Over halfway there now!

This pregnancy is flying by so quickly! It helps that I have a busy toddler to chase after (which distracts me from the months of waiting for the new baby).  I'm much bigger than I was at the same point in my pregnancy last time despite having gained less weight.  I guess it's true what they say, that your body knows what to do and jumps into gear a lot faster the second time around! I haven't been as excited about taking photos this time, not because I'm not excited about the pregnancy, but because I'm just not that into my pregnant self.    But here are my 2 photos, at 3 months and 5 months (oops, forgot to take one at 4 months!)

Katie's Jungle Baby Shower

My best friend Katie is having a baby! I was given the privilege of throwing her a baby shower, and boy did I have fun with it!!! We chose to do a jungle theme to match the baby's nursery decor.  As usual, once you give me a theme, I pretty much can't help myself from going crazy trying to plan and plan and plan around it.  Her sister, Kelly, the amazing creative paper artiste, designed and made the invitations and the paper decorations for the shower.

They were gorgeous! This photo doesn't do it justice, because you can't really see the dimension of the animals coming off of the card, but you get the idea.  

I had fun designing a menu around a jungle theme.  We had Safari Salad (Spinach Salad with Cranberries, Walnuts and Bacon), Monkey Mushrooms (Mushrooms stuffed with Brie cheese), Wild Jungle Vines (Rosemary skewers of mozzarella, salami, olives, etc.), Critter Crunch Chips and Artichoke Dip, Grilled Vegetables (titled "Zoo you want some vegetables?"), Jungle Fruit Kabobs, Monkey Bread, and Chocolate-dipped Bananas.

Besides being pretty darn yummy, if I do say so myself, it was a great themed menu!

Katie and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning on the night before the shower to finish the food preparations.  We were most entertained by our cookie decorating, and maybe it was the sleep-deprivation, but we had some hysterical giggle moments.  There were some definite flops (most notably the Giraffe with measles) but we kept at it and came up with some cute enough versions.

I'm not in love with them, but they fit the theme, and there definitely wasn't enough time to start over, so there you have it.  Next time, I will START with the detailed cookie-decorating instead of trying to finish it at 3 a.m.! 

I decorated the tables with palm fronds and jungle animals, simple and cute. 

Kelly made the banner, and of course it was BEAUTIFUL!!! I keep saying that I will take some classes from her one day when I have time for another hobby!  But I think with a full time job, a toddler, and photography, baking and book club, I'm pretty set on the schedule at the moment! 

The most important thing was that Katie enjoyed her day and was showered with a ton of great gifts for her and baby Lucas.  

Thank you!

Just a very very small part of the things that I am thankful for on this day after Thanksgiving:

-Living close to most of our family members and being able to see them on Thanksgiving without having to brave the airports.

-Amazing food, along with the talented cooks who prepared it for us! :) 

-A beautiful home over our heads, and our wonderful new neighborhood that we love.

-Employment for both of us, during this time when so many can't find work.

-A healthy daughter who is full of spit and vinegar, and a little sweetness thrown in for good measure.

-A loving husband who works so hard and doesn't get much time to take a break, but never complains about it.

-A healthy pregnancy and daughter along the way.

-Wonderful friends who listen, laugh and help me enjoy this crazy ride of a life.

I know that my blessings are numerous, some I have earned, some I haven't....and I can honestly say that I feel thankful for them on many days other than Thanksgiving too. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Visitors!

A few weekends ago, Rich's aunt and uncle from Chicago came to visit.  After 2 1/2 years of marriage and 1 child later, Rich finally felt comfortable enough to introduce me to the family.  (kidding!) We had a great time eating lunch outdoors in the beautiful Arizona fall weather and Alex took an immediate liking to her Great Aunt and Uncle. They spoiled her with gifts and attention; what else could she ask for?!

Books books books!

We got Alex a bookshelf for her room to contain the many dozens of books that were coming out of our ears.  Above every other entertainment item in the house, books are definitely her favorite.  So now, she will sometimes wander down the hallway into her room, and of course, I am trailing slowly behind to discover what mischief she is suddenly starting.  And I find her at her bookshelf, pulling off the books and "reading" them, flinging each one to the side when she has finished with it, to be replaced by another 10 or 20 that eventually land on the bedroom floor.  

Halloween 2010

This was a fun year for us to celebrate Halloween.  I wouldn't say that Alex necessarily knew what it was about, but she had fun nonetheless.  And she dressed up as 3, yes 3, different things.  Why? Well that is a good question.  Her Grandma got her a Wizard of Oz Dorothy costume, which she wore for her school party, and I got her a cow costume for her to wear during Halloween night because I thought she might need something warm.  We also had a neighborhood block party during the day, and when I tried to put her in the Dorothy costume, she pitched a fit for some unknown reason.  Then I tried the cow costume, which she proceeded to sweat in after 2 seconds.  So then came costume #3: a princess tutu from her closet, complete with silver sequined sneakers.  Because isn't that what all the princesses wear?

My favorite hobby is...

...photography!  Well at least it is today.  Sometimes it is baking.  And sometimes it is playing my piano.  But for today, it's photography.

I liked it a little when I was younger.  I took a simple photography class in high school, and kind of enjoyed it, but I was impatient, and I didn't like the tedious process of developing the film, then the test strips to find the correct exposure, then developing the photograph at the precise exposure, just to find out that I had a mediocre photograph on my hands.  Although the dark room was kind of neat.  But in any case, I lost interest.

Then came digital photography.  INSTANT gratification.  INSTANT learning! And since I am a learner at heart, this was my thing.  I could snap a shot, look at the photo on the camera, re-take it if I didn't like the first one and keep going, going, going.  It's genius!

I was very lucky to get a gift from all of the family members for my birthday to help out with my favorite hobby.....they all pitched in for gift cards so that I could buy a new fancy lens for my camera.  And I am so excited!

But I was very reluctant to spend my gift cards without knowing which lens was the RIGHT one.  What if I chose the wrong one?  I decided to rent the lens for a day before committing to an expensive purchase. And it was perfect timing that my best friend Katie is 8 months pregnant and had not gotten any Maternity Photos done yet.

It was fun.  And a little more difficult than I thought it would be, in terms of posing people. (My current photography subject, Alex, doesn't exactly POSE for me, so I just run around trying to catch her doing things in live motion, making silly faces and such to get her to laugh.)  Adults aren't really the same way.  They are much better behaved and actually DO the poses that I ask for.  Ha! And I don't have to make silly faces, although I'm sure that would make things more entertaining for them.  I'll think about that for next time.

Without further ado......here are a few of my first Maternity Portraits of the gorgeous Katie and her handsome husband, Jeremy:

I love the photos.  I can see some room for improvement, but that's okay, especially for a first try!  And I'm buying that lens!