This Month's Haps...

Sick of the You Tube videos yet? I've been getting quite a few emails wondering where I stand with this pregnancy since I don't seem to blog about it much... questions like "what does the nursery look like?...are you ready for the baby?...what have you been doing lately?... where are your "preggo" pics (seems to be the most popular question- and yes, "preggo" is on the same hate-word list as "panties", "cream", and "belly". I hate it.)... when exactly is your due date?.." Well, hang on tight because I will answer right now!

First off, my official due date is December 5th, so a little less than 2 weeks away.

Nursery? Almost finished. Just deciding what to put on the walls and for my mom to finish sewing the dust ruffle for the crib... THEN I will post the finished results. For now, these will have to suffice. These were taken before we put all the furniture in (duh). Dan the handyman did all the painting and bead boarding. He did such an amazing job. No, the lamp is not the nursery lamp- just a junker we weren't afraid to get paint on.

Dan putting together the crib...

What have I been up to lately? Well besides getting ready for baby, a lot of Young Women's activities and events...

Caving in daily to my hot chocolate addiction (even though it's not quite cold outside yet)...

Catching Hank in numerous illegal acts... (Here he has been caught red-handed with the stupid plant in his mouth)

Baby showers. This pic doesn't even do justice to all the delicious food that was served. Soups.. salads... breads... cupcakes... chocolates... fudges...toffee... you name it.

Visiting with Shana at the baby shower last week! I predict many more Shana sightings in the future...

AND, yes, maternity photos... because I really didn't have ANY pictures of me pregnant (besides the one from my baby shower above)!
I'm not the belly-measurer picture taker.. you know.. those pics where you stand to the side and show how big you are getting..? Well, I don't do those, so I decided to hire the amazing Alicia Hammond to do my newborn shots and she was kind enough to do a combined package with maternity and newborn. She's awesome. She took tons and tons but I'm not about to post them all ; ) Here is a little taste of her photography and my huge 9 month pregnant pooch. In about 2 weeks, you will get to see the rest of her work! (newborn shots.. not more maternity thank goodness)

I had her come over to my house because I wanted the "lifestyle" type shots since I pretty much spend all of my time here... (a lot of naps on this couch I'll tell ya)...

The classic brick wall shot...

And a nice little backyard "belly" (yes I said it- one of my hatewords) shot... I've spent a lot of time on this swing just watching the knuckleheads be knuckly with each other...

THERE you have it. My "preggo" pics. That's it- that's all you get.

Oh... and Jon's new gun. His manhood is now complete.

Please forgive me for the lack of communication lately... phone calls, emails, blogging, facebook messages etc... I am lagging in that department but I promise I will get better at it in the weeks to come. I had a minute to blog today because I'm not feeling so well (fighting a cold I think) so I'm stuck at home. I'm too scared to go out anymore these days for fear of the dreaded swine. I hear its pretty intense when you're pregnant.

ANYway, hope I was able to recap my November in a nutshell. More pics to eventually come. I just bought the new Canon Rebel the other day so I'm excited to start taking tons more pictures. Stay tuned... not that anyone is really that into my life but at least some of you pretend to be ; )

Singing 5 Octaves

Sorry for posting another video but this one left me with no other option...

Simply amazing.

4 Weeks Left...

And we can't decide on a name.. but we have narrowed the list down to our favorite 60...
And the final 60 are:

What was your favorite?

Biting Your Tongue

I decided to take my camera to Jon's last soccer game.
Although the pictures didn't turn out great because I had my
camera on the wrong setting, I was still able to capture something
in every single shot...

wanna take a guess?

Oh boy... something needs to be done about this before someone finds a squirming tongue flopping around on the field...

He Had me at 21 Jump Street

Johnny Depp. Always been my favorite. Yes, he's very easy on the eyes, but this is only an added bonus.

Why do I like Johnny Depp?

1) He's very picky about his movie roles... he's always in roles only Johnny can do best.
My Favorite? What's Eating Gilbert Grape and Edward Scizzorhands.

2) His careless style.

3) Never in the limelight. Doesn't seek for star power. Rarely in the cameras. (lives in France to avoid it)

4) His homely wife. Would you even put them together? Who is she anyway? I love that.

and the winner:

5) While all the other celebrities are out prancing around their children in their $1000 & up fancy high tech strollers, my down to earth man is pushing his daughter in a humble Graco.

I knew I loved that man. And I wouldn't be surprised if Dan had a little man-crush on him too.

Word of the Day.

If the word of the day is "Love", then which of the following images does not belong?

1) Divine banana pancake breakfasts.

2) Beautifully decorated Christmas Trees in September= Christmas is just around the corner= baby girl will already be appx 1 month old.

3) Best buds.

4) Dan being attacked by a clown.

4) Jon and Dad wiping their hands with antibacterial hand wipes.

5) A delicious Chipotle dinner with 2 good friends.

Tea Party Anyone?

I know that most blog readers probably don't like to read political blog entries because perhaps they are a bore to them.. or maybe because they don't understand them... or perhaps it's just because there aren't fun pictures to look at and sometimes mindless blogs are just what our minds need, especially after a long day. I agree.
Well, I'd like to ask you to take a minute, a very important minute, to read this particular blog entry- it's not just about my life, it's about yours too. Maybe you're a little behind with politics right now or even a little confused. I am too. But I have written this very short and concise entry in hopes that I might be able to tickle your desire to truly educate yourself about what is really going on in our government today. Hopefully this can serve as a little sneak preview...

"A Much Needed Tea Party September 2009"

Just a bunch of conservative whining and complaining... you know how that goes. It totally makes sense that the leftys call us a bunch of whiners.. afterall, they never disagreed or spoke out against Bush, right? They kept real quiet about him.

I guess we are all just a bunch of racist right-winged cry babies. But the weird thing is.. last time I checked, Pelosi and Biden were white...am I wrong?

Our forefathers would roll over in their graves if they knew even an ounce of what our government was trying to turn America into. Change? That's one thing Obama hasn't lied about.

If only the citizens of America really knew what was going on in our government.

Our President has surrounded himself with radicals and revolutionaries. He has surrounded himself his whole life with radicals and revolutionaries. This is a fact. Don't believe me? Look it up. He won't deny it either. Fox News already asked him to correct them if they were wrong. He did not.
How do we wake the others up? Supporters of Obama, is that who you are? Do you believe those things? I don't believe that's who the American people are. There are many Democrats that we passionately disagree with. I don't believe they even think those things.

When will America wake up? The left has started a revolution. No different than Hugo Chavez. When Hugo Chavez was elected, he was elected by Democratic process. But he sure didn't tell the people when he was running that he was a communist. If you can't see that our President and his czars are avowed, radical, revolutionary communists, you haven't been doing your homework. You're just a little behind. WAKE UP and turn on the TV! And I'm not talking CNN or all the other "fringe media". They sure as poop won't inform you of what is really going on.

Do we want communists, radicals, revolutionaries in the United States government as special advisors to the president of the United States? This isn't something us "republican right-wingers" just pulled out of our behinds. I repeat: The President has purposely surrounded himself with COMMUNIST, RADICAL, MARXIST, REVOLUTIONARIES. Don't believe me? Like I said, do your homework.

In the words of Van Jones (if you don't know who he is.. a) where have you been and b) look him up:

"This movement is deeper than a solar panel, deeper than a solar panel. Don't stop there. Don't stop there. No, we're going to change the whole system. We're going to change the whole thing. We're not going to put a new battery in a broken system. We want a new system. We want a new system."

If that doesn't make you shake in your boots, I don't know what will.

FINALLY

FINALLY someone has started this website! I have always given thought to it, but always felt a little guilty following through... so cheers to the man who also knew it was needed!!

www.peopleofwalmart.com

Without these people, Walmart just wouldn't be Walmart.

SO the next time you go to Walmart, don't forget to bring your cell phone cameras so you, too, can contribute to this exceptional website!

I am Scared...

...that a place like this really exists. It's called "Island of the Dolls". Wow. Here's a little background:
Mexico’s Island of the Dolls is one of the World’s strangest tourist destinations. Many years ago a doll was first placed on the island to appease the spirit of a young girl who had drowned there. It was from this starting point that today we find the island is literally covered with 1000’s of dolls, each doll showing varying levels of decay.

Ya.
You couldn't pay me to go there.

If you're not creeped out then I think there might be something wrong with you.

Our Chubby Little Pig Alien

I'm sure we'll grow to love our little Pig Alien...

Aliens wouldn't have 5 fingers though, right?

Now that I am 7 months along, I figure I should start a little bit of the baby shopping- you know, stroller/car seat, crib etc etc... so this weekend Dan and I are off to LA to have a little bit of baby fun...

BUT, before we go...

Any advice of products you love/hate/wish you would have/wouldn't have purchased?

Anyone who knows me well knows that I take after my father in that I have this obsessive compulsion to research EVERYthing I want before I buy it... I just have to know I am getting a great product that rates high with the consumers! I already bought the Consumer Reports Baby 2009 Product Book (thanks to Kel and Steve) and have read it along with all the reviews of the best but I would still love your input!

Saved by Rit

"Rit" saved my life today. I really owe it to you Rit. How did Rit save my life? Well, I decided to be lazy yesterday and wash a load of laundry (which included 75% of all my new maternity clothing along with several other items of clothing)... usually I am very good at separating colors, but I thought "aw, nothing bad will happen..."... well, thanks to the jinx ghost some nasty evil item of clothing decided to dye ALL of my clothing a purplish tint basically giving all of my load a beautiful vintage tye-dye affect. Tye-dye is cool and all, but not when it's your new Pea in the Pod maternity clothing. I only have a couple months left to go and I really didn't want to buy a new maternity wardrobe when I just spent a small fortune a few weeks ago. SO, I decided to do a little research and found a beautiful product called "Rit Dye Remover". It's been around forever (they obviously haven't updated their very 70's looking packaging) and so I thought "what the heck- it can't get any worse" and picked up a box. (You can find it in the bleach aisle.) Thank you Rit for saving my fat lady pinstripe capris. WARNING: it will lighten the fabric but in the case of my pinstripe capris, I didn't care because it was a blue and white before and now its just light blue and white... not something to cry about. I will go and try to perform the Rit operation on the rest of the load.. one at a time...

Catch Up...

Update on the last post "My Boys"... I forgot to add the most important boy in the picture!
Here are all my boys...

Dodgers vs. Cubs game with Dan's family.

Grandma Holly with 3 month old Hunter.

The very happy family...

Holly and Don.

Dodger favorite Manny...

Us.

Peanut Head.

Knuckleheads.

Always up for a little live jazz.

How I feel right about now...

I Love My Boys...

...even when they like to sneak their beastly little pink friends into the pictures...

Another Day at the Beach

Consisting of...

Steve and Dan. Faces= Having Fun.

Planting doritos around the perimeter of Caitlin's head. She has a small bird phobia.

One candid shot of husband and niece.

Going for a ride with Aunt Stacey. Great Aunt Stacey. Digging.

Two sunkissed little girls...

One sleepy little girl...

Dad wiping out.

One brother with side parted hair.

One little girl who will someday catch one of those seagulls...

Family Photo.

Fresh Pedicures.
The END.

Ahhhh, the Nostalgia...

Missing my childhood...
Bring back memories?

Glo-Worm, Strawberry Shortcake and Friends, Troll Dolls, and My Little Pony...

Bongo shorts (from Mervyns), slinkys, trapper keepers, and Simon...

Mc Donald's Moon Man (singing the Big Mac Song), Cabbage Patch and Garbage Pail Kids, Ghostbusters...

Secret Keepers, Barbie and the Rockers, Gummy Bears, and Speak and Spell...

Good Ol' PeeWee, Ernest, He-Man, and the Full House clan...

LA Gear (don't forget the light ups), British Knights, Converse, and Jellies... (I owned all of these shoes in these colors...)

Original Nintendo, Sega, Pac Man, and Battleship...

Wuzzles, Care Bears, The California Raisins, and Hugga Bunch...

4 of my biggest childhood 80's crushes (I would rotate each of them playing the role of my husband when I would play "house" with my friends)... Kevin Costner, Jimmy from Saturday's Warrior HAHAH, Michael Jackson, and Kirk Cameron...

Punky Brewster (remember the one when she got locked in the refrigerator?), Rainbow Brite, She-Ra, and Jem...

Little Critter books, Teddy Ruxpin, Pogs (was that more 90's? I can't remember), and didn't mean to do the Moon Man twice...

Pound Puppies, Monchichi (this is actually what everyone used to call me when I was a baby because I had so much dark hair.. I pretty much looked like one of the monchichi's), Popples, and of course Gumbi and Pokie...

Pop Rocks, Chiclets, Splashers (was this early 90's??), and didn't mean to do Pogs twice...

A taste of the scariness that kept me awake at night...
Large Marge from PeeWee's Big Adventure, Freddy Kruger, and Mr. Boogedy...

I know there are so many more things I am missing... I could spend hours...but hopefully for all of my fellow 80's children out there, I brought back a few nostalgic memories...