from another truck then headed to the park for lunch





^^feeling large and in charge at this point!
After the park we went over to barton springs pool and enjoyed hanging around and sticking our feet in the freezing water. There were tons of people swimming but it was too cold for us!





last but not least, we went to the Oasis for dinner. While the view was beautiful and I'm glad we can mark it off the list, it shouldn't have been our most expensive meal! Like earlier, we would much rather have skipped out on the expensive food and eaten better/local food!




overall it was a great time. We really just wanted to explore a new city we hadn't explored before, try tons of food (which we obviously did) and just spend time together! Thank you Austin!

then we e headed back to west texas for less than 24 hours for Cody to baptize some of our youth students!