Chillin' turtle

This is Myrtle, our turtle. Don't you wish life was that easy?! But I guess if I had to choose between trying to escape from my glass tank and not living in a glass tank, I'd choose the latter. Poor turtle.

Baby Shower

Diaper cake made by Grandma- so cute



Beverly and Myra, good sports



Whitney-long lost friend re-found!


Blasted bottle game. Next time don't get the slow flow nipples, my mouth ached and none of us got down more than an ounce after 5 minutes. But it was a funny game.



Cute booties! I have them in the freezer now, who knows maybe we'll pull them out for her first birthday.


Mom and Grandma



Love the coat, I seriously want a matching one!


Abby, Jackie Lee and Aika



Loree and Debbie


Amanda, Veronica, Kasia with Amanda's baby

Thanks ladies, it was a lot of fun and you really spoiled us!

our Christmas present 2009

So according to tradition (except that Nate changed it a little by buying moi a painting) we made our annual large December purchse as our joint Christmas present. We knew we wanted a 2nd vehicle and figured made no sense to get another car when we hope to keep expanding our family size. So we opted for a minivan and love it. We got a good deal on a 2007 Toyota Sienna, that came "loaded," as the salesman continued to remind us. What I'm loving especially now is that I don't have to crouch so far down (well not at all really) to get into the van seats, and that the front seats heat up; they're leather so a little chilly in the mornings. Oh and Nate loves having a spoiler! We thought it odd that a minivan came with one. I wasn't a big fan of the fake wood look on the console, but other than that there really isn't anything I don't love about our new van. I want to take it camping and just throw a mattress in the back, since all the seats come out. We'll see, maybe once it starts warming up! We don't drive it to and from work, hoping to save some miles, but it's so hard to choose to drive in our 1997 Accord now, even for short trips. The one dumb part of the whole thing is that we realized we can never fit 2 vehicles (or rather a car and a vehicle larger than a car) in our 2 car garage. Nate did the math (which he is pretty darn good at) and it's basically impossible, even with how well we cleaned up the garage and stacked everything to one side. The problem is the dumb water heater in the garage. Oh well. So, the Accord got demoted to the driveway. We'll have to consider installing one of those things that enables you to start the car from the house so we can cool down the Honda in the summers.

Baby's room

We opted for yellow with green and lots of other colors as accents. After the room was initially painted by Nate and my brother, I was a little unsure of just how bright the yellow was. But every day I love the color more and more, thankfully. I love the bright room. Nate and brothers did a great job with the painting and the border. It's such a happy room and we don't even have a baby in there yet! I got some great help from my friend Loree. I borrowed her creative brain for the afternoon and it was so worth it. Thanks again!







When I saw this quote I couldn't not buy it; it sums up exactly how we feel about this little one we're being blessed with: a miracle.



I decorated this lamp and love it, super easy too



I got this blanket on the wall from a craft show and as soon as I saw it I knew it had to be on the wall, it's gorgeous.

Week 36!

So, we're getting there. This outfit I've been wearing for all of these update pictures is getting quite small by now, but I'm confident it will make it another 4 weeks or so.







This is what my feet/legs look like after working 12 hour shifts. I swear they weren't that large before pregnancy. At least I have a nice pedicure!

week 34

I'm getting jealous of friends/family who have less than my 6 weeks. Everyone keeps saying it will go by so fast, and while theoretically I agree, my aching body doesn't. I was shopping ALL day Saturday and by the time I got home I could barely move. I'm just now starting to move without constant aching. But then I'm back to work Monday and Tuesday. Nate told me today he's looking forward to me getting my normal walking speed back, which is quite fast. All my siblings always tell me (well before pregnancy) "you're walking too fast." Guess I didn't let that mission habit go. Anyways, my tail bone has been super sore the last few days. I'm going back to the chiropractor tomorrow and then I'm sure I'll be there weekly for a while, even after delivery. People keep asking me how long I plan to work. Well, in a perfect world I would've stopped working about a month ago. However since we bought a new vehicle and have student loans to pay off I'm scheduled until Feb. 12. Now whether my body lets me work that long we'll have to see. I'm just going to take it one day at a time and keep popping my Tylenol. I really wish I could take some anti-inflammatories about now.
At least one thing I have to look forward to tomorrow is that I'm getting a pedicure and an eyebrow waxing. That kind of pain is tolerable in my view!

Master the tempest is raging

Don't get scared by the title of the post. Today during sacrament mtg this was the rest hymn (played a little, okay a lot slower, than I usually play it on the piano. I like to play it really fast actually). Fortunately I didn't let the tempo keep me from enjoying the song, lyrics (which I've done that before too). When we got to the chorus the first time I couldn't sing anymore. Once I read the words "no waters can swallow the ship where lies the Master of ocean and earth and skies," the song became full of imagery and meaning to me. For Christmas Nate bought me a large print of this scripture of the Savior calming the storm. I think it is one of my favorite things in our house now.
I started thinking about the words and how it applies to life. I imagined my life as the ship and how if I allow the Master to be in/guide my "ship" then come what may, however horrendous my storms may be, He is in control and will calm them, or me. I looked up the scriptures listed with the hymn and especially appreciated Mark 4: 36-41. It mentions that the waves beat into the ship that the ship was now full and the Master was sleeping. Couple thoughts: why did the apostles wait until the ship was full, why do we wait until we're almost sinking before we "wake up" the Master and seek His help? The other thought is that while the scripture says the Master was sleeping I wonder how asleep He really was. I tend to think not very, but waiting for the disciples to come to Him. The Savior ends the story by asking the disciples why they were so fearful, why they lacked faith. I think He's teaching that if we remember to let Him be in our lives then we don't have any reason to fear, but to exercise faith, knowing that with Him in charge all things will work out for our good, according to His will.
I don't know if this "aha" moment was for preparation of future events or not. I don't feel that I have huge storms in life right now. I certainly don't want to have these terrible storms but I'm grateful to know that even when, not if, they come, there is peace available.

Spring cleaning already!

I decided that last background had way too much pink for me. We're barely going to be using pink in the babies room, I just can't do pink for some reason. Maybe because my bedroom growing up had the brightest 4 walls of pink ever and it still haunts me. We're doing yellow and green in the nursery with some accenting colors. It could almost be a John Deere room!
I was put on call last night which was lovely, and I never had to go in to work. Easiest way of making $36 dollars ever (that's $3/hour for having my phone on and answering it if it rings). So, instead I had Nate drag boxes and boxes of papers, that we've been carting around from town to town, downstairs so that I could finally go through them and chuck them out. I was happy that Nate was also excited to be throwing (okay we'll recycle most of it) away so much unused junk. It's mostly notes from my 10 years of college courses, and a few of his too. My motto is: if we haven't looked at it in over a year, it goes. And that basically includes all of it, so yippee. Nate at one point asked me if some of the papers had useful info and I answered restating my motto. Obviously not useful enough if we haven't opened that box in over a year to find it. Plus with the internet these days it's easier just to google it. Other non useful junk we're tossing: years of instruction manuals to little gadgets we don't use/don't have anymore, 15 yr old anatomy/physiology textbooks, years of Ensign magazines (okay so not junk, but more accessible on the internet), years of checkbook registrars, blah blah blah.
With doing this I just wish that I could find a decent shelving/storage system for what we do need to keep (trust me if we weren't counselled to keep 7 years worth of tax return info, I'd be tossing all of them too). Any suggestions?
Also, i have a ton of Mary Kay stuff if anyone is interested in playing dress up/make up let me know. Well, back to work! Nate works tonight so I will have lots of time to sort :)
I just wish I would've taken a before picture, cuz it won't do any good to have an after shot now. oh well.