Week 35

Wednesday
We went with Matt and Courtney to watch the Texas Rangers play the Houston Astros.  It was nice to take a few moments to enjoy a summer evening at the ballpark, which will likely be our last trip to the ballpark for a little while.

Thursday
Rachel's family from Nebraska came to town. They came to restock and fill up Danita's coffee/gift shop (Auntie D's) at the market. Danita just opened up a bigger store a couple of weeks ago so they were able to look at more stock than previous years! Rachel went with them to check out the current trends.  Tracy brought her infant son, Braydon, along for the trip.  He just turned 4 months old has to be one of the happiest and best babies around.  Rachel's parents and Carol also made it into town that evening for the upcoming baby shower for Kennedy.

Friday
Rachel joined her family at the market again.  Jason's mom and sister made it to town that afternoon.  We all went to dinner together at a barbecue restaurant in Coppell.  We had been looking for a good barbecue joint around here and we recently went on a recommendation from Sherie and Kevin.  Pretty good stuff.  Our parents brought back the rest of Kennedy's goodies from the shower in Amarillo.  We were getting pretty nervous because there was so much stuff that it looked like someone turned our house upside down and then right side back up. We got most of it all put up but still have a few things to take care of.

Saturday
All the girls, including Robbie and Holli, headed over to Sherie's house for the baby shower.  It was hosted by Courtney, Sherie, Bridget, and Whitney.

Jason went for a bike ride at Lake Grapevine while Dennis and Duane took it easy and went to lunch.  Afterwards, we loaded up all the gear and headed back to the house.  We are truly blessed to have everyone help us make the transition to a world with Kennedy. On Saturday evening, we all headed over to the swimming pool.  It was fun, but we always have a good time at the pool.

Lastly, here is the weekly belly shot: Week 35

Week 34

Hi Folks, checking in for another week.

It has been pretty wild feeling the broad sweeping motion of Kennedy rolling around in Rachel's belly.  It's just really neat to feel her arm/foot/knee wiggling around in there.  It's evident that Kennedy's starting to run out of room in her current residence.  Just another sign that our lives are about to change dramatically!

We had another class at the hospital on Monday.  They had a pediatrician come in and talk to us and she was quite a character.  She was also, like any good doctor should be, a big believer in vaccinations.  We weren't aware of it, but the apparently infants are especially vulnerable to the whooping cough.  They say the problem is that the vaccinations wears off in time so parents can pass it on to their infants. They also noted that the whooping cough is especially bad in the DFW area, so that's kind of scary.  We also took a tour of the labor and delivery floor of the hospital.  Ironically, Jason is getting pretty anxious about Kennedy's arrival, but Rachel is keeping pretty calm about everything.

On Wednesday, we went to dinner with Rachel's brother Tyler.  He was passing through town for some work related training.  For a belated birthday gift, we took him to a restaurant called Texas de Brazil.  It's one of those Brazilian steakhouses the the servers come around with skewers of of delicious meat.  You definitely don't want to spend to much time at their salad bar.  The problem is that it's way too easy to over do it with the protein.

Anticipating a busy week ahead, we had a pretty low key weekend.  We saw a movie, Midnight in Paris, on Friday evening.  On Saturday, we went to the swimming pool.  On Sunday, we went to the bakery in Grapevine and spent the rest of the day doing chores around the house.  We also gave Sammy another trim.

We've also included the obligatory photo of Kennedy, via Rachel's belly.

Week 33

Checking in for another week.  Apologies for those that checked the blog earlier, but didn't find an update... more on that later.

On Monday, we had another class at the hospital.  We were a bit surprised when the instructor put on "the video."  That said, we are starting to feel the weight of the pending delivery.  Also, we're really starting to be able to feel Kennedy in Rachel's belly and unfortunately, Kennedy has started pressing on her ribs.

Thursday evening, we went to dinner and a concert in an attempt to take advantage of our remaining days sans Kennedy.  We went to a seafood restaurant in Fort Worth called Eddie V's.  It was certainly a tasty treat.  Afterwards, we went to see Acoustic Alchemy play a show.  They played several songs from an upcoming album.

On Saturday, we went to AT&T to get Rachel a new phone.  Ever since Sammy spilled coffee on the previous phone, it has been giving Rachel fits so she was past due for an upgrade.  True to form, she elected to go with the iphone 4.

Sunday we had a pretty productive day and we managed to work in some time at the pool.  As the temperatures continue to rise, the pool is quickly becoming one of our favorite activities.  We've also enjoyed watching the Dallas Mavericks during this playoff run.  In fact, that is the reason for the delay in uploading the current blog entry.  We've always enjoyed watching the Mavs.  In fact, we spent several evenings at our honeymoon watching the Mavs play the Phoenix Suns during the 2006 playoff run.  This evening the underdog Mavs ended up winning the NBA championship against the Miami Heat.  It's been fun.

Week 32

 Checking in for yet another week.

We spent this week catching up on house work and going through some of Kennedy's new things she got from the Amarillo shower. Tuesday and Wednesday we washed all the new items and put them away in the closet and dresser. It is amazing how many baby clothes and blankets can fit in a suitcase and a half! We wanted to get a head start on things since we knew we were having another shower this weekend.

Friday night we went out to a nice dinner to a new Habachi restaurant. Jason shared over dinner that he received word at the end of the day that he got promoted to Engineer IV as a result of his passing the P.E.  I know that I as well as everyone else are so proud of him and the hard work and dedication he has put into his work to provide so well for our family! We followed up dinner with some major house cleaning. Jason's coworkers were coming over Saturday for our shower, so it forced us to do some MUCH needed cleaning. It seems like we never had a free moment in May to take care of things around the house. While taking a break from the cleaning, Jason captured this picture. Sammy has taken to laying on top of the belly and we finally got a picture to capture it!

Saturday Jason had planned on going for a bike ride before the shower but ended up sleeping in instead. I had a free massage set up so Jason finished up the straightening of the house while I treated myself. When I walked out to my car after the massage, good 'ol Fing (that is my car's name because the first 3 letters on the license plate are FNG) would not start. It was a good thing Jason didn't go for a ride, otherwise I might have been stranded at the Salon for quite a while... He came and tried to jump start the car but it was completely dead. We ended up having it towed to the Toyota dealership. By this time we were really running short on time and had to hurry back and get ready for the shower. We made it in time and had a really good time at the shower. Jason's coworkers spoiled us and Kennedy rotten and we all had a good time. Unfortunately some people were not able attend due to vacations, but it was nice having a low key get together. At the end, we put on our swimming suits and had a nice dip in the pool. It was our first time getting to go to the pool this season, and it was a really nice treat!  Fing ended up needing a new battery, but we were happy that was all that was wrong! Here is a photo of Jason opening a present from the shower:

Today (Sunday) we took it easy and tended to some of our normal activities. After our usual Sunday lunch of Rosa's, Jason got in his bike ride and I went grocery shopping. After Jason got done riding, we went back to the pool for a little bit. I have a feeling we will be utilizing that quite a bit from now till Kennedy's arrival. It is a nice way to cool off! Since it was our first time using the pool this year, it was only fitting that the weekly belly photo be taken in my swimsuit!

Overall, a pretty good week. It was nice getting back into our normal routines. We can't hardly believe that it is now less than 8 weeks until Kennedy's Due Date. We are sure eagerly awaiting her arrival!