gone to mexico!

we're headed down to sunny mexico for the week!! wahoo!! so don't expect any new posts until we get back!

(its hard to believe that kate was this small a year ago!)

chocolate cake

this morning I was making a chocolate cake for nana's birthday and kate was dying to help! so I stood her up on a chair next to me and gave her an empty bowl and a spoon. this is the first time she has ever pretended to cook with me so she gave me a CRAZY look when I pretended to eat out of the empty bowl!! but she soon got the hang of it. I gave her some jello boxes and she would shake them over the bowl like she was pouring them in and then stir it and then taste it. it was adoreable!! after I had the cakes in the oven, I let her lick the spatula. this was also a first, so when I handed it to her she was a little clueless. it didn't take her long to figure it out though!!

it was a late birthday party for nana, but it was fun to have everyone over. we had a variety of rich cakes because candy and missy brought a red cake too! whew!!

happy birthday nana!! I've always loved that I shared the same birthday month with you!! opals are the prettiest!

90 degree pumpkin patch

saturday morning we took a trip to a tucson pumpkin patch. actually, we had to drive about an hour to get there. the morning was nice and cool and we had the windows and doors open to tell us it was a little chilly and I was in a fall mood with the thoughts of pumpkin patches and hay rides in my head...but it still ended up to be about 90 degrees when we got there! I was a little warm in my corduroys...but it was still a lot of fun.

I think ryan enjoyed the petting zoo more than kate. it took a little while for kate to even get near any of the animals...(can you tell she's being pressured in this picture?)

and then a friendly little goat came over and nibbled on her fingers! that was the end of that! but its really fun because she's getting really good at making animal noises and she gets excited to see them. goat was a little foreign, but she does a great quack and loves to try and snort like a pig. (I guess it would have been easier to teach her to "oink", but she's really cute when she tries to snort!)

they had a tractor hay ride and a little kid's hay maze and then we went in the pumpkin patch and found a perfect pumpkin for kate! we also bought a bag of my favorite apples (pink ladies)! ryan thought they were over priced....but he underestimated how hungry his pregnant wife was. I NEEDED apples! even if they were small enough to be crab apples!! they still tasted yummy to me!!

since apples alone wasyn't enough to satisfy me, we drove a couple of miles south to tubac, where we spent our 3rd anniversary, and went to the YUMMY mexican restaurant I've been craving! oh, it was so good! I wish I could eat there every day! its called Wisdom's cafe, in case anyone is ever in the tubac area wondering where to eat. its SO good. oh, I want some right now! its kind of funny because once you get on the highway that takes you down south, the signs are all in kilometers....hello!!! we're still in america here! I have NO idea how far a kilometer is. and you have to drive through a border check on the way back in to tucson from tubac. we were suprised how fast they were waving all the mexicans in around us. geez, is it that easy?!? we were wondering what they would have said if they asked us if we were american and we said "si"! ha ha ha ha. (but of course we were too chicken to try it!)

midwife visit

today I went for my second midwife visit and it was quite the ordeal! we were there for 2 1/2 hours...and considering the 30 minute drive, it took all day!

today I saw rebecca, who delivered kate. we were in for the full exam today, and she started with the baby's heartbeat....and couldn't find it! can you believe the same thing happened to jen! since she couldn't find it we stopped the appointment and she sent me over to get a sonogram done. my uterus was low and a little tipped so they couldn't do a normal sonogram...but we got some good pictures!

the second one looks like the baby has its fists to its face like it crying!! but this last one is the really exciting one. its a little early, but you can actually see what we're having in it!!!

we're expecting a strongbad!

(if you don't know who strong bad is, see homestarrunner.com)

ryan's excited because he says that means its a boy!!

so anyways, after the sonogram we went back to my midwife and finished my appointment knowing we had a healthy baby strongbad in there...and they changed my due date because I was measuring small!! it is now may 6th (see the updated baby countdown!) I'm excited because it puts it farther from kate's birthday, but it puts it much closer to jen's due date (may 8th) yeah....so that stinks!

so we'll see you in may, baby strongbad!

favorite things

kate in this cute outfit

carmel apples

(yummy, even when they drip!)

my pumpkin candles

(I got the containers in the value bins at target and I had kelley fill them with soy candles!! pumpkin spice bread! mmmm!!)

how goofy ryan is

(yesterday we were making dinner and I looked out the window over the sink and they were just sitting there on the fence! kate saw me and started waving! what a silly pair!)

jen's blog (fongolia.blogspot.com) and her perfect and healthy little baby!

happy birthday to me! (really this time!)

(for some reason I can't download any pictures, so you only get words tonight!)

what a wonderful birthday I had today!!

I started off my morning at the gym, which is always fun. ryan asked me when I got home if my bones were creaking....very funny....until I reminded him he is 30 and didn't have room to talk!!

then I cleaned the bathroom (a freshly scrubbed toilet was a fun birthday treat!)

then I got ready for the day and settled in to read the second twilight book while ryan got ready. (I had started it last night when mom got home from utah and ended up reading it on the bathroom floor after everyone else had gone to bed until 1 am!)

then mom watched kate and ryan took me to a nice little mexican restaurant that a patient of mine had told me about. it was pretty good.

after we got home, ryan went to bed because he works tonight and I took advantage of the last of kate's nap to read my book some more!

when kate woke up, we went to costco and got my birthday present from my mom and mom-in- law!! I got a stereo ipod dock thingy to play the music from my ipod! I don't listen to it as much as I wish I could with the headphones, and last night when I was trying to think of what to tell mom I wanted, I had a pete yorn song stuck in my head and I started missing my music!! so thats where the idea of what I wanted for my birthday was born! happy birthday to me!

we have this car wash place here called simoniz (is this a national thing? I don't know.) on your birthday you can take your car in for a free car wash! it was so much fun. I just pulled up and told the guy it was my birthday and he said "happy birthday" and took it to go get vacuumed. then I went in to where you usually pay so I could get my receipt and the lady said "happy birthday!" and I paid nothing and went and waited for my car to be done. when they called out that the honda was done, I went outside and the guy gave me a hearty "happy birthday!" and gave me the keys to my oh so fresh smelling car!! it was so much fun!

anyways, when I got home from my errands, instead of setting up my fun new present....I laid on the couch and read my book.

I had requested beef stew and carmel apples for my birthday today (a fall favorite...and I so want to remind myself that its fall!) and so mom cooked while I read some more.

I took a dinner break and it was yummy. the carmel apples were definately my favorite. then ryan went to work and kate went to bed and I sat on the couch and read my book until it was done. (I'm sure lucky it was my birthday! I took advantage of it with a lot of sitting on the couch reading time!)

you know what? I hate the "middle". like the middle lord of the rings movie, hated it. it was just a lot of fighting leading into the third movie and I totally could have done without it. I was thinking I was going to finish the second twilight book and give myself a break until maybe the weekend when I could have more time to start the third.....and the second one didn't really END! it just led into the third!! ridiculous! so guess who is staying up who knows how long to read the third one? sigh!

I am officially a tucson wussy

yesterday morning we took off for a fun adventure at woods cross lake in payson. we got there and set up our campsite and then went fishing for a little bit. it made fishing hard because kate wanted to be IN the water or throwing rocks in to scare all the fish away!! so I guess we didn't quite have the patience for fishing yet!!

by the time we got back to our campsite and ryan got the fire started for dinner, kate was exhausted!! she just sat there staring. it was actually pretty funny. so we filled her up with some tin foil dinners and put her to bed. we were so scared that she wasn't going to be warm enough!! she was wearing fleece pjs and she had a fleece blanket at the bottom of her bed and I wrapped her in 3 blankets and put a fleece hat on her head!! she was quite bundled up! b

but kate slept through the entire night like a tired good girl should! when she woke up in the morning it was FREEZING so I was going to send ryan out to make a fire while us girls got dressed and stayed warm and things. (and I thought I might get some cute pictures of kate in her pjs snuggling in the sleeping bag or something!) too bad!! as soon as ryan left the tent she started crying! so we snapped a picture and got her dressed so she could go out with him (I, of course, was going to stay in the tent to keep warm!) but when we put her outside to help daddy make a fire, she started crying because I was staying in the tent!! geez louise, make up your mind!!
breakfast was yummy but it was cold. do I look cold in this picture?

yikes.

kate was pretty ready to pack up and hit the road after breakfast. on our way out we stopped at an overlook and kate threw rocks (I don't know why, but that is one of her favorite things) and we enjoyed the view. but it was WINDY and COLD!!

we took the scenic route on the way home to go through snowflake to see the snowflake temple. it was closed (ryan was commenting on how everytime we go to visit a temple, its closed....like when we were in portland!) but we still go to walk around it a little.

it is a very pretty temple with some very pretty grounds. kate especially loved the fountains that they have outside. she kept pointing and getting all excited!! but, man alive, it was so windy there, I thought I was going to BLOW OVER!! (are you seeing a pattern here?) we stopped in show low for lunch too and it was the same, very windy and chilly. (ami and joel, is it ALWAYS that way?!?)

needless to say, we were all really excited to get home. kate was SO dirty, we were ready to get her in the bathtub! (and ourselves also!) but I was especially glad to be back in our 79 degree weather.

I am officially a tucson wussy and PROUD of it!

(and p.s. go OU!! wahoo for LSU and Cal losing!! I LOVE october!)

why do I have to be so obsessive?

ryan limits me to one book a month because I am too obsessive when I start reading a book. since I'm in a monthly book club, that makes an easy choice! this month we are reading an especially addictive book...

I know most of you have already read or are reading it. it was good. I had a few beefs with it, but it was hard to put down!! I went to work yesterday and couldn't stop thinking about it and then ran home for lunch and tried to feed me and kate while reading it and then had to go back to lunch and think about it all afternoon unitl I could rush home and read it all night long!! now I'm finished with it....and I'm scared to start the next one!

my daisies and I agree...

the weather is simply beautiful!

I bought my daisies last spring and they stopped blooming mid summer (although continuted to grow in greenery) . now that the weather has turned nice they're starting to pop up again like...well...like daisies!

my dilemma

(unfortunately for you guys, my whole life right now is sewing this quilt so thats the only thing you get to hear about....unless you want to hear about the big fit kate threw today when mom wouldn't let her "type" on the computer as she was trying to order something or the speghetti I made for dinner!)

(and sorry, I was having trouble getting a good picture of it with my zoomy camera)

so today I finished sewing the top and I went to the quilting store to get some advice on where to go from there. if you look at the cute pattern, it has a double ruffle that makes it SO cute!! but...it poses a few problems....

#1 - she doesn't give directions on the ruffles, so I would be going off the semi-clear directions from the quilt store lady

#2 - it looks and sounds really complicated and I'm a little scared to try it

#3 - with both ruffles and the backing made from the same cute fabric that the rest of the quilt is made of, it would take 15 more yards of fabric....and at $8 a yard, I should have just bought a pottery barn kids quilt and saved the trouble!!


sigh. so what I will probably end up doing is putting a border around it and then just binding it normally. I think it will still be super cute....and that will be a lot easier. so now I'll have to take a break while I wait for the fabric to come in the mail (they don't have any now at my quilting store)

but in happier news, look at the cute baby ticker I have on my blog!! (although, the baby isn't quite "cute" yet!!) thanks hilary, I LOVE it!

more progress...

today, between conference sessions, I was able to trim all my squares down to size. then tonight I layed them all out on the ground and put them in the ordered I wanted them. its amazing how many steps this thing takes!!

I wish I had more progress to show, but next time it should be a whole quilt top!

(cross your fingers!)

football and quilting

thats what my saturday consisted of today!

(oh yes, and general conference, which was excellent and I'm excited for tomorrow!)

WAHOO!!

for ou beating the longhorns today in the red river shoot out! makes me proud to be a sooner!!

WAHOO!!

for usc getting BEAT by the worst team in the pac-10 (which probably makes arizona the worst team in the pac-10 now!!) wahoo!!! GO STANFORD!!

and WAHOO!!

for 42 quilt squares with the scrappies all cut out, sewed together, and ironed! I am LOVING all the fabrics and can't wait to see how it all comes together!!

WAHOO!! for october saturdays!! not only is there college football, but it was 82 degrees outside today! beautiful!

kate's new shoes

today I got home for my lunch break and I thought that the house was stinky. everyone said it was just my pregnant nose, but it was stinky! I didn't feel like eating anything in the stinky house.....so my mom and I went out to lunch at beyond bread. mmmm yummy yummy! I want to go there again right now just thinking about it! anyways, its in a little strip mall and on our way there we passed by this little shop called traders where they buy and sell kids stuff and right there in the window were these shoes exactly in kate's new size for $4!!!

the last pair she had were size 3 and they were low tops and they cost A LOT more than $4!! so I'm ultra excited! the funny thing is, yesterday mom was at ross and she came home with 2 pairs of cute shoes and kate was screaming because she didn't want to try them on. these she was so excited and she was walking around the kitchen with them on like she was so proud. she has excellent taste in shoes!!

(and don't you just love her "cheese" face?!?)

my to do list

so I had a lucky change in my to do list for tuesday that made it a lot more doable. when I got home from the gym my mom said that kate wasn't having a good day. first of all, she was following daddy around the house and she slipped and split both of her lips open.

(this picture was taken that night and its just a little red!)

then, after she calmed down, I guess she was pulling her little airplane toy that she rides on out of its spot and she backed it up over her toe and her toe was bleeding at the nail bed! poor baby! so we decided that day wasn't good for picture taking. if you take that off the list and add an hour long nap for me,

LIST COMPLETED!

happy birthday to me!

no, you didn't forget my birthday (I still have a couple of weeks!) but I finally put together the table I bought myself for my birthday from ryan on friday! I took a LONG trip to ikea all by myself (2 hours there, 1 1/2 hours in the store, and 2 hours back) and loaded my cart all by myself (60 lb top and 2 - 30 lb leg/shelves) and by the time I got home I was too pooped to even get them out of the car!

I really hate how ikea only has picture instructions instead of a few words to help you out! it took me 3 trys to get the first of the shelves done because I'm a dummy! (the second one took about 5 minutes when you know what you're doing!) but isn't it marvelous?!? I didn't take a picture of the stacks of scrapbook stuff, sewing stuff, and random stuff that needs to be organized in and around it! I'm SO excited to get organized....but I don't know when I'll have time.....is this a prenancy thing to feel so busy and exhausted all the time?!? my to do list for tomorrow:

hit the gym (didn't go today because I was babysitting for a friend)

shower

pick up prints from walgreens

meet a patient of mine at noon who is a professional photographer to get some more tips (she's been helping me the past few times I've seen her and she's great)

get kate a good nap

take kate to get her pictures taken at the mall in her new dress from aunt jenny (I have a $10 off that expires in a few weeks and she's due!)

try to get home in time to put a dinner together for ryan before he goes to work

and sometime I would like to get some laundry done, clean the bathroom and organize my new desk before I work on wednesday (and then have mutual that night) and thursday (and then I'm too exhausted to do anything but sit on the couch).

I'm almost ashamed to even put my to do list on here for fear I will get none of it done!! maybe it will inspire me!

ryan's 30th birthday

ryan's birthday started off with me leaving to go practice for a tri-stake orchestra that I'm really excited to be in. its the first time I'm playing in a full orchestra since byu in 2002 and I'm really excited. intimidated, but excited. its a christmas thing so we're practicing really early. and its going to be a lot of time commitment....but I think it will be worth it. so while I was gone he went for a trail run and took kate swimming. I got home and started getting ready for our "tailgate party". ryan requested hamburgers (his favorite meal) so we had a bbq. it was really just our family and nana. then we ate the cookie dough ice cream cake he had requested. (every year I've known ryan on his birthday I've made him a carrot cake. I don't like carrot cake so I never get to taste it to see if its good or not. apparently, last years cake was no good so he wanted to change it up!)

kate helped daddy blow out all the candles. she's so funny, we have a candle that sits on our coffee table and she'll see it and pretend to blow it out even when its not lit. she really likes blowing out candles!

it was a really yummy cake, but kate isn't crazy about cold stuff like ice cream (she's crazy!!) so she ate a real cookie!

then we headed out to the washington state vs university of arizona football game.

it was kind of funny for me because you kind of have to be a pretty big fan of our team to go to the opposing team's stadium wearing a visitor's shirt...and I really only like washington state by association! but while I was getting booed at as we were walking to the stadium, kate was getting "oh, how cute!"

I guess I just wasn't cute enough!

it was a late game so we were kinda worried how kate would do. (it started at her bedtime.) but when the band came our pre-game her mouth opened really wide and she was pointing, she was so excited! and they had some fireworks too, which was fun.

kate wasn't a huge fan of butch!! actually, ryan wasn't either. he said he was pretty stinky!

kate (and ryan) did pretty good the first half. but then the score started getting out of hand due to a lack of cougar defense. mom, dad and aunt candy left after the 3rd quarter and took kate with them. we stayed to try and cheer those cougars to a victory, but left shortly after them because it was just no use!! poor ryan! what a sad way to end his birthday!