Miscellaneous Stuff

Baby, baby, baby! We have babies (one in particular) on the brain! Kenan and I are settling into a habit of eating out a BUNCH - in order to satisfy my tummy and take advantage of the ability to leave the house while we can :)

We have done lots more prep on the nursery; Kenan's next step is to build shelves for the closet and then paint the walls, because we find out in TWO DAYS whether we're having a boy or a girl. Here are a couple of random pictures from the last month or so:

 Late August - a bump, but not yet impressive

19 weeks - all belly :)

I always end up taking belly pictures after I eat supper, which is when the belly is the biggest. We're taking bets on whether or not my belly button will last - Kenan is sure it's going to pop out pretty soon. The baby is very active lately, I can tell the difference between kicks, rolls, and quick flips. Only two more days and we get to stop saying "the baby".

Ask, and it Shall Be Given

We are giddy with delight while we anticipate our new arrival in February 2012, so we are planning and planning for Baby Bubela. We've gotten a head start on the nursery:

 Constructing the crib

 Changing table construction (with Madison's supervision)

 Crib complete!

 I have a LOT more nesting to do, but here's what we have so far. I hung labels on the wall to remind myself where I want to place everything (pregnancy brain makes me forget everything)

Here I am at exactly fifteen weeks - I think I have finally passed the "she-could-just-be-fat" phase and moved into what is clearly a baby belly. Seems like I'm getting bigger every day - we have a nice healthy baby growing in there :)

Underground Fun

I've always wanted to say I went spelunking - not because I think it's a cool thing to do (it is) but because I love the word. We had about half the Bubela family here this weekend for a visit and we went to the Natural Bridge Caverns, which Kenan and I have never seen before. It was very fun and we got some cool pictures:

 Daddy, my t-shirt says "Boba Fett" :)

 I forget what they called this formation, but I think it looks like a jellyfish

For some reason this reminded me of Lord of the Rings

Fralos!

Fralo's on Friday nights has been a long-standing tradition for the Machiceks and Bubelas, so we did it this past Friday with Chase and Mrs. Friesenhahn and had a great time. All the pictures turned out really well - I noticed lately that since either me or Kenan are always taking the pictures there's never one of us together :( We'll have to work on that.

 Awww

 I was playing airplane with Chase - never fails to get a giggle

About ready for bedtime

Happy 4th!

We went to a fun get-together at the Machicek household last night to celebrate July 4th and had a great time. 

 Erin giving Chase some peas - he liked them!

 The boys hanging out with the dogs

 Pool fun with the kiddoes

 Playing some Baggo

 Hanging out with Chase

Giving Buddy a belly rub

Gunfighters for a Day

Today we had a very special field trip - one of my coworkers is a retired F16 fighter pilot and we got to take a tour of Lackland AFB and check things out. We saw simulators (some of us experienced the simulators), walked around the airfield with the F16s and had lots of fun. It was very cool indeed to tour the base where my Daddy went through basic training. Here are the pictures:

Carlos getting suited up for the parachute training simulator

Nuff said.

Pretty good photography here if I do say so myself - we were always in a hurry since you obviously can't go wandering around a military installation without an escort, especially on an airfield

Chris showing us the business end of a heat-seeking missile

This is just for you, Daddy! It was painted on the side of the aircraft we were looking at and I got a little verklempt :)

So several flights landed right by us as we were out checking out the planes and this guy took the cake. I didn't get a good picture of it but he started hamming it up the minute he realized we were taking photographs of him. Love it!

It was a wonderful day and every single person we met in uniform was as polite and gracious as could be - they were also quite excited when they found out we were from USAA. And our fearless leader for the day, currently a Lieutenant Colonel who trains fighter pilots, was a Texas A&M graduate! 

(I could swear the kid at the security check as we came on base wasn't old enough to have a driver's license, much less tote an M16, but I think that just means I'm a grown-up now). Besides, I have seen pictures and that is pretty much exactly what my own Daddy looked like when he was an Airman. *Sigh*

Happy Father's Day!

We went to Caldwell this weekend to visit my Mom and Dad for Father's Day. We had a great time with each other and here are some pictures from our fun weekend:

Daddy relaxing with Madison - she knew who the man of the hour was!

The boys (Daddy, Kenan, Richard) out at the pond fishing

Kenan caught a fish! (Actually he caught several)

But he was in for it because look who else was fishing...

And I caught one! Daddy was right there to help me hold him up - that fish was a fighter!

 My little leech

This one is hard to see but it's Daddy on the old Ford tractor. He hadn't tried the lights in years but they turned right on!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy. We love you!