The Wedding

 The wedding was perfect.  They chose to have it at the Landmark, which was really nice because the venue did the decorating and food, so we basically just got to show up and enjoy the night.  Fernanda chose green and yellow as her colors.  Her family all showed up in yellow, and my family all chose green, and we didn't even email each other about it!  Finding something to wear and being pregnant was a hard combination.  I hope Fernanda didn't mind that I wore a white dress.  Even Erin showed up in green without any coordination on our part.  I am beginning to think that humans can send radio waves through our brains that allow our thoughts to interconnect. There can be no other logical explanation. (aren't the little bouquets cute? My friend Steffanie made them for my girls)

 This is right when we arrived.  I am not sure what was up with Macie.

 That guy above was the one that married them.

 I love that Chloe takes good care of Macie and always leads the way. They both acted pretty bashful over their duties as flower girls.

 They were so precious, I just want to scoop them up and kiss them!  Macie and the little boy behind her, got to be good friends during the reception, chasing each other around.

 These are probably the first family pictures with my siblings that I have had since my wedding, which was 9 years ago.  It is way past due.  Too bad none of them turned out very well! Between Chelsey and my kids the chances of a good shot were pretty small. Oh well. Chelsey looked so cute at the wedding.  I gave her the whole scrub down and glam squad treatment, which I don't think she really appreciated. But I was shocked that she didn't put up too much of a fuss.  When I left the house after getting her ready, I left her in her new gold flats.  But when she showed up to the wedding, she had put on white mismatched athletic socks.  Of course.  So I convinced her to take off the socks for the pictures.  And then I just "forgot" to give her back her socks.  Although I feel kind of bad because the next day she told me that her shoes had given her blisters, the worst thing that could ever happen.  So I am a terrible sister.  But she did look really cute.  And I am sure I will never be able to get her to wear those gold shoes again as they will be forever labeled as blister makers.

 But Chelsey did have a good time, besides the blisters.

 My brother prepared a few songs for the reception, which was really cool.  He did a really great job.

 One of the most unexpected parts of the evening was when our friends from my childhood showed up.  I haven't seen them since I was 16? Wendy motioned at Liz and me to come over to her, and both of us had no idea who she was or why she was motioning us to come over.  I don't know when it finally clicked or how, but suddenly I realized who they were and it was just really cool to see them after all these years. When we were kids they spent a lot of time with our family.  I remember specifically flying kites, and Easter Egg hunts with them.  They never had any children, and they treated us like gold.  This was about the time in the evening when Macie fell asleep and I thought my feet were going to fall off.

 Cousins!

 The dancing portion of the night...my girls loved it.

And it seemed as soon as the weekend started, it was over.  I don't think the whole weekend could have gone any better.  Seeing old friends and spending time with family members we hardly ever get to see, combined with a great party and a wonderful event to celebrate, made for a weekend of wonderful memories.  I am so happy for my brother and to have a sweet new sister in law.

Adam's wedding Weekend

 I am finally getting around to documenting probably the most important event of this year (well besides the impending birth of my baby).  It is a good activity to do right now anyway.  I am doing a lot of sitting with my feet up lately.  My feet are KILLING me.  If I do an hour of housework I feel the same way I did after walking around Disneyland for an entire day.  I really hope my feet go back to normal after the baby comes because I really, really love cute shoes.  Anyway. My brother got married on May 24th!  It was a whirlwind weekend that flew by much too fast.  On Friday afternoon my most favorite cousin of all time, flew in and then later that evening the rest of my extended family arrived.  We had  a dinner at my Dad's house, made by Liz.  I am so glad she did pretty much all the work.  All I did was make a salad and leave a huge mess for her to clean up afterwards.  She made some delicious beef stroganoff and an even better cake.  We had so much fun visiting with everyone.  It has been a few years (since Grandma died) that everyone has been together like this.  I know my Mom appreciated that her siblings made the trip to come support my brother on his big day.

 My Aunt Karen bought her sisters leggings as a joke, to prove that leggings are actually pants.  (There is this current trend where adult women seem to think ugly leggings are 1. cute  and 2. count as pants.)  Although they actually looked pretty good in the leggings.

 In the morning, the girls went out to T.C. Eggingtons, where they threw me a little baby shower.  I got some pretty great gifts and I felt really spoiled.

 After brunch, we went out to my Mom's grave and laid some flowers.  I am so glad my Aunts had the thought to do this.  Truthfully I can't remember the last time I went out to her grave.  It is not a place that I like to revisit.  But I am glad we did because she was remembered and on her son's wedding day, I can't think of a better gift to her other than to know that we were thinking of her.  Thankfully the weather was very nice for the end of May, otherwise we would have not lasted long out there.  This memory is a much, much nicer memory than the one I have almost 14 years ago when it must have been about 115 degrees and the oppressive heat only added to the heaviness of our hearts.  Even still, I can't help but feel very solemn when I step foot on the Mesa Cemetery grounds.

After this, I had some rushing around to do being that I had 2 kids and myself to pretty up, as well as being the grooming police for Chelsey.  I even managed to make it to Payless to buy Chelsey some shoes so that she wouldn't wear her decrepit slip on loafers.  (more on that later)

What's Up These Dog Days of Summer

It's that time of year again.  Swimming is in full force.  Chloe is doing 2 swim teams again and Macie loves her life of swimming in the spare pool while Chloe practices.  And I CANNOT WAIT to not be pregnant anymore!  I made the sad, sad realization last week that this whole time I have been thinking my due date was July 12th, when it is in fact July 19th.  I feel like this pregnancy is groundhog day, making no progress to that elusive due date, and I swear I have been pregnant as long as an elephant.

This is the first time I have been this pregnant in the dead heat of the summer, and by golly, it's a doozy!
Finding clothes to wear when you are 35 weeks pregnant is already a challenge.  No longer is there the, "Hmmm, is this flattering?" concern. No, it is now, "hmmm...does this cover everything up that needs to be covered up?"  Which by the way, when it is 107 degrees outside, you don't really want to cover anything up.  But streaking is illegal. And also against my religion, so alas I must continue to wear clothes.  One of the added benefits of late pregnancy in extreme heat is that it makes your legs swollen and on fire!  I also have this super awesome, unexplainable rash on both of my shins that my Doctors just like to say thinks like, "Oh, that's weird."  (Although they don't usually say the word "weird" they use more Doctor-ly words like "interesting" or "unusual.")

I really shouldn't complain, I guess. I mean besides taking shots every day, things have been pretty smooth sailing and my complaints are pretty minor. But I'm so done.  I miss sleeping on my back.  I miss not waddling.  I miss being able to physically accomplish things like cleaning my whole house and making it the grocery store in one day. I miss wearing my high heels and feeling comfortable in clothes.  And why is it that pregnancy gives people the idea that they can say rude things about your body that they would never think to say if you weren't pregnant?  "Wow, you look huge...Are you sure you aren't carrying twins?...You are only THAT far along?...You look REALLY pregnant today."( All direct quotes. ) Thank you!

Well tomorrow is Father's Day and unfortunately I somehow injured my foot, which on top of my usual waddling, is making it even more impossible to get much done.  I would like to clean my house and make it to the grocery store but I walk about half as fast as I normally do.  It's too bad it is not Mother's Day, then I wouldn't feel bad making Don do everything.

Well I think I did a sufficient amount of complaining. So to end on a good note, we bought a new car! Well new to us.  A 2008 Ford Explorer.  So we will be saying goodbye to my Mazda soon, and I shall not miss it, although Chloe seems to be a little sentimental with the coming departure.  Chloe is also in the process of writing a book, which is oddly very similar to an Australian mermaid movie she has watched on Netflix several times.  But all great authors take their inspiration from somewhere I suppose.

Also, Macie is potty trained.  In her diaper.  She will be wearing her bathing suit and ask me for a diaper so she can go to the bathroom.  I suggest using the toilet, but no, she would much rather just go in her diaper.  Or hold it till the end of time, or till she gets a diaper, whichever comes first.  No clue how to solve this problem.

Macie also hates being told that she is funny.  She gets very offended.  She is also obsessed with understanding why people laugh.  I took the girls to a movie and anytime anyone laughed, Macie would be up in my face asking, "What's so funny? Why people laughing?"  She asked me this question about every 3 minutes for the entire movie.

Girls Trip

Last weekend a group of girlfriends and I went on a short weekend getaway to Strawberry, AZ.  I was (am) glad for any distractions to get me through this last month or so of pregnancy!  P.S. Having a baby in July was not one of my most brilliant plans.  I am HOT.  And most certainly not in the Megan Fox sorta way. I am talking hot like I considered taking everything out of my fridge, and sitting in it, sort of way.  But I digress.
Anyway, we had a really nice time.  We went out to eat at a local Italian joint, and I thoroughly enjoyed my spaghetti and meatballs, and homemade bleu cheese dressing.  We stayed up late (well I only made it until about 11 PM) eating, talking, and dancing, and in the morning we made a delicious breakfast of crepes and all the fixings.  Then we went for a short hike to Tonto national Bridge, and I just kept saying to myself that it was another one of my not so bright ideas, being that it was very plausible that I could fall, and I don't think my doctors would be very happy about that.  thankfully I did not fall.  After that, we went out to Chili's for lunch and headed back home.  Don did a fantastic job being Mr. Mom.  He even put the crib up while I was gone.  What a guy.... And Chloe called me about every hour and her greeting was usually something along these lines, "Oh Hi Mom! I need to tell you somethin'!"  I had a great little time.  And I loved reunited with my little family who always welcome me like a superstar.