And time marches on...

The days keep passing me by in a flurry of walks to the park, diaper changes, reading of books (mostly Lexi's), and Brooklynn feedings. We're almost to September, which means BACK TO SCHOOL. For the last 3 years, that hasn't meant much in this house, but this year Matt is starting his MBA program at University of Texas. He had to complete an 'intensive' this weekend and was at the school Sat, Sun, Mon, & Tues all day and night, so what better way to pass the time then invite my best friend to visit Texas! Cara flew in Friday night to hang with me and my girls and we had a good time chatting, watching chick flicks, and playing some Scrabble.

Here are some recent pictures from my world.

Alexis and Brooklynn, enjoying some floor time.

We took Cara to Zilker park, kind of like the central park of Austin. Great view of the river and the city behind it.

We also went to the Cedar Park train. They have a small train and Cara rode with Lexi while I walked Brooklynn around the park.

Matt has been helping my mom launch her website, but he still manages to do his part being a great Dad, and a helping husband. While I was giving Lexi a bath, he was holding Brooklynn and creating an internet face for Red Desert Fine Caramels. (more info to come on this adventure)

We are in a major drought here in Texas, the worst in 50 years. This is Lexi doing her rain dance one of the few days it rained this summer. She got soaking wet, but certainly thought it was more fun than taking a bath.

Bath Time!

As I was giving Brooklynn a bath last night, I realized it was probably the first one I had given to a newborn baby. I couldn't think of one time I did it for Alexis, Matt had always done it, and did the first several for Brooklynn as well. Here he is in fine form on baby #2!

Helping Hands

Even though she was just here 3 weeks ago, my mother-in-law Katie hopped back on a plane Tuesday to come and help us through this first week of Brooklynn's life. It has been such a blessing to have some extra arms to hold the baby and attention to spare on Lexi. I've been able to get some errands done and sneak some extra napping time in, and tonight Matt and I will even go out on a date...may be the last one for some time :) Here are some fun pictures of the girls.

Lexi loves to hold Brooklynn, and she'll help change the diapers and throw them away for me. She has been a GREAT helper, surpassing my hopes of what kind of sister she would be. (Course it is just week 1, but I think she's gonna be awesome)

Grammi and her granddaughters, we've got a monopoly on the granddaughters in the family for a few more weeks. We'll be excited to add the next Hall girl in October!

I've got a very similar picture of Lexi with Grammi at this exact age. Just one tiny little girl with her Grammi.

Two N's??

As you may have noticed we are spelling Broolynn with two N's, and I know I know, the poor kid is going to get her name spelled wrong her whole life. However, I did have my reasons for the extra 'n'. My name is Christa Lynn- and I got the Lynn from my grandmother Terry Lynn (who actually goes by Wanda, which is really confusing huh?). I thought about using it as a middle name for one of my girls, however we wanted to use our mother's names as our girls middle names, and who knows if I'll have another girl (I could just have 2 kiddo's, or have boy's from here on out). Lexi's middle name is Kathleen (Matt's mother's name), and Brooklynn's middle name Jo is for my mother Jody (a nickname my Dad has used for her for years). So I wanted to get the Lynn name in for myself and my grandmother in case it's my last chance!

I'm glad that can get cleared up :)

How Do You Measure Up?

Matt Here.

We had to take Brooklynn in for a quick check up today at the hospital to make sure she hadn't lost more weight, so last night we got out the apple scale and weighed her ourselves. Here she is with a three and a half pound 9X13 dish, clothes, and a diaper. She weighed in at 5lbs 9oz last night; the same as the last night in the hospital!
All was well at the check in today, she tipped the scales at 5lbs 11oz, what a porker!

Photos From A Busy Day

Busy day for the Halls. The newest, Brooklynn Jo Hall. She was born 6lbs 2oz and is a bit fiesty. Here are some pics from today's happenings.

Here she is all cleaned up. Does she look like a Brooklynn? I hope not, her head and face are all mushed and squished!

Here's Dad and the girl; a one eyed pirate glare is required to join our family.

Alexis got a new baby today too, just like Mom!

Alexis getting a closer look at the new addition and sizing her up.

She must like what she sees.

Dad and his girls. Smiles all around.

Chuck-E-Cheese & Update

We took Lexi to Chuck-E-Cheese last night. I forgot my camera, but they did have a photo booth and we managed to capture a great one of the fam! Lots and lots of fun was had by all!

And perhaps this will be one of our last outings as a family of 3. My Dr. said she'll induce me on Wednesday if I don't manage to pull something together before then. I'm not holding my breath, however I am thinking it's amazing that I can lay down in bed and count off contractions 2 mins apart for over an hour, and still not show any progress.

On Thursday I got a good first hand look at the ER. Although I've never been allergic to anything in the past, I managed to get a severe allergic reaction to possibly an ant bite (I've been bitten before and never had anything like that happen though-it's just the only thing that was different about the day) I had dropped Lexi off at preschool, and on my drive home my hands and arms were really itchy, and by the time I got home everything from the waist up was itchy and covered in hives. When the hives turned into puffy welts, I took off for the ER.

In the 5 mins it took me to drive across the street and walk in the door my head was totally spinning and my chest was tight and I nearly passed out on their floor. It was pretty scary for me, but they got in an IV with Benadryl really fast and 30 mins later I was back to normal.

Normal meaning I was contracting every 5 mins-so of course they sent me up to L&D which got all excited about the contractions and wanted me to hang out. I told them to forget it, I was there for 2 days with these kind of contractions a few weeks ago, and I didn't have the time do it again, unless they'd break my water. They said they couldn't do that, but they needed me to stay for at least 2 hours, and if I didn't progress, they'd let me go. So I watched an episode of Law & Order, and surprise surprise when the nurse came back I was still contracting and hadn't budged a centimeter, so off I went.

I'm really giving the insurance a work out this month! So those were the events this week, hopefully we'll have the final event this upcoming week. We'll keep you posted.

Waco Zoo

2 weeks ago (before all this labor commotion began) we made a trip up to Waco to their zoo. I kind of feel bad for the city, they'll have a hard time being known for anything besides David Koresh and the massacre that happened there. But if they could be known for anything else, it should be the zoo that they have going on up there. It had gorgeous wide-open exhibits and lots of them. It also had an aquarium and a nocturnal building. I was seriously impressed with all we saw! It was also relatively cheap and so big that you didn't feel crowded in with all the other visitors. It was about 1 hr 15 from here, but well worth the drive. I'm sure we'll be headed back many times.


That is a black bear swimming around right next to the window giving us a chance for a real close-up!

They had a little splash pad and play ground which was great in the summer heat.


Lexi posing as a butterfly!


This is the otter exhibit, and they put a slide right through the middle so you could see the otter swimming right above you as you slide down.


The jaguar, taking an afternoon nap, again right next to the window, very cool!


They had some cultural information as well, with little tee-pee's and grass huts to explore.


What's a zoo without some giraffes?

Or the elephants?

If you come to visit, we'll take you there!! (just a little enticement for those of you waffling :)