celebrating 27 years.

oh hey blogosphere!

man, can i just take a minute and say: these last few months have been caaaaaa-razzzzzy? like total cray cray. from getting pregnant, feeling like poo for wayyyyy too long, us running Ellie around like maniacs to do all her little activities, writing and preparing a primary program (my first one while serving in this calling), performing said program, celebrating mom's, sister-in-law's, mine & Alice's birthdays, Halloween, traveling down south for my baby sister's wedding, doing all that traveling/wedding week entails, and then coming home to a pile of FLU....yeah, \ i lost my head somewhere along the way. if you perhaps have found a frizzy-haired, freckly, somewhat acne-filled (d*** pregnancy hormones) head rolling around somewhere, will you kindly return it to me...asap? i'm having a hard time functioning without it.

anyway. so i am going to try to fill you in on our shtuff and haps from the last lil while. it may be a little overwhelming to have my presence so strongly now that you've gotten used to my absence...but alas. buck up. i'm here and i'm here to stay.

so last month, we celebrated my 27 years of living! a huge accomplishment, my friends. my birthday was my favorite one yet (minus not getting to be with my own immediate family -- but hey, it can't always be 100% perfect, right??).

M surprised me a week early with a date night...and tickets to see Jason Mraz in concert. it was such a great surprise -- and such a great night. we started at this really cute lil Thai place in Rockridge- where i was able to eat somewhat normal food for the first time this pregnancy (hallelujah chorus!). it felt so good to eat a real meal -- something other than bread and fruit (i mean, i love bread and fruit -- but sometimes your tummy just needs a normal warm meal!). so that was a huge success.

then we went into Berkeley to the Greek Theatre where Jason Mraz was playing, with Christina Perry opening. we got pretty awesome seats thanks to my pregnant belly...and before we knew it the night was over. unfortunately Jason Mraz has kind of a dirty mouth. and a couple of naughty naughty songs. (i can think of three, specifically). why do artists have to put that kind of garbage in their stuff? ticks me off. but in spite of those three songs, he was incredible to watch. my favorite part was definitely his mash-up of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and one of his hits- since Over the Rainbow is my favorite song. i felt like he knew it was my birthday and he sang it just for me. thanks j-mraz! how sweet of you. and thanks hubs- what a fun date night that i'll remember foreva.

 {just a lil snippit from his Somwhere Over the Rainbow-mashup taken with my phone, in case you're interested. it's mostly just for me. but you know.}

{side note: i lost my nose after too many wafts of weed...the concert was in Berkeley, after all}

flash forward to my actual birthday: another great day! i woke up to my cute lil best friends giving me bouquets of flowers that they each had chosen for me.

after opening some presents, we went to jamba juice, and took Ellie to preschool. M and i then had the rare opportunity to have a lil day-date with just us and Alice. it was so fun! we went to a lil crepe shop for lunch. did you know that crepes are one of my favorite foods? well, they are. my dad served an LDS mission in Montreal, Canada, where he spoke French, and obviously ate lots and lots of French food. so naturally, growing up, my Pops made crepes. but not just any day of the week- only for our special days. like birthdays. and mother's day. and so crepes have a special place in my heart. they remind me of my Pops. and these crepes were ahhhh.... diiiii-vine. 

after crepes we wandered around and did some birthday shopping. Alice was in heaven with all the one-on-one attention. and i was in heaven seeing her so happy. and man, she looked so stinkin cute with her lil beanie and sunglasses and rainboots on. such a cute kid, that Alice.

 after our little date, we picked Ellie up from preschool and M had planned for us to go to a fall festival in Sonoma as a family. sounded like so much fun- with face-painting, hay-rides, pumpkin picking, etc etc. so we drove the 1 1/2 hours to Sonoma, only to pull up to a deserted pumpkin field and a sign that said "Fall Festival: October 13-14"- which was, in fact the next day.

fail.

the girls had been asleep the whole trip, and both conveniently woke up at that point. Ellie commented, "where's all the pumpkins?" and then started whimpering and whining about how she and Eddie (her Preschool class mascot, who she got to take home that weekend) realllly needed to pick a pumpkin. so, we did what we do in any dilemma: we whipped out our handy-dandy yelp App, and found a pumpkin patch with pretty good reviews in a neighboring town, Petaluma.

and can i just say: Petaluma totally saved the day!? (and if you remember, this time last year, the Petaluma firemen saved the day for us crazy Ragnar girls- when they rescued us from being locked out of our car forever. you can read about it here. Petaluma is such a winner!) i mean freal. it was the cutest lil pumpkin farm ever- with haystacks to climb, a petting zoo, a bouncy house, face painting, animal balloons, pony rides, corn mazes (even for littles), a big sand-box filled with corn kernels, and the biggest pumpkin patch ever.

so immediately we got sucked in and paid for the over-priced pony ride for the girls-- which was a riot!, and definitely their favorite part of the evening. the girls laughed and smiled the whole time. Alice wouldn't stop saying "yee-haw!" the rest of the night. she even pretended riding the pumpkins like they were horsies. such a crack-up, that kid.

 {sorry, i obviously took an impossibly large amount of pictures of this. but they were just so cute!)

my favorite part of the night was getting our own lil wheelbarrow out and actually picking our own pumpkins off of the vine (all while the sun was setting over the most beautiful sunflowers- so romantic!).

and M's favorite part of the night: how UN-crowded it was! it's like the Bay-Area's hidden fall-gem. a place we'll definitely be heading back to.

and then it was dark and cold, so we left the best lil pumpkin patch and went to the most delicious lil-hole-in-the-wall pizza joint there in darling lil Petaluma (can you tell i'm ready to pack my bags and move to this lil farm-town?), where our girls almost killed and ate each other because they were so hungry, and where we enjoyed some of the best margharita pizza i have ever eaten.

folks. it was a dang good day. thanks to my cutest, sweetest people. and to the cutest Petaluma-town there ever was.

and in between all of that fun, so many friends and family members sent me cards, lil gifts, took me to lunch and dinner, and helped me feel oh-so-loved in countless ways.

 and can i just say that this year, more than any other year, that i really needed that? because, like i said before, i've been living way too long on planet cray cray. i sincerely needed the love-- and actually have looked back through comments and cards on particularly rough days and felt strengthened. so thank you for loving lil ole me. even head-less lil ole me. heaven knows i love ya to the highest mountain top, where the supply of cheesecake factory cheesecake is endless and calorie-free.

xoxo