Back to the Grind after a Nice Break!

Curt and I were blessed to spend a week at our WA homes this past week. It was so much fun! I hadn't been home since June and we were both ready for a vacay! I had to work Christmas Eve (a night of heck I might add), which made the thought of 9 days off work so much sweeter! Christmas Day was fun, even though I slept half of it. Since I worked the night shift, I was exhausted as always when I got home. I tried staying up for a little bit because Curt was awake and full of energy. But I didn't make it very long and went to bed. Curt woke me up with a delicious Quieche breakfast which I ate while half asleep, but I was awake enough to know it was delish! I went back to sleep for a while longer and finally woke up to see what 'Santa' brought. Curt was dying waiting for me to wake up b/c he couldn't wait for me to open my presents. Curt got a lantern for when we go camping (someday), a CD, movies, and Mario's Winter Olympics for the Wii. He got me a sweet sewing machine! (And the cutest part was how excited he was to use it!) I'm excited to start a new hobby! He also got me a Joann's gift card so I can buy material to make projects. It's going to be fun! We had fun spending the afternoon together and had a delicious Christmas dinner with ham and scalloped potatoes. It was different spending Christmas with just the two of us but in a good way! That night, my family 3-way called me and I was able to talk to and listen to everyone else talk to my brother, Tyler, who is on a mission in Guatemala. I love hearing his giggle and his energy. I miss him!

We flew out to Spokane the next morning. My family is so nice and waited to celebrate Christmas until we got there. We had Christmas Eve the 26th, complete with acting out the birth of Jesus, everyone sharing "talents" (i.e. we don't have any!), singing off tune, playing fun games and eating good food! Christmas morning was fun (especially w/ Cooper and Sadie) and we enjoyed playing with our new presents. My favorite present was a food processor that I'm excited to use and Curt got a nice watch, among other gifts. I love being together with my family and we always have so much fun! I couldn't get enough of Cooper and Sadie! They are absolutely adorable! I am seriously baby hungry, which is a good thing since we have one on the way!

Since we had Christmas on the 27th, we celebrated my b-day on the 29th. Usually I don't let anyone forget my birthday and am constantly reminding them, I really wasn't excited for it this year. Let's just say 23 sounds so old..and even my body feels older! (Which I think is more attributed to pregnancy..at least I hope!) We went out to ice cream that night and ate too much as always.

New Years we went to a Stake Dance that my dad helped with for his calling. Curt and I danced like the good ol' days which was fun. Then we played some games, rang in the New Year and took my mom home since she was tired. We lit off some fireworks at home, and then it was time to sleep. Late nights are harder for us these days..man we're getting old!

The rest of the break was spent playing games, eating, a little sleeping, playing with nieces/nephews, watching football and movies, and just enjoying being with family. The week went by way too fast as it always does, but we loved it all! It was nice to spend time with Curt when he wasn't occupied with school and I wasn't busy with work. I could get used to that..but I won't since he has 3 more years of school ahead!

We drove back with Trent, his fiance, Sam, and Troy..a full car!We spend the night in Montana with my aunt and uncle who are always so good to us! We had fun chatting with them, and as always, they sent us off with a good breakfast! The drive was uneventful (as we hoped), even if I might have had to stop a couple extra times due to something sitting on my bladder, but we made it home nonetheless! (And the boys were surprisingly patient!)

So now we are home, trying to get back in our routine! Alyssa and Spencer are in Utah w/ Spencer's family so they are going to come down to Provo to visit us a couple days this week so I'm looking forward to that! That's all for now (It always ends up longer than I want it to be..but it's so much easier to type than to write all these details in my journal!)

Oh Baby!

We had an OB appt on Monday and it was so fun to hear our little baby's heartbeart again! I measured right on track @ 17cm @ 17 weeks! The Dr. found the heartbeat as soon as he put the monitor on me. 140 BPM! (It's a girl right?!) We set up our next appt which happens to be one that we are counting down the days for! On January 12th, we get to find out whether it'll be a boy or girl, blue or pink, Austin or Brooklyn, I think the ultrasound will make it feel a lot more real becuase right now, I mostly just feel fatter and more tired! So, put in your guesses because that's only..dun dun dun..3 weeks away!!

Why does Christmas have to come so fast??

Those who know me know how much I love Christmas. So much so that I start listening to Christmas music on September 1st hoping to make the Christmas season last longer. But no matter when I start listening to Christmas music, no matter how soon I put up my decorations, somehow Christmas always comes too fast. I always start to get sad about this time every year when I realize that Christmas is almost here and will soon be over. I'm pretty sure I was born a couple days after Christmas so the let down wouldn't be quite as hard :) This Christmas will especially be interesting because Curt and I aren't going home to WA until the day after Christmas since I work Christmas Eve. With only 8 days left till Christmas here is a list of things we've done and things we still have left to do. (I think this post has the word Christmas like a hundred times!)

Done:

-Decorated the house (including a stocking hung for our baby)

-Festival of Trees

-Nativity Display

-Slaved away in the kitchen for 2 days to make and then deliver Christmas Candy trays

-Shopped for Curtis

Still to do:

-Gingerbread Houses

-Christmas Light Looking

-Watch movies (The Grinch, It's A Wonderful Life, Christmas Vacation....and the list goes on)

-Shop for everyone else

-Catch up on our nightly stories that started Dec 1st (just a few behind)

It looks like the next one will be a busy one filling in all my not working time with Christmas activities! Hope everyone is excited for Christmas! Now if I only I could come up with a way to slow down time...

Live Each Day to the Fullest

Last week, my cousin passed away at the age of 34. This is part of his obituary:

Justin Bevin Crowther
(October 26, 1975 - November 24, 2009)

“Grizz”

"After a courageous battle with colon cancer, our beloved husband, father, son and brother was taken much too soon at the age of 34, he returned to the loving arms of His Heavenly Father on November 24, 2009.

He was born October 26, 1975 in Salt Lake City. He graduated from Jordan High School in 1994. He served in the Indianapolis, Indiana LDS mission from 1994 to 1996. He worked at UPS, a job he loved, for 13 years. He married the love of his life Kirsten Wheelwright on September 24, 2003 in the Manti Temple. Because of his amazing spirit he was loved and respected by all who knew him."

-His funeral on Saturday was one of peace and comfort. Again I was reminded of the importance of living in the moment and expressing gratitude for my knowledge of the plan of salvation. My uncle said something in his talk I will always remember. He said the only different between a death that is bitter and one that is sweet is knowledge. I'm grateful for the example that Justin set and that he is fulfilling his calling as a missionary on the other side of the veil helping people to gain that knowledge. He will be greatly missed by many.

Finding Out

It's been a while since I've posted. I'm not the best at keeping up with what's going on. Pregnancy is probably the most exciting thing in our lives right now. I haven't written much about it so here goes!

We took a pregnancy test on Monday (Sep 14) thinking that it was a possibility I was pregnant. I was having really bad cramping (worse than I had ever had before) and just wasn't feeling that great. We were disappointed that it was negative. For the next week I continued to feel crampy and crappy, and still no period but I was hesistant to take another test because I didn't want to be disappointed again. We decided on Sunday night that I would take it in the morning. Well I got a call from my work @ 4:30am telling me that I would be on call that day. So I figured I might as well do it then. Of course Curt didn't want to miss out so he woke up bright and early. Almost instantly the line appeared..Positive! We were so excited!! Curt was so cute and went and grabbed the laptop to look up stuff like when the baby would be due, it's development, etc! We were dying to tell our immediate families..but it was 3:30am their time so we decided to wait till a bit later. It was probably the happiest I've ever been in the morning!

So happy bright and early!

So far, the pregnancy has been pretty good. I really can't complain. I was nauseous and threw up occasionally in the first trimester, but wasn't nearly as sick as some people get! I was able to work fine (yes, with a lot more gagging at certain smells, but didn't throw up at work!) I still can't brush my teeth very long at night due to my overactive gag reflex, but hopefully that will go away sometime!

Right now I'm 15 weeks along and we are just waiting for 20 weeks so we can find out what 'it' is! We should find out at the beginning of January, which will come fast since December always flies. We are excited to know if we will have Brooklyn Rose or Austin J joining our family!

Halloween (Late as usual!)

We started off our Halloween fun by carving Skully. Since neither of us is artsy, we used a pattern and thought he turned out pretty cool!

An annual tradition, we celebrated with a Jack-o-Lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's. We spent Halloween day having a movie marathon! I slept during Monsters vs. Aliens and Transformers 2, and actually stayed awake during The Proposal! 1 for 3..not bad for me!

Earlier in the week we had our good friends Lisa and Denis over for Dinner in a Pumpkin. It was my first time making it and I used my friend's recipe found here. It turned out really well and was delicious! (*The pumpkin doesn't look very appetizing but I promise the contents were!..I had to have Curt take the pumpkin off the table b/c it was making me gag, like many things do these days :)

On Halloween Night we went to dinner at Sam's apartment. (She's the one on the far right.) She is very creative and had this cute idea to make a person dinner. She also made Dinner in A Pumpkin and was also very good! We thought the person turned out really cute! (Curt and I made the arms/hands..Pumpkin Roll for the arms and Rice Krispie treat hands.)

May day May day, please come soon!

Time to let the cat out of the bag...any guesses on our secret? I'm sure you've already guessed it...We're having a Baby! Ashley is about 11 weeks along and is doing great! We're expecting our little bundle from the stork around May 24th, 2010. And without further adieu, a picture for your viewing pleasure (Don't get too excited, there isn't much to see yet, but there's definitely a baby in that circle).



We're very excited and can't wait to be parents!

Family Fun

My family had been talking about coming to visit the "Utah Kids" for a while but hadn't really decided exactly when. Well a week before they came they told us their plan. I was all for it since I had a 4-day weekend! We're so glad they came and stayed with us! We didn't take very many pictures, but here are a few to show the fun we had!

Their trip would not be complete without stopping at Cafe Rio!

Troy treated us to breakfast at the Cannon Center!

Handsome boys

Another trip up the canyon! My mom didn't know Sundance was so close..she was pleasantly surprised!

We also went to BYU's Divine Comedy (very funny), Zupas (another family favorite), and had a b-day cake for Trent. Thanks so much for coming mom, dad, and Tate! We had so much fun with you and can't wait to see you again!

Conference Weekend

Counsel from the Prophet and Apostles, Homemade Cinnamon Rolls, and Beautiful drive up Provo Canyon=Wonderful Weekend!

Curt made these while I slept :)
He's such a good husband..and they were delicious!

We love the fall colors! Absolutely beautiful!

The Fam Weekend

My family is coming today to visit for the weekend!! I'm super excited! As always, we have our food outings planned out (Pretty sure vacation=food in my family!) 4 days off work and the weekend w/ the fam...I submit that life cannot get any better!