I don't have a problem... really I don't!

Every since I found out I was pregnant, I feel like I'm obsessed with alcohol. I swear I'm literally counting the days till I can consume an adult beverage. I have never been a big drinker. I enjoy drinking just enough... because drinking too much is always unpleasant for me the next day. My drink of choice is usually wine, though I enjoy margaritas, and the occasional dark beer. The dark beer thing is a little odd, I'll admit, especially considering that I gravitate toward fruity, girly drinks. But someone pointed out to me that the fact that I enjoy Guinness or Sprecher Black Bavarian might have something to do with my enjoyment of coffee. Makes sense to me!

Thankfully, my sister pointed out to me that my preoccupation with alcohol is probably due to two things:
1. It's the forbidden fruit right now... and we always want what we can't have.
2. It's summer! What tastes better on a warm summer night than a cool, frosty adult beverage?

I think she's right with both of those points. I don't think I'm in danger of hitting the sauce hard once baby arrives in December. But I'm very much looking forward to that first glass of wine post-baby!

Great Birthday!

I had a great birthday with my boys. We went to church, had lunch together on the back porch, I enjoyed some solo errand-running while Alex napped, then we went out for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Guadalupe. YUMMY! I spoke with both my siblings, my parents, my in-laws. Friends called, texted and emailed. I got lots of cards. It was really a great day. Craig and Alex baked me a devil's food cake. I made the frosting Sunday morning, then Craig frosted the cake. It tasted delicious! So good, in fact, that I wanted to eat cake for dinner tonight. (I resisted. It wasn't easy.) So all in all it was a great day! Thanks to everyone who posted birthday wishes, called, or wrote. I really appreciate it!

Birthday Fun Begins

My birthday fun began yesterday afternoon at work with these lovely cupcakes! My co-worker, Jen (who's birthday is TODAY) made these adorable margarita-inspired cupcakes for my birthday. They're are only decorated to look like margaritas... the perfect margarita colored frosting, little jelly-fruit limes, and straws. All topping a Devil's food cupcake! YUM! I just thought they were so cute I had to take a picture before we gobbled them all up. The ladies I work with hear me joking about how much I am craving margaritas, so they figured this was as close as they could come to delivering happy hour for me! I loved it!

I also had a few pleasant surprises in my email box this week and I have to say, I feel spoiled! I signed up for email alerts from a couple of my favorite lunch/dinner spots. And they sent me coupons for free food for my birthday! I’m not just talking a free cup of coffee or an ice cream cone. I got buy one, get one free coupons from Qdoba, Noodles & Company, and Flat Top Grill. These are great places to eat! I was super excited by the freebies, and by the fact that now I don’t have to cook basically all weekend, unless I want to!

So the next time you’re on the fence about whether or not you should sign up for email alerts from your favorite restaurant, I say go for it! You might just get dinner out of it!

BTW- I’m not schilling for any of these places. (I’m in PR, so I know how to plug away, believe me.) I’m just all for spreading the word about getting stuff for free!

I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend with my two favorite boys now. So far the weather is great, and I'm hoping the rain that's predicted with skip over us.

I've been reading... a LOT!

I've gotten a little behind in talking about my book club... so here's the latest. My bookclub read "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" for our last pick. We all loved this book. The characters were so believable and well written. It's set on the island of Guernsey following the end of WWII. I learned about an interesting piece of WWII history while reading this book and fell in love with the characters. I wanted to go over to Guernsey and be a part of their book club.

Lisa had the next book club pick... and I loved how she set it up. She commented that the last few books we've read have been so good, that she had

a hard time selecting the next one. She actually felt pressure to keep the bar up

high... and I think she has. She picked "Rooftops of Tehran" by Mahbod Seraji. I just started this book and I think I'm going to like it!
In between these two book club picks, I managed to squeeze in "The Queen of the Big Time" by Adriana Trigiani and "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes. I enjoyed both books... but "Under the Tuscan Sun" was not at all what I expected. It's NOTHING like the movie, other than being set in a villa in Tuscany. I enjoyed this book, but it's definitely more of a travelogue/memoir of restoring a house.
I think I'm reading so much right now, because I know that after this baby comes in December, I'm not going to have as much time. So I'm trying to knock some more books off my "to read" list by then!

I've put on some weight, but I've got an excuse...

I've been having trouble selecting pictures to post lately because in most of them you can tell I've put on some weight. But I have a REALLY good excuse. I'm finally outing myself... I'm pregnant!

We're expecting baby #2 mid-December.

I don't know why I've waited so long to post this good news... I just didn't know how to blurt it out. Now I have the perfect excuse of having to explain the following pictures:

Me with my sister-in-law Jen
Serving Alex some birthday cake. (make mine an extra big piece!)

With my other sister-in-law Sarah

I'm actually feeling pretty good so far... other than being sick of my maternity clothes already. I'll be posting some of my observations about how different things are the second time around in the coming weeks.

So there you go... you're up to date on my expanding middle... and my expanding family!

Invasion of the 4 year olds

(disclaimer... For whatever reason, blogger doesn't post the pictures in the order I want them, and my computer won't let me move these pix where I want them.)

We had a BLAST at Alex's Star Wars Party on Saturday. I think our 7 young Jedi also had a good time. Here are the kids assembled on the lawn. This was taken at the end of the party. I attendance were two friends of the family, and four friends from school.

A happy boy with his SUPER AWESOME R2-D2 cake designed by my wonderful friend Sara. As you can see, she's quite talented in the cake making arts!

We played "Pin the X-Wing on the Death Star." Alex was just a teensy bit off!


There we foam light sabres for everyone to play with/beat each other up with...

Everyone had to design a home planet (paper plates decorated with stickers and markers). One planet had a sticker on the bottom. That person won a prize.

Another shot of the R2-D2 cake... because it was so amazing!

My 4 year old Jedi with his REAL light sabre.

Catch up post #3 - Alex's birthday

Alex is 4 years old now! He is such a big boy now. He has now moved to a big boy bedroom. (He'd been in a toddler bed in his old room.) He talks like such a little man... constantly narrating our lives in the most hilarious ways. He's still a total lover and snuggler. Up until last week, he still let me rock him for a few minutes before bed. It was our quiet time while we said bedtime prayers. Now my little boy loves Star Wars and pirates and everything boy-ish you can imagine! -sigh- The time just goes too fast sometimes! Above, you can see his big present, a big boy bike w/helmet.

He had a wonderful birthday with everyone from Craig's side of the family here. He has his friend party today. (Pictures to come. It's a "Star Wars" themed party. In my head it's pretty cool, so I can't wait to see it all come together!) So here are some pictures from July 5th. His actual birthday.

Alex with his cake
(frosted at roughly 11:30 p.m. July 4th, post-fireworks)

A sandbox from Grandma and Grandpa H.
The smile says it all.

First Star Wars toy, a Clone trooper.
They are way cooler now than my old Star Wars guys were!

The master present un-wrapper

You're how old today?

4!