The Name Game

I saw this on a friend's blog and thought it was a fun idea to record the stories behind each of our names.

And, with exactly three months from today until my due date (whoo hoo), I'm thinking a lot about baby girl names right now.

William Charles Bollard II

Obviously as a "II," Will was named after his father. However, I think it's interesting to note that both his maternal and paternal grandfathers had the first name Charles. When I first met Will in college he was Willie, which is the nickname he had been called from birth. He made a few small attempts to get his friends to call him Will, but it wasn't until we moved and he started law school that he had a clean slate to officially transition to Will. Imagine dating and marrying someone as Willie and then trying to remember to call him Will a year into your marriage! I still slip at home sometimes. Of course, he still has plenty of family members and friends to whom he will always be Willie to.

Audra Elizabeth Rose

My mother babysat a little girl named Audra when she was in junior high and fell in love with the name. I don't think my father ever really had a say in the matter (however, my Dad is on record in the video at the hospital saying that if I was a boy I would be named Eric, after Eric Hayden the Olympic Speed Skater). As an adult I appreciate having a slightly unusual name, although growing up I wished that I had a name like "Lindsay" or "Jenny" so that I could buy those pencils and mini license plates that have kids names pre-printed on them! And while I think my name is fairly easy to say and spell, I will forever be telling people that it's AudrA, not Audrey or Aubrey or Andrea or Aubra . . . (I've heard it all!).

Ethan William

While pregnant with Ethan I was visiting my Mom's ward and they announced that a family had just welcomed a baby boy named Ethan. Instantly the name stuck in my head and I loved it. But I also really liked two other names, Noah and Drew, so we decided we'd wait and see what he looked like to us after he was born. Moments after delivery we ruled out Noah, because it was obvious that this baby was a brunette and Noah was a blond-haired-only name for me. However, we really struggled between Ethan and Drew. Our family and the nurses kept asking us if we'd made a decision and by later that day I was starting to feel a little stressed out about the decision. That's when I decided that the whole "wait and see what the baby looks like" idea was overrated. Later that night we finally settled on Ethan and I've never regretted it, even when I found out later that it was the #2 most common name for his birth year (whoops!). His middle name was after his Dad and his Grandpa, and a nod to family history since we didn't carry on with a "III."

Luke Randall

With Luke's arrival so close to Ethan's it was a little tricky to re-visit boy names. My first inclination was to pick back up with Noah or Drew, but Will declared those "left-over" names and we decided to start fresh. During my five months of bedrest during this pregnancy, I had watched six seasons of Gilmore Girls, in which one of the main characters is named Luke. While I did not intentionally have any desire to name our child after a TV character, I think this is how the name initially got in my head. It seemed to feel right to Will and I instantly. I remember we decided for sure that this baby's name would be Luke when we were driving to a restaurant for Will's birthday in July. We never wavered in our decision after that and I liked being able to instantly call him Luke at the hospital. His middle name Randall is my father's name and we liked how it sounded with Luke (I remember my Dad saying it sounded like a good, strong baseball player's name).

If anyone wants to leave suggestions for a girl name, here's my two criteria:

it has to be recognizably feminine

it has to be a "stand-alone" name like our other two (meaning it can't be shortened into a nickname)

Give me your best ideas!

Only Luke

The Possibilities Are Endless

This upcoming weekend is the much anticipated
Father Son's Camp Out.

I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that within minutes of being told (incorrectly) that Baby #3 was a boy, the thought crossed my mind that at least I'd be sending him off on this campout with the other two.

You see, last year I had a blissful time in my solitude. Despite several tempting offers to get together with friends, for some reason I just craved a few hours to clear my head. To be accountable to no one. To go wherever my heart desired. Silly, right? But at this stage in life I'm so rarely alone that there was something irresistible about it.

So this is what I did:

shopped for a birthday gift for my Mom at the Spectrum
ate a Chipoltle Burrito for the first time
wandered the aisles at Barnes and Nobles for an hour until I settled on a book to buy
saw a chick flick at the dollar theater that I can no longer remember the name of
ate a fancy strawberry dessert from Champagne bakery during the movie
went home, turned up my "mellow classic rock" ipod mix, and snuggled in bed to read half of the new book
slept in until 9 on Saturday morning

(Apparently I'm so predictable that when my husband got home he guessed with almost perfect accuracy what I had done!).

Don't get me wrong, I have big plans for the future to create a tradition with my daughter to do special mommy-daughter things during this weekend: pedicures, shopping, eating over-priced pastries from a bakery, letting her sleep in my room with me--whatever makes the night different from a normal night with the boys around. But for now my mind is churning with the possibilities of how I'm going to spend those few precious hours--my last free Father Sons Weekend.

Suggestions anyone?

Adventures in Life (or at least the month of April)

I know, I know, it's been over a month since I've updated. For someone who's supposed to be taking it easy, it's been a very busy month. (Or maybe the header picture of my non-pregnancy-swollen face is getting too depressing to see anymore . . . ) Anyway, here's the best I could do with a re-cap.

Easter Weekend Adventures:

We discovered a genius invention called an egg spinner. It gave my kids endless fun, completely contained the egg dye mess and amazingly doesn't crack the eggs. I'm still in awe that this thing worked: it's even Luke-proof.
To go on a family bike-riding outing while in a semi-bedresting condition, you simply rent one of these and have your Dad do all the pedal work around gorgeous Coronado Island.
As usual, my Mom (aka Martha Stewart) made her house look beautiful for the Calder family Easter bash. It was so fun to have my sister Danielle there visiting with us this year.

Pregnancy Adventures:

The baby girl name discussions continue.

This is a conversation I had with Ethan last week:
Ethan: What's our baby's name?
Me: We don't know yet. How do you like the name Elle?
Ethan: MOM. I think you're confused. "L" is a letter not a name.
Me: It's actually a name too.
Ethan: Well, we already have Luke and his name starts with L.
Me: The name Elle actually starts with the letter "E."
Ethan: What?! But "E" is for Ethan? The baby's name can't start with MY letter. Why don't we name her Snowball?

So maybe Elle is out of the running for now . . . along with all of my boy's other suggestions. Also had my first ever 4-D ultrasound. The first thing the ultrasound tech exclaimed was, "look at that pouty bottom lip!" She's going to be a drooler just like the other two. Bring on the bibs.

Remodel Adventures:

All I have to say is: IT IS DONE! Despite the best laid plans to have our shower demo happen while we were out of town, it took a little longer than expected. And then we had a leak, and then we had some tile that had to be re-done, and then we had several cosmetic touch-ups . . . shall I go on? But in the end it was all worth it. I feel like our house has been transformed with newly scraped ceilings (bye-bye popcorn), newly painted kitchen cabinets, the entire interior painted a neutral taupe, and two remodeled bathrooms. I'll post better pictures later, but here's two of the upstairs bathroom shower and vanity area (and the tile is NOT as pink as it looks in these pictures).

Camping Adventures:

I've discovered the secret to sucessful camping for the non-camper. If you go while pregnant all you have to do is sit in a lawn chair, eat smores, sleep on the air mattress your husband sets up for you and then have everyone congratulate you afterwards for being a good sport. And, this suggestion for rice bowl foil dinners from my friend Jill was awesome too:

Place 1 microwaveable package of Uncle Ben's Rice (Teryiaki Flavor) on foil.
Layer with:
1 large Teriyaki-marinated chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 handful canned pineapple chunks
1 handful red bell pepper slices
Wrap up and throw in fire.

Of course, my kids had the greatest time ever. Here they are with their cousin Max:

Birthday Party Adventures:

We traveled to San Diego for my Grandpa's 80th surprise party. The following weekend we traveled to Salt Lake for Will's Granny's 80th surprise party. My kids LOVE to yell surprise now. We loved catching up with so many family members in a short amount of time.

Here we are during a brief stop in Sundance so that my boys could see snow for the first time ever in their lives:

(Whew! Here's to May being a little calmer.)