Pictures, pictures and more pictures

Ahhhh, I'm so behind! Stuff has been happening and I'm not posting because sometimes I just get behind! First things first, congratulations to Bruce's two new friends arriving in the world: Jude and Isaac! Yay! We're praying for a quick homecoming for Jude and super excited that Isaac joined the world!


Second, silly Bruce set his monitor off again over the weekend. We'd really like to be done with this thing, but obviously if he's still setting it off then we still need to have it around.


Finally, PICTURES! If it didn't take so ridiculously long to upload pictures these posts would get up a lot faster. That's why pictures tend to show up on Facebook long before here because it's super fast.


Here are some pictures for your enjoyment! There are more to update from this weekend, but those will come later.


Greg with his "two favorite people"... at least that's what he told me. Uh, thanks!

Bruce in the "battery eater" AKA swing. For those of you thinking you almost never changed out the batteries in your swing, you have to keep in mind it takes a lot more power to keep an 18 pounder moving!

Greg and the babies.

There are tons more cute pictures to upload, but I'll finish up after a while...

The good things...

So I've spent a lot of time on this blog bemoaning the fact that pregnancy is not fun... I read other people's blogs who are happy and LOVE being pregnant the whole time and all I think is, "my blog is way more entertaining..." I want to make it known officially (because blogland is about as official as things get right? Well blogland and facebook...) that I didn't HATE pregnancy. In order to prove that I've come up with a list of my favorite pregnant moments. I mostly wanted to write this so I don't forget them all.

1. Getting to tell my parents we were pregnant...screwed up scavenger hunt and all it was very exciting getting to tell them.

2. Getting to tell Greg's family. I put family becuase you never actually tell one person anything when you're with that bunch. It's almost instantaneous. Here's my funny memory about that (remember, MY blog...I get to write what I want. :-) ) Anyway, so we were planning on waiting a little bit after we got to Colorado, but we just couldn't. We were way TOO excited. We bought them a picture frame and bibs that read "I love Grandpa/ma." We give them the gift and Martha (MIL) opens it. She sees it, gets all excited and hugs us. Phil (FIL) takes it from her, looks at it, gets a confused look on his face, and then asks "wait, is this stuff for Grace (our neice)?" Martha swings around and pops him on the shoulder and says "NO, they're PREGNANT!" Greg and I started cracking up. I will say Phil got the same look on his face as he did the day I showed him my engagement ring. Not exactly happy...more like he might throw up!

3. Telling Lindsay. Man, what a nut! So I had been planning to wait until she got to SA, but I just couldn't because I stink at waiting. So we're talking on IM while I'm at work (through my cell phone mind you...) and she says she has to go so I quickly put "oh btw I'm pregnant" and then get offline. I was hoping she had to go to some meeting or something, but she was just going so she could go open her daily can of tuna for lunch! She immediately calls me and starts SCREAMING! I was SO surprised that she was so happy...I mean she doesn't even really like kids!

4. Karen telling all the DT's to pray for me when I specifically asked her and Lindsay not to tell anyone. It's funny now because having gone to ACU myself, there's always someone that knows us in most groups.

5. Okay and grouped together is calling Carrie (the very first person other than Greg and I to know) from work the day after I found out while sitting on the blue couches so that I didn't let everyone at my office know. And then following that would have to be calling Misty at 11:00 at night while Tim kept telling her "I know something you don't know!"

6. Hearing "It's a boy" at our 20 week appointment. I started crying. We really wanted a boy...we both really wanted to name him after Greg and my dad. I can't explain it.

7. Stretchy pants...enough said.

8. Having strangers help me get stuff like charcoal, cokes, etc. at HEB.

9. Strangely, getting to go the doctor's office. I REALLY liked all my doctors and it was always "fun" to get to go. Fun is in quotes because I'm sure you all remember how fun it got towards the end!

10. Getting to meet all those super cool nurses when I spent all that time in antepartum. I can't tell you how nice they were. Greg would go home to sleep and I'd still be there and they'd come talk to me and hang out. Super super women! The night before my c-section my favorite one came in and asked if I wanted her to get me chocolate cake, a milk shake, whatever so I could have something good as my "last supper." She was SO sweet. She'd always bring me chocolate milk every night (I had her during both hospital stays) to help with the heartburn since she figured out I didn't like regular milk.

11. My friend Amy bringing me tons of magazines and checking on me every day and updating my office when I got put on bed rest. Along with that is all my other friends calling, texting, emailing, coming by. It's so nice to feel loved. I got that a lot both before Bruce and after. That feeling of people genuinely caring about you and for you is overwhelming.

12. Watching Skyler "sit" and "lay down" when she came over and brought dinner. We were instructing Kaya (the dog) to do those things and out of the corner of our eye we realize Skyler's doing it! HILARIOUS!

13. Watching almost an entire season of Friends with Greg the night before Bruce was born. I was SO anxious and so he brought that up from home and we just laughed along and focused on being with each other. It is a very special night in my head.

14. Getting to actually see Bruce. I can't explain it... it really is a crazy feeling. (of course following all that is getting to hold him, love him, kiss him, touch him, etc.) It's just that very first time seeing him that will always stick in my brain.

And finally...

15. Telling all the people who told me I looked HUGE or that I was having twins that there was a reason why! Not many other people can say they had a 10 lb 10 oz baby. In fact I have yet to meet one...I hear a lot of, "oh my friend had a 19 lb baby" but no one's beaten me in person yet! :-)

Almost two weeks down...

So, I never posted how work was going. Being back at work is kind of fun. I mean, for the most part I like working and I really like who I work with. I have a very nice boss who made my transition back to work very smooth and we have a very awesome friend who watches Bruce which makes things so much better.

So, to tell you a little about our rockstar nanny (she says it sounds more sophisticated than "babysitter" ha ha) here goes. Her name's Malinda and my family has known them for a LONG time...I guess we became good friends with them when I was in 4th grade. They went to Oak Hills with us and when we moved to a new house we were just a neighborhood over from them. Our school bus went by their house so whenever we'd see my mom's car there (at least a few days a week...) we'd get off the bus there and hang out with them for the afternoon. They were also my first babysitting job. She has four kids, three of which are now in college with the youngest going into 11th grade.

She's a super awesome CRAZY lady. Here's a funny story about their family that we were retelling the other day. First, my mom (who is also a "super awesome CRAZY" lady) has had two kitchen fires (well one very near kitchen fire and one grease fire). When my mom caught the kitchen on fire my sisters and I were in the other room and heard it happening and went in to see it...my dad comes running through with the fire extinguisher yelling at us to get out of the house. Okay, flash forward some forgotten amount of time. Malinda leaves a tupperware dish on the stove with the burner on and it catches fire. We're at her house and she calls all the kids in to look at it! No "run outside" business...she wanted us to get to see it! I then tell her about putting flour on it that I'd just learned in girl scouts (she did already know that little trick, but she humored me into letting me be the know it all that I was, ahem, am...). She then dumps the ENTIRE thing of flour onto the fire. Tom (her husband) said there was so much flour in there he was sure we'd stopped midway to go pick up more at the grocery store!

She's also an incredibly strong Christian woman! Her oldest son has Cystic Fibrosis and she has been so strong about it. She knows she can't control it and it's all in God's hands. Her having dealt with this also made me so relieved to put Bruce in her care. I knew that she wouldn't be freaked out by his monitor and that she would definitely be in control if a medical emergency happened.

She takes him around town, and texts me when he does cute stuff, and posts pictures of him of Facebook! She truly loves him and is such a blessing to us!

Here are some of her pictures:

First her family (the little girl at the bottom is a cousin...):

Bruce showing off his muscles:

Here's Bruce smiling looking just like Greg:

She also took some more cute ones today of Bruce with her father in law. It should be mentioned that Bruce has also won over "Bapa's" heart. He fed him his bottle today and wants to hold him all the time. SUPER CUTE! I'll post those pics once she gets them off the camera.

Finally, please keep them in your prayers. Her oldest son is in the hospital right now. He's had his fair share of hospital visits, and it looks like this one isn't a super serious one, but no one wants to be in the hospital... Pray for a speedy recovery for him so he can head back to Abilene!

I'm behind...

So this is going to be a mega post!

First: San-Abil-Stin

Last weekend we did the grand tour. Friday night we went out to dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant (Jasmine Thai here in SA) where we got halfway through dinner and realized we'd left ALL pacifiers at home. From that point on we inhaled our food and got out of there as quickly as we could. Bruce was actually really well behaved, but we knew that could change in an instant and without a plug we could have been in big trouble. There are now about 8 pacifiers in the diaper bag! :-)

Next was Abilene. We drove up Saturday morning for Abilene to surprise one of my college roommates. It was her bridal shower so Greg, Bruce and I headed west. This is a big deal since Greg has only been to Abilene once since we moved (my sister's graduation). He's just not a fan of the city anymore... it's a long story. Anyway we had an AWESOME time surprising Lindsey and getting to see some of our other closest ACU friends. It really was a great time reminiscing and retelling all the stupid/funny things we did in college...most of them were stupid/funny things Greg did during college. I'll quickly share a favorite: Greg went through the campus center window one evening as he was headed to the cafeteria for dinner. That story lives on in infamy!

Here are some pics:

Heather with Bruce (AKA the one who made him famous in my previous post). There are some great college stories about Heather too...wrench through window...stove on all of spring break...tomato soup and green beans...all for another occasion! :-)

Here's Lauren with Bruce. She doesn't have quite as many funny stories...well she does but most aren't appropriate for the blog! :-)

Here's the group! First a comparison shot from when we were in college and then the shot from five years later!

Here's Josh with Bruce. Josh is Greg's longest friend that he still keeps in touch with! They knew each other back in high school and stayed friends all through college and now. That says a lot for Josh!

Next came Austin! Lindsay asked if we could stop through Austin on our way home. I mentioned this to Greg and he said, "oh, so she wants us to drive to Austin and then to SA." Yeah, Austin's not exactly on the way, but we love Auntie L that much! :-)

In order for Greg to make it he needed a drink and this is what he ordered. A MASSIVE iced tea from Chicken Express that forced us to stop 5 minutes from Lindsay's house because he couldn't make it all the way there. It was so big it had a handle! Ugh BOYS!

Here's Auntie L with Bruce. Important to note in this picture is that Bruce is swaddled in his car seat. We decided to try out the feature that allows him to be swaddled and buckled in and it worked! Big success...kept him quiet all during our nice dinner!

Next is Greg's birthday. We went out to Red Robin with Tim and Misty and then ice cream at Cold Stone. The best part of the evening was when they came to sing Happy Birthday to Greg. All the waitstaff was there and Bruce was asleep so we asked them to be quiet...they definitely whispered the happy birthday cheer while doing "golf claps" (y0u know, the ones where they aren't really clapping...also known as Vanna White clapping)! It was super funny, we were all cracking up!

Here's Tim feeding Bruce...see Tim, you can do it...you can have kids!

Here's Misty with her current love affair:

This video is Tim trying to get Bruce to do his new trick. I read in a magazine that if you stick your tongue out then babies will mimic you. I thought that was total BS, but as it turns out...Bruce does it! It's just bizarre!

Finally is 4th of July. We went out to Boerne to watch their fireworks which is always an awesome show. It was BEAUTIFUL weather (after torrential rain hit...) and we had a great time with our friends April, Jason, Ciera, and Chase! Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures while it was still light out and this picture was taken after the torrential rain plus I forgot to put makeup on that day...Just preparing you!