Mustache Birthday Party!

Lizzie R. had a birthday and it was Mustache themed. So much fun! We played a bunch of games, including a variation of fruit basket that involved hitting people with a mustache pillow.

Pregnancy Picture

Mom recommended taking a picture once a month but, really, I've been trying to be good at taking one every week which has resulted in a new picture every two weeks.

Compromise at it's finest.

That, and pregnancy brain.

So, here's a picture of me, at nearly 29 weeks. WHEN DID I GET THAT FAR ALONG?! AND WHEN WILL THIS BABY BE BORN?! I mean, ::clearsthroat:: Enjoy the picture!



::edit:: my mom saw the picture and texted me, "definitely pregnant!!!" Love it. :)

Kaiah's Birthday!

Clark and I have this thing about spoiling little kids. We're probably the hugest distractions at church for everyone else because we'll play with the kids, make faces at the babies and, well, today I accidentally tempted a child sitting across the aisle with my snacks. I felt bad for her mom, since that incident was truly on accident and not something I had planned (unlike when we have crackers and try to woo the choir director's daughter over to our bench during Sunday School).

This brings us to babies in our family. I know I totally dote on my niece and nephew (who wouldn't?) but Clark doesn't have any of those--well, until he married me, at least. :) Instead, he has cousins' babies. And they're adorable. This is Kaiah, who turned one at the beginning of the month and had a celebration a week ago with her family. It was awesome. And I only have three pictures because I ended up using Kasie's DSLR (::covet::) to help take pictures of the present-opening and cake-eating. :)

Clark, holding one of our favorite "next generations":

The birthday cake (so cute, eh?):

The birthday girl, in the chair that she realized got her presents:

LTUE 2011

I know it's a month late, but I've finally had a moment to upload pictures from my camera onto Clark's laptop. So I'm backtracking a little in my posts.

I love getting to come to this convention! The guest of honor (author) was James Dashner who, thankfully, was pretty darn funny thanks to his cocky personality. One of my favorite moments was his reading from the last book of his Maze Runner trilogy ("The Death Cure" due out in October of this year). I felt almost like I was at Comic Con in that we got some behind-the-scenes information and experiences. Also a funny moment: while I was walking back into the room where he was about to start his reading, James looked back at me and was like, "hey, I know you!" then proceeded to try and figure out who I was compared to who I thought I was. I knew that I'd never met him face-to-face before, but it took a couple of minutes to convince him of that. But it meant that everyone around me (who could see us but not hear us) had these jealous looks on their faces. ;)

Also got to have some lengthy chats with Dan Wells and Howard Taylor (*super* funny guys) and got signatures from Dan on my UK edition of "I Am Not a Serial Killer," Jessica Day George on "Dragon Slippers," and Paul Genesse on "Terribly Twisted Fairy Tales."

Ah, the life of an author stalker . . .

Oh, and here are some pictures to prove I was there. Or at least in the same room with some people.

Panel of authors (Jessica Day George is the redhead on the far left):

James Dashner, in the middle of all his "revealing":

March Madness

So, Clark's family has a tradition of filling out brackets for the NCAA Tournament and whoever 'wins' gets a candy bar. This is the first time I've actually cared about March Madness, but I'm currently in fifth place (out of seven) so I guess I'll have to go out and buy my own Snickers. :D

Another picture

Picture time! (me at 26 1/2 weeks.)

Please ignore the fact that I'm totally making a face at Clark for saying something silly/ridiculous/whatever it was when he took it. And a shout out to Brooke Walrath for the dress!

Doctor Update #5

I think the best part of today's appointment was when my daughter kicked the heartbeat listening device because the nurse practitioner pressed down too hard. Heh, heh, heh. :)

The regular news: *I* knew that I had gained a lot more weight between appointments this time (ten pounds in four weeks!) but I also have tried to eat less and eat better and it (the eating less part, anyway) wasn't working out. But the end of the second trimester is when you're supposed to put on the most weight, right? . . . Right?

The bad news: I have nine days to take the glucose test. Joy of joys.

Addict?

At the BYU vs UNM basketball game last night, the Cougarettes came out to perform a dance number to "Shawty Get Loose."

Which is worse: that less than four bars in, I realized that they were performing the choreography that NappyTabs (Tabitha and Napoleon D'Umo) had written for the Hip Hop round of Vegas Week back in season four of So You Think You Can Dance or that they used that choreography without (seeming to) give credit to the original choreographers?

Baby Girl Dresses

So, sue me. I just wasted an hour online shopping for my little girl. :D And, while I've never spent $40 on a dress for ME, who says I can't send these pictures in an e-mail to my mother and say something like, hey, your granddaughter is awesome and would look downright FASTASTIC in one of these? Especially if I give three options, right? ;)

I love my job :)

In case anyone was wondering, my job is with an elementary school, after hours, as a "youth staff developer" which is a fancy way of calling me an underpaid teacher for kids. :) My co-workers are pretty stinkin' fantastic and everyone has been super helpful and considerate while I've been pregnant. And (as all you teachers can back me up on this) while some days are a lot harder than others, I love going in and seeing my kids every day. The only bummer of the job is that I can't take pictures of faces. Boo.

One of the 'classes' I teach is arts and crafts. Here are a couple of shots of my kids working on some origami last week:





These are three turtles and a monkey (I made the monkey):