Texas!

The Lone Star State!
Andrew and I took a long weekend to Texas earlier in March. Andrew was in between terms at Northwood and we realized the next time he'd have time off from school, that I'd be to pregnant to travel. So we excitedly made plans to visit our beloved friends Anita & Juan in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. (Click on any photo for a larger view!)
We flew into a small airport South of Houston and drove up to Dallas!
On our way up we saw the Dallas Cowboys Stadium!

This is a view from Dealy Plaza, in Dallas.

Walking around in a in City Building in the Dealy Plaza area, we found this interesting sign, wow! We have always heard of these, but never actually seen one. Check it out, it is shocking.

Here is the JFK Memorial, huge!

JFK's shooter was supposedly in the 5th story window here, 2nd over.

Here is a gorgeous building in the Dealy Plaza area. It was a court house at one time.

The "X" marks one of the spots where JFK was actually shot. (There are 2 X's).

This surely is not what I imagined as a "Cowboy Cab", I'm thinking more soccer momish, tee-hee.

This is just one photo of Northwood's campus in Cedar Hill, TX. It is an absolutely beautiful campus.

Yikes! Don't mess with Texas!

Here is one small portion of the HUGE Huntsville Prison! If you watch "Walker, Texas Ranger", you'll recall that Huntsville is always were the really bad dudes go or come from! Tee hee, we thought it was cool to find, since we often hear about Huntsville on that show.

Here is a view of Houston, as we zoomed by on our way North.

This is my friend, Sean with his lovely finance, Stephanie! They are cute couple and looking forward to their November wedding! How exciting!!

Sean and I graduated from high school together & just started talking on facebook the week before Andrew & I flew out. We quick made plans to met up for dinner when we realized he lives in the area of Texas that we were going to be visiting. It was super fun to see Sean and meet Stephanie!! We had a real nice time with them.

We toured the American Airlines Museum with Anita one day, which was really cool!

One of the biggest highlights and most exciting things about this trip was going to the South Fork Ranch...you know on the old show....Dallas! Oh my goodness, it was so cool!!! All of the follow pics are from the South Fork Ranch! Enjoy!!!

This is the gun that was used to shoot JR! Do you remember who actually shot him!??! Leave us a comment with your guess or answer!

This is a brick floor! Texans really are proud to be Texans.

The 2 photos above (Middle & Right) are of Anita & me. The middle photo is of us sitting at the actual table that the Ewing Family ate on while filming...so exciting!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness!!!!

Here is Andrew & me on the balcony of the master suite, overlooking the pool and the "back 40" of South Fork Ranch! (It was extremely windy!)

Here are Juan & Andrew chilling.

This is Anita and Juan, the highlight of our trip!!!! They are amazing people, a fabulous couple and terrific friends! We had a blast with them and it was so wonderful to catch up and just be with them again!! We hadn't seen each other (in person) since our Mission Trip to Saltillo, Mexico in 2002. They had us stay with them in their beautiful home, took us to delicious restaurants of all types, showed us around their town, we got to visit their church with them and more! It was a great time of catching up and having fun together, just awesome!

Texas Roses, aren't they lovely!?!

Aah, look at what I found shopping at the Stock Exchange in Fort Worth. I didn't even think about buying it...now I am kicking myself. I thought it was so cute that I'd snap a photo...duh, that would be so adorable ON Baby Boy Banks! My pregnancy insanity must have been in full force then. Oh well, you win some, you loss some. And I am sure BBB will have plenty of adorable cloths/caps.

All of the below are at the Stock Exchange (in Fort Worth). We spent several hours walking, shopping, and just enjoying the touristy fun.

Check out the Cowgirl Boot I am holding (above), it is just gorgeous, it looked like artwork. I SO wanted them but there were so expensive, $995! We even saw some that were more $, but none as amazing, I promise.

They have BIG crazy highway exchanges in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Check that out!

Okay, so another super fun thing we did was to find President George W. Bush's Ranch in Crawford, Texas!!!! Crawford is an adorable little town. Below are a few photos from/around it. We didn't get a photo of W's Ranch, it is far off the road as you can imagine, but we did see the roof and guard station. So cool!!! We thought we were so clever to locate it!! No one in Crawford will tell you for sure. P.S. They live on Prairie Chapel Road, if you are ever looking, tee-hee!

Oh I almost forgot, we found a dead rattle snake too! Yuckers!!! But I must admit I would so rather find a dead one than a live one for sure....GROSS, I hate all snakes dead or alive!!!!

Well thanks for looking at our photos. I only posted the highlights, but we had a lot of highlights and we a terrific time in Texas with each other, with our friends, and visiting the different places we visited! It was absolutely terrific!

And just think next time we have a vacation blog entry, Baby Boy Banks will be along for the trip! Exciting!!!

Foxy Dog

This weekend our neighbors found a dog that was lost. Since their dog wouldn't allow the lost dog in their yard they asked us and we were thrilled to have him!

What a cutie! Emily called him "Foxy" since his tail looks like a foxes and he really loved Emily! He like playing ball and taking walks too!

Fortunately his owners were found on Monday and Dustin, as it turns out his name is, got to go home.

Happy Ending for all!

PG update

On Tuesday morning I took Andrew to our Dr's office, as he was feeling really bad. It turns out he has bronchitis so I asked the Dr. (who was not our normal Dr.) what I should do if I come down with the same symptoms, since I am pregnant. The Dr. told me what to do and then mentioned that she assumed I am in my 1st trimester, Tee-hee!!! I had to laugh and tell her no, I just started my 3rd. From her comment I assume I must look pretty good (at least not horrible) for a pregnant lady, but I surely don't feel like I look that great. Anyway that boosted my spirits since I had just recently tried on all of my pre-pg shorts and NONE of them fit my belly bump.
So an update on Baby Boy Banks - We are now at 26 weeks and according to my PG books, he is 2 pounds and 14" long! He's getting so big!!!
He is also bouncing around and kicking all over lately! It doesn't hurt, but we can actually see my belly move. I am shocked at his strength…I wonder as he grows stronger and being as active as he is, if I might bruise from the inside out? Yikes! Do any of you know if that can happen as the baby gets stronger?
Andrew found an adorable outfit a few weekends ago that he bought to be BBB's "coming home" outfit! Woo-hoo, this is the 1st (and only-so far) clothing item BBB has! How exciting!!! I just can't wait to put him in it, he'll be so handsome!
We also purchased the crib-bedding set, what fun! It has Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Eyore all over it!!! So cute! Now we have to pick out a crib, but we've decided to wait on buying anything else until after the shower.
Thanks for checking in, TTFN!!!

3rd Trimester!

Hello!

Woo-hoo, today is the 1st day of the 3rd trimester, the 7th month & the 25th week of my pregnancy, and the 1st day of March to boot!

My friend Erin and I went to Babies R Us to finish up the registry that Andrew, Emily & I started a few weeks ago. Man, that store is overwhelming...there is just SO much there. Erin, an experienced mom with an adorable 1&1/2 year old daughter, was a huge help with lots of tips and knowledge of the store/product layout. We had a TON of fun and covered a lot of ground all at once! It was great!! THANK YOU ERIN!!!

Here is a photo of me with my Baby Boy bump taken today!

And here is a photo of Emily trying to replicate, the ever so lovely look I've been sporting lately! Tee-hee!