2 for 1

Happy late Mother's Day! We also celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary yesterday. Because of Justin's graduation on Friday, we were pretty chill about the events of the day. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but I did get a nice 2 hour nap! So that was a great gift for me!

We have combined graduation, Mother's Day, and our anniversary all together and bought tickets to see Wicked this summer! We are so excited. I have seen it before (2 years ago) but Justin has never seen it. They are back at the Capitol Theatre in July and August this summer and we can't wait! If anyone wants to join us, we would love company!

Law School Graduation!

He did it!!! Yesterday Justin graduation from law school. Here he is having his name read.

Shaking hands with faculty. The graduation was really nice. It ended early, which is always nice, and the speakers were all very good. They had 3 student speakers, the dean spoke, and a keynote speaker (a woman who graduated from the U's law school and has done some great things in her life).

Proud daughters!! The girls were actually very good during the whole ceremony. Good thing I had about 4 granola bars in my bag!

Justin with his parents.

His grandparents also traveled down from Star Valley to attend.

With my parents.

His "hood". The purple if for law and the red and white for school colors.

This may be the one and only time you see Justin standing by a red U with a smile on his face :) ha!

The graduation took place here, inside Kingsbury Hall. It was such a beautiful day. They had a reception after outside on the lawn, across the street from the building. They had a light lunch for everyone.

We are so proud and excited for Justin! What a huge accomplishment. We are so excited for this next part in our lives and to be done with homework, finals, class and textbooks!! We are also grateful that baby boy decided to let Justin have his own day and hope he will soon make his debut!

We had a really nice dinner last night at a steakhouse downtown with our parents and Justin's grandparents. It was yummy food and we had a nice time together. Congratulations Justin!

baby update

Today I'm 38 weeks. I'll spare you a picture :) I am now in the "ticking time bomb" stage as my sister refers to it! My main goal is to make it to Friday without going into labor so I can be at Justin's graduation. After that, he can come any time he wants! Well, and hopefully not past the 22nd (my due date!).

Yesterday I saw the doctor and I'm dilated to a 2 and 70% effaced. I was actually surprised that something was actually going on, not that it's a lot! But we all know that you can sit at the same stage for weeks and have nothing happen. But at least it's something for now. He asked if I wanted him to strip my membranes, but I'm a big wimp, so I said no! I'm not a fan of more pain when I know I'm in for some big pain soon!

I walked on the treadmill today for just under an hour and tonight I'm paying for it! I feel saddle sore, like I rode a horse or something, so maybe it wasn't the best idea! I've still been going to the gym 3 times a week lately. Tomorrow is my cycle class and I'm wondering if I should just do half of the class or what after being pretty sore today.

Last Friday was my last day of "work". Some of you know I've been helping out a lady's house for the past few years. It has been a GREAT job. I would go M-F when I could in the mornings, show up when I wanted and bring both girls. I did laundry (washing, drying, folding and putting away), made beds, did dishes, and just tidied up. I just kept track of my time, usually 3-5 hours a week (never more).  It was totally worth it to me and the perfect little side job. I would turn on a show for the girls while I cleaned (I know, mother of the year!) and they would watch or play with toys they found or the kitty. There are 4 kids in the family and the mom plays tennis and works out in the mornings. Her husband is a doctor, so she could afford to have someone like me come help. I wish someone would come over and do the same at my house for me, but I am so grateful that she allowed me to earn some extra money while Justin was in school. If I thought I could make it worth it with 3 kids, I would! But I have to admit, it has been nice not going this week!

Kentucky Derby party

Justin's brother Scott, and his wife, Brooke, have been planning a Kentucky Derby party for months (they don't have any link to the race or the state, but they have just always thought it would be fun). I was asked to bring a dessert, so I brought these cupcakes. I found the toppers and cupcake recipe (it's a spinoff of a kentucky derby pie) for free online at Mirabelle Creations. Aren't they so cute?

We had quite the spread of food too! It was all very yummy! Lemonade/limeade and mint julep! (It was all very festive!!)

Here was the centerpiece with the prizes!

The delicious fruit my mil fixed up.

Here's Brooke, the hostess! She even bought a horse balloon!

Back to the food...all spread out on the counter. We wrote up labels that came from the Mirabelle Creations as well.

Our little munchins (with cousins)! Reese, Molly, Laney and Ali.

The rest of the party attendees. Everyone was asked to dress up. It was really fun!

We drew names from a hat and this is who I drew. Lucky me, my horse WON!! It was so exciting!! I will be honest and tell you that I had only heard of a couple of the horses before we actually watched the race, this horse not included! The kids even got to draw so they were cheering for their horses too.

Justin picked Bodemeister, who was one of the frontrunners. He was in first place the whole time until my horse took him in the last few seconds!! So thrilling!! Justin claims that's how his life is. I always win in the end :) ha ha, well, maybe!

Here we are in our derby gear!! Don't you love my hat?! I borrowed it from my mom's friend who collects hats! We borrowed Justin's hat from a friend (thank you Sara!) and we had the girls hats already.

I won the prize for best hat!! Woohoo! My mil took 1st place and my sil Ashley took 2nd! I borrowed Ashley's hat from a friend as well (thanks Jane!).

Here are all the winners. They had prizes for fastest horse, slowest horse, hats and a trivia game.

Me with my prizes! A trophy and a sash! It was quite the winning day for me :) ha ha! We had so much fun. A big thanks to Scott and Brooke. They say they want to make it into a yearly tradition. Sounds good to me! It was so fun having everyone dress up. Even the guys went all out. Parties are more fun if you dress up, don't you think?!

Tracy Aviary

This past Friday we went with the girls to Tracy Aviary at Liberty Park in Salt Lake. None of us had ever been before and Molly's school gave us a free family admission. It was really neat! We only had about 30 minutes before they closed, so we had to move pretty quickly, but we had a fun time!

Pictured above is a golden eagle.

They also had a bald eagle.

The girls were very fascinated!

I love these pictures of Molly. The peacocks were just walking around wherever they wanted. At first Molly asked if she could go and pet it. We said probably not, but she could get close.

She was a bit unsure once she was closer!!

And Ali was too!

They had some beautiful Chilean flamingos! Molly was really excited to see them. The picture doesn't do justice to how bright they were.

Some of the colors of these birds were so vibrant and pretty! A lot of the birds we had never heard of, or seen before for that matter!

The toucan was so bright!

Our little birdies :)

They had an area called "Owl Forest"with several different kinds of owls. It was neat to see the different sizes of owls.

I don't know if you can see it, but this owl has a dead mouse he's holding in his mouth! Molly was pretty upset when she realized that this was their food!

It's kind of a big loop around and we made it through the whole loop by the time they closed. If we had had more days to use the pass, we would have tried a different time, but this was our best chance. It was actually much neater than I had thought it would be. And there were more birds than I thought. Justin and I were pretty impressed! If you have a chance, you should check it out!

37 weeks and a car seat cover

We had some sunshine today and I washed the padding and whole frame of the car seat, so now it's all ready to go! This car seat cover made up so quickly. I love a fast project! I made it last week during Ali's nap.

I just did bows on the top this time. I had the ribbon on hand and it was the quickest way to finish! I realize they are a bit girly, but I was too lazy to go out and buy velcro and cut fabric to connect it that way.

Here is the opposite side of the cover. It's a bit hard to tell, but it's a brown background with little blue, orange and green circles. The fabric is Riley Blake All Star. A big thanks to my sister Natalie for buying it 2 1/2 years ago when she was sure she would have another boy and didn't!! This fabric has been in my mom's stash since then and I was very happy to use it! Thanks Nat!

The belly at 37 weeks. Please ignore my tight workout clothes! Only 3 more weeks to go! Or hopefully a bit less :) I have to say, I'm rooting for May 12th. Interesting, I know. But my girl's birthdays are so easy to remember, and his would be too if it followed the same pattern. Molly's is 10-7-07, Ali's is 1-10-10. So if baby boy could be 5-12-12, don't you think that would be helpful on my brain?! That day is also the day after Justin's graduation. As long as he comes after graduation, he can come any time really. As long as he comes straight home with me from the hospital!!

I'm feeling really well. Just tired, which is to be expected. I go in tomorrow, but so far, nothing is going on and I haven't felt any contractions. I find out my strep b results, which I hope are negative. With Ali I hadn't been tested and they had to give me penicillin every 4 hours during labor. For whatever reason, it felt like as it went through the IV, my arm was on fire every time! It was totally awful. I'm sure they've fixed that glitch by now, but I'd just prefer not to have it of course! Justin is still not letting go of the name Jackson. I am waiting to see him and go from there. I've started to pack my hospital bag (my sister packed it for me last time with Alison, thanks Em!) and make sure everything is all clean and ready.

The girls are doing well and seem excited about "baby brother". Molly has a dance recital on my due date, so I'm not sure if I will be able to go. Her last day of school is May 18th. She has had her fair share of sweet and sassy days/moments lately. She is excited about wearing new spring clothes and the girls love to ride backs out on the back patio. Ali is copying everything Molly says these days. Sometimes it's cute, and sometimes not! Yesterday Molly was teasing and saying, "you're funny looking". So of course Ali walks into Molly's preschool and starts telling a little girl that. Nice! I had to explain that she doesn't know what it means and I'm sorry! Ali wants to wear "a pretty dress" all the time. Molly went through this stage, but it was when she was 3. We have a few dresses and a skirt or two, but I may need to buy more! Molly wants to play with her little neighbor friend every day. She pretty much asks me every day. The girls also love to play on Justin's phone and iPad. They like the cake game, a fairy game, and an animal sounds game mainly. Justin's LAST final is tomorrow! It seems so weird. Graduation is next Friday. He will be working part time and studying for the bar after tomorrow's final.

boy projects

I have been pretty unmotivated this pregnancy to do a lot of crafty things (unfortunately). But as the time is quickly approaching when baby boy will be here, I'm now motivated!! Here are a few things I've been working on.

Burp cloths. I've made these three so far. The two on the left are made using cloth diapers and I've sewn the fabric in the middle. You see these everywhere and they make great gifts! I had a bunch of this white chenille fabric left over, so when I saw Dana's version, I had to make one. The burp cloth on the right was made using Dana's tutorial. Three is a start, but I'd really like a bunch more. We'll see what I can do!

I made a receiving blanket. (This is the flannel I found at JoAnn's, but wasn't really thrilled about.) It's pretty cute though, right?

My mom made this one. It's already fun having new colors around this place!

This is my stack so far. I'm also in the process of making a quilt for baby. I had scraps leftover from another project that were perfect for another baby quilt! I just need to go out and buy the fabric for the back and then I can finish it! I'm hoping to get to the store today. We'll see. It seems lately like my girls have been AWFUL when we've gone into any store. So I find myself avoiding bringing both of them with me! But sometimes you gotta do it!

Oh and I found baskets to go in my changing table! The colors are perfect and match the quilt my mom is going to make. I think I'm gonna make some tags to hang on the baskets so I know what's inside each one. Then I'll take a picture :) 4 weeks from tomorrow is the due date! Yikes! I'm starting to think of the lovely labor process and well, that part doesn't make me excited!! But I can't wait to meet this guy that is moving all over the place!