39=Lace

I love the idea of giving a traditional gift for an anniversary. For example, first anniversary is paper, second is cotton, third is leather...and so on. There is a 'traditional' list as well as a 'modern' list. The modern list has something for every year while the traditional goes to year fifteen and then is only every five years.
Well, today is my parent's 39th anniversary and the modern list says the gift is lace. Lucky me, because next year is Ruby and last year was beryl. What would I have done with beryl??





We joined them for a nice dinner last night to celebrate their anniversary. It was nice to go out as couples, thanks Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary!

Things that were good this week

 * getting together with the Hildens. (We see them almost every weekend so when we go three weeks without getting together it makes our worlds a little off kilter. Fear not, all is right with the world again. Whew)

* the start, and almost finish, of a long overdue sewing project. (pictures to come)

* an evening cooling off with friends at a pool/splash pad

* a kitchen table. finally!

* a letter from my NY bestie.

* Michaels, Target, and Starbucks with my mum.

* two visits to a friends house with kiddie pool. (it's been HOT)

* new library books

* The People's Roast. Iced. YUM



I thought I would leave you with a baby bump picture. I am approaching 31 weeks now but this photo is from week 29.

MN Zoo

To celebrate a little break in the heat we headed to the MN Zoo on Sunday with Nana and Papa.
To be honest, it was still pretty hot out, but we enjoyed ourselves!

 

I wanted to jump in the pool with this bear and cool off too but I also didn't want to get eaten, so I decided against it.

As always, Charles loved the fish and other under water creatures.

He likes the movie Happy Feet so seeing the penguins was really fun. These two were following his hand up and down.

And the most exciting part of the trip? The dolphin show! He loved watching them swim and jump and splash the water. If you live in the area make sure to take a trip to the zoo and see the dolphins this summer because they are moving the dolphins out of our zoo in the fall.

Baby on the brain

I am getting so excited to meet our baby. Today I am 29 weeks pregnant. Only 11 more weeks till my due date, and although I am not expecting to go early like I did with Charles, the thought is still in the back of my mind, so really it could be less. or more. ha! Either way, the excitement is brewing.

This is from our 20 week ultrasound. It so fun to imagine what this little boy will look like.




One thing I noticed right away was a resemblance between this ultrasound picture and the one we have of Charles at 20 weeks.
 
Baby boy on the left and Charles on the right

Do you notice their upper lips? How they both stick out over their lower lip? Charles' upper lip still does that and I think it's one of the cutest things ever. See?


What a darling little profile!

So will Baby Boy have that same cute upper lip? I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Fourth of July

This was our first fourth of July back in Minneapolis and boy was it a hot one! A whopping 101 degrees to be exact! We left the comfort of our air conditioned apartment and headed to a friends house to bbq. Luckily there were water balloons, squirt guns, and just plain old buckets of water to keep us cool.

 

This was the first fourth of July in four years I think that I didn't make 'my' flag cake (I say 'my' because I got the recipe from Pioneer Woman who got it from Barefoot Contessa.) In reality, with this heat, the icing stripes would have melted away within a few minutes. Instead I made chocolate chip cookies and lemonade cookies, both of which have been part of my cravings as of late. When it comes to cravings I have been wanting chocolate chip cookies and lemon dessert-y stuff. yum yum yummm.

While I don't have a picture of the cookies, I do have a photo of Chris' three meat creation.
Behold, a bacon wrapped burger stuffed with shrimp. oh yes

 

Despite the heat, we had a really good time. We are thankful to be back with old friends and for the new friends we have here too.
As the evening went on we could hear people setting off fireworks and Charles didn't really like the loud noise. He wanted to see them but not hear them. We got home just when the real fireworks were starting and could see some from the front of our building but after a few minutes he wanted to go back in. Perhaps next year he will be more into it.

 

"nothings says 'U.S.A.'s the bomb' quite like a bomb pop".. S. Kirby

Catch Up

I accidentally deleted my last post, maybe my last two? I'm not sure.. So I am going to attempt to re-post it. ugh.

In the last month we have...

Cooled off at the splash pad
 

Checked out local parks


Walked around Lake Calhoun with friends

 Had many visits with Nana while she was home


Settled into our new apartment

Ate at the Tin Fish with friends


Celebrated Daddy



Passed my glucose test!

Began my third trimester!

(I realize this belly picture is a bit weird, having been taken in the bathroom at my clinic but while waiting the hour for my test I was texting with my NY bestie and sent this picture to her. I thought I'd keep it since I haven't taken nearly as many pregnancy photos with this baby as I did with Charles.) 26 weeks

The Big Reveal

When I was pregnant with Charles we waited until he was born to know if he was a boy or girl. I loved not knowing and having the surprise at his birth. With this baby we decided to find out what we were having. After the ultrasound Chris and I kept it to ourselves for two and a half weeks (!!!) until we could have family and close friends over to tell them first.
On Sunday we had a 'reveal party' to share the big news.. Boy or Girl??
When guests arrived they were asked to wear their guess by pinning either a mustache or a bow on their shirts.



Later we read through some old wive's tales about how to tell if it's a boy or girl. You know, if you're carrying high it's a girl, low it's a boy. If your face gets fat or pimply it's a girl. If your hands are really dry it's a boy. If you have bad morning sickness it's a girl. If you crave salty foods it's a boy, sweets it's a girl. We even hung a ring on a string over my belly to see if it swung left to right (boy) or rotated (girl).
The option was given to change their guess if they wanted. Then it was time for the big reveal.

Team 'boy'

Team 'girl'

(we obviously already knew what we were having but we wanted to be in the pictures too)

I had made a cake the day before and dyed the batter, the icing concealed the secret so that when it was cut into it showed either blue or pink :)







BLUE! We are having another boy! I am so excited for Charles to have a little brother. I am almost 23 weeks along and hoping the summer goes by fast. We can't wait to meet our little guy!


this photo is from a few weeks ago already.. 19 weeks along