Last night I finally cleaned up my sewing stuff so we could move my sewing room to the first floor and make room for both cribs! Fernando did a wonderful job of painting the room. A task that took every week night (and some lunches) for the last week and a half. Who knew painting trim would be such a hassle? Fernando was such a trooper doing all the heavy lifting up to the third floor by himself.

Fernando building crib #2. Took about 30 min, not bad!

Now, where to put these cribs?

Another option is across the room from each other. Still have to make room for the glider and changing table. Also, should I do a paper lantern cluster above each crib, or above the changing table?

If anybody is shopping for kid stuff, I would highly recommend the website Allmodernbaby.com. The best part is that it is tax free, free shipping, and they have 10-15% off your entire purchase every weekend sales. And their customer service is fantastic.

We just got back from our yearly trip to my parents place in Lake Chelan, Washington. We didn’t get to do our usual stuff since I was 29 weeks pregnant, but we still managed to have a lot of fun.

Fernando worked remotely for the first week at the lake. Bummer!

But he was a trooper and as soon as he was done on Friday, he helped pick cherries with us girls.

Some friends in the ward own an apple orchard with a couple of other fruit trees.  They have a pie cherry tree and a Rainier cherry tree, and since they don’t like cherries, they let us come pick as much as we’d like.

The pie cherry tree was totally loaded. It was heaven.

So we picked and picked

My sister Crystal (the cherry pie diva) 39 weeks prego.

The fruits of our labors

I think we picked for about an hour

my nieces were such great pickers

All these cherries came from one tree. And we barely made a dent.

The Rainier cherry tree had huge clusters. Sadly the birds had gotten to some of them.  The owners of the tree didn’t even know they had a Rainier tree in their yard! We were so tired of picking the pie cherries and ran out of buckets, that we only got one bowl of these babies.  They go for $8/lb in Houston. At least that’s what I paid earlier this summer.

We decided to come back on another day to pick more of these babies.

I guess you could say I over did it that day.  And suffered for it later that night with contraction after contraction. But I didn’t go into labor so it’s all good. 29 weeks here.

After picking for an hour, we spent a few more hours pitting and freezing the cherries and making a pie or two. My mom makes the best pie in town.

And for the next several days we enjoyed a few more cherry pies/crepes for breakfast. Because pie for breakfast is the best.

We picked over 50 lbs of pie cherries, plus 20 lbs or so of Rainiers. Our same cherry friends gave us a 4 gallon bucket of Bings after church on Sunday as well.  Some people ate a little too many cherries if you know what I mean, but mostly it was cherry heaven.

My good friend Brie and her family came up for a day and we boated to town and had pizza in the park for dinner. Sadly I didn’t get a picture of her family.

Does Fernando look Cuban in this picture?

We boated across the lake to Manson for a shaved ice/popsicle run

We spent the last few days in Seattle visiting a friend from high school, going out to eat and celebrating birthdays and hoping my sister would go into labor. She ended up giving birth to her fourth little girl three days later.

Next year (if we make it), it will be a little different with two little bambinos of our own.

Anyone heard of the Amazon Mom’s Club? I just discovered it today and am so excited!!

Here’s the deal:

~It’s free to sign up

~Free Amazon Prime membership for 3 months. (That’s free 2 day shipping and $3.99/per item one day shipping upgrade). You can share your Prime membership with 1 invitee.

~For every $25 purchase in the baby store, Amazon gives you another free month of Amazon Prime (up to a  year)

~You don’t have to just be a mom, it works for dads, grandparents, aunts/uncles. So when your 12 months is up, have your spouse sign up. Amazon may also decide to extend the program for more than a year.

~30% off select diapers and wipes with Subscribe Now

~News about special discounts and promotions

~If you are already a subscriber to Amazon Prime, you can receive a prorated refund for the remaining months you have left.

Ahh how my love for Amazon continues…

Now that I’m done working, my time is completely devoted to planning a nursery. I think we’ve finally made a decision to paint the room light gray.  Which is not a big deal except that we (and by we I mean Fernando) have to pull up the carpet and paint the floor boards and crown molding and doors white. This room is a lot more modern than the rest of the house, so hopefully it doesn’t seem out of place. So far this is my design board: (you can make your own design boards by using the website www.olioboard.com)

My favorite part is the mushroom pouf ottoman from Anthropology.  Doesn’t it just  make you think of Super Mario Brothers?

Today while shopping, the store had a giant adult sized bouncy chair! I’ve always wanted a bouncy chair in my size, so I was very excited to try it out.  Bottom line: I can see why babies love their bouncy chair.

Clearwater Florida

Fernando flew in from another long stint in Nigeria, only to head out the next morning to catch a flight to Florida to meet up with the rest of his family for a week long vacation. Clearwater is a beach town just west of Tampa. Just like its name, the beach has clear blue/green water that feels more like a warm bathtub than the ocean.  The sand was beautifully white and super soft (unlike the Gulf Coast beaches we are used to in Texas). Since the waves were very gentle, even Grams got into the water which is something that hasn’t happened in years!

We stayed in two condos just shy of two blocks from the beach.  Any further than that and we would have passed out from the heat. And we thought Houston was hot right now!

Fernando’s abuela. She’s doing great after her knee replacement surgery.

Ferd pushing baby Matthew in his new ride.  Everybody loved the Quinny stroller (too bad it doesn’t come in a double).

It was our first time meeting our niece Julia. We hope our kids get curly hair like her. What a cutie.

We spent our time hanging out at the beach, by the pool, and indoors watching lots of Wimbledon during the heat of the day.

Jacob and Elijah were best buds

Between Father’s Day and three birthday celebrations, we all had our fill of cake.

Jacob turned 5, Fernando turned 30, and Julia turned 1.

We went on a lunch cruise around the bay and briefly caught a glimpse of two dolphins.

The view from our balcony looking out at the bay.

Overall we had a great time.

This is me 40 lbs heavier at 24 weeks. Wowza. I’m getting a little nervous about how much bigger I’m going to get since I’m outgrowing my prego clothes.  Braxton Hicks contractions have started, and sometimes I feel like a war is going on in my belly, but its the coolest thing looking down and watching your belly move. Friday is officially my last day of work, then I’m going to grow babies full time and work on the nursery. We’re still holding out until the end to find out what they are.

22 weeks

I finally figured out how to take a picture of myself.  Photo booth…duh! Not the best quality/background, oh well.  Here ya are Ferdy. Can’t wait for you to feel the babies kick! See ya in a few days!

p.s. please don’t bring back a parasite from Africa :)

Milkshakes are on my mind lately.  Actually, anything to do with ice cream. I decided to try out Chick-fil-A’s Banana Pudding Milkshake, and it was yum. It’s like drinking a piece of banana cream pie. Its popular, so don’t be surprised if you go to order one and they are all out.  Yeah, its that good.  If you order a large, make sure you share it so you don’t feel too guilty. That’s what I did…three of us total :)

Random fact: Inodoro means toilet in Spanish.  That was one of my vocab words this week with the Rosetta Stone. How fitting…

Today I realized that I only have 11 more days of working left.  I used to think I was retiring, but reality is that I’m simply changing professions.  My official last day is July 1st, but it just so happens that we are taking a trip to Florida with Fernando’s family before then.

Anyway, today I was thinking: “Gosh I need to blog,” while walking into the bathroom at work. (Bad combination I know.) Anywho, I walk into our office’s restroom only to find that the toilet seat has been left up.  I know you’re probably thinking, “What’s the big deal?” Right? Well, I have been a very lucky wife. In my three years of marriage, my husband has never once left the toilet seat up. In fact, the toilet lid always remains closed. I absolutely hate seeing the inside of the toilet, or having the toilet bowl right out in the open waiting for some unsuspecting thing to fall in it.  So to have this happen on a daily basis, 2-4 times a day at work, is just obnoxious. I mean, in our dental office, all staff members are female, except the doc (who’s privacy shall remain hidden). He’s the one who supplies the air freshener, so I know he has some consideration for the next user of the restroom… Besides, the door and light are always on and the toilet is in direct view for all our patients to see when they walk in our hallway.

So again its time to leave for the day, and as pregnant women do, I entered the restroom, this time, directly after my boss leaves it.  It’s a miracle, for the first time ever the toilet seat is down. Now as I write this, the thought just crossed my mind: I should have taken that as a clear sign to choose a different restroom to use.  But, I enter, and to my dismay there is pee all over the toilet seat and a little on the floor. Not just one or two drops, but several! Disgusting. My only explanation is that the man is not married.

Fernando is back, after spending almost a month in Nigeria. Which is partly why I’ve been so terrible posting lately.  I’m just loving having him home! He had flowers on the table with dinner waiting when I came home from work that day.  It was heaven. Then we spent the whole weekend together just the two of us-walking to the park, sitting on a bench eating ice cream (my favorite thing to do lately), attending our first Houston Dynamo soccer game, shopping, and going to the movies-Rio (not my favorite animation, but still cute). Since he was away for our 3rd anniversary, he brought me home the Rosetta Stone language learning software so I could learn Spanish.  I’ve been wanting this for a while now.  So far it’s really easy to understand, and fun.

While in Nigeria, Fernando decided that he would like to train for a triathalon. He’s really been into working out lately.  This all started when he dropped 10lbs with the HCG diet which was a great motivator.  There’s a sprint triathalon coming up in August that he’s planning on doing.  Hopefully he doesn’t get heat stroke. Since our bikes got stolen, we’ve been toying with the idea of getting road bikes.  Thankfully, we have some super nice friends who are going away for the summer who decided to lend us their totally awesome road bikes to use.

Although I doubt I will get my booty on a bike anytime soon…

week 16

Week 14 hit and my nausea was cured! I feel like a whole new person.  The problem is I’m very limited in what clothes I can wear now. Everything is going good. I may or may not have felt something move inside. I can’t be sure these days. So many strange sensations going on.

I recently discovered fiber reactive dyes for dyeing fabric.  They are 100% way better than Rit dyes.  I get mine from Dharma Trading. They have bright bold colors and don’t bleed or fade.  I’ve been having so much fun with dying onesies and burp cloths.

(sorry about the iphone pics)

This past weekend we went to our new favorite beach- Surfside. There was a lot more sea weed this time around, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal.  The sand was super soft and the water was the perfect temperature.  We flew kites, soaked up the sun, and played in the sand.  We were sure to re apply SPF 50 every two hours or so, but alas, I was fried. Fernando too.  I guess our fair skin isn’t ready for summer yet…

9 weeks (getting hard to keep it a secret)

12 weeks

The next one won’t be for a while since my photographer is in Nigeria, unless I figure out how to do it myself…