2010 Year In Review

1. I graduated!
2. Quit my job at the CIL lab after a horrible year and a half of working there
3. Chase was called into the Elder's Quorum Presidency
4. Celebrated our 3rd Anniversary
5. Found my grown-up dream job
6. Chase and I got our (or rather MY) new camera and got into photography a little
7. Chase was released from Elder's Quorum and called into the Bishopric
8. Watched the fireworks in Logan and Idaho Falls
9. Went to Bear Lake for Chase's 25th birthday
10. Found out Baby Girl will be making an arrival in March!
11. Had a low-key, relaxing summer
12. Chase passed all of his classes for his hardest semester yet (all the while dealing with an ornery, sick pregnant wife and doing Bishopric stuff, yes, he's great)
13. Celebrated Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls with Chase's family
14. I overcame my absolute terror of doctor's offices
15. Avoided any major illnesses and vehicle repairs
16. Going to spend Christmas with my family

Pretty much that's it. We didn't have any grand trips or major catastrophes. But we're totally okay with that!

Portable North Pole

If you've never heard of this...you should try it out. My boss showed this to me yesterday and I proceeded to make one for just about everyone in my family it was so much fun. Go to www.portablenorthpole.tv and you can create a personalized video message from Santa for your hubby/kids/nieces/nephews... you name it. My boss' little girls were convinced that it was the REAL Santa Clause because he knew everything about them. You can personalize the message and upload pictures and fun stuff like that. Santa will even say their name.

This is the one I made for my brother... it was just too good not to share. :)
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/0JLkWtFqlq7ByRwqiR95DQ

The Scoop on Bottles

Okay so are all bottles created equally? I've heard that some people swear by the Avent brand and other's seem to think they're not that special. And nipples for the bottles?! Where do I even start? Fast flow, newborn, natural, etc. etc.

I'm planning on nursing but giving a bottle at least once a day to make sure she'll take one. So how many will I need? And do I need those little teeny ones, or will the bigger ones work?

Now don't even get me started on binkies....!

Help.

Tree Decorating

Christmas Came to Our House

Friday Thoughts

Why is it raining? It makes it nice not having to thaw the car out in the morning, but white is so much prettier than gray.

Glad it's Friday and that Chase is DONE with homework for the semester. Now he just needs to take his tests to get advanced standing in the program.

So grateful that I work where I do where my boss lets me leave for the whole day to help my family out.

Went grocery shopping last night. One of my favorite things to do.

Ate lots of good food at Chase's work party last night! Make that three nights in a row with awesome food and not having to cook it!

Christmas bonuses are great.

I'm so glad the nurse only had to poke me once to draw my blood, it usually takes three or four tries.

Modern technology is amazing.

99% of our Christmas shopping is done and wrapped and I really like the snowman wrapping paper we got this year.

Thomas' little happy dance and hug he gave me yesterday made my day.

"Santa Clause is Coming to Town" is hands-down the best Christmas movie of all time.

I finally finished the crib bumpers.

We don't HAVE to do anything tomorrow! I love free Saturdays.

Facebook Peeve

Ya' know what I don't understand? Status' that consistently whine about not having enough time to get things done or sleep on Facebook. Couldn't they take the time it took to whine there and get something else done? Granted there are times when one just needs to vent, but still. Just wondering.

And here I am whining about this...I guess there is a whiner in all of us. :S

Thanksgiving in Review

We had a great Thanksgiving spent with Chase's parents and family up in Idaho. I actually got Chase to go shopping with me on Black Friday, GASP! And we got most of our Christmas shopping done. Score!

It seemed like everything has been so busy and our minds preoccupied that I am ashamed to say we didn't even take the time to think about what we are thankful for this year. Thanks to a lesson on gratitude on Sunday we went home and talked about it.

It has been a great year, we have been blessed so much. We know that we have been watched over and taken care of. Even though we may not live in a mansion or have fancy stuff, we have everything we need, and that's enough. :)

P.S. The "blizzard" was a blizzard for about three hours, then it fizzled out. We got more snow from the storm on Sunday. Winter is here!

Hunkering Down

There is supposed to be a massive blizzard coming in this afternoon. Even though it would have been nice had it hit last night, I'm kind of excited for it.

All the schools are getting out early and campus is shutting down at 2. Weather reports are suggesting people leave work early so they can get home in time.

So living in Logan you would think everyone living here would be used to bad weather. Apparently not, or this storm is supposed to be worse than I imagine.

The prospect of being snowed in is exciting to me. I hear about winters that my parents spent up here where they couldn't see across the street for a month and had to keep a light bulb lit under their car so it didn't freeze up. Or when my brother-in-law had to literally dig out his car from a massive snow drift.

The most snow I remember was when I was about three or four and the snow was above my head. (Not that deep for a three-year-old but still, it was a big deal for me!) We had to dig a path to the dog kennel so we could feed Mickey. And the snow hills around our patio were HUGE!

So bring on the blizzard! We have food in our house, flashlights and a camp stove. So if by some very slim chance we do get snowed in and can't get anywhere, at least we'll be warm and have food! (Now just watch, because everyone's making such a big deal out of it, the storm will probably fizzle out. :))

Lost Mind

People always said you lose your mind and your memory when you were pregnant. I didn't ever really believe them, I mean, how bad could it be?

It's true.

I don't typically consider myself a ditsy person. But I am now. Never in my life have I locked my keys in the car. I've now done it three times, in the last two months. Completely forgot about ordering something at work, putting production behind for two days, big oops. (Thankfully my boss was more than understanding.) And I can't talk in coherent sentences anymore, totally lose my train of thought and why I went upstairs to get something.

In other news, we ordered some reusable diapers from ebay just to see what they would be like. We found a knock-off brand that were MUCH cheaper than what we've been finding originally. They came yesterday and I think they're kind of cute! Our baby's bottom will be cutely adorned with red, yellow, green, orange and blue diapers. Not sure if they'll work yet, but they were cheap enough we were willing to try it out. I even found a diaper sprayer for a good deal so no rinsing out dirty diapers with my bare hands! (Or rather, Chase will not have to rinse them out with his bare hands. :))

Cartoon from here.

Thinking

Random thoughts going through my head today:

I think the word "delicious" sounds funny.

Going to the doctor has turned into a fun thing. Funny how it used to absolutely terrify me. My sister was right;it's so much easier to go when you're going for someone else.

Fall is almost over. Seemed really short, but I like waking up to the furnace turning on in the morning. It's one of my favorite sounds.

Where's the best place to get a crib mattress?

Our crib shipped early! So now its home right now is under our bed until we get our stuff cleaned up. I'm antsy to set it up. But I think putting it up four months early is jumping the gun just a bit.

Chocolate milk in the morning is the best way to start the day.

Thanksgiving is coming soon! One of my favorite holidays. Once my little sister and I dressed up like indians to go to Grandma's house for Thanksgiving.

Learned today that mouse bronchioalveolar lavage fluid is really a fancy way of saying "mouse boogers." Gross.

Kohls was playing Christmas music the other night. Bothered Chase and I alot. It's not Christmas yet!

We watched "Boy in the Striped Pajamas" the other night. I've been wanting to see it for awhile. Most depressing, horrible ending movie of all time.

Just finished a book called "Left to Tell". Glad I live when and where I do. It was a really good book about the Rwandan Genocide. It proves that light and hope can always be found with faith through ANYTHING.

I'm excited about the boxes I found at the JJ Cole warehouse sale on Saturday. I've been looking around for awhile for some and these will work great!

Chase doesn't have homework tonight! :D

We need suggestions for girl names. Chase and I can only agree on Kyree. But what if she's not a Kyree when she comes?

I get to see a bunch of old friends on Sunday!

Getting Ready

Now that we FINALLY know that we're having a little girl, we couldn't resist going out and buying some of her first outfits. Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen any cuter than these.



And for those of you who've been wanting to see "bump" pictures, I let Chase take ONE. Never been a fan of them. This was at 17 weeks.



The sewing frenzy has already started, projects just make me happy. So I actually started another blog just to put the things I've been working on for documentation purposes really to remember how I did something. Go here if you want to see some of the stuff I've made for Baby. It's been fun!

Halloween

We didn't do much this year. We did get to go to a friend's party and see alot of people and catch up with them and that was fun.

Our costumes were low-key but at least we tried right?! We went as the Superman team.

And the pictures say.....

Boy or Girl?

We have a week before we find out! Anyone want to cast votes on what "flavor" of baby we're having? (Chase's uncle called the gender "flavor" and it made me laugh.)

I kind of think it's a boy. Chase and everyone else seem to think it's a girl.

All I can say I'm glad we only have one more week to wait cuz' all the fabric stores are having killer sales and I don't know what colors to get!

Oh, and p.s. we just found out my sister is expecting a boy just a few weeks before us! I never had cousins my age and I'm so excited that our kids will be so close in age.

Two Cents

Even though I am not in school anymore, Chase is. I just have to vent a little about an idiot professor that he has. Today he told Chase that it doesn't matter how hard you work in life, you won't succeed anyway. I am ticked. How in the world did he get to be the department head with that kind of a teaching attitude? Sometimes it gets to me how much of a circus and political game college is. Unfortunately to succeed in college you just have to jump through the hoops of what your professors tell you to do, even if they have no idea what the real world application is like.

This is just my opinion, but I think computer science professors have a harder time living in the "real world" since they are focused on teaching exact computer applications, not how to teach them to people with very human tendencies. I think Chase does a great job at maintaining his ability to interact very well with people and still be what he calls a nerd, which in the real world, will help him be very successful.

For the most part, I had great professors who really did know what the real world is like. They all had their quirks but they tried to help me, which I am grateful for. But I feel like the things I learned that are most applicable to me now working, aren't how to treat specific diseases (although it helps), but what I was good at. So even though I literally failed biology, I have organization on my side, which at this job is 90% of what I do.

At times I think the true lessons to be learned from college are not to prepare you for working in a specific field, but how to work with difficult and sometimes, mean, people. Another one is to know when you should voice an opinion and when you should not. The trick is to still hold on to what you believe and feel without making the people who hand you the grade, or the paycheck, mad.

That's it, I'm done venting. Just had to get that out because I am so proud of Chase and how dare ANYONE tell him his hard work will not be enough.

Sorely Disappointed

Glee used to be fun to watch. At least most of it. The songs were fun to listen to.
This season I have been sorely disappointed. It just doesn't seem like the same show. I haven't even watched the two last episodes and turned off one since it was just uncomfortable. Bummer.

At least Chuck is still great!

I Want THIS One

I have a problem. We live in a really nice apartment that we like. But I found this house for sale perusing a few months ago. It keeps popping up on my radar.

It has all of the requirements I could want from a first house. And theoretically speaking, it could be a "forever house" if it needed to be: 3 bedrooms, two HUGE family/living rooms with space for an office. New paint and pretty hardwood floors, mature trees, fireplace, a fairly decent kitchen, and a ginormous back yard so Chase can have his OUTSIDE dog. It's in a nice neighborhood close to our old apartment and I just really like it!

We really don't need it now and probably shouldn't even consider it. But it's hard not to consider it when it's a decent price and the house of my dreams.

Argh. Someday!

Picture is from Craigslist

Just a Random Update

Nothing too exciting has been going on lately. Our days consist of work, school, homework and sleep. We really like the sleeping part.

I'm finally starting to feel semi-normal again. So I'm excited that I can stay awake for a little while longer and I don't feel like throwing up all the time! I'm quite excited to get a move-on and start making things. I haven't done a darn thing for this baby except to find some maternity pants with my mom! I've been craving anything dairy lately. Just give me milk and I'll be happy!

Chase threw me a great birthday party complete with dinner and a night where I didn't have to do anything. He even went to the store and bought me a purse. You'll have to ask him the story, it's pretty funny! I think it's quite impressive that he spent 45 minutes in Kohl's the other day trying to find the exact purse I gave him a picture of.

On Sunday we heard the news that one of my friend's husband from our old ward, died last weekend. It was really heartbreaking since we both knew them pretty well. You just never know what's in the Plan sometimes. Thankfully there is a Plan and everything works out in the end.

Work has been crazy busy these last few weeks. I feel like I have been indoctrinated into the company. It's kind of a nice feeling, but at the same time, the workload has increased! Chase is doing great at work, he's learning all the time and they finally hired an intern so he doesn't have to move desks around as much. He was quite excited about it.

We're both excited for Conference weekend. Conference are some of my favorite times of the year. We were able to arrange to spend some time with both sides of the family this weekend so I get to go to my Grandma's house and see lots of aunts and uncles I haven't seen for a long time!

That's pretty much it! Hope everything is going well for everyone else!

Smile

These cute smiles just make me smile. :)

Suggestions?

So here's the deal. I'm a cheapskate and don't want to pay oober amounts of money on diapers. Someone suggested I start buying diapers now but when I went to go get a box to start out supply I couldn't bring myself to pay that much quite yet. So, I've been thinking a lot about the whole reusable diaper thing. Has anyone tried reusable cloth diapers?

I know my parents used them and hated them, but they've come a along way in twenty years. Thoughts anyone? I'm impressed with the BumGenius ones I've found, but are the non-name-brand ones just as good?

I've heard diaper rash can either be horrible with cloth diapers or make it virtually non-existent.

Most of the brands that I've found have a one-size-fits all feature, so you don't have to buy more as the baby grows. Does that really work? I like the idea of just paying a little more money up front to save hundreds later on. I've also heard of sprayers you attach to the toilet so you can rinse them right off into the toilet. Do they work? How much of a pain will it be to pack around dirty diapers when we go somewhere since we can't throw them away? Will I be doing laundry constantly just to keep up with them?

My thought is we'd use disposables for the first little while, since I've heard babies poop continuously for the first few weeks. Then we'd start on the reusables. Then if we ever had to go anywhere overnight we'd have a small stash of disposables so we didn't have to worry about washing them.

Since I am not a mom yet and never have been I really have no idea how this whole diapering thing works in reality. Ideas? Suggestions? Am I crazy?

Reassuring

Today I had a sense of relief at the doctors office when I heard Baby's heartbeat again. Yes, there is still a baby growing in there. Silly me I guess, but sometimes it's hard to believe that there really is someone in there.

Fall and Other Random Stuff

I think this is my favorite time of year. It's not too hot and there's just a little bit of a chill. Sweater season! And I put up my fall decorations. Pretty much we only have fall decorations. And Christmas, but any other holiday or season; nope.

Just finished reading "These is My Words". It was fairly good. It was interesting and written from a different point of view. It made me glad we don't have to stake a claim, farm the land and fight indians.


How early is too early to start putting together a room for the baby? I don't want to do it too early since I will have to give up my sewing table for the crib. But I'm itching to start getting lots of things. (What could I do to convince Chase that I need my sewing machine ALOT more than he needs his computer? :P) I think I've decided on this crib.


We also found Chase a "daddy rocking chair" (aka cushy recliner) for a really good deal and moved the glider upstairs for me.

The betting is on as to whether Baby is a girl or boy. I'm leaning towards boy and Chase says he's 95% sure it's a girl. So we'll see...

Grocery Shopping

I got to go grocery shopping last night. Grocery shopping is one of my favorite things to do. I don't really know why except that I love having a full fridge and cupboards and actually having ALL the ingredients a recipe calls for.

We always went grocery shopping with mom when we were growing up. Bowman's is the best place ever. You ALWAYS see someone you know, usually multiple people. And the bakery gives out free cookies. You know the sugar cookie ones with the color swirls in them. Sometimes we would get one with sprinkles.

Mom would always let us pick out one treat too. My favorites were Sixlets, M&M's and animal crackers. After going home while mom put the groceries away I would sit on the floor behind the chair and divide my spoils by color, or shape and size. I always ate the brown M$M's first since they were the ugliest, then the ones that were facing up with the M on the top.

We called Bowman's the 'small store' and Smith's the 'big store'. When we went to the big store we always got to see the lobsters in the tank by the deli. They were pretty cool.

One of the baggers was my buddy, Mark, and he would put quarters in the horse for us to ride. To this day I think Mark still works there, but I don't get to ride the horse anymore. :)

It was a big deal when Bowman's moved to a newer, bigger building the next block over. Complete with a drive-through pharmacy and everything. Even the pharmacist knows our family really well.

When we got older we would bet to see who could get to the closest amount of what the final bill would be. Mom always won. She was usually only a few dollars off.

During high school, Bowman's was kind of a hang-out spot. If you went there on a weekend night you were bound to run into somebody doing something. During lunch on the weekdays, students would go there and sit in the isles to eat lunch.

Alot of times for family night we would walk down to Bowman's and get something ice cream related (of course) for a treat and stop and eat it on the church field on the walk back home.

I've been guided through the isles of Bowman's blindfolded on my 18th birthday while my friends kidnapped me to buy dry ice. Yes, we are just THAT exciting.

So I guess you could say that I have alot of good memories associated with grocery shopping. It still makes me happy to go, even if I can't go to Bowman's. I still like Lee's okay; it's a whole lot better than Smith's! (Smith's doesn't have the lobsters anymore. :()

Summer's End

It's official, summer is almost over now that we bought school supplies for Chase.

It's been a really nice summer, nothing too crazy and busy. We enjoyed being at home a lot and just having nothing that we NEEDED to do. The last few weeks have been especially slow and relaxed since I've been dead tired and sick. (Thank goodness for anti-nausea medication!)

It's kind of weird seeing all the school supplies and clothes on sale and knowing that I don't need any of them!

Today marks three months at this new job. Yay, training is over!

I'm excited for winter this year. Mostly because I won't have to trek across campus in a blizzard anymore (sorry for those of you who do!) and it will be sweater season soon! I am quite glad that I will be pregnant mostly through the winter and not the heat of summer.

So even though we haven't started baby shopping hardly at all. We're getting a little curious as to what we're really going to need with a baby and all. Any suggestions on what you can NOT live without when having a baby?

A Baby Sized Bit of News

:D

Softball

I grew up playing on city leagues for a long time. When I started this new job, I found out they had a softball team too! It's been a ton of fun being able to play again. And we actually did pretty well! Here's some of the highlights from some of our games from our professional sports photographer, Chase.




And thanks to our awesome friends and family who made up our team's entire cheering section. :)

Salt Lake with Lacey and Chandler

The day after Chase's birthday we were able to go to a motivational talk that Chase's cousin, Lacey, was giving at the U.


She and her husband just got married a few months ago so it was fun to hang out with them around Salt Lake for the day and get to know him a little better. Since they're from Arizona we don't get to see them a lot so it was fun to see them!

Sewing Project

My very fun, cute nephew just had a birthday.


He likes trucks and tractors, so I found this tutorial here and expounded on the idea a little. (Honestly, what three year old would be entertained with just one road to drive on?)

This is how it turned out! It was the funnest project I've worked on in a long time!

Bear Lake Birthday

This is what Chase decided to do for his 25th birthday; we drove up to Bear Lake to play around in the water and take some pictures! We stopped to eat at a burger place on the way home and got the most amazing blueberry cheesecake shake ever! We had a lot of fun not having to go to work and celebrating Chase getting "old." :)

Canoes and Gilderoy the Goose

This is what we did today. We went with these guys


took this monstrous thing


and canoed around the marshlands.



We made a friend


That followed us all the way up river


and back down


let us touch him


followed us up on land


stood by the cars while we loaded up and proceeded to try and follow us home.


It was great fun!