A Busy Week.

Okay, so I haven't had much time to post over the last week - you know how hectic this time of year can be (and it's only just begun!). I will try to catch you up!

Monday, November 20th: Brandon and I headed to Houston to take care of some baby stuff. We had an appointment at Doodles in the morning to pick out our bedding for Dayton. That went very well. We got everything covered. It's hard to describe, so I won't even try. I'll try to get some pics up when it comes in (2 - 8 weeks). We stopped by Pottery Barn Kids and picked up a cute little airplane lamp shade we were wanting. We ate at Pappasito's - delicious! We went to Babies R Us and got registered. That was exciting. I think we covered everything, but it really is overwhelming when you start looking down all of the aisles trying to decide what you need/don't need. It was fun and it feels good to have it done. Now we don't have to worry about it. Made it home in time to go to dancing, so I was pretty pooped that night.

Tuesday, November 21st: I had a doctor's appointment in the morning where I got to do the dreaded "glucose" test. I had to drink a pretty large cup of this orange syrup-y stuff. It kinda tasted like really strong Kool-Aid but thicker. The first half wasn't hard to get down, but the second half was way yucky! I had to give blood an hour later to make sure I don't have diabetes or anemia. Both tests came back okay so no special diet or iron pills for me - yippee! It was also my last check up w/ Dr. Ogdee. I was very sad. When he was wrapping things up I just busted into tears, it was so sad. I really hate to have him leave, but I will be okay. Blood pressure, sugar level and weight all looked good (although I did gain 5 lbs and I was only supposed to gain 4 - whoops, again...) I have to go back to the doctor on December 13th - that will be 28 weeks, and then it'll be every two weeks until the very end - yikes, this baby is coming fast! I get to go back at the end of December for my last sonogram, so that will be exciting.

Wednesday, November 22nd: I did some baking/cooking for Thanksgiving day. Brandon and I went to the grocery store in the morning and kinda took it easy all day long. It was very restful. Brandon was off all last week and today for vacation, so it's been wonderful having him at home! Wednesday night, we went out to eat w/ my parents because Thanksgiving was also my Dad's birthday. We had some yummy Greek Bros. - it was a lot of fun!

Thursday, November 23rd: We had a very full Thanksgiving day. I woke up and finished all my food preparations for the day, then it was off to my parents for lunch. We had a wonderful lunch with so much food. It was really pleasant. Then, we went to Brandon's grandparents in Danevang for the afternoon. We played bingo and cards and feasted on more desserts. We spent the evening at Brandon's other grandparents in El Campo and ate some more turkey and sides. I was stuffed and exhausted by the end of the day, but it was a wonderful holiday.

Friday, November 24th: We woke up super early and headed to Austin for the big game. We won't go there, let's just pick up around 3:00 in the afternoon, when the damage was done. We checked into the Embassy Suites and rested and calmed down for a while. We were now celebrating our anniversary - not worrying about the Horns. The game was super hot so it was nice to get inside and shower and clean up and rest. We were hungry for some good ole' Rockfish so we went there for dinner where we proceeded to have an appetizer, meal, and dessert. It was all very good. We were going to go to a movie but we couldn't agree on any, so we drove to north Austin and car shopped. Brandon is thinking of trading in his car again, so we were looking at some options and colors. We then decided we needed some Starbucks, so we drove to the one off Guadalupe and I got me a gingerbread latte - my favorite and they only have them at Christmas time. This was the first cup of Starbucks I've had since I've been pregnant. It was heavenly! We drove around Austin for a while, checked out what was going on on 6th street and made a stop at the book store on Lamar and looked at some magazines. We just relaxed. It was nice.

Saturday, November 25th: One month til Christmas, so we knocked out some Christmas shopping. We went to Barton Creek in the morning and San Marcos outlet mall in the afternoon. We got a lot of gifts taken care of so it was a successful day. We came home early evening and headed to my parents. We had to pick up Ms. Lucy and Amy and I decided to decorate my mom's Christmas tree. It turned out very beautiful.

Sunday, November 26th: Woke up early and went to church. When we got home from breakfast, Brandon pulled out our Christmas tree and all of our Christmas decor for inside. I spent the day getting all of the house decorated. It feels good to have that done. We also took Bryn, Brock and Anna out to the country club for a while to try to get a good Christmas picture for my mom. She wants to send them out w/ her Christmas cards. That was quite a task - trying to get three little ones to smile, look at the camera, keep their hands down, stay still - wow! I think we got about three good possibilities out of the 4o something pictures we took. Next year, Dayton will get to partake in the chaos!

That leads us to today. Brandon is enjoying his last day of vacation and we're just being pretty lazy. I have dancing this afternoon, so I'll have to put it in gear eventually. Hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day and safe weekend!

The Joys of Maternity Clothes

This is definently a topic worth discussing. Let me tell you how hard it is to find some decent clothing. I have always tried to dress somewhat "stylish" and keeping in fashion, but my how hard that can be when you are pregnant! The first problem is when you live in El Campo, Texas, your choices are limited to the local Wal-Mart - fun times :) If you choose to go to Sugar Land, you have three more choices - JC Penney, Motherhood Maternity, and Target - wow, it just gets better and better, huh? No cute Express or Ann Taylor or Gap maternity clothes - just those three choices. Next best place is the Galleria where you can choose from Mimi maternity and Pea in a Pod maternity - very nice clothes, but they cost you a pretty penny. And trust me, when you grow in and out of clothes in a matter of weeks, you can't afford to keep up. I bring all of this up because I ran into Sugar Land this morning to find a few options for upcoming parties and holidays and boy was that tough! About two hundred dollars later, I came home with some pretty 'normal' clothes - nothing to write home about, trust me. It's so depressing! The internet is full of adorable maternity clothing, but it's so hard to buy stuff without trying it on. I have to try on everything I buy because everything fits so differently. [On a side note, I have to point out one very wonderful thing about maternity clothes - elastic waistbands. Oh my gosh - they are heavenly. I swore I'd never wear them, that I'd only buy the stylish maternity "below the belly" pants w/o elastic, but those only give you a saggy hiney and you find yourself pulling them up all day. Elastic waistbands are awesome, you can always eat as much as you want and they just grow with you. And, no zippers or buttons. You just pull the suckers up and you're dressed. I always find myself having to check my zippers and buttons when I wear pants w/o elastic, because I'm so used to not worrying about the problem anymore. Anyways, thought I'd share that interesting tidbit.]

So, moral of the story, whenever and where ever you guys see me and I'm dressed very "motherly" looking, please have pity on me - I'm doing the best I can. As I hung my head and walked through the mall starring at all the adorable maniquins and outfits in the windows today, I tried to look forward to the time when I can go from being the unfashionable, comfortable looking pregnant woman to the cute and stylish mom! That day may never come, but I can dream! Good night! :)

Nursery Theme

Well, after much debate and loss of sleep, we've finally decided on a nursery theme for Mr. Dayton. We're going to go w/ airplanes. We have big plans for the room, so we'll see how it turns out. We're picking out bedding next week. We probably won't go with airplane bedding, just something that will match what we're looking for. We'd like to use navy, white and a deep red as the main colors. While at the Nutcracker Market over the weekend, I found a little personalized sign in those colors w/ an airplane on it. It will kinda be the inspiration for the room. I don't want to give away the rest of our ideas - I want them to be a surprise, but hopefully it'll turn out pretty cute! I am home again this week. I spent the whole day yesterday until it was time to go to dancing, cleaning our kitchen. I went through drawers, cleaned cabinets, etc. It was very time consuming and tiring. Today we are having the carpets cleaned, so I'm hanging out waiting for those guys to arrive. Starting this weekend, I think we are booked up through Christmas so I know time will fly by! Brandon has off next week so we're gonna be busy with a gazillion things - picking out bedding, I've got an appointment on Tuesday, Thanksgiving, my dad's birthday, Friday is the ATM game and after that we're spending the night in Austin for our anniversary and going shopping on Saturday for Christmas - whew! Crazy times. Dayton's most active time of the day is around right now (10:00 a.m.). I think it's because my breakfast has had time to get to him and he's just wide awake bouncing around. You guys should see him move. Sunday morning Brandon and I were laying in bed after church and he was just jumping around - Brandon couldn't believe it. So cute! When Brandon came home for lunch yesterday we had a small little arguement and when Brandon raised his voice, Dayton started going crazy again. I told him look what he was doing to his little boy. Dayton was not happy with his daddy's yelling - it was so funny! The arguement ended that fast. Anyways, nothing else too exciting to share today. I need to get some more work done around here. Have a good one! JZ

Relaxing Week...

Well, it's been a pretty relaxing week around here. I haven't been working at Scott's office this week b/c I finished the project I was working on, so I just wait around til they have another. No big deal - I have plenty to keep me busy around here. I have been working extremely hard on getting all of my music together for dancing and I've even begun picking out costumes. I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot for the studio which was the goal of all of this. The days really do seem to fly by. Yesterday I road with Brandon to do an inspection on one of his customer's houses in Houston. It was a really old house that they gutted and are remodeling to sale. It was so beautiful. I enjoyed going along for the ride. We ate at Pei Wei on the way home so me and Dayton were very satisfied. Sounds corny, but Brandon and I have had so much time to "bond" lately always being on the road. That's been the one nice thing about Longhorn football games on Saturdays. We're in the car for 4 hours so we have a lot of time to talk. We talk about everything - we have such big plans for our little family. We are so excited to welcome this little guy into the world. We also talk about the "fears" of parenting. It can be a scary thought when you get so wrapped up in the joys of being pregnant, you sometimes forget the ending result - a brand new baby! It's coming so quick. I know that with holidays coming, it will be hear before we know it. May God help us!!!! Last night we had Brandon's mom and dad and my mom and dad over for stew - my favorite thing to make! I feel like they always feed us and do so much for us, I like to return the favor sometimes when I'm feeling good. Amy came by with the kids so they got to play at the house for a while too. After I ate, Dayton was going crazy again so Bryn got to feel him kick really good for the first time. Now, I've been able to share it with Brandon, Mom, Mrs. Zabodyn, Amy and Bryn. Pretty amazing. If you ask Bryn what his name is, she says "Dayton Wayne - You know, Wayne like in Wayne-O." (That's what she calls Brandon's Dad - pretty funny!) Anyways, I will wrap it up for today. No big plans, just dancing and Grey's Anatomy tonight. Saturday I'm going with Mom, Diane, and Samantha to the Nutcracker Market in Houston - I can't wait. It will be a lot of fun. I'm gonna have to rest up really well because I know it'll be a lot of walking, but Christmas is my very most favorite time of the year and this year we have so much to celebrate! Take care, JZ...

Warning - Nursery Under Construction!!!!

Okay, below are a few pictures of the "Nursery in Construction" process. Scott and Brandon delivered all of the furniture into our living room on Friday, so we spent all Friday evening trying to get everything in order so that we could actually walk through the living room again.


Here is Brandon carrying one of the drawers:

Here are a few of the drawers while they were still scattered around the living room:

Doesn't the crib look lovely in the middle of the living room? I can't think of a better place to have it:

Here is Brandon again putting together the changing table:

Here is a little of what was left of the mess half way through the project. We still haven't gotten everything out of there:

Here is what it looks like today. We were gonna keep the couch in there, but it's a little cramped, so we'll be getting rid of it and moving the glider over in front of the window. Everything looks so bare!!!! :

Here is Dayton's future closet. It's a little scarce right now, but I know it'll be full before we know it. He does have a few outfits hanging up already - aren't they just so sweet?:

Another view from the opposite corner of the room. Can't wait to slap some paint on the walls and get some shelves/colors/decorations in the place:

Hope you guys enjoy the pics, they're not much, but atleast you can keep up with the process. We feel such a sense of accomplishment having moved everything around. The office is now a "guest room" since that's where the extra bed is now. It's a little cozy, but that's okay. It will have to work!

Belly Bumps

Well, I've experienced something new and exciting yet again. Dayton must really like Grey's Anatomy like his mommy because he was moving around so much last night while it was on. Brandon got another chance to feel him moving around for quite sometime. Then, I was off to take a relaxing bath. I laid back in the tub to rest for a few minutes and before I knew it, he was bouncing around again. For the first time, I could see his little movements through my belly. It would just go up on one side then the other depending on where he was. It was the cutest little thing. I sat there forever just watching. Brandon hollered at me from the bedroom, "Are you asleep in there?" I told him no and explained what was going on. I hope he gets to watch that soon. So cool!!!! Not much to report today. I am loving this cooler weather - I hope it stays this way. Brandon is supposed to be taking off this afternoon to help clean the extra room and office. We're getting the crib and changing table either today or tomorrow - how exciting! Everything is starting to become real. I'll try to be good and take some pics while we work this afternoon, but you know how that can be. You guys take care - have a safe weekend!