Finishing Touches

This week we added the final finishing touches to Jett's nursery! Other than some reorganization of closets and dresser drawers it is all ready for our sweet boy! Ava Kate loves to go and play in there and already refers to it as Jett's room. I think the visual signs that he is coming are helping her get more prepared and more excited about his arrival.

We also put some finishing touches on Ava Kate's big girl room. Since we moved the changing table out of her room and into the nursery we decided to move her little kitchen and table and chairs to her room and she has really loved having it in there. I also decided to make her bulletin board to display photos and her artwork on.

The owl pillow I found on Etsy and Nana made the polka dot pillow to coordinate with it!

In both of the kids rooms I wanted to incorporate some scriptures so Justin and I searched together for some that we want to pray over and encourage Ava and Jett with. I've been doing the Beth Moore, Believing God bible study and she has talked a lot of the importance of praying scripture and choosing specific scriptures for loved ones in your life. For Jett I printed and framed a couple of scriptures and for Ava Kate's room I printed several scriptures to add to her new bulletin board.

The finished nursery!

My baby's big girl room!

It's Coming Together

A few more accent pieces like a pillow for the rocker, a new changing pad cover and a visit from the carpet cleaners is about all we are lacking for having the nursery ready for our sweet little Jett's arrival! Yes I know we have four months to go but I figured I better take advantage of Justin's time at home this summer because in just a few weeks he will be back at work and November will be here before we know it!

Celebrating with a Picnic at the Zoo

What better way to celebrate the end of the nasty E. Coli virus than a picnic at the zoo! The zoo stays open till 9pm on Thursdays so we thought we'd beat the heat and have a picnic after 6pm. We picked up Subway sandwiches and packed some fruit, chips and drinks to go along with them. First we stopped off to the feed the ducks which were very happy to see us as you can see from how they were swarming around us. Once in the zoo we picked out a shady spot in the grass to have our picnic. So much for beating the heat, it was insanely hot even in the shade! After we ate our picnic dinner we took a ride on the beloved zoo choo choo train. Then we took off to see the animals and I will say they were more active than they are in the mornings and afternoons in fact one of the cougars was hissing at and stalking our stroller, it turned into a game of tormenting the poor cat with the stroller but it was the most exciting trip to the zoo I have had in a long time. Other than the heat it was a great way to celebrate our sweet girl feeling better!

Tour De Texas Turned E. Coli Nightmare

We decided with a little one on the way we needed to get away just the three of us one last time before baby Jett makes his arrival. We began our Tour De Texas in Austin where we spent a few days with my Uncle Nathan, Aunt Sarah and cousins Lila and Laney. While we were there we ate lots of yummy food, enjoyed some Amy's ice cream, explored downtown, had a date night out at the most amazing restaurant and attended a 4th of July we'll never forget. It was outside of Austin on some land in the middle of pine trees and had a library, multiple cabins, a great pool, a fully equipped game room/arcade, dune buggies, blow up water slides, snow cones and a guest list that included Matthew McConaughey and Adrian Brody. We all had a great time exploring the property and enjoying all the fun ammenities and good food.

The day after the 4th we got up early and headed to Sea World for a couple of days of fun. Ava really loved the dolphin and beluga whale show, the penguins, feeding the dolphins, the Sesame Street Bay of Play area and of course Shamu! Tuesday we stayed all day and evening so we could see the night shows. Wednesday we just went back to catch a few of the shows we didn't get to make on Tuesday. While we were there we stayed with Justin's sister Lisa and her husband Steve and even got to get in a dinner at PF Chang's with them Wednesday night after Sea World.

Unfortunately from there things went downhill. Ava had felt a little warm to me all day and was napping quite a bit. When we got home that night I took her temperature and it was almost 103. We gave her some Advil and went to bed for the night. We had planned to leave for Dallas the next day and were going to stay with Justin's aunt and uncle while Justin and his dad played in a Father Son Golf Tournament. Justin's uncle Jerry recently had surgery to remove a mass in his throat and learned he has throat cancer and will be starting radiation soon. We decided taking a sick child to his house was a very bad idea and I'm so glad we did. Justin drove Ava and I home Thursday morning and then hoppped in the car with his dad as soon as we got home to head to Dallas. She continued to run a high fever which wasn't breaking with any medications or cold baths. Thursday afternoon she started having diarrhea. I figured it was just a virus but then Friday it continued along with the high fever and got worse so I took her to the doctor. He was concerned by the high fever that wasn't going away and the number of diapers she had and the lack of substance to them so he took a stool sample. The fever finally broke Friday evening and we ended up staying with my parents for a couple of nights so I could have a little extra help. Sunday she started having stomach cramps that were very painful and she had blood in her stool so I called the doctor and when he called back he told me she had E. Coli. We have tried to figure out how she got it and can't really pinpoint it but our guess is it was probably from something or someone at Sea World. Monday she seemed a little better but the cramps were worse and she wasn't really drinking anything which was very concerning. She did eat some popsicles and we got her some cherry 7up and she drank that. Praise the Lord she hasn't had anymore diarrhea since yesterday morning and not as many cramps today so we are praying this is the end of this nightmare. It was the sickest I've ever seen her and I felt so helpless not being able to give her anything for the pain. I never knew seeing her eat yogurt and drink cherry 7up would bring such a HUGE smile to my face and joy to my heart or that seeing her get relief from tooting would make me so happy either. I would rather change 1,000 dirty diapers than see her in such pain. Sea World used to be one of my favorite places to visit but I'm not sure my memories will be quite as fond after this.

I did a terrible job taking photos while we were in Austin but here are just a few including yes a photo of Mr. McConaughey playing football and yes he never put a shirt on the whole party.

Sea World

All decked out in her fairy attire from Aunt Lisa