One more rodeo visit

Dusty and I went to the rodeo again on Sunday. We walked around the livestock show for a little while, got sunburned at the carnival, had a funnel cake, and then headed into the stadium where we met up with the Swans and Henleys. It was "Extreme Bulls" night, so the whole show was a bull riding competition. There were a couple of exciting rides, with one bullfighter being thrown in the air. After the competition, the concert performer for the night was ZZ Top.

I didn't really know what to expect from a ZZ Top concert... They're obviously very popular (or at least they used to be, I'm not sure how popular they still are?), but their music was a little before my time. That being said, I've certainly heard a lot of their music, since they were big in my parents' generation. In any case, we enjoyed the concert. It was kind of difficult to understand the lyrics, but in the really well-known songs we at least knew the chorus! Their guitar playing was really fun to see / hear.

We had a great day at the rodeo... Thank you Nick and Kristina for watching Lily for us!

Fun Playdate

We visited our friends the Swans for a fun playdate at their house on Friday. It was fun to hang out with some other moms, and Lily had an awesome time jumping around in the bounce house (and eating goldfish).

Lily and Gideon have always been so cute together.

Picnic

Daddy was working late tonight, so Lily and I decided to have a picnic in the backyard for dinner (Mommy didn't feel like cooking). Lily loved the idea of eating outside. At first I didn't really think she knew what I meant - I thought maybe she was excited about eating dinner and excited about going outside, but that she didn't realize we were doing both at the same time. But I was wrong! She knew exactly what having a picnic outside meant. She helped me spread out the blanket and then carried her food right over to it and took a seat to start eating her dinner. I guess I don't really know why I'm surprised. Lily knows all kinds of things that I don't remember teaching her. She just soaks things up when you don't even know she's paying attention.

Can you see the band-aid on her left knee? Poor kid. She skinned her knee in the driveway last weekend, and it's been healing up ok. But today she tripped and the scab came off, and it actually looks worse now than when it happened the first time. She's a tough cookie though, I think she'll survive. She doesn't like it when I clean it, though, I'm sure it's sore.

After our picnic we went for a bike ride to the playground at the elementary school. Hard to take pictures of that, but suffice it to say that Lily loves to ride in the bicycle trailer. The other day I told her we were going for a ride but then we didn't get a chance to go, and I thought I'd never hear the end of it. Good thing I made up for it today.

Copycat

Lily recently started putting her feet up on the coffee table like I do. Only I think it's more acrobatic than relaxing for her!

Video - Four Wheeler

It took Lily awhile to get the hang of this thing, but she has started riding her four wheeler more often lately. Still working on steering, though...

Ready, set, go!

Menu Plan Tuesday

Monday - Spaghetti & Broccoli

Tuesday - Taco Sloppy Joes & Corn

Wednesday - Bow-tie Sausage Pasta

Thursday - Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Friday - Pasta alla Marlboro Man (Any Pioneer Woman fans? Check out the link in my sidebar. It's a fun blog that I read once in awhile; she has a whole section of her site dedicated to cooking.)

Saturday - Pancakes -- Breakfast for dinner

Sunday - Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Between being tired and being nauseous, I haven't really felt like cooking lately, but alas, we still have to eat. So pasta it is. Simple and delicious.

Prenatal Visit

I went to the Medical Center to see Dr. Mastrobattista today, for my first prenatal visit in her office. I have kind of had mixed feelings about transferring to the specialist so soon. Obviously, my pregnancy is high-risk and that's the right thing to do, but I was kind of dreading driving to the Med Center so often. After going in today, though, I am really glad that we went ahead and switched now. Nurse Laura is wonderfully on top of things, and I always feel like I'm in good hands with Dr. Mastro. We had a lot of things to go over today, but I was in and out of there very quickly. I had another ultrasound today, and everything is fine (and I got a new picture!) I go back in four weeks.

Rodeo

We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Saturday. The rodeo in Houston is a huge event! There are lots of great activities for kids as well as adults, and we had a fabulous time. The pictures are out of order, but you can see some of the fun we had.

This is during the Trace Adkins concert after the rodeo. Lily enjoyed the rodeo and concert, pointing at animals and clapping her hands with the music.

We made the mistake of riding the Dizzy Dragon carnival ride. The ride itself would have been fine, but we got our dragon spinning a little too fast. Lily loved it, but Mommy and Daddy didn't care for it! Lily's serious face is her curious look while she watched the other kids who were in the dragon with us. Lily can have some very serious expressions that seem to intimidate people who don't know her - they think she's angry or upset, but she's really just checking things out.

Of course there's no shortage of smiles like these! Lily is such a daddy's girl.

Lily really liked riding in the elephant with Daddy.

The goats stole the food from us as soon as we walked into the petting zoo! Literally, they jumped up on me and stole it right out of my hands before Lily could feed it to them.

Couldn't fool Lily in the milking shed... There was water in the cow, obviously meant to represent milk, but Lily wouldn't hear of it. She said, "no, it's water!" Hard to argue with her there.

Lily planted a tomato seed in the garden.

Brazos Bend

We went on a MOMS Club field trip to Brazos Bend State Park today. We had a really nice time hanging out with our friends, and we saw an alligator on our walk around one of the small lakes at the park. Brazos Bend is known for its alligators, but we didn't see any the last time we visited. It was fun to see one today, from a safe distance of course! The alligator didn't move at all the entire time our group was watching him. After our little hike, we visited the nature center where we got to touch a baby alligator and a snake. Lily was very interested in touching them both, but she was also very serious about it because I was constantly saying, "gentle, gentle, gentle!" She wanted to grab them instead of touch nicely. We would have stayed at the park longer, but I hadn't packed a lunch (I didn't think we were going to make it to the field trip because of another appointment earlier in the morning).

Big News!

We're having a baby!

My due date is October 18th. I am currently 7 1/2 weeks along... I saw my doctor last week, and I'm transferring to my specialist now. I'll have my first visit with her on Monday, and we'll go from there. Just wanted to share our happy news with you all!

Spaghetti

She does know how to use a spoon and fork. Really, she does. You just can't tell because she prefers to use her fingers.

Rodeo Sunday

Our church always celebrates the kick-off of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo by having "Rodeo Sunday." My favorite part of Rodeo Sunday is the petting zoo! Last year Lily was a little scared of the animals, but this year she ran around all over the place, petting almost all of the animals. She especially liked the chickens.

Back by popular demand...

Just in case anyone was in danger of forgetting what Lily looks like, I've posted some new pictures today!

This is Lily's first ponytail ever!

It only lasted long enough for me to take these pictures.