a plea for help

Hey friends (or anyone out there with great advice), Bret and I are preparing to send a huge shipment of all of our stuff down to Brazil in about a week. We've discovered that it's much less expensive to buy EVERYTHING here and ship it down than to buy it there. Of course you can get things in Brazil but apparently everything is three times the cost for something of lesser quality so that means we need to stock up now!

I could use help with any recommendations on what you think I'd need or where some great deals are but I'd particularly appreciate some advice with baby stuff. So tell me, what baby items do you love and/ or can't live without? And, if you have preferences, where should I get them? Any and all advice is welcome, both baby and non-baby related. Thanks!

P.S. I found this picture under "packing" in google images and I thought it was good.

same, same

My sister Sarah Jane and I have always been close and therefore pretty similar. We seem to always like the same things - books, movies, music, food, Backstreet Boy, whatever. We also tend to buy the same clothes, whether we know the other one has that item or not and it's not uncommon to show up somewhere wearing the same thing (this is typical of all of my sisters, though). Anyway, Sarah Jane is also expecting right now (her second) only she's due at the end of September, just three weeks behind me. Not sure what she's having yet but we think we may have two little boys on our hands (UPDATE: We do!). They came in town last weekend so we made sure to take the typical "bump" shot (with some not-so typical poses). It's been really fun to have this special thing in common, too.

*We took these pictures in the morning after I just woke up so please forgive my appearance.

At 20 weeks (notice baby doll in background - unplanned use of foreshadowing)

copy cat (or elephant)

Bret and I both have a love for animals so we decided to impose this same love into our forthcoming child by having animal decor in his bedroom. As I was browsing the web for ideas, I found this unique and cute little elephant bookcase from Dwell.

Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) it was a little pricey, so I showed it to Bret and he said he could make something like it, and he did. I think he did a fine job.

My niece, Norah, testing it out.

buddies

When we booked our flights to Brasil we decided to maximize our travels by scheduling a day-long layover in NYC in which we took the red-eye flight there from Salt Lake and then the red-eye out the following night to Sao Paulo. In hindsight, this plan may have been a little too ambitious. For one, Bret never sleeps on planes (and yes, we've tried to give him pills to knock him out but he'll just hallucinate) and neither do I since I've been pregnant and spending two uncomfortable nights in row on a plane without sleep was a little rough on both of us. As crazy as it was, though, I don't regret our decision. We were able to have a quick visit with our friends the Wheelers who live in New York and that made it worth it.

Unfortunately it rained most of the day and I was a little out of it so I didn't take many pictures at all. But just to prove we were there, here we are waiting for the subway. We also did such things as have lunch at the Shake Shack, a little shopping in SoHo, a nap at the Wheelers and for dinner, had the famous waffles and chicken they'd told us so much about from that place up in Harlem. Yes, you read that right.

I brought out my camera once more when Jordan was showing Bret the roof of their apartment. Bret hadn't come with me last May when I visited New York and took this picture having a dance party with Candice.

I thought we should even things out by taking a buddy picture of the two of them in the same place.

It's always great seeing the Wheelers, especially because our visits are so few and far between. We weren't planning to see them again for a long time, but to our surprise, we got a call yesterday from them saying they had come to town suddenly for a family funeral. So we jumped in our car and met them and the Scotts for a quick lunch before they headed to Idaho.

Bidding them farewell.

Jordan DID NOT want to take this picture.

I'm glad Bret has a such great buddies.

rio revisited

Not sure why I'm devoting an entire post to this but did anyone see this month's Anthropologie catalog? I was looking through it today and was excited to see that the first segment was shot in Rio! I was proud of myself for recognizing that's where it was before it became too obvious. Here's a sampling...

I love this dress, it looks so cozy

Coincidentally, the next batch of pictures appeared to be taken in the slot canyons of southern Utah (I guess it could be somewhere else but it sure looks like it). It was like my worlds were colliding. Too bad I'll never look this cute in either of those places.

rio de janeiro

Because I took so many pictures in Rio I thought I'd try something different this time and do a slideshow. It's kind of thrown together and the video doesn't do the pictures justice, but that's OK cause the pictures don't do the city justice either, so I guess just take it for what it's worth. Apart from random shots of the city, this includes us doing these things:

- Making a stop at a banana stand

- Bret eating his favorite Brazilian treat, Acai.

- At the Cristo Redentor (Christ statue) that'll you'll see is covered in scaffolding as it's undergoing some kind of renovation

- On top of Påo de Açucar, or Sugar Loaf (that huge rock/mountain you take a tram to get up to)

- Exploring the markets of downtown Rio

- At Copacabana Beach (where we stayed)

This city was amazing and I highly recommend you think about visiting us in Brasil so you can experience it yourself. Just a thought.