Marvelous Mom!

Today is a glorious, fabulous, wonderful day for us! My Mom is arriving this afternoon after traveling all the way from PA to spend a few weeks helping us make the transition to a family of three. Not only has she selflessly sacrificed time and expense to be here, she also made the cross-country trek on her birthday!

I am so lucky to have such a fun-loving, beautiful and gracious Mom. She gives extravagantly, loves unabashedly, and is one of the best listeners on the planet. She's got style, impeccable taste (her table decorations would put Martha Stewart to shame), and is an amazing cook. She's also incredibly driven and intelligent. She excelled academically when earning her undergraduate and masters degrees, all while running a busy household and caring for her family. I love that she can be prim and proper if the occasion calls for it, but deep down would rather be lip-syncing in the kitchen to Michael Jackson's Greatest Hits album with spatula in hand. Her laugh is a total body experience. Once she gets going her entire body goes limp and she quickly becomes a puddle of gasps and shakes.

She lives like she laughs...with total abandon, completely beautiful, and with her whole heart and soul. I'm so grateful to have her as a model of the mom I want to be.

Happy Birthday Mom!

More Fun Mom Pics

A Lovely Life

The bassinet is set up, the baby clothes are washed, and my bag is packed. While there are still (and always will be) many items to complete on our to-do lists, all the essential pre-baby items have been checked off. We're about as ready as we can be for the life-altering arrival of Baby Hoffman.

I am so excited to meet this little person who enjoys late night in-utero dance sessions followed immediately by the hiccups, ice cream (we must be related), and kicking my ribs. But, I have to admit, I'm slightly terrified about the idea of becoming a parent. I love our life. I love traveling on a whim, fun nights out with friends, and I'm ferociously protective (and completely insatiable) when it comes to time with Ben. I know this new addition to our family will bring more joy than I can imagine, but I'm a little sad about saying goodbye to this sweet season in our lives.

We decided this weekend to live it up non-parent style and go out for a nice dinner just the two of us. We feasted on amazing food, unbelievable dessert (caramelized banana splits!), and wonderful conversation all while enjoying a beautiful sunset over the mountains. It was a perfect evening. When we got home, Charlie quickly assumed his favorite cuddling position - snuggled up to my belly. He's in for quite a shock when both my belly and our cuddling time are gone!

Saturday night we joined our favorite T-birds and Pink Ladies for an evening of 50s style fun. A local movie theatre was screening a Grease Sing-a-long complete with words printed on the screen. We started the evening off right with chocolate malts and french fries...

Since my wardrobe is somewhat limited these days, I focused instead on getting Ben "Greased up" for the evening. He was a little hesitant at first, but soon got into the spirit with lots of hair gel, tight jeans, and cards (I mean cigarettes!) rolled up in his shirt sleeve.

The movie was a blast. Everyone (yes, including Ben) sang their hearts out to "Summer Lovin'" and the crowd went wild when John Travolta first appeared on screen. It was quite possibly the most fun, and definitely the most interactive time I've ever had at the movies!

It was a great weekend full of the things I love about our life now, and preparing for the big-big-big changes coming our way very soon!

MORE Showered!

My dear friends Erin and Lisa hosted a super-fun shower for me here in Tucson last weekend. They did a fantastic job planning fun games (no "guess her girth"!) such as, "Name the Baby Animal" (my years of Wild America watching with Dad paid off here!) and "Guess the Baby Food" (applesauce - yum, squash - yuck!). We also received all the baby socks we could possibly need thanks to the "Guess how many socks are in the Jar" game!

Jenny and Lisa testing baby food

My favorite activity of the afternoon was when each of the girls decorated a little onesie for the baby. I have some very creative friends and they all came out beautifully! Erin even made a little "Obama-Biden '08" onesie that I'm sure will have our conservative family members voting democratic in no time!

The onesie artists hard at work...

Lindsay, Erin, Lisa, Kara, Nikki, Jenny

As if the games and time visiting wasn't enough, we also had wonderful food, and my favorite treat...ICE CREAM! The party was very relaxing and exactly what I would have wished for! I'm so grateful to have such wonderful, supportive friends here in Tucson!

More Shower Pictures

Wednesday at work, I was headed to what I thought was yet another intense meeting when to my shock I was met with a surprise shower thrown by my co-workers. The mastermind behind the party was Lisa (yes, the same Lisa mentioned above) along with my friends Katie, and Lindsay. About 15 people came, including Ben, for a fun and delicious Mexican lunch. A pool was started to guess the baby's gender, birthday and weight. The consensus seems to be boy, born 10/7 (Mom's birthday!), and weighing around 7 lbs. We were showered with sweet gifts, and even got "Baby's First Calculator"!

Thanks to the generosity of so many, we have all the big "must-haves" for Baby Hoffman. This weekend I'm looking forward to organizing all our loot, washing some baby clothes and getting things ready for the big day. I can't believe how soon it's coming!

Showered

The past couple weeks have been filled with fun and family. We traveled to Erie, PA (our last trip pre-baby!) for a beautiful shower thrown by my Mom and sister. It was an amazingly beautiful, elegant, and classy event. I loved every minute of it! The best part was spending time with fantastic women in my life - many who I don't see often and live as far away as Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and even Florida! It was amazing to feel so loved and supported as motherhood is rapidly approaching!

The rest of our time at home was filled with visiting family, talking long walks in the woods, bonfires (with marshmallows, of course), kayaking and enjoying the beautiful Erie beach.

Ben and I both had an especially hard time leaving the peaceful sanctuary of family time. But it is good to be back in Tucson and crossing off those final pre-baby to do's. It's also exciting to know the next time we are in PA there will be 3 of us!

Cabo San Fabulous!

In an attempt to squeeze in one final getaway pre-baby, Ben and I jetted off to Cabo for a glorious week of sun, relaxation, reading and escape from our never-ending to do lists. It was a wonderful time for us to focus on each other and prepare (as much as possible) for the huge change coming our way in October. We talked a lot about the baby, what kind of parents we want to be, and reflected on how grateful we are to have had the last five years together, just the two of us. Oh, and we may have discussed (and we think finalized) names for the little guy/girl... Ben is committed (and I'm going along with him) to keeping this information top secret until the big day arrives, so there will be no sneak preview here!

The best part of our trip was simply time together...time away from the business of life and preparations, away from the endless renovations on the house, away from the pressures of work and school. Time to just be together and appreciate this season of "just the two of us" that is rapidly coming to an end.

More Cabo Pics

Celebrating Natalie

How do I even begin to describe all the amazing things about my beautiful sister? Her love of life, food, music, running, nature, and her family are just a few.

She has inspired me in so many ways...running multiple races and marathons (she's amazingly fast!), using her amazing musical talent, moving alone to a foreign country, carving out a beautiful live for herself in Princeton, and living life boldly and fully. She is my running guru, my source of unending advice and support, my favorite "last call of the day".

I truly believe one of the greatest blessings of my life is having a sister who is also my best friend. Happy Birthday, Natalie!

More Natalie Pictures

Wonderful Friends

As we head into the great unknown of parenthood, we are grateful for the advice of wonderful friends who have gone before us. In May, I was blessed by a wonderful visit from Adrienne who traveled all the way from Pittsburgh to have a girls' weekend in Tucson with me. We saw "Sex and the City", hiked, ate ice cream and talked...a lot. It was the perfect girls' weekend. I'm so grateful for her honest advice and straightforward approach. She is a wonderful source of practical advice and an amazing friend. I am so grateful for her presence in my life.






This past weekend, I traveled to the East Coast for a reunion with my suitemates from college. So much has changed since we were last together a year and a half ago! Between the four of us, there are now 2 babies, and 2 more on the way this fall! As you can imagine, the weekend was full of "baby talk" with lots of advice and tips and tricks. It was such a wealth of information that I took notes! We even took a field trip to Babies R Us where Christina and Deb helped Jenn and I navigate the overwhelming amount of baby stuff out there. Above all, it was a sweet time of catching up with beautiful friends and cooing over beautiful babies.

While I was away lounging and enjoying myself with friends, Ben was hard at work getting the nursery ready. Our selfless friends, John and Erin, came over and helped him move furniture and gave advice to tackle his first-ever paint job. He worked hard all weekend and I came home to a beautifully painted nursery! What a guy!

Cinderella

This past week we were visited by a fairy tale character. She cooked, cleaned, baked, scrubbed, and washed all week long with a smile on her face as bright as the yellow rubber gloves she wore. Cinderella, also known as Natalie, was an amazing help in checking off many of the items on our ever-growing “Before Baby To Do List”. Aside from the multitude of tasks she accomplished, she pampered me to the hilt with backrubs, foot rubs, cookies and anything I could possibly need or want.

We did our best to treat our little servant girl to as much fun as possible (after she finished her chores, of course!). We dined on fantastic Mexican food, ate a LOT of ice cream (three words that changed my life: Thin Mint Blizzards), and Natalie was able to witness her first-ever desert monsoon. To celebrate the 4th of July, we escaped the miserable heat by heading up to Mt. Lemmon, the tallest peak in Tucson. There we grilled out at a friends cabin and enjoyed the unusual sensation of being chilly outside in Arizona. On our way down the mountain, we spotted fireworks exploding all over the city below us – what a beautiful sight!

Above everything else, it was wonderful just to have Natalie’s smiling and cheerful presence around the house, excited about every detail of her nephew or niece-to-be. Thank you, Natalie, for a wonderful visit!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to our Dads!

Ben's Dad showing Charlie some "Puppy Love"

Kara's Dad doing his famous kitchen dance routine

We love you both! Hope you had a wonderful Father's Day!

I Love NYC!

This past weekend Ben and I traveled to the big city – New York – for a wonderful weekend of fun, food and a generally fabulous time. Our home base for the weekend was Natalie’s cute apartment in the beautiful haven of Princeton, NJ. We fell in love with the campus, the town, the green trees and grass (we’ve been living in the desert for a long time!), and all the little stores (especially the ice cream shops!).

We took the train into NYC and thanks to Ben’s amazing navigation skills saw a lot of the city in a short time. We walked through Time Square (once was enough!), strolled through Central Park, window shopped on 5th Avenue, took the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, paid our respects at Ground Zero, saw a game at Yankee Stadium and spent an incredible amount of time waiting in line for, eating, or talking about eating cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery. If you haven’t heard of these addictive little monsters, they are a sugar-addicts worst nightmare. The Magnolia Bakery is a little shop in Greenwich Village that sells the most amazing cupcakes on the planet. There is always a line out the door and they limit how many cupcakes you can purchase at once because the demand is so high! We visited this little gem twice and ended up with a bounty of cupcakes which quickly became the focus of every meal.

NYC Sunset

Paul and Natalie feasting on Greek food

Ben loving Yankee Stadium

We also treated ourselves to a show on Broadway that we’ve wanted to see for some time. Natalie, Paul, Ben and I saw Rent and loved every minute of it. After the show, in true New York style, we went out for a fantastic dinner at 11:30pm at “The Spotted Pig”. Our evening even included a couple celebrity sightings! Ben’s eagle eye spotted Seth Meyers and Andy Samberg of “Saturday Night Live” fame at a little restaurant in the Village. We played it cool (at Ben’s insistence) and didn’t gawk or take any pictures, so you’ll have to take our word for it that we saw them! After this amazing evening (which involved more cupcakes, of course!) we took the train back to Princeton and fell into bed around 3:30am.

Rent!

The Spotted Pig

Fortunately, our last day was very relaxed and included an outdoor lunch with Paul and Natalie in Princeton, and our second ice cream stop of the weekend. The competition was fierce between Natalie and Paul about which ice cream place was better, so Ben and I gladly offered to become judges and sample both offerings!

All in all it was an amazing weekend and a wonderful way to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary!

Happy Mother's Day!

We hope our Moms had a mother's day as lovely as they are!

Ben's Mom

Kara's Mom

We love you and miss you!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I had a lot of fun pulling together some of my favorite pictures that best represent all that is wonderful and amazing about my Dad…his love of adventure, food, fitness, dancing, laughing and all things outdoors. I’m so blessed to have such an openly affectionate, loving, sweet, exciting and hilarious health-nut of a Dad.

He is always up for an adventure, whether is flying with me to Norway to visit Natalie, hiking in the mountains of Arizona, going for a “wild ride” (4-wheelers and grocery carts are equally exciting under his control!) or just going for a walk in the woods behind the house. His love of nature is unfailing…he is just as excited to see a squirrel as a turkey, deer or bear! He is my hero, saving me from scary dogs, rescuing me when I have a flat tire, talking Ben and I through how to unplug the garbage disposal after clogging it with a pound of potato skins and fixing any and every problem I throw his way. He has modeled a commitment to his faith without judgment of others. Most importantly, he loves his family unconditionally and unabashedly.

I couldn’t ask for a more wise, loving, and incredible Dad who I just love to be around. Happy Birthday Dad!

My favorite Dad-o pictures

The New Beginnings of Spring...

Spring is a time of renewal, beginnings and life. It’s only right that in this season we formally announce our exciting news…we are adding to our little family. “Baby Hoffman” will make his/her debut in October and we are thrilled!

We’ve loved telling friends and family and experiencing their squeals, screams, tears and dances (UB’s dance of joy takes the cake) of excitement. It’s comforting to have so much love and support as we head into the scary unknown of parenthood. And now that I am finally starting to keep everything I eat down (9 days and counting!), we’ve been able to focus on all the fun and excitement that exists beyond ginger ale and saltines.

The past few months have required a lot of adjusting; adjusting our plans, adjusting our lifestyle, adjusting our expectations, and adjusting to loss. Although it breaks our hearts that Poppy will never meet his great-grandchild, we find comfort in the fact this new life continues his beautiful legacy. (Natalie wrote a beautiful tribute here that captures him perfectly).

And so, we press on. We keep working, studying, playing, saving and planning realizing much of what lies ahead cannot be planned for. We are learning to rest in the peace of knowing God's timing is perfect and just enjoy the ride.