Home again... home again.

Well hello family and friends. Can I just say that the second trimester of pregnancy is fabulous!! Wow. I've never felt so good... besides some nasty heartburn. Life has been great. We are anxiously awaiting April 7th, the day we find out whether we're having a boy or girl! Yay!! By the way this baby is moving it feels like we may have a little football player coming to the family. I've had strong feelings that it will be a boy, but I would be absolutely thrilled with a little girl. It's just all so exciting!! My tummy popped about a week ago. It's been interesting to see all the many changes. We couldn't be more excited for Baby Niu.

During the first week in February I had the opportunity to fly to Sacramento and spend an ENTIRE WEEK with my family. It was heaven. It would have been perfect if Jon could have come, but work and school took over. I'm so grateful for how hard he works for our little family. It was Dad's 50th Birthday. We had quite the week of celebrations. Enjoy lots of pictures from my visit to California!

Dad you look so lovely.

Love them.

What a sweet face! You'll see lots and lots of pictures of this baby girl.

"They're brothers... The Wishes Brothers." Oh dear, Hilly.
I couldn't stop laughing!

Great-Grandpa Hogge playing with the girls.

Dad's Family.

So, these next set of pictures are what happens when it gets late and we get tired...

Mari's best crazy face.

Mindy's best.

Sarah's best.

And Hilly's best... actually she had too many to choose from,
but I think this was my fav.

Aaron's impression of the Prince from Tangled.

Bradford was just too cool.

Dad is just so handsome. It was so different coming from
snowy, ugly, cold Utah to beautiful, sunny, green California.

I spent some time with Grandma Hogge baking and cooking.
We made Beef Wellington for the family.

We also made this divine Zebra Cheesecake.
I love spending time with Grandma Hogge.

I also HAD to bake with Mari, of course.
We make Mom's chocolate chip cookies with lots and lots of sprinkles.

Alice approved of the cookies.

For part of Dad's birthday week of celebrations we went to Leatherby's.
This is Alice's new smile. When you tell her to say "cheese" this is what she does.

Mari showing us her gigantic mouth... takes after Aunt Mindy.

I, of course, had to have my Black 'n Tan.

Alice just kinda shared with everyone. How could you resist such a sweet face.

And she thought it would be fun to spoon ice cream into Aunt Mindy's hands.

Another tradition we have is going to downtown Sac to eat lunch with Dad.
He works close to the Capitol. After a light lunch, we walked the Capitol Park.
It was a gorgeous day!!!

Goofy Sarah.

Dad loves his girls.

Alice wanted to carry around the bag of chips... and so she did... everywhere.

Beautiful sisters.

It was the perfect week.
I felt like royalty being chauffeured to my different destinations, taking naps,
spending quality time with family and eating lots and lots of delicious food.
And thank you Mom for all the pictures!