Crazy Weekend Roadtrip

We're getting too old for these weekend trips, I decided. But I guess while we are still child-free we might as well take the opportunity to go see people we wouldn't normally get to see. That's what we did last weekend. Leif took Friday off work and I took a half day and we drove out to Seattle to attend a college friend's wedding. It was an outdoor wedding on Saturday morning and the weather was unusually beautiful for Seattle. Clear skies and a sunny, Spring day. Deceptively beautiful enough to make you think Seattle might be a nice place to live, really.

Mr. and Mrs. Rhett Prichard

We stayed for part of the reception, then left the wedding and drove to Sandpoint, ID where we stayed with other LeTourneau friends, JD and Kara Claridge. It's always good to see them and this time we actually got to spend a little time with them and their kids. They've recently gone from being a couple with a kid to a four person family and it was neat to get a little glimpse into what our future might hold as we approach this whole parenting thing. Mostly, though, it was just really good to catch up with them and get to spend more time than we usually do with them.

JD and Kara Claridge

We attended church with them on Sunday and, after church, Katie Morman, another friend from college, drove down from Bonner's Ferry to see us. We haven't seen Katie since we graduated from LeTourneau five years ago, so it was wonderful to see her and catch up as well. Much like a LeTourneau reunion, really.

Katie Morman

After visiting for a while we left Sandpoint and drove home, arriving in Belgrade around 11:30pm - then back to work early Monday morning. It was a crazy, whirlwind trip and, like I said, I think we're getting too old for this. When we were in college driving for hours was no big deal. We've got one more crazy weekend trip planned - at the end of May. It's another college friend getting married a dozen hours away. We'll drive down, attend the wedding, drive back and that's probably the last time we'll do this. I have a feeling life will change once the little one arrives - that's what everyone keeps telling us.

April Photo

Here I am at the end of April... almost 30 weeks pregnant.

A Tisket, A Tasket....

.... DID ANYONE BUY US THIS BASKET?
It arrived from J.C. Penney the other day, but had no information as to who sent it to us. How can we send a thank you note for an anonymous gift?

3rd Trimester!!

Today we begin the third trimester! We're 2/3 of the way there and it seems like time has flown by. We had a Dr. appointment today and everything looks great, so much so, in fact, that she even said I didn't need to come in for another 4 weeks instead of the 2 they normally put people on starting now. That was encouraging. 12 weeks to go...

She's baaaack.... !

My inner Martha Stewart is back! I had a day off work yesterday and my day was filled with fun little projects... making homemade baby wipes (fleece on one side, flannel on the other) and a little terrycloth baby organizer for the diaper bag. I also made a shirt for Phoebe to wear next summer. It's not all that great since I was just playing, but it did turn out kind of cute. It should be around 12 month size, so we'll see if it fits when the time comes! Here's a picture of my creative effort...
Not only has Martha come back into my craft room, she has also re-entered my kitchen! This morning Leif and I spent some quality time together making those famous Easter delicacies... Peeps! They CAN be made from scratch! I've never made marshmallow before... it's amazing. A little gelatin, a little sugar, a little water... voila! You've got yourself some marshmallow goo that can be piped into a variety of shapes, provided you're talented enough to make shapes with the goo. I tried little bunnies, but they turned out more like slugs. We had considerably more luck making homemade peep flowers. Here are the recipe and instructions from Martha Stewart's website.

Happy Easter!!

Diapers!

We've been asked by several people what kind of diapers we plan to use with our baby. I'm not sure if it's just a conversation starter (and a little less personal or controversial than breast- or bottle-feeding) or if people are really that curious about how we intend to deal with the waste our little one produces. In any event, I figured I might as well post about it... why not?

We intend to use cloth diapers in combination with Infant Potty Training. For anyone who's interested, we are planning on using pocket diapers (FuzziBunz and Wonderoos) and have registered locally for our diapers at Montana's Diaper Store. I've included a link to the registry in the sidebar. The pocket diapers seem really nice because...

1) There are no pins.
2) There are no separate vinyl covers.
3) You can use regular cloth prefolds for the inserts.

And because we're buying through a local business, and in general cloth diapers don't add to the landfill pollution, they appeal to my ever-growing fruity Prius-driving, recycling/composting, eco-friendly Bozeman resident side.

So... that's our plan. Cloth or disposeable? Cloth. We'll let you know how it goes, I guess.

100 days to go

If we were counting the days until July 11th, we would discover that today we are 100 days from the due date! We're not particularly counting, and we're pretty sure she'll be at least a week late, but it's kind of a neat peice of trivia to mention.

And so, in commemoration of the day, I propose that we sing one verse of the following song each day....

"100 days until Phoebe arrives, 100 days until then! They gave us the date, but we think she'll be late by at least a few days or ten!" (sung to the tune of "99 bottles of beer on the wall")