china or bust

nope, not a post about the ending olympics (though i am sad to see them go), but one about my little brother tyler.

he is a junior at southwestern university in georgetown, but this semester will be studying abroad at fudan university in shanghai, china. he leaves tuesday and will return on christmas eve....even though he has been away at college for a few years, its weird to think he'll be on the otherside of the world. its such a cool opportunity and we are praying for safety, fun, and an eye-opening experience.....if you are interested in reading a 21 year olds take on adventures in china you can check out his blog from our list.....the brother rankin.

oh, and here's a picture (my apologizes for how small it is) of the siblings last christmas morning. tyler is in the back with the crown on, then from the left is jd and kacy, and then the pretty people joey, me, and amy :)

week 26

here's a picture of the growing baby bump at 26 weeks...

baby v is a very active baby, especially when joey is playing guitar or singing, but he/she hates when i sing! one night, i was playfully singing and baby v pushed on my stomach as if to say "stop it mom, you are hurting my ears!". i guess the vanderveer musical gene has been successfully passed on.....

first and last

a list of firsts this week:

1) first day of school

2) first day to teach twenty 4 olds what a line is

3) first day to say "bubbles and bunny tails" at least 100 times

4) first day to not sit down for 3 hours and not even know it until the day was over

5) first day to leave work and be able to have lunch with my hubby on a school day

and a list of lasts this week:

1) last first day of school

2) last day of wondering what i am going to do with twenty 4 year olds

3) last day of reassuring parents that thier crying 4 year old will be okay

4) last day of stuffing folders with 1st day of school papers

5) last day of wondering how much longer i will have to work

so to sum it all up, i had my last first day of school this week....for those of you who dont know, i'm teaching pre-k part time in the mornings until thanksgiving...and then staying home with baby v until joey forces me back to the workplace...which in my dreams will be when we feel our family is complete!

restaurant week

if you haven't heard of restaurant week, you are missing out. its a few weeks in august, where common folk like yours truly can go to upscale, trendy restaurants in dallas and pay $35 for a 3-4 course meal...plus the restaurants donate a proceeds of the $35 to the texas food bank so you feel charitable too.

a few years ago, my friend andrea planned a girls night out to enjoy enjoy restaurant week and it has remained a strong tradition. last night, we enjoyed the 3rd annual meal at craft in the W hotel in the victory park area. the food was yummy and the time with girls, precious.

i must say that as i told joey about the night, i could not help but reflect on the changes that have taken place in the lives of these ladies over the past few years...and how gracious God is when he blesses us with true friendships. I am so thankful for each of these girls and am even more glad that this is a tradition that I know will be repeated throughout the years.

vegas: part 2

well, after a couple days in vegas with my girlfriends, joey came so we could see vegas together.

the first night, we went to see the cirque show "O", which I highly reccommend. It was incredible and made me love the swimming pool even more!

the next day, our friends len e and michelle arrived (they had invited us to join them at their timeshare in vegas)...joey and i headed to the aquarium at mandalay bay while the lenards did some gambling.

we met up later that night and had an incredible dinner at Alize on the top of the Palms.

the next day, we had another celebrity sighting...

...okay, not really but we had a fun time at madam tussaus wax museum. unlike the wax museum in dallas, you can touch and pose with the celebs which makes it so much more interesting!

we were also able to have dinner with joey's best bud matt (he was in vegas on business) and watch the treasure island pirate show (if you can call skankily dressed girls over-acting and lip- syncing a show) from a VIP viewing area with him...

all in all, it was a great trip, but i think i would be okay if i didn't vacation in vegas again...but i might of had a differing view if i would of won big at blackjack!!

vegas:part 1

as previously mentioned, i headed to vegas with 5 of my friends from work. we had such a fun time!

we stayed at new york, new york...and i throughly enjoyed the cold pool after a hot day of walking!

we spent the days looking at the beautiful hotels and window shopping, then at night we would get dressed up and have a great meal. the first night, we went to an awesome bar in the bellagio and sat outside on the patio....which had a perfect view of the "fountains set to music" show. and i only have one thing to say to the drunk irish guy who tried to spend time with us..."where's me lucky charms?"

the 2nd night, we got dressed in our vegas best and decided to hit a club....(i know what your thinking, pregnant girl in a club? don't worry, i stayed about 7 minutes)...little did we know this would be the "hot" club to be at...

...yep, Paris Hilton agreed. I saw her from about 30 feet away before leaving, but Molly, Laura, and Lyndsay danced the night away and were able to get a much closer look at this celebrity. What a fun way to spend our last night in vegas! Speaking of hot....

here's my fabulous girlfriends....diana, laura, kimberly, lyndsay, me, and molly....can't wait til next year!

swollen shout outs

well, this is a little shout out to my girlfriends from work. we took a fabulous trip to austin last summer and decided to make it a tradition with a trip to vegas this year. we were there for 3 days and 2 fun filled nights.....and about 4 hours of swollen pregnant feet.

due to the airplane flight, walking more then normal, and the heat, I developed "cankles" by our first night. i'm talking swelling like i had never seen. luckily they went down overnight, but returned on the 2nd and 3rd day. luckily for me, my fabulous friends took awesome care of me, even putting up with a little emotional breakdown.....

thanks girls, i feel so blessed to have friends like you to work and travel with!

oh, and check back soon for pics of the girls trip.....including a celebrity sighting!

... and pics from the 2nd 1/2 of the vegas trip with joey.

Its a .....

...baby!

Thats right, the vanderveer's stayed strong and baby v's sex will remain a surprise!

We had our sonogram at 21 weeks and everything looks healthy and right on schedule. The room was filled with joey's laughter as the baby flipped and turned like crazy...the nurse even had a little trouble getting pictures for us to take home because of all the movement. It was such a cool moment!

Here are a couple of pictures. The top one is the little feet (crossed) and the bottom 2 are of the baby's head (looking up at us).