Well hello there strangers!

Yeah, I suck at blogging when I'm pregnant and when I have a newborn. I'm pretty sure I dropped blogging when I was pregnant with Caroline too. Sorry about that.


So..I had a baby, it was a boy and his name is Maxwell Thomas, we call him Max. He was born at 39 weeks and was 8lbs 12oz, 21 inches long.

He has grown to be quite the chunky monkey! He weighed in at 18lbs 2oz at the pediatrician last week (at 3.5 months). We discovered when I was pregnant that he has kidney reflux and he's had some testing and ultrasounds done since he was born. He's on a daily antibiotic to prevent an infection and we are hoping everything will resolve on its own.

How about some pictures? I think I left off last Summer..


Caroline played t-ball in the fall and for half of the Spring before she decided she hated it.

We celebrated Halloween..this was a backup costume because hers wasn't in yet.

We had a great last Christmas as a family of 3.



I told you I'm a cow when I'm pregnant. ;)



Caroline loves her brother!



This is the spot where we were married 6 years ago.

Max is growing.

Caroline turned 4!

And growing.

His first day of school..at 8 weeks.

And growing.

Caroline is going to Catholic school in August and she hates the uniform.

The rest of the Summer (part 1)..

I know I’ve been a terrible blogger. Hey, at least I’m posting this pregnancy..I didn’t even post about Caroline until after she was born. Here are pictures from the rest of our Summer.

Caroline rode in a 4th of July parade in Comfort, TX with her cousin and she loved it.


We went from the parade to Sea World for the 4th of July festivities..we won’t do that again! It was a complete mad house. I was starving but refused to stand in line for food for 1.5 hours. Caroline did have a blast at the Sesame Street dance party.

We watched the fireworks from the parking lot.

My pretty girl on the way to Galveston.

My Aunt and Uncle won a week at a bay house in Galveston in a church raffle and they invited everyone to come enjoy it with them. We had a blast. It was a gorgeous house with an elevator, outdoor kitchen, and access to a boat and jet skis. Yes, we swam in the nasty bay water.



Caroline and her third cousin Kaleigh had fun playing.

We stopped by Meme and Papa’s house on the way home (my grandparents).

Caroline did Summer dance again this year and they put on a mini-recital at the studio at the end of the Summer. Caroline did not understand why she didn’t get to wear makeup and go on the big stage.


I woke up on my 30th birthday to balloons and a sign from Mario and Caroline.

We had cake that night with my family.

We took a weekend trip to Fredericksburg so Mario could run with some of our friends in the BrAvery 5k, supporting research funding for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. One of Caroline’s friends has SMA and we are all hoping a cure can be found soon.

Mario finished 2nd in his age group and I think 8th overall. Caroline ran her first kids fun run.

We stopped in Luckenbach on the way home.


to be continued…

Pregnancy weight gain..

Want to see how fat I get when I'm pregnant? Here you go.


As of today (20w 2d), I have gained 25 pounds!! Yikes. I promise that I'm not constantly eating cheeseburgers, and the thought of sweet stuff make me sick. I think I'm just destined to get huge while pregnant. :(

I gained 85 lbs last time and I'm hoping to stay under that this time.

Just be prepared to see lots of weight loss posts after the baby is born. I lost over 100 lbs after Caroline was born, so I know it's possible to do it again.

15 weeks..

Wow, how am I already 15 weeks pregnant? I was terrible about blogging last time when I was pregnant, and I'm obviously the same this time. Hey, at least I posted about being pregnant before the baby was born this time.

I do not like being pregnant..at all..I feel bad saying that because I know so many people struggle to get pregnant, but I just hate not feeling like myself. I have zero energy. My goal of doing Zumba 3 times per week and eating healthy meals went out the door after the pee dried on the stick. Blah. I gain SO much weight when I'm pregnant and I hate it. I know it's my own fault (and partially my mom's) but I have zero motivation.

We will schedule out anatomy scan next week for sometime in September and I really can't wait to find out what we're having. I'm ready to paint the room and buy clothes! Unfortunately, we got rid of a lot of Caroline's clothes so we'll have to re-buy those even if it is a girl. People keep asking what I want it to be..I honestly don't care. I feel like I haven't connected at all with this baby yet, but I know once I find out what it is (and we come up with a name) the bonding will begin.

I'll have to post pictures of our Summer when I'm at home on the computer sometime. We've had fun during our last Summer as 3. I'm super excited about what the future holds for all of us and I'm really looking forward to the Fall and Winter.

Surprise..

I have been a bad blogger lately for a good reason.

Caroline is going to be a big sister. I have had no energy lately and I’ve barely been on the actual computer. I’m due Feb. 11, 2013, but they are thinking the baby will come a few weeks early since Caroline was 3 weeks early. We shall see.

We will find out the gender at the end of September and Caroline has made it clear that she wants a sister.

Friday Phone Dump

I promise I will write a real blog post soon and get you all caught up on what's going on in our lives. Unfortunately, I haven't picked up my camera very much during June. Here are some cell phone pictures from the last several weeks.




We helped out with our church's washer tournament at a local Kyle festival.





On the last day of dance class the kids got to put on costumes..Carolie wore 10!



We got Sea World passes again this year and we've been 3 times so far.

Sea World has a new water park this year and it's great.

We have stayed at the park from 9am-10pm all three times so a nap is mandatory!

Someone hit our brand new car in the parking garage at work. Luckily they were honest and we got it fixed quickly.

We celebrated our friend's 30th b-day with a kid free night out.

Caroline started Summer dance class with her BFF Faith.

As usual, we spent Father's Day weekend at the river with our family and friends from Houston.

Caroline and her 2nd cousin Kaleigh.





We usually leave the Sea World water park around 7 and head to the Sesame Street area to ride some rides.



The rest of May..

I know, I know, I’m a terrible blogger lately. How about one big post about the rest of the month of May. I just love this time of year! We do something outdoors and water related every weekend.

We are still enjoying the backyard playscape.



We went to a birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s in San Antonio. You can’t go wrong with that place.


We ran into Spongebob and Dora after the party.


We spent some time with my parents. Caroline “helped” Natalie do my mom’s hair.

Caroline had recital dress rehearsal and the actual recital. It was awesome! I can’t wait to get the video..I know we will watch it over and over.

She was so excited to wear makeup!





Caroline has so much fun with her friends in dance class. They are all too cute together.


Ready for recital day!


Caroline’s cousins got her a new dance backpack and she loves it!


We’ve had a lot of living room dance parties lately. Ever since the recital, Caroline is all about dancing.




We’ve spent the past two Sundays at the Kyle pool with some friends and we’ve had a great time. Hopefully we can keep up the tradition.