A few weeks ago my best friend here in San Antonio called me and told me that she was deploying to Afghanistan...in like 4 or 5 days! I knew she'd eventually deploy, and wanted her to, because she really wanted to. I just wasn't expecting it to be now or even happen that soon. She was my outlet, my "I need some non-kid, hang out with my friend" friend. And now she's gone for the next 6 months. I was SO excited when she called me the other day and we got to talk for a bit and I love getting her emails and hearing about what all she's up to...but I don't get to battle her on Dr. Mario right now (Wii game), or have dinners with her, or go hunt down Krispy Kreme at midnight either...for quite a while. It's been ok the past couple of weeks...but now I find that enough time has passed and I am missing her. =(

Today the girls and I went to wander around the rodeo grounds with my parents and my niece and nephew. (Casey was on shift so he didn't get to tag along...but he and I will go another day and make a date of it. Yippee!) The San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo is a pretty big deal around here, goes on for a couple of weeks...and they do a pretty good job of having a lot to see and do. They have a big rodeo every night that also entails a concert immediately following but we're not going to a show this year. I LOVE me some rodeo, don't get me wrong...but not sure I am up for sitting in a hard plastic chair for that many hours right now.

Tyler & Lorelle (my nephew and niece) and then my girls Logan and Mckayla

I could not find a sign that did not have the kids looking into the sun...oh well!

My dad snapped this one of me with all the kiddos:

mega prego me, Lorelle, Mckayla, Logan & Tyler

This was when I was sitting...I did a lot of that as it turned out.

This is where the blog post changes a little bit. Unfortunately shortly after we arrived on the rodeo grounds, my niece Lorelle started to feel ill. =( So rather then having just wasted entrance money, the drive my folks made from San Marcos and the kids excitement to see things, Lorelle and I parked ourselves in a couple chairs inside one of the buildings while my parents took the other three kids and wandered around for a couple of hours. Lorelle ended up dozing quite a bit and I did a whole lot of people watching...there were some great looking boots (I love cowboy boots...hehe) to watch walk by. I was sad that I could not get in my "cowgirl get-up" today. My jeans don't fit me (and can't find maternity Wranglers), couldn't wear any of my boots (and I have almost a dozen!) and so without those I wasn't going to wear my hat...I wore, as you might have seen, my pink converse hightops. Sigh. Ah well...next year I'll go all cowgirl/Texan again!

As the girls and I were getting ready to go, Mckayla was sad that she did not have a cowgirl hat like Logan. (Mckayla was smaller when we bought Logan her hat) So I told her that we would buy her one at the rodeo. Every Texas girl needs a hat! My folks found her this pink hat and she LOVED it! They told me that she kept taking it off, waving it around and yelling "YEEHAW!". She also walked around most of the afternoon with her "two six-shooters"! I love it! That's my girl!

Here are Mckayla and Logan with a very pregnant goat (and no, it's not me). They really liked the goat. Logan has fond memories of the goats that my in-laws used to have when they lived on their ranch a few years ago. Logan would love to go pet them and feed them.

Here are Mckayla, Logan and Tyler with the goat. My mom said that the girl who owned this goat had asked if the kids had been allowed to pet one yet and invited the kids into her pen to pet the goat.

The kiddos standing by a VERY large cow!

Mckayla told me all about this cow and how exciting it was to get to pet a cow! She said that this was a milk cow and she loved that it was wearing a 'flower necklace'.

This picture made me laugh out loud!

Ok, some history. I love cows. I think they're fun. I think there is almost nothing more Americana looking than a green field with cows in it. I think they have adorable faces...and yeah they're just fun. And then combo that with what I'd mentioned in a previous post about my mom's "nickname" for the baby...Dos Equis a.k.a. Two X's: (my first sonogram picture that pointed out the black dot/baby by marking it between two x's). So no doubt that my mom and dad saw this sign "Dos XX's Cattle Co." and could obviously not resist taking this picture. I am only sad that I was not with them to be IN the picture!

Here are some pictures of Tyler, Mckayla & Logan in a bulldozer...Tyler must have been in heaven! He loves stuff like this!

Here are the three kids checking out some Texas Longhorns! My dad told me that they were HUGE and a couple of them were even sparring with their horns and making a lot of noise. Wish I could have seen that!

Mckayla with a Longhorn

Logan with a Longhorn

Tyler with a Longhorn

Anyway, so that was our day at the rodeo grounds. I am grateful to my folks for walking around with my girls--they had a great time! I sure hope Lorelle gets to feeling better soon!

Well, the National Championship game ended up being a total bust for me since Texas did not win. =( (I am still mourning the loss).
However, before the game I made these cookies and they were really good! I guess some sort of consolation for the loss.

See how this thermometer shows that it's nearly 40 degrees? Yeah, that'd be nice! Brrrrrr!!! It is COLD out there this morning!!! When I took Logan to school it was showing 28 degrees...keep in mind, I live in San Antonio, Texas! Now I am sitting on my couch in pants, long sleeved shirt, warm socks and under a blanket! Hopefully it is much warmer the next time I must venture outside. *shiver shiver*

Well, the blog is all updated now! Seeing as now I am a couch potato per doctors orders, I figure I should be somewhat productive. Hopefully I am only a couch potato for a short while. At this point it is until my appointment next week. I have been having abnormally frequent Braxton-hicks contractions along with some other minor symptoms so this is the current plan...only on the couch or in bed. Soooo...who knows what else I'll come up with to put on here in the next several days in my boredom!

One of our Christmas presents to ourselves was going to the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth! The Air Force Academy was going to play the University of Houston. We got lucky with some great seats at a great low price and we got a sweet deal on a really nice hotel (Hyatt Place Cityview...recommend it) on priceline and my parents drove with us in our Jeep so we could split gas costs. Good deals all around.

I had thought to get window chalk before we left San Antonio and because of a couple hiccups in trying to get on the road I forgot about it. When we got to our hotel and there were cars in the parking lot with painted windows for Houston...we knew we had to hit up Target for some paint! We had to show OUR colors! We ended up not being able to find window chalk so we opted for Crayola paint instead...blue and white!

I thought my mom and I did a great job! It looked fantastic! Now there was no mistaking who we were there for.

Cowgirl Mckayla!

There was this neat maze that Casey thought the girls would enjoy going through. There was an observation deck that we waited on while Casey and the girls meandered through trying to find the letters M, A, Z and E. They had a lot of fun and it was fun to watch!

After the maze there was a carousel to play on.

My sweetheart playing rodeo clown! He barely fit in this thing! Apparently rodeo clowns are little.

I love my trio!!!

Now this picture just makes me flat out laugh. Here's the history...at my first baby appointment with baby #3 we had a sonogram and the printed picture they gave us marked the baby (really at that point a black spot) between two x's. My mom and her silly sense of humor started calling the baby 'dos equis' (spanish for "two x's"). It's a silly little nickname for now and one we played with when we saw this sign in a window.








Day two in Fort Worth...FOOTBALL!!!

Armed Forces Bowl baby!

Before the game started, the Air Force Academy falconer came out with the mascot...the Peregrine Falcon to show him off a bit.

When the falcon took off it flew over the crowd...here it is above the Air Force fans. And I am not kidding, when it flew over the Houston fans it pooped on them!!! No joke! (This would be the forecast for Houston fans the rest of the day...hehe)

Here come the United States Air Force Academy football players!!!

The honor guard representing all branches of the military and the band playing the National Anthem was the Army Cavalry Band from Ft. Hood, TX.

Here's the kickoff! GAME ON!!!

The Air Force endzone...a place I hope we visit often during this game.

Here we all are at the game! My dad, Mckayla, my mom, Logan, me and baby #3, and Casey. This was a special experience getting to be at this game with my dad. He is an Air Force Academy graduate, both Casey and I being Air Force brats...I've been to a couple games with my dad before but this was the first game he got to have a couple of his grandbabies at. It was a special day!

Mckayla and her PawPaw as she waves her pom-pom about!

Logan and PawPaw...MawMaw too!

During halftime the two bands got together to salute the Armed Forces and play all the songs of the various branches of the military...beautiful!

During halftime another thing happened...the temperature DROPPED! We knew it would be cool and misty...but not as cold as it did get. Fortunately because we are good planners everyone was very bundled up and warm, we had hand warmers, blankets, rain ponchos, etc etc. It was still REALLY cold though! The wind chill factor was in the mid 30's. Add the misty conditions to it and it was COLD!

We did our best to stay in good spirits though and enjoy the game and the experience!

GO AIR FORCE!!!!!!

The girls thought the cheerleaders were pretty fun.

The game was awesome! Air Force rushed for over 400 yards, we intercepted the ball 6 times, we ran back a kickoff for a touchdown...it was NICE!

And best of all...WE WON!!!!!!

Freezing...totally worth it!

The victory song always sounds so sweet doesn't it?! "Here we goooo into the wild blue yonder!!!"