Baby Sister

Yesterday morning we all went to the Jordan River Trail where Nick tried out his new toy - a GPS watch for runners. He ran 7 miles while Ellie and I did about half of that walking (okay, Ellie was in the stroller). It was a good, active, start to the day. That afternoon we had a family gathering at my parent's house with my Uncle David's family. It was so nice to visit with all of them and meet new baby family members. We don't see them near as often as we should. It's amazing how families grow and change. We had a delicious lunch and reminisced about the good times we had as kids.

We have been preparing Ellie for a new sister in the house. We talk often about her baby sister, and Ellie does too (in fact, she's talking about her right now as I type this). We tell her that Maren will be coming soon. Well now, whenever the doorbell rings, Ellie gets all excited and says, "Maren!" and runs to the door. She thinks that her baby sister will arrive at the door! I wish that it worked that way!

Here's Ellie all snuggled in bed with her baby, "soft blanket", and Hokey Pokey Elmo (she doesn't usually sleep with Elmo, but decided it was a good idea this particular night)

And here is one of my projects completed this week - a window valance for the nursery. I think it turned out really cute!

A Nursery

This week we had a few highlights:
*I had book group with my friends. I love that evening when I can leave Ellie with Nick and have good conversation, good food, and enjoy my friends who know me, inside and out.
*We finally planted our tomatoes and peppers. We have 17 tomato plants this year (we had 45 last year). We start our plants from seed so we end up with way more than we know what to do with (hence the 45 last year). This year though, we were a little smarter and gave away the extra 22 tomato plants and a few of the peppers. That was our last addition to our garden, and it feels good to have it all in the ground.
*We used our Memorial Day well and painted the nursery. We didn't want to do anything gender specific, and we didn't want yellow and green (as Ellie's room is yellow and green), so we chose a light orange, and a light blue. It turned out pretty cute. I'll take photos when the room is set up and when the window valance I'm working on is complete. Our office is now in various places throughout our house, mostly in the basement. We will miss having a designated room for our office, but we are grateful we have some space to spread out, and someday we'll finish our basement and have an office again. Yeah for us! We will be ready for "baby sister".

And here are some cute photos of Ellie. Lately whenever we have the camera out she wants a picture, which doesn't always mean that she'll smile, but we do have lots of photos to share!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So, I've decided that being a home-owner is one of those good/bad things. Of course, we love having a home to live in, and we especially love that we have over a 1/3 acre of land, but that also comes with a lot of work. Spring time is a very busy time of cleaning up from the winter and prepping our garden to be planted. All of our Saturdays are spent in our yard, as well as several weeknights. Our land is very generously endowed with a lot of rocks, so in order to prep for our vegetable garden we first raked and then screened A LOT of rocks. I should take a photo of our pile just to give you an idea, but I'll describe it instead - it stands about 3 or 4 feet tall, about 7 feet long and oh, 3 or 4 feet deep. I don't know what we'll do with this pile of rocks, but for now we are just glad that those rocks aren't in the garden anymore (I know there are a lot, lot more, but we can only do so much...). Yesterday we did get most of our vegetables planted. Our peas, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, and onions have all sprouted and are growing nicely. Our raspberries are just going nuts. Blackberries and strawberries doing well. Corn, squashes of several varieties, melons, and cucumber seeds are now in the ground. We should have put our tomatoes and peppers in the ground yesterday also, but we just didn't have the energy at the end of the day. Talking about all those fruits and vegetables gets me all excited for the end of the season when we get to enjoy all the fruits of our labors, so there is a light at the end of all this!
We did get some fun family time yesterday too. It was such a warm day that we bought a blow up pool for Ellie to play in. She loved it.

Finished

Yesterday I finished the cross-stitch I have been working on for the last six months or so. I think it is really cute. I'll be hanging it in the nursery. I made a different one for Ellie too, with her name and birth details. Now I'm debating whether to put the new baby's info on it - because that means I'll have to make one for each of our kids. Hmmm.... Now I need to find a frame that fits it, and a new project for me (that won't be hard!).

Making a Mess

What is this a picture of? Well, let me explain... I came home from a Young Women meeting on Sunday morning to find Ellie sitting on our bed with a pile of unwrapped starbursts. She had taken the opportunity to indulge herself while Nick was in the shower. She would unwrap a starburst and try to bite it (notice the teeth marks). Most were too hard for her to sink her teeth into, so she would just unwrap another and try again. We got a good laugh out of it.
And here's another cute photo of our Ellie. Lately when Ellie has disappeared and all is quiet (usually a very dangerous thing) Nick or I will find her sitting in this tiny little corner pulling her books off her shelf one by one, "reading" them and then putting them in a pile. When we find her here she announces that she is "making a mess".

Speaking of Ellie, I love being her mom. I enjoy mother's day because I think a lot about all the blessings that have come to me through my family. I got a new pair of running shoes from Nick and Ellie (that won't be used for another couple months) and Ellie made me a really cute card with the help of her daddy. We spent the day with my mom (and family) and Nick's mom (and family), which is the way Mother's Day should be spent, I think. I am so grateful for my wonderful mother and all that she has taught me, and all she has done for me. I am also really grateful for my sweet husband who wanted the day to be special for me - as a brother in our ward reminded us of, I wouldn't be a mother without him!

So Blessed

I had another doctor's appointment this afternoon, and everything is going just swell! My blood pressure was 110/66, which is fabulous, especially for me. I came home feeling so blessed. After bedrest with Ellie, it has been a real fear that it could happen again, and I just don't know how I could manage with an active 2 year old. The doctor's office makes me nervous, just because I had bad news so often when I was pregnant with Ellie. It raised my blood pressure just going in there. Now I can start to think good thoughts again. I still have 12 weeks left and anything can happen. Having a healthy pregnancy and baby really is a miracle. So much can go wrong, it's amazing when everything goes right.
Ellie is so funny. We were looking at some magazines at the doctor's office, and she pointed out several "bumps" (pregnant bellies). She knows that her baby sister lives in my "bump". I'm just waiting for embarrassing comments in public company. She will be a good big sister.

Spontaneous Adventure

I woke up Friday morning thinking that we were heading into another routine weekend - work in the house, work in the garden, etc. Nick was worried about catching his bus, and I pulled myself out of bed to help him get there when we started discussing how rarely we leave our home. We had not gone on a road trip together since before we were married (we have been on several airplane vacations). Nick said, "Let's go today!" So we did. We quickly packed and headed out the door for sunny St. George. Once in red rock country we stopped at the outlets. We didn't buy much but had a good time looking. Then we stopped at a park with a shallow 'river' for kids to play in (we had stopped here on our way to California a few weeks ago). Ellie had a grand time running and splashing in the water.

We checked into our hotel and then went out for dinner at the Pasta Factory, which happens to be the only location where it is seperate from the Pizza Factory, even though they are located in the same building. As Nick wanted pizza, and I wanted pasta, we were a bit bummed, but it all worked out and we enjoyed our meal (we ate pasta by the way - and Nick wasn't hard to convince). We went swimming at our hotel pool, which was freezing. Ellie didn't seem to mind and came up with a game - climbing out, running up some steps and jumping in to dad. We warmed up in the shower and then had Cold Stone ice cream.

After breakfast Saturday morning we found a bike trail not far from our hotel and went rollerblading. The portion we were on was kind of disappointing, but we still had a good time. Ellie spotted a park and there was no choice but to stop and play for awhile. Then we headed to Zion National Park. I have been there several times, but I had forgotten just how beautiful it is there. We took the Riverside trail and then the Weeping Rock trail and didn't have much time for anything else. Oh, that, and I was tired. Some day when I have lots of energy (ha!) I'll go back and hike the whole day away. Ellie did very well. Thankfully we could push her in her stroller on both hikes.


Really, Ellie was awesome through the whole trip, even the car ride there and back. She was a happy girl. On the way home we made a stop in Cedar City to have mexican food at La Fiesta which Nick was impressed with a few years ago when we went there, but now we are wondering why. Oh well, we can cross that from our 'next time we are in the area' list. And then we came home. We all had a good time and enjoyed our time away. We need to do it more often!