Officially a Stay-at-Home "almost" Mom

Friday was my last day of work. Now, I get to wait for the new member of our Team Puga to arrive while I try to finish up last-minute cleaning/organizing projects.

Happy Pioneer Day!

In my home town of Mendon, Utah, Pioneer Day is the biggest celebration of the year. I was in Minnesota feeling a bit nostalgic.

All week families get together for activities and sports at the town square, but Saturday is the big day of events. It starts off with a couple races, continues with games and crazy activities, cools off when the fire truck makes it rain on the soccer field and heats up with a sand volleyball tournament among other competitions. After a full day of fun and food with family and friends, everyone in town finds a spot for a blanket or chairs on the grass to experience a phenomenal fireworks show right over head with music blaring from the baseball announcer's sound system.

Living life to its fullest with family and friends is a wonderful way to honor the sacrifices and the faith of the pioneers!

37 weeks belly shot & five tiny bunnies

I promised my friend, Robin, that I would take a picture of my belly. I'll have to get Pedro to take a better one sometime. But, here's a quick shot I took one morning before work. We sure are excited for our baby to make his debut.

And, while we're on the subject of babies, check out these adorable little baby rabbits. We had a family of five teeny-tiny fit-in-the-palm-of-your-hand bunnies hiding in the grass outside our front window. It was so cute to see them nurse under their mama, then scurry after her when she moved a few feet away. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a good shot of all five together since it was nearly dark. But, you can imagine.

This is my rose that either a squirrel, bird or bunny shreded a day after I took the picture.
This is one of the birds that lives in the bird refuge (aka swamp/bunny breeding ground/mosquito heaven) behind our apartment.


On a completely different note, we just enjoyed the first fruits of our garden - our first zucchini. Yum!

How does your garden grow?

Go 34!

Our little guy has always been very active with a great heartbeat, but about 6 weeks ago, he measured in the 10th percentile. So, the doctors had me going in for ultrasounds twice a week just to make sure he was doing okay, which concerned us at first because we didn't know what to expect. However, he always passed the test with flying colors, so we were content to have a healthy, if somewhat shrimpy, little guy.

This week, they measured again and he weighed in at about 5 lb. 6 oz, in the 34th percentile. YAY! My pep talks to him about using his energy to grow instead of to kick my ribs must have worked.

Now we move into the last month count-down, though I remind myself that most first babies come late. We are so excited to meet our little guy!

Two Years Old going on - Forever

Happy Two-Year Anniversary to us!

Every day hasn't been a perfect walk in the park. Our marriage so far is more like a hike to a mountain peak with ups and downs, a heavy backpack, sore muscles, beautiful views, refreshing breezes, wild flowers along the way and the anticipation of the exhileration of reaching the top together.

Since we'll have Junior with us for our next anniversary, we decided to "live it up" this year with a month long party. We began our celebration with the waterfalls and trees on the shore of Lake Superior one Friday. Saturday, we saw Phantom of the Opera. A walk around a 50's car show with a dance to old school rock and roll continued the celebration. And, though the drum core competition show was a blast and a bang, it wasn't the end. On the day of our anniversary, we went out to dinner and split a chicken cashew salad sandwich and a pizza. Mmmm. Nothing says marital bliss like sharing yummy food.

We are so in love with each other. I could share all our mushy in-loveness, but it's sometimes in Spanish (and I know some of you speak Spanish). So, I'll spare you and you can enjoy some anniversary quotes instead:

A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ~Paul Sweeney

Our wedding was many years ago. The celebration continues to this day. ~Gene Perret

It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life. ~Rita Rudner

Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The highest happiness on earth is marriage. ~William Lyon Phelps

True love stories never have endings. ~Richard Bach

Baby's First Real Hike

Okay, so the little guy didn't do much except come along for the ride. I guess technically, his first hike was in December at just a couple weeks as an embryo. But, he is a lot bigger now (almost 4 lbs), so it counts more, especially since I was carrying him.

A couple Fridays ago, before Pedro started his judicial externship, I took off work and we headed north to Lake Superior. I loved getting away from the city to the rivers, trees and trails of some state parks a few hours up the coast. We hiked about a total of 10 miles near waterfalls, by a lighthouse and along the Superior Hiking Trail. I LOVE THE MOUNTAINS! It felt so good to breathe really clean, fresh air and hike a trail where we didn't see other people for at least an hour or two.

On one hike, Pedro saw some sun glasses in a river. He waded in and rescued them only to discover they were kids' glasses.

Important note: In my opinion, hiking is not hiking without some type of elevation in some type of natural nature. There is not a lot of elevation in the Twin Cities area, though there are a few places of natural nature.

15+ tomato plants and 10 . . .

peppers (green bell, golden bell, purple, jalapeno, etc.), 2 eggplant, 4 lettuce (romaine), 3 strawberry, 3 watermelon, a lemon tree, cantaloupe, zucchini, butternut and spaghetti squash, raspberry, grape, cucumber, oregano, rosemary, another herb of some sort and possible a few plants I forgot to name have joined our family in the past month. And, those are just our vegetables. We planted two rose bushes and more than 100 bulbs of various flowers including lilies (my favorites). We're realizing you don't grow vegetables to save money on groceries, but to enjoy the efforts of work and the beauty of creation.

Pedro has been practicing his nurturing/gardening skills, and I must say he is quite good. He built fences to keep the squirrels and rabbits out. He waters every day - very carefully. He kills the caterpillars. And, he likes to look at the growing plants each day.I helped plant some of our little greenies and I water sometimes, but it is getting a little harder for me to bend over like I used to be able to do. You can see from the picture above our little Pedrito is starting to bulge out a bit more. He moves frequently, sometimes it feels like he is dancing the Charleston - he takes after his father.

Spring lasted about a week with a gorgeous rainbow, then summer hit. We are loving the warm weather. This morning we went kayaking on one of the local lakes. Even though every lake is surrounded by lake front houses, it felt so good to be out on the water in the breeze reading to Pedro as he paddled us around.