Five.

Five years ago today, I married my favorite person in the universe. On a Wednesday, no less. It's the best decision I've ever made, and I feel blessed every day.

Photo by Kenna

And the fact that we have the most beautiful baby girl on the planet is just icing on the cake. Ti amo!

One.

I have a one year old. No, scratch that. In a few days I will have a 13 month old. The (rather cliche) question I keep asking myself is, "where did the time go?" I swear it hasn't been that long. But then at times it feels longer. I suppose it's like anything else, really.

After I gave my notice at work, I knew that I needed a new project of sorts. Just something to focus on to aid me in the transition. I decided that said project would be my daughter's birthday party. I am not crafty by nature, so it was a bit of a stretch, but I have to say that I was pleased with the end result. It was a happy day celebrated with our (incredibly generous) family, accompanied by a special project done by our talented friends that I can't wait to see. (Which I will definitely post upon its completion.) I should also mention that I could not have pulled this off without the help of my amazing mother, along with my incredible husband, who patiently viewed all of my ideas, tissue paper swaths, etc. and watched our girl so that everything could come together. Plus my dad and siblings who helped the day-of.

Please excuse the iPhone pictures. The rest are still living in my mom's camera.

On this week...

Five years ago, a certain tall, handsome blonde called a certain brunette and asked her out on a date. 

Four years ago, the aforementioned couple spent their first holiday season together as husband and wife.

Last year, the couple found out they were expecting their first child.

This year, their little baby is turning five months old.
(And maybe she just rolled over for the first time today... no big deal.)

Photo by Kenna

Merry Christmas!

I can't help it...

I am hopelessly in love with this little girl.

Four.

Four years. Three moves. One (almost completed) graduate degree. Some job changes. Fun vacations. And one baby later.

I'm more in love than ever.

One month ago today

I became a mother.

In that time, my little peanut has grown from this...

to this.

And she still doesn't really fit into any of her clothes. (But yay for finally hitting the seven pound mark. Well six pounds fifteen ounces... but that's close enough, right?)

What blows my mind is that I'm still three days away from my due date. The unexpectedness of her arrival and the subsequent events that my husband and I have been through with her are all still hard to fully fathom. We are sleep deprived and fumbling our way through this whole parenting thing, but are grateful for and savoring every moment.

It's typically the quiet moments in the middle of the night, when I look at her darling little face through my bleary eyes, that I marvel that she is mine. And it's in those same moments that my heart twinges just a little bit, because I know that this time in her life will fly by. It already is flying by. So my gratitude is amplified in that moment for the time I get to spend with my beautiful little newborn.

Happy one month, my little sweet.

27

27 years old. 27 weeks pregnant. Birthday post written on the 27th. (Okay, admittedly, that last once is a bit of a stretch.) Coincidence? Fate?

This year, my amazeballs husband surprised me with a delicious birthday breakfast feast, consisting of whole wheat blueberry pancakes, hash browns, bacon and blueberry sausage. Behold the glorious meal below:

Birthday breakfasts were a big deal in my house growing up, so this was a fun way to start my birthday. The husb also came through with a thoroughly thoughtful gift that will be perfect to have as we start to document our growing fam. I was totally surprised and pleased by this wonderful present.

Work also provided another surprise, which involved a rendition of "Happy Birthday" (which was slightly embarrassing) and some yummy chocolate cake during one of my meetings. Just fyi, chocolate cake makes meetings better. Trust me on this one.

The evening was spent at a local favorite establishment followed by a quiet night at home. All with my favoritest person. Not to mention all of the calls, texts, fb and b-day card love I received throughout the day.

Thus, in all, I'd say it was a lovely 27th birthday.

25

Last week marked my 25th week of pregnancy. As you can see from the photo above, my belly is burgeoning.

Thus far this whole journey has been interesting. My nesting instinct has kicked in with a fury I never expected. My emotions run the gamut from really excited to really scared. And I find myself wearing flats at least twice a week (oh the horror... kidding, only kidding).

I also think this process has been most fascinating. It's interesting to observe how different people behave toward me (aka, "feel up my belly"), and what questions they ask.

[A brief note to those who care, asking questions like "Was this planned?" "Are you planning on coming back to work?" and/or commenting that I look "so much bigger than fill-in-the-blank did at this stage" are kind of really awkward, in my humble opinion. I think it's important to realize that while you might be more than willing to share this information, there are those who are not as apt to share such intimate details. And also, my doc wants me to gain around 40 (!) pounds, so lay off ok? ;)]

We've slowly, but surely, procured items for the baby, and it's exciting to see everything coming together. And maybe my husb bought the most beautiful little dress for our little girl and presented it to me on Mother's Day. (Melt my heart, why don't you. Seriously.) 

In all, it's been a pretty transformative 25 weeks, in more ways than one. Here's to 15 (well, 14 now) more weeks.

You had a birfday, shout hooray!

Though I am belated (as per my pregnancy-life usual) on writing this post, I wanted to briefly (to mitigate any potential embarrassment to my better half) mention that said better half just (i.e. 2 weeks ago) had a birthday. 

I don't know about you peeps, but I happen to love me some birthday-liciousness. Especially when the birthday in question is the birthday of someone I happen to wholeheartedly adore. And trust me everyone, I really do adore the subject of this birthday post. He is smart, he is sexy and he does a great job of taking care of me. Even in my current, ever-increasingly rotund/hormonal state.

So happy belated birthday, love. Thanks for being so amazing. Ti amo.

Another thoroughly legitimate reason regarding why I haven't been blogging much lately

Besides the 50 hour weeks I've been pulling... the 5K I've volunteered to do PR for... and the book I'm in the process of getting started... I've been a little bit occupied with something else...

Me at 15 weeks

incubating my own little fetus.

The husb and I are really quite excited for this next phase in our lives. It's a bit surreal and a bit intimidating, but nonetheless really fantastic.

We find out the gender next week, so stay tuned. (And, just for kicks and giggles, I've added a little poll to the blog so that you can cast your vote as to what you think the gender of our little fetus is. We have no idea.) 

An anniversary weekend

Taking a much-needed break, the husb and I decided to spend a relaxing anniversary weekend in Park City. We stayed at the Marriott and enjoyed the slight crispness in the air and the beautiful fall colors. We had some incredible meals from El Chubasco, The Eating Establishment and (our favorite) Purple Sage. And we saw this movie, which was incredibly funny and pretty intelligent, genre notwithstanding.

The husb surprised me with tickets to see Brandon Flowers (who I still maintain is Greg's brunette doppelganger) in November, and I am so excited! He cleverly hid the tickets in Tim Gunn's new book, so imagine my reaction when I started thumbing through it and saw the tickets. Greg is pretty great at surprises, which is perfect for me because I happen to love me a good surprise.

In all, it was a perfect little weekend. And I have to say that I'm super happy I married my best friend. Because he's really fun to be around.

 Greg's Hungry Miner courtesy of The Eating Establishment

 My Park City Omelette from The Eating Establishment

  Chicken Tamales and House-made Potato Chips (smothered in bleu and pepper-jack cheeses)

 Grilled Veal Meatloaf (aka the best meatloaf ever made... if you're not opposed to eating Veal, that is)

 At the Purple Sage

If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it...

three years ago today, he did (my wedding ring, btw). And I've been glowing ever since.

Happy Anniversary, love!

I love him...

because, when I came home for lunch this afternoon, I found that he'd left me a lovely little surprise...

And anybody who knows me well knows that peonies are my favorite.