Wal - Mart

I'm going to a baby shower this weekend and the mom-to-be is only registered at Wal-Mart. So off I went on Friday afternoon during lunch to the one closest to my office.

I get to the computer thing where you can look up and print registries and this woman who works there walks up to me and says, "This machine, no paper."

I just stood there, looking at her. I didn't mean to look at her like she was crazy, but I'm afraid I might have. I looked back at the machine. Then back at her. She looked at me. She looked at the machine.

Then she looked back at me like, "What? Don't you speak English?" and really, I do speak English, and I wasn't judging her for not speaking English, I was just thinking, "What do you mean, 'This machine, no paper'? Isn't this Wal-Mart? Don't you have that here?"

Cate's Room

I am having so much fun making stuff for Cate's room! I'm fully aware that she is totally getting the first child treatment and that she is probably the only one of our kids who will get custom made by Mom bedding and hand painted by Mom and Dad furniture, but I am sure having a good time.

Grandma bought her a bassinet that's featured in this shot of her room:



And last night and today when I got home from work I finished up these pillows--obviously, Cate won't use these, but I think I'll put one at the foot of her crib and one on the reading/nursing chair:



One of the best things I've made for Cate is a burp cloth made out of a shirt my mom had when she was pregnant with me! It was the first maternity top she bought, and she gave it to me when we told her we were expecting Cate. My mom is a much tinier person than I am, and there was no way the shirt was going to fit (even early in my pregnancy) so I just hung on to it. Then I had this great idea to make it into a burp cloth. I wish I'd taken a before shot of the shirt, but I didn't think of that until right this minute. Oops!

Happy

Anniversary, that is. Sam and I celebrated our first anniversary last weekend. Since we only managed to post one time during the first ten months we were married, and since neither of us has written a word in a journal (except our little notebook for Cate, where we write her messages), now seems like a good time for a review of our year:

September: Very busy month, including a reception in Gilroy, a reception in Mequon, and a road trip to Fresno, CA, for Sam’s friends’ wedding. It was great fun to meet so many of Sam’s friends from when he lived in DC! This trip led to what is still the biggest misadventure of our marriage: misguided by “Pushy B,” our GPS, we took a wrong turn and ended up at the entrance to Yellowstone. Let’s just say that we were eating dinner at In-n-Out in SACRAMENTO at 5 PM Sunday. Not good. We drove and drove and drove and finally ended up taking a NAP in a hotel in Elko, NV, for about three hours from 2 AM to 5 AM on Monday. We rolled in to town 17 minutes before I was supposed to be the KEYNOTE SPEAKER at an event an 8 minute drive from our house. Rough week that week.

October: It was my birthday and Sam started his new job as the Executive Pastry Chef at Culinary Crafts.

November: Sam’s birthday fell on Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner with the McAllisters (it’s Bonnie’s birthday, too!). I made Sam this cake:

This was the month of our first inaugural Christmas tree shopping adventure. We are both very committed to live trees, so off we went. What I remember about that trip is that I thought we’d get a 4-5 ft. tree and Sam thought we’d get a 5-6 ft. tree and in the end our tree was 8 ft. tall.


December: I officially introduced Sam to one of the great wonders of the universe: Christmas in California. Oh, what a treat! Oh, how I miss the warm weather! Oh, how I think a White Christmas is so overrated! We spent our first Christmas morning at home together, then flew out to California. People often comment that Sam and I are a lot alike. Well, never has that proven to be truer than Christmas morning when we found that we had purchased not one, not two, but THREE identical gifts for each other.

No photos from our trip to CA, but here is a photo of the awesome live wreath Aunt Dale sent us, along with some of our Christmas cards. I just love Christmas cards!


January: Road trip to St. George to visit Sam’s parents. Spontaneous decision to move in February. I got brave and started my law practice, complete with business registration, a tax ID number, stationery, and business cards. Major Law, PLLC went live on the web at www.majorlawonline.com.

February: We moved! Hiring movers: good decision. Hiring movers who broke our stuff: annoying. Funniest moment: as he was carrying in a piece of furniture, one of the movers said to Sam, “Hey, man, does this go in the baby’s room?” Cate, of course, was not yet on her way.

March: Neither of us can remember a thing about March. If we did something fun with you, feel free to remind us in the comments section.

April: Duke wins the National Championship. I’ll say that again, because that was a BIG deal: Duke WINS THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP!!

We spent Easter Weekend in St. George with my mom, where she introduced Sam to the family tradition of the “Magic Easter Basket.” My mom just happens to be the world’s BEST Easter basket maker, and it was so fun for me to see Sam getting his first Maggie-created basket. (The “magic,” in case you are wondering, is that the Easter Bunny just seems to keep putting more and more jelly beans in the grass—so you can find more for days!) In typical Sam and Nancy fashion, we neglected to take any pictures of the Easter baskets, but here we are in Snow Canyon with my mom:

I see this picture and I can't believe how I took my abs for granted before getting pregnant. Sigh. They'll go back, right?

At the end of the month, we went to St. Maarten for a week. To say we struggled with taking photos would be a major understatement. The big news of the month was that on our last day in St. Maarten we found out Baby Major was coming! Inasmuch as Baby was the size of a poppyseed (a poppyseed!) we went ahead with our parasailing trip. I’m sure she loved it! This is us about to take a dip in the water:

The beautiful scene from our boat trip:

We went to a darling bakery on the French side of St. Maarten and got these delicious treats:

I was excited for Sam to speak French when he ordered these, which he did, but it was really more for me than for them--since everyone there spoke English!

There are literally no photos of us from that trip that are in focus. Alas ...

May: Oh boy. Was I ever a crazy pregnant gal! I count my blessings that I never actually got sick, but I felt like I had just gotten off the tilt-a-whirl all month. I would go to work, come home, take a nap, eat, cry about something, and go to bed. Every day. Poor Sam. I would say crazy things like, “There is NO WAY I can do this with a toddler, just so you know,” and (through tears), “I really thought being pregnant would make me feel so MATERNAL, but I do not feel maternal at all (sob, sob) and (sob, sob) I’m sorry, but I don’t LIKE being pregnant!”

Cate wasn't much to look at at first, but we loved her from the start:


I did manage to rally by the time Sam's parents and Aunt Dale came to town to support Sam when he participated as one of the chef's at Chef and a Child, a benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Utah. Sam made chocolate passion fruit creme brulee, and it was the best thing there. Trust me.




June: Started telling people Baby Major was on the way. Due to my already expanding belly people said things like, “Oh, I’m so glad we can talk about it now!” and “I KNEW IT.” Except for Sam’s dad, who had said when we told him in May, “Are you serious? You wouldn’t joke about this would you? I have to sit down. This is great news.” The morning of the first day of the 11th week of being pregnant, I woke up and I was all better. No more nausea, no more too tired to think, no more crazy, all better. I haven't felt sick for one minute since then. So grateful!

July: Sam started teaching classes at The Art Institute! He teaches Introduction to Baking one day a week and he loves it! Here's a picture of Sam in his Art Institute gear before his first day: Isn't he handsome?!

I feel like this picture represents a major turning point for me, inasmuch as I 1) thought about taking a picture on an important day; 2) found the camera; 3) took an picture that is in focus.

We found out that Baby Major is a girl in July. It was so fun to have my mom in town for the ultrasound. Catherine Lee Major is on her way to our family and we couldn’t be more thrilled! She was looking much more human by this point (I know this is a repeat photo, but she's our favorite--indulge us):

I call this Cate's "Diva pose." Doesn't she look like she's ready to go to the beach?!

August: It’s been a year! Wow! We celebrated our anniversary by staying overnight downtown: Sam had the same flowers he brought me on our wedding day delivered to our room, out to dinner, ice cream from room service, movie on demand in the room, pool time, yummy breakfast (yes, there was a lot of eating involved in our celebration), poolside lunch, nap in the pool chairs. Fun, relaxing, wonderful weekend!

Sam has officially christened August 29 through January 1 “Major Festivus” because we have so many celebrations during these months: our anniversary, Sam’s mom’s birthday, my birthday, Sam’s dad’s birthday, Sam’s birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and—this year—the arrival of Miss Cate!

Here are a few snapshots from the first day of our First Festivus a year ago:










Thanks again, Todd and Erin!


We couldn't be happier!






(Oh, and thanks Clark Swensen for the wedding photos.)

Curtains for Cate!

Cate's soda shoppe theme room is coming together! I've never made curtains before, but I made these and I think they turned out pretty cute! I'm going to make her bedding, too. Next up: crib skirt and bedding with these two materials, plus one more that has cupcakes on it. Photos of those coming soon!







Cate is moving around more and more! We actually saw her moving through my tummy this week--very exciting! Sam decided after we saw her moving that he should read her a story, so he did! "Bath Time" was her first book--it's about how all sorts of animals get clean, then the last page is about how babies get clean in the bathtub. Very stimulating for Cate, I'm sure! Thanks, Grandma, for sending the book!

Chef Sam

Sam's mom came by for a quick visit last Friday night on drive back to St. George from Milwaukee. We only got to see her for a few hours, but she brought us a treasure from Sam's first grade class:



The booklet has a little caption for each kid, "Most likely to be a teacher," "Most likely to be Mayor of Mequon," "Most likely to be an astronaut." They are all darling, but this one is obviously the cutest.

A lot of times people ask me what it's like to be married to a chef, especially a pastry chef. People ask me (sweet) things like, "How do you not weigh 600 pounds?" after eating one of Sam's delicious treats. [Nevermind I feel like Cate and I are getting there even without tons of treats, but that's another story.] People usually preface a dinner invite with something like, "I'm sure you're used to much fancier meals than what we'll have, but we'd love to have you over."

The truth is, Sam doesn't bake much at home in our barely mediocre oven, we don't eat dessert with every meal, and we take the easy way out and have spaghetti a lot of nights just like every other family.

Nevertheless, it's a sweet life.

I love my Chef Sam.

Heidi and Larry's Wedding

Our friends Heidi and Larry got married this weekend! The reception was at Em's Restaurant on Capitol Hill in Salt Lake. It was a beautiful August day. Here are the new bride and groom:



And one where you can actually see the groom--here they are: Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Jameson, III



It was fun to see so many friends there! Allison and Brett get a special shout out because Allison is one of the few people I know for sure actually reads our blog!



Here is one of Sam and me--Cate is actually in this photo, too. She's all around the edges of my cheeks and just below my chin, particularly on the left.


Seeing this photo makes me realize why, as we were walking up the stairs at the temple to get to Heidi and Larry's wedding, one of the people working in the temple said to me, looking at my belly, "Oh, you should take the elevator on the way down," as if I might or might not go in to labor during the sealing. Oh boy. If only she knew Cate wouldn't be here until Christmas. It was kind of like the lady at the Southwest check-in counter who said to me last weekend, "Is someone due soon?" to which I responded (nicely, very nicely), "Um, I'm sure someone is, but I'm not!" Or the very kind woman at church today who said, "How much longer do you have to go?"

Do I really look that uncomfortable?

Anyway, back to the wedding. Here are the Cabo girls:



A lot has changed since our awesome trip to Cabo in May 2008. Back then Allison had just gotten married, and now she's had one adorable little girl and is pregnant with number two. I've gotten married and Cate is on the way. Heidi's gotten married and both she and Melanie have bought condos! All of which seem like very grown up things to do compared to racing out to the beach and seeing how much guacamole we could eat and how many fruity drinks we could drink in a day!

Another Cake

Here are some photos of a cake Sam made this weekend. Sorry about the bad lighting, but hopefully you'll get the idea. The most impressive thing about this cake? It really does look exactly like the picture the bride gave him. Oh, and that he made it on Day 20 of 22 days of straight work without a day off. It's wedding season!