Father's Day On

So today I've been giving my friends heck about not blogging enough because I like to read blog posts! So I decided in lieu of being a hypocrite, I best blog as well. :-)
Let's see where to start...

June 17th was Father's Day and because Derrick decided to surprise me with a beautiful Mother's Day gift on my "1st Unofficial Mother's Day," I decided to get him back! He needed a Daddy's Day gift as well to prepare him for the future. Lately, he has become a little OCD over his 1950 Chevy truck that he and his dad began rebuilding when he was in 7th grade. They bought it out of a pasture with a tree growing up through the middle of it. He has restored bits and pieces of it over the years and it was good enough to drive "illegally" on our wedding day in 2007 as our getaway vehicle. Now, he is SO close to having it legal (minus the crazy bureaucratic process that its going to take to actually get it titled and inspected and such). So this is what it looks like now, and he's so proud....

1950 Chevy 5 Window....aka, Derrick's baby that will always and forever be a part of our lives :)

Well he's been spending many an evening in the garage with his baby and at one point he mentioned that he should really get a fire extinguisher to have permanently in the cab. I queued in on that and figured that someday sooner than later, our child will be riding along with Pops in his pride and joy and that the security of a fire extinguisher was a pretty good idea. So while Derrick was shopping in Harbor Freight, I pulled a sneaky sneaky and found an automotive fire extinguisher. I thought that would be a special gift for him. In his Father's Day card, I wrote about security and how that's so important for a Dad to convey to his family and especially to his little ones. I also gave him the book Service by Marcus Luttrell. Luttrell's 1st book, Lone Survivor, became an instant classic as he wrote about his experience being the only survivor of the most devastating special forces tragedy in US history. If you haven't read it, its totally worth it. Opens your eyes to the true life of the US special forces soldier and the gratitude that we owe them for our cush lives in the USA. Soon after that, Chris Kyle's book, American Sniper, came out which was also excellent followed by the movie, Act of Valor. All redeeming, patriotic, excellent choices for reading and viewing entertainment. Well anyway, Service was just released and again I made a connection between a Father's job and service. He loved both of his gifts and I just started reading Service to him last night on the way home from our fun date night in New Braunfels. We ended Father's Day evening with a wonderful filet mignon dinner at my parents with my Mom's parents, Grandpa and Grandma, and my Dad's dad, Daddy Don. (no pics from that evening darn it!)

His fire extinguisher and new book. 

So speaking of our date night in New Braunfels, Derrick and I headed that direction yesterday to support an organization called Ropin' Dreams. They are based in San Antonio, and our company, Ranch Hand, supports them financially every year as they are doing incredible stuff in the community. They are kind of like the Make a Wish Foundation, but more local, and tend to be more involved in the rodeo community. They basically make wishes come true for kids who are terminally ill or chronically sick. Their annual rodeo fundraiser was last night and we wanted to go to check it out and support them. Last night was their mutton bustin' and bull riding. Rodeos are such a fun environment. Rodeo people seem to have patriotism, hard work, and love for the Lord running in their veins.

The Ranch Hand truck on the grounds

This rodeo is all about and all for kids even though its a true CBR sanctioned event....check out these cute lil mini clowns! Don't worry...they were only there for the mutton bustin'...not the big bulls!

tried to get a pic of the kids riding a sheep...but this poor lil girl or guy didn't last long :)

Look at all the bull riders! Never seen that many at one rodeo before!

The Top 3 CBR bullriders. Last year's world champion, this year's leader, and the guy that holds the most world champions total. 

After the rodeo was over, we headed over to Gruene to go to the Gristmill, which may officially be the coolest restaurant in the world. Its an old restored 1870's cotton gin that's been turned into a restaurant. There are 3 stories of eating areas along with tons of outdoor seating overlooking the river. There were hundreds of people waiting on a table, but somehow, they crank them through there fast. They told us it'd be an hour wait for 2, but it turned out to be only 30 minutes. We both got beef tenderloin salads which were excellent, and now we plan on recreating the salads tonight for dinner with buffalo steaks (so amazingly good!).

Welp, I guess that brings you up to speed. Have a great week! (darn it, tomorrow is Monday!) :-(

Baby Update - June 10th

Its about time for a baby update...its been such a special time and yet its kind of an odd passage of time. I am 17 weeks which means there are only 23 weeks left. Rarely in life are there such defined deadlines. Sometimes we want to change jobs or move homes or plan special things, but its odd to actually have a D-day....November 18th it is! I must admit that I think that I have had a blessed first 17 weeks. Of course when you tell people you're pregnant or when you google things about pregnancy, you always hear the worst case scenarios, so maybe that isn't normal either, but I feel like its been a pretty easy 17 weeks.
I was close to feeling nauseous maybe twice during the first trimester. :-) Weirdly though, some nausea kicked in only first thing in the morning during weeks 13-14 but then it was over.
The worst part about being pregnant is clothes. Its natural to think that when your clothes get too tight that you are getting fat, but then you have to remember that that's just part of it. I have a lot of cotton skirts and even got a couple pairs of maternity shorts, but its still hard. There is that in between time when people can't tell you're pregnant if they don't know already so then you still feel fat...even if you know its not reality. Anyways, its totally all worth it! My sweet cousin sent me 2 full boxes of maternity tops that she wore a year ago, which was a huge blessing! I'm not a huge shopper anyway so spending a lot of money on clothes you can only wear for a little while is a depressing thought for me...so I really appreciated her generosity!
The most exciting thing is that I THINK I felt Baby R move for the first time last night. I'm still not 100% certain, but I was laying on the couch working on my laptop and I felt what my friend accurately described as a little muscle spasm. I waited thinking it was just a fluke but I felt it again at the same spot. I told Derrick and he immediately came over and tried to feel, but I told him it'd be a while before he could feel anything. :) It was cute anyway though. Again today, I was on the couch and felt the same thing repetitively in the same spot except it was more of a singular thump then another and another....so I'm pretty sure I am right! I know it will continue to get even more exciting as the whole thing becomes even more real and tangible.
We will find out the gender on July 3rd which we're very excited about! After that, we will start to pick things out for the nursery and register and stuff. That'll be super fun - except the amount of products and options out there for babies is overwhelming. I'm going to have to enlist the help of my "been there and done that" friends for the best choices for baby gear. If you're reading this and you have a list of favorites and "must haves" - PLEASE share!! :)

Fun Weekend in Boyd

2 blogs 2 days in a row! whoop! :) This past weekend was super fun. Derrick had Friday off so I arranged things where I could too. We left Thursday night and got to Boyd at like 1:30am. We slept in the next morning and then the fun weekend began. For some reason, Boyd is so very relaxing for us. We always have a wonderful time hanging out with Derrick's family. Derrick's parents just finished a humongo hand laid patio on the side of their house and its awesome. We spent a lot of time out there BBQing, S'moring, eating outdoors, playing with the dogs, and installing Linda's Mother's Day gift which included a squirrel powered bird feeder and 2 birdhouses. We then went to the Weatherford trade days the next day and looked around there. Austin found some tin signs with Thor and Captain America that he was psyched about and the most exciting moment is when we got to play with a sugar glider! :-) I don't know if they make cool pets or not, but that was one awesome little animal. It was downy soft and the guy who had it would roll it up in a ball and then chunk it in the air where it opened its wing legs and soared back down to him. We kinda want one now haha...but we hear they are super high maintenance so not sure - but it was awesome. 

Saturday night, we went with Austin to the local auction barn where there were 550 items up for sale! We previewed all the stuff, bid on a few things, but only won one which I can't reveal because its my brother's Christmas gift. :-) 

The other cool event of the weekend was the handmaking of the most awesome maternity pillow you've ever seen! One of the hardest things being pregnant is that I'm not supposed to sleep on my back and I'm a total back sleeper. So I've been researching maternity pillows wondering if that would help me stay comfortable on my side. I was telling my mother in law about them and she recommended just making one. Derrick talked me into going to Wal-Mart to look at fabrics and batting and such and sure enough we came home with all the goods. My MIL is an awesome seamstress and she did an amazing job with a little help from me. :) Pics below. 

Topping off the new outdoor patio...it was SO pretty! 

A wonderful afternoon topped off with Blue Bell ice cream!

Derrick & Austin installing MIL's new squirrel/bird feeder 

The squirrel learns that when it moves the wheel, it releases bird and squirrel food onto the platform. So fun! Happy Mother's Day gift...a month late. :) 

They rescued an orphaned lamb and 2 orphaned goat kids. Gotta bottle feed 'em every day

Yum Yum....mountain dew! 

That's Ruby, Opal, and unnamed Sheep. He's not allowed to be named because he's a male so he won't stay around forever....but I still named him Stein (after a Holstein). This was an accident as she didn't think about it when she named them, but Ruby and Opal are me and Derrick's birth stones. :-) I told her she needed to name the next one Citrine...after our soon to be November child haha

And now on to the maternity pillow....Derrick sleeping in angel fluff :)

Needed to get a feel for how big we needed. 

S'more time!

More goat feedings

The really great auction we went to...it was so cool! 

Final product...Austin showing us how it is to be used...it is so awesome! Austin wants one for his college apartment :)

Sunday night I headed to the Maders because I had a doctor's appt the next morning. I had to show Brittany my new pillow and the girls thought it was the coolest thing ever too! 

Pretty much the coolest bean bag ever!

Love is in the Air!

OK so in my last blog I promised some pics from the weddings I was blessed to attend over the last month. In February, my cousin Christopher proposed to his beautiful and wonderful girlfriend, Ciera. They quickly decided that they really wanted their wedding on Christopher's family's property in Shiner...so my aunt went into full wedding planning gear. We got to watch and help the concept unfold and finally the weekend arrived. We started off on Wednesday with a shower for them and the festivities went through the Saturday wedding....which was THE most uniquely perfect wedding I have ever been to. It was SO Christopher and Ciera...just amazing and God glorifying. 

MiMi, Aunt Laura, Uncle Doug, Ciera's sister and mom, Christopher, and Ciera at the shower

The adorable couple 

On Friday, the aunts hosted a bridesmaids luncheon for all the ladies. Above is my mom, Ciera, and my Aunt Josh

Ciera, her mom and sister, and her new mother in law and grandmother in law

Enjoying lunch

Friday night brought the I Do BBQ rehearsal dinner!

Aunt Laura's friends Myra and Janet prepared the whole event and it was SO beautiful!

So cute

Kyle's toast to the bride and groom on top of BBQ ribs, potatoes, green beans, and some fancy smancy and yummy chocolate souffle type dessert

Saturday brought the most gorgeous weather and beautiful outdoor wedding you could imagine

Ciera's siblings - Andrew, Elana, and Bria along with lil flower girl cousin, Amy 

Christopher and Ciera read their vows straight to each other...so sweet 

Everyone danced down the aisle at the ending song. Check out my uncle's bowtie!

Yum!

Drink station

My cutie cousin Kyle and his lovely girlfriend, Jennifer

What would a Texas country wedding be without Blue Bell??!

Beautiful bride! and cute cousin Christopher 

My cousin Joey, my brother Jason, and my cousin Carli with Baby Arthur

Yes they rode away on a tandem bicycle!

Me and my cute man and our lil one on the way!

The following weekend we got to follow up one beautiful wedding with another beautiful wedding. My dear friend from college, Lisa Griffin, got married overlooking Lake Travis in Austin. Lisa and I met in Ice Skating kinesiology class at Texas A&M. My senior year we lived in neighboring duplexes and she is such a beautiful person inside and out!

Lisa & her soon to be husband, Jerry

A sweet moment after they took communion together 

Lovely wedding cake...and a house newly divided :)

How pretty!

The biggest table I've ever seen :) Loved the turquoise accents 

First dance as husband and wife

Our awesome view and sunset - Lake Travis

Have to get the token Ratliff pic :) Excuse the hair...this was after about 6 hours outside and a few of those in the sun :)

2 Weddings down for the summer and 2 more to go!