waiting, just waiting....

Well, the due date has passed. The cream has expired. We are still waiting. Bugalugs could arrive at any minute, but I don't think s/he is in any hurry. I'm just sitting at home, waiting. We are coming to accept that Bugalugs is probably going to be a Scorpio rather than a Libra. Oh well.

In the meantime, Bugalugs is still cooking. We never get tired of looking at the belly and seeing how much it has grown, or watch it move around. But we are looking forward to seeing that baby on the outside!!
We have been cooking too. We made the most of this extra time last weekend and whipped up some tomato salsa, ketchup (aka, dead horse) and prickly pear jelly. Oh, and froze a whole pile of carrots (yes, those carrots are supposed to be purple). Now we have a nice little stockpile for the winter and only a few things left in the garden. We still have hundreds of tomatoes (!) and are running out of ideas of what to do with them all...



















We have been preparing in other ways too. When the Shriver family came to visit last weekend, Howard got a chance to practise his book-reading skills with Enzo, and his baby-toting skills with Max. I think that Howard gets just as much of a kick out of it as the boys do...














In the meantime, I washed all of the cloth diapers that we received as gifts from our baby shower. Thanks everybody! I know that I probably won't always feel this way, but don't they look beautiful, hanging on the line in the sun?

let us eat cake

Hello again! We have been busy busy busy celebrating lots of momentous occasions lately (no, Bugalugs hasn't arrived yet). And so we have eaten lots of cake. Lots of delicious cake.

First in our list of adventures, we headed north to Fort Collins/La Porte to celebrate the wedding of Howard's cousin, Brittany, to Tim Hansen. Howard and I made the most of the weekend and took a couple of extra days off work to drive up there, enjoy the countryside, and spend some time together before Bugalugs arrives. And it was wonderful to hang out with some of Howard's family that we don't get to see often enough!

It was a lovely wedding, with very proud parents and a beaming bride. Here she is, walking down the aisle with her dad (Bill).

And here are the newlyweds! Dancing to their first dance...

Our next adventure was the wedding of our friends, Colleen and Yusuf, here in Albuquerque. Colleen caught my bouquet at our wedding and Yusuf caught the garter - very fortuitous, don't you think? They were engaged soon after, and set the date of the wedding for one year after our wedding.

Here is the happy couple, sharing their vows and looking very dedicated to one another. Hooray!


Straight after Colleen and Yusuf's wedding, it was time to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I can't believe one year has gone by already - and yet, so much has already happened in the first year of our married life!

Howard and I set off for a special dinner together at one of our favourite fancy restaurants in Albuquerque. Here we are, about to head out the door, with Bugalugs up front:

When we came home, we celebrated some more with the top tier of our wedding cake! (Don't worry, it has been in the freezer for the past year.) It was kind of amazing to see it again - all those flowers! Yummy frosting/icing! Perfect orange poppyseed cake... Thanks again to the incredible Leslie.


Speaking of the incredible Leslie, here she is, preparing another special cake for us. This one is for Bugalugs, though. Leslie and Shantih were kind enough to host a baby shower for us - lots of our good friends turned up to celebrate the imminent arrival of the kiddo. We are eternally grateful to everyone for providing us with such a warm community.

And eternally grateful to Leslie for providing us with this fantabulous cake! Check it out:


Oh, and then there was more cake at work on Monday - thanks to Becky et al. for organising another baby shower for us! (Sorry, no good photos of that one.)

bump updates

It has been quite a while since we put any Bugalugs bump photos on here. Howard was away a lot in August and September, so I had no-one to photograph me... This is about all we have, but at least you get to see the bump growing.

At the end of August:

A visit to Taos to see the rest of the Brandenburg family (Howard, me, Grandmommy/Frances Joy, Jim, Cathy and Claire):


Our first wedding anniversary! On the way out the door for a celebratory dinner:


The view from the top last week (note that you can no longer see my feet):


Finally, just because we like Semilla so much, here is another little video. This was taken the evening after she had a sleep-over with Halleck (her Best Friend Forever) and had been bouldering in the foothills with Howard and Aaron:

the mural

Howard has done a spectacular job with the mural! Fortunately, we had painted the walls not too long ago, so all we had to do was the actual mural. Because we both work in rivers, it seemed to make sense that we should have a river... and the tree is somewhat reminiscent of our wedding invitation (by chance!).

This is how the mural looked in the very beginning. I like how it rolls over onto the ceiling. That makes Bugalugs smile too:


Here you can see the river, surging and tumbling behind the crib/cot:


The mural wasn't just Howard's project though. Lots of people got to help out. Here I am with Bugalugs, working on the sedges (notice how Bugalugs helps to hold up the palette while I paint - what a good kid!):


Howard added some magical gold leaf to the autumn leaves (I found Semilla in here a couple of days later, barking at the roof and freaking out a little because of all the orange and gold - she's used to it now and happily sleeps on the rug any time):


Bugalugs' grandmother Claire added a nest of bunnies to the mural (inspired by grandfather Jim!):

And Auntie Cathy added a praying mantis, hiding in the sedges on the bank of the river:

I love that the mural turned into a community art project! There is still room for the other grandmother and auntie to add their little animals.... Maybe Mum will be inspired by the swooping magpie in her yard. Any suggestions for Auntie Kristin?

And here is the final result:


Pretty cool, hey?