29

Yesterday was my birthday and, as always, it was a great day! I'm a little freaked out about being 29 - I think it's the anticipation of turning 30 (although since I've been anticipating it for the past few years I don't think it'll be too bad). It just seems really old to me. I was watching MacGuyver reruns the other night (yep, that's right, I was) and I thought, 'HOLY COW! My mom was MY age when MacGuyver originally aired!!!!'. That was quite an eye opening experience.

Anyway, back to the most special of all holidays, my birthday. Since it wasn't actually my birthday this year it wasn't quite the extravaganza that it was last year, but it was still a really great day. It started out with Justin getting up with the kids and taking them with him to his weekly basketball game so I could sleep in or whatever. I'm not sleeping too well these days but it was still nice to be able to lie in bed until 9 and then take my time eating breakfast while I watched whatever I wanted to on TV. Shortly after Justin and the boys got home, I left to go out to lunch with Vanessa. We went to Stowe to this really great place called the 'Rusty Nail'. We sat on the covered patio right next to an awesome fireplace. It was so nice to have a long lunch with a great friend. Thanks Vanessa!

Later that night, Justin took me to a really fancy restaurant called 'Butlers'. If you live in Vermont, you SERIOUSLY need to go!!!! It's associated with the Culinary Institute of New England so you know it's going to be awesome. One of Justin's friends from church is the head chef there and it's AMAZING! It's a little pricey and the food is a little more sophisticated than what I'm used to, but the experience was awesome! Michael (Justin's friend) told us that when we got there to just order an entree and he'd take care of us. I ordered duck and Justin ordered grouper (which is a fish). While we were waiting for our food, Michael kept sending out all sorts of fancy foods for us to try.

The first thing he sent out was called fois gras. It was the best thing I ate all night!! I thought it was some kind of banana thing. Michael came out at the end of our meal and told me that fois gras is really fattened duck liver. EWWWW!!! I would have never in a million years touched that stuff if I'd have known beforehand what it was, but it was seriously delicious. It was almost like a dessert. I'd eat it again! (Not an actual picture from our dinner, but you get the idea - it's pretty and doesn't look like it'd be made from something gross!)

The second thing he sent out was actually two different tasting plates. The first one was a fish plate. Now, I DON'T eat fish. I honestly cannot remember the last time I ate seafood other than shrimp. I really REALLY don't eat it. Ever. But Justin and I had decided that the theme of the night was 'try everything'. So I tried it. I was surprised at how much I liked it. I ate a scallop that was flavored so good I almost forgot what I was eating, and some halibut fishsticks. There was also an oyster on the plate that Justin ate (I just couldn't bring myself to do it).

With the fish course was a meat course called 'The old and the young'. I'm not sure why it was called that, but it was awesome too. It had a braised shortrib on it that was delightful and something that looked like a veal eggroll. Our favorite thing on that plate though was the shaved veal tounge with gnocchi. Again, never in my life would I have ordered shaved veal tounge, but it was really tasty. And the gnocchi - words cannot describe how much Justin and I loved it!!

By the time our entrees came, we were practically full already! Michael took such good care of us! Our entrees were really good. I have to admit that I liked Justin's better than mine (which is weird because he ordered fish). My duck was good, but it took me a minute to get used to the texture.

For dessert, we ordered a neopolitan meringue cookie thing that was - again - delicious, but WAY too small (oh well, I guess that's what you get at those fancy places). It was a great meal and, even though I don't think I could eat like that often, it was fun to be fancy for one night!

It was a great birthday! A huge thanks to Rick and Vanessa for watching our kids so that we could go out! And thanks Justin for making sure that I got to spend the day relaxing and doing things that I enjoy doing - that is really the best gift you could give me!
This is an actual picture of us before we went out to eat. Two things - no, I am not having twins and yes, I really do have a month and a half left. I am aware of my girth, I do not need to have it continually pointed out to me (this public service announcement brought to you on account of the many people lately who look at me with pity in their eyes when I tell them that NO I am NOT due any day).

Our Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day began with the traditional shows of affection (Heaven help our poor daughter)...
...and ended with making playdough. For their Valentine's Day party, one of the girls in Clayton's class gave all the kids homemade heart shaped playdough (cute idea). Anyway, Clayton loved it and played with it a lot. Well, it had gotten left out. Clayton was crushed that his beloved heart shaped playdough was ruined so I told him that we could make more. I had never made playdough before but it was really easy, really fun, and one batch made a TON! Clayton loved helping out. It was a really good Valentine's project for us!
Clayton loved mixing all the ingredients and stirring. He usually runs the opposite way when I ask him to help me cook, so it was fun that he actually wanted to do this with me!
After we had made our playdough, Uncle Rick came over and he and Clayton played together for a while. Uncle Rick showed Clayton how to make a playdough person. Here is Clayton with his playdough person (whose name is also Clayton).
After his playdough 'Clayton' was finished Clayton decided to make a playdough 'Noah'. By this time though, Uncle Rick was done helping. Can you tell which one Clayton made by himself (I think they're both pretty cute though)? Noah liked playing with the playdough too! He initially wanted to eat it, but after one taste he was content to keep it out of his mouth (it's mostly flour and salt - yum). This picture is a little blurry, but he looks so grown up here! I can't believe that he will only be my baby for another two months!!
Finally, a shout out to Justin for the best Valentine's Day present ever (even though it was a day late). Those of you who know Justin well are thinking, 'hey, he doesn't celebrate VD, he didn't get you a gift!'. Well, no, technically the gift was non-VD related, but it was still an awesome display of how much he loves me so I'm counting it!!
We sleep with four pillows on our bed. One under each of our heads, one in-between my knees (this is only a pregnancy thing - I usually don't need one there), and one that we affectionately call, 'the Berlin Wall'. We aren't big cuddlers and we both like our seperate space when we sleep so the pillow in between us helps us to each stick to our own sides. However, the 'Wall' is technically Justin's pillow and he usually ends up sleeping on it somehow. Lately, however, I have liked having this pillow up against my back as support. It's nice to have something to balance out the belly. Justin isn't a fan of this and usually takes it back (hey, it's his pillow, right?). The other night though, he LET ME HAVE IT!!!! I lay in bed waiting for him to take it like always, but he didn't - on purpose!! Honestly, it felt so good to be able to sleep with it all night long!! The following night he decided that he wanted his 'Wall' back, but instead of just taking it, he replaced it with another pillow! So now I have my very own pillow to sleep against! We now have five pillows in our bed. It's a lot, but we need them all! Thanks Justin, that was a really nice thing for you to do and the baby and I appreciate it!!

Valentine's Party

Clayton had been looking forward to his school's Valentine's Day party for over a week. On the day of his party I had to go into his room and wake him up (he is a kid who likes to sleep in). At first he wasn't too happy with me but when I told him it was the day of his Valentine's party, he jumped out of bed and told me that as soon as he went potty we needed to go! I had to talk him into eating breakfast, getting dressed, and brushing his teeth and hair.

He got to bring a stuffed animal to school today, because part of their Valentine festivities involved celebrating a stuffed animal. You can see by his face how excited Clayton was to take Teddy to school. (Teddy was Justin's stuffed animal when he was Clayton's age. I love that they can share that.)
Not to be outdone, Noah decided he wanted to bring Elephant along for the ride (you can see that we are extremely creative with naming our stuffed animals around here - we also have a cat named Cat and a dog named Dog...heaven help us).
When I picked him up after school, I told him that he had made Teddy a very nice necklace. Clayton got a little frustrated with me and told me that it was NOT a necklace, it's a collar. Excuuuse me! Once again, you can just tell by his face what kind of day he had at school!
Here he is with Teddy and his Valentine bag. When I dropped him off he was so excited to show me the wall where everyone's bags were hanging. He pointed his out and was practically bouncing off the walls when he explained how everyone was going to put a Valentine in his bag and then he could bring it home!
His party was such a success! He has great teachers who really went all out to make sure it was a special day for the kids. I'm really glad that he loves school so much. I know that special things like this only reinforce his love for it!

A Good Day

A lot of things made me smile today. Starting with this little boy:
While Clayton was in school we went to Wal-Mart. Among our purchases was this laundry basket. Noah thought I bought it just for him. He was having such a good time with it that I let him play with it until we had to go get Clayton.
As I was putting laundry away I came across this shirt that my mom gave me for Christmas. It made me smile that a) this isn't a maternity shirt - hooray for the light at the end of the tunnel and b) she has this much faith in my weight loss abilities (love you mom):
I was crafty today. I saw these clip-holders once on someone's etsy shop and thought, 'I could make that'! Well, I did and I love it! It's functional and decorative!
I love sitting in the nursery, it's my new favorite room in the house. Doesn't this just make you anxious for a little peek inside? Well, hang in there, it's getting close to done and once it is - there will be pictures a-plenty!
Clayton got his Valentine cards ready for his class party on Thursday. His handwriting makes me smile. You can actually tell now that it says his name!
Finally, after dinner tonight, Clayton asked Justin if he could use his stethoscope. He wanted to be a doctor and listen to see if our hearts were 'beeping'.
At first he couldn't hear my heart and when Justin tried to correct him he said, "I'm the doctor, you let me listen!" (apparently Justin and I are medical marvels because neither of our hearts were 'beeping'). How could that not make you smile?
What a good day!!

The Superbowl

You gotta love candid family photos...
It was a great game and we all had a great time (even if it isn't obvious by my facial expression)!

Terrible Two's, Where's Daddy, and Pajama Parties

After having Clayton I was convinced that the 'terrible two's' were an exaggeration. I had decided that it should be labeled the 'inconvenient two's' and the 'terrible three's'. Noah, however, is working hard to help me understand just exactly why they're called the 'terrible two's'. I am now a believer and I'm absolutely terrified for what three will bring. Now, I love Noah with all my heart. Heaven knows that no one has me wrapped around their finger like that little boy does but lately we have the same fight every morning.

Noah loves his pajamas and wants to be in them all day. I can't blame him, it would be nice to stay in my jammies and lounge around all day, but unfortunately, I do not allow this. In our house, you get dressed right after breakfast. Noah hates this rule and lately has become very vocal in expressing his hatred of it and very physical in his opposition. Yes, I am larger and older, but it is HARD to win a 'getting dressed' fight with a stubborn two year old. So today, after his shirt got put on over his head and the fighting became more than I wanted to deal with, I left him as he was.

As you can see, this wasn't acceptable to him either, but since he refused to get properly dressed, he stayed like this for about an hour (until I became frustrated enough to get back into the ring and finish the fight).
On a different note - lately Clayton has become very aware of where Justin goes every day. He knows that Justin goes to the hospital and (in his words), 'makes the sick kids feel better'. Very cute. However, lately Clayton has really started identifying with Justin and he gets very sad when Justin isn't home as often as Clayton thinks he should be. Here are a few of the things I've been hearing lately:
(fake cough)"I'm sick. I need to go to the hospital so daddy can make me better."
"There must be a lot of sick kids at the hospital. How many more does daddy have to fix before he can come home?"
"Noah is sick. We have to get him some medicine. If we go to the hospital, daddy can give him some."
And my favorite:
"I got to cut off a leg today!" (Okay this was said by Justin, not Clayton, but Justin's enthusiasm when he said it made me really want to throw it in there.)
It breaks my heart. Especially when I think of the fact that we are only going to see less of him once residency starts. I know that Clayton understands that what daddy does is very important, but I don't think he understands why daddy can't just be home more.

Finally, to lighten things back up. We have been spending a lot of time lately with our favorite friend, Enoch. We had him spend the night once and it was a huge success. Now, whenever he comes over at night, Clayton gets very excited at the prospect of a 'pajama party'. You can see that he isn't the only one who loves it!

I don't know what we're going to do when we move for residency and don't live next to the Petersen's anymore. These boys (especially Noah and Enoch) are thick as thieves and it's fun to see how excited they all get to see each other.

So that's what we've been up to lately. It's still freezing here (by that I mean close to or below zero). It's supposed to get into the 30's tomorrow and when I heard that I actually got really excited at the prospect of some 'decent weather'. Because of this, we don't really do too many exciting things around here lately. Hence the random post. Although in my defense, I am pregnant and everything I do lately is pretty random (and yes, I'm using that as my excuse for everything as long as I can)!

Yay for sisters!

I have the best sisters. The older I get the more convinced of this I am. They are very different people, but it's great because I get the best of all worlds with them. We share everything. When Justin and I first got married he was a little weirded out by how 'freakishly close' my sisters (and mom) and I were. He's used to it by now though - I don't think anything about our relationship could phase him at this point. The point is, my sisters are great and I couldn't imagine my life without them.

Last week I got a special treat. My sister, Ashley, came to visit. It was a completely last minute trip. She took some time off of work to run a half marathon and ended up getting more time than she knew what to do with. With no hesitation she booked a trip to Vermont to see me! I can't tell you how happy this made me. First of all, it has been almost a year since I last saw her. Second, this winter has dragged by and I had nothing to break up all the monotony. I wanted to cry when I went to pick her up at the airport! (And I DEFINITELY cried when we dropped her off!)

We didn't do too much while she was in town this time. We did some shopping and ate out a few times but we mostly just sat around my house talking and laughing. (She also helped me paint the nursery - but I will post about that a different time.) I didn't take too many pictures of her time with us, but that's because we were having such a good time that I honestly didn't think to get the camera out. However, here are the ones I did take:

I had to put this one in here. I didn't realize that she was going to be making a goofy face or else I would have made one too but her face in this cracks me up! It's a really good indicator of her personality - she's crazy funny!
I needed to throw this one in after using that last one. She's so pretty (and she looks even prettier next to the 'Incredible Bloated Lady')! Oh yeah, Clayton took this picture (and the one above). He's turning into such a good photographer!
The boys absolutely loved having her here. She was so good about dropping whatever she was doing and playing whatever they wanted. She definitely spoiled them. I think Clayton was a little disappointed when we came home from dropping her off at the airport and he realized he was stuck with just boring old mom again!
Thanks for coming to visit Ashley! I love you and am so happy that we got to have you with us - even if it was only for a short time! I can't wait to see you again in May!