Stephen's Birthday!

Stephen turned 29 last week! It's officially his last year until he's 30. I tell him that to make him feel old, but it doesn't really work. :) I made him a Texas Sheet cake like he wanted, and does anybody recognize the sign I made from The Office? Dwight made it for Kelly's birthday when he was on the party planning committee. "It Is Your Birthday." Nice, huh?

We didn't do a whole lot for his birthday, because his main birthday present came a couple of weeks ago when we saw Lion King on the stage here in Seattle. It was AMAZING!!! I had seen it before, but Stephen hadn't. We had seriously awesome seats too, which just made the show even better. I always loved it, but it seemed even more spectacular to me this time! The costumes, dancing, and songs are just so incredible and I never wanted it to end.

We also went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse before the show for the first time. Talk about an amazing steak! It was pure perfection on a plate. So Stephen had a really awesome birthday, except that it was a couple weeks before his actual birthday. :)

Anyway. . . Happy Birthday Stephen! I love you so much!

Fun Giveaway!

If you have any little girls, you have got to go enter my friend Rachel's giveaway. She makes the cutest bows EVER, and whenever Kirsten wears one I get tons of compliments on it. It's always hard for me to decide which ones I want to buy, because they're all so cute! Her giveaway ends on April 8'th, and you can go here to enter.

22 Months Old Now!

Kirsten is 22 months old! It's getting to the point where we don't even count her age in months anymore. When people ask how old she is, we just say, "She's almost 2" or "She'll be 2 in May." She's such a funny girl! It's really fun to hear her repeat words we say, do animal noises, and to see the things she laughs at. And it's hard to believe she can already do so much!

Some of her favorite things right now are:
-Fruit snacks. She'll ask for "Snack!" and just keep repeating the word over and over until we get her one. Sometimes she'll accept other snacks, but fruit snacks are her current favorite. She also loves raisins.
-Counting to 10! She counts with us, or sometimes starts counting all on her own. It's so cute to hear her count!!!
-Ernie from Sesame Street. She asks for "Ernie" several times a day, and she usually wants to watch Play With Me Sesame instead of Sesame Street, since Ernie is a main character on that show. She still loves Elmo too, but I think Ernie has taken over as her favorite!
-Opening and shutting doors. She's been able to reach the doorknobs for awhile now and has figured out how to open and shut the doors really well, so she does it all the time.
-She has tons of new words she likes to say, but some of her favorites to say are Moon, Butterfly, Sunshine, Snack, All gone, and Go. She loves butterflies and loves to see the moon in the sky and point it out.
-Her favorite movie is still Mamma Mia, and she loves the songs from it.
-Pointing out body parts, especially facial features. She knows how to point out eyes, ears, mouth, nose, chin, cheeks, arm, hand, and foot.

Things she absolutely hates:
-Nursery. Oh gosh, she despises it! Stephen stays in there with her too and tries to get her to play and have a good time, and even when he's there she still cries, whines, and begs to "Go!" This hate is probably closely related to the next one. .
-Other little kids. They scare her to death! Even little kids she's familiar with and knows really well make her turn into a weepy, clingy little girl. Anytime they cry or whine or make any loud sounds at all, she freaks out. It's hard to handle and I hope she grows out of it soon! I've never seen a toddler so afraid of other young kids.
-Getting her hair brushed/combed/touched at all = Torture. This has never changed. Especially when we comb her wet hair after a bath, she cries like she's being killed!
-Sitting still. It's been hard to get good pictures of her, because she won't stop moving or look at the camera long enough!

Thankfully. . . her weeks of bad sleep that she had a month ago have passed, and she's been sleeping really great again. YAY!!! She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8, and sleeps until at least 8 the next morning. I am very thankful for this! I love my good little sleeper! We still don't know what caused that bad month of sleep. . . maybe she was teething or having nightmares? I guess we'll never know for sure.

She thought it was SO fun to climb into the laundry basket a few weeks ago.

It's been difficult to take her places lately since she's so freaked out by other kids, but we did have a good time at the Imagine Children's Museum the other week with our friends Miranda and Saide. They had lots of fun in the water play area!

Kirsten is such a sweet, happy girl and I really do have such a fun time with her! It's so hard to believe she'll be 2 years old soon!

I Ordered My Double!

I decided on the Valco Twin Latitude stroller, and it's on its way to me right now! I even found it on sale for $80 off and the shipping was free. Score!!!

So now I'm excited for it to arrive so I can set it up and figure out how it all works. I hope it's as great as the reviews say it is. It definitely seemed like the best option to fit everything I wanted in a double stroller.

It feels nice to be checking things off my checklist of things to do before the baby arrives. Double stroller. . . check!

Decisions, Decisions!

I think we've narrowed down our name choices for our second baby girl to two names. We really like them both, so I'm sure we won't decide until right after she's born and we can see which name seems to fit her better. But I'd love some opinions! Our new baby will be. . . .

Natalie Joy

or

Brynnley Kathleen

Which do you like better? Neither are family names, except that Kathleen is my middle name and my mom's first name. Natalie was our second choice name for Kirsten, but we obviously went with Kirsten instead. Brynnley would be called Brynn for short, if we decide on that one. I'm not going to say that whichever name gets the most votes will win or anything like that, but I'd love to hear what everyone thinks! So please comment!

The Top 10 Late Pregnancy Lifesavers!

One month left! Now that I am way into my third trimester, I thought this edition of Tuesday Top 10 should be about the top 10 things I cannot live without right now! These things literally do save my life. . .

1. Tums Smoothies- I think regular Tums are so gross and taste just like chalk, so I was thrilled to discover that the Tums Smoothies taste like candy! And they work so well too. I take them before bed so I don't get leg cramps or heartburn during the night. I used to take 2 before bed, but then I had bad leg cramps one night, so now I take 4!
2. A great husband! Every very pregnant girl needs somebody to bring them stuff when they already got all settled into a chair or couch and then realize they forgot something. He brings me ice water refills, chapstick, ice cream. . . you name it!
3. A body pillow. I sleep with one of these between my legs every night and it definitely helps to relieve lower back pain.
4. A DVR with a great line-up of shows to watch! My favorites right now are American Idol, Survivor, and Amazing Race.
5. Really comfy drawstring pants and pajama pants. Gosh, I wish I could get away with wearing these things everywhere! Maternity pants are just so uncomfortable.
6. A fridge with ice and water dispensers in the door! It makes it so much easier to refill my water cup a ton of times a day.
7. Chocolate. Of all kinds!
8. Flip-flops! My feet thankfully aren't too puffy and I can still fit into all my regular shoes, but flip-flops are by far the comfiest.
9. A great recliner chair! I love sinking into our chair at the end of the day and not getting out for awhile. Kirsten even loved this chair when she was really little!
10. A due date in the spring. I've never had a due date at any other time (Kirsten was born in May, and this baby will be born in April), but I'm convinced it's the perfect time. I'm not pregnant in extreme heat, and I'm not slipping along on wintry roads towards the end of my pregnancy either.

Shoes!!!

Aren't these gorgeous shoes? They're by Michael Kors and I saw them online for a really good deal. I told Stephen I want them in my Easter basket. . . or as an I-just-had-a-baby present. . . or whatever. I just want them!!!!

I do NOT look forward to having a post-pregnancy body again, with the deflated tire around my waist. . . ugh! But I do look forward to being able to wear hot shoes again without falling over! I'm way too unbalanced to wear them now!

When Adventures Have Glitches. . .

You just have to grin and bear it! Or at least bear it. I'll admit, I wasn't grinning too much during my ordeal last Saturday that turned what should have been a 3-hour trip from Seattle to Victoria into an 8-hour trip!!!

Me and my awesome friend Miranda thought we'd have a nice little relaxing weekend getaway, so we booked tickets on the Victoria Clipper. It sounded so easy. . . catch the 8 am boat from Seattle, read a book for a couple hours, and arrive in Victoria on Vancouver Island by 10:45. Miranda's trip did go that smoothly, because she went on Friday. She was going to spend one day there by herself and I would be joining her on Saturday.

Saturday dawned. . . rainy, windy, and cold. I drove to the ferry terminal through sheets of rain, stood in the long line to check in for the boat, and then found out that because of heavy winds they had canceled the sailing. My choices were. . .

1. Cancel for a full refund, leaving Miranda there all by herself until Sunday
or
2. Take a bus north over the Canadian border, then take a different ferry to Victoria. The lady said it would add an hour and a half to two hours to the overall trip length.

So I waited for the bus, got on it, and my gosh, it seriously took all day to get there. I don't know what that lady was thinking, because it added five hours to my total trip length! The bus ride alone was three hours, not including the time it took to get everyone off the bus at the border, put our luggage through a scanning device, and be asked lots of ridiculous questions by the border patrol. When we arrived at the ferry terminal at 11:30, the next ferry didn't leave until 1:00. So of course we had to wait around for that, and then the ferry ride was another two hours, with another half an hour in the bus on Vancouver Island until we finally got to Victoria. I didn't get there until almost 4 in the afternoon! I was ready to pull my hair out!

I took this picture from the ferry, going between some of the islands. It was hard to get a good picture through the dirty windows, but it really did look pretty!

Miranda was really glad to see me, and I had exactly 24 hours to relax and have a good time in Victoria. The city was very pretty! Here we are in front of the city's Fairmont Empress Hotel, right on the water. We stayed at a Best Western, but it would be cool to stay at this hotel someday!

Here's some beautiful architecture, mixed in with a Pacific Northwest totem pole. We mostly walked around the harbor and went in lots of shops. It was so fun being with someone who wanted to browse through shops with me, because Stephen never would have gone for that!

Despite my long ordeal, I'm really glad I got to go and I had a great time with Miranda. Thankfully, Sunday was clear and sunny and we had no problem getting home the regular way, on the 3-hour boat. It was nice! Here's the view of the harbor from our boat.

The boat seats reminded me so much of airplane seats, it was kinda funny. It was nice to have some girl time, and now I can add Canada to my list of countries I've traveled to!

"Ho Ho Ho!"

Kirsten made me laugh so hard today! I was watching American Idol with her (she loves that show!). On the little video blurb about each contestant's life, we saw Alexis Grace's dad, who is really large and looks like an old hippie with long, flowing blonde hair. He doesn't have a beard, but Kirsten apparently saw some resemblance to Santa Clause because she said "Ho ho ho!" I busted up laughing! Kirsten was so delighted that she made me laugh that she kept saying "Ho ho" for the rest of the afternoon. She is a funny girl, that's for sure!

Now I'm just waiting for the day when she'll say "Ho ho ho" to a real person who she thinks looks like Santa. I would die!

It's been tough to get pictures of Kirsten lately, because she won't smile for a camera or sit still long enough to pose anymore. But here are a few we got at the Seattle Aquarium with her a couple of weeks ago:

She's such a little monkey. She climbs all over everything!

Another Kirsten crack-me-up phrase is this one: "Oh gross!" She picked that up from me, when I change her worst diapers. Now she says it for me!

Her talking has really taken off lately. She's been repeating tons of new words, and it's really fun!

A Fabulous Friday!

*Friday just couldn't come soon enough this week! Anybody agree with me?

*Tomorrow morning, I get to take a three-hour ferry ride to Victoria, on Vancouver Island in Canada with my friend Miranda! I'm really excited. I'll only get to stay there one night, and we will come back on Sunday. She wanted a girl's weekend getaway without kids and asked me if I wanted to come along, so of course I said yes! Have I ever turned down an adventure?! I don't think so! It's supposed to be rainy and cloudy there this weekend, and since we don't have a car there I'm sure we won't get to do much in the way of sightseeing. But it'll be a nice little relaxing trip for sure, and I'm excited to go to Canada for the first time ever!

It looks like such a beautiful city! I can't wait to see it!

*Stephen is totally awesome enough to watch Kirsten by himself all day Saturday and Sunday. I love you honey!!!

*I am at that stage in pregnancy where I am big, awkward, and completely ungraceful. Rolling out of bed in the morning (and during the night to use the bathroom of course) takes about five minutes, and my pelvis hurts as soon as I stand up. I miss being able to get around quickly and do things fast! On the other hand. . . it's nice to not feel guilty for eating large amounts of Easter candy. I love Dove chocolate eggs and Cadbury mini eggs! Is Easter even in March this year? Or April???

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday!!!

My Thoughts On the Bachelor Finale

Okay, so I was hoping that Jason would pick Melissa. He did, and we all got to see the happy little moment with the whole family in the pool and everyone smiling and optimistic. I found myself getting all optimistic too, hoping they would really be happy together. However, I knew something weird was going to go down because of all the hype about the 'After the Final Rose' private show. Sure enough, the drama all came out. . . Jason decided to break up with Melissa because they "weren't right for each other" and he wanted to give it a shot with Molly instead.

Wow. It most definitely was dramatic. As I watched, I felt really bad for Melissa and just confused that Jason could do something like that to someone he said he was completely in love with just a few weeks before. However, it's hard for me to know who to side with just because we don't know everything that's happened between the two shows. Maybe he found out something about Melissa that she had been hiding, maybe it had something to do with her family, and it could have been a very valid reason for him to break up with her. I wish we knew the REAL reason, but he probably didn't want it to get all over the media out of respect for Melissa. So, who knows??? If he really did just "change his mind" then I do think he's a jerk and doesn't deserve to be happy with Molly either. But if there's a good reason, then maybe he was right to break things off with Melissa now rather than later. I wish we knew the whole truth!

I really want to hear what other people think of this too! If you watched it, please leave a comment!

It's March!

Wow, it's March already! Now it sounds like it's just really close when people ask when I'm due and I say April 18'th. It won't be long now! That's exciting and scary, both. The baby is moving and kicking a whole lot now, and I can feel her getting more and more squished in there. I'm feeling really good though!

These pictures make me so excited for SUMMER to be here:

These are from August of last year, at a really fun picnic Stephen's work had at a lake. Looking at them reminds me of how gorgeous the summers are here, and how excited I am for another one! Can't we just skip spring and go straight to summer???

Here's another picture from last year that reminds me of summertime. I took Kirsten to the park several times a week, and she loved it so much!

Are you excited for summer too? Or do you love spring?