The Baby Bump

I have been pretty bad about taking pictures of my pregnant self, but here are two to show my growth so far. Neither photo is especially great, and I'm in pajamas/gym clothes in both of them, but I think the gym clothes do the best job of showing off the bump. I know I should be grateful I'm not really big already, but I just feel like I'm looking really chunky. A girlfriend of mine said that for her next pregnancy she is going to make shirts that say "I'm not fat, I'm just pregnant". If she ends up making them, I may just have to order one.

6 weeks

16 weeks

Special Delivery

We are so excited to announce that soon we will be a little family of three! I am 14 weeks (tomorrow) and Baby Marsh is scheduled to arrive sometime around October 27th. I am thrilled to officially be past the first trimester and be able to share this wonderful news with everyone! We will have an ultrasound in about 5 weeks to check in on our little one and hopefully we'll be able to find out if we are having a boy or a girl!

Grandma Waddell

Joann Barbara Schaeffer Waddell
June 27, 1929 - April 8, 2010

Grandma Waddell passed away this evening after being hospitalized a few days ago for a serious stroke. Though this is a difficult time for me, I know she is safe in the arms of our Father-in-Heaven. I love to think of the huge welcome she must have received, surrounded by countless family members for whom she searched and then performed work for in the temple. I am so grateful for a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, which assures that our families are eternal and bound together forever.

There are so many things I love about Grandma, but here are just a few of my favorite things about her.

• First of all, how gorgeous is that photo above? It was taken in the early 1960s and I simply love it. Oh and by the way, by the early 1960s she had already given birth to three of her four children. Stunning.
  
• She dressed every day as if for a special event. Even at home in jeans and a sweater, you can be certain she had her make-up done, pink lipstick on and was wearing one of her beautiful pieces of jewelry to set it all off. I particularly loved a large turquoise necklace I think she and my Grandpa bought on an eastern European cruise.
  
• You can be certain her fingernails and toenails were always perfectly painted. Her fingernails were usually something subtle and classy, a light pink more often than not. The color on her toes was a different story. She always told my sister and me that your toenails should be painted as brightly as possible so you could see the color even through the sand when you were at the beach.
  
• She loved the beach and so do I. I remember going to watch her play beach volleyball in Manhattan Beach, CA with a group of ladies from her church congregation when I was a little girl. Before one particular match with the girls some 20 years ago, she found a kitchen spatula buried in the sand. They used it that day to hold the rope in place that set off their court and it became a staple item in Grandma’s kitchen from then on. She said it was the best spatula she ever owned.
• When my sister and I went to visit her for weekends during the summer, we always went for early morning swims in her pool and then had homemade oatmeal. Oh how we loved that oatmeal. Grandma put loads of butter on everything she ate, including the oatmeal, and in addition to the butter, our oatmeal always had plenty of cream and lots of brown sugar.

I love you, Grandma!

Beautiful

My wonderful mother-in-law brought these perfect yellow tulips over this morning - aren't they gorgeous?! They are the perfect dose of beauty and sunshine after four long days of nothing but rain. I am so ready for spring!

Birthday Boy

This past Saturday was Russ' birthday! Luckily, this was the first Saturday in almost a month that Russ didn't have school, so we kept the day fairly low-key because we could. We were able to meet Russ' sister Tiffany for lunch which was really fun. Of course, Russ got to choose the place and it was no surprise that he picked getting sandwiches at Wegmans. For those of you outside of Virginia/Pennsylvania/New York, Wegmans is a grocery store. It's certainly the nicest grocery store I've ever been in, but a grocery store none-the-less, though I will admit their sandwiches are top-notch. Thanks for a fun lunch, Tiffany!

We spent the afternoon lounging around before heading downtown for dinner at Johnny's Half Shell. We both enjoyed the crab cakes (again, no surprise there) and had a great meal overall.


The restaurant is right across the street from the Capitol, so of course we had to snap a few pictures out front.




Monday night we finished off the birthday celebrations by going to a Capitals hockey game. Russ has been a Caps fan since he was a little boy and he has made a fan out of me as well. We regularly watch the Caps on TV and thought it would be fun to see a game in person. It had been a while since he had been to one and it was my first ever NHL game! The Caps are currently the #1 ranked team in the NHL and we were looking forward to experiencing a win in-person. Unfortunately, after a tie, then over-time and a shoot-out, we lost 4-3 to the Dallas Stars. Honestly, it was a little disappointing. It felt a little like going to your first baseball game at Yankee stadium and then watching the Yankees lose to the Nationals. Even with the loss, Russ and I had a great time and hopefully we'll be able to make it to another Caps game sometime soon!




So thanks, Russ, for having a birthday so we could have so much fun this past weekend. And thanks for being such a wonderful husband. You are my constant date, my food taster, my stress reliever, my live and very personalized GPS support. You are my easy-going, sandwich-loving, soccer playing, hockey watching, handsome, funny, loving husband. Basically, you're the best friend I could have ever wished for. I love you!

Winter Formal Flashback

My handsome 16-year-old brother Marc went to his first formal dance this past weekend. His date was a girl from church and they went with a big group of other friends. Marc sent my sister Rebecca this cute picture and she forwarded it on to me. How cute are they?!



I can't believe Marc is old enough to date and go to high school dances and it got me reminiscing about some of my high school experiences, the dances in particular. I got out my old scrapbooks and had a good time looking back at the pictures of all my high school friends and all the fun we had together. For your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of me at my first formal dance when I was 16...



I went with my friend Sean and I was, not surprisingly, taller than him. (At 6'1'', I was taller than practically everyone in my high school.) That is why I am leaning on the chair, because the photographer thought it would look better than to have me standing a few inches taller than my date. It was experiences like those that led me to marry Russ, who is taller than me even when I'm wearing 3-inch heels! (No hard feelings, Sean - it just wasn't meant to be.)

Snowed In

As I’m sure you have all heard, D.C. is experiencing one of the craziest blizzards in history right now and Russ and I are officially snowed in. Church has been cancelled for the second Sunday in row (the third time in the past two months) and our power is out. Without the power, there is no way to listen to music, no way to turn on my keyboard, no surfing the internet and no way to mess around in the kitchen – we have a galley kitchen with no windows, which makes for a very dark cooking experience when no lights are on. I could read a book, but I’ve been doing that for the last 12 waking hours and Russ and I have already played 4 rounds of Rummikub. I have essentially run out of options and therefore I’ve decided to write a very long-overdue post about the last few months. Feel free to skip it, as it will be overloaded with pictures and quite long. (I’m writing this in Word using my laptop battery and I’ll post it with pictures as soon as the power returns.)

Over the last three months, Russ and I got to:

Spend a fun weekend on our 2^nd Annual autumn trip to Luray, VA

We stayed at the Mimslyn Inn, which I think is just beautiful

Bought pumpkins and apple butter and had a snack of cider and apple donuts.

Russ and I spent Thanksgiving in San Diego with my family and headed off to Disneyland about 8 hours after our plane landed.

We also got to enjoy a sunset at the beautiful Del Mar beach

And take family pictures

We enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and bought our first tree

Had dinner parties at our place

And a went to a work party at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium downtown (this was the night the first huge snowstorm hit D.C.)

We spent Christmas Eve with my uncle and aunt, Jim and Kristina, and their kids including our newest cousin Sophia Elizabeth, born December 19^th. On Christmas Day we had a relaxing morning at home and had dinner with a big group of Russ’ extended family at his parent’s home.

We are looking forward to all the fun things on the docket for the coming months, which hopefully means you'll see some more regular posting from me!