Autumn at the Arboretum

Well, I know that most of you thought that I had lost my mind when I admitted that I waddled around the fair on Friday. But, I just still feel so good and I don't want to miss out on any of the fall activities that we do every year. It seems like there are so many fun things to do this time of year - fall is the very best season of all! In keeping with my craziness, I took Clayton to Autumn at the Arboretum today. I will admit that I was a little more nervous today, mostly because Wade wasn't with me. As I was driving an hour from home, I tried to think of what I would do if my water broke. I never came up with a good plan, so I am very grateful that didn't happen. :)

I met my friend, Janna, out there and we took a million pictures of our boys. Janna is 28 weeks pregnant, so we opted to stay in just the small kiddie area that was decorated for fall (as opposed to trekking around the acres of other flowers and scenery). We were there from 10-1 and then decided to call it quits. Clayton posed MUCH better for pictures this year - I told him that if he took some good pictures, I would let him get his face painted. The lure of a superhero face was all it took for him to turn on the smiles. Some would call it bribery, I choose to think of it as a reward for appeasing his picture crazy Mom. (Okay, okay, so it was a bribe. Whatever - don't judge me.) HA!

Janna and Collin

Janna & Collin were playing peek-a-boo with Clayton

We were telling knock knock jokes in this picture... Knock, knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? "Orange" you glad I didn't say Banana! His favorite joke right now.

Mama and her Boy

When given his options, Clayton chose a Spiderman face (big surprise!). A whole face full of RED facepaint - how brave am I?!?!? I'm pretty sure that I clenched Coolest Mom of the Year today. :)



Amazingly, his face is still (it is 5 pm) painted and my shirt is still white. Now if I can only manage to keep him off of our khaki twill couch....

Awesome Family Shower

Today our sweet family showered Baby Drew with a slew of wonderful gifts! We feel so blessed to be bringing our precious boy into a loving (and BIG) extended family. Even though we only invited family, we still had about 20 guests! We got our sit & stand stroller, bouncer, high chair, diapers, wipes, bath stuff, and a ton of the cutest clothes that I have ever seen. Everything about it was perfect. Leigh Ann and Ashlee did an AMAZING job. Thank you girls so much!!!

Me with the gracious hostesses

Isn't this cake awesome! They copied the pictures from the nursery perfectly. It was almost too pretty to eat (but it sure did taste good!).

My sis, Becca, came in town for the festivities.

My mom had a burpie and matching onesie made for Drew. So cute!

This onesie will make for some great photo ops. :)

My niece, Makinley, is a die hard Aggie fan. (I love that we have that bond!) She gave Drew some onesies to keep him from going to "the dark side."

Grammie made Drew this beautiful quilt!

Who knew that a high chair could make a girl so happy?!?! Love it!

Clayton still rides in his stroller a lot of the time, but I was worried about navigating a double stroller. So... Grammie came to the rescue with a sit & stand stroller. Genius, I tell you!

Even Clayton got some presents. He got some movies, activities, and puzzles to keep him busy at the hospital. Gran also got him this precious big brother shirt.


Only 25 more days... yipee!!!

The Great State Fair of Texas

Last year, as we were walking around at the fair, I made several comments about all the "crazy" pregnant ladies that were out there. I remember saying (as we passed one preggo), "That lady has got to be 8 months pregnant. I can't imagine how miserable she must be. Nothing is worth going through that torture." Well, today I was that crazy preggo (now 8 months and 3 weeks along) waddling around the fair! Wade reminded me of my comments from last year as we finished off our corny dogs at 10:30 am. :) I must admit that it was super fun and I was not miserable at all. If it wasn't for my huge belly and a few small contractions, I would have forgotten that I was even pregnant.

Actually, Wade wanted to rent me a scooter so that I wouldn't have to do so much walking. However, when we inquired about renting a scooter, we found out that they were charging $45 for the day. No thank you, I'll just take my chances on delivering a little early! So, when all was said and done, I just had to eat my words from last year (and a corny dog, and an ear of corn, and an ice cream cone...)

Clayton had a blast and I was content watching his excitement. We pretty much did it all: walked through the auto show, visited Big Tex, ate a corn dog, went to the food & fiber building to get free ice cream and pet the cows, went to the petting zoo, walked through the Helping Hands on the Farm exhibit (still my favorite part), rode the ferris wheel, and played games on the midway. Whew - lots of fun crammed into a few hours. (If you want to relive our fair day from last year, click here.)

WARNING: There are A LOT of pictures. Sorry! This preggo is super indecisive and couldn't narrow it down. :)

The boys with Big Tex

Clayton petting the baby cow.

Enjoying free ice cream.

Feeding a camel at the petting zoo sponsored by my previous employer, Children's Medical Center of Dallas. So much fun...



Farmer Clayton (at Helping Hands on the Farm) planting a potato seed.

Picking the potato that he "planted."

Driving his tractor to go feed the animals.

After a hard day's work as a farmer, the kids get "paid" then get to buy a snack at the little store. Once again, our kid bought a Nutri-Grain bar. He just loves those things...

Riding the ferris wheel.

Daddy won Clayton a Spiderman by playing darts on the midway.

Clayton and Spidey were worn out and fell asleep shortly after we got in the car.

As we left, Wade and I were discussing how expensive everything was. We were tallying up the grand total for the day and Clayton said, "My very favorite part was eating that ice cream cone!" Wade replied, "We spent a small fortune and our kid's favorite part was the free ice cream. You're killin' me, man!" Gotta love him. :)

Drew's -1 Month Birthday & Shining Star

It is exactly 1 month until we will be holding our sweet little Drew! As ready as I am to see his precious face, I am also overwhelmed with everything that we still need to do. It hit me yesterday that we only have a month left to complete all of the tasks on my "To Do Before Drew" checklist. ARGGG!!!! Among the many things on the list are: getting both my kids (WOW - it is still so weird to make "kid" pleural!) scrapbooks & baby books caught up, setting up the pack 'n play, packing bags for the hospital, washing baby clothes, painting the upstairs bathroom.... the list goes on and on. I feel fairly confident that I can accomplish most of my goals by October 23rd. However, if Drew comes early... Oh my - I can't even think about it without going into a panic attack! I just have to rest in the fact that the Lord is in control and that it will all be just fine. I'm sure that when that sweet little angel is placed in my arms, I am not going to care about scrapbooks, pack 'n plays, or unpainted bathrooms. :)

As we are preparing Clayton for the birth of his brother, I have realized that he is having trouble grasping the concept of time and when things are going to happen. He still thinks that it is a whole new day every time that he wakes up from his afternoon nap and he can't distinguish between days, weeks, months, etc. I have been trying for the last couple of weeks to teach him those concepts, but I can see how it would be really hard for a 3 year old to comprehend. I started by buying a calendar and having a little "calendar time" in the morning. (It is a stretch, but I am trying to channel my inner teacher. :) )

That was helping a little, but he was still pretty confused. Finally, my smart hubby came up with the idea of making a paper chain to countdown the days until Baby Drew is here. Now Clayton knows that every morning, before breakfast, he gets to tear a link off of the chain. He loves it!



In other news, Clayton was the "Shining Star" at preschool today. He was soooo excited about being the center of attention (imagine that!). He got to bring a toy (he chose his Buzz Lightyear - Kelli & Doug: it is the one that Doug gave him from the office while we were in New York) and a book (How Do Dinosaurs Go to School) for show and tell. He also brought snack for his friends and was the leader in line all day. I knew about all of those fun things from the note that his teacher sent home on the first day of school. What threw me off was a comment that Clayton made on the way to school this morning. He said (very slowly, for dramatic effect), "Mommy, in chapel today.... I get my very own.... parking space!" I was so confused. I said, "What?!?!? What do you do with your parking space?" He said, "I get to sit there during chapel!" Apparently they are preparing our little tykes for Employee of the Month parking one day???

Lazy Weekend & Happy Fall Y'all!

We have had a lazy weekend at our house. We were planning on going to College Station for the A&M vs. Miami game. I was so excited about taking Clayton to A&M for the first time! I was also thrilled that I was going to get to spend a whole weekend with my good 'ole roomie, Traci, and her hubby, CJ. Unfortunately, we found out late last week that our tickets had fallen through. So sad... :(

Since we thought that we were going to be out of town, we hadn't made any weekend plans. Luckily, our good friends, the Brewer's, swooped in and saved us from boredom. On Friday night, Abbey and I went to a Pampered Chef party with some other girls from our Sunday school class. I ordered a new apple, peeler, corer, slicer. My mom has been letting me borrow the one that she had (from when Becca & I were little). Unfortunately, after 20+ years, it has seen its better days. While Abbey and I were at the party, Brent, Wade, and Clayton went fishing at our neighborhood catch & release pond.

Reeling in "the big one"

He was so proud of his little fish!

Brent with the biggest fish of the evening :)


I think that Clayton enjoyed the pond fishing more than our hubbies did, but they were good sports about taking him. Hopefully, Brent & Wade will be able to take a "real" fishing trip soon (minus our little munchkin).

On Saturday afternoon, we went to the Brewers' house to watch the A&M game. After watching the game, I was kinda glad that we weren't there to see them loose so badly. As most of you know, Clayton has turned to the "dark side" and loves UT. He mocks me constantly by saying "Hook 'Em Horns" and giving me a thumbs down sign. I don't know that I'll ever win him back over to my dear 'ole A&M... The only thing that saved me from being harassed by my boys was that they were outnumbered - Brent & Abbey both went to A&M!

Wade spent rest of the weekend watching football and I made good use of my time by decorating our house for the fall. I LOVE autumn!!! One of the downsides to living in Texas is that we totally get jipped out of a true fall. So... I am trying to bring the fall indoors.



I decked out the dining room table. I found the placemats at Walmart for $2.97 each (score!). I got acorns, cranberries, and twigs tied together with twine from Target to fill my apothecary jars. Still searching for napkin rings...





Autumn officially starts tomorrow. So, Happy Fall Y'all!!!

Dinosaurs Alive!

Lately, I have been really worried about how life for Clayton is going to change when we have Drew. I know that he is going to LOVE having a brother, but I worry about being able to divide our time between the two boys. I am afraid that we won't be able to do some of the fun things that we enjoy doing with our "only" right now. So... we are going to try to cram a bunch of activities into the next five weeks. There will probably be a whole lot of bloggin' goin' on around here. :)

Yesterday we took Clayton to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and to the Omni Theater. It was so fun! Clayton really enjoyed the Dinosaur Roundup Exhibit and Kidspace activities. He also loved the Omni movie called Dinosaurs Alive. They had all of these realistic animations of dinosaurs and how they lived. At the end, we asked Clayton what his favorite part of the movie was. He immediately said, "When the dinosaur pooped!" Of course.... There was a very short clip about how the paleontologists can learn a lot from examining dinosaur dung. Out of it all, that is what our kid picked up on!

It was a fun afternoon with just the three of us! I can't wait until Drew is old enough for us to take both boys to do these fun activities! (On second thought, I know how fast these first few years of Clayton's life have flown by. I am going to treasure every minute of Drew being tiny! Big boy activities will always be there...)

Dinosaur Roundup

Daddy being silly with Clayton

Making a fossil tracing

Clayton sitting inside a dinosaur footprint

Driving the Kidspace mail truck

The Kidspace grocery store check out line

They had this really neat table that blew air out of these tubes below the table. They had cups that you could cut and when you let go of the cup, the cup would fly into the air. Clayton thought that it was amazing. We spent forever at that little table.


Clayton said, "Mommy, you need to clip that dinosaur's fingernails! They are too long!"