Anniversary

 January 30, 2009

Three years ago Jake and I began our lives together, and it has been anything but boring! Jake has so much energy and enthusiasm that I can't get enough of.  The last three years have been so exciting, challenging, fun, and fast-paced.  Here are some of the highlights from year #3:

~Jake got a job at IBM in Iowa. I had to stay in Utah to finish my student teaching (Jan-Mar)

 ~Raised and sold 7 beautiful German Shepherd puppies

~I graduated with my Elementary Education degree

~Jake got a job with NetApp in North Carolina

~Lived in Iowa for about 4 days (we flew there to get Charlie and Jake's other belongings) BRRR!

~Made a trip across the country, and spent a couple of days in Nauvoo

~Lived in a hotel (extended stay) for a month (yummy continental breakfast every day?? Yes.)

~Experienced some tornado weather (one being about 6 miles away from us)

~Experienced some hurricane weather (ok, it didn't really reach us, but we were threatened and prepared for the worst!)

~Settled into our new home in Morrisville NC (not so brrrr!)

~Found out we were pregnant and all of the fun things that come with that!

~Exploring new territory- hiking, fishing, swimming, playing in the rain, trying new foods (such as deep fried pickles), new church callings (Sunday school teachers), new wild life (like the bugs, spiders, frogs, rabbits in yards, shelly the turtle, etc...) new friends, new weather and much, much more!

~Trip to NY with Jake's parents- Niagara, Palmyra and NYC

~2 trips to Utah (having to leave poor Jake behind). 1) reunion, 2) Mignon and Joel's wedding!

~Mignon and Joel visiting for our 1st Christmas away from "home"

Is that all? I must be forgetting something, but I've already blogged about most of it anyway. 

So what, you may ask, did we do for our anniversary? Well let me tell you.

This year we decided to make things simple. I wasn't up for much because of my belly and Jake wasn't up for much because of my belly (and the affect it has on our bank account), so we decided to just have a day (Saturday) to simply be together. And boy howdy, what a day!

We enjoyed the 65 degree sunny weather outdoors with our dogs until about dinner time. We then sat down to a nice, warm home-cooked meal from Cracker Barrel.

We were going to go to a movie, but decided to go to target and buy some games and things to do at home. 

Jake finally got his Airhogs helicopter.  He has been eying it for so long that I decided to make it an anniversary present. He and Charlie have a lot of fun with it!

 Here is the pile of random purchases from Target. I wanted Cold Stone, but we would have had to drive far to get it, so I settled for a little chocolate cake...

We had so much fun just being spontaneous together. It's what we do best. It was so nice not to have plans or gifts to stress over. Thanks Jake, for a fun anniversary and three great years full of memories!

Latest project

 A little bit of felt goes a long way so I went a little crazy with these felt flower hair clips. These are super easy, too. Not even I could mess them up. I didn't even use half of my felt (I spent like $4 on a bunch of different colors) and I already have 7 fun combinations. I am really excited to have a little girl but if she is anything like her mother, she wont have hair for the first few years of her life... The plan is to buy a nice little headband so I can switch out the clips. There are a bunch of tutorials and for some reason I can't find the one I used, but here is one that pretty much explains it. Its just like rolling up little sleeping bags.. Anyway, I love this project because there is so much more you can do than just hair clips (the tutorial I posted put them on a wreath).

 I wanted clusters, so I cut out a green piece of felt (leaf-shaped) and cut a little slit where I wanted the top of the alligator clip to come through (this way the glue wont get stuck or clump and all). I then glued my flowers to the green felt (and, consequently, the top of the alligator clip). I didn't like the green visible all the way around, so I trimmed around the bottom and left a leaf or two to cover the silver clip.  I really hope that made sense. I guess it would help if I had a picture... oh well.

And just a little something to make you smile.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go get my child out of my ribs.

Baby Update

(28 weeks)

I am in my third trimester! It is amazing how fast, yet slow this has gone by.  Here are a few updates:

It still catches me off guard when random people at the store come ask me "when my big day is." It takes me a minute to figure out what they are talking about; I'm not used to strangers trying to talk to me. I love how much everyone loves to talk about pregnancy. It's nice to be "obviously" pregnant (as opposed to just looking chubby), however, I get some interesting looks from people and I can only assume it's because they think I am 15.  To these people I try to make sure my ring is visible but I don't know how much better that makes them feel. 24, married and pregnant may as well be 15 around here anyway.

I passed my gestational diabetes test (yahoo)!

So far I have gained 22 pounds and I am feeling it. It's amazing how the extra weight affects you. I have had back and muscle aches because of it, so I decided to do something about it. I found a yoga video for pregnant women on Netflix. Jake wanted to do it with me and ended up getting really into it, so it has become part of our daily routine.

My belly button is disappearing. 

This little one is still a CRAZY mover.  We love to just sit and watch my belly morph and dance (I'm pretty sure she does this for hours at a time... Does this child ever sleep?).

She has recently discovered how to nudge her way to my ribs.  She likes to hang out on the right side. Ouch. Somehow she will be up in my ribs and still manage to kick my bladder. Double ouch.

We have some names we are tossing around, but haven't decided on one for sure yet. Even if we had, we wouldn't tell you! Jake is dying to choose a name so he can start using it, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I jut haven't found that perfect name... We've still got time.

My doctors/hospital are very supportive of natural births. I have decided to try not to have any medication and just let my body do its thing.  DON'T worry, it will all be available if I need it or if I just wimp out. 

Well I think that's about it for now. Happy New Year!

A Very Merry Christmas!

Here we were thinking we would be spending Christmas alone this year, being so far from family.  Mignon and Joel just moved to Connecticut (which is ONLY about a 10 hr drive from us).  Since they are on the same side of the country as us it seems so close. They drove down Friday to spend Christmas weekend with us. We are so glad they made the drive- we had so much fun and it was well worth it for us... We ended up creating a perfect blend of traditions that we had each grown up with.

Saturday Morning we had a big Christmas Eve breakfast. After breakfast we went out do to some last minute shopping for each other.

Mignon and I got a kick out of Jake's legs swinging around as he was sitting on the car singing Christmas songs for all to hear as he watched for Joel to come out of the store.

We came home, wrapped presents, made gingerbread houses and watched some Christmas movies. To make it feel a little more like home, we watched Scrooge (the old musical). We have watched this every Christmas Eve since I can remember at my parents' house. I decided it's kind of like reading the Book of Mormon... you notice something new every time you watch it, so it never gets old.

We opened our pj's (one of Jake's family traditions). I don't think I will ever take these off. SO comfortable.

And we tried to get some sleep so Santa would have plenty of time to make his entrance.

The next morning we woke up to a room full of presents! We must have been really good this year, because it was an impressive amount for 4 adults.

But, just like at home, we couldn't touch anything until we had breakfast, brushed our teeth, and got ready for the day... oh yeah, and went to church (Jake was dying- I can't wait to torture my kids like my parents did!).  After church we dove in.

Jake and I opening super cute onsies from Mignon and Joel.

I have been wanting a really nice picture of the temple for our home. Mckay took/edited this picture of the SLC Temple and Jake got it printed and framed for me. It's so beautiful!

Thanks for those who sent us gifts, too! Caleb and Hayley had us this year and gave us just what we wanted! A beautiful homemade blanket.

Our Christmas mess. A success.

Making lunch (Jake was playing with our brand new camera all day!).

One of the things Jake asked for this year was a Nerf gun.  Apparently at work they have Nerf wars when it's slow.. and even when it's not.  He wanted one for me, too so we could play with them, but I decided to spend the rest of my Christmas money on other things.

However, Joel had the brilliant idea to buy all of us Nerf guns to share one of his family traditions: Family Nerf wars.  This is was probably my favorite memory we created this year, and Jake and I will definitely be making this a tradition for our family.  I'm so glad we both married nerds!

We were sad to see them leave the next morning but we were so glad they made the trip down! Hopefully we have convinced them to move down here, or at least come visit again soon! Thanks Mignon and Joel for making this year so memorable!

Happy New Year everyone!

24 weeks??

I decided I need to be better at recording changes, feelings, and progress throughout my pregnancy, more for my use than anything else. 

Ok, so I'm getting HUGE.

 This is me at 23 weeks (last week).

 

I feel like I have grown a LOT in the last couple of weeks especially.  Jake and I look at my beginning pictures and laugh because of how tiny I was.  At the time we thought I was so big!

So our little lady continues to be a real mover. I love it. She especially likes to kick when I am trying to sleep. There have been a few times when she wakes me up because she is kicking so hard. She also seems to like it when I hum or sing. Or maybe she doesn't like it and that's why she kicks and punches... 

She likes to tease Daddy. Every time I call Jake over to see/feel her moving she stops. Once he gives up, she gets right back to the boxing match with my insides. 

Yesterday I had the computer on my lap, resting slightly on my belly. The little lady kicked it right out of her space. The computer slid off onto my lap.

At this point, my symptoms are: fatigue (if I lay down for a nap I WILL NOT wake up for at least three hours... I try not to take naps), my back often hurts and I get heart burn. I feel a little sick once in a while but not too bad! I toss and turn a lot at nights because my legs cramp up or fall asleep, but for the most part I sleep really well still. Overall I have had it pretty good for the last month or so!!

Once upon a time my sister Mardee and her husband Spencer warned me about sneezing when pregnant. The next day I learned from experience that they weren't kidding when they told me it could make me pee my pants.  It just came right out. It hasn't happened since, but I'm always living in fear now.

The next day my sister-in-law Hayley told me about the horrible charlie horses she wakes up with in the night. I had experienced little ones, but that night I woke up screaming in agony from a dang charlie horse.. That hasn't happened since either. No more horror pregnancy stories for me, thank you.

Our crib/dresser/changing table set arrived today! And yesterday our stroller/car seat came (Thanks Mom O and Grandma H for helping us out with that!).  We are getting really weirded out, and really excited! I can't believe how fast time is going by.. We only have a few more months to prepare for parenthood! Ready or not, here it comes.

Jake took me on a date last weekend- we went to pick out a real Christmas tree and decorations! I don't ever remember having a real Christmas tree, so this is really fun for me! We blasted the Christmas music (wouldn't be the holidays without a little Mariah Carey) and put up our decorations. These pictures don't do our tree justice (it looks so tiny to my huge body.. it's bigger than it looks there). Plus we don't have an "after" picture taken yet. I'll get on that.

Things are busy around here as we prepare for Christmas. Pretty sure we have copped out every year on gifts not only for each other but friends/neighbors, too. This year I've got big (still inexpensive) plans. I love this time of year. We are excited to have Mignon and Joel come to our house for Christmas! It will be a great opportunity for Jake to practice being Santa.

 Poor Dixie, all drugged up from her long-time-coming surgery (finally spayed!). She may never forgive us.

Weddings, Thanksgiving, and Babies, Oh My

Poor Jake got left home again while I went off to Utah.  I thought for sure he would surprise us all and come for a few days, but that dang job of his just wouldn't allow it. I am thankful for the sacrifices he made so I could be at my sister's wedding and have an enjoyable trip.

Sadly, my pregnant brain took over while I was in Utah, and I would use my camera, set it down, not find it for a couple of days, use it again, and lose it again. There was SO much going on the whole time I was there and I am very sad I didn't capture it all.  Anyway, here are some things I did capture:

My parents cleaned out the garage and turned it into a multipurpose room. My dad cut a big piece of carpet that he can lay out when we need more space to play, and roll up when we all leave.  Brilliant, Dad.

This room was used for many things:

 Running, playing cars, balls, games, riding bikes, and tea parties.....

 ...jumping, playing ping pong, foosball eating turkey, karaoke, dance parties...

 ....and watching movies on the big screen.  The multipurpose room really had one purpose: keep the kids busy while the moms worked. Mission accomplished. 

(Below: all of the nieces that had been born at that point- one more has come since. Our boy, Zavian, who is so adored and loved by all his girls, is also missing in this photo.)

Here is me with my sister-in-law Karalyn (Mckay's wife) at Mignon's luncheon/reception. I was at 22 weeks, and Karalyn was about to walk out the door to the hospital and be induced. Busy day for her!

Here we are compared to skinny Mardee (who is not pregnant.. that I know of).

Our happy new couple, Joel and Mignon Deehr!

So that might seem like a lot, but I didn't have my camera for half of the fun. Here is a quick run down of the festivities:

-Bridal shower for Mignon where I got to see a lot family and of course my wonderful cousins.
-My sisters threw me a baby shower at brick oven- thanks again for all of the gifts, advice and love!
-Baby shower for my sister-in-law, Hayley (Caleb's wife).  She has her baby in about a month- well anytime now really. It was fun to see Jake's side of the family!
-Thanksgiving Day- I spent the morning being slow and sick, trying to make yams (thanks Spencer for helping me!) and then took off to Mimi's house to spend more time with Jake's side.  It was so fun to see everyone, and it was a special treat to have Mimi escape from her physical therapy prison for the day!  :)
-The day after Thanksgiving was more wedding prep- busy busy busy!
-The wedding, luncheon and reception- such a beautiful and fun day. I'm so happy to for Mignon and Joel!
-After the luncheon, Karalyn and Mckay took off to the hospital to be induced.  Baby Jensie didn't come until 1:45 am Sunday, so we went to meet her the next day! She is a beautiful and healthy baby and will be a fun cousin for our little girl! When they brought her home the next day I ran to their house to get something, not wanting to intrude for too long... Zavian started running in place, grabbed my hand and pulled me in to see Baby Sister. He was so cute with her and is already a protective big brother. I'm so happy for this wonderful family.
-Dinner with my good friends from my ELED cohort (Cami, Nicole and Caitlyn).  It was SO good to see them! I got to meet Caitlyn and Nicole's babies and hear about Cami's experiences as a teacher!

There were so many wonderful celebrations and reunions these last couple of weeks. Between all of the excitement I had family members taking very good care of me while Jake couldn't be there. Thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, comfortable and enjoyable! I apologize that I wasn't my most energetic self... All of the excitement wore me out!

It was a memorable and fun trip, but I missed my husband.  I am so happy to be home with him again.


PS to my side of the family-- There are more pictures that I will upload to facebook for you.

Oh boy, it's a GIRL!

Here she is, our sweet little lady. What an incredible experience to see her. I need to get me one of those ultrasound machines... I wish I could just watch her all day. Of course, she was tossing and turning through the whole thing. 

I am so excited to be having a girl! We would be so ecstatic either way, it's just a relief to know! Not to mention it makes this all seem so much more real.  Of course, she already has Jake wrapped around her tiny little fingers. We celebrated by buying a set of onsies and matching pants (which daddy picked out). We are so happy to have a healthy little baby and we just cannot wait to hold her!