A Peek at the Poulsens

(this is a long one, folks...scooch on over to previous posts if you need something short and sweet and full of Natalie pics!) With show choir camp OVER (hooray!) I can finally get back to my life. I enjoyed the camp a lot, but I missed being home with my baby girl. I was sort of cranky today and yesterday and I'm pretty sure it's because I feel like I haven't been a "mom" this week. And those pesky hormones... During the camp there was a lot of time where they didn't need the piano, so I read and had a lot of time to reflect. Some of my thoughts: 1. The kids in our show choir group were FANTASTIC. I figured I was going to be dealing with snotty princesses who freak out if they don't get the solo or the front dance spot or that there would be obnoxious cliques and clumps of friends, but they far exceeded my expectations. Super friendly, mature, happy teenagers...it gives me hope for the future of my children. 2. I played for my friend's weddin...

This week has been nuts. (And not just because I've been living off a bag of almonds in my car.) I feel like I had just gotten my life back together post-Utah and then I shipped off to accompany show choir camp Monday-Saturday. Natalie has been graciously juggled between friends and family willing to help watch her, and I feel like I never see my baby...today I went the longest time I've even been away from Natalie her whole life (7 hours)! I can't wait to be able to just be home with her again!  having fun while Mommy's away! Show choir camp is fun though (plus it's a good chunk of change before our next vacay), lots of energy, lots of high schoolers freaking out about how to do that body roll or if the lyric is "my" or "mine," and a whole lot of reading time for me while they do choreography and don't need an accompanist. I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife and it is 100% entrancing...I feel super connected to the charact...

Last year we went to this awesome fireworks show for the town of Palmyra, NE's annual city celebration (see  this post); it was so great that we vowed to go again this year . We had mostly forgotten about it, but we randomly remembered and looked it up and found out it was in two days! Good thing we checked. Austin's bro came over (thanks Aaron!) after we put Natalie down and Austin and I went on our second annual fireworks adventure.  the fireworks are HUGE and riiiight over our heads - it is LOUD and exciting! Things we love about this event: -the small town feel -how incredibly close the fireworks are -the semi-scenic twenty-minute drive. and by "scenic" I really mean "Nebraska highway." -it's free! -the sort of undiscovered air about it...we don't know anyone else who goes  There was a party going on a couple cars down from us, but we weren't invited...fine by me, since they were all country tweens who tried to go on mini d...

Time for a pregnancy update: I feel like my stomach balLOONED the two weeks I was in Utah. Could be all the food I ate, but Stockton definitely went through a major festival of growth. I'm sort of relieved because now it is clear that I am, in fact, carrying a child, and not just overweight. My feet and fingers have already started to swell, but I feel like I can't complain too much because it has been glorious weather! SO nice compared to last summer, I can't even begin to describe. Hardly humid, not above 75, and completely pleasant for walks and outings. This time last year I was holed up in my den of air conditioning, but the AC hasn't even been turned on yet this summer. Sleeping is getting a little harder, partly because I can't sleep on my stomach anymore, partly because Austin and I can't agree on having covers or not, and partly because I wake up at 5am and can't find a comfortable position that my body isn't tired of. It's unbelievabl...

It's the sixth day of the sixth month, so that seemed like a good enough reason to blog : ) plus I found a couple stragglers from our trip that I wanted to make sure we documented: "GOOD MORNING DADDY!!!" this is one of my favorites haha, it looks like she's just totally resigned to her fate concentration cheeks! view from the backyard i can't even talk about this, i want it so bad Ahh. All caught up. I know it was sort of a blog attack, but I was afraid that if I didn't tackle it right away I would keep putting it off and get further behind and it would have been a mess. We don't like messes. Unless they are the kind that Natalie likes making! You can tell where she's been because she leaves a trail of bink, Kitty, intermittent toys, and piles of things that were once in a cupboard or on a table. She loves prying open doors with her little fingers, crawling around in just her diapie, and chewing her bananas with her t...

"Ahhhhh" indeed, for such a rejuvenating place! We always have the best time when we visit our multitudes of family there, but home base is always 2965 Sherwood Drive with Grammy and Grandpa Bee. They are the BEST. After Yellowstone, the boys went home to work (boo) and my mom, sister, and Natalie and I stayed behind for a whole extra week for no reason other than to hang out! And hang out we did. Here's a typical day: 7:20 - Natalie wakes up, we have some chill time in our lair downstairs so we don't wake anyone up, then go to the kitchen to get breakfy. (taking pictures for Daddy was part of our morning routine)     8:00 - the house is still quiet so Natalie and I venture down the mountain for some Einstein Brother's Bagel magic, and then go for a walk around that flatter neighborhood. (I learned my lesson after two days of extreme huffing and puffing around the Bee's.) These walks were probably my favorite thing about this ...