San Antonio

The past couple of days we have been in San Antonio with Lane's mom & step dad. They really spoiled us and we had so much fun. The first night we got there we headed to the River Walk and had dinner. These little mariachi men are crooks. They ask us to pick a song for them to play & once you do that, they tell you it will cost $8. They don't even give you a chance to say never mind.

 My favorite part about San Antonio has always been the boat tours. Here we are waiting in line.

 On the boat.

 The next day they took us to Sea World. Here they are feeding the dolphins.

 Pretty aquarium.

 Characters.

 Elliot loved the Sesame Street Bay of Play.

 Shamu show.

 Worn out from only 2 hours!

 We went back later in the day. She LOVED this ride. I was actually surprised it didn't scare her. It reminded me of the Conquistador at Six Flags, except it also spins while going back & forth.

 This child is obsessed with Elmo.

 Beluga Whale Show.

 Our last day there, we went for a little train ride.

 And on the way home, we stopped in Gruene & had lunch at this place called The Gristmill. It was so rustic.

 The food was awesome. I'm definitely coming here again if I'm ever close by.

Thank you Jan & Rich. We had so much fun & are so lucky to have you guys.

Crazy Mom

I had to make a post about this simply because I think it's hilarious that after 61 years, my mom has finally decided to pierce her ears. She said she wanted to do something "crazy". And I have to agree, that for her it IS crazy. My niece just turned 8 & is now allowed to pierce her ears, so they did it together.

What's Up With Elliot

Just some quick little tidbits about my sweet pea. She really likes stickers as you can see. She had put some on during church & I noticed they had disappeared, but couldn't find where she put them. Later as I was eating the rest of her gold fish, I discovered them inside her snack holder.

 She has also developed a love of standing on her head. She does this all the time. Lane also taught her how to do a somersault. When she's not in front of an audience she can do a really good one. I'm actually pretty impressed by it.

Elliot is now talking in phrases. Half of them I can't understand. But the ones she uses the most are:

"I want to go outside Mama"

"I want to eat Mama"

"I love you"

"There you go"

"Alright"

"I know"

It's funny how she adds the "Mama" onto the end of everything. Even when she's talking to someone else.

She is now sleeping in her big girl bed. A couple of days ago, she climbed in our bed when it was her bed time & I asked if she wanted to sleep there & she said yes. So we just left her there, thinking she would crawl out any minute. But 30 minutes went by & she was still right where we left her. So we decided the next day we would actually put her in her own bed. I was surprised that she did so well. She didn't get out once. This is her 2nd night in her bed & she went down great again. We'll see if she stays in it. I hope so!

And last but not least, we bought her a potty chair. I'm not going to get serious about potty training her just yet, but I wanted to familiarize her with it. She loves to sit on it. She has told me several times tonight that she needed to go, so I took her in there & sat her on it. Of course she didn't go, but I still praised her for trying. Like I said, she's not quite ready, but hopefully by her 2nd birthday she will be. I would love to have her out of diapers before the next one gets here.

Cut Backs

As I mentioned earlier, we sold our Jeep. We had planned to get a '08 or '09 Nissan Sentra on Memorial Day, but things did not go our way. They kept trying to sell us the car for $1500 over the internet price, plus tax, title & license, plus dealership fees ($3500). The car we were negotiating on didn't even have power mirrors & I didn't like the interior, so there was no way we were doing that. Then they tried to finance it for 7 years which would come out to around $23k. Are they serious? Anyway, the prices were too steep for us so we walked away. Needless to say I was ticked off.  I had my heart set on a certain car & it was now off the table. After that horrible experience we decided to look for private sellers with not much luck. Lane found this 2007 Ford Focus for $7k, which means we could pocket some of the money we made off the Jeep.

That's what we ended up doing. Definitely not what I had in mind. I feel like I'm back in high school or college again driving this car around. Not that it's a bad car, but I've been having a hard time adjusting to it compared to the Jeep that although is the same year, was in a lot better condition on the inside & I didn't want to sell in the first place. So there you have it. I will have to live with this car for the next 3 years & then we can revisit the whole car shopping thing again. A couple of things that I do like about this car is that it's pretty zippy & the gas bill is around $37 compared to $70, so that's nice. 

It's crazy that Lane is starting his first job where he'll actually get paid, although not much for the next 3 years, and we are doing all of these cut backs that we didn't do before when we weren't making any income. We will be giving up our cell phones in about a month, we no longer have cable & we have a crappier car. I guess it's different now that it's our money we're working with & not student loans. Plus our house costs $500 more than our apartment did, so that's a huge part of it. I just have to keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. One day I will get to buy whatever car I want. Although I was just talking to Regina about this & we were both laughing saying that it's just not in the cards for us to ever get a nice car until our kids are like 5. Let's face it, the next car we'll probably get is a minivan. That's just our lot in life...sigh.

Belly Shot

About 21 weeks

Here is a belly shot for my friends who do not believe that I have one. It's there! I'm at the point to where it's uncomfortable sitting and bending over for anything. I feel like I've hit this stage a little too soon. So far I've gained 7 lbs and again, I feel like that's a little too much too soon. Yikes. 

Anyway, I had an appointment today & my doctor kept referring to Davis as a "she". So when she asked if I had any questions, I was like, "Um ya...is it still a boy??" I had just had an ultrasound with the tech & I guess she had written down girl. So after double checking the pictures, they were able to confirm that it is still a boy. Whew! Other than that, nothing newsworthy to report.

Doctor Blankenship

Lane is officially a doctor! Congratulations to him for all of his hard work. We are so proud. He will be an emergency room doctor. Starting at the end of June, he will start his first job at Parkland Hospital in Dallas. His contract is for 3 years (this is also called his residency). After that he can work wherever he wants.

Here are some pictures of his graduation...

 

Our family

 His dad & step mom (Alan & Brenda)

His mom & step dad (Rich & Jan)

 My parents (Charles & Pat)

Receiving his diploma

  

Sorry it's blurry...his class

 Lane & Nate

 Sweet Pea

Lane also received 2 awards:
1)The Merck Manual Award
2)Outstanding Student in Emergency Medicine

Goodbye to a Dear Friend

Lane & I have been talking about selling the jeep for the past few months. Well actually, he brought it up. I wanted to keep it. It's paid off & in great condition. Plus it has lots of trunk space. Anyway, he posted it on Autotrader a while back & we got absolutely no interest. So we dropped the issue. Then the other day we went into Carmax to see what we could get for it. Their offer was a little too low for us, so again we kind of dropped it. Then Lane posted the Jeep again on some website. A lady called about it, came out & test drove it & ended up buying it...tear. It all happened so fast that I was in a state of shock afterwards. Now we have no car and we leave for Houston tomorrow with my parents. So we won't be able to look for another until Memorial Day. I'm so anxious about it. I hate being in this state of limbo. Not sure what kind of car we'll get. I just know that it will have better gas mileage than the Jeep.

What the Hail?

 Did anyone else get hail last night? I was surprised we did, but it was coming down pretty good. Lane wanted to go outside like an idiot while it was still hailing to get one, but I put my foot down.

This was the average size.

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.