Budweiser Brewery

One of the things we love out St. Louis is that there is a lot to do here for free: our wonderful zoo, Grant's Farm, the Arch, and the Budweiser Brewery tour to name a few. We decided to take the tour earlier in the week while Matt was at home. The facility is more like a compound than a factory...it is HUGE! It is amazing to think that the Busch family moved here and made such an empire. Matt and I now want to learn more about how they made it into the power company that they are today..it just seems interesting.
Anyways..here are some pictures from our 2-hour tour:

This is a Clydesdale. They are huge, beautiful and did I say "BIG" animals. Whenever I get to see one I always wish I could just saddle one up and see what it would feel like to ride one..just for a minute because I am sure that my thighs would hurt after only a short ride.



Here are some of the buildings.

This part of the tour was in a room that was 10 degrees hotter than outside. So as you can imagine the end of the July heat plus 10 was not too comfortable. But I did think the chandelier was a nice touch.

I don't remember what process these containers are for but they are big and there is a lot of them.

The kids did great and Isabella enjoyed her free sierra mist after the tour and her dad enjoyed the free beer. I was happy to have mountain dew which I don't treat myself to very often. (I don't like beer, but I did try some of Matt's and it still stands that I don't like it).

Cutie Face

I thought it was time to post some updated pics of Sam. Here is the little man of the house.

It is so fun getting him to smile especially since he does so easily.


This was good timing as he was sneezing..I love it when babies sneeze. I just thought was too funny that I was able to get this shot.

He seems to be betting so big.

Week of Letter "I"

I realize that this is summer and most kids are not doing any "school" work, but I have decided to do some stuff anyways.
She is really good with her letters already so we are going to start to write as well. I found a blog that did this "letter of the week" idea and thought it would really help me with direction to teaching Isabella. I just want to be more intentional in our day-to-day.
I asked her what her favorite letter was and she said "I." So, we got started.
We started off the week with coloring the letter.



Then we got to make an Icee.









Later in the week all of us went to the ICE RINK! I have wanted to take Isabella Ice Skating for almost a year now. I had really wanted to take her this winter, but Matt kindly reminded me that I was not in "great condition" (meaning pregnant) to fulfill this dream. I had completely forgotten about "my condition" for a few minutes. Here are some pics from our time.





It was a fun week. I think I am going to do "B" next.

In his new Woombie

I saw this on my friends blog and I went ahead and got one. It will make putting Baba down a lot easier for Matt b/c he won't have to swaddle. I think he looks so cute (like a little pea pod). I was hoping from some of the reviews on it that it would magically help him sleep through the night...apparently he does not think it is so magical. He does seem to like it though and it does help him not to knock his "plug" out of his mouth.

For Those Mommies Out There with Wonderful Friends!

This is a funny (but way true) article that I just read and thought I would share.


The Eight Friends Every New Mom Needs
July 8, 2010
by Peryl Manning of "Parenting Ad Absurdum"
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My husband and I chose, for some inexplicable reason, to make our home a good six hours from our closest family members. It wasn’t until I had kids that I realized what a poorly thought-out decision that really was. I have been lucky enough, though, over the last five years to gather together a really spectacular mom community that is as close to family as anything can be. I believe there are certain types of mom friends that every new parent needs, and they fall roughly into the following eight groups.

Mom friend superstars include:

1. The “there-in-a-pinch” mom friend who will do an emergency baby suppository run when your little one is glued to the toilet, and your spouse is out of town, no questions asked (and knows enough to recommend suppositories in the first place).

2. The “exactly-your-level-of-crazy” mom friend – one that you can call and confess that you had cereal and wine for dinner, and that your Tupperware drawer is trying to kill you.

3. The “all-baby-all-the-time” mom friend who will engage enthusiastically in any detail of your baby’s development; including his bowel movements/brilliance and agree on their peculiarity/outstandingness, even though she has three equally peculiar and outstanding children of her own.

4. The “baby-doesn’t-break-her-stride” mom friend – in fact the opposite of number three; who will drag you out for margaritas and ban all talk about family members under the age of 21 for the evening.

5. The “laid-back-playdate” mom friend who agrees that baked goods and feet up on the coffee-table constitutes a much better playdate than the local screaming/rioting community-center activity.

6. The “motivated-playdate” mom friend who will drag your lazy-mom self to the science-museum/toddler music appreciation/pre-school roller rink class.

7. The “repository of all information” mom friend, who reads all the latest studies on childhood development (so you don’t have to), knows the best pre-school in your area, the most highly recommended potty-seat, and will teach you tips like using your empty egg cartons to hold poster paint, and how to make live action puppets out of discarded potato peels.

8. The “well-rounded” mom friend who will talk with you endlessly about just how you’re both going to lose those last few pregnancy pounds (even though you’re both much too deep to worry about appearances); and totally gets how constant repeats of Golden Girls and the occasional Jerseylicious episode are essential to your well-being (even though you’re both far too busy and intellectual for television).

You may be lucky enough to combine two or more types into one, all-star, stupendous mom-friend. I am lucky enough to have a 1-2-5-8 mom friend. Precious and rare. You know who you are.

Peryl Manning is a freelance writer and stay-at-home-mom. She juggles her boys, her writing and her volunteer work with varying degrees of success, and is convinced of only one certainty: Parenting is really, really challenging. Her blog, Parenting ad Absurdum, is featured in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

As most of you know I am also in the category of not having family anywhere near me and I actually have my "family" friends scattered around the country. I miss you all and I am so glad that you are only a phone call away. I am making new "family" friends though here in St. Louis and am excited to see how crazy we become together.

Pretty tired

This was our second day in Harlingen. She was pretty tired from playing with Lincoln and Liam. I am so glad that I caught this precious moment.

Sam is 3 months!

I can't believe Sam is 3 months already. He is getting big weighting in at 15 pounds. I am not sure how long he is now..but he looks really long. He is not sleeping great..which is hard because Isabella was a great sleeper. We are starting to try to just let him cry it out at night. I am praying that within three nights or so he will be trained to sleep through the night.
He laughed for the first time the other day. He has only laughed for me so Matt is not entirely sure that he has actually done it. I assure you that he has and it is really cute. I will try to get it on video soon.
He does not enjoy tummy time, but I am trying to do it a little more everyday. He spends a lot of his awake time in his happy place--the bouncy seat. He is starting to grab things. He loves to look at you and smile. It is so nice when they start interacting with you. Here are some recent pics: