Holiday Bliss

Had a fantastic Christmas, and New Years. I LOVED seeing my parents and the rest of my family for a little over a week, it was AWESOME!

Some of the highlights:

-I gave my students each a stocking filled with treasures like crayons and fancy erasers...um, it was magical when they received them, then I told them I was going to have a baby, also magical moment to share with them

-Seeing lights at temple Square and then getting to see the production "Savior of the World" with my family

-Having the best ever Christmas Sacrament meeting in our Ward

-Shopping with family

-eating awesome food!

-Playing endless rockband

-watching my parents play rockband! They totally rocked it, especially the Beatles Rockband!

-Having a hot-wheels race-off tournament in Ben's basement! It was totally legit, and awesome, the granny mobile slaughtered everyone!

-Eating GF pizza at Pirate Island (and seeing Darren and Jill Jolley at Pirate Island!)

-Watching Dylan win 1000 tickets at the arcade at Pirate Island

-Roller Skating at Classic Skating till my feet almost fell off! (A family friend totally rented out the entire rink for the evening! It was SO cool!!!)

-Watching movies with family

-Telling the kids some random crazy stories to help them get to sleep...they had a sleepover under the tree...magical!

-Cooking in the kitchen with my mom and sisters

-Having the Nativity play...I was Mary...you know...with child and all :)

-Opening Jammies and sleeping extra cozy in my new jammies on Christmas Eve

-Watching family videos of days long gone by (Dad put some of our family videos onto DVD!!! Best gift ever!)

-Opening gifts with the kids, awesome!

-Giving John some debonaire items...a new watch, a white shirt with french cuffs and cufflinks, and some dazzling shoes to go with

-getting a NEW CAMERA!!!!!! It. is. awesome. I just wish I knew how to use it already!!!

-Playing games like Rook, Jenga, Catch Phrase, "I'm a tree", Clue Spy, BLINK, speed, And I can't even remember the rest!

-Sledding...watching everyone else sledding! :) I did a little bit, but it was a little too bumpy for my liking and my fragile condition :)

-Shopping the day after Christmas and scoring some stellar deals!

-Eating more and more amazing food!

-A trip to the insta care...no fun

-being spoiled with backrubs by mom

-enjoying having so much family together...I might have cried when they left...I'm emotional...I'm pregnant...can't even help it!

And because no post is complete without a little eye candy, Dad took family portraits with his fancy pants equipment, love how they all turned out! So talented Dad!

Starting to show...

ps, my hair looks so long in that pic, Steph just cut it on Monday, I love it, but I don't have any pics yet :)

Say WHAT????

I can't hold it in anymore!

I'M PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew! I found out like the day before Halloween, and today is the day I get to announce to the whole world (yes you who read my blog comprise my whole world ;) that John and I are expecting our first BABY!!!! I am beyond thrilled! John is too :)

Okay where to begin, I am 11 weeks along. My due date is July first, though at my first appointment which was today, the baby was measuring big, so he said it would be due June 26, but then he said, let's just keep the due date at July 1, and then if it comes early we'll be thrilled :) Okay :)

Next, I have been feeling yucky But not like nauseous, more like more congestion than you would believe, I am the queen of kleenex!

Also, I have been craving fruit, anything really sweet and juicy, especially citrus.

What else, We get to find out the gender of the baby in 9 more weeks,a dn yes we will be finding out. John wants to wait, I canNOT wait. He doesn't get it. I said FOR ONE, I want to know so I can craft the heck out of myself before the baby is born and I need to know the sex of the kid. John said I could craft gender neutral stuff. I could. ANd some things I will, things I intend to use for all of our children, BUT if I am having a boy, I want things to be green and blue and brown and boyish, and if we're having a girl, I want everything to be super girly!

John wants a boy first, he says everyone needs a big brother. Me? I'll be happy if it's healthy, I honestly don't have a preference, I'm just SO beyond excited!!!

So I had my first appointment today! That's why I waited till now to announce the pregnancy, I wanted to for sure be through the miscarriage stage, and I wanted to have a due date.

I love my doctor! he's funny and made me feel like even though he see's expectant mom's all day long, that he was genuinely excited for us, he took time to get to know us and our background and stuff. Just a great doc. SO I had read that I would get to hear the baby's heartbeat at the first appointment which I was STOKED for, but then he said we would do an ULTRASOUND!!! I got to see my baby moving around,see it's heart beating like crazy, it was magical! It looks like an alien gummi-bear kinda, but still so cute and absolutely AMAZING!!! It was so cool to see the little peanut inside of me, moving and BEING!!! AHHH! SO COOL!!

I have pictures, they're really blurry and hard to define, but really cute/cool nonetheless, but our scanner won't work for me! BAH! I'll figure something out so you can ooh and aaaah over my little gummi bear :)

So excited. Did I say that already? YAY BABIES!!!

Turkey, Sick, Cuteness

Love Thanksgiving! We braved the LONG road to Sidney Nebraska to visit Jenni, Justin, and there babes. The drive was crummy, the roads were great, but we drove from 12 am to 8 am, my part was the 3:30 to 6 am part, and I am so sicky yucky congested head cold yucky sick! Anyway, enough about that part, when we got there we took it easy and enjoyed family!!!

Amelia is. so. funny.
When we got there I looked down the hallway and saw her there in her jammies and binky, and I put my arms out and she jumped into my arms ans snuggled with me till I had to give John a turn cause I had to go potty ;) She has so much personality! She is so much fun. She is a happy kid, and so fun to play with! She was constantly cracking us up!!! Justin is always telling her to "keep your pants on" when she starts to freak out about something....well he was telling her to do something she wasn't wanting to do, and she pipes up with a "oh, keep your pants on Dad!" It was so funny! Another time, she overheard me on the phone say "you've got to be kidding me" ( I was upset) well later that day, I hear her exclaiming "you gotta be KIDDING ME!" in frustration at something. Ah, love it, so impressionable! :)
(Don't you LOVE these pics of the kids?! Jenni is SO talented, these are my two faves that she took this weekend:) She takes them all at her house, in her yard, you know wherever inspiration tickles her fancy, she is SO talented! I am always in AWE!!!)
okay next. Phillip. is. so. adorable. Ahhh, a perfect baby! He is so happy, chatty, SMILEY, and CUTE!!! We enjoyed so much snuggle time, and coo-ing and chatting and cuteness. He is so delicious, I can't even take it. He was blessed on Sunday so we were able to stay on Sunday for the first hour of church. Jenny wrote more about it on her blog, but it was a beautiful blessing and it was so great to be a part of it.

While we were in Nebraska, we visited Chimney Rock, and Cabela's :) Cabela's is the ultimate outdoor store, not to mention the very life of the small Nebraska town. We played games, ate good food, I slept quite a bit as long as I could breathe! (More congestion, YUCK, I'm sure you're all glad to hear about that! )

Anyway, we had a GREAT time, and we are so thankful for good family and friends and also for good food! :)

Now BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS!!!

Bravo Broadway

So, I heard about this show on the Radio, Broadway songs, sung by Broadway STARS, with the Utah Symphony...I think, tickets wil be too expensive. I look it up. They have STELLAR student deals. No more tickets though, except for RUSH tickets the night of. We think, ah, what the heck, lets give it a shot. Literally the LAST pair of tickets before the show SOLD OUT tonight. let me just say, I had the best time. I was grinning ear to ear the entire time! There was the Utah Symphony, which totally rocks, i sometimes forget how thrilling live music is. THEN oh have you ever heard of the musical WICKED? Hmmm, well the STAR who plays Elpheba was one of three performers, I'm talking she has played Elpheba since the show began! STELLAR! AND another lady who won a TONY award for some performances (Don't remember, but she was amazing) and then a guy who plays RAUL in the Phantom. Oh. bless my soul. I am on a high right now. The whole time i was thinking, MAN I wish all my family and friends could share this with me! This is a shout out to local performing arts, take advantage of what you can wherever you live!!! Just so you know what songs we experienced, here's the play list. And we were in ROW 1. (Couldn't see the whole symphony, but were right up close and personal, could see the sweat on their faces close!)
Frederick Loewe My Fair Lady Medley from My Fair Lady
Charles Strouse “Applause” from Applause
Irving Berlin “Mr. Monotony” from Easter Parade
Charles Strouse “Put On A Happy Face’ from Bye Bye Birdie
Meredith Willson “‘Till There Was You” from The Music Man
Richard Adler “Heart” from Damn Yankees Stephen Sondheim “Comedy Tonight” from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Leonard Bernstein “Maria” from West Side Story
Robert Wright/ George Forrest “Stranger in Paradise” from Kismet
Richard Rodgers “I Enjoy Being A Girl” from Flower Drum Song
Meredith Willson “76 Trombones” from The Music Man

INTERMISSION

John Kander Overture/”All That Jazz” from Chicago
Alan Menken “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid
Claude Michel Schoenberg “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables
Björn Ulvaeus/Benny Andersson “Mamma Mia” from Mamma Mia
Stephen Schwartz “For Good” from Wicked
Stephen Schwartz “The Wizard and I” from Wicked
Andrew Lloyd Webber “Memory” from Cats
Andrew Lloyd Webber “All I Ask of You” from Phantom of the Opera

Andrew Lloyd Webber “Music of the Night” from Phantom of the Opera

Oh, I don't even have a favorite, although I did cry during "Bring him home" of course i loved the Wicked songs, and I really LOVED the little mermaid song, so so magical.

So, you should all take advantage of local performing arts. You won't regret it!!!

late but still good :)

Sharing some Halloween goodness. Loved it. like I said last post. It rocked. I'm late because I had to wait for some picture sharing, and also, I am lazy. Doh.

William was a Paleontologist...he has wanted to be a Paleontologist since he could talk. Too cute.
Random order, this was carving pumpkins on the floor the weekend before halloween :)
My little tootle bug, she is Fancy Nancy, if you don't know who Fancy Nancy is, look it up, you won't regret it! :)
Profile of my Captain Hook, so dashing!
All the Ladies
And another girlie pic :) I Love lilies shades, and Kristen and Kaci's matcher costumes:)
At the red barn, yummy ice cream and donuts!
This was our "Carnival" lots of "games" like toss this into this, YAY you get a prize! It was really fun, and we had a dance party too!
Jacob was Buzz Lightyear, and Seth was Storm Shadow ( I think...) WE all had so much fun together! We made super yummy spooky finger foods for dinner. I have to show off John's Capt'n Hook costume. I should have taken detailed pics of each part, especially the shoes with the fancy buckles :) His wig was a bit of a last minute gamble, he ended up looking a bit like Dartanion from the three musketeers, still so handsome either way. he refused to wear a mustache though...

He knows I LOVE it when he doesn't smile for pictures...(Grrrr...his excuse was, Captain hook isn't happy!) Whatev! And Jana is dressed up as a SASSY soldier girl.
And some pics of our costumes and lovely porch display. It's taken down now though, getting ready for something cute and Christmassy! (No I didn't forget about Thanksgiving...I just didn't get my act together!)

Princess Halloween

Okay first of all, this was the BEST Halloween of my life I think. It was so fun to get ready for it, make John the most stellar costume that ever existed, make some crafts at school with my class etc etc etc. One of the FUNNEST parts was the darlings that I work with, my third grade team all decided to coordinate our costumes at school. Brooke already had a Snow White costume she was cooking up, and you all know I have a SAWEEET Cinderella costume that I can still fit into (From my Senior Prom SEVEN YEARS AGO!!!) And Sarah decided to be Belle. What an event. On Thursday (No school Friday, short CRAZY day Thursday) it was spectacular. The best part was walking through the costume parade, and seeing the little girls in Kindergarten and first grade gasp, and ooh, and aahhh at our costumes. We might as well have been at Disneyland signing autographs. I am NOT exaggerating when I say there were TWO little girls with tears in their eyes "Oh. My. Gosh, you are my FAVORITE princess!!!" It was SO fun! And the parents come watch the parade of costumes in the gym, and bring their preschoolers..oh man, THOSE little girls were so fun too!!! Anyway, after school we went to eat at Cafe Rio, since it was short day, and none of us brought clothes to change into...it was awesome. A guy in line begged us for a picture with him on his iphone, and he quickly emailed it to who knows how many people :) There were little girls all over the restaurant coming up for a hug, or waving in awe. I felt like a movie/rock star. Also the cutest little boy with down syndrome came up and held my hand and we talked to him for awhile, he didn't so much talk as he did smile. SO MUCH FUN! I think it would be so fun to work at Disneyland, everyone loves you! So, naturally we had a photoshoot...actually the manager of Cafe Rio came over to us and asked if we wanted some pictures taken, move the tables and chairs, stop traffic, basically whatever we wanted. What a blast. Anyway, so we rocked the photoshoot on Thursday...ENJOY!














And as a farewell shot, this is the fam at our Halloween Carnival Extravaganza! More details and pics to come!

Home Improvement and festivity!!!

Hmmm...I've always liked halloween, but never really got super into it. Well I've been on this crazy crafty-decoraty-repurposing-thrifting- kick the past few weeks. I'm a spray painting NUT, I have been sewing really really fun things, trying out some new skills, expanding my horizons if you will, and I have been having a blast!!! And doing some general decorating too :)
Mom, as promised here are pictures of what I've been working on, and believe it or not, this certainly isn't all, I have much more to blog about, but this will do for now :) ENJOY!
Made this peice of Yo-yo's to match a quilt I am making for the living room, I just learned how to "Stipple" that's the pretty design on the white part of the fabric :)
Learning, learning learning, I LOVE the look of this stuff! I was just dorkin around with some scraps and made this festive little wall hanging piece, I have a thing for owls right now....


Put the huge mirror up...

My favorite peices, these vases! Got them at COstco, I am obsessed, I just like to look at them, John let me get them for our anniversary...or something :)
The speakers on the left and right used to be ugly gray, they really stuck out, so I painted them covered them in fabric and now they don't look so gross :)...ooh also the candles on the right are from DI, they have a gold leaf on each of them, PRETTY!
A work in progress, still picking out some pictures to go in these frames, but I love the collage look, any picture suggestions??
I LOVE this picture of The Savior, John and I got the print for our house soon after we were married but we never framed it or anything, I finally bought a frame at the DI, painted the mat brown adn the inner mat gold, and the frame dark brown, I LOVE how it turned out!
Thrifted the vase, it's really pretty, you can't really tell in this sideways sad pic...but I wanted this tall grassy grainy stuff at the craft store, but I couldn't bring myself to spend 10 buck for weeds. So I made John help me cut some on the side of the freeway (Adorable mental pic right???) when we went to Logan for our anniversary {more on that later}...annyway, I love how it turned out, with my 1.00 vase and free ninety nine grass :)

Finally put up some decor, perfect spot for keys, mail etc...Another sideways pic, but I just painted the basket thing, covering a lovely rooster...and stuck in some fall foliage:)
Haven't quite decided what to do on top of the table...

I thrifted this table, painted it black, thrifted the bushels, grew the pumpkins and squash, and made the boo banner out of scraps of thrifted wool blazers! Broom from the dollar store :)
Got these frames at DI fro under a buck each, painted them all black with spray paint, and downloaded some vintage halloween art, printed it out, and tadaaaaa! Also the mirror in the bck is a DI find too! Can you tell I LOVE the DI??? Click to enlarge this picture so you can see all the prints up close, they are ALL my favorite :)
I made this adorable tree out of a stick (I have been eyeing these babies at the craft stores you know, they're like 20 bucks and you cna put different ornament-ish things for each season etc) I found in my backyard, painted it brownish black, stuck it in a can and voila! I made the candy corns and steamer.banner out of felt, LOVE IT! and it only took me like 30 minutes from start to finish!
Got the clock on clearance, the candlestick for .75 at DI, the candle for .50 at DI, and the candy dish is from my BFF AMY from my bridal shower :) Love you!
POTION BOTTLES! I had originally planned to label these with some creepy clipart potion labels, but I like how they look together like this, got them all at the DI! I love the colored glass! The purple one is hiding in the back, but the shape is SO cool!
Got the little owlies at the DI too, used some old looking books, and stuck in a vintage picture of a cat and pumpkin into this painted DI frame. Cute no?
Bah, I can't figure out how to rotate these pics, sorry! This is the display when you walk in the front door :)