I heart ULTA

I have recently had a very rewarding shopping experience around town. My favorite place to go is ULTA. I could spend hours in that store, looking, thinking, picking things out, putting some back and of course purchasing. I haven't treated myself very much since my pregnancy with Brooke except this last month. It's like all the shopping urges have piled up and all of a sudden broken out! It could be dangerous if it keeps up at all! I think once school starts my mind will be on other things.

So a couple of my favorite things to spoil myself with are first and foremost Bath and Body Works lotions. Of course you can't buy these at Ulta, but it's one of my must haves.

Second is OPI nail polish. This is actually a new found love. I tried a cute light pink of my moms on my nails and it didn't chip for like a week! Almost as good as getting shellac treatment on your nails. I have personally never had a manicure with shellac but I have seen it and it looks great! Too bad OPI is so expensive or else I would be stocking up with more than the basic colors.

Third is the ped-egg. It's been around forever but I never had the opportunity to buy it. For anyone who hasn't seen my heels let me just tell you they are as dry as the ground here in San Antonio this summer. Awful and ugly. So I bought one and tried it skeptically and I loved how it took off all the nastiness! My heels look a lot better than they used to. It's pretty cool!

Anyway back to Ulta, they have absolutely everything you could think of having to do with beauty, face and hair. My dream day would be a shopping spree at Charming Charlie and Ulta. I think I would be set for awhile for sure :). Anyone else have any favorite little must haves they would like to share?

Already August?!

I finally figured out how to title my blog posts again. Awhile back I guess I decided to disable the function because I always had a hard time coming up with titles! Not this time though. I am so shocked that summer vacation will be OVER for the year 2011 in 2 1/2 weeks :( . We had a great summer and I wish I had lots of pictures to show but I don't. I didn't even take any pictures...my SIL Tiffany did, my MIL Alana did, and my Mom took some too. So I have to gather them together and get them posted!

You know I think our summer was so great because we didn't over do anything. We were lazy when we wanted to be and not when we wanted to be entertained. We have been more lazy lately because of the extreme heat. Me and the kids though luckily got a TINY break from it by flying out to Virginia to spend some much needed time there! It's always great to be able to go visit VA, especially in the summer when everything is so beautiful and lush from all the rain they get. It seems as if the rain always falls everywhere but San Antonio :( So sad because my flowers and grass are dead and things just look brown and boring!

However things are about to go from boring to exciting for Tyler and Aubrey who get to start school in a couple of weeks! Tyler will be in 2nd grade and Aubrey will be in the Pre-K program at his school. Aubrey is very excited to be able to go to the same school as Tyler and to have a big girl back pack and make new friends! Tyler is excited because he is always looking for new things to learn about. I AM EXCITED to have some go-run-errands-time with Brooke! Lot's of fun will be had by all of us this school year and lots of new things will be learned and accomplished :)

So long for a little while. Hope to post pictures soon!

I have been meaning to post new pictures of Brooke and the family and finally I got my hands on the pictures that were taken on her blessing weekend and also some more recent from Memorial Day.

Brooke's blessing went really well and she didn't even wimper like our other kids did on their blessing days. She's something special that's for sure! She has been a real blessing in my life and everyone else's.

Over the Memorial Day weekend me, Matt and the kids drove up to Tyler to stay with his parents. Me and the kids had fun during the day swimming in their pool while Matt went with his Dad over to his cousins' house to work on recording their latest project: a church music cd! I am glad Matt gets to work on his hobby as much as he does!

I think that is a good enough update for now. So long!

Wow! I am such a lazy blogger! But of course a lot has gone on since I last posted. Most of you should know that I had baby Brooke at 37 wks along on March 15th. At some point after 20 weeks I developed gestational diabetes. I have never had to deal with that during a pregnancy and truthfully it made me think that Brooke would for sure be our last one. But one never knows so I can't say for sure. But, if I ever do decide there is another little one out there I would have to be in optimal physical health to ward off the chances of developing complications again. Anyway, back to my story...some of you may or may not know that when you have gest. diabetes you become prone to other complications including preeclampsia. I NEVER thought that would happen to me, but it did. Slowly over the last few weeks I was pregnant I was feeling worse and worse. Dizzy spells, very tired swelling and spots or stars in my vision. However these symptoms would always come and go. So nothing ever came of them until my last appointment on March 15th. I was driving to the doctor after I dropped off the kids at Nancy's house, I was feeling dizzy and out of breath and I thought for sure something was up. But I have never had high blood pressure, so I didn't know for sure what it felt like. I got there and they took my vitals and I had a blood pressure of 164/98 with +1 protein in the urine. I thought for sure my doctor would see me right away but I had to wait and wait. So long that I also had a low blood sugar episode where if I don't eat something sugary I feel like I am going to pass out and I get all sweaty. It's NOT fun. So I asked to lay down in the back until they called me back to see the doctor. When I finally did get taken to a room I had to point out to the nurse that my blood pressure was high (not happy about the lack of communication). It took a few minutes for the doctor to come in and see me, so while I was waiting I texted Matt to tell him I had high blood pressure and I don't think he realized that they would send me to the hospital. So when I called him to meet me at University because we were going to have the baby that night he was shocked. Luckily I didn't have to wait long for him because he was across the street at the VA. Needless to say it was a long long day. When I got there they hooked me up to a magnesium drip that gives people the most horrible hot flashes and tingly feeling. I was hooked up to that for 32 hours. Matt took a picture of me laying there miserable and fat and swollen, because that's just what Matt does and I told him to keep it to remind me of why I should lose weight and probably not get pregnant again until I lose 30 lbs. after I lose the baby weight so I am not at risk to develop type 2 diabetes. When you develop gest. diabetes you are more likely to develop type 2 within 10 years. Well since I had to eat something to raise the blood sugar the doctor couldn't do the c-section until at least 6 hours later. So it originally put me at about 5 or 6 pm. But low and behold since I am at University Hospital they get an emergency ob gyn surgery right before I am supposed to go in. It was a patient that had a burst eptopic pregnancy, so it's not like it wasn't urgent. But still annoying anyway because I am just laying in my bed bored and also just having too much time to think about the actual surgery ahead of me. Yes it's to have a sweet baby girl, but it is also people cutting into my abdomen and the spinal before that. What made it all worse is that none of my regular people (doctors and nurses) were there! It was probably 10 people, none of whom I knew from Jack and when you are having a baby it kind of freaks you out a little bit. But while having a quiet anxiety attack sitting on my catheter, on the hard table waiting for a huge needle or two to be stuck in my back, I remembered the blessing that Matt gave me that afternoon, and the words that he spoke came flooding in my mind and gave me peace at last. Peace to be able to lie flat, with my arms spread out to both sides and strapped down, to be able to enjoy bringing Brooke Marie into the world after a long nine months. She has been an absolute joy to have in our lives and a surprise blessing from our Heavenly Father. I am proud that we were able to add another little girl to our family, who will one day be a strong and faithful woman!

Brooke

Aubrey

Tyler

It's not a great picture of Brooke and she looks slightly different now, but I just don't have a new picture of her with her eyes open! I wanted to just show you all how much our babies look alike! It's crazy! I will get more pics of Brooke on the blog soon. I just have to get them off our phones.

Thanks to some good friends and family and my husband, I had a great birthday weekend. My b-day fell on Thursday, but not only did I get cards on that day but I got to go register at Baby's R Us and have lunch at Tyler's school and eat Panda Express for my own lunch. Then on Friday, it was our first and probably only official SNOW DAY! It was a miracle. I guess the Great Man upstairs knew it would take one to keep me in a good mood!

On Saturday Matt surprised me and the kids by coming home for my birthday and super bowl weekend. It's really amazing how much a spouse can make a difference in your life ;). That night he took me out to eat at Kona Grill, which was great, and then we strolled around the outdoor mall and took a trip to Target afterward. It was a wonderfully relaxing evening. Did I mention that afternoon I got some absolutely beautiful roses from a great person?!

It's funny though how birthdays can be fun if you make them that way. I feel like I have had birthdays where I have been in a bad mood or somebody is doing something to really tick me off, but that didn't really happen this time. Hanging out with my kids was actually kind of fun and it made me stop and realize how great they are and how I need to try to make their lives more fun. Not just when Dad is gone ;) Thanks kids and everyone who made my 29th b-day a good day!

SO I had a very big buildup to my birthday yesterday! Our power was out from 2:45 pm until 10:00pm. I guess the excitement was just too much ;)! But really my thermostat was at 53 degrees when it finally came back on so I am incredibly grateful for the heat! Before it came on however I was trying to make light of the situation (hah hah) by imagining what it must have been like for people way back before electricity. Although I will say a woodstove would have come in VERY handy! I think I will have one installed in our next home since we will be living more north of here! I remember how cozy it was at my parents house with their woodstove on Catesby Lane, and the times that the power went off during the winter. That stove was a life saver.

Today however the power is still on and hopefully will stay on for the whole day because it is not supposed to be above freezing. Come on electric company...it's my birthday and I deserve to stay warm...no rolling brownouts PLEASE! I guess Austin had two power plants that burst their pipes yesterday so we had to all share...that's what you get for staying weird Austin and being the armpit capital of Texas.

Well I am off to have a good day with my Aubrey, and Tyler after he gets out of school this afternoon!