Together Through It All

Yesterday was our 8th anniversary. And you know what? When I married this young and handsome man I barely knew him, and yet, I had an unshakable feeling that he had a really good heart and a really good soul.

We may have a few more wrinkles and and a few more pounds, but we also have a heck of a lot more good memories. I am grateful that I married Joshie Bop Lover Buns eight years ago, and am even more grateful that I still feel that he has a really good heart and a really good soul.

And I'm also grateful that we have so much fun together, even when we aren't travelling all over the world, going to concerts and shows, eating in good restaurants, etc. Since I am now on bedrest, our anniversary date consisted of getting a drive-through smoothie and going together to my OB appointment (we asked the nurse to take our picture). And his gift to me this year was a big box of Winchell's Donuts for breakfast in bed, and my gift to him this year was a really big smile. Perfect......

My Favorite Time of Year

Ever since Maddie was born we have taken her to the pumpkin patch every year for Halloween.

Halloween 2005

Halloween 2006

Halloween 2007

Halloween 2008

Halloween 2009

The pumpkin patch at Charleston and Rampart has lots of cool rides and games to play.

This picture is awesome because Maddie is smiling and Josh is freaked out. Of course, he may have broken his tailbone on this slide. Carnival rides aren't exactly safe, but they sure are fun!

And of course, we carved a pumpkin. (Who taught Maddie this pose? It turns up in at least half of the pictures I take of her. It's really annoying, but I don't have the heart to tell her so.)

Heartbreaking and Heartwarming at the Same Time.

I have never been so grateful for the incredible abilities of ultrasound machines until I saw this picture of our soon to be baby boy Harris. At the very same moment, I felt overwhelming joy and sadness, which is pretty much how you can describe my whole pregnancy. This picture immediately dissolved any resentment I felt towards having to go through miserable and LONG pregnancies and not getting to keep my babies and raise them. In a long term perspective, it seems like such a small sacrifice to make for the life - no matter how short - of someone as beautiful as this little boy. It also helped dissolve some of the fear I have for when this little guy finally arrives. Right now, he is safe in my huge tummy, and I can take care of him and everything he needs. When he comes, I know I will feel the helplessness of not being able to save him. But at the same time, I will get to hold him and enjoy all of the things that make newborn babies so special, and he will be able to feel the love his family has for him. Again, it is overwhelmingly heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.

(And for anyone else who is confused about why he has a pacifier and lobster claw - like Josh - that is just a placenta or chord or something else gross like that.)

One Last Family Day at Disneyland

One more funny picture that I forgot to add to the last post. Maddie goes to a school that has kindergarten up to 8th grade. One of the seemingly coolest things is that their cafeteria has an organic chef who makes all the lunches fresh every day. Sounds like a freaking cool quality of the school, right? Every day the kids get to pick if they want the "main entree" of the day written on the sign, or a peanut butter or turkey sandwich. As you can see, the organic chef is NOT as popular of a quality among the preschoolers as it is to the parents. (What preschooler wants baked tilapia?)

We made one last effort for a family day at Disneyland. (Josh's idea. I was beat and having contractions by the end of the day. It is definitely the last family day at Disneyland and I highly encourage daddy daughter dates from here on.) We have never been there for Halloween, and it was very cute and the weather was perfect.

Here is a little story in pictures. Can you guess what is going on here? (Hint: Dad Josh is not one to follow all the rules - especially stupid ones, and doesn't blindly follow every form of authority. Mom Rachel is one who obeys all rules, expects others to as well, and was always a teacher's pet who respected all forms of authority and felt physically ill when rules were broken. Can you guess which gene Maddie got in that area?)

Life with Maddie

Maddie isn't allowed to wake us up in the morning if we are still sleeping. SO....if she wakes up before us, she comes into our room and peeks over the end of the bed and either breathes really loud or suddenly comes down with a temporary cough attack. She thinks she is so sly, but we have totally caught on. Oh well. How could you get mad when this is the first thing you see in the morning:

She is loving her baking class at Little Pastry Chefs every week. They make cookies, cakes, brownies, cupcakes, and all of the other things that people bake.

She tells me all the time that she is an "artist" and I want to encourage that because she really is pretty good and loves it. So we go to the Artful Potter as often as possible where she gets to show her creativity and I get to find another shelf in the house to display yet another ceramic piece.

About a month ago we went to Vernal to play with her cousins. She wore this chicken looking costume the entire weekend. I don't have many pictures because (a) I barely saw her the whole weekend because she was running around having fun and (b) my sister took care of and fed her and me the whole weekend and I just sat on the couch the whole weekend. Sisters are so nice.

And of course, the traditional first day of school picture with the new backpack on and in front of the door. What a cute girl!

And we introduced ourselves to the class pet lizard ("Dundee") on the first day of school. Now she is obsessed with Dundee and talks about him all the time.

Maddie's Day

Now that I'm massive prego, we aren't really able to go anywhere, so we are forced to find fun things to do in Vegas. Josh and I made it a goal to have a PLAN every weekend so that we do something fun for Maddie or we would both end up just laying around on the couch in our jammies with ESPN on all day and having a lame Saturday. We designated Saturday as "Maddie's Day." (Don't worry, she still hasn't shown any signs of being a spoiled brat just because she is an only child.) We have watched the kid's program at the Planeterium (where we taste tested astronaut foods - yuck!),

ate picnics and played at city parks, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows with Aumi Karen at Mt. Charleston,

swam with friends and cousins, went bowling, spent ridiculous amounts of money competing at ski-ball at Chukee Cheese, put on all my pregnancy weight at ice cream shops, etc. Maddie's favorite is the Lied Children's Discovery Museum where she gets to do grocery shopping all by herself,

stand in the hurricane booth with Dad,

and make huge bubbles, among other things.

Since we had been to the museum last, there was a new gross body section. This one (as you can see by the sign) is about how people's body's stink. You have to sniff the smell from the little tube and decide if it is the smell of the bacteria from a person's foot, armpit, mouth, or anus. (Yes, they use the word "anus.") Josh and I were talking about what a disgusting and weird thing to put in a kid's museum, but of course Josh couldn't help himself but to try it before we left. He almost threw up from the smells and I almost threw up from his reaction. Maddie watched in horror..... (He claims the foot smell was the worst.)

And now that the weather is better, we can also now include Red Rock, Bonnie Springs, State Park, Spring's Preserve, etc. It made me realize there is a lot to do with kids in Las Vegas, it just needs to not be 115 degrees. Of course, it leaves us needing a three hour nap on Sundays....

Two Very Special Girls

My beautiful nieces have their birthday just three days apart. So they had a joint birthday party, which I was unable to attend because it was down in Mexico and I am quickly becoming too pregnant and uncomfortable to go anywhere. But I want to wish a very happy (slightly belated) 1st birthday to Ruby:

And happy 3rd birthday to Elena:

We love you girls and can't wait for you to come back to Vegas to play.

This is me doing the happy dance.

My sister (Jamie), brother in law (Rod), and niece (Lucy) welcomed their little guy into the world last week - Bennett Dale Smith. How cute is this little family?

My Good Looking Family?

My brother Brian has an iPhone app that switches faces in pictures, and he sent me this beautiful picture of my good looking family. Wowza.