Fun With Cousins

We've had a house full of visitors this week and we couldn't be more excited!  Leah's Aunt Rachael, Uncle Tommy, cousins Brandon and Micayla and Tom's parents, Tom and Linda, all came from Iowa to visit us!  They arrived on Sunday afternoon and we spent Sunday evening swimming and grilling out brats, hot dogs and corn.  Leah must have some Iowa blood in her because she loves to help shuck corn!

Monday we hung out by the pool some more and had Squeeze Inn for lunch.  Uncle Tommy wanted to go on a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives tour while he was here so that was a top priority!  For dinner we grilled out chicken fajitas and caught ladybugs!

Tuesday we were off to San Francisco.  To say it was pouring down rain is an understatement!  We had to take two vehicles down so Luke, Leah and I decided to just head back home after standing in line for the trolley for just a few minutes with no end to the rain in sight!  It was sprinkling, it was pouring!  It wouldn't have been so bad but Leah and I were both fighting colds to begin with!  These guys had Alcatrez tickets so they were troopers and stuck it out and ended up having a great time!  They're used to the snow in Iowa so a little rain didn't bother them one bit!  The three of us will be heading back to the city in just a couple of weeks when we have another round of visitors come through so we'll cross our fingers for a sunny day so that we can have our turn on the trolley and walking down on the wharf!  We did have a yummy picnic lunch in the car before heading back from Gott's Roadside, another Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives stop.  Leah was asleep so I dropped Luke off, he picked up the food while I circled the block (there's no curb side parking in SF) and then we pulled over in front of some aparments, I think, and had a picnic in the rain!  Because of all the rain, I only took two pictures all day!  One of our picnic in the car and the other of the "gear" we carried with us!  Yes, that's her potty chair under the stroller!  Public restrooms (clean ones anyway) are a little hard to come by in the big city!  Luckily we weren't there long enough to need it besides in the car!

On Wednesday, Rachael and I went out for lunch and went shopping, Luke and Leah stayed home so that Luke could catch up on work and the rest of the gang took off in search of the big redwoods!

Today we took everyone out for breakfast at Tower Cafe, hands down the best breakfast in Sacramento.  We try and take all of our guests here because we love it so much!  Their French Toast is out of this world (and so are the Bloody Mary's)!  Tonight we're just hanging out by the pool and grilling out beef tenderloins that Tom and Linda brought from Iowa.  It doesn't get any better than a corn-fed Iowa beef tenderloin!  Yumm!

Leah and her cousins, Micayla and Brandon!

Leah with her Aunt Rachael and Uncle Tom!

Luke and his sister, Rachael!

They'll all head out tomorrow morning and Luke and I are off to celebrate our anniversary!  We are so so thankful that the Hillebrands were all able to come out to visit us!  We loved every minute that they were here!

23 Weeks

I'm 23 weeks pregnant today!

Pregnancy Highlights:

Size of Baby:  Baby Boy is more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango).

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +6 pounds as of my last appointment.  I get to weigh in at my appointment on Tuesday!

Maternity Clothes:  Yes!  I got some maternity shorts yesterday and I'm loving them!  I've already worn two pairs!  For some reason, I had no maternity shorts from when I was pregnant with Leah, just skirts and capris.  I'm guessing it's because I was working and I certainly wasn't wearing shorts to work!

Gender:  It's a BOY.....Lane Louis Hendricks!

Movement:  He's a mover and a shaker!  Aunt Rachael even got to feel him moving this morning (I think it was a hiccup).

Sleep:  Sleeping great!

What I Miss:  Being free of heartburn!

Cravings:  Anything with chocolate chips!

Symptoms:  Heartburn!  I was also fortunate enough to receive a bout of Leah's cold on Monday.  Not so much fun!  Now I just need to break this nasty cough that came with it!

Best Moment This Week:  Having Luke's sister and her family here for the week and feeling Brother move more and more.  Today we went by Goore's, our local baby store, to check out gliders and strollers.  I'm so bummed, though, because the fabric I wanted on the glider has been discontinued (dark brown with light brown polka dots).  I'll have to go back this week with my bedding swatches to pick out a new fabric so that we can get it ordered.  I'm also pretty set on the double stroller I want, I just need to do lots of thinking about how much use we'll get out of a double stroller.  The one I'm in love with, though, can be used as a single too so that's a plus!  I'm just thinking we'll for sure need a double when we go to Disneyland!  I thought I was pretty ahead of the game as far as getting things ready for Baby Brother until I walked into Goore's.  Now I'm a little overwhelmed!

Brother got a couple more things in the mail this week!  I LOVE baby gowns!  There is nothing more practical when it comes to changing newborn diapers in the middle of the night than gowns!  Plus, they're so soft and cozy!

Happy Birthday Maddie

Our day started off at 7:30 when we heard little pitter patters coming down the hall!  I look forward to Leah dragging her blanket and coming in to wake us up on mornings she can sleep in a little and doesn't have school!  This is one of the great perks of the big girl bed!  Poor girl woke up with a little bit of a cold so she wasn't in the best mood, but it wasn't anything a warm glass of hot chocolate couldn't cure!

Daddy has been working so hard lately to make up for our two week vacation to Texas that he and Leah have been missing out on one of their special little treats.....Saturday morning breakfast dates with just the two of them!  Today, though, they got back on track and went out for breakfast at Mimi's!  They had a fantastic time!

After breakfast it was time to get ready for Maddie's birthday party!  Luke was picking up some things around the house and I told him that I wanted to take a relaxing shower.  Five minutes into my shower, a naked two-year-old opens the shower door to join me!  Leah LOVES to take showers so she didn't want to miss out on this one!  So much for the relaxing shower I ordered!  I would've taken a shower while they went out to breakfast, but I was exhausted so I laid down on the couch for a few minutes.  Oh well!

Leah had tons of fun at the birthday party.  It was at Funtastic, a fun indoor playground type place.  The kids had a blast!

On our way home from the party we stopped at Jamba Juice for a smoothie!  When we were in the shower this morning Leah "made" me a smoothie with her two cups that she likes to play with in the shower so I told her that we would stop and get one this afternoon!  I couldn't figure out where she learned about a smoothie, but when we were in the car on our way home drinking them she said that she had a smoothie just like on Fresh Beat Band.  There's my answer!

Friday Randoms

I like for all of our friends and family to feel like they're living our daily life with us, so here are just a few random memories from our afternoon/evening!

We've become regulars at our local snow cone stand, so much so that the lady remembered us today!  Well, today Leah ordered her own snow cone all by herself!  It went a little something like this:  "uh, pink snow cone, uh, pink lemonade {flavor}, uh, extra small."  Her Daddy was so proud of her and told her that her Aunt Kelley didn't start ordering things for herself until she was 15!  My favorite flavor is blue coconut but they don't have that here so I've settled for tiger's blood.  It's a combination of coconut (not blue) and watermelon and is really yummy!

We've created a sort of tradition (if you can call it that) on Friday nights in our court.  Several of the families gather out front and the kids play in the court while the Mommy's and Daddy's chit chat and enjoy a few cocktails.  Love our neighbors!  So much fun!  Here are a few pictures of Leah, Lyla and Charlie from tonight!  They were some wild drivers, that's for sure, but loved every minute in the jeep!  We can't decide what to get Leah for her birthday and this is definitely a top contender!

Leah's imagination hit a new level tonight!  She was Jasmine and Aboo was tagging along with her.  When it was time for dinner, Leah set the table for two.....for her and Aboo.  She's responsible for getting her own placemat and silverware out for dinner and she got Aboo a set as well.  When she was presented with her plate, she insisted that Aboo have a bean and cheese burrito and peaches as well.  No was not an option for her so Aboo got his own plate!  Aboo didn't eat his, so I finally convinced her to let me eat it!  I just can't even imagine what her imagination is going to do next!

This picture is for Nana!  Here's the slippers that Leah loves to wear!

NOTE:  The entire time that I've been sitting here typing this post out (about 45 minutes or so), Baby Brother has been going wild.  I think he's doing complete 360's!  I can literally feel my stomach being tugged from one side to the other!  Wow!

22 Weeks

I'm 22 weeks today!

Pregnancy Highlights:

Size of Baby:  Baby Boy is 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and weighs almost a pound!

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +6 pounds as of my last appointment

Maternity Clothes:  Yes, yes, yes!  A few of my tops are not, but all pants are!  Also, all of my dresses are non-maternity.  Time to go shopping, though!

Gender:  It's a BOY.....Lane Louis Hendricks!

Movement:  He moves all the time, all over the place and also gets frequent hiccups (at least once per day).

Sleep:  I'm still sleeping great!  Leah's back to sleeping through the night which has been a HUGE blessing!  No more little visitors to my bedside in the middle of the night!  And, Luke is back to his non-snoring self so all is right with the world!

What I Miss:  Not having this awful, awful heartburn!

Cravings:  Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!  I made another batch of chocolate chip cookies last night.  I can now whip up a batch and have the kitchen cleaned in no time flat!  Today I was also craving pizza for some random reason!  Thank goodness for my own special pizza delivery boy!  Still couldn't pay me to eat ground beef (minus an In-N-Out cheeseburger but that's it)!  I better slow all this down, though, so I can still look good in a bikini in Vegas in a few weeks!  Ha!

Symptoms:  Awful heartburn.  It's not all the time, but when it hits I feel like my throat and chest are going to burn right off of my body!

Best Moment This Week:  Baby Brother got some special deliveries this week!  I'm LOVING his name!  I really wanted to see it in print and I couldn't be more happy!  I'm also loving the greens and browns!

I also got the swatches for his bedding that I ordered so that we can start picking out paint colors for his room and pick out the glider we want!  Greens and browns!

Leah was so cute last night.  She was laying in her bed before bedtime and had her jammie shirt pulled up and announced that she had a "baby sister" in her tummy!  She then went on to tell her Daddy that he had a baby brother and a baby sister in his tummy!

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce

For today's Mommy/Daughter date, Leah and I decided to go to the bouncy house place!  We got there soon after they opened so it wasn't too crowded at all!  She had tons of fun!  And, of course, the girl with the HUGE imagination decided that I was Minnie Mouse and she was Daisy Duck while we were there!

She had just as much fun reading all the books they had there!

This gives me an idea for a future Mommy/Daughter date!

After our bouncing good time, it was time for lunch!  I was CRAVING pizza and begged Leah to let us go have pizza but she insisted on her favorite.....Chick-fil-A, of course!  Since Thursdays are her special date days, I had to give in to her wish!  In fact, I tried driving right past Chick-fil-A trying to sneak to Pizza Bell and she told me "turn right there, turn right there, there's Chick-fil-A" so my little sneak attack didn't work at all!  Never fear, though, Daddy is on his way home now and what is he bringing me.....pizza, of course, topped with pepperoni, Canadian bacon and mushrooms!

We were so so lucky and got to eat with the cow today!

Leah loved every minute of this!

We ended our special day with a little Piggy Paint in Sweetpea!  I ordered a bunch for part of the party favors for Leah's upcoming princess birthday party!  We had to test them out, of course!  I think they'll be a huge hit!

Our Monday

Just a very random post with some pictures from our Monday!

Oh yes I did!  I felt guilty ever parking here before I was showing but not anymore!  Leah and I made a quick trip to Toys 'R Us!

And what did we get there?  A sand and water table!  Our poor girl is deprived with very few toys in the backyard.  I thought this would help occupy her this summer when we aren't able to go to the park or play out front with the neighbors!  Sand is messy, so very very messy but I'm just having to let it go.  I don't think we'll EVER have a sandbox though!  Of course, we also had to get a Cinderella bucket and shovel on our shopping trip!



Our new patio has been lacking something.  I finally figured out that it was missing some green!  I love it!

After dinner tonight we went out for a little treat.....cookies at The Cookie Jar, one of our favorite little bakeries in town!  Leah had a crackle, Luke had something with white chocolate and nuts and, of course, I had a chocolate chip (actually two)!