3 months to go

While I thought April and May 2008 were busy, 2009 has proven no different. Each weekend Sean and I have tried to get a “baby thing” done, whether it’s ordering a crib, narrowing down lists for child care providers or discussing the pros and cons of cloth diapering (I know, we lead exciting lives, don’t we?). All visits to the doctor have been pretty uneventful, which is nice. Just a check up on the baby’s heart beat, time for questions and I’m out the door. I’m near the end of the second trimester, which they call the “golden trimester,” and I have to say it has lived up to its name. I’ve been feeling pretty good and can’t really complain about much other than finding it a little more challenging to roll over in bed at night.
Probably the most exciting news for this update is that we’ve chosen a name for Baby Girl O’Hara: Ellen Ann! First name is after her grandma Ellen and middle name is for her other grandma’s middle name, Robin Ann. It’s fun to be able to talk about little Ellen, although the term “the baby” is still pretty standard.
Little Ellen’s room is filling up quickly! Sean has already lamented the fact that the women in his family have way more clothes than he does, and Ellen is still many years away from shopping at the mall…I think he’s secretly afraid her first words will be, “Coach purse.” Like mother like daughter, right?
We’ve been so fortunate with so many generous friends and family members, that we’ve hardly had to purchase anything ourselves. A couple of friends had hand-me-down baby girl clothes to give me, which resulted in a gigantic collection of onesies, pajamas and other staples; some still in the packaging! Add in the generous amount of gifts we received at our recent shower in Kansas City, and little Ellen will not only be much more fashionable than her parents, but won’t need or want for anything for quite a while!
Last weekend Sean and I made the trip to Kansas City to see family and friends, as well as for the baby shower hosted by Lisa, Robin and Katie. Christian and Anna flew up from Florida, my parents drove down from Minnesota, and the two Bottger families made the trips from Omaha and Lake of the Ozarks. Plus, my dear college friend Jess flew in from Cleveland on Sunday morning after being a bridesmaid in a wedding the night before! It was so great to see so many people and catch up with everyone. The weekend totally flew by! We arrived Friday night, spent most of Saturday at Katie and Adam’s house (they hosted all of us for a delicious cookout lunch), had dinner with the Coxes on Saturday, had the shower on Sunday, then had a wonderful dinner with all the family members at Jim and Robin’s on Sunday night. Next thing we knew, we were flying back to Phoenix on Monday afternoon. A big thanks to everyone who made the trip to KC to see us, as well as for all the wonderful well wishes and generous baby gifts. We are always reminded of just how fortunate and blessed we are to have the family and friends we do.
Although we might be slowly slipping into the black hole of all things baby, we have managed to continue to lead fairly normal lives. As season ticket holders for ASU baseball, we’ve enjoyed attending games and watching the Sun Devils during this great winning season. We’ve even wrangled Brinkley into fandom, torturing him to pose for a photo with a mini ASU baseball helmet on. What’s cuter than a cute dog wearing a cute hat, right? We also had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see President Obama speak at ASU commencement. While my little point and shoot didn’t quite do it justice, I did take a few photos of the President on the big screen. After dreading what could have been a two hour security line, we were pleasantly surprised to find it only took a few minutes to get into Sun Devil Stadium. What wasn’t quite as pleasant was waiting for three hours for the speech (or the 90 minute wait at the concession stand to get some dinner). But it was all worth it. His comments were inspiring, funny, and touching. Also, although I'm more a mom-to-be than mother right now, Sean sent me a beautiful flower arrangement for Mother's Day. What a guy!
The next few months bring a lot of preparation, but we’re excited! In the meantime, we’ll be cheering on the Sun Devils as they try to make their way to Omaha; the first regional game is tomorrow here in Tempe!
Enjoy the photos below (including a shot of my favorite outfit from the shower)...lots of stuff in the baby room and we haven't even put the crib in yet!

The best excuse yet!

All of you know I love to make excuses for my lack of posts on this blog, but I have the best excuse to date: In January Sean and I found out we're expecting! So in the hustle-n-bustle of announcing our good news, researching baby gear, re-arranging furniture and trying our best to mentally prepare ourselves for being parents, this blog has fallen by the wayside. Most of you know all of the important details: We're having a girl, her due date is August 22nd, and all of our checkups so far have shown her growing right on track and healthy as can be. For those of you who would like a more detailed account of the past few months, here you go!
JANUARY:
What a wonderful way to start the new year! After feeling a bit queasy and worn down the days between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I decided it was better to be safe than sorry and take a pregnancy test before consuming the many beverages I planned to drink to ring in the new year. Katie and Adam were staying with us, in town for the Insight Bowl, so I had to be sneaky about it all. I'd planned to take a half day off work that day to get home in time to tailgate for the Insight Bowl. When I got home I greeted everyone and then went to take the test...anxiously watching the little stick to see if a second pink line would appear. And sure enough, it did! Not as pronounced as I thought it would be, but it was there! Now the question was how to show/tell Sean without acting suspicious...very hard when I was as excited as I was! I went to the living room where they were all watching TV and asked Sean if he could show me where the Tums were...I had a queasy stomach and couldn't find them. When he went into our master bath, I showed him the test and he had the biggest smile on his face and gave me a big hug. Now we just had to plot how we would explain to our friends and family why I wasn't drinking on NEW YEAR'S EVE of all days. I would do my best to keep up the "I'm not feeling well, think I'm coming down with something" guise and Sean would do his best to back me up or change the subject if need be. It worked most of the night, although I got a few "Is there something you're not telling us?" and tried my best to brush them off...most of the time I had to flat out lie, which was really hard to do! The Insight Bowl was a blast, but I still wasn't feeling well and was pretty tired, so I grabbed a cab right after the game while everyone else headed to Mill Avenue to celebrate and ring in the new year. As excited as I was about the positive test, I felt the need to be certain it was correct, so I ran to the grocery store when I got home, bought another pack of tests, and was very pleased to see another positive come up. Within a few minutes I heard Sean come home, which surprised me since I thought he was with the rest of our friends and family. He said after he saw me leave he realized there's nowhere he'd rather be that night than with me, especially now that we had such good news to start off the new year.
The following week I scheduled a doctor's appointment to confirm everything and the week after that we had our first ultrasound, which estimated I was about eight weeks pregnant. Too excited to keep the news to ourselves, we told family and close friends, but waiting a few more weeks before telling people at work and other acquaintances.
FEBRUARY:
I really lucked out, because I was barely sick the first trimester. Other than feeling under the weather over New Year's, the only real symptoms I "suffered" from were lack of energy (I'd come home from work and lounge on the couch until going to bed at 8 p.m.) and some food aversions (I'm a meat-and-potatoes kind of gal, but the sight of meat made me gag...Outback TV commercials forced me to change the channel). In the middle of the month I convinced Sean to take a Valentine's Day/his birthday trip to San Diego where we stayed at our favorite place, the Hotel Del Coronado, which was a wonderful weekend. We walked on the beach and ate at our favorite restaurants on the island.
MARCH:
March was a fun month because we got to see some family and really start talking about the baby. Joel was in Phoenix for work the middle of the month and we had a lengthy discussion about names, knowing that we would find out the sex just a few days after he left. Most of you know we've had a boy name picked out for a long time, but we were at a loss for girl names. All the names he threw out were nice, but they just weren't right...the search continued. A few days later we found out we were having a girl, so that made it extra fun when Jim and Robin came to visit at the end of the month, being able to refer to their granddaughter and being able to shop for girl things. We had a wonderful time with them...lots of activities and eating, just what we like! We visited the Desert Botanical Garden (which is currently featuring a Chihuly glass exhibit), took in a spring training game, went shopping for some baby gear, visited the spa, golfed and ate at some of our favorite spots (Cowboy Ciao and Ted's Hot Dogs...opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of cost and "fancy-ness," but both at the top of our favorite places to eat list). While my energy had definitely increased over the past month, I was definitely worn out after Jim and Robin left...we're not used to having such exciting weekends...this one really tired me out! But it was worth it!
APRIL:
It's hard to believe it's already April! Even crazier is the thought that I'm technically halfway through this pregnancy, at 20 weeks. Things are still going really well...finding it's a little more challenging to bend over to grab things with my growing belly...but it sure is nice not having to suck in anymore! Elastic waistbands sure speed up getting dressed in the morning and bathroom breaks! Other than those luxuries, on a more serious note, I've been feeling great and all the checkups have shown our little girl also doing great, for which I'm extremely thankful.
NEXT MONTH:
Lisa, Robin and Katie have gracioiusly volunteered to host a shower for me and Baby Girl O'Hara, so we're really looking forward to seeing lots of family and friends for the occasion! Hope to report back after the shower! Until then, here are some photos (that some of you have already seen) to tide you over...

Happy Holidays!

Knowing that some of you may be visiting this blog as a result of our Christmas card, I’ve been motivated to post some new content!

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only 10 days away! October and November just flew by. They were tough months to be ASU football fans, that’s for sure. But seeing so many family members in November definitely made up for it! At the beginning of November we made a long-weekend trip to Seattle to watch ASU football (they won and broke their losing streak!), but also got to see my brother Joel (who works a few times a month in Seattle), Sean’s cousin Heather and her new baby, Clementine, along with the rest of that family, Heather’s husband John and her other three children, Lavinia, Owen and Tessa. And as luck would have it, Heather’s parents (Sean’s aunt and uncle), Maureen and Linc were visiting at the same time. Heather and John hosted us for an afternoon with a delicious lunch and a great visit. It was so fun to play with all the kids—they have so much personality and they’re so bright! Other than seeing family (which was one of the best parts of the trip), Sean and I did manage to sneak in a few tourist-y things. We visited the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project (and got free admission to the adjoining Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame where we saw Griff Tannen’s hoverboard from Back to the Future II), the original Nordstrom, the original Starbucks, and of course Pike Place Market. And what would a vacation be without experiencing some great food? We had breakfast every day at Lowell’s, which looks right out onto the water (excellent hash browns, by the way); grilled cheese sandwiches and soup at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese (and watch cheese being made); and a delicious dinner at Etta’s, where Sean had some of the best mussels and oysters he’d ever eaten. It was our first trip to Seattle and I hope it’s not our last—I know there’s a lot more to see and do!

Knowing we’re from the Midwest, friends often ask if we’re going anywhere for Thanksgiving, to which I always reply: “As long as Sean is physically able to get to the ASU football game that weekend, we’re staying in Phoenix.” So although we travel every year for Christmas, we always count on being here for Thanksgiving. It was nice last year when Jim and Robin came down and overlapped with a post-Thanksgiving trip my parents made. And this year was great because although Jim and Robin weren’t with us, my parents (Bob and Ellen) came down and my brother Christian and his girlfriend Anna came from Florida! Sean and I were experienced Thanksgiving dinner chefs by now, after Jim and Robin’s visit last year, so it was our pleasure to host my family for the weekend. We had dinner at the Roaring Fork for my birthday, ate at one of Christian’s favorites, Gordon Biersch for lunch the day he and Anna arrived, visited the Desert Botanical Garden (which was hosting a Chihuly glass exhibit), took in the ASU-UCLA football game, and then before we knew it the weekend was over!

This is our year to be in Kansas City for Christmas (last year we were in Minnesota) and we’re really looking forward to it…lots of friends and family to see! We’re pretty quick to complain about how “cold” it is down here, so we’ll see how we adjust to the temperature! I’m willing to give up the warm temperatures for a chance at seeing snow and having a White Christmas, though. Although it will be nice to see Katie (Sean’s sister) and Adam (her husband), we won’t have to worry about not spending enough time with them, as they’ll be joining us in Phoenix for New Year’s and the Insight Bowl (KU vs. Minnesota)! There’s also a chance my brothers Joel and David will be coming, so hopefully we’re in for another mini family reunion like we had in Seattle in November!

And speaking of Christmas, I did finally get some decorations up in our house. Our tree is lit and decorated (albeit with fake/empty gifts underneath it), our lights are up outside and I’m hanging up Christmas cards as we receive them in the mail. At first I thought it would be hard to get into the holiday spirit without any snow, but people down here in the desert sure love to decorate! There are many houses in our neighborhood and throughout other neighborhoods we’ve driven through that are absolutely glowing with lights, santas, reindeer and other holiday decorations, it’s hard to NOT get in the spirit!

Other than our trips and visiting family, Sean and I continue to enjoy our jobs. I recently finished up on a two-day, 300 person conference that my Center hosted for nonprofit professionals, so now things have quieted down a bit until after the holidays. Sean recently traveled to exotic Washington, Utah, to take depositions, and continues to gain new experiences in his various cases.

Brinkley just got a haircut and has been doing a little bit of shivering around the house, as we don’t turn the heat on (it just feels wrong to turn the heat on when you live in the desert) and neither Brinkley nor Sean is very fond of the dog sweater I bought him. He’s definitely gotten soft since moving to Phoenix…Sean and I remember watching him happily romp through the snow in front of the Lied Center back when we lived in Lawrence!

Merry Christmas and happy 2009!

Out goes summer, in comes fall

I wish I could say we've had an incredibly busy, hectic late summer/early fall so I'd have an excuse for not posting...but unfortunately that's not the case! :-( We had a fairly quiet summer, but did have fun with a few activities with our trip to Sedona and the Tom Petty concert in August, as well as hosting people for get-togethers where I got to channel my inner Martha Stewart (I made Schnauzer cupcakes!)...photos below.

Besides football (which I'll get to shortly), September was a good month for me both personally and professionally because I was awarded with the Phoenix Public Relations Society of America Copper Anvil Award for my work on an annual conference my Center offers. I got a few requests for photos of the award, so those are below. I was also pleasantly surprised the Monday after I won to receive beautiful flowers from Jim and Robin congratulating me!

Almost all of September was dedicated to watching what Sean calls his own personal Christmas Morning: college football season. Our poor Sun Devils aren't doing as well as we hoped after our 10-win season last year, but that's just a test of our loyalty as fans, right? Although wins make the drive home a lot more exciting, going to Sun Devil Stadium almost every Saturday in September was a fun event. We suspect there was an error in the ticketing office because our reserved parking spot is only about 50 feet from the gate! Word has spread (probably due to our "I can't believe we got that spot" bewildered statements to our friends) and we aren't lacking for friends to tailgate with before each game. Today we play USC, so our hopes aren't too high, but wouldn't it be nice to break our losing streak against USC of all teams? We finally get to return to our sweet tailgate spot and Sun Devil Stadium in two weeks when we host Oregon.

This fall we're also looking forward to meeting Joel up in Seattle for a long weekend trip. Who knew it, but it turns out we might be able to catch up with several friends and family membes! Sean's cousin, Heather, and her family live in suburban Seattle and due to the imminent arrival of their fourth child, Sean's aunt Maureen and Uncle Linc might be up in Seattle the same time as us! Additionally, Sean and I both have friends who either live in Seattle or travel there frequently, so we may be in for a very busy weekend!

I know it's October (boy we had a lot of birthdays this month, didn't we? Doug, Linc, Colleen, Andrew, Katie, happy birthday!), but I can't help but be excited for November: a trip to Seattle, a little time off work for Thanksgiving and a visit from my parents, Christian and Anna! The weather seems to finally be cooling off a bit, so hopefully it will stay pretty temperate...last year when my parents were down in November they brought the cold Minnesota weather with them!

Yesterday all of the first year associates at Snell found out if they passed the bar, which caused Sean and myself to reminisce about being in the same position two years ago...which then led to us recognizing that Sean is now a third year associate! It probably depends on who you ask, but I'd say that time has sure flown by! Sean having to actually practice law every day might have a different opinion. :-) This is fairly old news by now, but we were also very excited and proud to hear that Katie and Adam both passed the Missouri Bar in September!

Happy fall to everyone! We're looking forward to seeing everyone we'll either be visiting or hosting before the end of the year!

Sedona

To celebrate our second wedding anniversary, Sean and I returned to the place that put everything in motion...Sedona, AZ, where he proposed a little over three years ago! We spent a long weekend (Thursday through Sunday) at the Amara Resort and Spa, which is located right off the main drag of Uptown Sedona. Uptown Sedona is a lot like Old Town Scottsdale with little shops and restaurants. We even found some Christmas gifts for some people...but you'll have to wait until December to find out!
We arrived in Sedona in the early afternoon on Thursday. After a disappointing experience checking in (they lost our reservation and because of that our room wasn't ready), we walked up to the main drag and had a couple afternoon beers at the Open Range Grill and Tavern. Below there's a photo of the cloudiest Hefeweizen beer I've ever had. I thought I heard the bartender say something about how the keg was just about spent, which made me even more suspicious of my fuzzy beer. But it tasted great, so I had nothing to worry about, I guess! I've expressed this in past posts, but it's really hard to beat a cold beer in the afternoon when you're on vacation...especially when you know you have the whole vacation ahead of you! After our beers we browsed through some shops (and made some gift purchases!), then walked back down to the resort. Our room was nice, but the best part was the great bed...king sized with a super soft down comforter and cushy mattress. We also had a small balcony (that overlooked the parking lot) with a couple chairs and a small table...perfect for after dinner drinks. :-) Once we unpacked we looked for a place to have dinner. After a quick search on yelp.com for good dinner places in Sedona, we decided on the Hideway Restaurant. It wasn't far from our hotel and had an amazing view of Oak Creek (the same creek that our hotel backs up to). We sat outside on the deck, which made us feel like we were straight up from the water. We both decided on pasta and definitely had plenty of food left over to bring back to the room. After taking some time to digest, we walked back up to the shops to walk around some more and get a little ice cream dessert.
On Friday we had grand plans to take a hike, but after sleeping in we decided to scrap it and walk up to check out a breakfast spot. We ended up at the Hitching Post, and for any Sideways (movie or book) fans, it was nothing like that Hitching Post. This Hitching Post was basic diner foods with so-so service. Although our food was fine (omelet for Sean and corned beef hash and eggs for me), we realized when we got our bill that this was truly a tourist town with tourist prices. We walked around a little bit more afterwards, then headed back down to the hotel. The resort has a spa on site, so we just walked across the parking lot for our treatments. Sean got a deep tissue massage and I got the Coconut Rub and Milk Ritual Wrap. The spa was nice, but for a spa-spoiled Phoenician like myself, it was nothing compared to the Camelback Spa back home. And what better way to top off an afternoon at the spa than a dip in the hot tub? This was one of the few times during the weekend that we weren't threatened by lightening so we decided to take advantage of the clear skies. Our luxurious day continued with a nice dinner at the resort's restaurant, Hundred Rox (until recently, the Gallery on Oak Creek). We had a delicious dinner with great service and a wonderful view of the red rocks. We started with the calamari, Sean got the free range veal duet (veal scaloppini and veal sweetbreads) and I got the filet. For dessert our server treated us to free blackberry panna cotta, which was always one of my favorite treats to get at Dean and Deluca the summer I lived with Joel and Lisa in Leawood. After dinner, our stomachs extremely full, we returned to the room and sat on the balcony for a while enjoying the cool weather.
Saturday morning we were a bit more virtuous and drove out to the Coconino National Forest for a hike. Our trail head was just west of town, but involved more "back woods" driving than I expected. I have now been proven wrong in doubting a Toyota Camry's ability to drive on glorified gravel paths only traveled by Jeeps, ATVs and people on foot. Evidence of Sean's off-roading is in a photo below. Our trail was very scenic, crossing a dry river every few minutes, with red rocks towering above us. Our elevation change was only about 400 feet, so this was definitely an "easy" hike when it comes to hiking standards, but it was nice to spend the time outdoors and work off a small portion of the million calories we'd consumed by this point. After we emerged from the park we were pretty hungry for lunch. Having already dined at places we scoped out online before arriving, we decided to just keep our eyes peeled for something that looked good. Sean had to turn around and go back to a place I spotted that we whizzed by when he heard me say the name: The Red Planet Diner. Sean, self-admittedly, is a sucker for kitschy, hole-in-the-wall, dive, you name it. The decor definitely lived up to the name, with UFOs painted on the walls and several alien figurines/decorations all around. As we scanned the menu, one appetizing item stood out: a milk shake. As I looked at the price, I saw it was listed at $5, which reminded me of the movie, Pulp Fiction. In that movie, in LA, it seemed fitting to pay $5 for a milk shake. But at the Red Planet Diner in Sedona, AZ? Seemed a little out of place. Regardless, Sean ordered the chocolate milk shake and I drank close to half of it! In the afternoon we walked up the hill to get a coffee and browse around the shops some more. It was fairly cloudy and even sprinkled a little bit, so thankfully most of the shops had good overhangs and coverage from the rain. After our coffee, we got ready for dinner and headed to Tlaquepaque where we had a reservation at El Rincon, the place we had dinner the day we got engaged. We arrived about an hour before our reservation, so we stopped in for a pre-dinner drink and appetizers at Oak Creek Brewery, coincidentally enough, the place we had lunch right after Sean popped the question. The little shopping village was fairly quiet, as most of the stores were closed, but there were plenty of people still milling around taking photos. Between drinks and dinner we stopped in at a few of the galleries that were still open and took in some interesting artwork: everything from jewelry to wall installations to oil to glass. At dinner we sat outside on the Christmas light-lit patio (very similar in ambiance and feel, but on a smaller scale, to Old Town Tortilla Factory in Scottsdale) and dined on chips, salsa, chimichanga and tacos. On our last night in Sedona we spent some more time on the balcony in our room chatting about the fun things we did.
Sunday morning we left town pretty quickly, stopping at a place we'd eaten breakfast three years prior (what can I say, we're creatures of habit). Continuing the pattern of re-visiting places from the engagement trip, we stopped at Cliff Castle Casino on the way home to try our luck on the slot machines. As a couple we ended in the black, but if there is such a thing, Sean is much better at slot machines than me! It was nice to get back home by mid-day so we could do our usual weekend errands and house things, and still feel relaxed knowing work was waiting for us the next day. Brinkley, who spent the weekend with our friend Matt, was happy to see us, although I think he's happy to see any human being that will let him out of the man cave (where he stays during the day)!
Now we're back to the grind of our usual routine. However, we have a lot of things to look forward to coming up very soon! Jim and Robin are visiting for the ASU-Georgia football game in September, Sean and I just planned a trip to Seattle in November to meet up with Joel, and rumor has it Bob, Ellen, Christian (and hopefully Anna!) will be coming to Phoenix for my birthday, Thanksgiving and the ASU -UCLA football game.
The fall always brings two things that are exciting for us: ASU football and cooler temperatures!