The Rodeo!

Two weeks ago we went with my parents to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. 

The mascot is the letter H with a hat and boots... it's kind of a weird mascot.  Regardless, the rodeo is a must see if you're in Houston when it's going on.  We went to it every year growing up, so I was really excited to take Angela to it.  It's the biggest rodeo of the regular rodeo season, and the livestock show is huge and impressive.

Angela borrowed my sister Amy's hat.  I think she makes a very cute cowgirl.

At the livestock show we saw prize rabits, horses, cows, chickens, sheep, etc.  Angela was really tough even though she was nauseous most of the day.  While we walked around, Angela had tons of cravings, and when she ate the craved food it ebbed the nausea... so we kept buying her food.

She ate

Chicken Strips with french fries

Green Gatorade

Chocolate Ice Cream with a delicious waffle cone from marble slab

Frozen Sprite

Kettle Corn

A soft pretzel

Lemonade

This may not seem like a lot, but anyone that knows Angela's eatting habbits, knows that this is an impressive spread.

(As we were remembering this list of foods, Angela started thinking about

the ice cream that she had at the Rodeo and is now craving ice cream :) 

I love pregnancy cravings because if Angela's craving ice cream that means

I have an excuse to eat the craving as well, even if it means ice cream for dinner!!)

The Rodeo featured all of the normal Rodeo events and some new and classic genuine Houston events.

Bucking broncos, steer wrestling, calf roping, barrel racing, and chuck wagon racing.

The rodeo was held in Reliant Stadium where the Texan's play.  It's just up the road from our apartment.

My favorite event was the bull riding.  One cowboy got prematurely kicked off his bull, and the bull kicked him in the head.  The judges said that the round didn't count and that the cowboy could have another ride.  The cowboy put a piece of gauze on his bleeding head, put his hat on to hold the gauze in place, and rode the bull again!  It was impressive, and the crowd was going wild.

This isn't a picture of this particular moment, but I think it captures the essence of the exciting event.  Amazingly Angela was able to sleep through the entire event!!  We gave her nausea medicine, and it made her super drowsy... drowsy enough that she could sleep through 50,000 viewers screaming, and my dad and I cheering as well. She only slept through 45 mins of the Rodeo and 30 mins of the livestock show, so she didn't miss much.

Our favorite events were the calf scramble, which is an old Houston classic event.  About 20 highschool students chase after 10 calfs all over the arena, and if they catch the calf they get to keep it and raise it.

It was really funny watching the persistence of some of the kids.

Our all time favorite event is a new one called Mutton Bustin'.  Basically, a 4 or 5 year old kid climbs onto a sheep and holds on for dear life.  The sheep is released, and they time how long the kid holds on.

Some of the kids slipped off really quickly and then were just basically holding on to the side of the sheep.  It was really cute!

We had a great time and we are excited to go again next year.

Our Trip to Utah

Last month Jeff and I took a small trip to Utah to visit my family. The last time we both went to Utah was in June so we were excitedly anticipating this visit. Luckily, I don't have to wait quite so long to see my family next because somehow (I still don't quite know how) I convinced Jeff to let me fly back in April for Women's Conference at BYU. My sister has some more great pictures of the event on her blog.

Sister bonding. (Look at my stomach! it is so flat! I'm getting chunkier everyday-- Did you notice Gilmore Girls season 7 in the background? I am proud to say that I got my sisters addicted to the show and they were dying to borrow the last season from me).

We all went to a new place called The Boondocks where we went bowling and watched the little kiddos play arcade games... okay we played too. 

Zachary was definitely the best bowler of us all.

I mean look at that serious bowler's face!

No longer just a bean

I'm still dealing with the nausea every day, I am really starting to worry that the puking and dry heaves will never go away. I am 17 weeks along, well into my second trimester, this sickness was supposed to go away by now. I think this little one is going to be a trouble maker!

These first pictures are from a month ago. Remember that fuzzy bean? What a difference a month makes in fetal development!

He/She looks like a real baby! 

These next two picture are from last Tuesday. Getting bigger! 

We are at the point now where you can tell the gender of the baby. I was really hoping that we could tell. But sadly, that little trouble maker was not cooperative.

Little stinker! Had his/her legs in the way, and then shoved his/her hand out saying, "Mom, Leave me alone already!" Yep, definitely going to be a trouble maker.

Looks like we have to wait another month until we can start buying pink frilly things.

I had the Best Idea Ever!..... and yet Angela didn't like it

Jeff- here
I've just started my infectious disease class which is quite boring and tedious.  Yesterday as I was studying my notes about Enterobacteriaceae, I started trying to recite out loud the different characteristics of Serratia, Shegella, and Kiebsiella (Angela is such a good sport and acts like what I am saying is very interesting and it's not annoying at all that I'm reciting all of these things out loud). 

AND THEN it dawns on me!!!   Some of these bacterial names would make amazing baby names.
I mean Shegella is really quite a beautiful name. Say it a couple of times Shegella, Shegella, Shegella... and she could go by Ella!! 

I know what you are all thinking, why am I sharing this amazing name with the world so that its uniqueness can be stolen by some blog-spying-couple whose due date is before ours?!? Well the truth is,  is that Angela didn't find my suggestion all that inspiring.  I admit that some of the other bacterial names I proposed were not as good as shegella, like morganella, providencia, pneumococcus, or enterobacter (in retrospect probably a better boys name), but SHEGELLA is really a great name!
Well, as we were discussing this great idea at lunch, some fellow student decided to chime in, and inform Angela that Shegella causes diarrhea and blood in your stool--- the wheels of innovation once again haulted by diarrhea!  Perhaps someone else out there will use my great name on their child and give me credit for it.

The red things are Shegella; I think they're quite beautiful.

February Update

It's Saturday morning and I still feel sick :( I am still puking even though my second trimester officially began 2 weeks ago. I keep thinking that one day I am going to wake up and all the nausea will be gone. Until then, my house is still messy and my bed never gets made. Honestly, we haven't done much in the last month. I've been watching Friends on DVD (Just finished season 7 yesterday) we celebrated Valentines Day, and we began thinking about how to turn our study into a baby's room. The highlight of the month was flying to Utah for a little trip, but that will be its own post.

For Valentines Day Jeff bought me flowers and yummy candles from Bath and Body Works, and made me a mixed CD that I LOVE! In return, his puking wife made him a simple but tasty dinner of crepes with strawberries and raspberries.

As for changing our study into a baby's room, we bought our first furniture piece! I liked to drool over this Glider (above) at Pottery Barn. Then found a similar piece at JCPenny (of all places!) for much cheaper.

Here's our Glider! I love that it looks like a regular chair but when you sit on it it rocks back and forth so smoothly! On a different note, I think I'm starting to look chunky- I can't wear my jeans anymore, I wear my slacks to work and then hang around the house in yoga pants. What do you think? Do I look chunky? I know it doesn't help that I am covering my stomach with my hands in this picture.