Sand in the City 2010

I participated in Sand in the City- Omaha again this year!! I LOVE this event. It is so much fun and challenging to design a sculpture based on the team's ideas. This year I was again teamed up with ConAgra. They were a great team to work with last year so I was thrilled to get to work with them again this year. They are encouraging family time to their employees and one idea they have been suggesting is Family Movie Night so that is where we started. We decided to have Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head from Toy Story and their family of spuds as our characters. Here are a few pictures from the build day. You can see more images from the Omaha Camera Club here.

Happy Halloween!!

The Annual Hite Halloween Hoopla!

Alivia and her friend Kate...they both love their "pucks" aka pacifiers

The Daly Pumpkin Patch

(Alivia, Astrid, Kourtney, and Emilia)

It has been a baby boom year at Leo A Daly. I think there will be nine babies welcomed into the Daly Family in 2009. These little pumpkins were the baby girls of the four Daly mommies. We had our babies in June, July, and September. Needless to say there was a lot of pregnant bellies in our office for a few months.

My baby is 3 months old!!

Ok so three months plus but who is counting. We have had quite a few changes in the last few weeks. Alivia transitioned to the crib from the bassinet, I returned to work, and Alivia has been spending her days with Aunt Jamie, Cousin Ayla, Gigi, and Daddy. The transition to the crib has been a little rough but I think we are finally figuring it out. We added a mobile that she absolutely loves. She sings and talks to it as it spins, projects images and plays music. The first few nights she was waking up multiple times but the last few she has gone back to sleeping through the night. Jamie is watching Alivia for a while before we transition to daycare but this week they are on vacation in Florida so Gigi, Daddy and I are filling in. The transition back to work went much better than I thought. I was pretty much a wreck the Sunday prior to returning but it wasn't even half as bad as I anticipated. Tom takes Alivia in the morning which is truly a blessing and then I pick her up in the afternoon. We decided that I would go back 4 days a week instead of 5 and that I would work 7-4 so I have more of the afternoon with her. I seems to be working out just right.
Alivia is changing so much each day and getting more and more alert. She loves to play on her mat, swing, go on walks, watch anything hanging from the ceiling, the TV, and reading books. She has become extremely aware of her hands recently. She plays with the toys hanging on her play mat and LOVES to put them in her mouth. She is talking more and more as well as giggling a lot. She has great big smiles that I thinks take after her Grandpa Dean. Who knows maybe her nickname will be Smilie too. She has strong head control and has rolled over a couple times from her belly to her back. She loves being on her back looking up so rolling to her belly may be a bit of a challenge. We are so excited to see the changes that come this month!!

Meeting Uncle Tom (my Dad's brother)

Big Smiles!!

Sitting in the Jumperoo for the first time!

My hospital project in Missouri. When I went on leave it was just a dirt site. This is what happens when I leave for three months but somehow I jumped right back in!!

Sand in the City

This weekend was the 5th annual Sand in the City Competition benefitting the Nebraska Children's Home Society. This is a sand sculpting contest to raise awareness of NCHS's programs, which include adoption services and education, unplanned pregnancy services, medically fragile foster care and child care, while raising funds to support their efforts. Corporate teams work with professional sand sculptors from throughout the nation and local architects to build incredible sand sculptures, using more than 350 tons of sand! I agreed to volunteer again this year as one of the local architects. It was a little different this year in that I was 8 months pregnant playing in the sand. I was definitely restricted as to what I could and couldn't do but it was still extremely rewarding. I asked Adam Andrews to team up with me this year as additional help to balance out where I wasn't able to participate. We were paired with a new team from ConAgra. They were awesome to work with and extremely motivated. We had a great time and our cherry on top was that Adam and I were awarded the "Most Valuable Designer" award. This is an amazing honor because we were considered the most valuable by the judges and master sculptors out of a total of 17 teams. Last I had heard the event had raised approximately $90,000 and had over 10,000 people walk through. Here are pictures of the event!!

the "Most Valuable Designers"

Me and Adam Andrews

For more information visit their site. www.sandinthecityomaha.com

Week 13 & 14

I have been a little MIA for weeks 13 and 14. I have set a goal to finish taking my Architecture Registration Exams by the end of June so that I am done well before Baby Bean comes (hopefully). So the last few weeks I have been studying for General Structures and Lateral Forces.

Just as a brief explanation - in the ARE version 3.1 that I am currently taking there are nine exams (3 graphical and 6 multiple choice) in different areas of architecture. These exams in addition to the 5600 hours of work hours in different areas are the requirements to get my Architectural Licence.

Anyway.........Like I said I have been studying for the past few weeks and really haven't managed to do much else. The house is messier than I would like, there is still laundry to put away, I have designs to finish for DBS, I have posts that I had started for both my blogs and more importantly, Baby Bean thinks I need more sleep. The combination of being older and pregnant have minimized the number of late nights I can bounce back from. In college I would pull multiple all-nighters in a row and still manage to have the energy to spare. Don't get me wrong, I would eventually crash but it would be after quite a few days of minimal sleep. I just can't do that any more. I have had my nose buried in my study material for days and have become a little bit of a zombie and a hermit. Yesterday I decided I needed a study break so Tom and I went over to Jamie and Darren's for dinner and the Super Bowl. Although I felt a little guilty that I was taking a couple hours away from studying, the time away did wonders. I was recharged and managed to study for 5 more hours when I came home. So the tests - General Structures was today and Lateral Forces is Thursday. I'm really not sure what to think about how the test went but I have to think that I studied, I made my best effort, I reviewed my answers and used the entire allotted time. That is all I could do so I am letting it go and waiting for the results while continuing to study for Lateral Forces.

As for Baby Bean........We are doing great!! Now that I am over the morning sickness I am really enjoying my pregnancy. I am getting more and more anxious to find out the sex. Long before we even decided to start a family I had my mind set that I/we wouldn't find out. Now that we are here I can't imagine not. I am getting tired of referring to Baby Bean as it, he/she, or him/her. I know some of being anxious is to start looking at what we will register for. We have held off on buying anything mainly because we don't know girl or boy yet but the location that I take my exams is conveniently located just down the street from Babies R Us so I made a little detour on my way home. I decided to treat myself to gender neutral onesies. I can't wait to shop for more in pinks or blues!!

A few notes for weeks 13 and 14............
Cravings.........tomatoes (roma, cherry, juice, stewed, etc), fruit, salads
Aversions...........I have managed to get over my issues with Chicken - still can't cook it but I can eat it!!
How I feel...........love being pregnant and tired!!
Next Appointment.........February 12, 2009