What We've Been Into and Up To

Baby Baby Baby!  People told me that things with the second pregnancy and baby would be different in so many ways, but I'm not entirely sure I believed them!  When I was pregnant with Aidan I counted down the days and weeks meticulously.  I always knew exactly what was going on in his development, I couldn't wait for the day when we would find out whether he was a boy or a girl, I wanted him named as soon as possible so we could start calling him by name and I faithfully read What to Expect When You're Expecting from cover to cover.  Yeah...being pregnant with a toddler around is a drastically different experience!  Someone asked me the other night how far along I was and I actually had to check my iphone app to remember if I was 15 or 16 weeks.  We have an ultra sound scheduled for August 4th to find out how baby is growing and what his or her gender is, but I have so many other things going on between now and then (including preaching on the 3rd!) that it hasn't even really crossed my mind much.  When I was expecting Aidan I posted a blog post every week chronicling our journey waiting for him...this time around this is the first I've written on here since before becoming pregnant.  Poor kiddo!  I am excited to think about a name for this little one, but we've decided to not share that with people until baby arrives this time around, especially since the gender will be public and his or her birthday won't even be a surprise since we've decided with the help of my doctor to do a scheduled c-section this time around rather than risk another rather traumatizing labor experience again.  For now, baby is being called Baby Thomas Olaf (because Aidan wants to name baby after thomas the train and Olaf the snowman) and my nieces are calling it a her and have named her Elsa Anna.  Thank you, Frozen.  I think we'll keep those names until this munchkin makes his or her appearance either Friday December 26th or Monday the 29th!

When we were pregnant with Aidan in 2011, the entire year was one of stress, transitions and major life changes.  During the 9 months of his pregnancy we lost a job (5 months after buying a house and starting said job), had our only car totaled (while it was parked on the side of the road--we were on vacation at the time), went car shopping, underwent a nation-wide job search knowing the possibility was we could move anywhere, moved back to LA, Charles started a new job at a new church where we worked to get to know a whole new community of people, we sold our house long distance, changed doctors at 30 weeks, moved in with a family we hadn't ever met, apartment hunted, moved again, and finally got settled in December for Aidan's arrival in January.  Absolutely nothing about that year was easy, so our goal this time around was to simply stay put!  To enjoy this year, cherish the time we have with Aidan, spend our free time taking him on toddler adventures rather than you know, packing and moving 3 times in 9 months.  The good news, is that 2011 showed us we really can handle anything.  When we announced our first pregnancy, it was the same day Charles lost his job, and we were all of a sudden no longer a part of a church community to celebrate with.  This time around we are surrounded by people who love us, who adore Aidan, who were so so excited to hear our news.  We have incredible friends, several of whom have either just had babies or who are also expecting, lots and lots of friends to share baby clothes, play dates, meals and support with.  We are so so grateful and while our families are far away this is where we want to be--right in the midst of this rich community of people whom we love.   What a difference 3 years has made!

Working Mama: This time around I'm also "officially" working--as in, for a real paycheck!  Most people have been really excited for this job opportunity for me, but a few have let me know they think I should be at home full time, and not employed outside.  I totally respect their opinion, but here's what I have found in the past 2 months of my new job.  I am home WAY more with Aidan and have hired baby sitters WAY less in the past 2 months that I've been employed than in the previous 2 years of intense volunteering.  Saying yes to this job means that I have stepped away from all the volunteer commitments I had previously, commitments I loved, but that took me away from home usually one night a week for meetings or events.  Now, I have 1 evening meeting a month instead of about one per week.  I work a full day on Fridays which is Charles' new day off, so he gets a full day home with Aidan each week to go take him to his baby gym class, out to pizza for lunch, share nap time with him and have play time with.  In my view that is so so important.  I work a half day Tuesday and we have an incredible young woman come play with Aidan for 4-5 hours, with me arriving home before nap time.  Aidan adores his "Sammie days!" and she loves him.  I love seeing him so excited when she rings the door bell.  A sitter used to put him to bed about once a week, I think the only time we've had a sitter do bedtime lately was a week ago when I had to run into urgent care at the last minute and we needed someone to stay with Aidan.  I have WAY more free time now, instead of trying to cram all kinds of volunteer things into his nap periods or frantically doing emails after he goes to bed.  I love having a set work schedule and then being able to say "it's Thursday, I'm not at work today, I can wait until my office hours tomorrow to respond to this since it's not an emergency."  I think it's actually given us a better life balance (I know it's helped our evening commitments and schedule!) as a family having me develop a set work schedule and say no to other committees, meetings, volunteer opportunities etc in this season.  I am still thrilled to be involved in MOPS, but instead of coordinating this year I get to participate, and serve as an adviser of sorts as the staff person directly responsible for the ministry.  It's definitely been a fantastic transition for our family and for me as I've been able to use Aidan's nap times to rest and nap myself during the extreme first trimester exhaustion.  

Adventures in Cooking: My little guy's very favorite thing to do these days is to "help" Mommy in the kitchen.  The second I say "I need to start dinner" he immediately drags a chair over and says "I help!" He taste tests everything, wants to smell every spice or seasoning I put in, loves to pour, dump and mix ("I do it all by myself!") and tells me what he thinks needs to be added.  Not too many 2 year olds will say "Mommy we need a teaspoon of rosemary!" even if we're making, you know, pancakes...  He is learning the numbers on the measuring cups ("we need one with a 1 and a 4 on it!") and we count everything we put in the bowl.  Getting to cook something by myself these days is a huge treat, but I know how important it is for his learning to be part of life in the kitchen (you are welcome, Aidan's future wife.)  We're also growing tomatoes, basil and rosemary for the first time ever and every single day he tells me, "Mommy, I need to go check on my potatoes!"  "I pick the red potatoes!"  He loves taking his bucket out to "harvest" our tomatoes of the day.  And we're working on learning to only pick the red ones...

Reading Reading Reading: I have actually started reading for fun again and making time for that each evening, which is something I got out of the habit of for awhile there in a spring season of a ton of evening commitments and busyness.  The best books I have read this spring were:

• The All You Can Dream Buffet, a fun story of 4 friends who meet up on a farm outside McMinnville, OR to each find healing in life.  A great story of friendship, love, food and the northwest!  
• The One Hundred Foot Journey.  I saw a movie preview recently for this book, it's coming out in August, and looked so good, so I picked up the novel.  Parts of it felt slow to me, but overall I really loved this story of food, the clash of cultures (traditional Indian family moves to France), and the coming of age of the main character, a young boy with an incredible gift of cooking.  The movie looks like it will be really really good, with Helen Miren playing one of the main characters.  Definitely would recommend it!
• Girl at the End of the World.  This true story is the memoir of a woman who was raised right here in California in a religious cult that her father essentially runs.  Parts of her story of spiritual and physical abuse are difficult to read, but it's an important story, one of hope, redemption, and her incredible strength.  
• Carry On, Warrior.  This would be my #1 recommended book this year I think.  It's our MOPS summer book club book and a fantastic read by Glennon Doyle Melton, author of the Momastery blog.  If you're a mom especially, this one is a great one to pick up.  The chapters are super super short so you could read one a day even while nursing a baby or before falling asleep.  Definitely recommend it!

Right now I'm reading both Animal, Vegetable, Miracle for our book club and Tender at the Bone--two great books about food, although very different from one another!

Listening: Both Charles and I are newly obsessed with the band Needtobreathe and would listen to them all the time if the munchkin didn't demand the Frozen soundtrack every time we got into the car.  Powerful lyrics and great sound.

Traveling: It's been a season of surprisingly little travel for me!  I know, so strange!  In June I took Aidan to my parent's for a week while Charles was in Costa Rica, and in August we're going back to Minnesota for a quick 4 day weekend to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday with my aunts and uncles and grandparents, but otherwise we haven't gone anywhere since my trip to Colorado at the end of March.  No wonder I am feeling antsy these days!

That's about all we've been up to lately!  It's been a season of exploring a few new places in LA, delighting in Aidan's new grasp of language (the other day he told me the airplane came around the bend and startled him...) and thinking about this new little one's arrival into our family as we enjoy the summer evenings playing with friends. 

The Best of 2013

I love the idea of a new year.  Each Christmas break I generally find myself motivated to examine the different areas of my life and make goals for growth in each area.  I take time to journal and pray and think about this next year.  This year was a bit of a different story.  For the first time I feel as if I haven't stopped running since Thanksgiving.  I haven't done any reflecting, goal setting, menu planning, house cleaning or preparing for a new year.  I feel as if we've been in survival mode around here a bit--running from one event to another, traveling, preparing for Christmas, hosting others, grading a massive stack of papers, hosting parties, preparing for Aidan's birthday and other things I'm sure I am forgetting.  Rather than entering the new year fresh and ready to take on a new task, I find myself limping across that starting line.  December 31 found me in bed with a 102 degree fever, and here it is 3 weeks later and I've been battling sickness #2 of the year.  Forget menu planning and organizing, it's been Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets, chicken noodle soup and Mac n Cheese around here!  I love taking time to look back over the past year and record some of the high lights, but I never got the chance to do so in all the busyness.  I have a few minutes free right now, and thought I'd take a quick look back at some of my favorites from the past 12 months.  None of this is earth shattering, but mostly I enjoy having this written down so in the future I'll remember the words, sounds, songs, and events that shaped this year.  So without further ado, here are the things I loved in 2013.

Books:  This has always been my favorite category to look back at, and many of you know I've tried reading the number of books each year that correlates with my age.  Yeah well, then I had a toddler.  I didn't come close to the 32 books that would have been my goal this year, but that's okay.  I made it through 17 books this year, and most of them were really good.  I started and stopped a few others, realizing that I now had such limited time to read I wasn't going to waste it on a book that didn't hold my interest.  But I finished 17, and out of those, here are the top 5 I'd recommend:

The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist  

Sister of my Heart by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love and Starting Over by Addie Zierman 

I wasn't the only one who did a lot of reading this year though!  Aidan is turning into quite the little story-listener and here were his 5 favorites from the year--and mom and dad loved all 5 too, no annoying kids books on this list (you know, in case you need to ever buy a gift for a 1 year old boy--these were all well tested in our house!)

The Little Blue Truck

Steam Train, Dream Train

Good Night Good Night Construction Site

Bear Snores On

The Good Night Train

Movies: I saw exactly 2 movies in the theater this year, one in January and one in November.  Hello, life with a child!  In January I saw Silverlining's Playbook and LOVED it, and in November we saw Catching Fire which I also really really loved.  I guess Jennifer Lawrence is a common theme of this year for me, she was phenomenal in both films.  We ended up not renting a ton of movies this year either because we got sucked into watching The West Wing back in May, and have been working our way through each season.  We're up to the middle of season 5 with a couple more to go, so that's been taking our priority when we have tv watching time.  We did rent Lincoln and Argo, and if you haven't seen them they are both absolutely worth it.  But most of America probably saw them in the theater, so yes, we are way behind the times!  (I do have a Pinterest list going of everything I want to watch but Netflix on-demand streaming doesn't let us watch the newer movies which is dumb in my opinion...so I'm still waiting for most to be available).  

Meals: I love beautiful meals, and more than that I love the conversation that happens around them.  It was a year of learning to cook new things, reading a few fantastic books about food, and experiencing a couple of fun outings to restaurants we hadn't tried.  Probably our "fanciest" meal was our 4th anniversary dinner back in March to The Castaway restaurant in the hills above Burbank.  We both enjoyed incredible steaks, wine and appetizers while watching the lights come on all over the city.  But I have to say I think the meals that stand out the most this year were the spontaneous ones we ended up sharing with friends.  One Friday back in August, only a couple weeks after we moved in, I texted a friend at 3 and said "you guys want to come over for hot dogs tonight?"  Two hours later our two families were together enjoying hot dogs, potato chips and watermelon, and it hit me, we have friends that live close enough now and we have a home large enough that we can do that.  And that's a dream come true.  The thai food trips after play time at Gummy the Bear with two different friends--I took Aidan the other day just the two of us and he kept asking where Luke and Sienna and Joshua were, I love that he equates going to get noodles with his friends.  The spontaneous backyard bbq held with other young families from church one Sunday afternoon.  And probably my very favorite meal of the year was our MOPS Bread and Wine night.  About 15 of us read Shauna Niequist's book and each cooked a different one of her recipes so we could taste them all.  The food was incredible but more than that I hadn't laughed so hard in a very long time, as each of us relished a night away from our kids, our homes and responsibility.  My soul was so richly fed that night--laughter mixed with the sound of clinking forks and the splash of wine in a glass as we shared stories around the table.  

Best Pinterest Attempt:  I realize this could be food related or not, so I'll share both.  The best pinterest recipe I found that is now in the regular rotation around here are these Oven Tacos  They are super easy, and incredibly delicious.  When you bake the taco shells with the filling inside, the shells soften enough that Aidan can eat them without me worrying about how hard they are and Charles went nuts for them.  We'd highly recommend them! 

The one "activity" idea from Pinterest I tried this year was this thankfulness banner in the month of December.  Aidan LOVED it, he kept asking to write on leaves (and every night when we asked him what he was thankful for the first thing he always said was "Adelaide and Ezra!"  He loves those kids!) I used her free printable to get the leaf template and cut them myself, which ended up being a LOT of work, so I might look for already cut leaves next year :)  But the fall colors made a gorgeous garland in our kitchen that I was sad to take down.

Travel: It was a year of taking advantage of the "kids under 2 fly free" rule!  2013 started with us in Hawaii with Charles' family, which was amazing and beautiful.  In February Aidan and I went to Denver to see my grandparents and other family members for a long weekend.  In April he and I met my parents in Sacramento and visited childhood friends and family both there and in Reno.  In June Charles headed to Costa Rica and Aidan and I spent 2 weeks in Minneapolis and Iowa with my family.  In July I hopped a quick flight up to San Jose and met my sister and her in laws at their home in Santa Cruz for a week while Charles was house boating at Lake Shasta.  The end of September brought another mid-west trip for Aidan and I--to Minneapolis and Kentucky this time to meet up with Charles' family.  Then we began a long stretch (2 1/2 months!) of not getting on an airplane until Christmas in South Carolina.  Our child LOVES seeing the suitcase come out of the closet and knows the drill at airports that's for sure.  He doesn't ever sleep well on vacation and it's usually exhausting for me, but totally worth it to see so many people I love.  This year's goal is to make it to the Northwest, there are WAY too many people I love in Portland and Seattle who I haven't seen in WAY too long!  I don't know when, but it's my goal!

Music: It wasn't the most eventful year music-wise.  I spent a lot of time listening to Elizabeth Mitchell and other folksy kids artists, and in December I introduced Aidan to my favorite Christmas song, The Little Drummer Boy.  Big mistake.  He's asked for it on repeat every day.  It is no longer my favorite Christmas song.  I discovered Daughtry's song Waiting for Superman, and for some reason I absolutely love it.  I don't know if it's the words, or sound but it is a great one.  I discovered the Derek Webb Pandora station and can't get enough of it.  Mellow, beautiful, worshipful songs that are a great way to start the day. 

Outings: I have tried getting out and exploring with Aidan as much as I can this year, now that he can walk and play it is so much fun!  And we've tried going on some fun family adventures when we can carve out the time.  The zoo was probably our most frequented spot, that season pass has more than paid for itself.  Aidan is obsessed with the play ground there, and I have to keep reminding him that the zoo also has these things called animals that we are going to see first.  I have found the gorillas to be my very favorite, and I really could stand and watch them for a long time.  Aidan and I are slowly learning the names of all the gorillas in the exhibit and he'll now point out Kelly (the big daddy gorilla).  We've found some amazing parks and play grounds around LA--any playground under the "Shane's Inspiration" design will be fantastic--all handicap accessible, lots of sensory things to experience, and ways to play at various skill levels.  I just found out they are building one about 1/4 mile from our home, complete with a splash pad and it will open this spring--we are quite excited!  We found Carney's Hot Dogs and enjoyed eating delicious dogs inside a choo-choo.  We stumbled upon the LA Holocaust museum by accident and were both in awe.  Trips to the train table at Barnes and Noble and Underwood Farms were our other favorite locations.  I love living within 30 minutes of SO many different options!

It was a year of learning, exploring, and growing, and we are looking forward to what 2014 holds for our family!

What I'm Into (April 2013 edition)

Clearly blogging and writing is NOT one of the things I've been into lately based on the lack of postings here!  This past season (few months) has been full.  Really full.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but in that "by the end of the day I'm so tired and don't have the creative energy to write two words" kind of full.  I've learned that there are different kinds of tiredness.  There's that "newborn, up every 90 minutes all night long exhaustion that brings out tears, depression and loneliness" kind of tired and then there is the tired that results from fun, outings, social time with others, and involvement in various activities.  This past season has been the latter for me, and it's felt lovely and rich.  So what have we been up to this past month?  (as always I'm linking up with the awesome Leigh Kramer and her monthly round up of "what I've been into" posts from around the country) :)

MOPS.  I have loved the chance to coordinate MOPS this past year, and I will do so again next year to complete my 2 year turn at this job, and this past season has felt extra full in this area.  We're planning our biggest fundraiser/event of the year coming up on June 1, and there are a lot of moving parts in this one!  So we've had a few extra evening meetings, lots more emails, and administrating that has gone in to this one.  I've also been busily working on finalizing our summer social calendar, giving moms a chance to still connect with one another about once a week.  (My favorite...a mom's only pajama party and movie night complete with various popcorn flavor tastings...that sounds heavenly and relaxing to me right about now!)  A mom's night out to a mexican restaurant a few weeks ago brought 18 of us together without our kiddos, and a trip to Underwood Farms with our littles this past week was a great and fun way to get outside and connect with one another.

Friends.  We've now lived in Northridge for a year and a half, and seeing as how we had a baby 6 weeks after moving here we didn't have a ton of time to invest in developing quality friendships before Aidan came along.  So now that he's 15 months and yelling to get out of the apartment if he's awake, we've found ourselves connecting with others more and more, which has been lovely.  Through MOPS I've met many other stay at home moms who are great at texting if they're going to go do something that day to see if anyone else wants to join them.  We ended up spontaneously meeting up with two other moms at the mall food court yesterday where they had a "meet and pet the rabbits" event going on.  Yes, random, but it was good to get out!

Money.  I know, this sounds random, but we're working on cutting our monthly expenses and trying to cut our budget back a bit.  We just cancelled cable and have spent a week now without TV.  I miss the Today show, I'll admit, and I haven't seen any news in a week, but it's been kind of lovely.  We did sign up for Netflix again and can get unlimited streaming of movies and many many TV shows for $8 a month.  Between that and Hulu we're pretty set--who needs cable??

House Hunting.  We are just getting started with this daunting task, but we have a great realtor working with us and have seen several properties so far.  Nothing we've made an offer on yet, but we've seen some good options.  We're trusting God has a place for us somewhere, and we're hoping he makes that abundantly clear!  It happened that way when we found our place in Seattle two years ago, and we're praying for that again!  I will say, house hunting with a one year old is a bit of a nightmare.  Especially homes where people still live--trying to keep him from destroying everyone else's stuff while getting a feel for the property--NOT fun!  (Or from falling down the stairs.  Or from playing in the toilets--ours have locks on them, so he discovered quickly he can get into the toilets at these empty houses!  Or climbing right into a fireplace while my back was turned....yeah he's finding all kinds of ways to explore these potential homes!)  My sister is also house hunting right now...we won't even talk about what she can get for her money in the middle of nowhere Iowa as opposed to what we can get for that same amount here in the San Fernando Valley.....it's just depressing to think about....

Entertainment.  We haven't had much time this past month for books, music or movies.  Does anyone else go through slumps when it comes to reading?  I go through seasons where I read all the time and then I hit a several month lull where it doesn't even appeal to me. I'm just coming out of one of those lulls.  I did read The Great Gatsby this past month for our book club, and I didn't love it, just like when I was in high school.  I'm starting to get motivated to pick up books again though, and I have a few already started that are wonderful.

I'm reading Lauren Winner's book Still: Notes on a Mid Faith Crisis and am loving it so much more than I expected.  Written in the wake of her divorce and her mother's death this book of really short essays (she wasn't kidding when she titled it "notes" on a mid faith crisis) is beautiful.

I picked up a Newberry award winning book I've never read before: Moon Over Manifest and am really enjoying this late elementary school book surrounding a summer of mystery, history, and a young girl finding a new family/community for herself.

I put a few books on hold at the library and wasn't expecting them to all show up at once.  The latest one I picked up is Ellen Degeneres' book Seriously, I'm Kidding and while I"m only up to chapter 2 I love it.  Reading this is just like listening to the monologues of her show--which is my favorite part of each Ellen show!

I thought they had played the Nashville season finale already since it disappeared for many weeks, but a new episode aired this week!  That makes me so ridiculously happy I just can't stand it!  It still is my favorite show out there!  Now that we have netflix Charles and I decided to choose a show to watch together, we haven't had a series we've both enjoyed for a couple years now.  We are starting with season 1 of the West Wing and hope to watch all the way through.  I've seen the first 3 1/2 seasons, and he hasn't seen much of it at all.  We are loving it--such amazing writing!

Pinterest Attempt.  I've loved getting fun new ideas to try with my very busy and very curious toddler off Pinterest.  They have not always gone as planned however.  This was my latest attempt.  Has anyone else seen "cloud dough?"  Made from cornstarch and shaving cream this stuff is AWESOME!  SO SO soft and fun to mold and scoop and feel.  Look at these nice children playing so neatly with their cloud dough from pinterest.  See, their clothes are still clean.  They haven't tried eating it based on the lack of white stuff on their faces.  It looked like such a great idea!

Here's how our cloud dough adventure went down:

First we took a big cup of it and tried to eat it--hence the white stuff all over his face.  

 Then we dumped a bunch all over our belly like we do with cups of water in the bath tub.  Not exactly the same results as the water in the bath tub....thankfully I did have him contained in a bit rubber maid bin so I just stuck the lid on and saved it for another day....no clean up of the floor was necessary.

I think that's about it around here!  How about you?  What have you been into this past month?

What We've Been Up To

Since signing off Facebook on Ash Wednesday we've been up to quite a bit in our little family!  It's funny, I keep thinking of "facebook statuses" to post and then realize I can't post them (which is probably not a bad thing!) but it does mean that family members and others who are closer to us don't know what's going on as much!  It's been wonderful not doing any social networking these days (I realize that it is strange to write about this on a blog...) and I have actually learned a lot about myself through this little Lenten fast.  I realized how much I love signing on and seeing that little red number saying someone commented on something I posted.  I think we all do, but I've started realizing that it's actually kind of nice living life "off line" if you will.  I flew to Denver and back last week and realized based on certain texts and emails I received while gone that very few people knew I was traveling.  That was kind of nice in a way--recapturing some privacy maybe?  But the flip side is that grandparents haven't seen new photos of their adorable grandson in awhile!  (And do you know how much easier it is to write a talk or grade papers when Facebook or Pinterest or Instagram are not options for distraction anymore??  I wrote a talk last week in about 1/2 the time it normally would have taken me!) I have a few minutes today and thought I'd share a bit of what we've been up to this month. (and it's Sunday which means Lenten fasts are to be broken, so Facebook and I have been getting reacquainted today) 

Travel!  I mentioned I was in Denver (well Greeley really) last weekend.  Charles took 20 high school students to winter camp over Presidents Day Weekend and Aidan and I hopped on a plane and headed to visit my grandparents for 5 days.  It was such an amazing trip.  I originally planned it back in December.  Denver is a super easy flight from Burbank (less than 2 hours) and I know my grandparents, who have played such huge roles in my life, are getting a bit older so I wanted them to have some time with my son.  I had asked my dad if he wanted to join us for a few of those days, both to see his parents and to help with Aidan a bit, so he flew in for a couple days too which was great.  I had no idea how special that weekend was going to be, both for my grandparents and for me.  I realized it has been years since I've had that much time with just them.  Usually there are a bunch of other family members around (which is always fun!) but it's been so long since I've sat down with just the two of them.  To have multiple days to drink coffee, eat a ton (Grandma's purpose in life is to fill me with as much food as she can before she sends me home, which I am more than happy to participate in!), and watch them play with Aidan was so so special.  They LOVED having him there and it meant so much to them to have us come to their house, so I'm going to try & plan another few days maybe in June when I can head back there again.

Aidan, his Opa, Oma and Papa

Four Generations--Two Moms and their Two Boys

83 Years old and she can still play trucks with the best of them!

Reading books with Opa

Flying his airplane!  He knows it goes up!

Being in Colorado also meant I got to see other people I adore!  One night we had a cousin dinner at my grandma's house--well it turned into that anyways!  Five of us got together again!

Charles' Hair: Yes this needs it's own category in the update :)  Back in January he made a deal with the junior high students that if they sold out winter camp he would let them dye his hair.  They did and he came home from youth group one night looking like a rainbow snow cone.

Then the high school students wanted to help him get ready for the Valentine's Day banquet so they re-bleached his hair and tried to put a heart into it.

When he came to pick me up from the airport after high school winter camp he is almost bald, which gives me hope that his normal hair color will grow back and will stick around for awhile!

Aidan! Our little dude is learning an incredible amount of new things every single day.  It is amazing to me watching this little person develop.  He is trying SO hard to say some words like "mail," "Truck" "Tractor" "Cracker" and "Doggie"  He is fascinated by anything that moves and makes noise--every time he hears a car start or an airplane overhead it is the highlight of his day.  He loves the garbage truck, dirt, trying to pick up rocks, pushing his Pooh car around our apartment complex, and reading his books.  It is so so cool to see how in love with his books he has become lately and he will sit for quite awhile and let you turn pages with him and he can now find and point to numerous objects in various books.  He LOVES his patchwork quilt that my grandma made him for Christmas and every day when he wakes up from his nap we spent quite a bit of time in his crib pointing out things on the quilt--he can now find the cars, trucks, monkeys, doggies and owls.  He's not really walking yet, he'll take a couple steps every now and then and then sit down but he's getting better and better at standing without holding on to anything.  I can't believe I'm the mommy of a little BOY!!  

Me!:  I've still been loving getting to work at Fuller again and be there one afternoon a week, I realized how much I missed being in a classroom setting!  MOPS is going great, we've had a wonderful group of ladies coming together every other week to connect, learn, craft, play and eat!  I LOVE being part of this group!  I have had the incredible privilege of getting to do a bit of volunteer work at the church lately in some really fun areas for me--I got to help co-lead a discussion on what is Family Ministry with our church elders and with the family ministry team and had the chance to share some of my studies in that area with them which was a great experience.  Yesterday I had the honor of being the speaker for the church's women's tea and got to write the first talk I've gotten to give in several years!  It was SO much fun to get to use the passion I have for teaching and preaching again and I'm hopeful a few more opportunities may arise in the future. 

I think that's it!  Feel free to check back on Wednesday for my monthly "Things I'm Into" post if you're interested :)  

There and back again and there and back again and party time!

Every year I hear people lamenting about how busy and stressful and crazy the holidays are--with shopping, cooking, parties, traveling, gift wrapping, standing in line at the post office and a myriad of other tasks that creep onto our to-do lists.  And every year I don't quite understand why people are so stressed out!  Until I experienced trying to do these tasks with an 11 month old.  Ahh.  Now I get it.  Shopping, gift wrapping, planning a Christmas party, baking treats....all are so much harder with a tiny "helper" present!  It was a bit of a full month for us.  We had multiple Christmas parties to both attend and help throw between the staff party, the MOPS party, the youth advisor's party, the junior high party and the senior high party.  We had gifts to buy, gifts to make, gifts to wrap--all of which took place after the munchkin was asleep.  And then we traveled with our sweet little non-sleeper.  Don't get me wrong, it was all worth it, and getting to see both of our families was so amazing, we wouldn't have traded it for anything!  But it's mid-January and I am just now finally feeling as if I'm catching up on sleep!

Our first stop was Minneapolis where Aidan and I headed a few days before Charles was able to take off.  We spent a week there playing with cousins, baking, playing board games, taking turns watching the kids and just generally hanging out.  Aidan loved having Lily & Brooke to play with, and tried his hardest to keep up with them.  He fully explored the lower shelves of Grandma's pantry and tupperware drawers, completely removing every item from these spaces more than once.  He tried his harest to get the baby gate open so he could go down the stairs, and he nearly succeeded.  As Nathan said "that gate has worked fine for 3 years, then Aidan shows up and all of a sudden it's not baby proof anymore!"  (Yes, I think he's a bit of an engineer at one year old already...)  Bath time in Grandma's big bath tub, dancing to Papa's silly turkey, and playing with new Christmas gifts rounded out his time in the midwest.  Because we were traveling on Christmas day, we pretended like the 24th was Christmas day and just moved everything up a day.  Santa came the night of the 23rd, presents were opened throughout the day on the 24th culminating in church that afternoon.  On the morning of the 25th we did something none of us had ever done--the 4 of us "kids" went to go see the movie Les Mis at 9:30 AM.  Rather than popcorn we enjoyed our hot mochas while watching Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway bring to life a story we've all grown to love over the years.

Lily spent the week regaling us with her one-liners as only Lily can do.  My personal favorites were: "Auntie Sarah, you are doing such a good job taking care of baby Aidan!" (Thank you Lily, we all need cheerleaders in life!) and "Maybe Gramma Nan is out shopping in heaven." (Maybe, but if you know Gramma Nan, you know that is NOT how she's spending her time in heaven!) and "What are these cookies Grandma?"  "Those are lady fingers."  "Oh.  Well can boys eat them?"  and "Do the stars have eyes?"  "No I don't think stars have eyes."  "Well in the song it says the stars in the heavens look down where he lay. How do they look without eyes?"  I love that kid.  A lot!

We flew home for less than 48 hours, long enough to repack and try to adjust back to west coast time before catching the bus to LAX for our flight to Honolulu!  We were so so blessed by the amazing and generous gift of a week in Hawaii with Charles' family.  There were 17 of us there for a week of sand, snorkeling  exploring, and even some surfing.  Unfortunately several of the crew ended up with the 24 hour stomach bug, but thankfully Aidan, Charles and I had all had it in October and that made us somewhat immune to it.  We discovered that Aidan has a lot of his daddy in him and LOVES the sand and water more than anything.  He went nuts trying to get in the ocean every time he saw it.  We enjoyed an amazing polynesian show, a lovely luau, some delicious wine, grilled steaks, and board games with the older nieces and nephew.  The highlight for me was having amazing family members watch Aidan for an evening so Charles and I could escape to Waikiki for a lovely dinner at the top of a tower there--with amazing views and really good food.  (My husband also picked out and bought a sundress all on his own for me to wear that night--something he's never done before which was so sweet!)  It was so wonderful having so many people there to love on Aidan and care for him--I love that he's able to get to know his family even though we live so far away!  

We had one week after returning home before my family flew in for Aidan's first birthday, and one week to put together a party.  It was a busy week!  I felt like we had suitcases and stuff everywhere, no clue how to decorate a rather unattractive fellowship hall, and a baby who decided to start teething as he was trying to readjust to being back in his own bed and own time zone.  None of us slept much last week!  But his party was so fun, and it was a great weekend celebrating him and the ways he has grown in the past year.  We tried keeping things pretty small and low key--just about 20 people who know us and Aidan well, with homemade decorations from construction paper and photos of him.  We were so blessed to have a great community around us to celebrate this milestone!  

Now life has returned to "normal."  I don't have any more parties (Christmas or birthday!) to plan, our MOPS speaker schedule is finally filled out for the semester, I'm home for several weeks without traveling anywhere, and I don't have an insane to do list.  It feels absolutely luxurious.  I want to write a bit more, I finally picked up my book that I had set down for 3 weeks (our book club meets next Monday and I still have about 240 pages to go!), I want to enjoy days with my little one where I don't drag him on errands--where we can just go for a walk to look at the trees and birds or where I can sit on the floor with him and play with him rather than trying to merely keep him distracted while I quickly get something done.  I'm so grateful for all we were able to do in the past month.  And I am so grateful for this next month of "nothing."  Until I head to Denver over President's Day weekend that is....:)

Things I'm Into--November Edition

One of the blogs I read had a very fun post a week or so ago, a more light-hearted look at things she was into that month--shows, music, food, books etc--and she shared them with her readers.  I loved the idea.  Usually I just make a list in my journal each year about the things I was into that year (so I know that in 2004 I was obsessed with The West Wing re-runs and 2011 was the year of Mumford and Sons).  But I love the idea of thinking monthly about the little things that I find myself into, so I thought I'd try that here this month.  This is actually a list of November's items--December's list will have to come at the end of the month :)  So in no particular order, here's what's making my world go round these days...

Music:
The Story Soundtrack:  When I was in Iowa with my sister she reintroduced me to this amazing CD.  Last year she and my parents went to see the live tour of "The Story"--a collection of artists and musicians and videos and amazing other things that tell the story of Jesus from creation through redemption.  The music was all written for this production and each song tells the story of another character from scripture.  I can't get enough.  Abraham's, Esther's, Mary's, and Jesus' "songs" have been on repeat in my car for a month now.  You can actually order a DVD of the entire show and it's touring again this year so you can google to see if it's coming to a location near you!

Elizabeth Mitchell:  I cannot get enough of her music!  She has done a ton of children's albums that are AMAZING!  Everything has a little blue grass undertones, but her songs are classics--Froggy Went a Courtin, You Are My Sunshine, Hey Bo Diddley, and SO SO many others. Her music makes me want to cry it's so beautiful.  Yes, I'm a nerd.  Her Pandora station might be on constantly in my house these days. 

Renee & Jeremy: Another super awesome children's duo, music that is mellow and fun, and most importantly, won't drive mom nuts!  I'm all about starting this trend in our music early!  We have Renee and Jeremy on Pandora a lot these days too!

TV: My 2 new shows this fall are the NBC sitcom Go On with Matthew Perry, which I think is funny and sweet, and the Steve Harvey show which is on each afternoon.  I am love him!  Super practical relationship advice, fun segments, really down to earth--he definitely adds some fun to my afternoons!  My other 2 "regular" shows I continue watching are Ellen (and I love that my little one knows her theme music and stops what he's doing to wave his arms and smile at the TV) and Parenthood which I have faithfully watched all it's seasons.  I cry every single episode, I don't think a show has ever done that to me before!


Gilmore Girls: So this isn't a new show by any means, but I'm re-obsessed with it.  My best friend was cleaning out some stuff as she moved and decided it was time to part with her seasons of Gilmore Girls.  I said I was missing 3 seasons and so she sent them to me and I started watching immediately.  Oh man, I forgot how much I love this show.  It's usually on in the background as I am cleaning up after Aidan's in bed but it makes me smile a lot :)  The fast talking, witty, and charming Lorelai and Rory are part of my youth, and my early 30s apparently.

Food:  Have you ever tried Trader Joe's ice cream?  It's amazing.  Really, SO creamy, so delicious.  I'm a little obsessed with their Chocolate Caramel Swirl these days and have been waiting for their holiday ice cream to come out. 

The other new food find in my life is Butternut Squash Ravioli--we have eaten quite a few of these packages this fall, my husband and son even gobbling it up! 

On Thanksgiving we had a new wine that was incredible.  Hey Mambo is a "sultry red blend" (although they have a chardonay too I think) and I've had a tough time finding it, but it was so good it's been worth calling multiple stores.  I did find it at a wine store nearby but they were sold out.  At $8 a bottle it's a "splurge wine" for us (ie it's more than Two Buck Chuck...) but it's worth it for a special occasion!

Organizing: I just got my new dayplanner for the next year and I'm a little obsessed.  I kind of love it.  I found it through erincondren.com and really love all her stuff--very cute designs and colors and the options to personalize things.  She thought of everything in this planner:
a monthly view: 
 

 a weekly view

fun tabs, stickers, a zip lock pocket to keep things in, and lots of pages for notes/lists etc. I'm a big fan.

Advent Decorations:  I didn't put any Christmas decorations up this year, partly because Aidan would pull everything down (I'm out of child proof surfaces...) and partly because we won't be here for Christmas this year.  I did however decorate for Advent with some things I made at a MOPS craft night, and I'm loving the simple accents of purple around the apartment.  Traditionally in the church year the Christmas season is actually the 12 days AFTER christmas, so I'm contemplating maintaining the tradition of decorating for advent before Christmas and breaking out the red and green after Christmas....we'll see what I decide to do next year, but I like the idea. 

In the Blogosphere: Here are a few posts I loved this past month: 

I loved this one from Micah Boyett on Halloween--on Jesus and Saints and Death

This one from Addie Zierman on finding a church home was beautiful to me.

As was this one from her: 10 Reasons Why This Christian Mama Loves Halloween

Rachel Held Evan's brought me to tears with Sisters, Speak.

How about you? What are you into these days??

7 Quick Takes Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!  June is here, school is ending for many, the weather is heating up (at least around here!) and people are transitioning to summer schedules....as much as I don't love the heat it's kind of a fun change in the pace of life!  Here's what we have been up to these days.

**1**

Summer produce.  Oh my word, I can't think of anything I love more.  This past week I think I've eaten an entire watermelon by myself, four artichokes, and two boxes of raspberries.  Plus a couple of pluots my friend Jenn sent me--they were my new discovery of last summer and I couldn't get enough of them while I was pregnant.  I am waiting for the heirloom tomatoes and basil to arrive and create some amazing pasta dishes or bruschetta :)  

**2**

On Thursday our family starts arriving for Aidan's baptism weekend!  I think it's going to be a bit of a crazy long weekend but we're excited to see everyone!  My parents, grandparents, and sister's family arrive Thursday and Charles' family arrives Friday--it should be quite the crew!  Between now and then I'm trying to get as much data entry done for my new job as possible since something tells me I'm not going to get anything done while company is here!  So when my munchkin is sleeping I'm frantically entering stuff into a computer database, but it'll be worth it to have a few days to play with fun nieces and nephews.  When my mom was here a week or so ago we figured out the menu and grocery lists for the weekend so that's all taken care of, now I just need to clean my house up and grocery shop for everything (which will be Wednesday's project--hopefully when Daddy can watch the little one so I don't have to drag him through Costco!)

**3**

It's kind of crazy, after our family leaves Aidan and I are really only home for 2 more weeks and then the two of us are headed to Minnesota for most of the month of July.  Charles has two different camps to attend in July--a house boating trip with middle schoolers and a week at summer camp with the high school students, and those two weeks are separated by a week off in the middle.  Rather than fly back and forth a bunch or sit here for a week with no husband we decided it would just be easier to send me to the midwest for 3 weeks.  We'll miss seeing Charles when he's home for that week in between but he'll get a lot of work and planning for the fall done that week I hope!  Aidan and I are excited to go hang out relaxing in Minneapolis--both my parents will be working so I'll still be home with him alone many days, but it will be nice to have them around in the evenings and on the weekend to help me out a bit and to have some company.  Plus the hot dry valley heat of Northridge is miserable to me, so getting out of town for a bit this summer will be great!  

**4**

Our little babe is FINALLY starting to sleep a little better!  HALLELUJAH!!  It's been a slow process, and some days/nights are way better than others, but we are finally starting to get some 3-4 hour stretches out of him (usually one or two a night) which is amazing.  His new reflux med is working, not perfectly, but so much better than the first one we tried.  Sometimes he sleeps in his little bed and sometimes it's in bed with us (something I swore I'd never let my kid do but after talking to MANY friends realized that the most important thing right now is to get everyone sleep, it doesn't matter where that sleep is taking place).  It's been fun to see a bit of a natural schedule emerge out of him lately too.  Around 6:15 each evening he hits his wall and is a fussy mess, so we start bedtime and I nurse him and usually by 7 he's down in his little bed.  He'll sleep almost two hours and then eat again and then go down easily again for the next stretch.  He's been waking up in the morning at 7 AM like clock work--so he stays in sleep mode for 12 hours which is awesome.  By 8:15 each morning he's back down for his first little nap of the day and then we go from there--sometimes taking better naps than others, but at least we're seeing improvement with nighttime sleep which is a HUGE blessing!  

**5**

Last Friday I posted about our new Beco Baby Carrier that lets me wear Aidan on my front and still use my hands.  We have used it a TON this week and oh wow it has made a huge difference!  He hates his car seat, and since that's the part of the stroller he still has to sit in, well shopping and errands are tough.  He just sits in there and sweats and that makes him cranky and he loves to see what is going on which he can't do from his car seat.  Being able to carry him through stores and around church etc so he can see what's happening has been a huge help, and this carrier is SO comfortable and easy to use.  Highly recommend it if you're in the market for one!  His daddy even wore him around a church event last weekend for quite a bit!

**6**

I've rediscovered The West Wing this past week.  I need to watch something while I enter data for this new job, and so I threw on a dvd the other day.  I had forgotten how much I adore these characters and the amazing writing of this show--I'm looking to start at season 1 this summer and work my way through all 7 of them!  (I've still never seen anything beyond season 3!)

**7**

I've spent this week re-reading The Poisonwood Bible for our book club and am just over half way through.  I love this book.  So so much.  It makes me laugh, it makes me want to scream in frustration at the ignorance of one of the main characters, it is full of incredible imagery that makes one feel like they are walking through the Congo, and the characters are so fascinating to me.  I can't wait to discuss it with friends soon!

Week 37--the week of strange interactions!

Almost there! This little guy is going to be here before we know it, and I'm not so sure how I feel about that! Super excited to meet him and cuddle him, and a little terrified of the whole process of getting him out of me and into my arms if I'm honest! I am such a control freak, this whole not knowing when labor will start, or how it will go, or how long it will last is very stressful to a type A person like myself. But I know it's getting closer, I'm having little signs that this guy is going to be here soon--hopefully still not for another week and a half or so though! We've decided that the 13th would be the perfect date for him to show up based on a lot of factors...but we'll see how cooperative he decides to be!

Physically I'm still feeling pretty good for the most part--although I will say bones that I've never really felt before are super achey all of a sudden. Apparently as a hormone is released the bones in my hips/pelvis are relaxing and preparing for birth--which is an amazing concept, but I will say climbing out of bed, walking around, and sitting in various positions are becoming more challenging and uncomfortable. Combine that fact with the fact that my feet are also achey a lot more in the past week than they have been, and you get someone who feels like she's waddling and hobbling around more than walking! My feet thankfully aren't swollen, just really sore and most shoes aren't comfortable. I think it's probably due to my bones and muscles not being used to supporting and carrying around 30 extra pounds on a daily basis! My weekly email that I get telling me what I can expect to be happening with my body and baby that week has a list of signs that labor is relatively near ("relatively near" means anywhere from 2 days to 2 weeks) and I have almost all of the "symptoms" slowly beginning to emerge. I get hit with spurts of "nesting" energy and decide that I need to vacuum and do 6 loads of laundry and clean both bathrooms and pack my hospital bag RIGHT NOW (that was yesterday) followed by waves of total exhaustion (usually in the same day). I have literally started putting "nap time" in my calendar each day because I realized about 2 weeks ago that I was completely incapable of making it through a full day without laying down for awhile. It's almost like the first trimester again, where not napping is not an option. My parents and sister no longer call me between about 1 and 3 in the afternoon because they know that I will be asleep for part of that window of time. My problem though is that once I nap, I often can't fall asleep at night as well, or stay asleep. Part of this is due to how many times I now have to get up to find the bathroom each night, and part of this is because to stay in one position for too long puts too much weight and pressure on hips/knees and other joints in my body--but rolling over and changing positions requires repositioning several pillows. It's really almost a comical thing, to watch me try and sleep!

So I titled this post the week of strange interactions because it was a week of just random and sort of bizarre things happening. Last Monday I was at the grocery store and had just unloaded my groceries onto the conveyor belt when a man carrying only a loaf of bread walks up behind me. I was going to let him go ahead of me, but before I could make eye contact with him or say anything he walks past me and says "I only have 1 item, therefore I go in front of you" and hands his bread to the clerk before I could say anything. I was so flabbergasted I just kind of stood there thinking "um okay...." I almost started laughing, I've never had anyone so blatantly cut in front of me like that! Random interaction number 2 was on Thursday when I was at my OB's office. I had been chatting with a woman in the waiting room who had a 3 week old baby boy also named Aidan, and spelled "-an" like we chose to do. (Side note: the "American" spelling is "Aiden" which means our poor kid is going to have his name misspelled forever, but the Gaelic way of spelling Aidan--which is where the name comes from--is with an -an--so just remember, our little guy has 2 "a's" in his name and no "e" :)....but I digress. Anyway, we were chatting for just a few minutes before my name was called. She was still sitting there when I came out 15 minutes later and calls across the waiting room "so how many centimeters are you dilated??" Really? Thanks total stranger! In front of other total strangers! I just said "I'm not yet" and she gets this shocked look on her face and said "you're NOT? When I was at 37 weeks I was already at 2 centimeters!" My doctor was standing in the door way and just winked at me and mouthed "it's not a competition!" and I just looked at the lady and smiled and said "I'm really really okay with being at a 0 right now. I'd like him to stay put until the week of his due date so my parents can be here and I can have our baby shower that is planned for that week." Again, I just kind of shook my head...I don't think it would ever occur to me to call out to a total stranger to ask them how many centimeters they are dilating!

Other fun happenings of week 37 was that we went to go see Wicked on Tuesday night!! It was our Christmas gift to each other, and it was SO amazing. I'd seen it probably about 5 years ago with friends and loved it, but Charles had never seen it and had always wanted to. He loved the entire thing, and then after the show we had the opportunity to go back stage and on a tour of the "behind the scenes" at the Pantages theater. A gentleman from our church is a trumpet player in the orchestra there and he and Charles are in a weekly bible study together. He offered to take us around when he found out we would be there, and it was SO cool to see a little bit of how they put a show like this together. We got to walk out on the stage, see the inside of the orchestra pit, see the make up/wig/costume rooms and several other spaces. It was a fantastic evening, and we are so grateful to him for making that possible! (This isn't the best picture, but the one backstage picture we got to take was of the Wizard of Oz that is used in the show).

On Friday night we had the opportunity to serve our pastor and his wife at their 25th anniversary party. They needed someone to be there early to be the point person for last minute food set up/drink servers/water refillers etc while they and their guests were in the sanctuary for their vow renewal. We were honored to be asked and spent the evening arranging food, serving wine, lighting candles, getting music playing in the background, setting out desserts etc. It was a really intimate party, mostly their family and a few good friends, only a couple people from the church (their small group members I think) so it was fun to meet their daughters and other relatives and be there in the background observing their community celebrating them. We had them over for dinner tonight and had fun hearing their reflections on their party and continuing to get to know this incredible couple.

I know New Year's Eve was this weekend, but I have to say this year might go down in history as one of the more boring new year's we've had! We didn't do anything. Well, that's not true. I was craving cheese. That was ALL I wanted to eat. So I made cheese fondue for dinner (healthy, I know) and then we watched the 6th Harry Potter movie and were in bed by 11:30. Yup, we have an exciting social life!

That about covers it for week 37! Yesterday began week 38, so we'll see what this week brings! Next Sunday the church is throwing us a baby shower, so I'm hoping Aidan stays put until after that--I've been instructed by the ladies planning it to keep him in there until at least after 3:00 PM next Sunday. So I'll do my best! If you need to smile between now and then, my sister started posting on her blog again but instead of long posts she's doing "things heard from her 2 year old's mouth" and is keeping track of things Lily says. You will crack up, I promise, this kid has LOT of personality and talks a LOT! So check that out and let yourself have a good chuckle when you need one--it's kind of fun looking at the world through the eyes of a 2 year old--she sees things so differently than adults to that it's kind of awesome. Have a great first week of 2012 my friends!

Weeks 29, 30, 31 & 32...Baby Showers and Uhauls and Boxes Oh My!

Phew! We are done with travel until after this munchkin is born, thankfully! These past couple weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, full of seeing people I love so so much, but when I got off the plane yesterday here in Burbank my first thought was "no more. I'm done. I just want to stay in one place for at least a full month!" Here's a bit of what myself and our little guy have been up to these past few weeks that I've been ignoring the blog :)

In week 29 our little dude was weighing in at about 2 1/2 pounds (the weight of a butternut squash...perfect for fall...hmm, that sounds good even now...) His little skeleton is growing stronger as his bones are hardening even more and his lungs and muscles are continuing to mature getting ready for life in the real world. Week 29 kicked off with a Halloween party/welcome party that the youth group threw for us, which was a very fun way to start meeting high school students and leaders. Our little guy's first Halloween costume? A jack o lantern (hey I had to take advantage of the belly somehow!)

Also in week 29 I headed east to meet our newest little niece, Brooke, who of course managed to capture my heart in the first few minutes I held her! I had a great long weekend playing with Lily, hanging out with my sister and brother in law, and snuggling baby Brooke as much as I could! I'm not sure when I'm going to get to see them again, baby Brooke might not be as tiny of a baby by then!

Week 30 found our little one the weight of a head of cabbage--about 3 pounds and counting! (I'll be curious to find out how big he actually ends up being!) We mostly hung around Northridge this week, I was able to get our apartment paperwork finalized and we secured a move in date for the week of Thanksgiving. I spent the week arguing with the insurance company on the phone about my eligibility for coverage (they finally got everything straightened out but it took several days and more than one episode of hanging up the phone in tears to do so).

Sunday night of week 31 (the 13th) we flew up to Seattle to get things ready for the rest of our move (taking full advantage of Southwest's preboarding policy for pregnant people!) On Monday Charles and two guys we hired through Uhaul loaded everything we owned into a truck and then he and a friend of ours from Fuller drove the truck all the way down to LA pretty much in one long day (arriving about 3 AM). I stayed up in Seattle for the week with a good friend, and even got to take the train down to Portland to visit one of my best friends there for 2 nights. Saturday of that week my friends in Seattle threw me a baby shower which was fantastic, I am so so grateful to them! It made this whole baby thing feel even more real and immanent--knowing he's going to be using these fun things in not too long! Here are some fun photos from the party :)

The beautiful spread Missy & Heather created for us! Missy made the diaper cake (and then gave me all the newborn diapers--score!) and the delicious (pasteurized!) cheeses (the world's best is Trader Joe's Gouda/Goat Cheese combo. Seriously you have to try this someday), cupcakes and fruit made for a wonderful afternoon snack!Jen, Anu and Karen try to guess whose baby photo they are holding (they were all asked to bring one to the party--it was a lot harder than we expected!)Lynn & Darbee playing the baby photo game

Missy doesn't look like she minds holding Levi for awhile (Karen's super sweet little one!)

Aidan got some super cute outfits as well as several very generous gifts from our registry (that were mostly shipped here to LA which was very thoughtful of them!) This one was picked out just for Charles, it's a baby rash guard that says "I'd Rather Be Surfing" on it :)His first tuxedo :)

Everyone got to put in their prediction as to when he'd be born (date, time and weight), so if you'd like to join in the guessing feel free! I think the official Kennedy household guess is January 18th. (Our due date is the 15th, but the 18th was the first day of work at West Side for Charles, and I just feel like in God's great sense of humor our little man will arrive to book end the year for us--the biggest gift in the midst of the hardest year).

I flew back on Sunday morning, the beginning of week 32 for our little guy and finally on Monday I got to see my new OB. I didn't get a choice, I was just assigned someone through our insurance company, so I was a bit nervous about how I was going to like her, but I was extremely relieved that I did like her and her office staff. I think she's going to be really good, and is going to stay right on top of the rest of my prenatal care. I at least know what hospital I'll be delivering at, who to call in an emergency, and what doctor to expect to see! Knowing those things lowered my stress level immensely! It's been amusing to me how "textbook" my pregnancy has been. Every day I get an email from What to Expect When You're Expecting about what might occur that week, or what you might be experiencing. Almost all of it has been dead on. Heartburn? Check. Dry itchy skin? Check. Achy back? Yup (although moving could have something to do with that!). A little insomnia here and there? Unfortunately, but thankfully not much! Short of breath now that baby is pushing on my lungs? Definitely. None of this stuff is anything to really complain about, I am still super grateful for how easily things have gone, I just find it funny how I'll experience something and think "is this normal?" and literally have an email about it the next day. The only thing I've had to really say goodbye to this trimester has been caffeine. My heart couldn't handle even the small amount I was drinking each morning, so I cut that out based on "Nurse Dad's" recommendation and have noticed a huge improvement. Apparently caffeine, plus a history of heart issues, plus extra blood flowing through my body was a bit too much! I am not sure I even really miss it, and it's definitely worth it to feel a normal pulse again!

Tuesday of this week was finally moving day!! We had hired another couple guys through Uhaul (BEST money ever spent by the way!) to unload our truck into our apartment and then I've spent the rest of the week unpacking and organizing. My dad kept telling me "don't over do it, don't over do it!" and well, I think on Tuesday I overdid it a bit. I was so sore and exhausted by the end of the day I literally couldn't move, even to roll over in bed. So Wednesday I was a bit more careful and have been fine the rest of this week. We spent a lovely Thanksgiving meal with the family we've been with the past 3 years now--a family from the church we used to be at, and we are so grateful for their hospitality!

We got all signed up for our childbirth classes (every Thursday for the next 5 weeks), a basic infant care class, a breastfeeding class, and our doctor wants us to make sure to take an infant CPR class before he's born, so we'll be busy learning in the month of December! Charles had breakfast with a good friend of ours who just had their first baby a couple months ago, and he recommended a book to us that sounds great. Charles was excited to order it and tell me all about it, so we're looking forward to scanning that together too. Lots to learn, but we realize that most of our training will be on the job come January! (Still it's good to know a few things ahead of time!)

That's about it for now! Sunday begins week 33, which seems very crazy to me! We are looking forward to our first week in our new place, finishing the unpacking and getting settled into what will be our "normal" life here in Northridge. We are so grateful to be here and be settling in, and we look forward to what this last month of childlessness holds for us!