A day on the Farm

Yesterday we spent a relaxing day at Old MacDonalds Farm in Humble, TX. There is so much to do there including: train rides, slides, sand mound, petting zoo's, feeding animals, fishing for crawfish, horseback riding and swings in a hay barn! Of course Cade's highlights were climbing on a tractor and chasing balls (soccerr, volleyball, etc). We also got the chance to relax and have a picnic together. It was a busy afternoon and I think we were all ready for a nap afterward. We were once again proud of Cade for showing no fear with the animals. It was such a fun place. Can't wait to go again when Caelin is here and see her reactions!

Happy 24 weeks Caelin!

So, here's what Caelin's been up to:

• Caelin is just over a pound, gaining 4 ounces since last week! She is just over a foot long and has a lean figure, but will start plumping up very soon. Her brain is growing quickly, her taste buds are continuing to develop, her lungs are developing branches of the respiratory system, and her skin is changing from its translucent state.
• Caelin's average heart rate is in the 150's
• She loves to move around A LOT. She moves all night long (I guess she is a night owl) and packs some pretty good punches about 30 minutes after I eat anything. She is very strong and I feel her much more than I did with Cade. Since Cade was breech the whole time, he rolled a lot, but his punches were high and low. You can definitely see that Caelin is laying sideways and I feel her on the far right and left sides of my abdomen (many times she kicks/punches at the same time).
• All of the Grandparents have felt her move now! Like I said, she is a strong little girl.

Here's what Mommy has been up to:

• Gaining weight! I gained 3 pounds this month, so I am officially up 16 pounds at 24 weeks.
• For all you soccer fans out there, my uterus is apparently the size of a soccer ball
• Blood pressure and all tests were all great!
• I get the pleasure of doing the glucose test at my next apt (7 months)...can't wait for my system to get shocked by that! Since I don't drink sodas or sugary drinks...this was not fun. Cade loved it though and I am sure Caelin will as well.
• I also get my Rhogam shot at the next visit

Warrior Dash

This morning Charles and Gramp-ee did the Warrior Dash in Conroe, TX! This is a 3.2mile race with obstacles (mud slide, hay climb, cargo net climb, jumping over fire, tire run, log crawl in the lake, and a mud pit). Needless to say they started clean and ended REALLY dirty! I love that the "warrior wash" station for you to clean up at was actually a lake. Both finished around 45 minutes and had a lot of fun. Cade enjoyed running around, dancing to the live band, and looking at the costumes. His favorite part was getting to ride on a yellow school bus for the first time! It was most interesting to see some of the costumes of people participating. We saw Mario/Luigi/Mushroom Man, Smurfs, a lot of people in pink tutus, The Male version of Hello Kitty, the worst shake weight infomercial ever, and my favorite...OFFICER DANGLES!! This is the way to exercise! Check out these dirty pics...

Cade goes to a toddler bed

I knew this day would come, I just thought it would be later (like another 6 months). Earlier this week, we went in to get Cade out of his crib and he had pulled himself up and was riding the side of the crib like a horse. So...we took it as our clue that it was time to change him to his toddler bed. While Daddy and Cade worked on this, I worked on washing/ironing Caelin's new clothes to keep me busy. I knew the hormones would kick in and I was gonna cry, so I thought it would be good to stay away until the final product was completed. I must say, I do LOVE how proud Cade is of his new bed, and he has the largest smile on his face when you ask him about it. He also enjoys instructing Baylor "up" or "down" and watching Baylor try to please him by jumping in/out of his bed. He went to bed as usual around 7:30 last night and was sound asleep until he walked into our room this morning at 6:30 announcing "Up". I was very proud of him for sleeping in it all night. HOWEVER, this Mama wants her baby to be in a crib forever! I know this is not possible and I will be dealing with this "growing up stuff" until he is 30 (maybe 40), but it is sad to think of how fast time flies by. Sometimes in the midst of screaming, wiping food off the floor, and tripping over small metal cars it is hard to treasure every moment. However, Trace Adkins' song, "You're Gonna Miss This" is always playing in my head during these times. And the song is right, I know I will miss these days when his toys are too big to trip over and I am not telling him to get off the dishwasher lid. No matter how big he gets, he will always be my baby in the crib.

Caelin's coming home outfit

As with Cade, Gam-ee and Gramp-ee have started a tradition of buying the coming home outfit for the baby to wear home from the hospital. Cade's was a blue Feltman Brothers cotton outfit that we loved online. On Tuesday, we met Gam-ee and Uncle Corey for lunch at Whistle Stop Cafe in Tomball (Gramp-ee had to work). After lunch we went just across the street to a fun kids clothing shop. This is where we found Caelin's outfit. It was all of ours first choice and very sweet. I love the matching bloomers and bonnett. It is just perfect and of course I cried when we got it (I'm blaming it on the pregnancy hormones). We love it, THANK YOU Gam-ee and Gramp-ee!! Also, I had this idea that I wanted to decorate Caelin's room in an old shabby chic country theme. So, over Spring Break while in Round Rock, Charles and Papa worked on cutting out the letters from some tin Gramp-ee and Gam-ee brought back from Grapeland, TX. I plan to hang them on a wall with ribbon. Here is a picture of the letters, I think they did a GREAT job on them!

It's Rodeo time!

On Wednesday, during Spring break, we decided to take a family trip to the Houston Rodeo. For those of you who might not grasp the greatness of the Houston Rodeo...it is the WORLD's Largest livestock exhibition and rodeo event. Going strong for 20 days straight, it recorded 2,144,077 visitors last year requiring over 22,000 volunteers! It is HUGE and has so much to do. Every night there is amazing performers and some performers get over 75,000 in attendance per night. You get the picture...IT'S HUGE! So, we took Cade during the day as we know he would not care anything about the performers or sitting still for very long at the actual rodeo part that night. He is much more interested in spending the day doing the kids rodeo, petting zoo, learning about life on the farm, the carnival and seeing all the animals. His favorite part was the petting zoo area outside where he could just run around with the animals. I think he fit RIGHT IN! :) He was not afraid of anything and in fact didn't even care that we were there. He stirred up the crowd by chasing the animals who were running from him and scaring everyone else! He even demanded that Charles lift him up to pet the Llama, which he tried to saddle up on. Hmmmm....my little fearless angel. We're in trouble! Here are pics from the day, I narrowed it down as much as possible, but the pics were all too cute!