Isabella's First Laugh

7 Days without power can make you a little stir crazy, so Emily and I decided to get out of the house today and check out Best Buy. We found the perfect little video camera to shoot Bella quick and easy so that we can update the blog with videos for our family and friends that are not able to see Bella on a regular basis. Well as soon as we got over to Emily's parents house I got out the camera and learned how to work it. Then I turned the camera on Bella and she put on a show. We are very lucky that we got the camera today because Bella decided to laugh out loud for the first time on camera. If you are having a bad day just check out this video and it will put you in a giggle fit just like it did to us.

still no power

still blogging from my iphone.  we have no power at our house.  luckily the weather has been nice.  it is starting to warm up a little bit  but we have a generator so we are doing pretty good at keeping cool.  iI am not sure when I will go back to work.   probably next week.  we are so blessed that we did not sustain much damage considering what happened within miles of us. I will post pics when we get back up and running.  I must say that hurricane was a very scary experience.  not sure if I will ever stay again.  I guess we will just have to see.  

quick update

We are still doing fine here in Friendswood. We did just received word that we have lost power at our house in LC. I hate to think about how long we will be without it. We also were told that we have not had any rain yet at our house. Terry, Dad, and Buddy ventured over there around 5 this afternoon to see what the creek was doing. It had completely covered the road at that time. We are still not expecting for our house to flood. We still have power here at Lesli's, thank goodness! We are having some pretty high gusts of wind but we are still good here in "the wood"!

Ike

We are at Lesli's, been here since about 9:30 this morning. We have spent the majority of the day outside. It has been nice and breezy. We have had a few major gusts of wind but nothing serious up to this point. We decided we better spend as much time as possible outside since we will all be together inside for a good long period of time.

If you are watching the news you are probably seeing Galveston getting hammered. Please know that at this time we are not seeing anything like they are. We are not expected to get the storm surge that Galveston is getting. We also found out that Lesli's house is actually the highest point in Friendswood. So I think we are good when it comes to water. Wind...we should be fine there also. They have hurricane straps to hold the roof on tight.

This morning before we left we drove down to the creek about 5 blocks from our house. This creek feeds into the lake which feeds into the bay. As you can see it was already coming over the road. Our understanding is that our house is much higher than the creek. Here's hopin'!!

Picture of the first lost twig!! As you can see it's a doozy :)

Terry and Bella

As you can see we are just relaxing for now. So hopefully for now this has made some of you feel a little bit better about us sticking around.

Here is a video of the wind!

I dont like ike!!

Posting from my iPhone. We lost power at about 2:30am. I dont like Ike!!! Things have calmed down for the time being. Gusts are at about 53 mph it was about 73 mph. It is quite loud when we get those high gusts. We are only halfway through with this. The eye is now passing just to the east of us. On a positive note.....Grammy has taught herself how to knit!!

Getting Close

We are getting ready to head over to my cousin's house. The first bands are coming through but we aren't feeling any real effects yet. We are getting stuff off of the walls and finishing packing. I really have no idea what all I need to pack. I'm just throwing stuff in.

The Strand in Galveston is already flooded, not from rain but the water is already coming up that high from the coast. It looks like it will be a direct hit on Galveston which is actually a better scenario for us a little further inland. The storm surge should not be as bad so the flooding hopefully will not be as bad. We are still hoping it may go in East of Galveston. I guess time will tell. They are predicting that we could be without power for at least 2 weeks. UUUUGGGGHHH!!!! At least there is a bit of a cool front coming through right after the storm. Maybe that will make it bearable. We do have generators at Lesli's, THANK GOODNESS!!

Our family is going to be a little spread out but we will be in the same area. Tim, Alyssa, and Ryan will be several miles from us at Tim's best friend's house. Last I heard Courtney was going to Carthage with her mom. That may have changed, they may have decided to stay, but I'm not sure. We will be with my parents and grandmother at my cousin Lesli's house. All of our houses are boarded up, quite a strange feeling actually.

Cell phone service is already not great. If you want to get ahold of us the best thing to do would be to text message us, that seems to be going through better.

I'll keep posting as long as I can. I'm thinking we will probably lose power sometime tonight. Maybe, HOPEFULLY, we will be lucky and we won't!!

Pray for us!!!

IKE is EEK!! part 2

Alrighty, we are officially "hunkering"down. I love that phrase, it is so Texas!! Anyway, Terry is boarding up the house as we speak. I got home from work about 20 minutes ago. Yep that's right, work, and because I left early to prepare for the hurricane I had to use a personal day. WHATEVER!!! Our zip code is not under mandatory evacuation. Some of our neighbors are staying put right here. We will be headed over to my cousin Lesli's house where we will ride it out with my parents. Safety in numbers, right?

Apparently our neighborhood is the second highest spot in our city. Let's hope that is right because I really don't want water in my house. I am EXTREMELY nervous about all of this. Serious stomach problems this morning caused by my nervousness. I will continue to update as long as I can. For now the weather is beautiful!!! What will the next 48 hours bring?

IKE is EEK!!

Well it looks like we could be getting some of this big ole nasty storm near us. My school has canceled for Friday and most area schools have canceled for Thursday and Friday. It appears we will be riding out the storm right here. I'm a little worried as I have never experienced a hurricane except for what we got in Nac from Rita. I have lived in the Houston area since '91 and have never been through a full out hurricane. Terry is still debating on whether or not to board up the house. Dad got a generator so if we lose power at least we will have a place to go. This storm is so crazy because it isn't giving us a definite idea of where it is going to make landfall. Oh well, I guess we will just be "hunkering down"!!

Bella

On Friday before I left work my mom called to tell me some big news......Bella rolled over!! Now I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I am super excited that she did something new, on the other I am super sad because I missed it happening the first time. Mom said she laid her on her tummy and went into the kitchen, when she came back Bella was on her back. She didn't actually see her roll over but apparently she couldn't she the TV very well on her tummy. Yes my child is a little obsessed with the TV. She definitely takes after her mama on that!! Anyway, tonight the three of us were in Bella's room putting up laundry. We put her on the floor to play with her new favorite toy. Terry and I both ended up on the floor with her. I was folding diaper rags and he was playing with her. Well......... SHE ROLLED OVER AGAIN AND WE ACTUALLY SAW IT!!!!!! So, while she did roll over for the first time at Nana and Papa's, Terry and I were the ones to actually SEE her do it for the first time!!! We were so excited!! We cheered for her and I'm pretty sure we scared her. I didn't get a picture or video but that will be forever seared in my memory.


This is her new favorite toy. Terry bought it for her in Galveston. She has not been the least bit interested in toys until this crazy looking thing. She loves to hold it with her hands and grab it with her toes.

So alot of firsts this week: the 3 new babies together for the first time, the bumbo chair, mommy and daddy spend the first night away from Bella, and she rolled over. We had a big week!!

Surprise!

So I mentioned in my anniversary post that Terry had a surprise for me this weekend. Well on Friday he took me to Galveston to spend the night. It was our first night away from Bella. It is a lot harder for me to leave her than I thought it would be. But we needed to get away and have a little time to ourselves. We left for Galveston around 5:30 or so and headed to the hotel.We stayed at the Hilton on the Seawall.

We enjoyed our view for about 5 minutes, then decided we were hungry.

We ate at our favorite Galveston restaurant, Fishtails.

The weather was amazing so we enjoyed the night outside. Terry doesn't appear to be enjoying it but he really was. At least the sunset was pretty in the background.

Here I am enjoying the weather.

My very favorite item at Fishtails, Shrimp Kisses, I had them for an appetizer and again as my main course. Our waitress thought I was weird.

YUM!!! I LOVE shrimp kisses!!

Terry picked me a flower on our way to the car so I wore it in my hair.

That is the end of the pictures. Not really sure why but I didn't take anymore. Saturday we ate breakfast at Starbucks and headed down to the strand. The weather was better than perfect!!! We really enjoyed ourselves!!

Thank you Terry for making get away and for being a GREAT husband!! I love you!!

Labor Day

I know I haven't been great at posting since Isabella was born. Quite frankly I think I am doing good to even get to work everyday. Notice there was nothing mentioned about making it to "on time". That is not really happening. I try, but to no avail. Anyway I have some catching up to do, so I will do that here.

On Labor Day we went over to my parents house for burgers. It was the first time all 3 new babies were in the same place. This was definelty a picture oppurtunity.We played baby switch-a-roo!! Musical babies. Whatever you would like to call it. Notice Ryan checking out Lexi.

Now we have it right. Ryan is now VERY interested in Lexi!!

Now Ryan is quite interested in his other cousin. He was hilarious. He would not look at the camera. He was far to concerned with these other two girlies. Watch our Ryan, I foresee some dress-up play in your future!

Labor day was definitely a day of firsts. Bella got a Bumbo chair. Terry had taken her out of church on Sunday and into the nursery, Tilly's mama Lindsay was telling Terry about the chair and he HAD to have one. She isn't great at sitting in it yet, but she is getting better.

At least she appears to be having a good time!!

Now you can see how she normally sits in it. She has figured out the lazy way to prop herself up. And yes she is trying to put her paci in her mouth. She gets it every once in a while. And no your eyes aren't fooling you, she is wearing a different bow in the second picture. It was brand new and matched so we had to try it out.

Here are some random pictures from Labor Day.And I saved the best for last. Daddy and Bella watching TV!!!

Look who came to see me at work today!!!!

Happy Anniversay to US!!

Eight years.....WoW!!! It truly has been an amazing 8 years with my sweet husband. We have had a blast and I can't wait to see what the next 8+ years will bring us. He sent me some beautiful flowers today and took Bella and I out to eat. He is taking me somewhere Friday night. He says it's a surprise!!! I'll let ya'll in on the secret as soon as I find out...

I love you Terry!!! You are the best Hubby ever!!!