My 23rd

One time I had a birthday and ate free food and got cool gifts. For lunch I went to Joe's Farm Grill with my mom and Amy. Then we went to Black Angus with Jacob's parents which is a random choice for me but they give you $20 of free food and a free dessert there on your birthday. Then we tried to take a picture of ourselves on my phone.

17 Weeks and Cinco de Mayo

Aside from the size of my belly, really not much has changed this week. I love this part: I don't feel crumby, I look pregnant instead of just bloated, and am still not so big that it's hard to be comfortable. I also really love getting to feel little baby movements. I'm excited for how wild things are gonna get in there with two!

I'll even be so kind as to include my dainty profile this time ("yes, we've all got daddy's mommy's nose"):

It's nice when you're unloading groceries and remember you bought yourself a donut. And wearing pants that look like you forgot to wear pants from far away. 

 And here's the yummy Cinco de Mayo dinner Jacob made for us. We also celebrated by attending church and going to bed at 10 PM.

Clark loves our post-church photo shoots

Vain Sidenote: I HATE my hair right now. The "pixie" grew out so, so bad. Any suggestions?

Friday Evening

In honor of beautiful weather and feeling a little less nauseous, I made us a little picnic last night. We put a nice big blanket in the back yard and enjoyed balsamic glazed steak and veggies while Clark sat in his high chair and ate mashed potatoes with a bubble wand he found on a camping chair a few minutes earlier. We're real big on cleanliness. 

I still can't eat a ton, and meat is never my favorite, but sometimes you gotta make your man some steak. Then the next day maybe he'll take you shopping (since your coolest sister gets you 40% off at Anthro) AND let you pick out one of the pretty desserts you pass in the bakery. The weekend's off to a good start!

The Birthday Party

So I had planned on throwing Clark's party at a park so the kids could just play (and I wouldn't have to entertain them) and blow bubbles and it would be a beautiful day. But as the day approached, the weather kept saying "rain!". So I finally gave in a moved the party to our little house which we then had to clean. Uhhh. By this point, all hope of making it a real cute party had pretty much gone down the drain because I'm tired and sick and don't have to be a cute over-achiever mom if I don't wanna!

Clark was also pretty sick. So basically the whole time, Jacob had to hold him and keep him away from the other kids. We felt so bad for him by the end of the day; kid spent his birthday watching all his friends play with his toys without him. And before that he was pretty much neglected while we ran around like headless chickens trying to prepare for the last minute change of plans. Poor guy. So here's a sad little boy's sad little birthday party.

Back when I was feeling ambitious I made these wrappers to match the party...and cover up the really ugly wrappers that come on bubbles. 

Luckily, it was just a nice laid-back time for the most part, good company, and my mini fruit pizzas turned out pretty tasty (everyone gets to eat whatever the pregnant lady's craving). Clark was much happier after going at that cake and got totally spoiled with gifts from friends and family. Oh, and what do you know? It didn't even rain! Of course.

Halloween 2012

Over the weekend we got Clark into costume and took him to the stake trunk-or-treat. When I first saw the carnival that had been created in the stake center, I got really excited. Then I remembered that I was too old and my child was too young to participate. So we grabbed some food and left.

When I was making his costume I forgot that babies grow really fast, so it's just a little snug

On real Halloween Clark had playgroup, and all the little babies came in costume. It was a whole lot of cute to take in!

Princess Leia, gnome, robot, tiger, ladybug, owl, frog, ballerina

I think Clark's trying to pick a fight.

Last year at this time, while dressed as "16 and Pregnant", I couldn't wait to have a baby to get me free candy. When it actually came down to it, I just couldn't quite justify using a baby that everyone knows is way too young to eat candy. So instead I put Clark in his costume for our normal evening walk, and we went down the streets that were especially decorated. Lots of people here decorate their yards for Halloween; it's marvelous. I hope they get this into it at Christmas!

Another Visit

The last few days I've been partying with my mom and sister. It's so much fun to have company here! We went to San Francisco where we found an amazing fabric store and got lots of free samples from each shop in Ghirardelli Square. We spent the rest of our time bonding (sitting around like bums), shopping, and taking daily walks to get 1/2 price frozen yogurt. I was also kind enough to let them cook, clean, and babysit for me. I've been so spoiled, I think I'm going to need to hire a housekeeper!

Ok, photo dump of our week (in no particular order):

And this is before the cream cheese frosting!

Bethany made him a leaf mask

Notice the angry shop owner coming out to reprimand us before we scurried away.

Weekend Update

On Saturday morning I went garage sale-ing, as usual. I've decided I'm going to start sharing my finds each week because, well, I'm my mother's daughter and feel the need to tell everyone and their dog when I get a really great deal. I'm well on my way to become a hoarder.
This week, for $5.25 I got:

Cardigan and top for me, clothes for Clark, bread maker, groovy vase

Guys, that is a working bread maker with complimentary bread recipe book for $2! ("But Natalli, have you ever/do you even know how to make bread?" No, but.. $2!) Oh, and garage sale tip of the day: if you buy baby anything and look like you're 17--ok probably even looking 22--people feel really bad for you and give you a better price than they normally would.

 

 

Then of course I watched conference with my boys. All weekend long. It was wonderful as ever, and I'm sad it's over. On Sunday night we made a little fire in the backyard and grilled some chicken, veggies, and pineapple. Is there anything better than grilled pineapple (aside from anything that has chocolate as its main ingredient)?!

Now on to "another butt-head Monday", as my dear husband would say.

Desde que te he conocido yo vivo tan feliz

(I only speak Spanish in music lyrics)


Yesterday was our three year anniversary! We'll go out to celebrate sometime this weekend, but I felt like we should do something special on the actual day, so I set up a pretty fancy dinner. You know, lace tablecloth (paper doilies), candlelight (courtesy of Youtube), and some bubbly (Safeway brand sparkling cider). I even pulled out the nice plastic dishes instead of the usual paper. Oh and don't be deceived by the vase of green onions.

For dessert I prepared some fruit and cheesecake with chocolate fondue. YUMMM.

This is the place where I would like to share our wedding video but I, of all people, do not own a copy. So settle for this cute little vidy of our honeymoon:

More Birthday Stuff

The morning after I got back from my trip, I woke up to a breakfast of overnight french toast. Yumm.
 Jacob also made me some chocolate cream cheese cupcakes and surprised me with some gifts (as in I just had to come across them throughout the day instead of being handed stuff). My favorite was opening the freezer to see it full of pre-made meals for days when I'm too tired or busy (lazy) to cook. I thought that was so cute and thoughtful especially since I know it probably took him forever and he worked late every night I was gone.
All Clark gave me was a headache since his new favorite thing is screaming at the top of his lungs. Happy, sad, excited, hungry, bored=screeeeeching. Good thing he's so cute.

Another Visit

This week my sister and her husband came to stay for a couple of days. On Saturday I got to go to San Fransisco again! This time we went to an amazing little sandwich shop and an art museum. I always thought I would get a little bored at an art museum, but this one was huge, and I loved it! For some reason, art is just so much cooler/more inspiring in person. We also drove right up to the Golden Gate Bridge.

For the most part we just hung out, they spent some time with friends they have in the area, and I talked Buff's ears off since I have very little human interaction in my life outside of Jacob and Clark.

We also captured footage for our latest music video. Here's a little hint: