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!!

is it too late to post Easter pics??

I'm a little embarassed that it's May and i'm posting March pictures....um...better late than never?!?!?

We took a family vacation in March and went to DC to visit Reid's sister, Alisa, and my sister, Melanie--the moms of all of Grace and Abby's cousins. We had such a great time--and best of all --Reid didn't have to do any work at all!!!! (i think our lawyer friends will be able to appreciate how miraculous that was!) Of course we didn't take many pictures, but reid's sister took this one, which i LOVE (you can't imagine how hard it was to get Abby to hold still and to get Grace to not just stare at the camera--so this was as good as it was gonna get)

Of course i couldn't just go out and buy matching dresses for my daughters, that would be too easy. So, i made them! I actually made 3 dresses--one for my girls, and one for their cousin (who's mom took this picture)

And here's another one, taken at Reid's sister's house just outside of Baltimore, MD.

We got back to Denver just before Easter. We had a small little Easter Egg hunt the day before Easter. It was 34 degrees outside, but the kids all had a great time!

The girls loved finding their Easter Baskets sunday morning. And they LOVED the peanuts, popcorn, pretzels, fruit snacks and animal crackers that filled their eggs (yes, i know you're all going to ridicule me for not filling their baskets with candy, but i just couldn't do it!!!

...and yes, i made their baskets, well, the liners--i have an addiction!!!


Grace lives in her "birthday suit" an ongoing, ever-losing battle.
So most of our pictures of her are just like this!!

Abby LOVES hats and honestly doesn't
mind that she can't see when they're on!!!

Reunions and farewells

Have you ever volunteered to plan something and then really regretted doing so, only to REALLY be glad that you did?!?!?! Well, i blame my absenteeism here in the blogging world on the fact that from about January 5th until April 5th i spent almost all of my "computer time" planning a reunion for all 500+ missionaries that were with me 7-10 years ago in Santiago, Chile. (We didn't have emails back then, so it was quite the challenge contacting everyone!!) But, with the help of many fellow missionaries, we pulled off a really successful reunion. Our mission president and wife, John and Lexine Hadfield were there from California, and we even had one missionary come from Argentina!! There was a fun slide show, yummy food, tons of catching up, and most importantly, a great turnout.

All the missionaries singing our "mission song"

Me and Melissa Quinn - my last companion in Chile

Argentine missionary with the Hadfields

You can't imagine the shock and sadness I felt when I found out the morning of April 14th, only 9 days after our reunion, that our President, John C. Hadfield, had passed away. He was only 57 years old, and they still don't know the cause. He was an exceptional leader to me as a missionary, and he was very true to what he believed. I feel very grateful (in spite of all the complaining I did) that I volunteered to plan that missionary reunion. All of us who were there feel so fortunate that we were able to see our president, catch up, and tell him of the difference he, and our missions, had made in our lives. I will miss him dearly.

John C. Hadfield
1951-2008

two's company...

Three's a house full of estrogen, curling irons, training bras, hairspray, princess shoes, pink everything, bins of hair accessories and nail polish, frequent flyer miles with Tampax, gallons of Drano, drama, drama, and more drama!



(She's a real lady--thus the crossed legs)

When the Dr. told Grace she'd have a new little sister she exclaimed "I can't wait!!!" The Dr and the resident both just about died--it was SOOO sincere and sooooo cute!

I think most people we've told today assume we're disappointed, but really, the fact that she has a healthy heart, all her limbs, an Allred head and isn't accompanied by a twin sister- that's really all that matters!

We'll have our 3 girls, and we're really getting excited about it! Grace and Abby are best friends. They play so well together, and have since the day Abby learned to move on her own. And although they have their battles, the times that they play together make it all worth it. And I really look forward to seeing my three girls play together, fight together, go to ballet class together, be in high school together...okay, i'm getting a little ahead of myself--just a coping strategy.

The truth is I'm completely freaked out. It's funny to talk to people about having more kids, and they tell me how they're "waiting" cause they don't feel "ready" or don't think they could "handle it right now." ahhhhhh, i remember saying such things not long ago.... But, ready or not, we're doing it. And i'm surrounded by AMAZING moms who inspire me to be a better mom and with much help from above I might manage to be a decent mom who doesn't get reported to child services :)

Grace

In light of a few cute moments I had this weekend with Grace, I thought I'd take a crack at posting tonight.

Yesterday (Saturday) was beautiful--70 degrees and blue skies--so Grace and I went to the park while Emily and Abby napped. (As a side note, we woke up to a blizzard this morning. There are now 5 inches of snow on the ground.) Grace had me push her on the swings, climb up the jungle gym, slide down the slide, lay on the grass, look up at the sky and clouds, and run around with her. At one point, I was swinging with Grace lying on my lap; she was "welaxing" with her eyes closed. After a few minutes, she looked back at me and asked, "Are you okay back there Dad?" I ask her the same thing when I'm driving and she and Abby are in their car seats. Later, when we were lying down on the grass, she looked over at me, placed her hand on my arm and said, "Dad, I'm so proud of you." Neither Emily nor I know exactly where that came from, but it was cute.

After work on Friday, Emily and the girls picked me up from the light rail station so we could go to a Cub Scout banquet. I dropped off Emily and Abby at the church and took Grace (who was asleep) to the store to get some ice cream for the party. When we go to the store Grace woke up. She was groggy and confused, so I explained what had happened since she had fallen asleep and what we were doing. When I took her out of her seat, she snuggled in my arms, squeezed me tight, and with her face in my shoulder, said "I love you Daddy." What more could a guy ask for?