The history of Dancing and the Riedels

I got home from work yesterday to rain, rain and more rain. Cody and Lizzie decided that they would dance some since they couldn't go outside and then this funny revelation came out of Cody's mouth that I just have to share. Some of you know the story, but others of you will it hear for the first time.

Cody grew up going to Garner State Park every summer where he would go to the dance each night. The Riedel's are a dancing family. It was there at GSP that Cody met Jenny M. (now Lytle) as they danced together. Years of dancing and getting to know each other brought a lasting friendship between these two. Then one year they found each other at Texas A&M University where they continued to hang out and dance any chance that they had. In 1999 I met Jenny in an Education class at A&M and we became friends. We ended up taking several classes together and then one we became roommates.

Now do you see where this story is going. I soon met Cody through Jenny. Cody and I really did not talk alot during that time, but we did know of each other. Jenny got married not too long after graduating and Cody was part of the wedding party. It was all down hill after Jenny's wedding when Cody and I started to hang out on a weekly basis.

Cody's revelation...If it was not for dancing...there would be no Lizzie and no Wesley in the picture!!!!!

I loved it and I am sure that some of you will enjoy knowing and thinking about that too!!

Hope everyone is safe and sound with all this rain.

36 or 37 weeks...

I have really lost count this time around. I went to the doctor on Thursday and the news is not exactly what I wanted to hear. I found out that little Wesley Paul Riedel is still breech. He is holding his head up high and doesn't seem to want to move to where he is supposed to be right now. We are going to give it one more week and one last procedure to try and move him. I have another sonogram on Thursday April 30th. If he has not moved by then, it is back to the dr. on Friday May 1st for a 'version' procedure. This is where they use the sonogram to monitor the baby while trying to move him with their hand movements on my stomach. I have heard pros and cons to this and am not sure how I will take it. I have heard 15 minutes and you are in and out with no pain and then I have heard of people leaving all bruised up for weeks. I have also heard that it can force labor. I am up for suggestions on this one...

Anyway if that doesn't work we are off to plan B! A c-section planned for May 11th or 12th. I have given May 8th as my last day at work and my job has been wonderful. I have had days donated to me so that I can take the leave that I need. See, we only get 10 days a year and I used everything that I had saved up last year on maternity leave with Lizzie. That leaves me with 9 for this year (I have only taken one sick day). I will end the year with my students in 2 weeks and I have already broken the news to them. They seem to be sad, but they will get over it.

Cody has taken this week to paint our living room. I have to say it has been really nice to have him at home for the end of my pregnancy. I have come home some days where the house was spot less dinner was made and he had out done himself. Since he got laid off, not only has he been mine and Lizzie's right hand man, he has painted our bedroom, the baby room, and the living room. He has reorganized our study, put together baby furniture and kept things going around here. Somewhere in there he has still found time to do yard work, and work on his boats.

Don't get me wrong, we are still praying that God will open some doors for us on the job situation, but until then, I enjoy having him here greatly and I know that Lizzie does too.

Pitre wedding part I

My cousin Brandon got married to his long time girlfriend Jennifer on Friday April 17th. Lizzie was the flower girl. She is so cute when she is all made up in a little dress. She spins around to show everyone how pretty she is. It poured that day and the chapel was empty until 15 to 20 minutes before the ceremony so she got to play around a little.
She went and sat almost as if she were posing for pictures on the alter. She wore her squeaky shoes so when she walked down the aisle her shoes squeaked. It was adorable until she wanted to come sit with mom and dad during the prayer. Squeak...squeak...squeak...
She played peek a boo with her daddy.
At the reception when her mommy wasn't looking she found people to hold her and feed her cake and other goodies!
She even took some time out to dance with the groom for the dollar dance.

Pitre wedding part II

Just thought that I might include more pictures from Lizzie's most recent flower girl appearance. Andrew and Jacqui were both in the wedding and looked very cute (I am sure that my brother will love hearing how 'cute' he was)!!
Lizzie would not keep up with her basket so here the ring bearer has it for her.
Lizzie danced to the Chicken dance and did quite well. She danced every chance she got.
Cody relaxing before the wedding. I think that he looks way too comfortable only because there is nothing that I can do right now to get comfortable.

Easter 2009

Easter Sunday was full of surprises. The morning started in a crazy way. Cody and I thought that we would get up and go to church at our church. We got there 20 minutes early and there wasn't even a place to stand!!!! It was ridiculous. See our church moved into a massive new building over Christmas and they were still busting at the seems. We were annoyed and at the same time over joyed that so many people were celebrating that morning. .... so we left and drove to Tomball for mass instead. We got there 30 min before Mass and there was plenty of room!! It was great to have a seat for that hour and a half.
Then we went out to celebrate with the Brocks with a major easter egg hunt. Lizzie found 9 or 150 eggs. She had lots of fun.
She got a new baby in her Easter basket. It is Abby (our favorite) from Sesame Street.
Here is our Easter photo. Enjoy!

Riedel Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday we had our first Riedel Easter Egg hunt. We had her grandparents and aunts and uncles over for all the fun. After seeing her go after the eggs, you would think that she was a pro. We couldn't pull one over on her.

She had so much fun that we had to do it twice. She held her little arm in the air the whole time so that her basket didn't fall. It really was very cute.

Easter pics to come later...I am still trying to recover from that hectic day!!!!

34 weeks

Today was the math TAKS test and I am sooooo glad that it is over. Hopefully it is over for many. For those of you that don't know, all 8th graders in the state must pass the Math TAKS in order to go to high school. They get a second chance on May 19th if they did not pass today. That just means more work for me and them if they didn't pass. I pray that they all passed!!!!!!

Tomorrow is the dreaded dr's appointment for me. In the last two weeks a lot has changed for me. Besides the little one being breech, I am having chest pains and for the last week, I have stayed contracted all day. I am contracted if I am sitting upright or standing. I have been talking around and have had more than one person tell me that they were put immediately on bed rest when this happened to them. Though I would love to be at home and sit around all day having Cody wait on me, I don't really have to days at work to just leave this early. I am trying to wait to talk to the dr before I jump to conclusions so I am asking for prayers as I go to the dr tomorrow!!!!!

How much can the Riedel's cram into one week?

Are we done yet?
Spring Break wasn't over until a couple of other big things happened. First, Cody and I were able to have a night on the town without a little one present...at least not one that we had to keep up with. :) A couple of good friends of ours had a beautiful wedding at the Co-Cathedral and so it was like old times for us. For those of you that don't know, when Cody and I started dating he really pushed me to go back to church and to get involved. We went to Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral in downtown Houston and we were there often. It is really the place that I give credit to our relationship growing and blossoming like it did. We had two great priest who helped us become who we are as a family and who we still love dearly. It was really great to be able to be there again and for a celebration of two friends that we also watched grow and blossom along side of us.
Cheryl and Jason have had a journey that only God could get people through. They were united in love and will continue to grow in love for one another for many years to come.
Still yet, the week of Spring Break was still not over without a couple of household chores to do. Lizzie has become such the little helper for me and her daddy. She loves to get 'wa wa' in her water bucket and help her daddy to water the plants outside. Sometimes she waters her shoes too. I wish they would grown like the plants so I didn't have to buy anymore!
We have also started helping mommy in the kitchen. She helped me make a cake (yes, out of a box) and did not want it in the oven. She cried when I put it in there because she wanted to eat it. I finally turned on the light so she could see what was happening to the cake. She was so excited to watch it over time. Don't know if she will be a Betty Crocker, but I sure hope so.

Rodeo

What is Spring Break without the Houston Rodeo?
This is now Lizzie's second year to make an appearance and both years she loved the John Deere stuff best. This year as soon as she saw the tractors she wanted to ride. She would point saying 'vroom vroom' and then she thought that she had to get on every single one.
She rode her first pony this year, but wasn't too trilled. Maybe next year will be better. You could tell that she wasn't comfortable and the faces she made as they went around in circles were priceless.
We took her wagon and she rode around a lot that day, but there were times when we just had to let her go. The chicks were just her height. She walked up and down the exhibit looking in at all the baby chicks. I really think that we might have a true cow girl on our hands.
She is at that perfect age where she makes all of the animal sounds. She loved Elsie the cow and moo'd all day long.
In the petting zoo she wasn't too big on touching the animals, but she loved it regardless. She loved the ducks and the pigs the best. They wouldn't let her age feed the animals for obvious reasons, but she really liked being in there with all of them. We might have to talk her Granny and Paw Paw into getting her a pig or a cow to keep out at their house.

Spring Break part 2

I didn't realize how many pictures I had of our trip to the Aquarium until after the last post.
Thought I might should add some more. Cody's mom went with us and I think that she enjoyed watching Lizzie look at everything as much as we did. I like this picture because it is what I called a '3 generation profile'. I am easily amused sometimes. You all know that already.
Lizzie is getting more attached to her daddy everyday. She got to ride on the carousel with her daddy for the first time. She held on to him for a little while, but finally got brave. She rode it twice.

The tigers were full of action while we were there. Lizzie watched this one and even jumped a couple of times when he got really close, but as long as she was with her daddy, she was fine. As soon as they walked away from the window this tiger missed them I guess. He started jumping up at the window right where they had been sitting. I am sure that she would have cried then!
There is a little petting area to touch the stingrays with a kids 'observation deck' underneath it. You have to be really little to climb under there. Lord knows I couldn't make it, but Mi Mi was a trooper and climbed under there with Lizzie in her work clothes. I didn't think that Lizzie would like it, but she could look up and see the stingrays swim over her head. She did really good.

Spring Break part 1

So, I never said that I was great at blogging and actually keeping up with doing it. So here we go. Spring Break was a very eventful week for us. There is so much that I want to do with Lizzie before her little brother gets here. On Monday we drove down to visit our friends, Chad, Allison and Kayleigh. It was really cute to see the girls interact. I guess up until this point Lizzie really isn't around too many kids, but that is about to change....
I really wanted to take Lizzie to the Aquarium in downtown because she loves fish. She has a little fish tank and says "fishy, fishy, fishy" when she wants to look at it. So off to the Aquarium we went. Lizzie took it all in. She was able to walk through the exibits and look and point at everything that interested her. I really think that she enjoyed it all.
We also had to go eat while we were there which gave her more time to look at the many fish that they have.
I also took the plunge that week as well. I finally did it. I cut off 12 inches of my hair! It is still below my sholders though. I feel like a new woman with it all gone! I don't know that I will every let it get that long again, but who knows.
Lizzie has really taken a liking to makeup. If I am in the bathroom putting on my makeup she is right beside me. She loves to rub moisturizer on her face and to put on lipstick (chapstick). She is very cute to watch. She is our little sponge right now!!!!