Where to start....

I'm pretty sure I'm just a bad person, haha. I go a month in between posts, and then I make 2 or 3 posts in a row. Luckily, I'll be done working in a few days, so hopefully I'll be more reliable. We really do have a fun life, I'm just bad at documenting it.

This last month has been more than eventful!

Ian finished Spring Term. Ian started Summer Term. Lame lame lame. Year round school is no fun, I promise.

We both spent a week in Alaska- which was amazing. Spending time with both families was so much fun. Two birthdays in one week! We had Jamila's birthday- and that was a fun filled family extravaganza, complete with tiaras and visors. (Thanks to Patience for the photo!)

And then we had my brother Daniel's birthday- dinner, 12th Marine's black powder pie for cake, and then a movie in the theater...I love the sights and sounds of that theater room! Plus, my family is just hillarious. Always exciting- especially with Daniel back in town.

Ian made a cradle while in Alaska. I feel like the luckiest little wife ever! I mentioned that I would love to have one if he had time to make one...so he made the time to make the cradle so that I'd be happy. Thanks to everyone for letting him spend time in the shop, and thanks to mom and dad for the wood that he used! Most of all though, thanks to that hubby of mine that made a cradle for us to use with all of our children (hopefully).

He also made this train- how cool is that!?

I raided my mom's fabric stash and made 2 skirts while in Alaska. One is just simple with a fun pattern (showing here), the other is a peasant skirt with an awesome japanese fabric. (And very colorful!) I needed some new skirts- one word- elastic!

We went camping for the fourth of July, and that was awesome. Ian crashed hard on the fourth of July, and that was not awesome. We went with Kyle and Janae, and their friends Erica and Aaron. It was so much fun roasting hot dogs, starburst, and marshmallows, making orange muffins, and playing skipbo until we had a 4th, 5th, and 6th winner. It was not as fun when Kyle, Janae, and Ian started riding their bikes down the mountain.

Janae got stung by some sort of insect 2 minutes after they started, so we re-loaded her bike on the car, and I drove the lead car while Erica drove behind Kyle and Ian on their bikes. As we neared the bottom, the boys were closing in on me, so I went a little faster. I crested the last hill and parked at the side of the road waiting for the boys to catch up so we could load the bikes on the cars. I waited, and waited. I thought perhaps they stopped to load Kyles bike already, so I just kept waiting. At this point, I knew someone must have fallen, and secretly, I wished it was Kyle- simply because I didn't want it to be Ian. The boys finally rode up behind me, I asked what happened, and Ian simply said, "I fell." The road was really narrow, so Ian cut the corner a little tight, which didn't give him much control. He felt his bike wobble, so he tried to slow down a bit and aimed for the gravel/dirt/grasses instead of the asphalt. He was still going about 30 when he hit the gravel. A few minutes after he got to the car I realized how serious his fall was/could have been.

Kyle saw him fall, and says he skipped like a rock. Apparently, he bounced on his head, bounced and skidded, and then bounced and skidded again. His helmet is broken in 6 places, but his head is completely in tact. He has pretty major road rash on both arms, hands, and knees. His torso has a nice bit of it too. But after 3.5 hours in the urgent care, we were told there were no fractures and we got some big bandaids- the ones we have wouldn't have worked very well. Hooray for helmets.

I told Ian that he was lucky I was in front. If I had seen him fall, he wouldn't EVER be riding again. I'd be traumatized.

On a happier note, I am now the proud owner of a super duper cookbook! I'm so excited to try these things out! Its pretty much the coolest cook book I own right now.

And most recently- we went cherry picking for family home evening last night! It was so much fun! I'd never done that before, but I loved it! Not to mention, the cherries are delicious!

We talked to the owners of the orchard, and they said that they prefer to freeze them. So thats what we did. 9 pounds of cherries for $5. So 8 pounds went into the freezer.

I would say that we'd attempt to make something out of them...but we love to eat them, so I'd say they don't last long enough for a project. We already finished the pound that we kept in the fridge, haha.

And of course, the pregnancy is going splendidly. 26 weeks (and 3 days, to be exact) and aside from the fact that I look like a giant cherry myself, all is well!

Bigger and bigger

Today, I woke up and rolled over on my back, only to realize that I couldn't breathe. I guess I'm big enough now that lying on my back is going to become a memory of the past, just like lying on my tummy already has. Ah, how fun!

Mmm, Tasty!

Right now, pretty much my favorite thing ever happens about 20 or 30 minutes after I eat. After we eat, Ian and I usually sit down on the couch, or something calm like that, and while sitting, I feel it. The little bumps. The flutters. The kick-kick-kick of our little jelly bean. I LOVE that feeling! When I felt it early on, I always excused it away, thinking that I was just imagining things, or being too anxious to feel it. But now, I definitely know the feeling. Especially because she takes us so much more space in my abdomen so I know its her for SURE. I don't know exactly why she moves more after I eat. I suppose the amniotic fluid tastes so good, she wakes us, gets excited, and starts wiggling. And that...makes me happy.

Cyclist

Hey! Look at how cool my husband is! Doesn't he look like a pro!?!

The Bump

I've had quite a few requests for updates on the preggo scene, and although I don't want this to turn into a pregnancy blog, I feel it is only fair to share some news.

Today, Ian and I went to Dr. Broadbent's office for my 20 week appt. Of course, you mom's out there know why that is so exciting!! We had an ultrasound done to find out what kind of jellybean I have in my belly!! Any guesses?!



No?

Fine, you waited too long to guess.

ATTENTION, ATTENTION!!

The jellybean in my belly is missing a very important piece of equipment. Therefore, the doctor felt quite justified in telling us...

We are having a baby GIRL!!!

Hooray for pink and purple!! Hooray for dresses and bloomers!! Hooray for bows and ribbons! Cute and cuddly! Pretty and precious!! Its a girl!!!!
(Yes, I know baby girls lead to teenage girls and pre-menstral girls, but I'm thinking positive.)

I'm so excited! Now I can use the correct pronoun when I talk about the baby, not to mention, that means we won the sweepstakes for the pretty, hand-knitted sweater from the lovely and talented Brittany!! I had to give Ian a special congrats for his little swimmer that helped us win the sweater :) Now we just have to start thinking about names....

Baby Showers

***There are pictures at the end, so if you are too bored to read this, at least look at the pictures!!***

I don't know why (perhaps its my current location) but everyone I know is having a baby. In the month of May, I have officially attended 3 baby showers, and there is still one more week left- maybe I'll make it 4!!

The first one, I thought it would be great to make a flannel blanket that I had seen that a friend of mine had. You take 5 pieces of flannel (I modified it to 4 because of the crazy COST of fabric) and lay them one on top of the other. Then, you sew them all together in 1/2 - 1 inch increments all the way across the blanket. Finally, you snip the top 3 layers, leaving a fun little ruffle, and voila! Beautiful, super simple, super absorbent baby blanket!

Not really.

It took me a while to find decent fabric that was within my budget, so there went 2 hours. I found a straight lined pattern, so at least my lines were straight. Sure, it took me about 4 HOURS to get all the lines sewn, but they were straight. I sat down next to my poor husband that had forfeited one of his last few precious date nights and started the snipping (1 more hour)...I assumed 1 inch would make it ruffle, but as it turns out...it didn't (at first.) Actually, the remedy would have been to wash and dry the blanket, but since we don't have a dryer, I attempted to make it ruffle by snipping the ruffles every half inch or so to make it a little more....fluffy looking.

Anyways, long story short, 2 more hours later, I had finished everything I could do, and I took it to a washer/dryer where I work with the lady I had made the blanket for. I didn't actually make it to the baby shower, b/c Jenn had come to visit from Alaska. So I pulled it out of the dryer, folded it up, and handed it to her. I should have said, "here is 9 hours of my weekend! I hope you like it!"...but I actually left the first part out.

Baby shower #2- Maybe a flannel blanket isn't the way to go. I know! I'll crochet a blanket!!

*note- crocheting and knitting is kinda like taking a road trip. You look at google maps, and you say "yea, I can do that! Las Vegas is only 5 hours away!" But then you get in the car and you just drive and drive and drive until you feel like you've been driving all night, because most likely, you have......Yea, that's what crocheting is like.

So last week I spent allllll week working on these squares that took me about 30 minutes to crochet, and I needed 49 squares. Where is the mathematician around here....yea, that's about 25 hours. Then you have to connect the squares, then you have to make a border. Another Friday night- gone. Lost to the world of baby showers. 3 AM, and I am exhausted, nearly finished connecting all the squares, and yet, I don't want to watch the Phantom of the Opera again. So I went to bed, and ended up an hour late for the baby shower, because I hadn't finished. I felt COMPLETELY over done when she opened my gift....but she really really liked it- and I managed to use her favorite color! I wish I got a picture of it, because it really turned out great. I'll have to get one later.

Successful, and yet, RIDICULOUSLY time consuming.

And finally, baby shower #3, I was only 30 minutes late! When I was younger, my mom used to make all kinds of things for baby showers, but my absolute favorite were the hooded baby towels. She used to put appliques on them, but I decided that my first would be relatively simple. I went to Wal*mart (after work on Friday night- the shower was Saturday morning!) and picked out a towel, the hood towel, and some ribbon. The selection was actually pretty lame, but the prices were right. We had a double date already planned for Friday night, so Ian didn't lose me this time. Mom said I'd need somewhere around 3 hours to make my first one, since I was still learning. So I did some after the date (and a wonderful late night walk with my hunnie) and got up with 2 hours before the shower started. My mom walked me through it on the phone, and I felt a bit clumsy, but LOOK what I did!

I tried just taking the picture, but without a model, it didn't look right.

Use your imagination that this is a toddler, not an adult :)

If you need a model, and force your husband to BE that model, but he doesn't really want to...this is what you get- TA DA!



So now, this is my new favorite. I bet I could even get really good and bring the time down to 2 hours or less! Not to mention it isn't as expensive- and on a poor-starving-college-student budget, that's a big deal!! Its either that or I would have to get a friend-divorce from all my pregnant friends, but I'm hoping that it will all come back around someday. (I'm thinking September would be a nice time for karma to hit on this one...)

Bicycling is fun.

It is fun, but Christen is glad I have a road bike... If I had something a bit beefier I could definitely do this.