One of Fernando’s co-workers decided to throw him a baby shower on Friday morning.  I felt a little nervous going since I have only met his co-workers one or two times, and some I hadn’t even met before. But it went better than expected.  More than half of the guests were male, and I’m sure it was the first time any of them had been to a shower.  It was held in a conference room, and was catered with yummy breakfast foods.  We started off by playing a game called “Who’s the daddy?” where we had to look at pictures of children and figure out who their celebrity parents were.  The only answer I knew was Brad and Angie’s. I guess I need to read magazines more often.

Basically I sat back and let Fernando do all of the opening of gifts since after all, it was his shower.

The shower ended promptly after one hour since the conference room was reserved afterwards. (which was a huge difference from showers in the past that I’ve been to.) Can’t say I minded it at all.  Overall it was a fun time, and super nice of Fernando’s co-workers to do for us. Thanks guys!

Saturday morning we woke up at 4:20 to meet up with some friends and drive to Clearlake for Fernando’s first triathlon.

We were both nervous since the forecast predicted 107 degrees all weekend, but the heat wasn’t really a problem at all.

Sadly I somehow missed him transitioning after the swim. But I caught this picture after the race.

Here he is starting his run

Ending with a strong finish

He said he completed his two goals:

#1- not drowning

#2- finishing under 1.5 hrs

I was very impressed, and exhausted watching all those people running around. But mainly very proud that he did so well. I don’t think I could do it.

I think there’s a possibility of more triathlons in the future.

Our friend Ashley was a super star and placed 3rd in her age group!

Cuz I’m posting a very scary picture…

32 weeks

I’m a little shocked by this picture. I didn’t think I was this big :(

Anybody know of ways to flip a breech baby? Cuz baby B is feet first dang it and the flashlight trick is not working!

On another note, I wanted to post about the crib skirts I made:

I followed this tutorial, although a tutorial really isn’t necessary. All you do is measure the length of the sides of the crib and how long you want your skirt to be.  Hem the pieces, and sew them to a rectangular piece of fabric (in this case I used my leftover curtain liner) and you’re done. Quickest project I ever did. The fabric is Premier Prints Waverly in charcoal.

The Curtains

For the curtains I used Premier Prints yellow zig zag fabric. I just love a good chevron! I basically wanted this fabric in every color. Thanks Fabric.com!

To make lined grommet curtains, I used this tutorial then followed the manufacturers instructions on the back of the grommet package. The hardest part was by far measuring out the distance between the grommets. I didn’t realize how much fabric is necessary to make curtains. To make four panels at 85 inches, it took 11 yards of fabric! It came out to be $36 a panel, which isn’t Ikea cheap, but isn’t Restoration Hardware expensive either. It is pretty easy to find a Fabric.com coupon code online, so you can save money there (wish I discovered that sooner).

Just gotta sew two crib bumpers then I’m done. But dreading dreading dreading…

Several months ago (February I think) I posted about the start of Sixth Time’s the Charm quilt by AMH in her Handmade Beginnings book. Well, I just barely finished it a couple of weeks ago. It took me that long. Originally I had planned on making two of them, but there was a typo in the book and I couldn’t figure out how to cut out the hexagon with my lame math skills. Luckily I stumbled upon this blog post from somebody who had the same problem. In the comments form, Anna Marie posted the correction to the pattern. Not only did this pattern hurt my brain, but it produced way more scraps than I could ever use. And you know me and scraps…I keep every itty bitty piece.

I absolutely love how this quilt turned out. But I will never make it again.

Instead, poor baby #2 gets this strip quilt that I whipped up in two days.

Okay, I realize that I’ve totally fallen off of the blogging band wagon this past year and I totally regret it.  So now that I have time, I’ve decided that I have no excuse. In fact, I’m going to blog about something that we did just a few hours ago, while it’s still fresh in my memory.

Restaurant week is one of our favorite things to do here in Houston.  During the month of August, for $35/person you get a three course meal at 70 or so of the top restaurants all in the Houston area. Not only is it a good deal, but $5 goes toward charity. This year we went out with some good friends to Ruth’s Chris Steak House.  We’ve heard good things about this restaurant, but none of us couples had ever been.  Fernando and I usually don’t like a lot of hype, because it seems like nothing ever lives up to it, but this was one of those rare occasions.

First of all, for some reason, almost every restaurant here in Houston has a valet service.  Meaning, they block off half of their parking lot and use it for the valet cars.  No thank you. I don’t want to pay you, a stranger, to drive my car 15 feet and park it, when I am perfectly capable of parking it myself. I mean come on, is this really necessary? Valet parking at the ER or labor and delivery unit at the hospital: yes absolutely, but at a restaurant? no. In fact I could use the exercise to work up an appetite or to burn off the delicious meal I just ate.

Anyway, back to tonight, as we pull up, all signs point to valet, so naturally we think we have no choice but to let the stranger take our car and park it ten feet by the entrance. But no worries, that would be my only complaint about the evening. It turns out that we could have just kept driving straight thru.

Now lets talk about the food. Our server (Dragan-fantastic waiter btw) brings out warm loaves of bread with freshly whipped butter. I order a caesar salad and Fernando orders a watermelon and greens salad. Both very large and yummy.

For the main course we both get the 6 oz fillet with shrimp and a side of either green beans and mashed potatoes.  The sides are more like family style portion sizes.

Pictures courtesy of the Ruth’s Chris website.

The steak, super tender, juicy and cooked to perfection

Cheesecake with berries

The desserts were huge as well

I opted for my favorite, bread pudding, w/o the whiskey sauce. Delicious, although I don’t like raisins in my bread pudding.

Overall, one amazing meal. I might not even need to eat my midnight snack which is saying something.  Best steak I’ve had in well, two weeks. (It turns out that McCormick & Schmick’s also has a pretty good steak minus undercooking it). Ruth’s Chris so far surpasses our other restaurant week pics from previous years. Don’t waste your time with III Forks or Smith and Wollensky’s.

To make the night more exciting, we returned home only to find out that our alarm had gone off while we were gone, and since both of our phones were on silent mode, they sent the police to check it out.  And when they checked the front door, they found it unlocked! We can remember to set the alarm when we leave, but we leave the front door unlocked.  Brilliant. Our alarm had just tripped from when Fernando was cleaning the balcony earlier today and didn’t shut the door fully. The police walked through our house and finding nothing amiss, left.  We’re just waiting for the bill…

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 :)