Rain Forest Cafe

Amy invited us to the Rain Forest Cafe to celebrate Cru's birthday on Friday. I have been wanting to take Elliot here for a while & was so excited to see her reaction. She absolutely LOVED it! And that is probably an understatement. I would highly recommend going here. It's so interactive. Every 10 minutes or so the lights would flash & you would hear all the animal noises & see them move. She got a real kick out of that. There's just so many things to look at. She was clapping, dancing & just so happy the entire time.

 Kinsley, Elliot & Lane

 Don't these elephants look real?

 One of the many gorillas.

 These next few pictures aren't great, but show Elliot's pure joy.

Elliot Update

We took Elliot to see the Orthopedic doctor today. He put a full cast on her foot and also gave her a boot to put on top of it. She has to wear it for a full month. I was actually surprised. I figured he'd just take off the other cast & she would have to just stay off it until she felt better. The good thing is that it doesn't go above her knee like the other one did, so she can move around a lot easier. I can already tell a difference. She's dragging herself around & even pulling up on things to stand. So there's major improvement. I think/hope she'll start walking with the boot in the next few days. As bad as it sounds, I can't handle carrying her around all day every day. The bad news is that our plans are now ruined for getting a summer pass to our local kid pool. We were so looking forward to that. I'll be able to get it in July, but Lane will be back at work by then, so we won't get to go as a family. Oh well.

Here she is in her hot pink cast & removable boot. As weird as it sounds, it's actually pretty cute on her.

Playground Accident

While we were at the park yesterday, Elliot went down the slide on Lane's lap & half way down her foot got caught between the wall of the slide & Lane's leg. That resulted in her ankle twisting. She cried for about an hour & then she calmed down. There was no swelling or bruising, but she wouldn't put any weight on it & therefore wouldn't walk. We figured that it was probably just really sore and would give it some time. We wrapped it up with an Ace bandage.

 This morning was no different. Still no swelling or bruising and no walking. We decided to take her into the ER to make sure there were no broken bones. I couldn't imagine there being because she would be in a lot more pain, but then again she was in a lot of pain when we tried to make her stand. So off we went. They took 2 x-rays which came up clean. The doctor was more concerned because she wouldn't walk, which made him think there was something else. He called Cook's Children's Hospital & spoke with a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. He explained how she got the injury & that doctor said it sounds like a toddler fracture, which doesn't show up on x-rays. He told our doctor to put a plaster splint on her & for us to make an appointment with him in a couple of days.

Here it is. A bit dramatic, but it doesn't allow her to move her leg. Under the bandage is a  hard cast-like splint. She doesn't look like she's in any pain, which makes us look stupid for bringing her in. But obviously something is going on that's preventing her from walking. We'll call it a fracture for now.

Pictures of the House

 

Elliot's future room.

 Master Bedroom

 There are too many angles in the master bath, so I just took a picture of my favorite part...the shower!

 Guest bathroom

 Kitchen. Look at all those cabinets!

 Eating area

 Living room

 Elliot's current room. Baby's future room.

Garage. This is also one of my favorite "rooms". It's so nice to be able to have a place to park your car inside & take the groceries in. It's kind of a big deal :)

We're Having a...

BOY!

I went to my new OB today (who I love!) & we finally got a real ultrasound. Her machine wasn't very good, but she said it's pretty obvious. Lane could tell too. I on the other hand cannot read those things to save my life so I'm taking their word for it. I have my "official" ultrasound in June, but the results should remain the same.

We are so excited to be adding a boy to our little family. It will definitely be a huge change since I know nothing about boys. But I'm sure it will be fine. We can't wait to meet little Davis Reid (his name) in October!

Our New Place

Here is our new house! We are just renting it. So far we are loving it. We moved from a 900 sq foot apartment & now have almost 1900 sq feet, so you can imagine how much better it is for us. Our neighborhood is really quiet which is great. We have already met the neighbors across the street from us & on both sides of us. They are all retired & so nice! 

Since we got here on Saturday, we have been busting our butts unpacking & getting everything in it's place. We spent the entire day today organizing the garage, trimming bushes, planting more grass, and trying to find some kind of plant to cover up the ugly black rock wall. I think we have a solution--we're going to plant 3 Oleander bushes in front of it. Those are supposed to fill out & grow pretty tall so it will work perfectly. Plus they have pink flowers, so that will be pretty.

Anyway, tomorrow we'll spend the day planting the bushes & then in the back yard, we're going to plant wildflowers. We figure that will be easiest. A house it so much more work, but I think it's definitely worth it.

Happy Birthday Mom

This past Sunday we went to my sister's house to celebrate my mom's 61st birthday. I was lucky enough to catch my mom flipping the camera off. Not on purpose of course. Her hand was just placed at a weird position which makes it all the more funny. 

We joke that she's ticked off at us for making her wear the hat.

Ultrasound Pictures

I know I said I would post these forever ago, but I'm just now getting around to it. Here is the ultrasound from 9 weeks. I'm now almost 16 weeks. It's crazy how different this pregnancy is from Elliot. I haven't really been sick at all so that's been nice. We'll find out in May if it's a boy or girl.

Easter 2011

What a nice day it has been. We were pretty lame this year & instead of having a nice Easter dinner like I would have liked to do, we had frozen pizza. That's right. With us moving this coming Saturday, I have already boxed up our kitchen things. So I had no bowls, serving dishes or anything to use. Therefore, everything we bought for this week is pretty much frozen dinners. But it all worked out & now we are watching "The Sound of Music". Here are some pictures of Elliot with her Easter basket.

 She got stickers, an activity sticker book & play dough Easter eggs.

 We hid her eggs around the house & she got to find them a couple of times.

Checking out play dough for the first time.

Happy Birthday Lane!

Today Lane turned 32. He says he is now middle aged & soon will be 40. Yes, he's a bit dramatic. Well, we decided to celebrate by going to dinner last night. We had some yummy Mexican food. This morning we went to IHOP for breakfast. I don't know why we always go there, but we do. After that, we really just ran a few errands & then had to be back home for Elliot's nap at noon. At 2:45 I had to set up a fundraiser at church & then work it, so I was gone until 7:30pm. Luckily Lane was able to come up, so he didn't have to be at home the entire time. And that's why we went to dinner last night. Unfortunately for him, it was a pretty uneventful day. He did get some good gifts though: workout video, electric shaver, socks & shirts. Ok, so those are all pretty practical things, but that's what he likes.

Outside

On Sunday we went to my Aunt & Uncle's house and met up with my cousin & her family. They are the only family I have here in Houston & have been a great support to us over the past 4 years. This was kind of our last hurrah before we move.  

Their next door neighbor has a little pond in her backyard along with a fountain & lots of flowers. We went over to check it out and spent a lot of time outside.

She was really interested in this cat.

She loves to buckle things.

2nd Go Round at Nursery

This was Elliot's 2nd time to go to nursery at church. Her first time was like a month & a half ago. In between the 2 times, we have been out of town three times & sick twice. I figured we would be starting back at square one with her being scared, but she did surprisingly well. Maybe it was because her little friend A is now in her class. I really don't care what the reason is as long as she's happy. Lane & I actually got to enjoy Sunday School class. It was so weird. Of course in between classes we stop by the nursery & look through the window to see how she's doing. We are stalkers. Luckily, so are our friends because they took a picture through the window. It was quite cute. Here they are during singing time. Don't they look so grown up?

E is on the right & her friend A is on the teachers lap. So cute!

Fridge Finally Fixed!

When we arrived home from Arlington 2 weeks ago, we were welcomed with a horrible stench coming from our fridge. Come to find out, it had stopped working while we were gone. And judging from the damage, it had probably stopped as soon as we left. So it had been sitting for over a week. Not exactly what we wanted to deal with. We cleaned it out with bleach, but the smell still remained, so we taped it shut so we wouldn't accidentally open the doors. The repair guys came out 3 days later to fix it only to realize they didn't have the correct part. So they they said they would be back in 3 more days! At this point we were considering buying a mini fridge. We even went to a few places to check them out. But we didn't want to spend the money if it would only be a few more days. Well, it ended up being a heck of a lot longer because the repair guy wrote down the wrong part number & they weren't able to find it. Grrr. So after countless calls to this company, things were finally straightened out & our fridge is fixed. What a relief. I was tired of eating fast food & living out of a cooler. It was especially hard since we had Elliot. But all is well now, except for the lingering smell. It's nowhere near as bad as the day we got home, but still not pleasant. I hold my breath every time I open the fridge. Needless to say, we are SO looking forward to moving in 3 weeks!

Up Close

Yesterday I met my cousin & aunt at the zoo. I hadn't seen the new African section, so I was excited to check that out. Giraffes are one of my favorite zoo animals & we got to feed them! I let E hold the leafs of lettuce & she got a real kick out of it.

 Elliot also loved the carousel. She was really getting spoiled this trip to the zoo because I usually never do the stuff you have to pay for. 

Here she is with her cousins, Emerson & Landon (in the background).