I Heart Faces Entry 2

Here is my second entry for I Heart Faces blog. I took this in Kenya. This little boy was leaning up against his Mom's leg and a little uncertain of me. But I think his eyes say a million things about his life. 

It's about that time...

I put on my first official maternity gear today. My jeans. I was using the rubber band trick for the button on my regular jeans for as long as I possibly could, until it just became too uncomfortable. I couldn't do it anymore. When I sat down I had to unzip my jeans the whole way and push them down under my belly. It got to be a little ridiculous that every time I got back up from sitting down I was seen zipping my pants back up. Yes, I did this even at restaurants and other public places. I'm sure people were wondering what my problem was. So I bit the bullet and pulled out the trusty maternity jeans. And wow. I am so much more comfortable. They fit perfectly, which honestly is a little scary this early on. What are they going to fit like in 3 more months if they fit perfectly now!? And how much do I LOVE that I can just pull them up & down like sweat pants every time I use the bathroom, which I must say, is pretty frequent these days. So here is my first official "belly shot" on my first official day of wearing maternity clothes. Good times, good times.

I Heart Faces

I saw this contest on this blog and I couldn't resist joining in. This is one of my favorite "face" shots I have ever taken. Ooh, could you not just reach through the screen and squeeze those cheeks!?

If you want to join in you can go to www.iheartfaces.com.

Target(ing)

I love Target. I mean, who doesn't, really? I think they pump some sort of undetectable gas into their stores that makes everyone in there high. It makes everything in the store look irresistible and it appears that everything you set your sights on must be taken from the store that instant and taken home with you. You think I'm kidding? I'm dead serious. I also refer to it as the $100 store. No that's not Dollar store. That's the One Hundred Dollar store. It is like an act against nature to try and walk out of there without spending $100. Sure you could just be running in, quickly, for a roll of tape & some lip gloss, but somehow, mysteriously, that total up on the screen ends up being at least $100! All those things considered, I just love that place. I went in yesterday to grab some things and a few things caught my attention.

First, this was the first thing that I saw as I walked into the store yesterday:

WHAT!? It's January! New Year's Eve was just the other night. Why in the world am I having to suffer through seeing THIS when I walk into Target right now? You see, it's not enjoyable to see these tiny pieces of fashion when you know there's no way your butt is fitting into any of them. And the Holidays are barely behind us. And they're literally hanging onto behind us if you know what I mean. We're not ready for this. Give us a break. Give us just a little bit of time to decide we're going to do something about those Holidays on our behinds before torturing us with these things!

Second, you have NO IDEA how badly I wanted to spend $179 I did not have, and walk out of the store with this:
I guess it's a good idea I had the restraint not to buy it, because when my hubby got home we had a nice discussion about not spending so much frivolous money and saving more. Whew! Can you hear that conversation? "Ok honey, yes all of that sounds really great and I plan on starting that plan....tomorrow. But look what I got today!"

Third, I needed a card to go with a baby shower gift so I was looking at the cards and found this adorable card for a baby boy.

Then I saw this:
Are you kidding me!? Can you see that!? The price on the card: $4.99! Who in the world made the decision that it was ok to charge that much for a card!? I want the card I buy to be a nice way for the person receiving the gift to know it is from me. It's not part of the gift for goodness sake!

And lastly, why is it that I feel so uncomfortable browsing this aisle?
I don't know what it is. It just makes my skin crawl. I wait until there's no one on the aisle before I will peruse through the different types of toilet paper. Believe me, the only thing I am looking for is the cheapest one. Honestly. But I feel like if people are watching me, they're thinking, "Hmm...wonder how soft she wants the TP that wipes her butt." It's just wrong.

33%

I was looking at some pregnancy countdown thingys online. Not because I'm going to add one to my blog, frankly because I visit my blog daily to link to other blogs and I don't want to have to see it every single day. I just feel like time will start to crawl along if I am reminded how many days, hours, minutes, & seconds I have left of my body not being my own. Not that I don't like being pregnant or think of it as a complete blessing. I just like to feel great and energized and myself and I don't feel that way while pregnant. I happen to feel just icky and tired and not myself. Ok, so now that I am totally rambling in a different direction, let's get back to what we were talking about. I like to look at the countdown things every once in a while. It's much more exciting to me to see the countdown after it's been a few weeks since I last looked. It's like, ooh...wow....I am 27 days further along than last time I was wasting time online looking at these things! So today I was looking at one particular one and it gave a percentage of how far along you are. I am 33% along. I couldn't believe that! A third of the way through! This pregnancy really has gone by so fast. And why wouldn't it, when I have a kindergartner, a very busy toddler and I'm taking care of a household and running a business! I hardly have time to sit and gaze at my growing belly and think of the baby that is to join us this summer. I haven't even blogged about the pregnancy, (besides the feeling yucky at the beginning, which has gotten much better, thanks for asking) and posted no pictures of the belly. Now don't get excited. I don't plan on posting one anytime soon. Right now it just looks like I ate too much at Thanksgiving & Christmas and I most certainly did! so I will be waiting until it's a cuter, rounder shape before showing it. So I just thought I'd share with you that I am almost exactly 1/3 of the way to through this journey we call pregnancy. Hopefully I'll be checking back in with you soon with the news of whether Marty will be completely outnumbered in his family or if we will be evening out the odds a bit. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, and even if you weren't, I have to share and toot my own horn, I have not put on ONE piece of maternity clothing yet! Go me! That's not to say that my jeans aren't being held together with a rubberband instead of the button and the zipper may be zipped only half-way, but hey for baby number three I am pretty surprised I wasn't wearing mumu's by week 8!

Colorado Road Trip

Estes Park

A few days before Christmas, Marty got a wild hair to drive to Colorado and surprise his family that lives there. He has some time off of work and we figured it would be a great opportunity that might not come up again soon. So we packed up the girls, an ice chest, snacks, pillows, blankets, toys, cameras, video cameras, and pretty much everything else in our house, and hit the open road for a 16 hour drive. I documented the road trip with my new Flip, so I'll be sharing those enlightening videos a little later. For now, here are some photos from a short trip we took to Estes Park. It is a charming town in a beautiful setting and we had a great time there.

The place we stayed for the night, The Lake Shore Lodge

The view from our balcony

The Stanley House

Look familiar? It's the hotel where The Shining was filmed.

Elk hanging out near the road

Enjoying some hot chocolate while strolling down the chilly streets of Downtown Estes Park

Great old fashioned candy store that gave out samples!

Downtown Estes Park at sunset

Cozy den at the place we stayed

Big Horn Sheep on a hill by the road

Huge Elk crossing the road right in front of our car!