What a Weekend!

Friday, Noah got to play with his friend Carson all day long. They were adorable and had a great time, and they kept each other such good company that I could actually sit on the couch and relax!



Saturday, I got up ealy and went to our huge neighborhood community sale. I'm usually not much of a garage-saler, but this was the mother of all sales. I got something for each of my kids--yes, that's right, I can't believe I will have TWO kids soon. Anyway, a big wheel for Noah:



...and a double stroller, which is thus far the first official gift for the unborn:



I also got my hair cut and highlighted on Saturday so I am a blonde again. I didn't take a picture of this; I know you're all super sad about that. The rest of Saturday consisted of watching the entire first round of the NFL Draft (remember my New Year's Resolution?). Then I made an appetizer, got a sitter, and Greg and I were off to a work function for his office.

Sunday morning I had to pick up some cinnamon rolls from a food auction I entered to support a mission trip. We were going to have a small breakfast together out on the patio:



Seriously. Anyone want to come over?

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

It remains that there is nothing quite like an overcast Sunday afternoon at home.

The Daily Granite

At long last (well, to me anyway) I get to blog about my new kitchen! Pretty much for the last year Greg and I have been talking, saving, and planning to upgrade our kitchen countertops and backsplash. Finally this spring, after quite a bit of price comparison, we decided on a company and settled on all the details. Last weekend, it was made official! Below are pictures of the old kitchen, complete with a highly fashionable maroon stripe in the tile (I have no maroon in my whole house other than this).

Are you just wishing this beautiful display of culinary framework had been your kitchen?

We had to remove everything from the surfaces and the lower cupboards!

This island was the only part of the old kitchen I loved and will miss because my dad made it for us a year and a half ago. I love the slate top!

Remember when I said we had to remove everything? I never realized how much crap one can accumulate in 7 years of marriage when one has 42 cupboard doors behind which to hide things... Our poor office, however, will never forget.

Oh, the draping. And more draping. Futile efforts to discourage dust from settling anywhere but the kitchen floor. Futile I tell you. I still had to scrub the rest of the house, now I just had 8 sets of sheets to wash as well.

So was it worth it? Behold, the finished product:

Noah even helped us clean up afterwards. :)

R-O-L-A-I-D-S

Okay, so with my first pregnancy I only gained 24 lbs and didn't wear maternity clothes until month #6. With this one however, I am only at 11 weeks and my jeans felt a little snug today; no matter how many squats I did or how many times I told myself it's because I just washed them, still snug. Is this normal? I'm also here to tell you all that Rolaids, while having a slightly chalky aftertaste, are quite pleasing and can almost satisfy the occasional sweet tooth, especially if you get the assorted berry flavor. Well, that's all my bloated self can come up with at this time. I'll do an Easter post manana.

A Beautiful Vacation

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged! I've missed you all, but had a marvelous time in snowy Colorado for the 4th annual Beautifuls Retreat. Remember the highschool group? Usually our retreat is at a farm in Texas where we become unshowered shut-ins who play X-box karaoke and eat dessert for 3 days, but this year we held the retreat in Denver to visit Amy's brand new 6-week-old baby boy. We took the husbands along but they did other things during the day so we could get right to our usual retreat-style 'talking and eating but not showering' selves. And of course, we had a blast (pictures below...).

A few highlights include:
-Eating Bison burgers at Ted Turner's restaurant
-Curling up in a chair every morning to drink coffee next to a kitchen fireplace, and staring out the window at the swirling snow
-Enjoying the world's best Kolaches
-Seeing Greg in his snowboarding gear (he looks hot)
-Relaxing all day long with the girls
-Eating Brooke's fabulous chocolate-brownie-pudding-cake layered dessert concoction
-Eating arugula, proscuitto, and mozzarella gourmet pizza
-Watching Noah discover the snow
-Watching Noah get spoiled by all my friends and love it
-Watching Noah play WWF all day long with a teddy bear bigger than him
-Seeing the 12 crosses at the Columbine cemetary memorial
-Holding sweet baby Brett for hours


Me, Brooke, Amy, baby Brett, and Cheryl


This is what he did the whole time. He was so good and so yummy!


The only two little members of the Beautiful clan; we call them The Handsomes.


Thursday morning we woke up to several inches of snow! Noah had never seen it before, so we put on his, yes, snowpants, and let him romp around.

He loved it until he fell down (without mittens on) and realized his hands were like burning from cold. He loved it anyway.

Greg and I learned a valuable lesson on this trip: athough the airlines say that kids under 2 can fly free if they sit on your lap, the truth is that 17 month olds should never have to sit on your lap for 2 hours in a confined space. Noah reached his limit right about the time the pilot asked the flight attendants to prepare for takeoff. He decided to poop and flail about in our row. Two very longs hours later we arrived and made a pact to never put ourselves through that again. We begged the gate attendant and got him his own seat for the way back. The kid slept in his carseat on the plane for the entire flight home! We were so excited we almost became members of the mile high club...

Well, time to do all the things that suck after vacation: 3 loads of laundry, vaccuum dog hair off the carpet, take the dog to the groomers to get shaved, go grocery shopping, etc. But first, a nap.