Cowboy Up!

When I was about 12 weeks pregnant, my friend Sofia presented me with these cutest little adornments for tiny feet you've ever seen. She sure whet my whistle for a baby boy. Well, all that priming led to sheer joy as our ultrasound indicated these booties will be warming the feet of a little boy come October! Yahoo, ride 'em cowboy!

Pretending Summer

It's "spring" here in Oregon. I guess you can call a high of 40 degrees and drizzling/pouring rain "spring." So we pretend summer sometimes, as pictured above.

Kate's been on a popsicle kick lately, with basically no treats in her diet, homemade popsicles are the perfect thing to satisfy a sweet tooth. Her favorite flavor? Ryan's frozen smoothie concoction of carrot, orange, and soy milk. She loved them! I didn't love them. But I ate them!

A little Update a little backwards

While filtering through pictures I found some from April I would love to share. I would love to share them even more if I had been showered and made up for all of them, but we have to be flexible right? Anyway here's looking back at April!

Ryan put the "b" in birthday this year surprising me with my favorite bran muffins in bed. Kate got up and"helped" (see pics below) and then delivered the muffin mans (she calls all muffins, cupcakes, etc muffin mans b/c of the song) to me. I went to lunch with Audrey, the other April 9th girl, at Pizzeria 712. Mmm, the braised beef is yummy there. Ryan and I had a fab dinner at "Gloria's Little Italy" complete with peach italian sodas.

I think better than being served with awesome surprises all day, was how excited Kate was to celebrate this birthday. She gave me somewhere around 20 hugs and so many kisses and sang happy birthday all day, even the next day too. I'm so looking forward to her birthday this year when I can return the favor.

Instead of looking at these moments as large messes, I like to think that Kate's just a "great helper in training." Helping is totally her intention anyway.

Easter Chick

Easter bunny got a killer deal on this new dress. Isn't she darling?

Our Easter bunny was huge this year and left an easter chair instead of basket, kate's a lucky ducky.

Loved this pose, Kate was workin that camera.

Baby Shower

I was really lame and don't have any more pictures of the most un-lame baby shower that my friends Alli and Laura threw for me. This was the invite that went out, everything was as cute as this and cuter. We just chilled with a bunch of friends, ate yummy food and talked about being pregnant, giving birth, etc. It was a wonderful afternoon. Thank you to Alli and Laura!

Updates continued : Ward Easter Party

Human Foosball. After losing the chili cook-off, Ryan came back by scoring all but one of the six goals in this game. He did score on this shot!
Then Kate tried her hand at the game. Although not the scoring fiend like her dad, what she didn't have in points she made up for in tenacity and sheer cuteness.
Kate ingested all the equivalent of all the sugar she'd eaten in her entire life in this one easter egg hunt. In this case, I think a more appropriate name would be easter egg gather. The rate at which she emptied eggs and consumed the contents was hilarious, and a little worrisome as I thought about the effects sure to come later that evening.

Westward, ho!

So we made the move. From Utahns to Oregonians. From BYU students to how-to-survive-endless-rain students, if you've ever visited or even heard of the Northwest, you know what I mean. From more money going out than coming in, to the other way around (YAHOO!! well, maybe next month.) From late nights cramming for test to late nights organizing closets, drawers, the garage, and bookshelves in a place 3x the size of any residence we've ever inhabited.

I always anitcipated that with college graduation would come the feeling of a destination reached. But it was surprisingly not so. With each milestone (marriage, baby, job, etc.) I get the increasingly clear impression that each of these markers, although momentous, are not desinations or even resting points. Life is one large transition and progression. Being the to-do list kind of girl I am, frustration often sets in when destinations are reached but I cannot check things off my list. Example: as college is finished I cannot say , "Done learning, check." Or when Kate finally slept through the night, can't say "Done using patience, check." But, also hailing from the worlds most optimistic gene pool (my family are some of the most sunny people I know) I also see that this is a wonderful way to keep things interesting. Growing and learning never ever stops, hallejuah. If the measuring stick of patience were held above my head now, I would seriously come up short as in so many other areas. So here we come, new segment of life, ready to keep on truckin.