st george

We went to St George over Memorial Day weekend and it was so fun. The weather was amazing and we had such a great time with our friends. We went boating on Friday and Saturday. I forgot how great it is to be out on the water. The rest of the time we hung out by the pool, ate good food and enjoyed good company.

Bella

Eric surfing and wakeboarding

JD and Tanner

Eric and Laura

sixteen

i have a couple different belly shots from different weeks but i just look fat in all of them. i've had a belly almost the whole time because of all the invitro stuff. but now, it's actually starting to look and feel like a pregnant belly. it's so fun. every time i look down at it i am overwhelmed with gratitude.

next week we have another ultrasound and hopefully we'll get a more concrete idea of what we are having {i'll be 17 weeks}. i am SO excited. E claims to know that they are both boys. i have my heart set on a boy and a girl. but as long as there are two steady heartbeats i will be thrilled.

last week i started working summer hours: 4, 10 hour days with fridays off. just like last summer. and just like last summer i have mixed feelings about this change. one thing that is much better this summer... the people i am working with. i don't really mind spending my 10 hour days with some good friends.

last weekend {for the first time in about 18 weeks} i actually had energy to do things. i forgot what that was like. it was nice to have a little motivation and energy back to get some things accomplished and not just be lazy all the time.

tomorrow we leave for a long weekend in st george with friends. so excited for this.

it's peach and nectarine season. these are seriously the best fruits around. i can not eat enough of them. and we also like to do peach shakes. peaches and vanilla ice cream in the vitamix. it is to die for.

have you listened to DREAM by priscilla ahn. you should.

and the pictures

E got the Iphone4 last week {it's sweet} so I took a ton of pictures with it because it was very convenient to pull out and use.

Hanging out at C & A's house

Park City with A & L

Bells Canyon Hike and Waterfall

Bella {wish I would've taken pictures on Sunday night with the friends}

Lake Powell

Sunset on the way back to AZ

found

E and I took an impromptu trip to UT over the long weekend and it was fantastic! We got home late last night and I'm back at work today so I haven't had a chance to upload all the pictures. But here's the run down of what we did.

We had originally planned on heading north {to escape the heat} to Sedona and Flagstaff. I had Friday and Monday off, which makes for a great weekend trip. We were going to camp and hike and enjoy cooler weather. But when I looked into the specific hikes we were interested in, the area was closed because of the Flagstaff fires. So I was bummed but I was set on doing something. Then E had the brilliant idea that we take off to UT. So we did just that. We left Thursday night at 7pm and drove straight through the night {we had to tap into E's amazing all night driving skills} and arrived in SLC at 7am on Friday. We headed straight to E's parents house and woke up his mom/surprised her and then went straight to bed for a short nap. A couple hours later we surprised Andrew, Loni and Bella {which was great fun}. Then we headed over to Curt and Anne's. We spent the rest of the afternoon with them and it was awesome. We chatted for forever, played with Andrew and cute Elise and then went swimming at the Kimble's.

That night we met Andrew and Loni in Park City for our "traditional" Sidecar Pizza. Park City was beautiful and it was great catching up with old friends {thanks guys}. After that we ended the night eating ice cream and chatting with some other good friends.

Saturday morning E and I went on an AMAZING hike up Bells Canyon. It was gorgeous and the Bells Canyon waterfall was stunning, it was huge and beautiful. And the mountains were lovely. That afternoon we went swimming and hung out with E's family. Saturday night we went to dinner with friends and laughed a lot. We ended up going to bed early because we were so tired.

Sunday was a beautiful day and in the afternoon we BBQ'ed at Curt and Anne's with the fam. Delicious food and home made ice cream, mmm. That night we hung out at Andrew and Loni's house with JD and Troy and Mindi. It was so much fun to hang out with these friends again... good times. Already miss you all.

Monday morning we went to Curt and Anne's neighborhood 4th of July parade. And then we hung out there until we took off for AZ at 1pm. Our plan was to drive straight through again. But we ended up taking a little detour to Lake Powell. It was so great! We drove over the Glen Canyon Dam {the southern part of Lake Powell, near Page} and then found a place to jump in the lake. E took a couple jumps off the cliffs and I just got in and swam around. It was so refreshing. Oh Lake Powell. E said visiting Powell wouldn't be complete without eating chicken strips, so we ate some KFC for dinner. And then tried to enjoy the rest of the drive home.

We had a great time and are so glad we went. Utah is so gorgeous in the summer and we couldn't have asked for better weather, it was heaven. It was just what I needed to find myself again {those mountains will do that to you}. Thanks everyone for making time to see us on such short notice, we'll see you again in a month, yeah!

{picstures tomorrow}

the only picture

from the entire weekend

well hello there

the weekend was a busy one...

on friday E and I went to the jasper house. E mowed the lawns while I scrubbed the floors. it's been listed for a week now. if you want to check out the listing or consider buying the house :) go here.

on friday i stopped into my favorite fabric warehouse and they had just got a shipment in and i scored, like big time. i will have to take a picture of all the fabric i picked up for the amazing price of $2.99/yard. we're talking heather ross, amy butler, tracy evans, joel dewberry. i was in heaven.

on friday evening my sister stacey and her husband heath came over and we hung out and then the boys played tennis and afterwards we all went and got ice cream. fun to see my sis and ice cream is always good in this hot weather.

on saturday E took his friend, that came into town friday night {mike rasmussen} out to saguaro lake and went running/jumped in the lake. they came back and we ate lunch and spent the rest of the day together.

on saturday evening we met up with more friends {rich & susan, bill & kristy, mike} and ate dinner at joe's farm grill in gilbert {amazing} and went and saw A-team after.

on sunday E and i had a nice relaxing day together and i read half broke horses {so good} for a good part of the day {love when i get to do that}.

on sunday evening we went to rich and susan's place in scottsdale and ate a great dinner {susan is a chef} with them and mike and spent the evening chatting and going night swimming.

on monday morning i interviewed for a job at MCC {it went really well}.

on monday E and I spent the whole day together. we ate a great lunch while watching the soup, ran some errands, went to the library, read together, took a nap and cleaned up the house. then to top off the perfect day, i got an email telling me i was selected for a second interview!

on monday evening we met up with all the friends again {rich & susan, doug, mike} and ate dinner at Tia Rosa's and stayed there for forever chatting and laughing a lot.

then this morning E took mike to the airport and it was back to work for me. sigh. love good weekends full of great people and great food.

reminiscing and a purse

when we lived in california, i became friends with a wonderful woman. we trained with each other and did this race and this race together. she got certified to be a doula while i lived there and we had the best conversations about birth and babies. she was a great comfort to me as we started on our infertility journey, mostly because she always listened to me ramble about our troubles. i always felt i could confide in her.

we also loved to sew and were able to get together a couple times to have sewing days. those were always fun days. another good memory i recall was when we'd carpool to relief society activities together. we'd decide beforehand to only stay an hour {you know how you can get caught up while visiting, plus families at home to get back to} and we'd always be eyeing each other when that hour rolled around. it was nice to have someone to do that with.

shortly after we moved to CA she had a little baby girl {now 2}. her second {a boy} is due in a month. i made this purse for her to hopefully serve as a diaper bag. but what's so great about this purse is it's easy conversion to purse after the need for a diaper bag ends.

you may remember that i made a purse from the same pattern for my sis in law at christmas. i love how that one turned out and i absolutely love how this one turned out too. and still my fav part about the purse are the 4 outer pockets. they are perfection.

the pattern is Anna Maria Horner - Multi-Tasker Tote. All fabric is from Anna Maria Horner also. The exterior and interior fabrics are from the Drawing Room home decor collection and the red pockets on the outside are from the Good Folks collection. Anna Maria Horner patterns and fabrics are amazing. they are so easy to understand and work with.

i mailed it today Jess. and you may find another surprise in there with it. hope you love it! here's to good memories and friendship.

um, i'm so in love with it... i couldn't pick one picture

an adorable baby and a quilt

I made this quilt for Bella (Andrew and Loni's baby girl born in October).

Then while we were in Utah I took pictures of Bella on the quilt. It looks much better with a cute baby on it.

The best part about making quilts is giving them away. It is great.