Virginia and Baby Showers!

(Note: The following three posts are new. I know...I was way behind. Happy Reading!) The Wednesday that Kristie and her fam left I took off for VA to visit my parents and David. I had a voucher that needed to be used so I figured what better way than a short vacation home to help break up the last couple months of my pregnancy! It was such a fun trip! Granted I was sick with the Jacob cold the first few days but that didn't stop us from having a good time. My mom and I kept plenty busy (mostly I kept busy just following her around her daily routines!) We went to Eileen's bakery (twice!), went to the temple, had a baby shower...and just hung around the house keeping busy with random things. I even got to see Dad more than I thought I would cause he was home on Monday for President's Day. The three of us went to the gym together that morning and then out for lunch at Panera Bread (one of my favorite restaurants!). I just had so much fun hanging out with them. It was a fun, but short, trip. Mom took me to the Richmond airport Wednesday evening and just about the time she got back home I found out my flight had been canceled due to mechanical problems. I asked them to rebook be through Reagan in the morning (since dad drives up that way to work anyways) and even got a voucher for a cab ride home so that my mom didn't have to come back down and get me. So here was the biggest shocker of the evening...the cab ride home that United paid for...$150! To go 60 miles. I wish they would have just given me the money and I would have found another way home. Holy cow I can't believe people actually spend money on taxi's! Anyways...so that was exciting. I got home and my mom and I watched American Idol and I went to sleep, got up 4 hrs later and drove back to another airport with my dad. It was funny as I was driving back into our neighborhood I was thinking, I didn't think I would be back here so soon again! It was kind of frustrating but in the end...as the cab driver put it...I got to spend one more night with my momma! I had such a great time hanging out with her for a week! And she, yet again, pulled off a fabulous shower! She always does things so perfectly. Thanks mom for all of your hard work and for all the baby clothes and the good food and just for a great week overall! It was so sad to leave. I hate when vacations end...and I had to be back to work the night I got home so that always puts a damper on things. The one good part about it was I got to be with Nathan again! I realized as I was in Virginia that this was the first time in 2 years of marriage that we had been apart for more than a couple days! Pretty impressive, actually. I love him so much and he actually kept the house pretty dang clean for me...much to my surprise! What a guy!

We did a Valentine's themed Baby Shower since it was held on Valentine's Day! Didn't my mom do a great job?!

Yup...that's me as a baby! Pretty cute, huh? :)

These are the cute little party favor's we made.

Me, Mom and Dad at the DC Temple.

Mom and David! They're so cute!

Belly pics...(28.4 & 28.5 wks)

Phoenix Job Fair

Kristie, Wes, and Jake came down for a last minute trip to Phoenix a couple weeks ago so Wes could attend a job fair here in Glendale. They got to our house late Friday night and were able to stay with us until Wednesday! It was so much fun to have them here! Unfortunately I had to work a couple of those nights but we still got to spend some good quality time together. I can't believe how fast Jake is growing up! It made me so happy having him crawl around our apartment. What a happy little kid! Unfortunately the last day or so that they were here Jake got sick (and then so did I...and Kristie...and Wes). Another bummer was that it rained half the time...which like never happens here! But I don't think they even cared...they were just happy to get out of the snow! I hope they are able to find something here and move down to Arizona! I would LOVE to have them around!

My growing belly at 27.4 wks!

The Birthday Boy

So Nathan turned 27 on Feb. 8th. Wow...he's getting old. I wracked my brain trying to come up with something fun for a gift...but I struggle so much with gifts for this guy! I know that anything I find he would either find at a better price or it would not be quite the right thing. The only thing I know how to buy for him is clothes...and even then I struggle. I ended up buying him some pants for school...which were too short. Bummer. It's really difficult to find the right size pants for a guy who's 6'5'' and skinny. Oh well. So instead on finding an awesome gift I thought I would come up with a fun date or outing. I planned something for the Friday night before his birthday. Unfortunately it was a really bad week for him with school and it would have stressed him out more to go out all night rather than study so we cancelled. I guess it will have to wait for another time. So his birthday celebration turned into a family event. Saturday night Brooke and her family, Andrea and Paul, and Kristie, Wes and Jake (who were in town visiting!) helped us celebrate a little birthday fiesta. We had enchiladas and other yummy mexican food. Andrea made an AWesoMe fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips. And we even had a transformer's pinata! Carter and Talmage had a lot of fun with that one. Overall it was a pretty fun night. Nathan is a good sport and I'm sure he enjoyed it...even if I didn't plan anything too elaborate. Here are a few pictures from that event.

My attempt at a Valentine's/Birthday Strawberry Cake. The strawberries were sliding off the edge the whole time! Oh well...

The boys (and Avery) with the Transformer's pinata!

Part of our little "Fiesta Birthday Dinner"