Finally! A New Post!

What have we been up to since I posted forever ago? Well, let me tell you! Sam and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary by going to Idaho Falls. We took pictures in some of the places we went for our first date, and we forgot to take pictures at even more places! This picture is at the Green Belt (even though it's not green yet...) where we watched a band play on our first date. This is also my pregnant belly shot for 36 weeks because I haven't been good about taking them lately!

And here we are at the Visitor's Center. I don't think we went there on our first date, but it was soon after we started dating... Ok, so these were the only two pictures we took on our anniversary so I had to post them! I wish we would have taken more that were a little less boring. Oh well - too late now!

I washed and folded baby clothes and blankets from generous family members. Thank you! :) Too bad I can't make a normal face for a picture, though...

The baby tried on some clothes... Do you think this shirt will fit? :)

We finished setting up everything in the baby's room. This rocking chair was a birthday present from Sam to me. I can't wait to rock our little baby in it! :) And see the cute, brown, flowery nursing cover? My sister-in-law, Marci, made that for me! How adorable is that?! Thanks, Marci! :)

We set up the play pen with all its snazzy attachments.

Wipes and newborn size diapers all ready to be used up!

Burp cloths and blankets folded and put away.

Hand-me-downs from 0-2T. Thank you again!

Sam's brother, Joe, got home from his mission to Mexico a few weeks ago and came up to Rexburg to start school. We had Sunday dinner with the family: (clockwise from the left) the top of Isaac's head, Marci, Megan, the top of Gabe's head, Jon, Adam, Little Joseph, Big Joseph (not sure how else to differentiate - sorry Joe!), and me.

Sam and I are super excited for the baby to come! Today we had a doctor's appointment - the baby's head down, heart beat's great, and I'm dilated 2cm and 50% effaced at 37 weeks 4 days. The hospital bag's packed and I'm planning some vigorous walking for tonight... hint, hint... We're ready for you anytime, baby!

Coming Soon

Ok, ok.... So I know I've been a slacker on posting. I've been told by a few people that I need to put up a new post, and I will. But first, I need to focus on finals! Today, tomorrow and Wednesday will be crazy study days, then the semester will be over!!!! Then I can post. And it will be a good one. Deal? Deal.

Another Appointment

Wow, it's been a really long time....

We had another doctor's appointment today:

I took my glucose test (it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.... everyone always says it's horrible) and the results came back normal. My iron levels and hemoglobin are good too. My blood pressure was 117/81, I measured 26-27 cm, and I've gained 16 pounds so far. It's really weird when the doctor tells me, "eat hearty meals, I want you gaining a pound a week from now on."

And now the exciting part!!! Little baby girl is healthy. She was head down. The doctor says she is about 1 3/4 pounds, which is a little smaller than average, and how much I weighed when I was born! (But please don't come yet, baby!) Her heart beat was 145 bpm - looking good! :)

I can tell she's gotten lots bigger and stronger over the past few weeks because her kicks are harder (I can see my belly move almost every time she moves) and sometimes I can feel her kicking/punching on both sides of my belly at the same time! It's getting a little harder to get comfortable at night because my belly's growing and it feels like it just flops down on the bed.... I'm sure there will be lots more where that came from as she gets bigger. :) It's also been much harder to breathe lately, (I get winded by doing the most ridiculous things) and tons harder to bend over - I have a hard time putting my shoes on sometimes! :) Sam also likes to tease me because I can't see the underside of my belly when I'm standing up. He'll point and say, "you've got something on your shirt." I'll ask where, and he'll just keep pointing. I've learned that it's much easier to just pull my shirt out to look rather than try to bend over and see. I'm sure that's another thing that will only be harder as the baby gets bigger! :)

Over all, I love being pregnant. I love feeling our little baby move and knowing she's doing well!!! I'm really excited to meet her, but I hope she takes her time coming!

Ultrasound Results......

So, we went to our 19-week ultrasound today, and... IT'S A GIRL!!! If you want to see pictures, go to this link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001543180381&sk=photos

Sorry, my computer savvy husband is currently occupied, so you have to copy and paste the link to get to it. But you can manage, right? There's also a video coming, but I'll let you know when we (by "we" I really mean "Sam" :) ) get it up.

Baby weighs 11 oz., and her heartbeat is 148 bpm. She's healthy, and we couldn't be happier!!!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

We put up our Christmas tree last night!!! Sam got home from work at 10:00, and for some reason we decided to get the tree ready. (I think I was way too excited, so Sam went with it :) ) We had bought 1 strand of lights from DI, but it wasn't enough... So of course we went to Walmart at 10:30 to get more. Of course, right? We couldn't have a half-lighted tree, now could we? While at Walmart we found a box of candy canes for 88 cents and we couldn't resist (ok, I couldn't resist) buying them. Then we came home, strung up the rest of the lights, put on the ornaments and candy canes, and voila! Christmas. :)

Thanksgiving Break (Sorry for the extremely long post...)

Friday was the last day of school before the week-long Thanksgiving break. Sam and I were really excited for the time off from school - we needed it! Rexburg was supposed to have a snow storm starting on Friday night, so when we walked to the car from our last classes we were excited to see a few flakes starting to fall. We went home and watched a movie, talked, and relaxed. Then at 11:45 that night we decided to go to McDonalds for ice cream... Why not, right?

Mmmm...... Ice cream!!

It didn't snow Saturday or Sunday, but Monday morning we woke up to quite a bit! These are our front stairs.

There was probably 5 or so inches, so Sam had to be manly (well, he's always manly...) and shovel a path so we could get out of the parking lot.

On Tuesday morning we drove to Twin Falls. What is normally a 3 hour trip took us 6 hours because we were driving in a blizzard. We saw probably 18 cars off the road, and at one time the visibility was so bad Sam couldn't see the road... So we stayed right behind a semi that had its hazards on - he kept us on track!

We were dumb on the trip and took few pictures. I'm really bummed about that! So I'll just have to tell about it without pictures... On Tuesday we stayed with Melissa and Maren. We had fun talking and watching a movie. The next morning we went to WinCo to pick up some things, and it was pretty crazy! It was the day before Thanksgiving, what can you expect?

On Wednesday afternoon we got to my grandparents' house, and while Sam helped my grandpa shovel snow, I helped my grandma cut (and eat) caramels and dip pretzels. I wonder who got the better end of that deal... :) My grandma had also made clam chowder for us that night. Mmmmmmm. I ate all the leftovers too. :)

Thursday was Thanksgiving! Sam and I were only in charge of deviled eggs and green bean casserole. Seriously, everything else was taken care of by my aunts and grandma. Crazy. We went over to my aunt Karen's house to help set up. I really didn't do much because every time I would pick something up, somebody would say, "now should you be carrying that?" So I opted for sitting in the living room and watching my cute cousins, Joey and Dylan, play "huskies" and talking to my uncle Matt. Since the roads to California were so bad, Melissa and Maren weren't able to travel. So they came to Thanksgiving dinner with us!!! It was fun to have them - I hope they weren't overwhelmed by us all! We played some games, ate an amazing meal, and talked. Then later that night Sam and I went to "The Last Three Days" with Matt and Alisa. It was a good movie, but I think the end ruined it for me. Bummer when that happens.

Friday Sam and my grandpa watched football. None of the teams they were rooting for won. The Boise State game was especially disappointing. But we don't talk about that anymore around here. ;) I played some games with my grandma, talked with her, and she introduced me to "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." Later that evening Sam and I walked around the mall. I love when the stores are all decorated for Christmas! We even looked at strollers and baby clothes at Sears. That was fun. :)

On Saturday we got to go to the Twin Falls temple for a session! It was so beautiful. I loved it. After that Sam and I went to my Aunt Alisa and Uncle Matt's house. I looked through Alisa's old maternity clothes (thank you!!!), and we talked for a few hours. It was fun to get to know them a little better and to spend some time with their family.

On Sunday we drove home. The roads were much better than Tuesday, so we got home quicker - which was nice. I'm so grateful for a husband that is experienced at driving in the snow!!!

Thank you to all of our Twin Falls family for letting us stay with you, and for feeding us! We had lots of fun with all of you!

In response to several requests, here's another picture of my belly. (Good heavens, when am I going to learn to smile normally in a picture? Sigh...) This was today, at 17 weeks and one day. We went to the doctor on Monday, and after waiting over an hour to see the doctor, we heard the heartbeat (150 bpm) as well as a little kick on the Doppler. That was exciting! :) While we were scheduling our next appointment, the lady at the front desk gave us a brownie because she felt so bad we had to wait so long. Well thanks! We can wait an hour when we don't have anywhere else to be anytime for a brownie! Our next appointment will be December 17th at 3:00. We'll have the ultrasound to make sure the baby is healthy, as well as find out the gender! We're really looking forward to that. :) Also, today I felt the baby move for a solid 10 minutes while I was in my chemistry class!!! That was pretty exciting for me because I've thought I've felt it before, but I've been unsure. There was no doubting it today, though!

There's every kind of holiday Hershey's Kiss in there. Dad and Micah? Be excited.

We got our Christmas tree today! We wish we could have gone to cut one down, but the snow hit at the wrong time! We're excited to put it up and decorate it. It's the first time I've had a real tree, so I'm excited. Hooray for my favorite holiday of the year!!!

Good thing we didn't get pulled over with that thing sticking out the window!

If you read that entire thing, I'm very impressed. Just sayin'.

Recent Happenings

This is one of the most exciting things to happen lately. Sam's parents gave us their old washer and dryer. (and drove them all the way here from California!) And this is Sam installing them in our house!

He read up about how to do it on the internet and asked around, then decided to buy all the parts. We had to go back to Ace Hardware a few times to exchange things, but we ended up getting all the parts we needed.

This is the finished product... We hadn't quite put everything away yet, but it was done!!

This is where Sam had to cut pipes and add some stuff... I don't know much about it. You'd have to ask him, since he did the whole thing on his own.

Here's another pipe he had to add. This one was for the filter for the washer. And now we don't have to spend 10 dollars a week on laundry, nor do we have to go to the laundromat! Thank you, thank you, thank you Adam, Tami and Sam!!!!!! :)

In other news, my mom has been asking to see pictures of my pregnant self. This was me at 14 weeks. This is Sam's cousin, Megan, and her husband Jon. They came for dinner a couple weeks ago, and we decorated sugar cookies. Megan is also pregnant! She's having a little boy in March! They got some cute ultrasound pictures of him last week. How exciting is that?? :)

And this is me on Sunday, at 15 weeks. Don't mind the weird smile, or the vacuums in the background!! Sam was in the process of fixing them for the guys upstairs. We have another doctor's appointment on Monday, and we should be able to hear the baby's heartbeat then. I'm really hoping everything is going as great as it was last time!

I've been feeling amazing, and I have more energy to do things around the house. It was also fun to get a few maternity clothes a couple weeks ago! I never thought maternity pants could be so comfortable - I mean, looping a hair tie over the button on my pants and through the button hole worked great, but maternity pants are a million times more comfortable! And thanks to my mom for my early birthday present of more maternity clothes!!! It's amazing how much more flattering maternity clothes are than pre-pregnancy clothes that just stretch. It makes my belly look pregnant rather than just big.

Sam and I are also looking forward to our week off of school next week for Thanksgiving Break! We're going to Twin Falls to stay at my grandma's house and have Thanksgiving with my family up there. I can't wait to see them all!