dripping with passion

i have a pretty obsessive personality. there are some things that i have a lifetime obsession with, and then there are obsessions that come and go during different seasons and chapters of life. some discoveries are just so awesome! here’s a few things i’ve really, really been loving lately: one. the royal courts of justice – an insanely beautiful london building that i feel is often overlooked! my friend julia and i met up there the other day to explore. we couldn’t take pictures inside, but woah, the interior is stunning (in addition to the sublime exterior, of course)! we got to sit in on a court case and watch the lawyers do their thing – with their traditional robes and wigs on! two. these workout pants i got from the gap the other week. i bought two different colours because i liked them so much. i just think they are so fun with their “chameleon” effect. when i fell running in prague, my first concern was obviously the baby in my womb, and my second was ripping my legg

a few weeks ago, we purchased a pinata online. wow, there are a lot of pinata shape options on amazon! the boy decided that a monkey pinata was just right to use at the “boy or girl” picnic we were planning to have with friends – a gathering in which we would find out if we will welcome a son or a daughter into our family in july. we had our twenty-week ultrasound on thursday afternoon. the tech conducting the scan was the sweetest lady and when we explained that we’d like her to write down the gender on a peice of paper and not let us know, she cheerfully obliged. we had such a wonderful and beautiful experience looking in at our little baby inside my womb. we got to peek at pretty much every part of baby’s body and were so, so happy and grateful to see and hear that all is well and healthy and normal in there! when it was time to look between baby’s legs to determine the gender, the tech told us to close our eyes! when the scan was complete, she took us back to the waiting room, g

^^ hotel nicholas is the grey building with the statues on top in the foreground. it’s such a neat structure nestled right into the most wonderful bits of prague! ^^ i’ve posted some pretty darn positive reviews about hotels on this blog in the past. but i am pretty sure that this one takes the cake (so far!) among travel accommodations we’ve tried and featured. i genuinely can’t imagine a better place to stay when visiting prague than the nicholas hotel residence .   ^^ a split-level hotel room with rustic wood beams and a cute little kitchenette?! when i first saw the stairs in our room i was so delighted – fun setup. ^^ and i’m a sucker for any hotel that provides robes and slippers! a lovely little luxury. ^^ ^^ the view from our room! we got into prague late at night and waking up to this was the best!! ^^ the rooms at the nicholas hotel are beautiful, fun, unique, well-stocked, and afford sensational views. the building itself is so cool, and the location is absolutely ideal (

i just got home (and ian just returned to work) from our twenty-week ultrasound appointment at st. thomas’s hospital. ^^ this is seriously the view right outside the hospital doors! baby looks perfect! there are three happy hearts in this here family! ^^ in my purse there are two sealed envelopes containing two papers with just one identical word written on each (the boy wanted to make sure we had a backup!). we won’t know whether that word is boy or girl until saturday morning (at our little “gender reveal” party). the anticipation is pretty darn thick!  we are so, so excited to discover if we will be welcoming a son or a daughter into our family this summer. learning this little fact about our baby is quite monumental for us, because we really believe this statement is true (from the family: a proclamation to the world , a document we hold to be divinely inspired): gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. t

yesterday i hit twenty weeks of pregnancy, which means we are officially halfway to baby! that’s so crazy to me – it still doesn’t feel real that there is actually a tiny human – that is half ian and half charity! – inside of me. i have been feeling the baby move every day now though, which is so so cool. although pregnancy is not always super fun, i am really relishing this miraculous experience and am feeling a bit sad that it’s already half way over. i thought the midway point was a good time to update the blog with some more bits and bobs about our pregnancy experience. this morning i attempted to take a mirror selfie of my baby bump to accompany this post, and i realized my single selfie skillz are pretty dismal :) we’ll get some good photos of the bump before the week is over so we can look back on the journey. i feel it is important and worthwhile to document this truly awesome adventure of growing a human … so here goes! --------------------------------------------------------

^^ the boy often requests that we do a “dipping picture.” i’m not sure why he loves this pose so much, but i kind of love that he loves it :) it seemed appropriate for valentine’s day in prague. this was a particularly fun dip picture to do because the girl who we asked to take it completely squealed in delight when we dipped. and then when we saw the reactions of the people around us in the photo, we giggled so hard! ^^ ^^ and i guess we were drunk enough on valentines love that taking a kissing selfie in the middle of the old town square didn’t seem completely ridiculous, as it probably normally should :) i love this boy so so much! ^^ here’s a last batch of photos from our prague trip. it was pretty fun to be in such a romantic city for valentine’s day. ian was so sweet to plan everything to help us celebrate our love. on saturday morning, we took a run to the old town square and climbed the clock tower for some more birds’ eye views over prague. of the five towers we went to the