Palm Springs, California

Neil and I spent an amazing week in Indian Wells this week to celebrate our ten year anniversary.  It was so nice!  We stayed at the Marriott Renaissance Indian Wells and it was pretty fantastic.  (The city we were actually in was Indian Wells, but it was the Palm Springs area- more people have heard of Palm Springs than Indian Wells, so that's what I wrote)  Our balcony overlooked the beautiful pool area. 

We went on a little bike ride around the resort/golf course when we first got there.  I really didn't need a jacket but was still wearing it from the flight.  The days were in the 80s and nights were in the 60s-low 70s.

The flowers smelled SO good, I loved being outside.

The whole pool area was so nice!  I spent every day down there from breakfast until almost dinner.

We went on a fancy date to Ruth's Chris for the best steak of our lives!  Neil got the ribeye and a caesar salad, I got the filet mignon (literally thee best steak I've ever had. Ever!) and lobster bisque, and we got some mashed potatoes and sautéed mushrooms too.  (I didn't realize we both blended in to our background so much!)

We had an entire room to ourselves and they put cute little confetti on the table.

And gave us this delicious creme brûlée! Definitely a place for a special occasion because it's SO expensive!

This was the view from the elliptical machine in the hotel gym.  It was actually a really nice gym for a hotel.

Every morning I'd buy my cereal for $3.24 and go out and sit in the sun to eat it.

There was a lot of quality time spent by the pool.  I drank a million glasses of water to make sure I didn't get dehydrated.  I did splurge on a $10 pina colada one afternoon because I'd been wanting one for days!  It did not disappoint.

Since I didn't know anyone there, I even wore bikinis!

The far side of our pool had a beach!

Our biggest splurge of the trip was the massages.  We got them at the hotel so you know they jacked up the price by at least double, but it was super nice!  This is before the massage in the waiting room.

This was after.

This was also after.

We went to P.F. Changs one night for dinner in this shopping area that had this really pretty river running through it.  It sounds a lot like City Creek in Salt Lake, but it was completely different.  The river was like as wide as a street.

Friday we went to a little zoo near our hotel and fed the giraffes.  I was definitely sad Barrett wasn't there for that part since he loved doing that when we were in Colorado Springs.

After the zoo we went to downtown Palm Springs and ate at a delicious 50s diner.  I'd been wanting a old fashioned milk shake for a few days and finally got the chance to get one!

Then we got on a plane to come home to our boy.  We missed him so much!  He was already in bed, but he wasn't asleep yet and we couldn't resist going up to give him hugs and kisses.  It was heaven!

Valentine's Day

We all got our yummy valentine's hearts from my parents this year.

Neil and I went down to City Creek with Kelsey and Alex who were in town for the weekend.  We had our valentine's dinner at Cheesecake Factory.  I thought the wait was going to be horrific, but it was about 90 minutes and that's what it is anytime you go there!

24 Weeks

How Far Along:  24 Weeks

Size of Baby: As big as an ear of corn.  Doc says she weighs 1 lb 7 oz I think.

Maternity Clothes: Yes, except for gym clothes because maternity gym clothes are actually SUPER hard to find.  My gym clothes are working hard to keep up with my expanding bod at the moment!

Gender: We’re still going with girl.

Name: Nothing yet.  And no, believe it or not, we still aren’t even really discussing it.

Movement: Yes- my favorite.  My mom and Neil were mad at me because I wasn’t telling them all the time when she was moving and they didn’t get to feel.   

Sleep: So very tired.  I usually don’t have to get up in the night to pee which is great, but I DO have to wake up a little each time I want to readjust, which is crappy.

Exercise/Activity Level: Definitely modifying the workouts these days.  They are shorter and less intense than ever.

Weight: 137.  According to the hilarious Excel spreadsheet and chart I made for my last pregnancy, I weighed 134.5 at this time with Barrett.  Looks like I might be going a little over my goal of staying below 150… PLUS my doctor gave me a scolding today for gaining too much weight L I had to try pretty hard not to cry.

Cravings: I wouldn’t say I’ve been craving this but I’ve been eating SO much sugary crap lately!  There’s just been so much junk at our house and I’ve just binged on it for every freaking meal!  I’m really going to try not to do that anymore!

Symptoms: My skin is really bad again this time; actually I’d say it’s even worse than last pregnancy!  That’s scary!  And what can I do about it?  Absolutely nothing.

Weird Things: I can honestly say I loved being pregnant the first time.  I don’t know what’s so different but this time around it is not my favorite thing ever.  I hesitate to write that in case my daughter reads it one day and says, “See!?  Barrett was always your favorite!” But if I didn’t love her so much already, I would not be going through all this for her, so she won’t have much of an argument.

Worries: I’m really worried that I won’t be able to do a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) and I’ll have to have another C-section.  I guess that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world as long as it wasn’t an emergency situation.

Best Worst Moment of the Week(s): I was talking with a group of people and someone asked when I was due, before I could even answer, another girl pointed at my stomach and said, “Aren’t you almost due!?” with almost a disgusted look on her face L Sadly, no, I’m not almost due.  I have quite a ways to go.  Thanks for that.  Also, I’m pretty sure I discovered new stretch marks the other day.

Appointments This Week: Yes, I had an appointment today with a new doctor in fact.  I was becoming less and less impressed with my last doctor, so I’ve been asking around for referrals.  I’d really like to know someone who’s had a successful VBAC and potentially see their doctor.

What I’m Looking Forward To: Not crying over every little thing.  I had to walk out of the room for about half of the dang Superbowl commercials because they totally made me bawl!  I’m getting a little sick of that.

Something I've Learned/Realized: The “cuteness” of my pregnancy is fading FAST!  That was a short window and it is closing quick as I apparently head into the next stage of “You look like you’re ready to pop!”

Pictures:

Neil brought me home some flowers one day after I'd been complaining about being pregnant.

This is me at 24 weeks.

Our appointment with our new doctor today.  She seems really nice and I'll probably stay with her but I'm not 100% sure on that yet.

Cristi's Surprise Shower

We had a surprise bridal shower for Cristi last week.  She thought she was just going to dinner with Courtney and then all of us were there with presents!  It was super fun and we're so excited for her upcoming wedding!

Birthday Parties

We got to go to Eli's 3rd birthday party last weekend.  We were invited to Zeek's the weekend before but it was on Superbowl Sunday and we already had Superbowl plans.  These boys are my favorites.

Randon put on a show for the kids- Bear chose Phonics Farm (a Leapfrog show).  They all seemed to approve.

We also got invited to Bryn's birthday party.  Of course, Annie made this amazingly adorable invitation.  Bear was super excited it was at Little Gym (aka My Gym) because we quit going there a month or two ago and he's been wanting to go back- it's just so overpriced!

I think this was the only time Bear and Bryn were doing the same thing so I had to get a picture.

Zeek and Barrett were glued to each other and had the best time at the party!

We had my Grandma Roselyn's (aka Grandma GiGi) birthday party on Valentine's Day.  She turned 88!  Everyone was invited over to Kathy and Gary's pool house to celebrate.

Ethan, Barrett, Alex.

With the birthday girl.

The kids even used the photo booth props.

Photo Dump

Bear has never slept with a pillow no matter how many times we've offered it to him.  He always has just slept on the flat mattress in the corner of his crib or bed.  One night we put him to bed as usual and when I looked at him on the video monitor later that night, he was sleeping on a pillow.  I asked Neil if he got him that and he said he hadn't even been up to his room.  Bear had gotten out of his bed, onto the big bed, got his pillow and put it on his bed, and got back in bed.  All without us even knowing he was out of bed.  I thought it was really funny that he suddenly wanted a pillow but he's really liked it and has slept with it ever since. 

He tried on this Sulley costume a couple weeks ago. It's still a little too big for him, but very cute nonetheless.

Bear was playing by himself for a few minutes (he's finally doing more of that these days) and then he called me over to come look at how he sorted the cars and trucks.

I just had my 2014 blog printed out and as I was looking through it, I saw this post that I thought was so crazy.  I had forgotten that he used to talk about his sister (this was back in May 2014).  What's super crazy to me is that we announced my pregnancy on his birthday and then a month later found out it he was indeed getting a sister!

He loves getting stickers at Smith's.

We took him to Taste of India for the first time and he ate it really well!  He also wanted to dance to the Indian music on the radio there.

Last Sunday, Bear gave his first talk in Primary.  The week before, they asked for volunteers to give the talk for the following week and he ran right up there to the pulpit and was ready to go.  He was a little bummed he had to wait a whole week until he actually got to give a talk.

These 3 are the only kids in his sunbeam class this year and Bear only stays for sharing time (then he goes home for a nap).  Bear's been having a bit of a hard time adjusting to sunbeams so Neil usually has to stay in with him so far.  He's really been missing his nursery class and teachers.
I thought these pictures were cute.  Ketra was pointing out her parents and baby brother to Bear,

And then Bear was pointing out that Pops and Lala were there to her.

He did an awesome job and Neil helped him.  If we would've been more prepared, we could've had him memorize something, but we (my mom) only wrote the talk that morning.