Colorado Tourism Office

We kicked off our first of three straight weekends of visitors playing hosts to Dave and Bri. They are considering moving out here after dental school, so we decided to roll out the red carpet so they would enjoy their time here. Friday we hung out around the house, had some Safeway pizza, and played lots of Guitar Hero. The old roommates enjoyed seeing each other and chatting on the newly completed deck.

Saturday morning we were awakened at around 3 by the sounds of sirens and flashing lights from the road behind us. Apparently there were a couple of suspects who shot from their car at a police officer a few miles away and they were establishing a perimeter a half a mile or so south of our house. Nothing scary ever happened, but Tracie and I felt like we were back living at the apartment!
Tracie and I had our birthing class Saturday morning. We did the 'express' 6 hour class (as opposed to four weeks of three hour classes.) It was informative, and I hope that some of it stays in the brain for use when it really counts.
Ryan and Erin went to Boulder with Aaron and Robyn. We hooked up with Dave and Bri after our class, and then met up with Aaron and Robyn downtown for dinner. We went to Dixon's and it was pretty good. Aaron's brother had told him about a free concert downtown, and we decided to give it a shot after dinner. It was in the parking lot of Coors Field, and it ended up being a giant advertisment for Southern Comfort. We abstained from the beverages, but enjoyed some of the music.

Gnarls Barkley was the headliner, and we saw him perform a couple of songs before we showed our age and took off so we could be home before it got too late (10 pm)! We're such wild party animals!!!

The deck is finally done. It is nice to have and really makes for a much more complete backyard!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I had my last of my 2-week appointments on Monday. I am measuring right on with weight and belly size (?). The doctor said that for my appointment this Friday I need to be packed and ready to go just in case they need to admit me. Yikes!!!!!! Is it really come up that fast?!?!? I think we're mostly ready except we don't have a car seat yet. I just ordered it on Friday and hopefully it comes before the baby decides to come!! Besides being a whopping 30 lbs. heavier and having a huge belly, I feel pretty good. She's still really active and sometimes likes to give me a little jab in the ribs or hip bone to remind how much spunk she'll have in the outside world. I have a feeling she's going to be a lot like me. Luckily we both have Troy, the most patient guy in the world.

The nursery is coming along very well. We bought our chair rails yesterday and Troy stained them this afternoon. Hopefully we'll be able to get them up by the end of the week so we can finally post pictures of the baby's room. I think it has turned out really nice and I can't wait to get the bedding on to see it come all together.

Our garden is coming along well too. Against Troy's mom's advice, we left a peach on our peach tree just to see how well it would grow. (No worries, we yanked off all others) The peach is about the size of a small lime. Our zucchini plants are growing like crazy. Two out of the three mounds have 4 plants growing and the one other mound has 1 plant. We may have to do a little thinning so we don't have an insane amount of zucchinis. Our potato plants are coming up nicely. If anything, I'm most excited to see how they turn out and I can't wait to eat them. Our green beans are doing great as well. We probably have at least 2 times more green beans than we did last year and we planted them about a month earlier than we did last time so we will have tons this season. They're really tasty so I can't complain. As for our watermelons, cantelopes, grape tomatoes, and peppers...well...they're not doing so hot. One watermelon seed has come up but I haven't found any others. We had a really cold night a couple weeks ago and I think that killed off our grape tomatoes and peppers and maybe our cantelope. Bummer. At least we still have our roma tomato plants still growing. At the rate they are growing, we may have tomatoes by November. They are still so tiny!!!

My neighbor and Robyn threw me a baby shower yesterday with all the neighborhood folks. It was a lot of fun and I'm super appreciative for all that they did. We played a few games and I actually won one of them. We had to guess baby foods by tasting them. I got 4 out of 5. Not too shabby for never having tried baby food before. I can definitely say that that will have been my first and last time doing so. They are disgusting. Blah!!Lastly, the work on our deck has finally begun. Hip, hip hooray!!!! It has turned out looking great and I think both Troy and I agree that the size of the deck is roughly the same size as our first apartment in Provo. Kind of funny. Hopefully they'll be finishing up by midweek.

House Guests

First off, let me apologize for the lack of pictures, hopefully we can add some in the next few days.

This week was busy in preparation for the arrival of Ryan, Erin and Grant. We are also nearly finished with the Nursery. We got the dresser and assembled it early in the week, and then the crib came a few days later. All we have left to do is stain the chair rail and put the glider together when it comes.

Ryan and Erin arrived Saturday afternoon, and we picked them up after a delicious Dim Sum lunch with a my co-worker and her boyfriend. We have really turned them on to the Dim Sum Scene. We made our way home and got them all settled in our place. It will be nice having some company, and help from Grant in baby-proofing our house!

Sunday we had a BBQ and invited Robyn, Aaron, Jen and Gavin. I couldn't have asked for a better Father's day gift than the chance to BBQ for a group of people. It was a lot of fun and we also enjoyed the Smores for dessert over our fire pit.

Lastly, the deck is finally approved and they begin construction on it today. It should take about a week to complete, and we are excited to have it done. Stay tuned for pictures...

It's "GO" time

So nesting time is in full ______(fill in the blank, I can't think of the word). With the upcoming arrival of my old roommate, Erin and her family, I have made a nice long list of things that I hope to get done between now and Saturday. The problem...I lack the motivation. Hopefully I'll be able to get a little done each day and feel like I've been productive. This last Saturday was a very productive day for us. Since the crib we ordered wouldn't get here until the end of June, we decided to buy a pack n' play for little Grant to sleep in. We headed to Babies R' Us and found one that was on sale. It had been out on display and they had switched displays so this one was marked down. Since it was in perfect condition, we decided why not and it had been the one that I had been eyeing for some time. Unfortunately the pack n' play did not come with directions so it took a little longer than we wanted to set it up but after about 30 minutes and looking up the instructions on the internet, it was all ready to go. I like it.

We also bought a mattress. Since Ryan and Erin will be here a month, we figured it wouldn't be very nice of us as hosts to have them sleep on an air mattress. Also, my mom will be coming out in the middle of July to help me and she'll be here for a while also so we decided to buy ourselves a new mattress and move our old one into the guest room. It now looks like Robyn's room all over again. I think that room missed being furnished. The new mattress is substantially taller than the old one which makes it somewhat harder to get into but I definitely don't have a problem rolling out bed.

Last week, we also bought a dresser, glider, and shelf for the baby's room. The dresser and glider won't be here for another few days/weeks but we got to put together the shelf yesterday. I'm excited to see how the room is coming together but you guys will just have to wait until it is all done...sorry Kay. :)

Lastly, Lexie has been enjoying all the gifts that have received especially the bags.

Being dressed up in a little dress...not so much.

Is it already June?

First off, Lexie loves the fact that Tracie is pregnant, since it gives her a nice little perch to rest on. Let's just hope Lexie gets the 'laying on the baby' stage overwith before she is born! Speaking of baby, Tracie had a shower on Thurdsay thrown by some of the ladies in the ward. It was a nice party, and the bags have made it inside to be organized.

Friday, one of my co-workers, Pat, threw his annual Spring BBQ for the office. I look forward to it each year for a number of reasons, not the least of which is getting to wear shorts in to the office. The food was delicious, from great appetizers and fresh raspberry lemonade, to delicious grilled chicken, flank steak, and kabobs. We had lot's of fun chatting with all of my office mates and their mates. Tracie was the star of the party for a couple of reasons. First, everyone was interested in the upcoming arrival, and secondly, she made some very delicious lemon bars that were the consensus favorite dessert. We ended the night by heading down to Pat's basement for a Jam session on Rock Band. Tracie and I both played the bass, and I even took a stab at the vocals. It is a pretty fun party game.
Saturday, another co-worker, Susan, came over to help us with our garden. We ended up planting three rows of green beans, a row of shallots and green onions, a couple rows of potatoes, 4 grape tomato plants, 2 roma tomato plants, 2 red pepper plants, a couple of cantaloupe, a few watermelons, and some zucchini. Last year we planted a few things, but this year it actually feels like a garden. I think the neighbors will be thankful when we start to harvest, and hopefully the melons will be ripening just in time for Labor Day.

In other domestic news, we ordered the crib online (free shipping, no sales tax), and it should get here in the next week or so. We also finally got our deck approved by the HOA! It only took 8 weeks! The guys that are building it expect the county permit shortly, and then it will take about a week to install. It will be very nice when it is finally in!