Monday, November 8, 2010

some updates

The past few weeks have been pretty chill (sans Halloween). Addie and I both got colds and stayed in quite a bit. Mine decided to last for 2 weeks and counting. I'm hoping someday I'll stop coughing. Anyway, here's a recap of what we've all been doing.

Jed: Oh, what no pictures? That's because he's been very busy with work and the poor guy hasn't had much time for fun. Of course since last week was beautiful, he was stuck working in his office all day. He has the week off from work this week so he's putting up Christmas lights on houses for Plutonium. Yes, in this rain and freezing temperatures today. Tomorrow's looking sunny....I hope so! So proud of all he's doing and how hard he works for us.

Baby Boy: We had a doctor appointment last week and he's looking good and healthy and right on track. It's crazy to think that I'm now halfway there! Just over 20 weeks now. He's about 3/4 of a pound and moving around more and more...which I LOVE. He moves the most when I lay down on my back. Halloween night, when I got into bed he started going crazy....I think that even he was on a sugar high!

Me: Well, I've been getting my sewing on. If you know me well, you read that last sentence and said what the what?! I've really never sewed anything, unless you count the star shaped pillow from 8th grade. It started out with making some fabric flower bows for Addie to match skirts that Whit made her. I then decided to make some headbands and put some flowers I'd made on them for me and my sister in law. I think they turned out pretty cute. Go me.

Then! If you're not totally impressed with headbands, I decided that I was going to make Addie's bedding for her new room. (I SWEAR it wasn't some crazed pregnancy hormone that made me temporarily insane)
I'd never ever ever attempt a project like this on my own, but Dawn my mother in law happens to be an amazing seamstress and offered to help me :) I'm loving how it's turned out so far! I found some super fun fabrics that just screamed Addie to me. I did ALL the sewing on the front of the quilt and now the front is all done- yay!!
Here's a closer up picture that shows the fabrics a little better
don't look too close, I'm sure there are flaws :)
Now we're doing all the hand stitching on the quilt, which will probably take awhile. If you've never done this before, here's what's going to happen. See ever line and square on this baby? Well we're stitching around each of them by hand....yes, it's a process. Thanks SO much Dawn for your help!

I've also been cooking and baking...which isn't that new. I really have started enjoying cooking more and more, rather than only baking. I didn't allow myself to bake last week due to the amount of candy in the house....but I caved Saturday night and made cookies ;)

A couple weekends ago, I channeled my inner Alton Brown and attempted a cheese souffle.
 
I thought it looked kind of pretty....and it was delicious! Oh I also made apple cider donut holes that night. I didn't take a picture, they weren't that pretty and they were only okay. I wanted them to be better than they were. Jed's wassail was off the hook though, so that's good. 
 
Oh and of course, I've been entertaining this funny little girl too.
 

Addison: This girl keeps us on our toes and definitely keeps us laughing! She's been going back and forth for awhile on naps and last week I decided that it wasn't worth them anymore because it's too hard to get her to bed at night when she has them....well, now if I leave the house past 2pm this happens....
I didn't take into consideration the daylight savings issue when I made this decision. So now we may be napping again, because ummm 5:45am is EARLY. That makes the day very long to keep her happy AND awake till 7:30-8pm. Today she fell asleep in the car while my mom and I were shopping and even stayed asleep when I took her inside in the cart for a half hour. Go figure right?

Never a dull moment with her. She has genes from both Jed and I for memorizing songs and movie lines and I came across this sweet scene the other day and asked what she was doing. She'd gathered my comforter, laid her baby on it and covered her up. Naturally I assumed she was putting her baby doll to sleep....um, nope. Her response?

"I'm doing what Luke Skywalker does to Vader" she then proceeds to act as if she's removing a helmet from the baby doll and tells the baby "I don't want to leave you....come with me"
Yep, my sweet little girl is reinacting Darth Vader's death scene from Star Wars.
Seriously??? I told Jed I'd assumed he skips stuff like death and what not. Nope- he doesn't!
She isn't all Star Wars though....still very much into princesses and Hairspray. She quotes and sings from shows on a daily basis. She's started to do different dances of Hairspray even. When she watches it she tries to do the coreography. It's hilarious when she does Seaweed's dance. I'm still trying to get a good recording of it.
Friday, she asked me for an apple, and specified a red apple. I gave it to her and should have seen this one coming....
She took a bite, then fell to the floor and said she was Snow White.

She seriously keeps my laughing all day, which is very good because she can be quite the stinker sometimes. She's a defiant little thing and I'm a little scared for when she's sixteen. She knows what she wants and doesn't take no for an answer very well. I just hope and pray that she applies that in a positive way as she grows up.

She can also be very sweet. She's very aware of those around her and is always concerned if someone is upset or hurt. She's constantly asking if she can kiss owies of mine better and giving me loves when I don't feel well. She'll even be a little mommy to me and say, "Do you not feel very well? I'm so sorry, that's not fun. Maybe you need ____ to make you feel better". She even shares her Yoda bandaids with me.

She's going to be a very good big sister.

That about sums up what's up with our little family. We're all pretty happy and healthy. Despite a few pregnancy discomforts I'm grateful that we've got another little one on the way and for all that we're blessed with. I haven't been doing any "30 days of Thanksgiving" or anything- I'm being a little bit blog lazy, but I am thankful for many, many things every day.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween!

Seems like each year every holiday gets busier. Halloween was no different.There were parties, treats and fun had by all. As you'll see from the amount of photos, our day, well days were busy and fun-filled. First, we had to prepare by acquiring some pumpkins.

 We went to a house near ours that has pumpkins out front.
Now whenever we drive by I hear "that's where we got pumpkins!"
 Me, my pumpkin, and my lil punkin' in my belly at 19 weeks
 She really thought she could pick that up.

Next, was the carving...which I always forget how long/messy it is to do.
Fun though.

you want her boots don't you?? I know that I do....)

 We're not that advanced. Pumpkins as Addie named them.
"Daddy's work, a scary ghost and a guy!"
(Jed's Plutonium logo, a ghost face and a skull-type face that was on her pail she asked me to do)

Friday, I got Addie dressed up in her Princess Aurora costume
 Which she appropriately posed in for me :)
I took her to Jed's office and she literally filled her trick-or-treat pail to the top!
I figured at that point, "real" trick-or-treating was just a formality. She also got treats from both her Grammies at their offices too.

Jed took Addie to our ward party that night while I stayed home. I've been sick for a week now with a cold and I felt horrible on Friday. I decided to sit out the ward party in hopes that it would help me be more able to party with my princess on Saturday.

Saturday, we had a Halloween party at my mom's house with Addie's cousins.
 Princess Aurora & Snow White
When I put on my dress Addie got SO excited! She immediately said we needed to twirl. When I told her we needed to grab mommy's shoes to go, she said "um you're not mommy, you're Snow White." I love her.
It helped me be happy I didn't sell out and stay home.

 Grammy Rees the butterfly and Addie
 My cute mom, cute daughter and me

This picture was too funny to not post. As soon as I tried to take a picture of Deacon,
Addie ran over and put her arm around him and wanted to pose together....he wasn't a fan.
"Seriously, why is this girl always all over me??"

Ever try taking a picture of 4 toddlers and 3 babies?
 
 I was laughing so hard at the madness....
 Never did get a good one....ah well. They were all cute.

 Monkey Nixon being held by banana Chad. Ha, I found it funny.

My mom hid little pumpkins full of treats outside, much like an Easter egg hunt.
The kids thought that was a lot of fun.
 Then they ran around for awhile, working off a titch of the sugar.

Later that evening, we went up to Grammy Dawn and Papa Steve's house for another party (yep)
and Addie found her nemesis....Ashley Malificent!
 Addie was so excited yet a little scared I think haha.
She assured me at one point "She's still Ashy"
She had been talking about Ashy being Malificent for weeks and demanded they play one of her favorite games..."Precious Princess"
 She's so funny. She frequently will hide her baby dolls under blankets, then pull it off and say
"Well...here's your precious princess!" just like Malificent. It's uncanny really ;)
 Whitney and her cute little monster Tristan. Isn't his costume adorable?
She was a witch, but I think Addie had stolen her hat by this point.

 Baby Emmett the vampire...I want to eat those cheeks.

After trick-or-treating to about 5 houses on the street, Addie was done. Perfect for me.
Then she put on everyone else's costume's  accessories.
 Witch/princess?
Addie Malificent!

She got extremely wired and literally ran circles till 10pm. Hey, that's what Halloween is about right? Hope everyone had a good Halloween!

ps- I'm totally eating her candy right now....

Monday, October 18, 2010

A happy happy birthday, well birthday week

First off- I want to say thanks so much for all the congratulations on our upcoming baby boy. We're so excited to have a little brother for Addie and it means the world to us to have love and support from our friends and family. It was a fun way to start of the birthday celebrating! Although you don't see an actual "birthday cake" you'll see that I got plenty of birthday treats...and food....and I only took pictures of half of it. I'd blame pregnancy, but we all know this isn't abnormal. Celebrating=Food :) Funny, because I've really been unable to eat very much at once or I get sick. Don't worry, I just force fed myself anyway.

The same day we found out our baby is a boy, Ashley came into town for some playing. 
Addie got some good Aunt Ashy time in and then we ditched her with her daddy ;)

Whit, Ash and I went up to Park City last Friday night until Saturday afternoon for some food, shopping, and girl-getaway time.
Loved it. Love my sisters! 

Sunday we went to sweet baby Emmett's blessing.
 I know. You want to squeeze him huh??

Monday was Columbus day...which um means nothing really, except that it's a bank holiday-score!!
Jed had the day off to play with me and Addie and celebrate my birthday with my dad and brothers.
 We went to lunch at Faustina and had yummy food (which we ate before I took a picture)
 and this delicious dessert! YUM. Vanilla chiffon roulade cake with vanilla mouse.
Topped with Strawberries.

Tuesday, my actual birthday,
My mom treated me to some of my favorite food for lunch at Temari.
Then she even got me a birthday cupcake :)
 Boston Cream Pie cupcake.

Jed took me to dinner that night....well more like appetizers and dessert.
I really can't eat much at once, it's kind of sad. I still made myself sick, but it was so good.
 Hummus platter from Roosters
 Asparagus & Prosciutto pizza....we split it in half...then I only could eat half.

Had to save a little room for dessert.
Caramel Bread Pudding from Union Grill
Yes, this means I'm high maintenance enough to get dinner and dessert from two different restaurants.

Do you like how I have no pictures of me and Jed together on my birthday, or with Addie, but somehow there are 6 photos of food in this post? I kept on celebrating the whole week through with shopping with my mom and dinner with the in-laws. Thanks everyone who celebrated with me and wished my a happy birthday!

As far as my pregnancy goes, I'm almost 19 weeks along and feeling, well pregnant. I've been a little more sick this time, but things are going well and our baby is growing and healthy so that's all we can ask for! I'm starting to feel him moving around in there more and I love that. I'm grateful that so far we're both healthy and doing well. Can't believe we're nearly halfway there!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Happy Birthday, Friend!

Dear blogging world, 

       Today is Jenny's birthday.  Generally this would mean me and Jen out at a restaurant consuming our weight in calories.  But since that's not happening today, I am making caramel apples in Jenny's honor.  She'll probably never allow her husband to tell me their password again so I better make sure I get this out:  Jenny is an amazing friend and I'm very grateful for her.  She helped lift me during some pretty horrid times, and gave me very specific guidance which I know couldn't have come from any other source.  Glad our husbands decided to be best friends in high school and randomly had a college class together to 'rekindle' their broship, kinda worked to our advantage.  From our beginnings embracing our "Friends" addiction to it's full extent with couples TV night, living in 5 different cities combined, SLC trips, to enjoying having kids a few months apart, and LOTS of calories....it's been a fun 9 years my friend!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! You're the best!
Much love from all the freakin way across the country,

Lori

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Babies, Blessings, and Birthdays

This post is way overdue....this all took place weeks ago, but I've been a slacker. Cute baby Nixon got blessed a couple of Sundays ago. Addie loved playing with all her cousins and I sure love all my chubby baby nephews! We also celebrated Tristan's first birthday last weekend. First birthdays are so fun and he was adorable. We actually had a lot of birthdays that week in our family. Jed's brother Dustin's and we also celebrated Deacon's and Melissa's as well (didn't bring my camera though, lame). So here are a bunch of pictures of all these events, in somewhat particular order.

 Grandma and Grandpa Rees with Evan and Trace
 Addie loves giving all the babies loves
 Nixon, Evan, and Trace
 What cute nephews we have!

 Oh and amidst all of this, I had a surprise visit from my cute friend Lori!
Amanda came over for a play date/caramel apple making day and told me she'd given a homeless person a ride. I was like, "um...okaaay" then she said, "Yah, and they're with me" and out came Lori!
I was speechless. You all know how RARE that is ;)

 Tristan's Birthday Party


Me getting cuddles from Addie, Emmett and Tristan.
I sure love my little girl and all my cute nephews!!



If you didn't think we had enough little boys running around.....
We're adding one more to the bunch!
That's right! Addie is going to have a baby brother arriving the end of March!!