Las Vegas

Jared had a business trip in Las Vegas a few weeks ago so we dumped our kids onto some very nice friends and I flew to Vegas to meet him on Valentine's Day. Up until that point the week had been stressful and emotional for me (I'm sure being pregnant had nothing to do with it). So by the time Thursday rolled around, I was ready for a break. The flight was great: I got to read my book, I didn't get barfed on, peed on or have to deal with diarrhea the whole time, though I was wishing I had brought some wipes.

Jared greeted me at the airport with flowers and the best box of chocolate cherry cookies. We went shopping for a bit, got reservations for dinner and then went to the Wynn where we sat on this balcony overlooking a pond with a water wall surrounded by trees. They had colored lights going and every half hour there was a different music/light/water show. It was kind of like watching Baby Einstein. Jared and I sat under a heat lamp (it was pretty cold for us Floridians) and just got to talk for over an hour. How romantic. It really was the best Birthday/Valentine's retreat. Of course staying in a nice hotel that Motorola paid for wasn't bad either.

This picture, as you may recognize from the name tags, is us going to the Price is Right Live (the "Live" distinguishes it from the one in LA that is on the air). It was really fun but neither of us got called up. Bummer. We got to go to the temple on Saturday, which was such a great contrast from the smoke-filled casinos where everyone has the same glazed-over expression on their face (if gambling is so much fun, how come nobody is smiling?) Then we visited Jared's Aunt and Uncle and they took us to a bunch of model homes. As many people know, this is one of my favorite things to do. I think I've converted Jared to liking it

IT'S A...

So we had decided not to find out what we are having and made sure not to look too hard at the initial ultrasound. But then my midwife called to say that the umbilical cord only has two vessels instead of three. It's called SUA-single umbilical artery and can be associated with a bunch of things like chromosome disorders, heart & kidney problems, low birth weight and fetal distress at birth. You could also have a completely normal baby, as 1 in 100 live births have this. Luckily, everything else looks good with the baby, but I will need to have a few more ultrasounds just to make sure it is growing at the right rate.

I figured since we were going to be looking at the umbilical cord, we might as well just look a little lower and find out what it is. We went on Monday and found out it is A GIRL!! I would post a picture but it's pretty much a good shot of her bum that she might be embarrassed about later. Before we went I asked Erin if she wanted a boy or a girl. Erin: "A girl." Me: "What if it's a boy? Wont' you like him?" Erin: "No, I want a girl." Me: "Alex is a boy, don't you like him?" Erin: "Well, yeah, I like him. But I will be too sad if it's a boy, and I will be too happy if it's a girl." She is definitely excited, but she still thinks her name should be "Capa-jaya-site". What a funny kid!

Side note: Here's one of Alex with my infamous Elmo slippers on. He's yelling "Elmo!"

Kids, house and color disaster

I guess I haven't been too inspired to post anything lately. But here's what's been going on:

We are close to being done with out kitchen project. Jared put some recessed lights in and they look great. We did the painting last week. I loved the first color we put on the three walls, but then when we put the red accent wall up I really didn't like it. I've kept it for a week now hoping it would grow on me, but no. Our first color disaster! I think it's just too bright and dark for our kitchen, and a little more pink than I wanted. So now the challenge is finding something we can live with and redoing it. I bought a laundry hamper for the hall even though Jared didn't think it would be good there. Later he said, "You know, this is really more your house than mine so you can pretty much do whatever you want with it." I guess I do spend quite a bit of time within these walls.

I think it looks better in this picture, but it's still just too much.

Speaking of the house, I've been focusing a lot on flylady recently. Here's the website: http://flylady.net/ It's just helps me keep my house cleaner and have some direction in my day. I really like it, though my house is definitely still a work in progress. I suppose you could say I am "nesting" already even though the baby is months away. I always feel like I need to do everything I can before I'll be rendered utterly useless when the baby comes.

I love it when Erin and Alex play so well together. Sometimes they play for hours and that's when I sit back and think "ahh, this is why I had two kids." Don't think it's like that all the time though. They do have their moments. They both pick on each other and get annoyed with each other like normal siblings. But overall it is such a blessing for them to have each other. I can't imagine having an only child! (I think it would be too much work for me to always be the entertainer)

Every Thursday Erin's friend comes over to play after pre-school. Inevitably they always end up with dolls under their shirts pretending they are going to have babies because both their moms are pregnant. Alex is getting really good at playing with dolls as well. Don't get me wrong, he likes cars and balls too, but it's so cute to see him copying Erin with her dolls.

I'm amazed by all of Alex's new words. He came up to me at the park and said a word I didn't want to hear "wing"-- which meant I had to push him on the swing (Hey, I took them to the park, and now they want me to stand there and push? Ugh. I try to focus on how exciting slides are instead). The other night Jared was saying "ready, set, go" and then lifting him in the air. Every time he put him down he'd say very clearly "ready" so that Jared would do it again.