So in a few days I will be officially starting my 28th week and entering the third and final trimester.  (Anyone else hearing the "final countdown" in their head too?) 

I figured I'd record some of my feelings/how I've been doing/feeling lately with an updated (might be a week late) pic.

See the full gallery on Posterous

I'm a little bigger than the pics above but I'm not looking/feeling particularly cute today so ya'll can wait til I post about my birthday coming up to get a more accurate one :)

Crazy crazy times...ever since the New York trip I feel like my body has been slowly transitioning into what it will be like in the 3rd trimester.  It's subtle things but I know my regular levels of energy and overall stamina- at least since the 2nd trimester and recently my energy levels have not been up to par with what used to be considered normal before the trip.  Everyday is different of course, some days are better and more normal-ly feeling than others but I'd compare it to the feeling you get when you have jet lag or the way you feel right before you come down with something-I mean, you feel pretty much fine but ever so slightly off-like your body is fighting something, like you don't have the usual spring in your step.  Sadly I wont' get over the bug I'm dealing with for another three months haha.  oh well. 

The best representation in picture form to capture the transition from 2nd trimester to 3rd trimester would be:

I LOVE this pic.  It kills me EVERYTIME.  So I may be feeling like the soggy owlet but this feeling will soon enough become more normal and expected and I will gain endurance for feeling like this while still not letting it affect my mood etc.  And hopefully soon I will forget how great I felt in the 2nd trimester and accept my current jet-laggy self.  In the meantime Code is the constant ray of sunshine to my day-seriously wouldn't know what I'd do without him and his support/help.

In other news, we've started watching downton Abbey-a PBS show based on a family in a brittish manor and the servants who wait on them.  I'm surprised how good it is-we weren't sure at first (let's just say these people's lives are much more interesting than I imagined possible for this time period) but it's really grown on us. (Thomas must die!), and it's sad cause there are only 7 episodes and no way to see the 2nd season that I'm aware....it's not on hulu or netflix yet :( But it's exciting to have a new tv show to be in to.

This weekend should be a fun one!  Cody is taking off Friday for the heck of it and my birthday is Saturday (still freaks me out that I'm turning 26-not that I think that's old, but I wasn't consciously aware of the fact that I was 25 this past year when people would ask I would always have a debate in my head of whether I was 24 or 25 so it just doesn't feel like it happened.  feel like I skipped a year).  And this Sunday is mother's day, the first one that I can officially celebrate as a mom.  Crazy...

So I have a feeling that this summer is going to RUSH by and not just because the baby is coming.  Cody and I are staying very busy with our callings in our ward.  He's still in scouts of course and we're both ward missionaries.  I'm quickly becoming the main choir director since the head choir director will be gone all summer on vacation so I'll be filling in for her until...well...until I'm physcially unable to anymore :)  and it's crazy in our ward this summer-we have 5 different missionaries who will be going out at different times.  I swear, every other sunday we're either having a farewell or a homecoming and they always want there to be some kind of special musical number so this should be interesting.  And Code and I were just called to another calling that will involve weekly teaching which we're sooo excited for-seriously our dream calling- but we have to get everything ready for that to start up soon.  So yeah...busy busy busy....oh yeah and I've offered to help our stake music chair put on the youth summer musical-tho by the sounds of it, it wont be as hard core as my youth stake musical was growing up but we'll see :)

Besides all of that we have two baby showers coming up in june as well as a trip to Austin to see Les Mes (so excited to see this again, and it's code's first time ;) so we'll see how my tired lack-luster energy levels deal this summer :)  Honestly it's good though.  I'm happiest when I'm productive and busy, and I'm looking forward to losing myself in the work-looking outside of myself and being distracted from the annoying stages of pregnancy :)

stay tuned sports fans it should be fun!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Ok, so after the Smith farm we stopped by the palmyra temple and took some pictures.  The next day was a chill and relaxed day around the cabin.  We went on a fun little walk until it started pouring on us-we had bad luck with percipitation and hikes/walks this trip haha, but it was still pretty.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The next day we hit up NIAGARA!

So this day was really fun and awe-inspiring.  It was a 2.5 hour drive from our cabin and a little chilly that day- the constant mist of the falls didn't help :)  We went on the maid of the mist boat ride where we got our official niagara ponchos.  The boat drove really close to the horseshoe falls near the canada side-the wind and mist and power of the waves was ridiculous!  The boat was going full throttle and we weren't even moving.  There were a LOT of international people there which was interesting.  We heard russians, koreans, some middle eastern languages, and some eastern european languages from the sounds of them but we had no idea what they were speaking. 

The city across the river in these pics is Niagara Falls, Canada-a much more built up and pretty city than the american side.  So there's the American falls which is just a straight formation of rocks and then the canada side falls or horseshoe falls are the famous looking curved falls.

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

After the boat ride we walked around to the different vantage points they have set up for pictures and it's crazy how close you can get to the edge of the falls.  It was kind of cool cause i'm currently reading parley p pratt's autobiography and right before our trip Parley talked about coming upon the falls when he was on an eastern states mission-i'm sure it was even more awe-inspiring back then without all the safety precaution and man-made tourist stuff around it.

See the full gallery on Posterous

It was a pretty cool site to see and of course we got our refridgerator magnet-how we keep track of cool places we've been.  We also went to the Niagara aquarium-pretty humble but still fun, and went to dinner at TGIF where they messed up the boys' food so we got free desserts-I'll take it. :)

I was DEAD tired by the end of this day though-we walked 5 miles according to Cody's pedometer...which would be a lot for me if I wasn't pregnant.  Yeah...I was hurting, but it was fun and the next day we obviously relaxed, played games, ate the remaining food, watched modern family, and packed.

This was taken Sunday morning out on the cabin's patio before we left for the airport.  It was such a fun trip and hopefully the start of a very fun tradition!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Ooo! two things that I forgot that were really cool stories from the Whitmer tour: so Mary Whitmer was having a hard time keeping up with all the house work/cooking/being the hostess not only to her large family but to Joseph and Oliver and eventually Emma and Joseph's parents too.  One day while she was milking the cows a man came to her and after reminding her that her service was not going unnoticed showed her the plates so that she would have a testimony to cling to when she was having a hard time/ to further motivate her. she is often referred to as the fourth witness.  How cool is that?  I just loved this story cause it's so touching to me when Heavenly Father, in His own way, lets us know that he knows and appreciates all we struggle through and sends us tender mercies to give us the strength and resolve we need to keep going.

The other cool story/fact/whatever was that after the church was officially organized and Joseph and Oliver were named as first and second elders they were re-baptized in the Seneca Lake.  the first time they were baptized the church wasn't organized yet and they were baptized for the remission of sins and the second time they were baptized and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  (of course now we are baptized for both all at once.)  Just interesting.

 Ok, so after the Whitmer farm we drove up to Palmyra stopping on the way to see the Hill Cumorah.  I was surprised at how big and dramatically steep it was.  Up on the top they had a monument to the angel moroni recognizing  that this was where Joseph Smith received the gold plates-tho obviously we don't know exactly where on the hill :)

Man, I'm tellin' ya, I was huffing and puffing up that hill.

See the full gallery on Posterous

After this we went to Palmyra and on main street found the printing press where the book of mormon was published.  It was kind of cool cause right there, there were four different churches-each on a corner of the same intersection (pres, meth, cath, and I forget the fourth...baptists?).  I guess Joseph wasn't kidding when he wrote his history about the religious furver of the time haha.

We had a cool tour from a senior missionary and it was really amazing to see just how much monotonous work went into creating the first 5,000 copies.  A cool random fact, the printer who took on the job had a cool new press that made it faster than what it used to be and was only in the printing business for the duration of the publishing of the Book of Mormon and then went on to other business ventures-just interesting how the Lord gets just what He needs to finish His work.

See the full gallery on Posterous

After the printing press we drove a few minutes over to the Smith family farm.  It still is out in the middle of nowhere but now you can see the palmyra temple from their homestead which is pretty cool.  It was amazing to see where they walked and talked and where all those different miraculous things happened.  It was especially cool to stand in the upper room of their log cabin where Joseph was first visted by the angel moroni after having the first vision to learn about the book of mormon and his mission etc.  It's such a small room.  It's truly a miracle that the others stayed asleep.  Code said it best when he said that this trip helped him to feel the reality of all of those events, and the humanside of Joseph.  Not that we worship him or think him a god, just...we focus on his mission as a prophet so it was fun to see his humble beginnings and realize that he was just a little boy, teenager, man like everybody else etc.

See the full gallery on Posterous

The sacred grove is right up against their property-literally their backyard.  It was so peaceful and beautiful and serene.  We walked through the paths that they had established and sat on a bench and just soaked in the quiet and our thoughts, and then we read from Joseph's account of what happened there which was unique and special.

(this was when he was around 15 years old btw)

"While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the Epistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed wisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.

At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God.

So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the woods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a beautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to pray vocally.

 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.

But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

See the full gallery on Posterous

(Joseph went on to ask which church to join and was told to join none of them for they were all in one way or another no longer the complete church that Christ had set up while He was on the earth and learned that it would be through him (joseph) that the restoration of that church would be brought about).

Sorry if you find these next pics boring (feel free to skip them ) but I love forests-the colors and how the light changes through the trees, seriously, we have a painting of a forest scene in our family room and I felt like I was walking through it the whole time :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So way back in the day our good friends the engstroms and we decided to go on vacation with each other.  At the time the idea of a cruise was being thrown around but upon our becoming pregnant that quickly changed, and a good thing too, since the Engstroms became pregnant soon after us. 

We decided to go somewhere in the east cause most of us had little experience out there.  The idea of church sites and niagara falls soon came up and everyone was on board.  We found a really cool cabin rental place and the rest was history.  Needless to say we had been looking forward to this trip for a long time and it always seemed like something that was way in the future since we first came up with the idea when we were barely pregnant.  Oh yeah the trip-it won't be til I'm big and we know what we're having, it's light years away etc etc.  So it's crazy that the trip has come and gone and how fast time flies by but it's nice to have something fun to look forward to to get you through a pregnancy-I highly recommend it.

So we flew into Buffalo, NY last monday and were met by a random freak winter storm-apparently it had been in the 80s the week before, but we didn't mind.  I took a few pics on the way of the weather and one of a sign pointing to rochester in honor of one of my friends who served in that mission :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

We rented a car and drove two hours to our cabin on the north end of Seneca Lake.  Our cabin that we rented was called falling waters house at Hector Falls-it was pretty sweet.  There was this amazing waterfall right on the side of our cabin that flowed into seneca lake which was right infront of our cabin.  It was pretty cool to sit in your living room, look out the window and see a waterfall.  It was pretty loud at first but we got used to the white noise.

See the full gallery on Posterous

See the full gallery on Posterous

After we got settled in we played games and relaxed for the rest of the night.  The next day we slept in and went on a hike later on.  It was pretty but also cold and there happened to be snow on the ground where we went so once our feet got wet our hike didn't last too much longer :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

The next day was church history sites day.  We started out to Palmyra and just thirty minutes away from our cabin was the Whitmer farm where the founding of the church took place on april 6, 1830.  It was way cool.  The church has built a stake center right on the property which is apparently where the fayette ward goes to church.  The sister missionaries did a great job with their tour and it was crazy to think that 60 odd people fit in that tiny cabin for the first sacrament meeting.  there were also tons of cool stories and miracles associated with the whitmers that I had forgotten so it was cool to hear them again.  for example, david whitmer wanted to go pick joseph and oliver up from harmony and bring them to stay at the whitmer farm to finish the translation since persecution was getting bad in harmony.  Peter whitmer said he had to finish his chores around the farm first before he could go.  the next day David got up to do his chores and they had already been done.  Afterwards when asked his sister who lived next door said that she had seen men working in the fields and assumed that they were the hired help cause they looked like they knew exactly what they were doing etc.  pretty cool stuff.

See the full gallery on Posterous

more to come in the next post!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

well...24 weeks as of tomorrow but who's counting.  I officially look pregnant-people smile at me and tell me to have a good day all the time now when I go to stores whereas before I was invisible apparently.  Everynow and then I look at myself and swear that I somehow got bigger literally over night.  Sometimes it feels normal and no big deal and then other times it's hard to recognize myself underneath the baby bump. We have goal to go for a walk/do something physically active once a day whether it's together or apart-depending on our schedules-and I think it'll help me get ready for any hiking/lots of walking we do in New York in a week so that's good. 

so some fun stats:

When are you due: How many weeks?: Aug 3, 2012 (24 weeks)

How much weight gained: umm..10-12 pounds?

Size of baby: almost a foot long (ear of corn) and over a pound now

Gender: it's a boy!

Latest food craving: shrug still nothing crazy other than the occasional sweet tooth which is normal for me...

Aversions: don't mind meat but hate preparing it.

Sleep: not too bad though sometimes I wake up entirely too early and can't get back to sleep til 7 or 8.

Worst Thing about being pregnant: um...shrug, feeling pretty good now-I guess the back aches/typical growing pains.

Best Thing about being pregnant: feeling our baby boy kick and letting code feel

Are you more scared or excited: excited

Happy or mostly moody: hmmm...I'd say 80% happy 20% moody (if I ever get mad it's cause of the stupid computer players in the ticket to ride app we play, and the crying is less frequent.)

Last time you cried over something ridiculous was: um...my back started aching before bed so I was using the hot pad and they were just tears of frustration- worrrying I wouldn't be able to be comfortable all night when code came over and started comforting me without me even saying anything-he barely started comforting me when I switched, was no longer sad but was crying cause I was so grateful for him and how perceptive/caring he is.  It took him a minute but then he was tracking haha.

Weirdest dream you've had since pregnant?: too many to count

Movement: baby boy likes to kick in the morning when I talk/sing to him and ALWAYS starts kicking like crazy during our nightly prayers just before bed-I know a good sign right?....

Baby Gear: We have a graco pack-n-play, some cute onsies/articles of clothing, a baby carrier cover, some burp cloths/blankets, cover-up for nursing in public, and I just bought my diaper bag today-so excited!  We're waiting til may to buy the big furniture items and make sure it ships alright/has all the right pieces/we're happy with it etc in case we need to return anything.

other symptoms: shrug, can't go super long without eating something-inbetween snacks, achey back from time to time, and apparently I snort from time to time during sleep....not snore mind you, just snort....just once....sometimes it wakes me up.  I find it extremely embarassing but code finds it hilarious.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I'm really greatful for family night and that my church encourages me to have it.  Growing up in the mormon church you are no stranger to acronyms like CTR, YW/YM, and FHE.  The latter is what I'm talking about: Family Home Evening.  This is one night a week (usually monday night but you can pick a different night if that doesn't work for you) when the family gets together and spends time together-typically it's opened and closed with a prayer maybe even a song of some type and there's usually a spiritual lesson involved, an activity of some sort, and maybe even a treat at the end of it.

It can last from 30 minutes to over an hour, just depends.  Clearly the content depends largely on the family dynamics/ages of the kids.  I attended FHE from the womb and ever since growing up.  Often to help involve the kids in the evening there are different jobs/roles handed out each time: someone to conduct the evening and welcome everyone to family night, someone to pray, someone to teach the lesson, someone to come up with an activity, etc.etc.I don't know if everyone did this or if it was just my family, but we always used it to coordinate all of our different schedules.  Each kid would get a turn to announce anything they had happening that week from practices/lessons/mutual etc and mom would write it down in her planner so she wouldn't forget etc.

Even though Code and I don't have kids yet we still have family night every monday.  Sometimes it's short and sweet and sometimes it's a little longer.  We tend to switch off on coming up with spiritual thoughts/lessons for each other.  Tonight we watched the talk given in the Relief Society Broadcast (our church's organization for women 18 and older) by President Uchtdorf titled "Forget Me Nots"

I loved this talk so much and remember it meaning so much to me when I first heard it.  All of it is soo so true and we often forget these basic things.  the five things that we are cautioned to never forget are:

To be patient with ourselves

That there are good sacrifices and there are foolish sacrifices

To be happy NOW

the WHY of the gospel fo Jesus Christ

God remembers and loves you

If you have 15 minutes I highly recommend watching it again-it's amazing at bringing the right perspectives back into your life and I always feel the spirit so powerfully:

Afterwards we planted some forget-me-not seeds in a little planter that I got in Relief Society on Sunday.  i'm excited to see how they do and hope they grow-never have really tried my hand at growing anything.  I'm thinking of making a cute holder for them to sit on my windowsill or something with either a framed quote from this talk near them or maybe the individual things above painted on the pots?  I dunno...but I'll blog about it once they grow and I figure it out :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This Easter was even more special than normal since it was Cody's birthday too-yup 26.  Church was great.  It marked a big deal for me since it was the first time I directed a choir.  I won't lie, I was a little nervous.  Don't get me wrong, I've been IN choirs and bands performing infront of large audiences my whole life but never had a ton of conducting experience other than conducting the hymns in sacrament or something-which I don't (let's face it, no one looks at the conductor). It's definitely been a learning experience.  Sure I have all the technical knowledge and background and have a natural inclination and ability when it comes to music, but this is one of the last frontiers where I don't actually have experience in. 

The first practice when I lead them for my song (I'm the assistant director so the director also directed a song with them) was a little shaky.  I was nervous and set a way-too-fast tempo for everyone, but I settled into it and it got better.  It took a little practice to get used to the whole, keeping the beat for everyone while still bringing different sections in/ cutting them off/ and reminding/encouraging them in the dynamics, all while keeping eye contact with them and showing a lot of energy/emotion to help them feed off of it but I got it down.

We performed on sunday and it went great.  It was really pretty and even though there were a few moments when I felt like we weren't as settled in the tempo as we could have been-shrug, the dramatic dynamics were really powerful.  I was hoping and praying that everyone would feel the spirit of the song rather than worry about the lil details, and later in Relief Society one of the sisters commented on feeling the spirit during the music etc so I was happy that they got  what they needed out of it, and it made me excited for the next opportunity I will have to lead which may come sooner than I think cause I know the lead director is going to be out of town for awhile this summer so I'll be taking over practices and who knows, maybe even a performance.  All while being VERY  pregnant of course ;) that should be interesting....hopefully the kiddo doesn't come too early or we'll be out of a choir for a little while.

Anywho...after church we went to my parents house for easter dinner and Cody got to open the rest of his presents.  He got a couple of itunes gift cards, an expansion pack for dominion (a new fav game of ours), some new cologne, a byu onesie for baby boy, Men In Black (I know, I don't know how we have lived this long without owning it-totally psyched for number 3 this summer!), Hop (cute easter movie that came out last year and on theme with the day), and of course there were the spiffy new running shoes I surprised him with last week and the fitbit he opened in san antonio.  

See the full gallery on Posterous

All was well until he had to blow out the candles on his ice cream cake....mom didn't realize what kind they were....(sorry about the camera angle-I never think about that when using the iphone but you get the idea ;)

bdaycake.MOV Watch on Posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Remember the Alamo! I now know why they have to shout this to get people to remember it cause it's not as memorable as you'd think...but anyways, san antonio was cool.  We decided to go for a quick two day trip this past weekend for Cody's birthday since his birthday fell on a sunday and easter so we wanted to make sure it didn't get over-shadowed :)

First things first, we arrived, checked into our hotel, and walked a block to the alamo.  But first I had Cody open his first bday gift: a fitbit.  It's actually pretty cool. It's really small thing that looks more like a flashdrive than a pedometer and clips on your belt and counts steps, calories burned, stairs climbed, and even tracks your sleep-how long you sleep/how many times you wake up etc and in cody's case: how many steps taken.  Cody's been wanting to make little life style changes to be healthier and you can even record caloric intake etc on the app and it'll keep track of everything for you.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Anywho back to the alamo: It's not that big but it was cool to walk around it, and no, we did not find a basement (kuddos to any and all who know what I'm referencing).

See the full gallery on Posterous

stay tuned for day two of our trip...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

tons to catch up on.  First of all last week we went strawberry picking with our friends the brownings.  It was way fun, way hot, and we couldn't pick much since we were getting ready to go out of town for the weekend.  This farm was out in alvin, tx so we girls picked up the guys from work on the way.  They had fresh vegetables, fruits/jams/peserves/ and even homemade fried pies-it was pretty awesome. Afterwards we stopped at the burger barn for dinner-it was pretty good and very rustic :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

Stay tuned for our san antonio trip, code's birthday/easter, and an update on me and the lil man!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Not much has happened around here but we're on the verge of lots of fun stuff.  I recently got lots of fun maternity pieces from motherhood maternity: a swimsuit, cover-up dress, couple tanks, flower top, and some pregnancy leggings.  Needless to say I can't wait til I have a full-length mirror again and I won't have to strike crazy poses that throw me off my balance.

See the full gallery on Posterous

This weekend is General Conference, it's a mormon thing, which happens twice a year where the prophet, twelve apostles, and other church leaders all come together and give prepared talks on tons of different subjects.  I can't wait.  There's nothing like getting spiritually recharged.  Plus I love to hear about all the new temples that are being built/planned.etc.

This weekend looks like we'll spend it watching the above at my parents' house and then it's back to our ward sunday evening for a choir practice-which I'm greatful for since I'm conducting one of the pieces for easter sunday and while I've been practicing conducting an empty room it would be nice to do it a few times in front of the real thing :)

It's kind of fun to conduct an ensemble...like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time but it becomes easier the more you do it.

Next week is Code's birthday!!! It actually falls on easter this year so we're going to san antonio for friday/saturday to check out the river walk and the alamo etc.  I'm excited to give him his presents. 

Well, I'll be 22 weeks tomorrow and keep shifting between feeling really big/uncomfortable and just fine.  For those who didn't see on facebook I got a onesie for our little guy that was just perfect for code's son:

more random happenings to come I'm sure...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So it's official, we have a new little man of the house.  We went in Friday morning and it did not take long for the ultrasound tech to find that we're having a boy!  It's funny cause I didn't have a gut feeling along the way at all so I picked my vote for a girl, but the last few days as I imagined going in and the dr saying it was a girl just didn't feel right.  Sure enough we got a boy.  Cody is very excited and I am too-I enjoyed growing up with older brothers. 

I made a vow that I would not show the proof of our little guy being a little guy online cause...shrug, who wants to see that?  Plus now I can later remind him that he owes me for not posting embarassing pictures of him online-see? not even born yet and we already have such a healthy relationship :)

There were some others but they are kind of hard to tell what they are-random hand, foot, etc so I won't bother posting them but I we do have a the whole ultrasound on dvd which is cool to watch-the little guy yawned at one point and chewed/swallowed at another so it's pretty cool to watch-don't worry grandparents, we'll make copies of it for ya.

Since we were rushed for time with cody's oncall shift and racing off to see the hunger games (I give it a one thumb up not two) we didn't have time to go out and buy the little guy's first outfit so we did that this morning after the temple:

See the full gallery on Posterous

We liked the orange polo and jeans cause it's the type of shirt cody would wear- in fact he may have a similar one in his closet as we speak....hmm....future photoshoot in the making here...and the dinosaur one is just awesome cause it reminds me of some of my favorite movies which, now that I think of it, have a lot of useful quotes once our little guy comes on the scene: "you are going to wash your hands before you eat anything?...." etc.  and we couldn't pass up on the adorable lil pjs-all of them say they're for a newborn so i'm curious if he'll be swimming in these or not.

The Dr did say that he was measuring a week ahead percentage-wise so it's highly likely that we can have him in late july rather than aug 3 (his due date) which I'm hoping for-gives us a little more space between his birthday and school once he's older :)  Anywho, the doc didn't seem to think it was a tall order by any means to start the process early in late july so here's to hoping.

We're so excited for our little man!  We have names that we like but I doubt we'll pick a name 100% until he's here just to make sure that he looks/feels like a insert name here.  It's hard for me tho cause I want to refer to him as a name not just "baby boy, little man, etc" but I don't want to risk getting sentimentally attached to a name only to realize we aren't going to name him that-I get very attached to names/nick names so I have to be careful just ask frida or henry (our cars)

That reminds me!  We just payed off Henry so for a few months we will be debt free....until Steve comes home, gets frida back, and we have to buy another car for me :)  But it's nice while it lasts.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So tonight my friend Katie Browning invited me to a Hunger Games pre-showing party that she and a friend put on.  I've reread the first book in the past two days so it was all pretty fresh and it sounded like a lot of fun-even though I wasn't going to the midnight showing with them-code and I are totally going tomorrow night and can't wait!

I wasn't sure how it would be since I didn't know a soul there but it turned out to be really fun-all the people were way cool and there were great treats and amazing games.  My treat, rather than picking a specific dish mentioned in the books-which I figured everyone would do, I created arrows since they are Katniss' weapon of choice.  Plus it was easy-chocolate dipped pretzel rods with hershey kisses attached by dipping chocolate at one end and chocolate graham crackers attached at the other end.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Easy being a relative term cause it took awhile to hold the fins in place until the chocolate dried, but Code was a trooper and helped me out :)

After extricating myself from Cody's grasp I was on my way

"please don't go!"

Here's some of the decorations: posters/movie quotes

See the full gallery on Posterous

There was TONS of food on the table but I didn't get a pic of it later in the evening when it was full of stuff but here's a sampling:

See the full gallery on Posterous

Mockingjay cookies, mellark bakery cupcakes, nightlock cupcakes, katniss' arrows, fiery cupcakes-it's a theme.  later there was a literal dish from the books- an orange chicken dish over grains-way yummy, someone brought pitas with ceaser salad in them (peeta is a main character in the book), etc etc etc.

It was way fun and we played some games too-there was a trivia quiz in which I did ok on but def not the highest score-who won a hunger games bag, then there was the matching game-matching the different districts with their industries (that was way hard and the winner only got five right so you can imagine the average scores on that one haha).

Then there was a challenge where there was two teams and strips of paper with objects written on them scattered on the floor.  Different things were written on the paper like water, knife, medicine etc. but we didn't know which items would be important.  one person from each team at the same time would run to the middle and pick one and tag the next person who would hurry and grab one etc etc until they were all gone.  Then they read a scenario where having certain items were worth different ammounts of points and whichever team had the highest score at the end won.  We barely lost 175-170 and that was with us getting docked 15 points for having something that wasn't good so in my mind we still won cause the other team didn't have any points docked and only managed to beat us by five points.....yes, I am my father's daughter-competitive much?

Anywho, it was a great way to spend the evening and now I'm all excited for the movie tomorrow night!  Also just a little excited....ok a LOT excited to find out the gender tomorrow morning!!!!! I can't wait plus it's been so long since we've seen the little one in an ultrasound-the last one was at 12 weeks and I'll be 21 weeks tomorrow!

Stay tuned :)  (officially I think it's a girl and Code thinks it's a boy but neither of us honestly has had a strong feeling either way)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

so I've been excitedly awaiting the first major baby purchase-not knowing when is too soon but wanting to get everything early enough to where we have plenty of time to send it back if there are problems etc...well amazon helped me decide on the first purchase-really the most important- our baby's first bed/bassinet.  The price recently dropped 15% and that was good enough for me. I think we'll try to have something small and portable near the bed for the first little while to make it easier on me not having to get up and having to go to the nursery multiple nights etc (tho we'll see cause if it disrupts code too much who has to get up SUPER early every morning we may have to tweak the plan). 

 I also didn't want to get some fancy shmancy bassonet thing that we would be done with after a month or two....Enter the Graco pack-n-play with built in bassinet so even when the kid outgrows the bassinet and moves into the crib perminantly-it'll still be useful cause it's still a pack-n-play for the kiddo to play in when I don't want to give him/her full reign of the house and is a portable crib when we travel-blam.  so awesome.

It was funny cause the UPS guy must have been the same one to deliver my other smaller items we have ordered-car seat covers/slings etc cause when I opened the door he smiled and said, "more baby stuff!" hahaha I have a feeling he better get used to delivering us baby stuff in the upcoming months haha.

It was SUPER easy to put together-already have it down and all that's left to do (other than have the kiddo) is order some specific fitted sheets for the mattress/pad that apparently graco also sells-whoops forgot about that little detail, but that's why we do these things plenty in advance :)

I love it and it's green which is one of the neutral colors I'm leaning towards that I feel like I will like despite the gender and can use it with all of our kids

I was especially excited and surprised cause the little toy attachment it came with was a giraffe and two leaves which is right on theme with what I was thinking as far as themes-not safari, just giraffes :)Im thinking it'll be a subtle theme throughout the baby's stuff though, not over the top.

This came at the perfect time cause in re-reading the hunger games I just got to the part where little Rue dies-sooo so sad, so this was the perfect little pick-me-up and distraction :) Who's excited for the movie this weekend?!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I guess we'll be playing a little catch up today.  We've been having a pretty fun time over here the past few weeks.  First of all we went to the Houston livestock and rodeo show for the first time this year.  It's a pretty big deal around here-held in the relient stadium (though used to be held in the astro dome).  There's tons of stuff to see from crafts to animals, rides, competition and GREAT food :) 

Nate and Andrea came down from college station for the day and after playing a little ticket to ride we drove down to the rodeo.  We sort of left a little late in the day so traffic was bad and parking was hard to find-now we know it's worth it to go earlier in the day I guess...but we made up for lost time fast.  We hit up the barbeque the second we got there, followed by a curly fry loaf, then we tried the famous fried oreos (actually REALLY good!) and topped it all off with some dip-n-dots.  My body was in shock with the variety of food I managed to find in quick succession but was also very pleased.  The rodeo food seemed to agree with baby. 

Then it was off to watch some events like bull/bronco riding, barrel racing, and mutton busting-so cute! (where kids basically hold on to sheep and ride across a 20 foot area and see how long they can stay on.)

See the full gallery on Posterous

After the rodeo we saw the Band Perry perform.  It was ok.  I mean, don't get me wrong-I like the band perry but the acoustics were just awful in that arena so it was impossible to really understand what they were saying or hear the music really well....plus I only know like 3 band perry songs so it was very different from say a concert where I know every song and am a super fan.   But still, it was fun and I'd recommend it to anyone.

Next on what's been going around here-this past weekend we (mom, dad, code,and I ) drove to Manhattan,KS where my brother and sister-in-law, mike and jess, and their five kids live for a family weekend.  Ben's birthday was on Thursday and we drove down on Friday to be there for his baptism on Saturday and his new baby brother's blessing on Sunday. 

It was a looong drive.  I mean, the backseat of the chevy equinox isn't my favorite seat when it comes to comfort, plus I'm pregnant.  Enough said.  My back was the biggest culprit-ugh, but I survived and we enjoyed some family fun.  Here are some pics from before the baptism-benson (my nephew) was baptized along with another boy from their ward so that's who's in some of these pics.

See the full gallery on Posterous

After the baptism everyone went to a cool habatchi grill where they cook the food right in front of you and put on a show.  My youngest neice jillian was sooo stinkin funny and would start dancing and smiling everytime the chef started to beat out a beat with his cooking gear etc.  Afterwards we had some cupcakes and icecream in honor of benson's bday/baptism:

See the full gallery on Posterous

And then the next day we went to their church building for baby Harrison's blessing-he was so cute.  I got to hold him a lot and he basically slept for like an hour and half in my arms on friday night as we were all talking-too cute.  Hard to believe code and I will have a little one to hold 24/7 in just a few short months-really doesn't feel real.  Especially when I see how big this little guy is and he's only 6 weeks! how do these things fit in us?!

See the full gallery on Posterous

all and all it was a fun trip and we survived the long drives thanks to ticket to ride, gilmore girls, sleep, and some yummy treats.  There were some pretty funny quotes on the way too that code and I found hilarious such as "He was so excited he was doing nip-ups" (we're still not sure what that is)

And finally I'm 20 weeks!!! half way through-and will be 21 weeks on Friday when we will find out the gender!!!!!! so feel free to leave any predictions :)

 I promise I look bigger in person:

See the full gallery on Posterous

p.s. can't wait for the Hunger Games to come out this weekend!!! I'm considering rereading it before then...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Well this week has been...to say the least....interesting.

It started out normal enough, but Wednesday morning I woke up with Vertigo.  I noticed it immediately upon getting up.  It wasn't like my vision was messed up but whenever I turned my head left/right or leaned it forward or back and returned it to a center position I would feel like the room was spinning even if I didn't see it.  It was AWFUL. Oh man...don't get me wrong, I liked vertigo the movie (hitchcock/jimmy stewart) but all positive associations end there. 

I got progressively worse throughout the day and eventually started throwing up.  Code came home early from work to help cause I basically didn't trust myself to get anywhere fast in the apartment by myself, and even mom came over to help at one point.  What sucks about having any sort of ailment during pregnancy is, it KNOCKS YOU ON YOUR BUTT.  I mean, sure I would have been miserable no matter what but your body just cannot handle, it seems, anything out of the ordinary very well when pregnant-prolly cause it's already working overtime as it is and has no room for error.

I called the obgyn to let her know and according to them it didn't sound like anything that would be caused by pregnancy (like dizziness due to low blood sugar/pressure/dehydration etc), but an inner ear/head thing.

That night when it didn't seem to be getting any better we decided to go to an urgent care nearby, but as it turns out they can't really do anything with internal issues cause they don't have a lab etc (so what do they do???) so we then settled for the ER at the methodist hospital right next to where we live. 

After checking blood pressure/heart rates-of me and kiddo and everything was normal they simply confirmed that I must have vertigo-that they don't really know why this happens and people can get it, it'll go away in a few days and they'll never get it again, or it can hang around for months.  Well, if you know me, you know that you don't tell me if there is some sort of possibility like that-I have enough to worry about/be anxious about thank you.  They prescribed me some anti-dizzy and anti-nausea pills and sent me on my way. 

They had given me an anti-dizzy pill right then and there so we went home and planned to wait it out and see if it got better over night.  I woke up the next morning pretty much back to normal.  I was so greatful! every now and then I'll have slight pressure headaches but the actual dizziness brought on by head movement is gone to which I'm so grateful!

I was so grateful for Cody.  He came home early, stayed by my side, brought me things to eat in between my bouts of sickness, literally was my support when I needed to walk somewhere, and even put on my shoes when it was time to go to the ER-I was really out of it.  He even stayed home the next day to make sure that I was going to be ok (it's nice having a job that can technically be done at home so he didn't have to use a vacation day). 

All and all it was awful but we're excited to put it behind us :)

In other less gross news we are working on our baby budget-I won't say what it is for fear already parents will scoff at it but to basically get us started I think it's doable.  We're going to go look at some gliders/rockers today at some regular furniture stores instead of baby stores so hopefully we'll see more variety/quality. 

2 more weeks til we know the gender!!!!

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

I think I've felt the baby move upwards of 5ish times now?  Notice the question mark.  It's not easy to tell if that is in fact what I'm feeling but I don't know what else it could be and I haven't felt these exact movements before so I'm pretty sure it's not my digestive system etc.  It's pretty cool but it's also pretty fleeting though and the second I notice it and start to pay attention to it and want to feel it again to confirm that that's indeed what it was, it stops.  I'm just over 18 weeks though which apparently is right on schedule for this sort of thing.  I've felt slight flutterings at least once a day since starting my 18th week so if it's regular I'm guessing it's a good thing and that it will get stronger.  I have no doubt that as I progress I will feel our kiddo all the time cause at our last ultra sound it was moving around so much the tech called him/her a "rascal".

(2 1/2 weeks til we know the gender btw!!!!-no we're not excited or impatient at all...)

Life is good.  Life is crazy and not always expected but life is good.  This week is really relaxed as far as code's and my schedules go so we're excited to have a liesurely week.  Like tonight- we went on a nice walk to enjoy the beautiful weather we're having, had dinner, family night, played ticket to ride on the ol' ipad, and now are working on entrepreneurial endeavors (in code's case) and I'm catching up on blogs and will prolly watch some GG (gilmore girls)...and it's only 8:30!

We have to soak this relaxing week up cause next week is full of stuff: going to the rodeo with nate and andrea-yee-ha!, and going to Kansas for the weekend for my nephew's baby blessing at church.

In other news, we're trying to make 2-3 meals a week that aren't meat centered.  It's hard at first to conceive of a meal without meat cause I always grew up with some sort of meat-main dish with sides etc.  But since being pregnant-I have an aversion to meat (not eating, but preparing) plus we want to be healthier and there are plenty of other ways to get our protein in and it'll make our meat we buy go farther.  So tonight we had tacos with rice, beans/corn/taco seasonings added to tomato sauce, lettuce, cheese, and some watermelon on the side (it was actually pretty good for march)

And....we loved it! we felt so good afterwards-not all weighed down etc and I LOVED throwing it together in ten minutes without a huge messy clean-up that I get so often with cooking meat etc.  Awesome.  Highly recommend it and I'm glad to come up with some ideas that give me more variety cause I've felt in a rut when it comes to meals etc.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

whoa, that was a close one...I was really in the mood to blog which I haven't been in the last little while so when the urge comes I have to pounce on it.  But anywho, the website was down and I was really frustrated cause writing it in word is just not the same, but luckily I checked back and it was fixed!  They knew better than to mess with my hormones :)

So...what's new what's new...

well I have a little bump and today it seems to be more prominant though it may just be what I happen to be wearing:

It's kind of weird having curves....I've never really had curves before-always had the basic stick/boyish figure before now.  While there may be aspects of the boyish figure that I miss a little, I'm enjoying feeling like a woman *cue the Shania Twain hit* I mean...moms are supposed to have some curves to them right?

I can't remember if I've posted about this before but our front room has never been a cohesive room-just everything we didn't have a place for went in there, especially in the closet all our storage etc.  Sadly I don't think I ever took a pic of the closet in all it's glory so the finished product wont' be as dramatic when I show it, but we are waging war on that front room to get it ready for our little one. 

It has involved decluttering, purging, organizing, and rearranging but now that we are well into the process it def seems doable.  This past weekend Code went through all of his boxes and kept the essentials, decluttered, we put those in a new container under our bed which really freed up space in that closet.  Code also took a car-load full of trash/goodwill donations etc so we feel like we can breathe in that room now.  I'm seriously so grateful for all of Code's willingness to help-especially now that I can't really move any heavy stuff. 

Some of my goals for the second trimester (I'm 17 weeks) are:

-pick up the basics of the guitar (we own 3 guitars between the two of us and I still can't play anything really.)  It's hard to learn without regular lessons that force accountability/practicing/etc but I'm determined to pick it up and have a list of songs I want to learn.

-start walking regularly-every day whether it's in the morning on a treadmill or after code gets home from work in a nearby neighborhood.

-Finish the front room

-Finish figuring out the accompaniment for a song I've written (ahem a while back and the accompaniment has been intimidating me to where I haven't really sat down to do it yet)

I'm feeling great and am amazed at how much I'm learning about myself already in coping with the ups and downs of pregnancy and am surprisingly grateful for all of it-I know...weird...

Stay tuned cause the next few months will be full of updates: (March- we're seeing the band perry at the houston rodeo!, going to another symphony concert, traveling to KS for our nephew's birthday and other nephew's baby blessing, finding out the gender of little no-name (23rd) and April- we're going for a random weekend trip to San Antonio, Code's birthday, super-duper trip to upperstate new york with the engstroms!!!! and much much more so stay tuned sports fans!

btw, shameless plug for a blog that my husband and some friends have started: notintosports.com for all your random sports needs when you don't REALLY care about sports but still need to know some facts to throw around the office, significant other, etc.

-

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

This is a line from a mormon pioneer hymn that's way popular in our church.  The full hymn goes:

Come, come, ye Saints, no toil nor labor fear;
But with joy wend your way.
Though hard to you this journey may appear,
Grace shall be as your day.
’Tis better far for us to strive
Our useless cares from us to drive;
Do this, and joy your hearts will swell—
All is well! All is well!

There are plenty of other verses that are just as inspiring but I started to think about the words in this hymn especially the fourth line.  The background of this hymn is that it was sort of the motivating anthem that the mormon pioneers sang as they traveled across country over mountainous and wintery terrain with wagons/handcarts.  The rule was if anyone started singing it, you had to join in.  It's a beautiful song.  I guess because I've sung it so much in church it's easy for me to go on auto pilot and not really think about the words.  Is this song beautiful sure, but in my mind it was always a pioneer song singing about physical pioneer- type things that happened in the past.  Now sure, I could see applying the general concept to modern day life too-I mean, life is hard no matter when you live it's kind of the point.  For some reason though, this line stuck out to me the other day as I thought about this hymn.  I had never given this line any attention before and frankly didn't know what it was referring to-all the other lines were far more obvious to me.

Grace shall be as your day.  Now it's not a stretch to believe in the grace of God if you're a Christian.  After we do our part as much as we can, only through the Grace of God are we saved, and it is grace cause technically we can never save ourselves-will never be perfect.  And this line is saying that no matter when or where you live-just as God helped and lifted up the saints in their trials across the plains (and there are miraculous stories) He will help us whereever and whenever we are-there's no difference.  Not only that, but how different are our needs from day to day?  One day I may be feeling great and ontop of the world, the next I could be a hormonal mess in a minor panic worried about some little thing.  It doesn't matter though, however little or much grace I need that day He will give it to me.  The grace never will run out-there will always be enough that we need.  Now THAT is comforting.

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

awww Valentine's Day...I remember the days when I didn't really care about this holiday- and it wasn't cause I was bitter and single, meh, just wasn't really that exciting to me.  I'd prefer to get surprised on a random day when I REALLY wasn't expecting it.  Since marrying the love of my life I'm able to appreciate it as another great opportunity to express my love and appreciation for code so I can deal with it :)  Plus I will always love chick flicks so how bad could it be?

So we, like most married veterans, went out to eat the day before Valentine's Day-not necessarily to beat the rush but because there was a SWEET group-on, yeah it was ridiculously good.  We went to Merche which is just off 290 and huffmeister near the cypress medical center/hospital there.  It was pretty good-itallian/spanish fusion place.  Small, intimate setting-had to have been no more than forty tables etc.  I got this rotissary chicken with a chocolate/chilli sauce.  It was pretty good, but I'm lazy and would have preferred boneless-less work, but still good, and Code got the filet mignon.  I also got my beautiful bouquet when Code came home Monday evening.  I'll admit shopping for me on Valentine's day is hard cause I don't like the whole cliche rose thing...they're way expensive and they're not even my favorite flowers.  However my favorite flower, the daisy-especially gerber daisies, are nigh-impossible to find on V-day, atleast in a big bouquet of them, so he managed to find a bouquet that was more daisies than roses and I love it :)

See the full gallery on Posterous

On Valentine's day morning I woke up to find my kind of chocolates (if I have to go fancy chocolates I prefer See's but I'm kind of See'sed out lately) and a beautiful card that I'll admit got me a little teary-eyed

Then this is what code came home to when he got home from work:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I got these cookies at a local bakery: frosted -off of 529- because they said the cake I was ordering didn't cost enough or something and I had to buy something else...yeah....so whatever I went a long with it.  That was my big surprise for Code-we always talk longingly about our wedding cake on the day of our wedding-how yummy it was and how we weren't able to freeze it since both our parents traveled to be there etc.  So I ordered a replica.  It was so cute and to be honest kind of how I originally envisioned our cake looking-a little more modern and fun.  I gave them a pic of our cake so they had an idea of the color schemes and polka dots etc. and wrote on that pic that I wanted a white cake, with white butter creme frosting and raspberry filling.  I'm pretty sure one of our teirs from the wedding was white with raspberry and we never got to try that one-we had the chocolate teir with raspberry.  So I got the cake was so excited-finally found two gerber daisies to put ontop just like our cake even though they were the wrong color and presented it to cody after dinner:

See the full gallery on Posterous

You can imagine my dissapointment when we cut into it-I was waiting for the bright red strip to show and it was boring vanilla filling....no offense to you plain lovers out there-but why would I want a vanilla cake with vanilla frosting and vanilla filling?! I sent an email to the bakery today-I posted it on facebook so let's hope they take me seriously.  Sometimes I feel like I have to be a 50 year old woman with a temper to get attention in these types of situations.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Afterwards we curled up and watched Return to Me which is just what I needed after a hectic day of running around :) 

But it was a great day and I am just so thankful for cody and his love and support-never questioning or thinking I'm weird for random bouts of emotion etc but just accepting me and loving me through it all.  I am so lucky and am so excited to go to the dr's this friday for our ultrasound and who knows....finding out the gender??? what are ya'll's guesses?  Code says boy and I say girl so we need some tie-breakers :)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

So Code and I have names that we like for both a boy and a girl already, but the other night we thought we should have back ups in case we change our minds etc.  I should have known that it wasn't going to turn into a true brain storming session since we were already in bed and drifting off.  Cody started with Everest-I wasn't sure about that one and suggested Everett (sp?) then he said we should name our kids after mountains like K2.  The conversation took a particularly silly turn when he suggested kilamanjaro.  How could you go wrong with a name like that? the nick names would be great- kil.....kil-a-man.  perfect.  We never regained a serious tone after that one, but if we're particularly feeling cruel or the labor is awful we have a list of ways to get back at the unborn now:

Shustaker

Philemon

Waddily winks

Willow

Ambrosia

So we might be in trouble if we have more than one boy or girl, but for now we're good...at least we had a good giggle fest.  Cody woke up later while I was still tinkering online, giggled, and said: "binkie"  I naturally responded huh? " ya know, like a baby's name"  So we had so much fun he apparently kept it going in his sleep. :)

Permalink | Leave a comment  »