Baby Shower!

The date is set (June 29th) and the countdown has begun. The shower was one step closer, and helped get me really excited for the baby. The husband thought it extravagant to have a shower for the second baby, I told him to shove it, it's been 10 years. My dear friend Amanda threw me the shower and I couldn't have asked for a better person for the job. She did so much work and it was so cute.

She based it off the colors of my nursery, brown, green, yellow and orange - well you can see the pics. The center piece was truly this gorgeous candy buffet and it was so tasty looking as well.

Here is a close up of all the sweet offerings. There were plastic bags so people could help themselves to a take home gift. I loved the visual impact of the candy buffet and can not wait to host one for my own party... now who needs a party?

I had some of my dearest friends there as well, I opted not to have a bigger "open house" style shower and only invite friends and family. Here is miss Jordan who will be moving to Denver in like 2 weeks - boo!

Amanda is a great chef! Her food was so delicious and was very popular since I think everyone went back for seconds. She made homemade bruschetta and a pesto cheese dip, a pasta salad, her yummy meatballs, little quiches from scratch and this too cute baby carriage fruit salad. drool.

Wouldn't be a caterer, if I didn't notice the details - loved all of Amanda's attention to details.

Kelly, Amanda and Mallory - not my best photography skills, what with the light being so bright, but this was the one sunny day in a week full of rain, really felt like some good karma.

Some ladies from the ward, who opted to sit in the shade. (that pregnant woman is two weeks further along then me, and yet she looks so much littler then me).

Grandma Lucy and Becky, my girl scout leader - love this lady. There were a few more pics of the crowd, and of Cadence who really felt the need to be there (probably because of the candy buffet).

And then Amanda took a million pics of me opening presents, and I sure did get spoiled, I can say that my friends really do have great taste. Overall, such a nice shower, made me want to throw a party for someone else - or a just because party - would Pioneer day be too early to have a party after the baby is born?

La Jolla Sister's weekend

Kris rented a townhouse in La Jolla (right outside of San Diego) for a mother's getaway without kids. Not sure if she really thought her 8 month prego sister would come along, but I did. So here I am with my two older sisters, and don't think I don't see how they are both trying to hide behind my enormous belly.

The weekend was full of laziness! I read a book, ate way more then I should, played cards and watched movies. So So relaxing.

We spent one afternoon reading on the beach, which Lana and I got unbelievably sunburnt (wasn't thinking of my feet or cankles). Very nice until we realized how sunburned we were. We spent one afternoon in San Diego at an arts and crafts fair, found a very cool artist and a delicious bakery. All and all not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

And here I took the obligatory pregnant picture, ugh I am really starting to feel like a beached whale that has to cart around an enormous weight. bleck.

Super Foods and Cravings

So being pregnant, I am awfully interested in food as of late. Well who wouldn't be? People are always asking what I'm craving, and no I don't crave weird things like dirt or pickles, although the other day I scarfed down an avocado all by itself and then ate an entire pineapple for lunch. There are some things that I have definitely had to have during this pregnancy, then I came across a list of super foods for pregnant women and it was pretty interesting to read through them.First of all, I have been eating yogurt like everyday. Love it all the year round but lately it is just the thing for me. And I love the key lime and lemon flavors the best.

String cheese - everyday 2 sticks, funny thing is though is that everyone in our house is eating 2 sticks a day and we are buying it in bulk at Costco. This is such a family favorite we can't get enough of that salty goodness.

Shrimp. I do not want chicken, or red meat (like I did with Cadence), and my aversion to raw meat is in full force right now. I can go to a restaurant and order chicken, but when I cook at home, I don't want anything to do with the end product. A little weird, especially since raw shrimp is not that attractive, sometimes looking at it makes my stomach churn, but yet my mouth is still watering for it. Not sure what is in it that my body seems to need, maybe the iron I'm not getting from red meat. PS. my hubby made me a great big grilled shrimp dinner yesterday on mother's day - yum!

100% juice - the biggest craving I have by far is juice, and it usually has to be 100%. I am drinking a gallon a week and that is only because I am trying to limit what I drink. This one in particular is hands down the best ever - 100% blueberry pomegranate. Unfortunately everyone in my house thinks it is the best juice ever and it vanishes faster then cookies do, and apparently they don't seem to care about the fact that I label it pregnancy juice. So I have had to limit the purchasing of this juice - instead I switched to 100% grapefruit juice which no one but me will touch.

So the next question is what were the Super Prego Foods? here is the list -

Salmon

Asparagus

Eggs

Yogurt

Cottage Cheese

Oranges

Garlic

Almonds

Black Beans

It's interesting to me since the only thing on this list that I have not craved at some point is Cottage Cheese. During my first tri-mester I ate oranges and eggs everyday - and I am not a big eggs eater. On any given day I will eat black beans and garlic, so not much different from there, but lately I have been munching on raw almonds and asparagus. I was just thinking about how amazing our bodies are and let us know what we need to grow another human being, unfortunately this line of reasoning doesn't really work when I tell my husband that my baby is in need of ice cream!

Excalibur Nursery

Pete requested a knights and dragon themed baby nursery. And let me tell you, there is pretty much nothing that fits that theme! Maybe a princess theme but not for boys! I kind of wanted a retro rocket ship theme, but I am really glad we went with this theme - I think it turned out so great! The room is really tiny though and we bought really big furniture! From our first remodel 3 years ago I painted this room a very pale blue, the rug and some funky mirrors are original to that remodel as well. This was my craft room (boo) but now it is a sweet little room for the little monster.

The first item we had was that awesome knight on the wall, that I brought back from Grandma Dee's house. After the funeral we were all allowed to pick a few mementos to keep in our house, and I knew that knight would be top of my list! So glad that it works so well - but I think it really set the tone for the rest of the room.

Next we bought this canvas print from Costco - so perfect and the orange is mirrored in the rug and in the piping of the bedding.

I put up these kingly crown hooks - where I will hang a dragon picture the girl colored for the room and maybe a photo of the baby.

This great wall decal is vinyl - in black and grey and came in 5 different pieces that I put back together - I wish I had hung the shelf first though, since it needed to be on studs - oh well too late. I need to get a changing pad and cover to go on top of this dresser.

Closet - nothing too spectacular, the walls were really crooked! We had purchased new doors but they looked awful, since they didn't line up very well, so I opted for a lime green curtain. That basket on the floor is full of boy fabric for future projects I have in mind.

The crib! I am in love with this bedroom set (all be it gigantic). The bedding is all made from a line of fabric called Castle Peeps by Lizzie House. I loved it and instantly bought it all up to make this room complete. I love a patch worky look and so I used that idea on the curtains and the pillow. The fitted sheet was super easy to make and is my favorite of the fabric (little shields). The bumper pad thing though was another story - I made it way too hard and I didn't use a pattern - since I thought how hard could that be anyways? But then I kept adding things to it, like orange pipping, and rounded corners - a little too complicated when you are pregnant and things don't really make sense - oh well, just don't look at it too closely- not my best work.

Closer look at those darn bumper pads - really cute fabric huh? Love the little castle subjects.

So yea that is the Excalibur knights and dragon nursery, I think it turned out so cute - I just need to figure out some kind of mobile - since they don't sell one in this theme and I am resigned that I will need to make my own, and making my own stuffed dragons right now seems a little daunting.

MS 5K walk

So, yes, 31 weeks pregnant and this is the snowfall we woke up to. nice. At least we now know what I will look like bald. Cadence walked with her girl scout troop again in the MS 5K. This year I had no fundraising energy whatsoever. Cadence however did start soliciting family members and thanks to their generous donations she was able to turn in 125$. Good thing this is Utah in the spring and the snow melted with in a couple of hours.

The girl scouts got the opportunity to volunteer at the walk before hand. The task that they were given was to get people to fill out cards for the wall of hope. The wall of hope is for people to give the reason why they were walking. The adult volunteers would not let Pete put "my wife made me". to bad. So Cadence got the stormtroopers to fill out a card, they hate MS too.

In action, getting the Harmon Brothers (local grocery store owners) to fill out their cards. The Harmons sponsor the food for the walk, and also the infamous bike race in June.

Harmon Brothers posing with their dog.

And our cute, chilly Family before the walk started. Sushi was very ready, and very photogenic I might add. too too cute doggie.

Easter Weekend

So I am a complete slacker and forgot my camera this weekend. Bogus I know, so we will have to visualize the Easter fun. Friday was Good Friday so Pete and Cadence had the day off, and it was unbelievably sunny - (unbelievable since it has been nothing but rain). So this day was spent mowing the lawn, planting fall bulbs and planting new pansies (to add a little color). Sadly being pregnant did not help any of those chores, and I ended the day bone tired and pretty frustrated.

Saturday morning we were off to Grandma Lucy's appt. building for her annual egg hunt. This hunt is hilarious, because it is all the families of the residents so tons and tons of kids line up (according to age) and exactly at 10 (to the minute) they blow the whistle and within 30 seconds there are no more eggs. Luckily my daughter is not shy and had a game plan (she didn't ever fully stand up, just swooped over the eggs) and was not one of the kids in tears. After donuts and hot chocolate and a nice long visit with Grandma Lucy, I took Cadence over to Grammy's to dye Easter eggs and decorate. This has become a yearly tradition of dying eggs with Grammy. This year there was a surprise waiting for her - two bunnies! Cadence was given the privilege to name one, and so the grey one ended up with the name Cadbury.

Sunday the Ford family was feeling a tad bit under the weather. The hubby had spent all of Saturday in bed, so I knew he was really sick, and I am well 30 weeks pregnant, not sure if there is ever a day I don't feel under the weather. So as a result of our not feeling well we stayed home from church, Cadence had a hunt inside the house (although the sun came out Sunday morning). Pete is known for his crazy hard egg hunts, Cadence had a time limit of two hours and she could not find all the eggs. We then drove down to Grandma and Grandpa Fords for Easter lunch and another crazy egg hunt. Pete hid the eggs for the cousins and they had to find 5 of a specific color, so the little babes were super easy and out in the open, but the older the kid, the harder the spot. To let you know how hard, you couldn't see any with the naked eye, there were no obvious ones, he duct taped eggs under cars and dug up holes under path pavers. All the cousins rushed outside and we instantly heard comments like " you didn't hide any of mine" and "I think you forgot to hide my color" because they were so certain they would rush right outside and start finding their eggs. Also with 13 cousins, Pete forgot where some of them were stashed and we had to call it quits with 3 eggs still hidden because we just couldn't find them. Uh huh- egg hunts are serious business for Pete.
After the Fords we moved on to the Dovers for another egg hunt and dinner. Here there were only 4 grandchildren and so the hunt was much tamer, and very adorable to see April (who is 2.5 years old) gently picking up eggs and declaring the ones touching the dirt as "bad eggs". There were also many cute poses of bunny holding for which I wished yet again that I had a camera. argh. Cadence talked April into naming the black and white bunny Oreo, although Tyler was pushing for Ariel.

Over all Easter was sort of a marathon, made more so by being pregnant, I was exhausted! Tiring, but great, I really do love having all those family events to fill up our calendar, but lets just say, I spent Monday in bed.

Disneyland!!!! (a little delayed)

So yes, let those memories begin! We planned this trip obviously before I was prego, well Grammy did, and I wanted to tag along, pretty soon, it was almost everyone tagging along, and we had a blast with family, exploring the park for four days in a row. Dad did not accompany ( he needs to save up those days off) and four days is not ideal in row, pregnant, but still overall it was very magical.

Here is the proof that Tyler was there, the older boys mostly took off on their own, getting into trouble.

Good times on the Autotopia, Christian was furious with Disneyland that they wouldn't let him drive with Duncan, little did he know that was Lana's rule not Disneyland's.

Good ole Mater!

And here I snapped a picture of Cadence (and Dave Grohl) coming off of Big Thunder Mt. I think I have a bit of work ethic ingrained in me when I would not let Cadence talk to him, or ask to pose with him, silly cuisine unlimited has taught me to leave those celebrities alone!

Tons of cousins, and tons of memories!

Grammy and Grandpa going into the 3D bugs life movie experience. hehe nice glasses.

Bear world adventure thing, really cool ropes course and swings, would love this set up in my backyard.

And this cute face, Duncan on the non spinning teacup ride (with prego auntie).

Carver's giant ice cream cone!

Reagan in her handmade ears.

Cadence and I packaged for sale. - nobody was buying.

Cadence and I drove down two days earlier to stay at Dee's house, I thought it would be a sweet way to say goodbye, have brunch with old friends, etc. Instead it rained (hard) nonstop and the house was a little creepy so empty and bare, I kept thinking I would see Dee shuffle down the hallway in her slippers and housecoat,turning off all the lights.

We did seize a rare 3 hour gap in the rain to go to the LA Zoo and botanical gardens and it was pretty awesome. There is so much growth there, and the flowers were all in bloom, it was pretty cool.