It really is a baby

Neil and I are expecting a healthy baby girl sometime around the end of November/beginning of December.

I am 20 weeks pregnant today and we got to see the baby for the first time and it was so crazy and surreal. Even though I can feel her kick now I just can't believe we're really going to have a baby. She looked great on the ultrasound and everything looked perfect, and she's pretty darn cute to if I may say so myself.

Don't worry Grandee is also excited she is going to be a big sister, though she will probably be a little jealous that she is no longer the center of attention.

A Growing Girl

We've had Grandee for 6 weeks and she is growing so fast it's ridiculous! She's preparing Neil and I for parenthood and how fast our babies will grow up.


This is the first picture we saw of Grandee that made me fall in love with her, it took Neil a little longer I think but now he just adores her.


This is Grandee today playing in the snow, haha. Although it seems like she's gotten so big I have to remember she's still small.

She has the perfect personality for our family...


She loves to cuddle with anyone that will let her


She gets so excited when we get home and wags her tail so much that she falls over on her back and we give her belly rubs


And she's adorable and hilarious. For example, in the top left picture that's Grandee on her orange blanket which used to be mine but she has taken over it and will only sleep if she's tucked in it. On the top right she's playing in the snow which she loves to do even though it freaks her out. On the bottom left shes stretched out flat which is one of the silly way she likes to lay. And on the bottom right she's at the top of the stairs where she loves to lounge and when she could go up them but didn't know how to come back down she would run up and lay down and bark/growl for us to come up and help her. She also gets really jealous when Neil and I kiss and always wants to join in, haha.


She's also super smart. This is her before our first puppy training class where she's learning to sit when we ask her and walk on a leash and not jump (still working on that one) and not nipping or biting furniture which she's never done (thankfully). She is practically completely potty trained except every once and a while she'll poop on the stairs, not sure why but if she uses the bathroom inside it's her pooping on the stairs.

She loves playing with toys and this is what she does whenever we are going to give her a new bone or a treat...




And then she's content for a long time to just chew on her bone so we have to take it away or she'd never play with us, haha.

Life got a little crazy.

So November, December and January have come and gone with no posts, but life has gotten a little crazy.

November News:
-After being in our house for 2 months we still had no dinner table, but we had promised to host Thanksgiving Dinner for my family which meant we needed to get a table. So we took a shopping trip to IKEA and bought and put together our first dinner table


(Ignore the fact that we're in our snowman pajamas and that my face looks ridiculous)

December News:
-I switched positions as Kids on the Move and had to say goodbye to all of my sweet families which was very difficult and emotional but I'm coping much better with the change now.
-It was Neil's 27th birthday and I didn't take any pictures of the birthday party I threw him which I should have because it was way fun :)
-We had our two year anniversary and to celebrate we took a trip down to Vegas! It was a low key trip but we had a lot of fun.


We went by the Belleza Wedding Chapel, where we were married (how romantic I know)


We ate at Hash House a-Go-Go which was delicious and gave us way to much food as you can see...once again ignore the ridiculous face.


Neil is the ultimate trip planner and he planned for us to go to three awesome shows-The Phantom of the Opera which was beyond amazing, I want to go again next time. A comedy/magic show which was also really good and we went to Beatles Love which was sooo good, we had awesome seats and I'm embarrassed to admit it but I was one of those annoying people singing all of the songs because The Beatles are amazing :)

Neil planned some "guy stuff" as well.


Such as going to this car museum thingy where Neil was pretty much drooling they entire time.


When also spent a good amount of time in various casino's sports books where Neil bet all of his money and his team lost as you can see in the above pictures (just kidding no money was lost in Vegas ;)

January News:
-We welcomed a new addition to our family


Her name is Grandee and she is our 10 1/2 week puppy. She loves to sit in my lap and play with Neil :)

Trick-or-Treaters Treating Us

This was our first Halloween in our new home and since I haven't decorated it yet I would have felt strange going all out for Halloween so Neil I just made an awesome Jack-o-Lantern; though I have tons of ideas for next Halloween (thank you pinterest)


Once again I did the dirty work because the smell/texture makes my sweet man feel funny inside.


Neil is a perfectionists and quite patient so he did the design and cutting part of this adventure (and yes his pajama pants do say "Ice Ice Baby"-they're his Christmas Pajama's from my sweet Grandma and Granddaddy last Christmas :).


It turned out fabulous (ignore the gross kitchen),


and even more so when lit on our front porch.

Halloween this year was surprisingly warm so we had tons of trick-or-treaters and it was so fun! I was peeking out of our window ever 30 seconds waiting for new cute kiddos in their costumes to come up and knock on our door and yell trick-or-treat. I told Neil I was more excited for this Halloween then when I got to go trick-or-treating...dang I must really be growing up, haha.

It's the Most Colorful Time of the Year

I love fall. I love the colors, the clothes, the crisp feeling of it still being warm but having a nice chill in the breeze. Every year growing up my family would drive through the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and look at the leaves changing color (Virginia is BEAUTIFUL in the fall so if you ever plan on going go now). I have missed Virginia's falls and the colors so Neil and I took a drive through Provo Canyon and Sundance and it was gorgeous. There's something about the mountains out here that I just can't get used to how amazing they are, so adding fall colors just makes it even more breathtaking.











We decided that we were going to make this a family tradition for our family as well, except we will bundle up next year...it was chilly in the mountains especially by the stream so we couldn't enjoy being out for long because I'm a complainer (sorry baby).

"Is This Your First?"

So as many of you know, or should know since our last post was about this, Neil and I bought a house. In our new neighborhood we are pretty much the only couple without children, okay maybe between 1 and 5 other couples in our neighborhood/ward don't have children either but you get my point.

We have a great neighborhood and I honestly love all of our neighbors and our ward has been so welcoming. Our neighbors Marcus and Terri have an annual Halloween Block Party where they close down the street and everyone dresses up and eats yummy soup. Since it has been beyond crazy we didn't even think about our costume until the day of so we both threw together something out of what we already had. So we were...drum roll please...


(If you can't tell by this picture we obviously failed.)


Neil was a gangster, or as a little girl who saw Neil and asked "Are you a ganker?" Haha, oh Utah...and then she continued by complaining that her mother won't let her wear her pants that low, haha.


And I was pregnant. This is not an announcement I just thought it would be funny because there are so many pregnant people in our neighborhood. I just put some pillow batting in a plastic bag and stuffed it up my shirt, and the funny thing is people really thought I was pregnant and a few ladies asked me if this was my first baby. A lot of people that don't know that it was just a costume were probably really confused when I went to church without a big pregnant belly and with no baby.


Now next year I'm going to be a gangster and Neil's going to be pregnant.

August= Whoa

So pretty much August was incredibly crazy. I was up to my eyebrows in paper because Neil and I bought a house!


It's cool and exciting and gave me forehead wrinkles-seriously. I will post pictures of the inside of the house when it looks semi presentable, but until then I'm having a hay-day pinning lots of cute house stuff on pinterest and one day I may even make my pinterest a reality <--I think this calls for a serious Craft Day folks!

August was also a big month because Neil and I got sealed on August 27th at the Draper Temple. It was beautiful and perfect and definitely no forehead wrinkles were developed but maybe some crows feet from my uncontrollable smiling.


What made that day even better was we got to spend it with family, including Neil's parents who flew out for a week to be there.


It was so nice getting to spend time with them and show them around Utah, and to show them our new house.

So pretty much August was crazy, but in a very good way. We were sad to say goodbye to our first apartment together and to living so close to such good friends and family, but we're excited to have our home where we can start our family, and remember friends we're not that far away!

I'm going to go do something housey like...I'm not sure what right now because I'm still learning...