Rock on

What a splendidly exciting week we had! Wednesday morning we visited the doctor (yes, all 3 of us) for our big sonogram that would give us the latest stats on this belly baby and where we would learn baby's gender. As soon as the sonographer laid the wand on my belly we discovered that we are having another BOY! A wave of relief fell over Steven's face and the diagnosis just confirmed what I had been feeling all along. Early on I was hopeful that it was a girl, but I've known that it's a boy. Thanks be to God all the right parts and pieces were visible on the screen, and baby boy is measuring right where he needs to be. Matt absorbed the information that he was having a little brother, but was mainly interested in the box of gloves on the wall, the plugs, and the light switches. Sigh. My pregnancy this time around has felt exactly the same as it did with Matthew. Praise God it's been easy and I've felt really great the entire time. But, the tough weeks are yet to come as this baby boy starts to outgrow his tiny tummy space. So, I'm enjoying this time where I'm not outrageously huge yet--and the fact that I don't have to paint the baby room or shop for any baby clothes! We are definitely set for boys. A name? Seriously, you all know that Steven & I will go back and forth on it for many weeks to come. We shall see!

This past weekend was the Austin City Limits Music Festival (http://www.aclfestival.com/takeover/). Friday afternoon I tagged along with Zach & Ava while Pam stayed home with Matt to see Vampire Weekend at the fest. It was HOT, but not as hot as last year thankfully. The show was awesome, and Ava did a great job sitting on her daddy's shoulders and swaying to the music. She also had on a custom made Vampire Weekend t-shirt, so she drew lots of "oohh's" and "aaahhh's" from onlookers; that and her pint-sized pink ear-muffs to protect her little ears, it was too cute.

Saturday after a nice lunch at Burger Tex we settled in to watch UT beat the pants off Arkansas. Late that afternoon Steven & I and our friend/neighbor, Mike, headed down to ACL to watch Beck perform. The sun went down and it was much cooler in the evening. Beck put on a rockin' show and played a good mix of old and new material.

Sunday morning we went to church and then ate some tasty mexican food at Pappasito's with the Moran clan and Rachel. Our lunch conversation was focused mainly on the dialogue between Caroline & Mary Claire brainstorming on what to be for Halloween. It was hilarious. Mary Claire would say, "I can be a beautiful butterfly, and Caroline you can be the cacoon!" And Caroline would suggest, "I can be a scary witch, and Mary Claire you can be the broom!" Good times. Steven, Zach, Mike & I headed off to ACL again that afternoon. I set up camp at the AT&T stage and watched Gnarls Barkley while the boys headed to a different stage to watch the Raconteurs. Gnarls was really good; they are known to put on quite a performance with different costumes and whatnot, and that evening they all had on white short sleeve button-downs with bow ties and thick nerd glasses. They were very entertaining, and I sang along with them!

The boys eventually returned toting John with them this time and we got ready for the headlining act, the Foo Fighters. A lot of you may not know this about me, but I am HUGE Foo fan and have been since their inception. Dave Grohl is a rock god and he makes my heart all aflutter when I watch him rip the guitar. Steven calls it my angry music. Maybe so. It's great car music and great work-out music. I think I have all their songs memorized. It's hard to get a good photo in the dark period, but pair that with a teeming crowd, clouds of dust & dirt, and not being able to actually see the stage and you end up with this photo...it's Dave Grohl up on the video screen, and I think this is the best pic we got.

I had SO much fun. Their set was incredible--they played a lot of their hit songs old & new, and also some random songs off their many albums which I thoroughly enjoyed. I danced and bounced up & down as much as my pregnant belly would allow me and sang until my voice was getting hoarse. For me it was the highlight of the weekend and possibly the best show I've ever been to. And that is possibly because I love the Foo Fighters so much. I've got to see them again!

So the past couple days I've been recovering from my late nights. Whew! It was definitely harder on my pregnant body this year, but it was all well worth it. I had a blast. Today, Matt got a sticker at school because he told his teacher that his mommy is having a baby boy. Ha! He actually remembered, AND answered correctly when questioned! It's a miracle.