It takes almost this long to grow a baby...

I have officially finished my first handmade quilt. It doesn't feel quite right to say "I" have finished, because I had so much help, but however you want to look at it, it took right around 6 months from start to finish. I finished the binding last night and I am so excited that I managed to get it done before this baby comes. It turned out beautifully...as long as you don't look too closely at my stitching.

This was a process I knew nothing about. I have learned so much. I had no idea how much work this was going to be and if all of my random fabrics would even come together. It is so fun to see that the countless hours and sore fingers were worth it now that it is finished.

Well over a year ago now my girlfriends decided it would be fun if we all helped each other make a quilt as a memento from our time in dental school together. I am so glad we did. It has provided countless hours sitting around a quilt frame talking about everything under the sun. For that reason alone I have loved this process. And I truly will cherish the memory of all of the loving hands that helped make my quilt beautiful.

Baby Party

A few weeks ago my amazing friends threw me the most beautiful baby shower. The decorations were darling, the food ridiculously delicious and the house full of the most wonderful women I know. It was all so lovely. I felt so spoiled and so loved.

Did I mention how good the food was?

Lucy got some seriously darling things. I cannot wait to get her here so we can start using all this awesome stuff.

I did an awful job taking pictures. Luckily we got a few of some of the attendees. I was so overwhelmed by the love and support I was shown. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by so many amazing friends. I don't know what I did to be so lucky.

Ty dropped in at the end to say hello and give me his own gifts. He spent the morning standing in line to get into the REI used sale. He spoiled me with a new Marmot, snowshoes, hiking poles and gloves. I am very much looking forward to using them all.

He then proceeded to make a room full of hormonal pregnant women weepy when he expressed what I was not able to, in telling our friends just how much we love them. A room full of pregnant women, just months before being forced to move away from each other is a sure fire way to make everyone cry. I have said it before and I will say it many times again, I don't know how I got so lucky, or more appropriately, so blessed. My husband is truly the best kind of man and my friends are so much more than I could have hoped for when we moved to Portland.

Again, I did a terrible job taking pictures and sadly we did not get any pictures of the whole group, but here is a handful of the lovely women who came to celebrate Lucy.

Thank you beautiful friends! You are all amazing. I love you so very much.

We went shopping!

Fun! And we even spent money! We often shop around or look at things that we will one day want to buy. But normally we do not buy. But someday soon Tyler will not be a student anymore and he will have a real job where he has to dress like a grown up, so we took a little Friday trip to the outlets with the intention of looking around and grabbing one or two things if we saw anything. That turned into a full blown shopping spree. I think we were both giddy with spending. I have not had so much fun in who knows how long. I think I like buying clothes for Ty more than myself. And don't even let him try and tell you he didn't have the time of his life. We had a fabulous night shopping and buying. And the really awesome part? Tyler looks real good in grown up clothes.

Some of our haul.

Then, naturally, we had to have a fashion show. Tyler really missed his calling in life. He was born to model.

This is what all the models in the store look like. They are VERY happy to be wearing these awesome clothes.

My personal favorite - the killer profile.

I was looking really good too, so I got in on the action.

But seriously - he looks good. Right?

We are so excited to start this next chapter of our lives and leave school and studentdom behind. He is going to make one hot dentist.

And since it is Valentines Day, it seems appropriate to publicly say just how much I love this husband of mine. He is better than I deserve and going to make the most amazing father. I cannot wait to watch my daughter fall madly in love with her dad. I feel so lucky to spend my life with someone as loving, kind, fun, brilliant, adventurous and hilarious.

Happy Valentines Ty, I love you.

Snowshoeing and eating...Our favorite things

We wanted to get another quick snowshoeing adventure in before I deemed myself too pregnant to hike around in the snow. So we took a little day trip up to St. Helens and hiked into Ape Cave. We had to get crafty with some bungee cords and our backpacks in order to strap our snowshoes on for the hiking in the cave portion. But all in all it worked out pretty well.

It was a little eerie to be the only people around when hiking through a pitch black lava tube, but we loved it.

We didn't bring our still camera so these terrible pictures were taken from our video camera. I need to learn how to take normal looking pictures on it. But regardless of the quality, you get the idea. It was warm and sunny and we loved being outside. There was not nearly as much snow as we were hoping for, but that made the hike easy.

Although we have no photos to document, we ended our day by going to a fabulous restaurant with some friends. I almost died in my plate of home made spinach and artichoke ravioli covered in pesto cream sauce, but not before I inhaled 10 pieces of bread covered in a garlicky butternut squash spread. My friends, go to Iorio. You will not regret it. It was the best food I have had in a very long time, and I don't even really like Italian food.