Jared's 31st

Jared was in New York for his 31st birthday, so we celebrated a few days early with his favorite cake. Happy Birthday!

P.S. For the those of you who don't know Jared was one of ten people selected in all of the U.S. and Canada from Ernst and Young to go to Chile for three months to do some pro bono work for the firm. It is a really big deal to be selected and he never thought he'd be chosen when he applied. I would go on and on, but he doesn't like it when I brag about him in the blog. So....he's got his passport renewed and his flight booked, and is trying to learn all the spanish business terms he didn't learn on his mission and he leaves the beginning of October. I am really proud of all his hard work he's put in the last five years so that he has this great opportunity. We will miss him like crazy, but at least he's will be back before the baby gets here.

20 weeks

This post is exclusively for my friend Tifani and I hope that since I am adding a whole bunch of photos and posts after it that no one else will even see it. So, here is my girth at 20 weeks. Don't expect any more pictures of me after this if I can at all help it until the baby is here. Mia took the pictures so the angle is a little funny and I was going to just do the decapitated one so you couldn't see my chubby cheeks and nose, but since this is a one time only deal, I went all out and did the face too. Tifani, you are welcome!

It's a Boy!

I know I've got tons of pictures from my sister's wedding and our 6 week vacation this summer to post, but I couldn't wait to post our news. We had our ultrasound this morning. Even though our baby was being uncooperative to the point that we have to go back in a few weeks for more measurements, he was not shy. We got a great shot, and it's definitely a boy!

Tag, Mia's it.

Name/Meaning behind it: Amelia: Jared liked the name but I wanted the name Amy...so Amy was supose to be her nick name, but she just wasn't an Amy and eventually she became Mia. Her cousin Landon couldn't say Amelia and so he called her AMia and we decided we liked Mia...it stuck.

Age: Five and a half

Birthdate: September 23, 2002

Nicknames: Mia, so cool, sweet pea, goose.

(Mia's words)
Favorite Activity(-ies):Learn how to ride bikes, playing with Daddy, play with friends, play with Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins.

Favorite Food(s): Pizza breadsticks and pizza, spaghetti, corn, raspberries.

Least Favorite Food(s): Green beans

Favorite Music: when I play my scale on the piano, when Daddy sings my song to me.

Favorite Toy(s): my unicorn, the prizes my grandmas give me.

Favorite Book(s): my princess books, Hegetty Peg.

Favorite item(s) of clothing: My new nightgown, my skirt and pink shirt.

What makes me happy: helping people, playing, rock climbing with Daddy.

What makes me sad: when my friends move away

Tag: Mia Groves, Katie Allen

We are all so excited for Becky to get Married in a couple of weeks. My sister Christine and I hosted a bridal shower for her last weekend and it was a lot of fun. I'm always looking for excuses to use yummy fancy recipes that I can't justify making for every day occasions, so this was so much fun. Christine is amazing with decorations and everything turned out great.
Here's Becky with her future mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
Here's Becky with my Grandma Crowther.
Here's Becky with Mia and MaCall who were the servers at the shower. They did a great job and were so excited to help and be a part of this grown up girl party.
And here's Becky with her day's spoils.

Here's some more pictures of our vacation. The cousins playing in the pool and sprinkler is a must every summer.


Jeff gave the kids a pinata that was left over from his class reunion.



My Dad set up the tent and let Mia and Mason sleep in it with him one night. They made it till about 2:00 a.m. and then ended up on the couch. My Dad did it again with Mia, Landon and MaCall. The older cousins seem to do better. They made it all night.

Benedict/Patterson Reuion

I wanted to do a few posts before we get home to Denver so that I don't have 6 weeks of vacation photos all at once to post. So here are a couple of photos I took of our first weekend in Idaho. Here is Mia and Jared on the motorcycle at the Benedict/Patterson Reuion. And then Jared holding the kids during the fireworks that night.

We had a wonderful weekend with Jared's family. The people who organized the reunion went all out for the kids with games and prizes and water fun. Plus we had fabulous food, so who wouldn't love that weekend.

Another Baby!

YAAAAAYYYY!!! #3!!!


(May 17th)
(Warning: too many details may be listed here, so read on at your own risk) Jared has made fun of me so many times over the last year when I've taken a pregnancy test WELL before it would even register even if I was pregnant. So, I was really determined to wait this time....I didn't quite wait the suggested time, but I was close....It didn't do me much good though because even though it was a fancy early pregnancy test that was extremely expensive it came out very inconclusive....Jared thought it was for sure negative and I thought it was for sure positive (wishful thinking on my part since you really couldn't tell). So I waited a WHOLE 24 hours before testing again....this time with my back up stash of cheap-o tests and this time it looked pretty positive to me, but still not as dark as the plus sign on the box....but I was convinced and immediately decided that I FELT pregnant (suddenly I was a little queasy and tired and I could smell things that weren't there(I was convinced that our flour smelled horrible and after I had Jared and two of our neighbors smell it Jared came to the conclusion that I am going insane because no one else could smell it).....I have a very persuasive subconcious). Anyway, 48 hours later I took a third test and this time the plus sign was as dark as could be!

It took me about two minutes after getting a positive reading to sit down to the computer and start looking at baby names.....I went through an entire website for boy and girl names and made a big list of my favorites and then made Jared look at it. (For the record he said that he liked all the names I picked out) Poor Jared he's got 8 more months of my obsession and craziness! Jared was very excited and even more excited when he realized he would be able to take paternity leave during next busy season! Well, I guess thats our news, but I just wanted to share our excitement with everyone!

P.S. I can't stop smiling and couldn't be happier, but did I mention that I'm terrified of having three kids!!!!!




OK, so I wrote all that a few months ago right after we found out, and we thought it was a little early to tell the whole blogging world, so now that we have told our families, I can add to the email and give you all an update since I've been to the doctor and heard the heartbeat and everything. I am three months along and am due in January. Jared has since told me he does not like the names I picked out on the day we found out I was pregnant, and I have since gotten very attatched to them. I guess we'll just have to wait till the ultrasound in August to see what the sex is and then we can fight about names. Until then, I am just glad to be pretty much done with the yucky stage of pregnancy.