SO ready!

i am ready to have this baby! i have about a week and a half to go, but tomorrow would be okay too. none of my shoes, except for flip flops, fit me, my rings are getting a little too tight, and even my maternity pants have been outgrown. i even took a little tumble yesterday because of all this extra weight in weird places! i scraped my knee up a bit, and my dignity also took quite a beating, but, luckily, my wonderful husband yanked me up by the arm just before i fell "flat" on my belly. thanks, honey!

right now, the baby is still semi-nameless. we thought he would be Leo, but now we're not too sure. we have a few names in mind, but we're gonna keep it on the down-LOW until he's born. then you'll all just have to pretend you love it! for the moment, he's "Scooter". i had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and Scooter is in the heads down position- perfect for scootin' on out any day now!

c'mon, baby! your mom is tired of looking like this:

fun things for baby

i know i should be focusing on purchases for my baby that are practical and, well, actually necessary. but then i come across stuff like this and suddenly there is the voice in my head that says, "it will be mine. oh yes....it will be mine." or something along those lines, anyway. so naturally i must listen to the voice, right?


these mobiles are so beautiful and so adorable at the same time. i would take any of them or any by Flensted, the Danish company that makes them.






i love these knitted fruit rattles. so cute. so expensive. what more could you want for your baby?!


there are a lot of cute baby things at Etsy.com that are doable in terms of expense, though. i love these bibs. the girl who makes them picks the cutest prints and they're covered in plastic so they wipe clean. (check out evelynkate at etsy)



okay, toddler-sized converse. c'mon. absolutely necessary. i promise, however, that i won't buy any until he is actually walking.


does it seem like i'm the one who actually needs this stuff and not the baby?

MAUI, baby!!!

my sister, sara, got married to her man travis mcroberts this month!! she was kind enough to settle on Maui for the wedding and we all, of course, were obliged to be in attendance. yes, it's getting somewhat warmer here on the "mainland" now that it's almost spring, but there's nothing like getting away from provo for a week to a tropical paradise. (i make it sound like i do this all the time, right? wrong.)

well, everything went swimmingly! the condo where we stayed in Kihei was awesome, with a swimming pool and hot tub practically right outside the front door! sara's wedding was perfect with virtually no mishaps or freak-outs or voices being lost* (*see emily sessions' wedding day). and we all got to do fun things like snorkel and whale watch, etc. so fun!

as always, here are some pics for a better idea...

there are a TON of fun creepy crawlies in maui, and i, of course, wanted to take them all home. logan caught this little guy after the wedding. it took a while, and that lizard was not happy to be photographed, but logan, as you can see, was thrilled!


there were lots of giant snails outside our condo with very interesting shells. snails were an emily favorite back when i was about 5.


logan also caught this fatty toad for me at our condo. i probably would have been able to grab him but this 6 1/2 month belly slows me down. the toad proceeded to pee pee in my hands after logan handed him over. i think he liked me...


here i am at the wedding. just gettin' a little loosened up, y'know?


the gorgeous bride and groom, during their photo session after the ceremony. looks like this came out of a magazine, no?


logan and me at the luncheon. you really can't go anywhere in maui without there being a beautiful view!

me and my sis, laura before the torture of sliding into the freezing water. once you're in, it's great! but even sticking your big toe in was pretty painful. i seem to remember my dad making some comment while we were swimming like, "hey guys, right around me is reeeeally waaaarrmmm...." uuuh, what does that mean, dad? also, the photos get much more embarrassing than this. for all of your sakes, i decided to stick with the ones of me that remain from the neck up.


just logan and me, enjoying the beach.


i have a ton more pics that i could post. but based on these few, the moral of the story is that maui is fun!! MAHALO! (we said this a lot as a joke to look even more like the tourists that we obviously were.)

ultrasound

this week was our long-awaited ultrasound. for some reason i was really nervous when we got there. it was that feeling like you're about to meet someone really important for the first time and you have no idea what to say! the ultrasound tech was obviously seasoned in her profession and got right down to business. we just tried to keep up! she was like, "okay, here's this and we gotta check this for that and this looks good and it looks like this, that, and the other....". she went too fast! i just tried to ask as many stupid questions as possible to slow her down a little. and then she took a few photos of our little guy. i have to say, it looks like he's going to be veeerry handsome....what?? have a look for yourself!

here he is in a most pensive state. he's quite an intellectual. i'm surprised the ultrasound didn't pick up his wire-rimmed glasses and copy of Thoreau's "Walden".

here's his face looking a little extra-terrestrial. still cute, though!


a tiny little foot!


and we can't forget the money shot. this is what we all wait for during ultrasounds. besides hearing "everything looks healthy", we just wanna get a quick peek down there, right? and i don't think there can be any mistaking that this guy is a guy.


it's all so exciting! i wish i could see him right now, and not deal with 4 more months of awesome pregnancy. i can wait, though.

lemon meringue pie

i know, i know. two posts in, like, the same half hour. impossible, right?! well, this is just a quick one to show you my beautiful lemon meringue pie that i made tonight. it's so good looking and tasted even better, guys. the recipe was from the america's test kitchen cookbook, so if you need the recipe, i can certainly email it to you.


i don't bake often, and this pie is pretty involved. so the fact that it turned out so well was pretty exciting and i kind of impressed myself. it was worth the blog!

for the unbelievers

a few individuals who haven't seen me in a while are refusing to believe that i have gained any weight or that my 20 week belly exists as i have described it. well, have a look at this:


yeah, i know. not very flattering. i always feel a little forced to take "belly" pictures. i know it's important to document my growth if i ever wanted to show my children or if i just want to look back upon it in the future. but c'mon. who wants to take pictures when you just don't quite feel you're looking your best. so i'm like, "c'mon logan, take a picture of me while I show how big i look and force a smile for the camera."

to be honest, i actually like my belly. it can be cute. it's not quite at that point where i'm so big people are wondering how many babies are actually in there. and it's not so heavy that my back is killing me yet. it's just the other "areas" of my body that are getting bigger along with it that bothers me. no need to be any more detailed...just make your assumptions.

i'm no model

my lovely friend adrienne began a jewelry line called Phylum Kingdom recently and somehow decided that my goofy face was worthy of modeling her beautiful creations. we spent last saturday together with a couple of photographers, both in the Bean Museum (taxidermy galore; it was fabulous) and a BYU photography studio. i think it turned out pretty cool, for adrienne's purposes, at least. it took me a while, however, to figure out that just staring at the camera expressionless makes me look tired and zombie-ish. you gotta lift those eyebrows and give the camera a "coy" half-smile, as adrienne coached.

here are some of the decent ones. check out the rest here http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6346656 at adrienne's etsy shop, and don't hesitate to make a few purchases at the same time!





i have a newly found respect for models in general and for all those nerds on America's Next Top Model. it's hard work. plus, you always gotta worry that they're shooting you on your good side. am i right?