The Good Life

A DAY IN THE LIFE

2011-09-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

A year ago I left my dream job at Chiat\Day to sit on my pregnant bum and await my little munchkins. Oh how my life has changed. Now I spend my days loving up on these 2 little guys. One thing that will ALWAYS snap them out of any sadness is a little time in Photo Booth. And now I have quite the collection of photos of my new job looking after these guys.

Here are some of my favorites.

NEW TRICKS

2011-07-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

The boys are in that stage where everything seems to be changing quickly. They're so much fun right now and they're learning so many new things. Here are a bunch of my favorite photos of them and some of the things they've been up to.

ADVENTURES IN THE HIGHCHAIR

Do I have something on my face?

Mom - my sippy cup is broken - I'm not getting any water. Look who can hold their own bottles! Freedom! This is one of my very favorite tricks.
SOAKING UP THE SUN
Now that they're Texas Boys, they're learning to love the water to beat the 100 degree heat. POPPIN A SQUAT
They're both really good at sitting now. Brody used to fall over a lot. Which would make Mason sad. But not so much anymore. (Ps - how cute are they all decked out in their church clothes???) MISCHIEVOUS
Mason is army crawling everywhere. He drags his little white onesied body all over our floor so I can see everything I missed while sweeping on his chest when I pick him up.Brody's still just a roller but he can get around if he wants to. One day I found him here... Under our media center. HOW??? It's this tiny little space and he backed himself into it. I laughed so hard. GREAT SLEEPERS
What a blessing that these boys sleep. Sometimes they sleep a little too well and in unlikely places. Found Mason in his bouncer like this: As I tried to lift him out, he would keep trying to bounce - still with his eyes closed. Little sweetheart.

VIDEO FOR FATHER'S DAY

2011-06-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

I know with absolute certainty that I physically and emotionally could not handle raising twins if it weren't for Brian. He is the most incredible father. In fact, I'm sure that's why Heavenly Father sent them to us. He's so fun, so patient, so loving, so involved. He is my rock and their hero. As soon as he's around it's like - Mom who? I hope as they get older they try to be like him in every way.

Happy Father's Day love.

Click on the link to get to the video:
VIDEO OF BRODY & MASON

Dear Brody & Mason,
You have the best dad in the world. Every day he comes home from work and he can't wait to come see you and make you laugh. You save all your best giggles for when he's around. He doesn't even mind if it's time to change diapers. Not even the really stinky ones. Is that love or what? Every day he calls to hear how our day is going and he always tells me how much he misses you. Every single day. He loves you so much and I know that you love him. Be good boys and you will always make him proud.
Love, Mom

BEST FRIENDS

2011-05-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

Seems like no matter where I put the boys on the floor to play, they always end up tangled up and usually just smiling at each other. Sometimes they love each other a little too much...

FISH HOOK

But I still think they will be best friends.

LA to DALLAS

2011-05-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Santa Monica! We will miss you!!!

Thank you for being so good to us.
We will never forget you.

So we packed our bags and with the help of a lot of friends, we emptied our apartment.
I want to go on the record and say Brian swore this would be the last move we do on our own - gathering friends to help load the truck. Please bless he was telling the truth.

LA has been such a great place for Brian and I that even though I have been ready for more space, seeing our apartment like this had me in full meltdown. I have never been so attached to a place. LA as a city will have a warm fuzzy place in my heart forever.

Brian and I both moved to LA single, ready to start our careers. We both had planned on being other places after graduating but felt strongly that we should be in LA.

Best decision ever.

After almost 6 years, it's the longest I've lived anywhere since leaving Batesville, Indiana when I was 14. I was excited when I moved to LA but I was scared. Ash drove me down and we hit rush hour traffic and I remember thinking - WHAT HAVE I DONE and wanting to run back to anywhere that felt more comfortable.

Luckily LA is easy to fall in love with.

I played at the beach, landed my dream job, made amazing friends, found Brian, got married, had 2 babies and we outgrew our apartment.

So here we are:Texans. =)

We live in a neighborhood called Turtle Cove and we're a block from the lake. Look how pretty!
We moved to Rockwall - a lake community northeast of Dallas. Brian's working downtown which is a half hour commute but it beats the LA hour long bus ride any day. Less Asian women to hit on him, but with every move comes sacrifices right?
We had Brian's parents and my best friend help us get out here (yes it took FIVE people to get all our stuff, cars, + 2 babies to texas) and it was awesome because we ended up being super productive and got the house in good shape. I have no idea how we would have done it all on our own. After a million and 1 trips to Lowe's and all our Saturdays looking like this, we're getting closer.

Thanks to our ward (church group), our next door neighbors and the friendliest strangers I've ever met welcoming us to town - we are quickly feeling right at home.

INTERNET + IMAC = MAGIC

2011-05-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so a lot of things have gone on for us in the past month. I quit my job at Chiat, we packed our bags and boys for Texas, bought a home... lots of exciting things. But today, the most exciting news is that I have a computer again!!! See, apparently when you quit work they make you give your laptop back. Shocking, I know. So I've been without for months now and my blog and my knowledge of all things outside my 4 walls have suffered because of it. So with my new found power (aka iMac and internet) here are a couple pictures and a promise to be back on here more often now.

Here are the boys in their Sunday best

(Cheat Sheet: Brody in green, Mason in red)

Playing Footsie in the Bumbo

2011-03-21T09:09:00.001-07:00

Brody smiles at Mason

Mason smiles at Brody

Both looking exhausted.

This sitting business is hard work!!

IT'S A TWIN THING

2011-02-28T14:21:00.000-08:00

What are you looking at?
The toys are up here!

Oh there you are, brother!

It's a twin thing.

BRODY'S TRICKS

2011-02-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

Sure Mason does great tummy time and he can roll over and sure, maybe we've been a little concerned that Brody would never move and that he'd be 15 and wanting to hang out under his little jungle gym thing. But Brody's got tricks too. Here are some of his best moves:

He gives lots of smiles.

He sucks his thumb.

He's super good at looking cute.

He can bounce himself out of his bouncer.
(I was giving Mason a bath and found him like this. Not crying. Just hanging out.)

He can rotate a quarter turn to his right. Even managed to straddle his jungle gym on this one. Impressive.

And with Daddy's help, he's even been working on tummy time.

Brother has been less helpful in this area.

3 MONTHS

2011-02-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

Brody "tummy time is for suckers" Babcock

Mason "fight the system" BabcockAlways has his fists at the ready Brothers!

Bonus Pic:
I think somewhere in the fine print it says you're supposed to wear the sling... but this worked just as well.

MOM, BROTHER THREW UP ON MY HEAD

2011-02-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

These are the kinds of things I expect to hear once the boys can talk.

Here is the before shot. Mason woke up just long enough to lean forward, spit up all over Brody, and then collapses back to sleep.
This picture doesn't even do justice to how covered he was. Sweet Brody didn't even wake up.

Gotta love brothers.

GROWING UP

2011-01-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

The boys and I are growing up together right now. One day, one week, one month at a time.

I feel lucky, and so blessed, to be the mother to these sweet, sweet boys. Mid-December, Brian and I ventured to Denver to be with his entire family for the holidays. The 4 of us, with 4 huge suitcases, 2 car seats, one tandem stroller and 2 slings, crammed ourselves into a minivan cab at 5am and somehow found our way to the airport. We were a sight and everyone wanted to get a look. The boys were CHAMPS and slept the entire way. Two days after getting to Denver, I landed in the hospital with a breast abscess. THE WORST! They kept me there for 3 days and sent me home with the drain in ("the boob tube") that I had to keep in for 10 days. I felt stressed about being away from the boys but Brian and I kept talking about how this would just be a crazy, funny story really soon. Thanks to all for the thoughts and prayers during that time - our family was definitely blessed because of them.
Mama in the hospital, Brody (my sweet visitor) and the boob tube.

As crappy as it was to be in the hospital during our holiday time, I'm grateful that we were in Denver when it happened because we were surrounded by family to help us. The boys jumped to formula for 5 days, which gave everyone a chance to help feed them. Jenny has a way with Mason - what can I say.

The rest of the holiday season was perfect and more normal. Stories and pictures to come.
Here are some of my favorite Christmas pictures.Is there anything more exciting than a Christmas morning with a tree full of presents???

We Take Naps Where We Can Get Them

2010-12-10T14:14:00.000-08:00

Even if it's on the changing table.
You win some, you lose some. I'm learning quickly to choose my battles.

One Size Fits Two

2010-12-07T18:15:00.000-08:00

So this is a onesie we got as a gift. We were so excited since we're Steelers fans. Then we discovered that it was made for the baby of a linebacker. What baby is this wide and short???
Hard to see it here but we've actually snapped the bottom of the onesie between the babies, so each set of legs is coming out one leghole.

Classic.
Also, amazing how identical 2 screaming babies can look.

More Brody & Mason

2010-11-30T14:54:00.000-08:00

This has quickly become the Brody & Mason show. And for good reason. If I was this cute, then it could be all about me, but alas... not the case. These boys take the cake for cuteness.

(Mason)

(Brody)

Here are some of our latest pictures to show you how well we're all doing. For the time being, I'll keep labeling who's who so you can start to tell the 2 apart. Once you see them in person it's much easier to see the differences.

They each have 2 looks.
Brody: Sleeping or Worried.
Mason: Alert or Screaming.
Showing off the boys on skype Sometime soon, I'll try to put into words the emotions of my first 2 weeks but that will have to wait for another day.

Love you all. Thanks for your love, support, prayers and visits!

COMING HOME FROM HOSPITAL

2010-11-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

We've been home for almost a week now and honestly the fact that we've survived so far has been a blessing. Two infants is serious business!!! Even though I feed them tandem and we've gotten rid of all supplemental feeding, I can't wake one up if they fall asleep during "mealtime," can't change a diaper with the other still feeding and can't sooth them both back to sleep at the same time. (Brian syringe feeding Brody - we call this the "birdfeeder" and the first week he'd have to do this every meal)

This means I need a helper at every shift, day or night. Most of the time I just wish I could do it on my own so I wouldn't be in such a panic about what I'll do when our help leaves. We do a mother in law for Mom swap this Tuesday. Literally the same trip that Brian will take to drop one off, he'll pick up the other and I have a friend coming over during that hour or 2 to help me while he's gone. With my mom here for 4 weeks, luckily we won't have to think about that for awhile.

Hard work aside, these boys couldn't be cuter and we can't help eating them up. Excited for a time when we will rejoin the real world and we can show them off some more. Here are some pictures of the boys in their coming home outfits, on our way home from the hospital and a few we've taken since then.Beginning to realize how hard it is to take pictures when we're both always holding a baby!! No photographer to capture any of these moments!

This is what we call the dancer pictures. Don't they look like they're posing? "Hey - look what I can do!" Mason likes to cover his face with his hat and always has his hands up above his head. He'd reach up and grab that flap on his hat and pull it down over his face every chance he got.
Brody likes to wiggle out of his hats so he keeps scooting his head down until it starts to pop off the top.

The Baby Babcock Boys Have Arrived!!!

2010-11-06T14:37:00.001-07:00

Broderick ("Brody") Russell Babcock (aka the low maintenance cuddler)
Born: November 3, 2010 at 4:58 pm
Weight: 7 pounds 0 ounces
Length: 19.0 inches

Mason Mack Babcock (aka the high maintenance screamer)
Born: November 3, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Weight: 6 pounds 13 ounces
Length: 19.5 inches

Skin on skin time with mom. So precious!

As all parents know, we are spending all day and night feeding and changing diapers, with only an occasional nap....but we couldn't be happier! Just love these little guys.

BABIES ARE COMING!!!

2010-11-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a pregnancy rash that’s covering my entire body, and about 30 minutes of partial blindness yesterday (very scary and they’re not sure what caused it) the doctor has taken pity on me and is moving my date up to today!!! We just found out this morning and couldn’t be happier. The plan is to go to the hospital at 3pm and they’ll take them at 5pm. Hopefully we’ll be able to send out some good news soon after that!

Stay tuned!!!

Ali

KILLING TIME

2010-11-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

Could I be any more pregnant? Luckily I have my mother in law around to keep me company and this past weekend my little brother Eric was in town. To take our minds off the fact that nothing's happening to bring these babies, and the new fun pregnancy symptom of a massive rash, we went to Solvang for a day trip - a little Danish town a couple hours north. We ate delicious ableskivvers (sp?) which are like pancake balls with raspberry jam and powdered sugar. Yummy.

NOVEMBER 10TH @ NOON

2010-10-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Looking unlikely these guys will come on their own. Little mama's boys is what we have here. Should I be concerned?

Thanks for all the tips and sympathy!

After a week of trying everything we could, I'm officially dilated to negative centimeters. Nothing movin.

My c-section is scheduled for Wednesday, November 10th @ noon so at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel. So if not before then - see you all in 13 days with some baby news!

PREGNANT FOR LIFE

2010-10-22T15:23:00.001-07:00

Went to the doctor today with high hopes of setting a date for the c section only to be disappointed to hear that she wants me to be pregnant for the rest of my life.

She won't take them out until 39 weeks - Nov. 10th - which at this point feels like a lifetime away.

Went to the hospital for a non-stress test after my appointment and the nurse there told me that was just plain mean to make me wait that long. Can't say I disagree.

In the meantime, here is the cute nursery! All ready for the boys to make their arrival. (Thanks to Emily for the adorable name signs!!!)

Any tips that have worked for you in getting babies out sooner?

ASIAN WOMEN AND THE BIG BLUE BUS

2010-10-14T18:28:00.000-07:00

Asian women love Brian.

It's a fact.

You would think that this would be because of his killer Mandarin skills, but believe it or not, these pursuers don't even know he speaks Chinese when they try to make their move.

It always happens on the bus that takes him to and from work everyday - otherwise known as "Big Blue."

My favorite part is that it's always in note form.

See Exhibit A:
If he would have let me keep the other notes from the other Asian women in the past, you would be able to see that this is not a one time occurrence but I guess you'll just have to believe me. The girl before Exhibit A asked to borrow a pen and then used said pen to write him a love note and then returned the 2 together. Very smooth.

My other favorite part is that they don't ever give him a phone number or even follow up with a smile. Maybe they see he's married and just want him to know how cute he is? Maybe they're too shy to be any bolder than the note and hope he makes the next move before their stop? Why are they all Asian? Is this note form cultural or coincidental?

Or maybe the most logical of all assumptions, Brian writes these notes to himself.

So many questions - so few answers - but these notes bring me ridiculous amounts of joy. Here's hoping another one is not too far in the future.

Thanks for being faithful, love. I know you're very desirable and admired by many.

DEAR DOCTOR

2010-10-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Doctor,

When discussing the c-section I will likely be having for my breech babies, please do not refer to it as VIOLENT. Thanks but no thanks. I'd like to sign up for the non-violent version.

I would venture to guess that most mothers-to-be would prefer another term... perhaps try saying a breech c-section is a bit "trickier" or takes a little more "maneuvering."

Pretty much ANYTHING else.

Thanks,
Ali, Brian, and the ones soon to be ripped VIOLENTLY from my body

THE CHINESE-SPEAKIN, BURRITO-EATIN WHITE MAN

2010-10-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

Someone at Brian's office referred to him as the Chinese-speakin, burrito-eatin white man the other day and I can think of few nicknames I like more. Kind of a mouthful but I'm hoping it sticks.

So much pregnancy talk on here that Brian hasn't gotten much face time on the blog.

Here are some of the things that have been keeping Brian busy over the past few months:

GOLF CHAMPION:
Brian's friends play what they call the Sunrise Nine about twice a month. This is a very official golf group, they wake up before anyone should be up on a Saturday and have "tour stops," an official newsletter, and all their points add up so at the end of the tour there will be one winner. I just tried for about 15 minutes to find a better way to describe this group and how involved it is but I failed so I'll leave it at that.

I will say Brian has been on the winning team of 2 of the majors and just shot his best round of golf last week. Few things make this man happier than a good golf day.
SOFTBALL (ALMOST) CHAMPIONBrian's been playing softball on a city league for 5 years. The Albright team battled it out this year and in the championship series, went 1-1 before losing in the final game. So close.

It has been so fun watching him play over the years and I'm sad to say he's calling it quits for a while. I'm guessing he'll miss it soon and we'll end up at the batting cages pretty often. I could use the practice so that's fine by me.

SUPPORTIVE HUSBAND/FATHER-TO-BE

Of course, of all his activities this summer, he's been spending most of his time playing the role of loving husband and soon to be father. He has been to every single doctor's appointment (and believe me when I say there have been about a million). He's been so good to me - which is nothing new, but very appreciated - and does whatever he can to take care of the 3 of us. Love this guy!!!

CANKLES

2010-10-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Check out these sweet tree stumps that used to be my legs. My hands, feet and belly are all retaining water like crazy. Sure it hurts, but it's also pretty cool. One finger of pressure on any of these body parts and I can make indents. It's like having Silly Putty for limbs!Ow ow! Sexy mama! You can see the indent on my leg in the last one where I put some pressure on my calf. Doesn't do the real thing justice but just to give you some idea. =)

PUMP STATION VS BAGGERS

2010-10-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

Why do male grocery store baggers consistently find new ways to tell me how huge I am? My good-natured smile is wearing thin. One asked if I was having triplets. Another told me not to go too far from my cart. What does that even mean?? Yeah, for the next couple weeks, I think I’ll stick to the pump station, a store where everyone in there is pregnant and finds just about any opportunity to compliment the other women in the store. I think I’ll set up shop there for the next little while and just soak in all the love.

BIG MAMA

2010-10-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in a while in hopes that everyone would think I still looked only 21 weeks pregnant. Unfortunately, that is very much not the case. Here are some of my preggo pictures so you can see my growing belly and how it’s progressed.21 weeks

22.5 weeks (apparently feeling huge)

28 weeks - the only bare belly shot I'll make you witness

32 weeks

33.5 weeks - how fake does that look??

Rear view - 35 weeks

That takes you to today! 35 weeks, 1 day pregnant. The side shots didn't work out today so I'll get an updated side shot in the next couple days.

Here's the current status of babies & mama:

After threatening bed rest pretty much my entire pregnancy, the babies are now cozy as could be. I’m starting to think they will never come out and my doctor has even mentioned taking me to 38.5 wks. KILL ME.

Even though I’m ready to be done being this pregnant, I’m honestly incredibly grateful I’ve been able to carry them this long and feel blessed the pregnancy has gone so well.

Ultrasounds are now just a mess of arms and legs but they think the babies are about 5 ½ lbs and 6 lbs.

Baby A has turned head down after spending 35 weeks breeched and has now dropped. Perhaps this was after he heard if he didn’t flip that his birth would be “violent.” (see upcoming post, Dear Doctor)

My belly circumference is 46.5 inches. And that’s in the morning.

I can’t sit straight up with my legs together because my belly hits my legs. Have to sit spread eagle and let my belly hang in the middle. It’s very ladylike and as you can imagine, super attractive.

Sweatpants and gaucho pants are my new best friends.

Just to be cruel, LA decided to have record breaking heat and 2 weeks ago we hit an unheard of 115 degrees. Do I need to remind anyone that we do not have A/C?

Despite the heat and cankles and sweatpants and huge belly… I’ve been surprisingly active and able to get a lot done. I went for a long walk along the beach last weekend and saw a girl half my size waddling like a penguin and it made me feel pretty good about my big belly and ability to walk in a straight line.

The nursery is as ready as it can be right now and we’re just so excited to get these boys here!!!

Thank you all for your love and support and hopefully we’ll be able to post the birth from the hospital! So close!

FAMILY BABY SHOWER!!!

2010-08-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Brian and I wanted to take one last trip out to Utah to see family before I had to put my flying wheels down for a while (doc's orders) and stay put in Cali for the rest of my pregnancy. So a few weeks ago we went out and my sister organized an amazing baby shower for me while I was there.

Yummy yummy food

Kate - the cute party planner. Love you sis.The obligatory belly pose - 21 1/2 weeks at this point. And yes the 1/2 is important.

It was so great to have so many people together at the same time!!!
I don't remember but it must have been funny.
My 2 LA BFFs that had both just moved away were both able to be there! So fun!
Miss you girls!
Double belly bump below. My friend Megan just happened to be having her baby shower on that same day - so I went to hers in the morning - she came to mine in the afternoon. My mom obviously wasn't able to make it but she sent a sweet letter to be read and then we jumped on skype with her at the end of the shower for her to say hello to everyone. Here's Carolyn Crawford reading my mom's letter and then Brian chatting with Mama and Papa Swenson in Chile. Who doesn't love technology?? Other than Granny & Grandpa?
This is an outtake. Could've been so cute if Brian had opened his eyes.

Brian's parents drove up from Denver to be there with us for the weekend which was so fun. Especially since Mark & Jenny were out there that week as well. After the shower we went to Texas Roadhouse with Brian's family. Love being a part of this family. Random other photos from our weekend:
Temple Square after going to the Spoken Word
(Seriously - where is my other leg in that picture??)Lil Brudder and Kate looking cute as ever. When did they get so old?Grandpa showing off his new chair.
And finally, Granny and the lifetime supply of frozen jam that she gave us.

MAUI

2010-06-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

How many pictures is too many? Apparently when you're staying in Hawaii, there is no such thing. Please do not be overwhelmed by the ridiculous amount of photos here.
Brian and I "babymooned" in Maui for our 2nd year anniversary. We've heard a lot of hype over Maui and I have to say, it did not disappoint. Here are our millions of pictures and a few stories about our time there.
Finally off any exercise restrictions for the first time in 7 weeks, we took a gentle hike out to the northern most point of the island to see spouting horn. Actually that's the name of the one in Kauai. This one is something like Blow Hole. Don't quote me on that.

It's where the water from the ocean crashes in the rock and then shoots straight up into the air. These 2 fools are staring directly into the blow hole.Road to Hana
We left early one morning to get a full day of Hana in. The road is insanely windy and slow but the views are gorgeous and there are tons of waterfalls along the way.
And these cool old bridges.And a black sand beach
This is pretty much what I see the entire trip:
In that one he's even holding his breath to keep himself from moving the camera.

More Road to Hana - this was a really sweet and uncrowded pool - Maybe Venus Pools? Do you like how we got all our adventure on this trip by watching other people do crazy things?
This is about as crazy as I got on the trip:On to the Seven Sacred Pools
They say some days you can see people jump off the bridge into the first pool, and then cliff jump their way down all the pools.
Apparently my lack of belly in my San Fran post had some people confused. That trip was early May so I was only 12 weeks along at that point. This Maui trip, I was 17 weeks along so you can see the belly much more. I have some bikini photos in which it's out in full force, but I'll spared you from that sight. I was not quite as kind to the guests of our hotel. After that gorgeous Road to Hana, we found ourselves on the complete opposite side of the island from where we were staying. Instead of turning around, we completed the loop and hit this road. For 3+ hours we bumped along this awful road with no view.After a long long day on the road, and only 20 miles away from our hotel, we were rewarded with this:
Road to Hana had turned into the Highway to Hell. Maui caught on fire and literally burned all day while we were gone. Took us 3 more hours to go 2 miles and there were flames on either side of us, literally feet from the highway.

The next day we took a break from the car to beach it/hang by the pool.
After a day at the pool, we were ready for some more driving and decided to go watch the sunrise at the summit of the volcano - Haleakala Crater.

Oh yeah - this is AM.

I have never been in stronger winds in my life. 60-70mph winds and a cold that threatened to take away every good warm thing about Hawaii.Luckily Brian's a genius and packed up our hotel comforter in one of our suitcases for an easy escape past the front desk.

I was a happy little burrito.More Maui fun. Snorkeling at Molokini Crater - you can see forever out there! Best snorkeling I've ever done.

Coming home, I had a bad case of the PVBs (Post Vacation Blues). We miss you Maui!

WHO SAYS PREGGOS CAN'T HAVE ANY FUN

2010-06-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

In between morning sickness and back pain, Brian and I have tried to get as much fun in as we can before these little guys arrive.

We finally took a trip up to San Francisco to visit Ashley and Christine (Two of our best friends in the world. Yes, I said OUR, even though Ashley was originally mine, and Christine, Brian's. What can I say, we married into more than just good families.) Anyway, we've been talking about it for almost 2 years, so I was ecstatic to finally be there.
Ashley
Christine

We saw the city by boat and a lot by car and I can officially confirm now, San Francisco is so pretty!!!

This is the captain of our sailing trip under the Golden Gate Bridge. How amazingly captain-y looking is he???
The wind out on the water was OUT OF CONTROL. Brian fearlessly walked across the front of the boat without holding onto anything but when I went to follow him, I got stuck in the wind halfway across and couldn't move. Paralyzed on the spot, I thought I was going to have to hit the deck and crawl my pathetic butt back to the side. Can you imagine a pregnant woman army crawling on the front of a boat??

How embarrassing.

Luckily some friendly strangers formed an assembly line of hands to help usher me across. Brian, completely oblivious to my near tragic crossing, just smiled and took more pictures.

Not that I'm complaining. Thanks to him we have these... And thanks to the wind, he had this...
Luckily the babies played nice and let me enjoy the road trip, boat ride and the rest of the weekend.
I can't believe the boys didn't think this would look cute. Who needs boys. We'll show them how it's done.
After the weekend in the city, we spent Monday with Christine in Palo Alto. Christine is taking a leave of absence (GENIUS) so she was able to be our tour guide all day.

The majority of our day was spent at Stanford under these amazingly huge umbrellas.
Thanks for a fabulous weekend girls! We love you!

BELLY BUTTON ON ITS WAY OUT

2010-05-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

For the record, my belly button is already on its way out. At 15 weeks. Poor little guy never stood a chance.

So incredible, so amazing, but also so strange to think I'm growing babies inside me. Not that I'm really doing much of anything, but they're growing with or without me! What a miracle that we can do this!!!

Never in my life did I consider having twins. It wasn't even in the realm of what I thought was possible. After initially being told there was only one, the doctor proceeded to find another heartbeat. We thought she was kidding and until she was able to get both babies on the monitor at the same time, I genuinely thought she was just showing us the same baby from different angles, and she had mistakenly thought this was a different baby. But those 2 little heartbeats didn't lie and Brian and I just stared at each other in disbelief. Every emotion running through us. Shock, excitement, overwhelmed, blessed. My mind started racing with thoughts of 2 crying babies, 2 feedings every 2-3 hours, piles and piles of dirty diapers. Brian's mind went straight to the cash register... 2 kids turning 16 and wanting cars at the same time, 2 kids going to college at the same time...

Our nurse took us aside and told us that she thinks the Lord selects special couples to raise twins and how it's a blessing the Lord has given us. I know she's right about the blessing part and even though I'm pretty sure she was just trying to calm the fear in our eyes, bless her heart because that's exactly what we needed to hear in that moment.

We are BEYOND excited and can't wait for these little guys to get here!

THE TWINS

2010-05-26T16:25:00.000-07:00

You know the feeling when you actually take the time to capture a moment and get all the details down and are happy with the outcome (judging by how often I blog, you can see how rare these moments are for me) and then something happens and technology slaps you across the face and deletes everything you've just worked to create? That's what just happened to my twins blog.

So whereas a minute ago my feelings were joy and excitement as I was finally ready to "blog announce" my pregnancy with TWIN BOYS, my feelings are now borderline rage and I just can't bring myself to write it again right now.

But rage or no rage, nothing makes me happier than saying or typing twins and I wonder just how long it'll be before that shock will wear off. Maybe never.

I will say how happy we are and how blessed to be able to tell the world that we have these boys on the way... and will someday in the somewhat near future (expected arrival = mid-late October) we will be responsible for raising these 2 little guys, which is overwhelming but mainly just pure joy.

And I promise something more detailed will be coming soon.

Here's the 15 weeks and growing belly bump proof.

TRIP TO CHILE

2010-04-07T13:59:00.000-07:00

Chile might not be high on everyone's vacation spot list, especially with the recent earthquake and all the aftershocks, but it is so beautiful there! The whole family went to visit my parents over Christmas break and had an awesome family reunion. Here are some pictures from our adventures. Ok fine - a lot of pictures.

There is no way to describe how terrifying this bridge is, how high up you are, or how wide the gaps are between those wooden, wobbly boards.Or how scary it is when you're taking a picture in the middle of the railroad track that you thought had long been abandoned and a train comes through. This might be my fake scared face, but believe me. I was shaking.

This is the view from our hotel balcony in Villaricca.

Volcan Villaricca
We decided it would be a good idea to hike this active volcano. Why not right?

Here we are getting cocky. Thinking it doesn't look as hard as we thought it would.

Here we are realizing we were wrong. So so wrong.

Collin and Kate decided to play a trick on Eric and never say how tired they were no matter how bad it got so E would think he was the only one hurting. So when Eric would say he was exhausted, they would say "Really? I'm not feeling it. I think it's been easy so far."

Kate (loudly): FEEEEEELING good.
Under her breath: I want to kill myself.

This game did not last long. Kate couldn't fake any kind of joy after 15 minutes.

Easily the hardest thing I've ever done.

But check out those views!!! And we're only half way up.

At this point, I was convinced this was Everest. The wind was blowing SO HARD that even with my crampons and ice pick, I would have to fight with everything in me to stay upright. Too bad I thought they were kidding when they showed us how to use the ice pick to keep from dying if you slipped. I had some close calls.

Yes that steam is from the volcano. Are we hardcore or what. Speaking of hardcore, Mama Swenson was the only Mom in our group to complete the hike. Others tried but they didn't last long. We were proud.

Papa, baby sister, lil brudder, big brother, Mama, me, Brian
Lindsay had to stay back because of the nugget (due in August)

Best part of the hike, on the way down, they put you in an ice chute and you get to luge down the entire volcano on your butt.
4 1/2 hours up.
30 minutes down.

How cute is this kid???!!!!
My nephew Sean, 2 yrs old, was the star of the show most of the trip.

He did NOT want to have his picture taken.

He wanted to DANCE!!!Chile has all kinds of gorgeous waterfalls. Waterfall #1 in the POURING rain. Please tell me you can see that my dad is wearing an H&M shopping bag as a hat.

ZIPLINE!!! Sexy harnesses right?

Waterfall #2

Waterfall #3 - this one we actually got to hike down and go under the falls. So sweet.

Does this look like we're in Lost or what? Where's Jack? Sawyer? Smoke Monster? I looked like freaking Rousseau after this thing. Haggard.I'm a little teapot, short and stout... Sean was being threatened by horseflies the size of my fist.
And a mangy, homeless, hairless, diseased dog that wouldn't leave him alone.
This is our "protect the wawa" (aka baby) stance while Sean played in the sand, completely unaware. Gotta have a stick.Family shot! (if you'll notice, Sean's still holding a stick.)

CONCEPCION, CHILE

2010-03-11T11:28:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, my parents are in Concepcion serving as mission president and they just suffered a massive 8.8 earthquake with over 200 aftershocks. Thank you all for your concern, love and prayers for my family, the missionaries and the people of Chile.

They are finally back up and running with everything except water and my mom posted this note to her facebook page with some more details. Just wanted to get this out for anyone who hasn't seen it yet:

Day 8, Saturday March 6, 2010...

With the earthquake a week ago Concepcion lost telephone service, electricity, running water, gas, and food in stores (from looting). There was also a curfew from 6pm to 12 noon so they could clean up/fix up the city. They've made great progress. Last night (Day 7) we happily got electricity but no internet. Now internet has arrived and with it our first chance to communicate. But still no running water, which means more buckets carried up and down lots of stairs. But all is well.

I would really rather not be here when the earth rolls up like a scroll. Honestly, how can we ever be prideful when we live on a big ball that can shake its guts out at any moment? So began our Saturday morning around 3:30 am Feb 27. The mission home is a large lovely condominium on the top-6th floor. There is no way to explain how an 8.8 earthquake sounds and feels. It lasted about 3 minutes...the belly of the earth groaning as everything's shaking and dumping and shattering. We made it down the stairs and outside just as the main quake was finishing. The building held like a fortress. I've never been in an earthquake and had seen the devastation in Haiti, so I figured since the building didn't come crashing down maybe this wasn't that big a deal. So I turned to Joe and said, Do you think this will make the news in other countries? Cause I really don't want parents to worry.

So imagine how we felt when we saw the destruction you've all seen on tv...so worried for our 156 missionaries and their families. We had an emergency plan that thank sweet heaven worked perfectly, with missionaries meeting at designated chapels. We gratefully and humbly acknowledge the Lord's hand in protecting them so completely. Not one of them has so much as a scratch. All the homes are fine. There was a tsunami and we have many coastal towns in the mission, but water never entered their doors.

One night I sat on my bed, the weight of the worry overwhelming me...what the families and friends must be going through...but then I remembered all those 100s of people were praying for us and these missionaries, and I want you to know we felt those prayers so powerfully every moment of this crisis. And they were answered.

The north and coastal areas were mainly affected. Further south lost power for a day then went on as usual. So hopefully we're stronger for all of this. Lots to do to get ready for a temple.

We love you. Thanks for praying for us. President & Hermana/ Jolene & Joe

PINK, SQUISHY TOILET SEAT

2010-01-13T09:49:00.000-08:00

When our sweet, sweet landlord offered to replace our old toilet seat with a new one over the Christmas break, we had no idea what a treat we were in for. Apparently the old porcelain white seat we had was just too out of style for his taste.

We came home to this beauty.

This gem is not only pink, but it’s squishy foam covered in plastic. And slightly smaller than the toilet with a very small hole… I’ve never had to worry about aim before, but with a target that narrow, you start to wonder.

(Have I said too much?)

After a few days of shaking our heads and uttering… “Seriously? Pink? Squishy?” and debating whether the landlord is colorblind or genuinely thinks this is a good look, Brian broke down and purchased a new one. Back to white – so boring.

5k

2009-12-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, so it’s no Ironman, or half marathon or even a 10k, but I completed the 5k Christmas Run this weekend in the pouring rain. Let me preface my results by saying that other than a miracle mile I ran at age 12 at 6:36, my miles have been sitting around 9:00 ever since.

Thanks to my Garmin watch and a recent conversion to early rising, I have been improving my time almost every time I go out. My goal was to average 8:15 minute miles, which would give me a total time of 25:35.

I am very happy to report that I came in at 24:16, averaging 7:52/mile.

This put me 7/92 for my age category, 37/463 females, and 141/787 overall.

Big happy face over here.

Krista and I were literally side by side the entire race - with the exact same strides as we came into the finish.

Here I am desperately trying to look tough & ready for the race. Where are the muscles that I am flexing? Oh right, I have none.Stretch it out.
Of course the second we took off our sweatshirts and put away the umbrellas to line up, the rain came on full force.
Here I am jumping to see Brian over the crowd at the start.
Coming into the finish line.
I think this is what death looks like.
Low five?
What a gross day!
What a cute supporter/photographer! Rain and all!

THANKSGIVING

2009-12-07T17:15:00.001-08:00

Things I'm grateful for:

brian
every swenson & babcock
great friends
good health
the gospel
Jesus Christ

A simple list but each are huge blessings.

Spent our Thanksgiving holiday in Denver with the Babcocks and had 4 of the 5 brothers (missed you Mark, Jenny, & Liz!).

Here are some of our pictures of our nieces and nephew that we are SO SO glad just moved from San Antonio to Colorado Springs. We're always happy to have family closer.

October's End = Holidays are Here!

2009-11-23T17:12:00.000-08:00

I have to hurry up and finish my posts on October so I can officially recognize that we are into holiday season!

I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but Brian gave in to setting up for Christmas already so our house is my own little holiday haven right now. Those pictures will be coming soon.

Back in October, though, we took our 2nd (potentially annual) trip to the Pumpkin Patch. It takes a little while to get there but it's always worth it. We actually finished the corn maze this year! Something to celebrate!Another blessed October event... Brian hit the big 3-1! Birthdays are always the best excuse to eat whatever we want and we took full advantage with a big pancake breakfast, Qdoba lunch (his work friends and I surprised him downtown with a cheesy party - complete with streamers, kazoos and balloons that said Brian) and chicken pot pie for dinner. Yum Yum.

Maybe we should start celebrating half birthdays...

Happy Birthday Baby.

BOUNCY CASTLES

2009-11-10T12:38:00.000-08:00

How long has it been since you've been in a bouncy castle?
Most likely, the answer is "too long." For my work Halloween party, they set up this huge pirate themed bouncy castle/slide on the basketball court and let a few of us test it out before the kids got here. I'm not kidding when I say I wish I had one in my backyard at all times. Ok, first I guess I would have to wish for a backyard... but you get what I'm saying.

This is Robyn, for those of you who have heard me talk about her. I got to take off my shoes at work (I hate shoes,) get a little exercise in the middle of the day and LAUGHED.
A lot.
Best work day ever.

HALLOWEEN!!!

2009-11-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

Who doesn't love dressing up? This year Brian and I went as Johnny Cash & June Carter. Or better yet, Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon.
Here are a couple videos with our best impersonations. I would also really like to say that this was Brian's idea to do the singing - he came home one day with Johnny Cash on his ipod and print outs of the lyrics. Just love him.

Brian was a huge hit at the single's ward party we went to. (Don't judge us.) He had multiple requests. This one was a fan favorite though - please excuse the awful camera work! This was meant to be a trial run but it's the only version I have.

Krista & Derek came to play with us dressed as the lovely Marilyn Monroe & smokin James Dean (pun intended). I realized this is my 4th year of Halloweens dressing up with Miss Krista Davis (Funk). Here they are...

2009

2008
Papa Smurf, Smurfette, "The Depression," Juno & Paulie Bleaker2007
She-Ra & Wonder Woman2006
Esmeralda, Pocahontas, Pirate Wench

WHERE DID SCABHEAD GO?

2009-10-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Typically on my way home from work, I slip into autopilot and either chat my way home (thanks Kate, E, Mom & Dad) or I sing my little heart out to make the drive pass by as quickly as possible. A couple times lately I've tried to get off the phone, turn off the radio, and see where my thoughts take me.

Random Thought #1: Where did Scabhead go?

Scabhead is a homeless man that used to walk the streets surrounding our apartment. He's bald on top with some hair around the sides and affectionately named for the ginormous scab on his head/forehead that never seemed to heal and was always in some state of bleeding. It looked kind of like this... but it's much bigger and he's not a baby.

I guess if you saw him on a dark night or in the back alley (both of which have happened to me) he's actually pretty scary, the perfect Halloween accessory. Even still, Brian and I were constantly on the look out and swapping happy texts about Scabhead sightings. As my random thoughts turn to him, I can't help but wonder where he's been. Did the scab finally heal and we just don't recognize him anymore? Did he move to New York to visit the Naked Cowboy? Or has he just found another block to explore? So this blog's for you, Scabhead, wherever you are, thanking you for the happiness and hoping you're well.

Go Air Force Beat the Cowboys!

2009-10-25T19:54:00.000-07:00

In the past, Ali and I have divided blog responsibilities. I take the pictures and she writes the blogs (shhh….please don't tell her I got off easy). For this post though, I wanted to write a quick little something about the weekend I spent in Colorado.

For my dad's 60th birthday this year (it is now public information pops) all the boys pitched in and surprised him with season tickets to the Air Force Academy football games. When I was younger, my dad always had season tickets to these games and they provided so many great memories (I remember less of the football games but more of the pre-game flyovers, parachute jumpers and the post-game aluminum can collecting). This past weekend I flew back to Colorado and relived some of my childhood memories and went to an Air Force Academy football game with my dad. We even brought and sat on the same denim blanket we sat on 15 years ago. Air Force beat Wyoming 10-0 in a defensive battle. The flyovers and parachute jumpers were just as awesome as I remember. It was just like the old days, but this time I spared my dad from hauling home a giant garbage bag full of aluminum cans. I'm a proponent of recycling, but the stadium doesn't allow cans anymore. Thanks dad for all the memories and for such a fun weekend.

Mr. Incredible

2009-10-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Brian tackled the MS 150 mile Bay-to-Bay Bike Ride this weekend which to me makes him Mr. Incredible. Biking from Irvine to Carlsbad and then a loop inland for a total 100 miles the first day and then the remaining 50 miles from Carlsbad down to Mission Bay on day 2. It was amazing how many people were involved in the event and how many of them have someone very close to them who is or was suffering from MS.

It is also amazing that Brian is still walking.

Did I mention we woke up at 4:30am to get to the starting line in time. While I decided to attend, other girlfriends and wives of the riders decided they could support their men just as well from home. I'm just saying.
My involvement was limited to one heck of a massage, picture taking, and thanks to Brian's good suggestion, I volunteered and got to hand out snacks to all the bikers at the halfway point.Rest Stop #5 at Mile 52
Halfway there and still all smiles.Day one ended with a pile of mystery meat & a diet DP. And some BBQ sauce riiiight there. Despite my best efforts, Brian was too fast and I didn't even get to see him come across the finish line on day 2. I was frantically parking and running over there when he actually crossed so on our way out, he ducked under the rope and re-finished for me. What you see below are FAKE finish pictures taken over an hour after the race. You'd never know the difference right?
For all of those people who were disappointed that this post wasn't a picture of Brian in a Mr Incredible outfit... this one's for you.

Remember When I Was Blonde?

2009-09-29T11:14:00.000-07:00

Odd Man Out

2009-09-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Went to Yosemite for a weekend of camping and strangely the fact that we didn't have a child under 1 made us the odd couple out. The other 4 brave couples, Warners, Warners(x2), Williams, and Caffees, brought along their 6 month old, 1 yr old, 10 month old and 3 month old.

There were play pens, pack-n-plays, porta cribs, baby crates, baby backpacks, baby bjorns, baby food, bottles, bumbos, and bobbys, along with a number of other things that don't seem like real words.

The babies were champs though and made it through the cold nights with far less of a struggle than I did.Maybe I needed one of these things. Next time.The Views Can you tell that Brian's the photographer of this family? We actually had a whole crew of photographers and fancy schmancy cameras. Quite impressive. Do you see the number of cameras in this shot alone?? Mike has 3, Brian 1.When he wasn't busy being a photographer, Brian was busy being tough. Really roughing it. So much so that on an adventure to bring back firewood, he got in a fight with a tree and came back with these scratches. The CrewThe CaravanThe Babies

Harrison Williams (10 months)

Madeline Caffee (3 months)

Zoey Warner (6 months)Izzie Warner (1 yr old)

Men of Iron

2009-09-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows my brothers, knows they're awesome. On top of being smart, funny, and athletic, they also have killer 6-packs.

Earlier this summer, while I was busy not blogging, my brothers did a half-ironman together.

It was the perfect excuse for a family reunion (for the kids anyway) and so Linds, the Sean-ster, Kate and I met in Boise to watch them torture themselves. The race consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 miles of biking and a 13.1 mile run.

70.3 miles of fun.

The trip out to Boise was what Collin asked for for Christmas 2 years ago, and last year's present request was making this video.. so here you go brother. A very well documented journey of our road trip to Boise and the race. It's about 15 minutes long... so get comfy... or just skip through.

EUROPE HIGHLIGHTS

2009-06-23T16:44:00.000-07:00

If you want the stories and highlights (the stuff that can't be told through pictures,) read below. If you want the pictures, you can go to this link and get the 200+ set. Just feel grateful we edited down the original 951 pictures we took to this more manageable set. picasaweb.google.com/alisaerin/EuropePics

SAN FRANCISCO?

After sprinting a mile through the airport, we missed our connection on the way out of the states and against our wishes spent the day in downtown San Fran

LONDON

Hotels went from Fantastic to Abysmal, in that order, as we hopped one stop to the next. Each one a notch lower than the next.
Drizzled on us our first night in London and it felt so appropriate that I couldn’t be sad. Had an amazing rainbow just behind the Tower Bridge following the rain.
Naps, advil and diet cokes got us through the days
Front row tickets to see Les Miserables. They were practically spitting on us and I loved it. Almost cried about 47 times.
Bought some Antique Dickens Book from Covent Garden Market. They looked really cool, so we bought them and now they sit on our shelf.

PARIS

After ordering our train tickets in French, I embarrass myself by saying “Gracias.”
Home sweet home – had a strange “coming home/homesickness” feeling the whole time we were there.
Crepes, baguette, more crepes, french fries, more baguette
Packed all our stuff for the 2 week vacation in one REI backpacking backpack and a smaller, school backpack. Had to do laundry in the sink twice during the trip, ring everything out and hang it all over the hotels.
Walked about 12 miles in the am one day to get around Versailles and out to Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet which was the first of many irritably hot days
Ran into a high school friend in the Louvre. He hasn’t been back to Paris since he graduated either. So completely random.
Witnessed a 45-minute full on make out session in the Tuilleries Garden. May have gone on longer but the gag reflex wouldn’t let us take anymore. Also we had a train to catch.
Took the night train out of Paris with 4 strangers in our room. B & I had the top of the 6 bunks and slept in a pool of our own sweat. It was lovely.
Train Connection MIRACLE – night train got in late and we had a connecting train. Jumped out while the train was still moving, sprinted with ALL of our gear from the last car of the train and jumped ON to the next train as it was pulling away from the station. It was amazing.

CINQUE TERRE

Gorgeous views and a fun hike
I bought the world’s largest map of Italy so I could follow along as we rode the trains. I think Brian was a bit embarrassed.

VENICE

Some sweetheart gives us his waterbus passes for free (about $24/ticket), in our excitement, we get on the wrong waterbus and take an hour detour past cruise ships and warehouse looking buildings to get to the main square.
Heat wave starts and the number of stories I tell from here on out that involve me being a sweaty mess goes up to 100%
Ran from A/C store to A/C store and ended up buying some sweet Venetian Masks. This picture is beyond embarrassing, but the mask is pretty sweet.
Stopped by an internet café to learn that Kris Allen is our American Idol.
Took the train to Florence and we were in the only car on the train with no A/C. Enter sweating Ali along with lots of sweaty, smelly Europeans. Brian had a crazy cat lady come sit next to him and let her cat walk around on our table. I couldn’t stop laughing. We are not cat people.

FLORENCE

Arrived in Florence late, after the long travel day with no A/C and crazy cat lady to realize we’ve misbooked our hotel and there’s “no room in the inn.”
Brian unleashes one of the best quotes of the trip, “Seeing the world is hard work.” Amen. Then again when you have views like this - it's hard to complain.
Desperate for Mexican, (Brian, not me) we found a burrito type kebab place and ate there for 3 of our 4 meals in Florence.
Rented Honda Scooters and cruised into Tuscany to see the vineyards. One of the best things we did the whole 2 weeks. Scorched our arms and gave us awkward tan lines for the rest of the trip. So worth it.
Got totally lost on the scooters trying to get back, ended up on the freeway with no clue what we were doing. Brian rode up to my side to scream, “GO FASTER!!!” as cars were whizzing past us.
Didn’t die. So count it as a success.
Got royally screwed over by some Gelato place and spent over $20 on a few scoops of the worst tasting Gelato in all of Italy

ROME

Most ghetto hotel in the whole world. Our room was a storage closet turned hotel room, no windows and reeked of smoke. Couldn’t lift my arms in the shower without hitting the doors and the water would vary without being touched between scalding my skin off and ice water. The room did have A/C though.
Brian cranked the A/C down to below freezing and we tried to sleep with a sheet. Somehow in his sleepiness, he couldn’t figure out how to warm it up or turn it off and assumed it was broken as my teeth chattered away. After not being able to sleep all night and requesting he try again with the remote, he loving said, “Do you want to sleep in your coat?” Dear Husbands of the world, no one WANTS to sleep in their coat. The answer to that question will always be no.
So sick of extreme temperatures and not wanting to sweat in my jeans another day, I wore Brian’s camo shorts and looked like a boy but was so worth it.
Lara Fisher (one of my BFFs) and her sister Shannon went to Rome on vacation 6 years ago. Shannon met Leo, a Vatican City researcher and Rome tour guide, and she basically never looked back. Thank goodness they were willing to meet up with us!!! They know absolutely everything there is to know about Rome and stayed with us an entire day showing us around. Talk about GOOD PEOPLE - we love these guys.
Watched the Manchester vs Barcelona game and had drunken Barcelona fans singing all the team songs the entire next day.
Ran into someone from work. In Rome. 3 times in one day.
Took 951 pictures and carried the tripod almost everywhere we went. Brian did an awesome job and got some fantastic shots.

TOM & JAN IN LA

2009-06-22T13:42:00.000-07:00

Brian's parents came to LA and we had an awesome weekend with them. Brian is hoarding all the pictures from their trip and since he refuses to blog about it, this post is to entice him to get on it and pretty please fill this post with pictures. I mean come on... I said please!

LIL BRUDDER COMES TO LA

2009-06-22T13:04:00.001-07:00

My little brother Eric, (aka lil brudder, BROTHER, or E) came out to visit the end of April and I was SO so happy. We thought it would be fun to take him camping with the Skanchys. Turns out the campsite was REALLY close to the ocean. And by close I mean, practically under water at high tide. If you can see the mini rock wall in the picture below, the waves were splashing up and over that a couple times. Pretty hilarious.How awesome is that sweatshirt I have on! Nope - not pregnant. Just the most ridiculously large (and comfy) sweatshirt ever.This is our drunken friend Noel that decided to come hang out at our campsite. It was like having a conversation with someone with a 7 second memory reset. We reintroduced ourselves multiple times and then started to freak him out by reciting things he'd already told us about himself. He narrowly escaped falling into our fire on many occasions. Lara (the sweetheart) offered to make him a hot dog. Brian and Andy pulled a MacGyver and used our marshmallow skewers, the stakes for the tent and a lot of duct tape to build a game of horseshoes. I lost in the final to Lara.

I just realized there are practically no pictures of Brother on here so here are a couple more:Brian has all the good pictures from the rest of the weekend so this is the only other one I have: put an apron on those boys and get them cooking!

CORT & LAURA'S WEDDING

2009-06-07T19:20:00.000-07:00

Went to San Diego for Cort & Laura's wedding and decided to make a weekend of it. The wedding itself was beautiful - flawless even. We stayed with our amazing family friends - the Nuckols (how is it possible we took zero pictures with them?!?) and enjoyed some time in La Jolla.

NEPTUNE'S NET

2009-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Went to a famous Malibu biker joint - Neptune's Net. Food was unappetizing, but experience was worth it. Here are some of our "sea life" pictures. See if you can guess what sea animal we're acting out before looking at the answers below!

Shark & Fish

Mermaid & Seahorse

SPRING TRAINING

2009-06-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

We thought Spring Training would be the perfect excuse to get down to Phoenix to visit Tom Hung. Got hooked up by my boss with some sweet tickets to see the Rockies play and loved hanging out chez Hung. TOM!!! We Miss You!!!

SUSHI NIGHT

2009-06-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

Had some of our “singles-ward-now-married/almost-married-but-we’re-split-up-in-different-wards” friends over for Sushi Night. Had to rearrange all the furniture in our apartment to get 8 people at the table, but we did it! Made our own rolls which were delicious. Love Andy's eyebrows. Always willing to get into character.

AMERICAN IDOL OBSESSED

2009-06-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

I haven’t been shy about my American idol obsession over the years. How could I feel shame from something that brings me so much happiness??? Our great friends Byron & Kim even came along for the idol journey this year and we created a bracket and point system to track through the season. I would also like to come clean that I have been reading ew.com’s recaps by Michael Slezak – the expert on American Idol, watching his “Idolatry” episodes and even catching the behind the scenes articles when I get a chance. I have also bought a record breaking 19 idol performance songs on itunes and 6 of the performances from results night, and the only time we checked internet on our 2 week trip to Europe, the first place we went was americanidol.com to see who won the season. I'm happy with my idol illness and will not be seeking help anytime soon. =)

BRITNEY'S BABY SHOWER

2009-06-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

Co-threw a baby shower for my friend Britney and had an idea for a new game to play. I wanted to get pictures of Brit & Mike and make everyone cut out different features from each parent and paste them together as one to give them an idea of what “Baby Zoey” could look like. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not, but it was a HIT! Check out these awesome potential Zoeys. I feel it important to point out that Zoey is an adorable baby, and looks nothing like any of these.

VALENTINE'S DAY

2009-06-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

When I asked Brian what he wanted to do for our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, I tried not to be offended when he was quick to respond, “Something simple and low-key.” So romantic.
Apparently by that he meant a 3-day trip to the sand dunes in an RV with our friends Chelsea and Mason. How sweet is that RV?!? It may not be the typical romantic Valentine’s day – but for us, it was perfect. I mean, come on, what’s more Valentine's Day-y than sand in every crevasse of your body and smelling like campfire for 3 days??? Apparently nothing. We rode 4-wheelers and “circled up” with some guys that had the most amazing sand cars (you can see them in the background of the photo below. We got to go on a ride and they are INSANE! So crazy fast and had us whipping left and right and practically upside down. I loved it.

WORST BLOGGERS EVER

2009-06-05T18:51:00.000-07:00

Don't say you weren't warned, we truly are the worst bloggers ever.

But there's some stuff I really wanted to post, so I'll try to keep these updates as short and sweet as possible.

I'm an Aunt!!! Again!!!

2009-03-03T12:04:00.000-08:00

Brian's little brother Mark and his wife Jenny had their first baby - Elizabeth Leah Babcock!!! She was actually born on Feb. 4th (Jenny's birthday!) and I stole this photo from their blog, proving that I'm behind and unoriginal, but I couldn't resist. Too cute!!! We love you Mark and Jenny and baby Lizzy!!!

HORSE, Pink's & the Super Bowl

2009-02-20T15:49:00.000-08:00

This is a total catch up blog where I throw all the pictures I haven't blogged about up here in one big mess. I can promise you one thing... more pictures - less words. At least on this post.

We had a fun and busy January - if I took more pictures then I would share more stories about our adventures, but for now, I'll keep it to this.

Here are some pictures of a game of "Gummi Bear HORSE" being played by Brian and some of our friends in the ward. Very similar to basketball HORSE but the ball is the gummi bear and the basket is your mouth. Oddly enough after every conceivable attempted "basket," the toughest shot to make was a simple toss with a YELLOW gummi bear. The guys couldn't see it until it hit them in the face... too light of a color I guess. It was VERY entertaining to watch.
Chris was attempting the catapult gummi bear and fork technique. He looks focused but was unsuccessful.Brian's tongue is out, but I'm pretty sure the gummi bear is already on the floor.Come to think of it, I'm pretty confident that none of these pictures resulted in a basket. A for effort guys. (Dan's face in the background is my favorite!)

A week later a crew of us went to Pink's - the famous LA hot dog place - not sure I can call it a restaurant. It's not JDawgs but you can get your dog smothered in just about anything. Plus after the 45 minute drive there and 90 minutes waiting in line... just about anything would taste good. The monstrosity pictured below is a burger with 2 patties, a polish dog, mounds of bacon, chili and who knows what else. Props to Chris - he finished it.

SUPER BOWL - Go STEELERS!!!
This year we decided to have a Super Bowl party at our place. So much fun. It helped that the Steelers won. I don't think I've ever been so into a game.

I made Football Cookies!!! I was so excited to make these. I didn't have a cookie cutter so they're kind of hand molded and rugby looking, but they tasted good and I felt very "host-like" making cute treats. Baby steps.
Morgan - being a much more skilled dessert chef than I, made this DELICIOUS apple pie (complete with bird.)
Super Bowl game, Super Bowl Food, and of course, Super Bowl commercials. Chiat\Day actually had 6 minutes of commercial airtime which is always fun to see our work. Here's part of the group watching the 3-D commercial right after the first half. Functional AND good-looking. Anybody want a pair of 3-D glasses?

Malibu Night Hike

2009-01-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen so many headlamps??? I was beginning to think the only purpose for a headlamp was to read in bed at night and not have to get up to turn off the light, but this was much more fun.

The one above is our normal couples shot.

and THIS is our getting crazy shot. WHOA - so crazy!

Christmas with the Babcocks

2009-01-09T10:17:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, early December, Brian had to take off once again for a trip to New York. This one was shorter than the first time, only 2 weeks vs the 4 weeks he was gone in September, but hard to swallow as we were given 12 hours notice and he was missing all the pre-Christmas celebration. We didn’t even get a tree this year! Something I was pretty sad about, but it was MORE sad to think about coming home to an empty house and looking at the tree by myself. So lame. Brian sent me a picture of this tree that made me happier.
Luckily, we have some awesome new friends in the ward that still let me come to their Christmas parties – even Brian-less. (Some wanted bribes – not that I blame them – Brian is really the best part of this duo.) I was so happy to have Christmasy places to go to get me in the holiday spirit and Brian even came back for the final 2 get togethers which was great. Here's a really attractive photo of us at my work party. In case I don’t say it enough – we are so lucky to be where we are and with the friends that we have and the new ones we’re making. It made me feel very grateful.

Christmas break was spent in Denver with the Babcocks! No blizzards this year (thank goodness) but enough snow on the ground to remind us what it looks like. It was actually gorgeous weather the whole time we were there. We missed Mark & Jenny, Mike & Kelly and the kids, but Tom and Jan pulled out all the stops and it was a perfect & relaxing break. With Jan’s nonstop, delicious cooking, Brian and I are both feeling the pain from some serious overindulging, but we loved every second of it.

2 quick things from our trip:
#1 – Skiing. Preparations for skiing are always a pain in the butt. It took half my suitcase to pack my ski clothes so I wouldn’t freeze to death, I had no way of getting my skis from Utah to Denver so we waited in long lines to get some rentals, morning of we were up early and sleepily dragged ourselves out of bed to schlep our gear to the car. Once you’re at the resort you get all your layers on and everything sealed off so you don’t get snow in unfun places and then you awkwardly do the heel-toe walk in your ski boots up to the lift lines. And that’s when you remember why it’s so worth it. Unless you end up like this guy. He’s probably thinking – not worth it. Luckily our day wasn’t quite as eventful as his (in a good way). Brian did wear his grandpa’s old snowmobiling, rainbow snowsuit though, which got us lots of funny looks, laughs and comments. #2 – Dirty Marbles & the Webcam. We probably played 400 rounds of dirty marbles over our 10 days in Denver. Ok maybe I added an extra zero, but we played at least a few rounds a night. One night while chatting via webcam with Mark and Jenny, we decided to get everyone in on the fun and played a couple rounds with them. We put the webcam on the board so they could see where they wanted to move and they rolled with their own dice in Rexburg. They tried to show us what they were rolling but then they couldn’t see our board so we had to just trust them to be honest… Conveniently they won the first and second place on the first round... This first shot is when they were trying to show us their dice.

Mark & Jenny via Webcam! This picture also (embarrassingly) shows that I'm a bad sister. That calendar announcement in the corner is letting me know that I missed Collin & Lindsay's 5th wedding anniversary! Whoops. This is what they were seeing.Jenny looks perplexed as she plans her next move. Every time Jenny kills someone, she apologizes. Every time she gets killed it's, "Oh that's ok." Pretty refreshing after Brian's "kill anyone and everyone" method.
#3 – Brian’s Hair. I almost forgot something else that happened over the break. Brian’s hair got AWESOME. Enough said.

Thanksgiving In Chile

2008-12-31T11:47:00.000-08:00

We realize that we are about a month behind on posting our Thanksgiving adventures in Chile, but if we posted it any sooner, we would break the tradition chain. =)

Ali and I were lucky enough to get the entire week of Thanksgiving off to go down to see her parents in Chile. They moved down to Concepcion, Chile the week after we got married to serve as the mission president of the south mission. It took 12 hours to fly from Los Angeles to Santiago, then only 1 hour to fly from Santiago to Concepcion. Between the excitement of seeing Ali parents, going to a new country and the endless free entertainment on the back of the seats in front of us, we didn't sleep a wink all the way down (we even tried wearing the free eye covers the airlines gave to us. But either our heads are way too big or the eye covers were way too small, because when we took them off after 30 minutes of our sleepless efforts, we had eye cover marks imprinted on our face. Attractive, I know).

Anyway, we finally did make it down to Chile and we had such a great time. Below are some pictures of our adventures.

It seems like every city/town in Chile has a market to buy fresh fruit, grain and meat (fresh might be generous, the meat looked a little less than fresh and a little less like meat). We snapped a photo in front of the fruit section.

Concepcion takes pride in its University, which has a beautiful mural in the art building, the picture below was my favorite section of the mural (and the only section that did not include bare chested women). Not really sure why the tree has daggers in it, but it looks cool. Jolene, I am a novice when it comes to art, maybe you can help me figure out the meaning.

One of the most amazing things about Chile are the people and their genuine nature. They were incredibly nice and happy, even in their humble circumstances. We left the country with a love for the people beyond what we would have imagined. The picture below is an old Chilean man that was selling some kind of root on the street corner.

We spent the first couple of days catching up on sleep and watching Joe and Jolene in action as mission president, which was so much fun! It definitely brought back some great memories of my mission. Yea, I am the Californian wearing the sandals. Oops.

After enjoying the mission activities in Concepcion, we piled in the car and headed further south. Our destination was Pucon, a beautiful resort town with a large lake and even larger volcano (or so they say. It was overcast the entire time we were there, so we didn't even see the volcano.) I don't know what it is with me, weather and sight seeing places, but every sight seeing place I have been in the last 2 years has been obscured with rain clouds! What's up with that! Sorry Ali. =) Below are two pictures, what we saw, and what we should have seen (the latter picture taken by Joe and Jolene months earlier).

We did make the best of the bad weather and spent an entire afternoon at a hot springs. Although the water falling on us in the pictures below was the furthest away from hot, there were 17 hot pools to choose from to warm us up.

Just a picture of Joe and I hanging out in front of a restaurant we ate at looking over a lake and the boat Marlene.

On our way back from Pucon, we stopped at a gorgeous waterfall, before returning back to Concepcion.

We had such a wonderful time in Chile seeing the country and being with Ali's parents. Can't wait to go back next year for Christmas!

A Quick Work Story

2008-11-30T19:47:00.001-08:00

I don't usually write about work on here, but I couldn't help but write a quick blog to say we won Pepsi. The advertising agency I work for is sometimes more demanding than others, but for the past 5 months we have been going nonstop so this pitch came at the end of a tired time. Blood (papercuts mainly), sweat (lots of it) and tears (luckily only a few), went into the pitch, not to mention lots of late nights. I went with the pitch team for the final presentation and it's the first trip I've been on as the only representative from New Business. I got to travel with the people in the company that I admire the most. It was incredible. Absolutely everything went wrong, but what I was so, so happy about was everything was fixed by the time the clients showed up, the meeting went flawlessly and we WON. Such a great feeling.Rob Schwartz, Carisa Bianchi, Lee Clow, me, Joe Shands

October Fun

2008-11-30T18:07:00.000-08:00

Brian actually agreed to do the Mud Run with me this year! The Mud Run is a 6 mile race on a marine base where you run, crawl and swim through mud. It’s my 3rd mud run but it was by far the most fun. Ashley Burnett came down from San Fran to run it with us and we also had Katie Rockwood and Jeff Dickson on our team. I’m pretty sure we came in close to dead last.Other October fun… We went to a Neil Diamond concert, which was way more fun than I thought it’d be. Who knew??? Thank you Kim & Byron for opening my eyes to the wonder that is Neil. And I gotta say – he was moving and shaking it an impressive amount for being 67.

Speaking of looking good for their age… we went to a pumpkin patch out in the middle of nowhere with Laura & Andrew Skanchy and saw Cindy Crawford with her husband and 2 kids and DANG she looked good. I’d love to say it was just the guys that couldn’t take their eyes off her but Laura and I definitely got an eyeful as well (in between bites of kettle corn). AND word to the wise – the corn maze at Moorpark… NOT EASY. I know what you’re thinking… it’s for kids – how hard can it be??? HARD. We split up from the Skanchy’s to race to the finish and after about a half an hour we gave up and went out through the entrance. Pathetic, I know. Even Cindy & the kids made it.

BRIAN BECOMES OLDER & WISER. Or maybe just older… Brian hit the big 3-0 and I think it’s fantastic. We took the excuse to go hit up Palm Springs for the weekend with some friends. (Looks like his long stay in NYC did have its advantages… thank you Hyatt Hotel Points!) We played 4+ hours of golf, and by we, I mean they – I just drove the cart which actually ended up being more fun, Brian only fell out of the cart once, Laura was a champion for only have golfed twice and Andrew stole everyone’s money. We also went hot tubbing, pooling, lounging and played some tennis… as Tom Hung put it, we were one bingo game away from being 60 year olds. We had a GREAT time.Tom's gift to Brian... a canvas painting of himself. The only people who will be surprised by this, are the people who have never met Tom. HALLOWEEN
This year we had a seriously Halloween dilemma. What do you do for Halloween when you’re married and don’t have kids???? The annual Petersen’s Halloween house party had been cancelled which had been our easy out. That left us with the singles ward party. Call it pride but we refused to let that be our only option. So we got together with the Skanchys and decided to go to West Hollywood for what could possibly be the biggest Halloween Party in the nation. They block off 1.5 miles of the main street and cram Halloweeners (no pun intended) onto what becomes a massive parade of costumes. We went as Juno & Paulie Bleeker. You can imagine my mother’s excitement that I went as a pregnant teenager. She had serious doubts that anyone had any idea who I was supposed to be, but I have to say we had serious celebrity status as we walked up and down Santa Monica Blvd. I have to say, my mother was won over as well once we got this photo to her. Who wouldn't love those short, especially golden shorts?? Derek, Krista, Andrew, Laura, Ali, Brian
Papa Smurf & Smurfette, "the depression," Juno & Paulie Bleeker

I'm a Babcock!!!

2008-11-19T23:57:00.000-08:00

I'm a Babcock!!! How awesome. And I have to say, alphabetically, (among other things I’m sure) Babcocks have their advantages. BAB is a much better location than SWE.

Other great things that have happened to me/us since I became a Babcock…

JUNE = HONEYMOON in Kauai, Hawaii and I swear Kauai is Hawaiian for relaxation. We spent time on all 4 coasts, saw the Napali Coast via catamaran, went snorkeling, hiking, kayaking, “beaching” & “pooling” and ate our weight in Tiger’s Blood shaved ice.

As you can see, it was more relaxing for some than others.

JULY = HOUSE. You get back from the honeymoon and you’re so relaxed and so glad all that wedding work is done. And then you realize you have all the post wedding stuff to deal with. Getting me fully moved in, setting up the new place, dealing with registries, and writing thank yous. So for better or worse – we spent most of July on our house. (We call it a house but don’t be confused – we definitely live in an apartment.) Not sure if you can even tell what it looks like from these photos but we’re happy with it.

AUGUST = FAMILY. Oh I love family. We were lucky enough to get to the spend time with some of both of our families. We started off the month with a much anticipated trip to San Antonio to surprise Brian’s nieces and nephew. Do kids get any cuter than this??? If you said yes, you're a liar and you know it. We had so much fun with the whole family.
After we got back, Eric and Kate (my little brother and sister) came out from BYU to visit for a couple days. LUCKY FOR THEM, they came out on the day of my work summer party so we played arcade games on the Santa Monica Pier, rode the rides and won some prizes. Some of us were winners and some of us were losers. In case you're confused, Kate was NOT the winner. And I'm pretty sure she stole that dinky stuffed animal for the picture so she wouldn't have to stand there with nothing in hand. She also managed to get sticky cotton candy all over Eric's stuffed dog... jealous much???

SEPTEMBER = NEW YORK. Probably one of the most unfun things that’s happened since we got married is Brian left for a whole month for a work assignment in NYC. Somehow, he doesn't seem too sad in that picture. Don't be fooled, he missed me like crazy. While he was gone, my work got insanely busy and I was working until the wee hours of the morning most nights which is pretty much the definition of not fun. Not that it was all bad… I did meet Brian in Utah one weekend while he was doing a recruiting trip and we got to go to a BYU game. The weekend after that, I met him in NYC for some serious sightseeing, and we got to visit Dave & Anika Carlson & their new baby Charlie, which was Awesome with a capital A. We miss them!!! Here I am at Mary Poppins - doing the dew to avoid doing the drool after my red eye. Brian and Dave!! Together again. So cute. And a kiss for baby Charlie. The cute & mysterious blonde is Anika.

OCTOBER = too much fun. So much fun in fact that it'll have to wait for another post... Coming soon.