Marc's Salt Lake City Wedding

President's Weekend we had the opportunity of flying to Salt Lake City, Utah for a wedding: Eric's younger bro, Marc, got hitched to a gorgeous "Princess" named Rachelle! The weekend was too short, but filled to the brim with festivities and unforgettable moments. The best part, or at least ONE of the very best parts for me, was that Gwen took naps and went to bed when we put her down so that when she was awake she was always in a great mood. It made for a thoroughly enjoyable trip!

Gwen wanted her giraffe and her princess water to have their own seats in the terminal.

And unlike our last flying experience, she did a FABULOUS job allowing us to buckle her up--so long as giraffe got buckled in too. She kept telling him it was to keep him safe and that it would be okay.

We got there in time for the family dinner the night before the wedding. We had a gorgeous view of the SLC temple. Gwen called it a castle.

Poor thing, she was exhausted. Can't blame her. Between getting up 2 hours early to make our flight in the morning, the 2 hour time difference, and the start of the dinner...well, let's just say she started to melt down majorly around 8:30 pm (ie 10:30 pm here) and begged for her binkie, giraffe, and bed. Luckily, she is totally in love with her grandpa. He succeeded in getting her to --gasp!-- fall asleep in his arms! Which she NEVER does for us!

Eric, Bryce and Collin serenaded the happy couple with Kiss the Girl. You will have to take my word for it, but Eric makes an AMAZING Scuttle!

Day of the sealing: what a beautiful ceremony! I was reminded of how I felt when Eric and I were sealed, and of course that made for a very special, grateful feeling that stayed with me all day.

Here's my knight in shining armor. I love him so much. Attending a sealing just brings all those feelings to the fore like they are brand new.

Gwen kept repeating over and over and over again: "I wanna get married! I wanna get married! I wanna get married!"

It was rainy and cold while we waited for the newlyweds to come out.

Everyone sought shelter under umbrellas.

Or coats if umbrellas were lacking.

Did I mention it was rainy and cold? It wouldn't have been so bad, but in all the technical challenge of figuring out who went in which car to the temple, Gwen and I got separated from our warm coats. And that necessitated some improvisation. She was happy with Grandpa, once again.

Elise was a lovely Bridesmaid, though the casual jacket hides the elegance of her dress--hand made by my talented MIL.

Yay, Marc and Rachelle finally emerge, kissing photos abound, and the professional photographer pretty much took over from there.

That evening, the reception in Provo at the library:

color is bad thanks to the romantic lighting, but you get the idea.

Gwen got some face time with her new Aunt, Princess Rachelle.

Unfortunately, all of the photos of have of Eric and Gwen together are blurry like this one. They were so sweet, though. :) Eric's only complaint was that they never did a slow dance that we could dance together. They only did Mother-son and Father-daughter dances. Oh well, we both got plenty of dancing in. I think I was more sore the next day than I've been so far in the third trimester.

Gwen looked lovely in her beautiful blue dress, hand made by the bride's mother just for Gwen. As soon as Gwen saw it, she said, "ooh, I wear Cinderella dress! My fairy God-Mother (she puts a long emphasis on the "ah" so it sounds more like "Maaahther") made for Gwen!" and she could hardly be persuaded to put down her flowers. She made exceptions for eating and dancing...

And she did plenty of it. She danced with me (yes, this is a less than flattering photo, but it documents the crazy amount of dancing that my father-in-law feared would put me into labor)

Rachelle, aka, the "Princess"

Uncle Collin (who favored all of us with more dance moves than one might expect... I think he had some extra incentive. More on that much later from now)

and of course, with Grandma. She also made her jacket. See, I told you she was talented!

And lastly, aren't Marc and Rachelle so handsome together? Ah, I feel the love. :)

Cute Belly or Beached Whale?

When I see gals in my ward (like Stephanie H or Britney M) with their cute pregnant bellies sticking out, somehow I've always just thought I looked like that too. At least, I could imagine to myself that I was proportioned like such a cute pregnant gal. As I was getting ready for the wedding festivities this past weekend in Utah (Eric's bro, Marc, got hitched), I kind of had this idea in my head that THAT is what I looked like. Even looking in the mirror, I still saw myself with filters on. I didn't FEEL enormously pregnant, so I assumed I didn't look like it either. And I felt pretty confident, cute, and-- dare I admit-- even attractively prego.

until I was uploading photos from the weekend. And I saw the reality.

Folks, I look like a beached whale! and I've still got a month and a half to go!

I'm not complaining about being pregnant, that isn't the point of this post. The point is, I was shocked to see that what I THOUGHT I looked like was FAR from the REALITY. Question is, am I the only one who does this? Or have any of you been surprised to 'discover' yourself in a photo or video? and no, I'm not going to disclose those photos for your viewing humor. I am holding out til perhaps a flattering photo can be found. :)

Fighting Dragons and Motherhood

What does this look like to you?

A whisk, you say? HAH! (egh--the buzzer sounds) Wrong!

Gwen was helping me in the kitchen and found this treasure in "her" drawer... pulled it out and shouted: "I fight da dragons!"

and thus began our over an hour long adventure

--a fun activity that we have done several times since that first day--

of fighting dragons.

Sometimes she wants me to wield the sword,

sometimes I'm only there to open the doors behind which the dragons are hiding.

Sometimes she is also a princess wearing a dress to fight those dragons,

other times she says she is looking for Philip.

Always there is sneaking involved

(usually Gwen quotes a song from library story time and whispers,

"I sneaking as slooowlyyyyy as I caaaaaan.")

And when the dragons are all defeated, there is usually some kind of celebration.

I love that I had and took the time to create this memory with her. She will forget, I'm sure, but I will always remember what a simple pleasure it was to encourage her imagination and fight those dragons together! It struck me that this sort of thing is exactly what makes motherhood worthwhile in the day to day ordinariness of routine:

taking those fleeting opportunities to love.

Gwen-ism

We watched the lil boy of some friends of ours last week while they went out. He's not quite old enough for Gwen to think of him as a peer, he is not young enough for her to think he is a cute baby, and he is old enough to want to play with her toys. I think she doesn't know quite what to think of him. And that translates into not wanting to share with him most of the time and resorting to bossing him around. I know oldest children in general are plagued with the "bossy" gene, but I try my hardest to stop the habit before it gets worse. So this day that he was over, they were sitting at the kitchen table together eating lunch.

Gwen proceeds to scold him in her bossy voice with furrowed brows and pouty mouth: "no-no, Josiah, no-no".

Me: "Gwen, he's not hurting you. He's not going to take your food. He's not even touching you."

Gwen (meeting my gaze without hesitation): "He looking me."

LOL, what could I say to that? I just had to laugh! So it begins! (Mom, she's touching me, she's reading my book over my shoulder, she's breathing my air!) Seriously, where do kids learn these things?

Oh, and thanks for all the suggestions on the undressing thing. Right now we're having success with a safety pin. Hopefully it will take her at least a month to figure out how to open one. :)

naked in the crib-- I need your suggestions

My sweet and wonderful 2 year old has got both Eric and me stumped. For the past 2 weeks, I've gone in to get her up in the morning and discovered her naked in her crib. Yes, she has mastered taking off her clothes and diaper. The past week, things have escalated. I've washed crib sheets and blankets 4 times in the past 3 days because she has dropped surprises. Yesterday I washed everything twice because she also got herself nakie after she woke from her nap.

I'm not really frustrated yet, per se. I am glad that a) she is interested in pee pee and poo poo since we are working on potty training sort of and b) that she is independent and wants to try to undress herself. More than anything, I'm just not sure what to do about it. Obviously, I can't continue to do extra laundry two times a day. Should I safety pin her zipper so she can't take off her pjs? What about her clothes during naptime? How do I get her to keep those on? Should I duct tape her diaper so she can't get access to the tabs? Should we go ahead and transition her to a toddler bed so that when she wakes up she can get into toys and appropriate things rather than having nothing better to do than get naked?

Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Any suggestions or ideas?

Catching Up...I think she is becoming a Princess

Today I finished another paper. That means I've only got 2 to go! (of course, they are the big ones for each course. The "final", ya know. But hey. 2. That sounds do-able!) In celebration, I'm taking some time to upload, edit, and post photos from the past couple of weeks.

When Mommy consents to wear Belle... Gwen insists we BOTH go take a look in the mirror!

Gwen made her own Valentines this year. Homemade fingerpaint. She thought it was delicious. (It is entirely edible. However, glitter is not.)

Eric took a sick day this week to recover from a nasty cold. Gwen was thrilled to have time during the day to play with Daddy. And even more excited when he showed her how wonderful it can be to crawl under the bed. Here they are together under Gwen's crib. She thought it was hilarious!

Have you noticed a theme? Pretty much every picture has Gwen sporting a Princess dress. This week she also discovered that she had just enough dresses to share with her baby dolls. Now they take turns being Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora.

What I don't have pictures of is how she is obsessed with putting her dresses to bed in the bassinet we brought out of storage for upcoming arrival. It is in our bedroom, but I find her in there laying her Princess dresses in one at a time, saying: "Shhhh. G-night Aurora. It's okay. It's okay. Go to sleep. Shhhh." And she'll stroke them so softly and tenderly. Repeat for each dress. A very reassuring mommy. She's going to be such a great big sister!

Also don't have pictures of how she puts her small hand-held polly pocket sized Cinderella, Aurora, and their accompanying dresses to sleep in her sparkly shoes every night. It is really funny.

Stay tuned for photos of cookie decorating, update on sewing project, and other fun!

Happy New Year! (and FREE Panda Express...)

Welcome to the year of the Rabbit!

and just to get you excited, there are free Firecracker Chicken Breast bowls at Panda Express TODAY ONLY! Go get em folks!

and Happy New Year!