So in love are we two...

Is it embarassing to admit that i'm in love with my new diaper bag?? I, quite frankly, am a bit shocked at how much i like it, look at it, how often i find myself thinking about it, talking about it. Reid's started putting it in our coat closet, which he's never done with any other diaper bag before--do i detect a bit of jealousy?
This bag REALLY is the perfect diaper bag for a mom who's gonna need to fit 2 sizes of diapers, 2 sippie cups, one bottle, 2 binkis, snacks, burp cloths, sunscreen, tylenol, carmex, toys, blankets, a nursing apron, a planner, a change of clothes for baby, more snacks, sandbox toys, real keys, toy keys, a 5 ft tall lamp, a house plant.... PLUS it's either a shoulder bag OR a backpack! I never thought i'd be wearing a backpack regularly again, but i am and i'm lovin it! i can carry Abby, groceries and other stuff and not have my diaper bag slipping down my arm!!

My sweet parents gave me the $ to buy this for my birthday and after loosing on a couple ebay auctions (thank heavens!) i found this one, brand spanking new, for half price!!!! What did I do before the internets???

On a side note i have to say how much i also love my previous diaper bag. It's an amazing bag, and I've never been so complimented on anything in my life, made by my AMAZING friend who sells tons of AMAZING bags here.

Craving Curbing

"A widely accepted reason for certain cravings (especially during pregnancy) is a drop in the body's levels of the vitamins and minerals contained in the food craved"* I used to believe this. I used to believe that your body knows what's best, and if it's telling you that 3 lbs of strawberries sound delish, well, then you should go with it. And the hippie in me still wants to believe that. But i'm having a hard time thinking that I should listen to my body right now cause this is all it's telling me to eat....

I honestly could put this stuff in a cup and sip it through a coffee straw!!!
It's way too spicy for me, yet i can't get enough of it!!

This one's possibly linked to my obsession with peeling
things, but honestly, does it get any better than strawberry pull 'n peels?!?!
(I know that about half of you just about gagged,
and the other half totally hear me)

I tell myself that these are snacks "for Grace and Abby", but it is no
small secret that these are really for Reid and me. If you haven't had these
you're missing out!!

I prefer them slightly dried out, but even fresh outta the bag
i CANNOT stop until every last peach is gone!!

This beautiful companionship makes
me happier than maybe anything else in the world. When i get one of those chips that's just coated in green salty limy sprinkles it's like a mini-lottery win for my taste buds. I'm literally drooling right now.

I can't imagine that my unborn child needs any of the high fructose corn syrup or sodium found in these foods...so, i'm just gonna have to accept that some cravings just happen, and perhaps i should use a bit of self-control to curb these.

* i belive this is my first time quoting wikipedia on my blog...feels good

one last hurrah

I don't know why it takes a family vacation to get me to post on my blog...but apparently it does! We just got back on Tuesday from our last little adventure before The Arrival. (i just decided to start calling my due date that!! i love it!!)

We spent 4 days in Provo at my parents' house. We had so much fun there! Grandma and Grandpa spoiled my girls, Reid got in a round of golf with his brother, my mom's family had their family reunion, Abby, of course, took her semi-annual trip to the Urgent Care, we went to the Brick Oven for dinner with some of my dearest friends (Carrie, Tiff, Brandalee and Kathy), and my family put together a wonderful early birthday celebration for me, with homemade ice cream and all (thanks, Julia!!) I was too busy to get my camera out, so i have few pictures of this part of the trip....but i do love this one of Abby and my dad. She LOVES her grandpa! she even learned how to say "grandpa" while there!


(on a side note, abby's visit to the UC was just for a bad cough she had-- i just wanted to make sure it wasn't bronchitis cause she was so miserable at night--which was explained by the fact that she had an ear infection in both ears!!! i can't say that i recommend this specific doctor. she recommended 3 OTC drugs and 1 perscription drug for the cough ( all of which my doctors here have strongly advised against for kids under 5), and 1 antibiotic for the ears, and then she said "i don't usually give this to kids this age, but if she's not sleeping at night here's a rx for cough syrup with Codine, too." i know i'm a bit of a hippie with my home-rememdial ways...but even the pill-pushing parents in the world would've left that office feeling a little drug-overdosed.)


We then spent 6 days up in WY with Ried's family. All his siblings were there and we had a GREAT time! There's probably more info here than any of you care to read...but this is my "journal", so i'm not holdin' back!

Grace had SOOOO much fun with her cousin, Ella. They are so cute together, and, of course, they fought tons, too. Here are some cute pics we got of them during the not-so-feisty moments

Pumping water at Palisade Reservoir

Throwing rocks and pine cones into the lake

Enjoying Tom and Jana's AMAZING home-made corndogs

the rest of these pictures were the closest to
"posed" photos we could get. The girls had been bribed with
a licorice if they'd cooperate....this is the best we got :)

Reading stories with Uncle Tom before church

One of my favorite moments of the whole trip was the morning of the 4th. It was about 9:30am, we were getting ready to head to the small-town parade and Reid's mom comes in the door and tells us that her organization needs someone to dress as pioneers and push the handcart in the parade. i SWEAR on my life i have no idea what transpired the next few moments, but by 9:45 i'm wearing some pioneer-ish apron and bonnet, Reid's in his dad's old jeans, plaid shirt and suspenders, Grace is in a bonnet, and our little family is in the line-up for the Thayne City Parade!! Needless to say, people got quite the kick out of this 22-month pregnant woman manning a handcart (even though Reid did 99% of the work). It was actually really fun, and a really great reminder to me of how happy i am to not be a pioneer. Thank heavens for those women and their strength. And thank heavens for mini-vans and air conditioning. Trips to WY always remind me of what a wimp i am....this 4-block parade did so, too.

Reid loves that i'm posting this pic of him :)

Reid's family isn't really a "birthday family," so i had pretty low expectations as far as my 30th b-day went (yes, you should all feel really bad right now for not remembering, sending an e-card, calling, etc... ) but they went ALL out to make it a really fun day for me!

They put balloons up around the house (i'm guessing that's the

first time they've ever put up balloons for a b-day)

They made an adorable and delicious flag-cake and homemade ice cream
(sorry for the blurry pic!)


and we did dutch-oven dinner down at Murray's Dam.

And Reid gave me an awesome gift! He remembered that last Christmas i'd said how much i'd love to add the Willow Tree nativity set to my slowly-growing creche collection and he gave me the entire collection!! (Have i mentioned how lucky i feel to be married to this guy!?!?! The best part is he's not like one of those guys who's lame 358 days out of the year but really kicks butt every holiday, you know? He's so good to me on a daily basis, PLUS he's so thoughtful on special occasions!!! how did i get him!??!?!?) It was a perfect b-day present because, let's be honest here, who doesn't want to celebrate a little Christmas in July!?!??!

Thanks, babe!

Other highlights from the trip include the slip 'n slide (grace wouldn't do it alone, but she rode down on Reid's back several times)

Watching my sweet Abby 's vocab grow by about 700%. She honestly changed so much over those 10 days . She's talking so much more now, and she's got even MORE of an opinion and attitude....but she's SOOO much fun, and anyone who's around her can't help but smile!!

Having a break from my kids while Grandma and Grandpa SPOILED them!!

Celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary at the in-laws.
And, of course, those breif moments when both girls were asleep on those long stretches of dry, dead, Wyoming highway!

San Diego

We just got back from a much needed, somewhat deserved AMAZING weekend getaway to San Diego. Although we originally planned this trip to visit a dear friend and mentor of mine who lost her husband recently, her father's poor health meant a trip to UT for her, and means that we'll just have to plan another trip to CA!

We ended up spending the whole weekend with some of our FAVORITE friends from Law School--the Steenbliks. They were such great hosts and put up with our two loud and energetic girls longer than anyone who isn't family should have to!

They took us to Sea World which was AWESOME!! (we loved it so much we got a sitter for the kids and all us grown-ups went back our last night there!) We don't have any great pictures, but here's what we got.

The girls LOVED the Shamu show--it really is amazing.
I might have been the only one in the audience with
dry eyes (yes, Anne, i'm making fun of you). It was SOOO
fun to finally see this show that i've heard about my whole life!

Waiting for Shamu to start

Grace with Zoey and Elmo
(i have to add here how seriously proud Reid and I
were when Grace ran over and gave Zoey
a hug without us bribing or forcing her!!! So, not Grace,
and oh, so different from December's jaunt with Santa Clause!)

Abby was not excited to see a real life version of her
least favorite toy (tickle-me-Elmo), yet i somehow caught
her in between screams for this picture.

We took the girls to the beach, and although they didn't like the waves, they LOVED playing in the sand. My little brother, Jared, and his wife, Kristie, drove down from L.A. and spent the day with us. It was soooo fun to see them, and to see Jared and Grace have so much fun together. My girls don't get to see enough of their awesome aunts and uncles!!!

Grace loved this sand hole that Jared
made for her

Abby loved the mote and wall that Reid made for
her...and for himself (honestly, i've seen the "kid come out"
in Reid before, but maybe never to this extent. It was
so much fun!)

This is what Grace does when i say "Grace, look at
Mommy and smile"

This is what Abby does when i say "Abby,
look at mommy and smile"

To get cute pictures of Grace, like this,
I usually have to lie and say "Look, Grace, Mother Goose
is flying over us" or "i just found Cinderella's lost slipper" or
"Mommy's going to spank you if you don't look at me and smile
right now, dangit!" But this picture just happened on
its own....it makes it a little sweeter, huh!

We obviously couldn't spend 4 days with Rob and Anne and not play the game that brought us together almost 5 years ago.

And then, because i COULDN'T let Reid out-do me with his overwhelmingly sweet Mother's Day gift...i thought i better be the kick-butt wife that i am, and take advantage of our extremely well-timed (albeit coincidentally) trip to San Diego and send him to the U.S. Open. He and Rob spent Friday afternoon at Torrey Pines and had the time of their life--which they most absolutely deserved--and he hasn't stopped talking about it since.



And although i can't imagine any of you are as excited to see this as he was the first, second, 10th, and 28th times, here's a shot of him right behind Tiger on hole #5
.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3442821&categoryId=3433958&n8pe6c=2

With 1:18 left on the video, look above Tiger's head on the first row. He's in a light shirt between a guy in a green shirt and Rob, who's in a blue shirt and red hat. He's hunched down and his head comes up when tiger makes the putt.

Thanks, Anne and Rob, for the perfect weekend!!

Sunday morning i woke up to Grace and Reid at the foot of my bed giving me a CandyBar card--it'd been TOO long since i'd seen one of those!!! The card spelled out the details of a Girls Day Out that Reid and the husbands of 2 of my close friends here had planned for us!!!!! It included gift certificates for a Mani/Pedi, and hour-long pre-natal massage, a 3 hour shopping spree, and a dinner at a fancy-shmancy Italian restaurant downtown Denver. Now, Reid's given me awesome gifts before--but this one took the cake. I mean, the fact that he had to plan this with 2 other guys just blows my mind! And they didn't miss a thing!

Reid also spent all day Saturday and Sunday helping around the house--much of which meant cleaning up Abby's puke (poor girl had the not-so-common 72 hour stomach flu!!) and dealing with an attention-deprived Grace.

I used to avoid the cliche "i'm married to the greatest man in the world" because i thought that everyone felt that way, so it seemed meaningless to say. I now avoid it because i've become too aware of how many people don't feel that way. And truthfully, i don't really know that he's the greatest man in the world. But i do know that i feel like the luckiest person in the world in the evening when he sits on the couch with me and folds laundry while we watch The Office, or Medium, or Eli Stone. And i feel so lucky every day when he walks in the door and all 3 of us girls fight for his attention, which he perfectly shares with us all. And i feel like the luckiest girl when he cares about the things i care about--my many unfinished projects, a recipe gone awry, a 15-wipe diaper change he missed out on, my tree-hugging obsessions, my conversations at play dates, my steal-of-a-deal at the latest garage sale, etc.

I'm the luckiest me in the world and Reid's the best Reid in the world. Who could ask for more?!?!? So, Happy Mother's Day to me!!!

And Reid, I'm forever happy to mother your children...but could we maybe take a break sometime soon!?!?!??!

Grace's 3rd B-Day

For Grace's 3rd B-day we had a Pizza Party

The kids all got to make their own pizzas, and then the
parents all got to makethe edible pizzas

All the kids had their own little aprons (which, i of course had to make
since i'm incapable of buying ANYTHING!!) and their
own little chef's hats.

Our wee little house was a bit over crowded with the 31 people
that showed up--but we all had a blast--especially
the birthday girl

Honestly, Grace had a smile on her face the whole day--
except in the moments that the camera came out!!

Happy 3rd, my sweet Grace!!