It's a . . .

GIRL!!!!

To be honest, I was a little surprised because I was thinking it was a boy more than a girl, but we are totally excited to be having a girl. We went for our ultrasound yesterday afternoon, and it was such an incredible experience to see our little one & to know that there's really a baby in there :) I couldn't help but shed a few tears of joy at seeing the little baby we'll be welcoming into our family at the beginning of the new year. We are totally stoked that it's a girl & can't wait to see her beautiful face! (Not to mention we're tempted to start making wedding plans with our best friends already because they're expecting a baby boy in November! So fun.)

Profile picture.
We couldn't get a good shot of her face because she was covering it with her hand the whole time. We did get to see her open and close her hand though :)

Her dainty little legs crossed at the ankles.

Talk about being scrunched! Her knees were at her nose! No wonder babies are so flexible when they're so tiny. They have to be :)

Me at 19 weeks - still doing okay without maternity clothes so far!

After the tech took the gender picture she had a student look for the rest of the stuff they needed and as she was looking around for other pictures the tech had the student stop because she got an even better shot and said that it was "textbook girl." She said this one will definitely NOT being coming out a boy. Haha. What's even more exciting than knowing she's a girl is knowing that she's healthy and things are going well. It's such a relief!! It was so cool to see the 4 chambers of her little heart and to get to look at her beautiful little brain. I'm so glad ultrasounds are so much more clear than they used to be and that I was able to pick out what we were looking at most of the time :)

We do have a name picked out--but we still have plenty of time to change our minds so it's still not set it stone, although D keeps singing her name to her already :) The name we're seriously considering for our little munchkin is Aurora Nicole. D picked out Aurora and I picked out Nicole. I think it has a nice ring to it. D keeps singing to my stomach, "Hail to the princess, Aurora" from the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty, which just happens to be my favorite Disney princess movie. I think it's so cute and love that he's in love with her already! Aurora Nicole is a different name than we've been planning on because we felt the other name we've been wanting for years has become too popular for our liking. It was the same thing with the boy name we were planning on originally. I also think that Rori is a cute nickname for our little one.

I started feeling her move pretty much right at 16 weeks. We were sitting in Sacrament meeting at church & then I felt her move again later that same evening and her kicks are getting stronger and more frequent now. Last night was also amazing because D got to feel her move for the first time!! It made me cry again :) I've been trying to get him to feel her move for a while now but just figured it was too early. And every time I'd have him come feel she'd stop moving. Little stinker. But last night around 9:00 she gave him a good kick and he was finally able to recognize it. Yay! What a good day. We are extremely happy and totally excited to have this little one in our family!!

Dakoda's Blessing Day

On Saturday D & I went up to spend the day with my family for Dakoda's blessing. She is seriously one of the most mellow babies I have ever seen & such a joy to be around. We were so happy to be able to participate & to see lots of family and friends. I was also reminded of how grateful I am that my sweet husband holds the priesthood & is worthy to use it--I love you, D!

Miss Koda Bug, we're so glad we have you in our lives! We love you!

Happy Family :)
Bri, Mike & Dakoda

In her blessing dress. They started taking pictures of her in her white dress on top of a white table cloth. Sillies. So I gave them a yellow blanket to put under her so she didn't blend in so much. This is the same blessing dress Hannah wore when she was blessed.

Such a happy girl! And she was so good during the blessing. My dad peaked at her & said she took her headband off & was swinging it around & nearly whipped it at someone in the circle. He said he had to close his eyes again really fast so he didn't start laughing. :)

After the blessing we went back to my parents house so D could help move the really cool playhouse my parents have over to Bri's house. What an ordeal! Luckily they had lots of help.

Getting it set up to move.

D putting his back into it :)

Moving it over the lip of concrete

Having too much fun ;)
Liam & Hannah stayed out of the way by playing on Gramps's motorcycle, & Hannah sang songs to me using the curtain rods from the playhouse as her microphone :)
Getting it set up on the trailer
And once we got it over to Bri & Mike's, Bri was a ton of help! ;)

Thanks again for a nice visit, family! We love you!

Back to School

It's that time of year again. Yep. Unfortunately. Summer flew by WAY too fast for my liking, but I am glad that D and I were able to do the stuff together that we did & I am glad that he was able to finish up his masters degree (with a straight 4.0 GPA!). I'm glad that we've been able to work in our garden and that we're now harvesting the works of our labors.

Although I still don't feel ready to have D back at school teaching, I am so very grateful that he has a steady job with great hours. I'm glad I get to have him home in the evenings (most nights) and that he always has the weekends off. I am so very grateful that he has a job that can support both of us so I don't have to work. I'm also grateful for the raise he gets this year because of completing his MS degree!! Yay!! I know our family will be blessed because his job will allow me to stay home and take care of our kids. I am grateful that he appreciates the things I do at home, even if I'm still not used to having so much down time & feel lazy because I'm not as busy as I used to be with going to school and working part-time. (Any suggestions for hobbies I should pick up?) Even though I wish I could have him with me 24-7, I am grateful he has a job that he loves & that he works with people he likes. I'm glad his job is rewarding for him & that most of his students think he's the best thing that's happened to their school ;)

Thank you, baby, for your hard work and sacrifice to go to work to provide sufficient living for our family. I'm so very thankful for everything you do!! I love you!!

xo

The "Dave" Concert

*We're playing catch-up on our posting so if you've missed our last few posts make sure you scroll down!*

On Tuesday we got to go to the "Dave" Concert at Usana with our good friends, Jimmy & Becca. They got 4 tickets and invited us to go with them. Thanks, guys! We all decided it was easier to just say we were going to see "Dave" because it was faster to say than Dave Matthews Band or even DMB :). Yes, we are that lazy sometimes. We weren't allowed to bring cameras in (although we saw about 20 people sitting around us with cameras they snuck in). But luckily Jimmy's phone had a pretty good camera, so we did what we could:

Us :)

Becca & Jimmy

We totally had a blast, even if I didn't act like it a lot of the time (picture me sitting with my nose plugged & a blanket over my face). Unfortunately because Usana is an outside venue, people are allowed to smoke. Thus:

Cigarette smoke
+
super sensitive pregnancy nose
=
not so happy times

I did pretty good through most of the concert, and luckily my concert buddies would warn me if the smell came on strong to them before I caught wind of it. I did end up throwing up in the grass toward the end tho. Yuck! Man! I hate that! Oh well. You'd think that with being 18 weeks along now the sickness would be going away. Either way, it is SO worth it!! :)

A positive thing was that I saw like 4 people I went to high school with & Dar saw some people he knew too. One of the friends I saw lives pretty close by, and he & his wife came and sat with us. They were only a couple blankets away from us when he saw me anyway. Small world! We also got to say hi to our good friend, Anna, who was sitting a little closer up but came to say hi to us. We seriously had a great time!!

*On a funny note* I read on the website that Usana vendors only accept cash, and knowing that they'd be expensive anyway we were trying to find a quick place to stop for dinner before the concert. I was keeping my eyes peeled for a Sonic--since my stomach & nose aren't okay with meat right now (especially red meat) I enjoy a good Sonic grilled cheese sandwich and tater-tots when we're catching some quick food. We were getting closer to Usana & hadn't stopped for food yet, so I casually say: "It would seriously be heaven if there was a Sonic on this street." Lo and behold, before we reach the very next light like 5 seconds after I said that I spot on Sonic!! No joke. It was hilarious!! We all got a kick out of the irony of the situation & enjoyed our Sonic dinner before getting to the concert. :)

Hannah is 5!

*We're playing catch-up on our posting so if you've missed our last couple posts make sure you scroll down!*

My adorable niece, Hannah, was born 3 days after D & I got married so she just turned 5 on Sunday. We were on our honeymoon in Cancun, Mexico when she was born so we didn't get to see her until she was about a week old. We are so glad to have sweet Hannah-Bear in our lives. She has such a fun personality & always makes me smile. I can't believe she is old enough to start kindergarten next week! Holy smokes! Last Saturday we went up to celebrate this amazing girl's birthday and had a blast, as usual :)

The beautiful birthday girl.

Baby brother, Liam. He likes wearing this hot pink floaty swimsuit over his shorts. Silly boy.

My dad, aka Gramps, getting ready to dive into the pool. This is how he taught me to dive. Seriously :) Love you, Pops!

Handsome Hubby enjoying the freezing water. It was way too cold for me to get in! I don't do house-hose-pool-water.

Beautiful baby, Dakoda. Love this girl!!

The kids had a blast on the "pool slide." My brother-in-law, Mike, had fun going on the slide too :)

After swimming for a while it was time for cake, ice cream, and presents!

She was one happy girl! She got lots of Littlest Pet Shop toys and some other things she wanted. Uncle D & I gave her some new school clothes. We try to go for the more practical gifts and let other people handle the toys ;)

My parents got her the Wii game, Just Dance, that I mentioned a couple posts back. My family fell in love with it after we introduced them to it a couple months ago. I think she was excited about this one, don't you? All Hannah's :)

Happy birthday, sweet girl! Thank you for bringing so many smiles to our lives! We love you!!

5th Anniversary Trip - Logan, UT

*We're playing catch-up on our posting so if you've missed our last couple posts make sure you scroll down!*

This summer flew by pretty fast for us and we never really took the opportunity to plan anything big for our anniversary this year, even though the 5th anniversary is a big one. But we decided to go stay at the Anniversary Inn in Logan again. It's where we spent our wedding night & thought it would be fun to stay there again but in a different room. This time we stayed in the Pirates Paradise room.

Also, last year we started a tradition of going to the Temple to do sealings on our anniversary. So this year we went to the Logan Temple since that's where we were headed anyway. It was the first time D & I had both been to the Logan Temple to do work. I'm really glad we started this tradition, and we plan to continue it for as long as we're both alive to do it. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were in Logan, and we had a great time!

After sealings we checked into our Pirate room. We took a bunch of pictures because those rooms are so fun!

We even fell asleep watching Pirates of the Caribbean. We couldn't resist :)

Then we opened our gifts to each other. I love Dar's reaction :P

Ever since we've been married he has wanted me to buy him a gun. So I bought him 2 for our anniversary this year. It may not have been the kind of gun he was hoping for, but they're guns, right? And, he got TWO! ;)

And he got me a Wii Fit Plus. We've been wanting one for a while, so we're both excited about this one! Hopefully it will help me get back in shape after I have the baby :)

After presents we did a little sight-seeing around Logan. We thought about going to a nice place for dinner but neither of us was hungry because we had a late lunch so we went to the old A&W my family used to go to when we'd visit Logan. So our dinner consisted of french fries, root beer, and ice cream. Mmm!

In the morning we got a delicious breakfast in bed to help us get going.

After getting ready we spent the day visiting different places in Logan that my family used to visit & I have fond memories of those trips, so I introduced D to some of those fun places.

Our first stop that day was good old Willow Park Zoo
(And by the way, it only costs $1 for adults and $0.50 for kids!)

They have all kinds of animals! Here's some of what we saw. I don't want to bore you with all of our pictures :)

Stop #2.
We couldn't leave Logan without getting some squeaky cheese!

We enjoyed some yummy cheese samples.

And when D spotted these moose antlers he had to take this picture. Not the most attractive shot, but what can you do?

This was a new stop. I'm pretty sure this store didn't exist the last time we were in Logan, but it was one of the golden stops of the day! It was recommended to us by a friend who lives in Logan.

Look at all the adorable moose stuff we got for our baby!! Since we don't know what we're having yet we had to get stuff for both sexes :) I also got some moose PJ pants. I'm telling you...we hit the jackpot! We're going to have to go back some time because they had more stuff that I wanted to get but we didn't want to go broke on buying baby stuff yet ;)

D's favorite animals are skunks (no joke) and since we've never seen skunk stuff for our little one we had to snatch these up too.

Our last couple stops in Logan were the Pepperidge Farm Factory and Casper's Ice Cream. Classics when you're in Logan!

On our way home we stopped for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Sandy. This was my first time eating there & I loved it!

Thanks, Sweetheart for a great anniversary trip again this year. Can you believe we've been married for 5 years already? Bring on the next infinity!! I love you so much!!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BABE!!

P.S. Since I posted some of the cute moose stuff we got in Logan I had to show you what D brought back from his Lake Superior trip for me too:

Look at that cute momma & baby moose!