Family Shower

Saturday was a fun day!
My Aunt Kathryn decided to throw me a baby shower at her house in Alpine and invite all the cousins and other family I have down there.
Brad and I showed up (Brad came because we were leaving straight for Rexburg after the shower) and suddenly my mom and little sister are there!
They drove up the day before to surprise me. :)
Funny enough, I had been texting Marci, my little sister, the day before and telling her that she should tell mom to drive up for the shower, and then I had called my mom and talked to her about it and she said no because they had to drive up there so many times in the next few months and whatnot.
What liars!
Apparently, they were both in the car driving up to Utah as I was talking to them!
My cousin's wife Julia came with her 3 daughters, as well as my aunt Margaret and cousin Lara.
The shower was kind of late notice, so not all of my extended family was able to come, but it was nice to see those that were able to make it!
We started off by eating all the yummy food Kathryn had set out and then moved to the living room for baby shower games.
First, we each had a list of animals and had to write down what the babies are called.
Do you know what a baby raccoon or reindeer is called?
Some of them were pretty hard!
We also played the game where you guess which candy is melted into diapers.
That one made me a little hungry. Hehe.
Then I left the room to "go to the bathroom" (even though I really did use the bathroom) and everyone had to remember things about me like what kind of shoes I was wearing and whether or not I had mascara on.
Next, everyone, besides me, had to cut a length of string that they thought was the measurement around my belly.
One of my young little second cousins was the winner and everyone said it was because she had a smaller arm span since all the adults cut their strings way too long!
Next we split into two teams and played Family Feud, where we had topics like "What do new parents wish for the most" or "Diaper brands" and things like that.
Somehow, my team ended up winning even though we only had one mommy on our team and the other team had 3!
The last game, we all got blank "Babyo" (Bingo) cards and wrote guesses for what were in all the presents, then crossed them off as I opened the presents to try and get bingo.
The winners of each game got prizes like chocolate and candles and other things my mom bought.
All the gifts I received were awesome and I've got to write some thank-you cards tomorrow.
Marci totally spoiled her new niece and gave her a TON of presents.
After all the gifts were opened, everyone mingled for a bit and slowly left.
My parents and sister had to leave right away because they had to be home on Sunday and Brad and I left right after them so that we could get back up to Idaho.
It was a ton of fun and i'm so grateful to everyone who helped out and who came.

The super cute diaper cake my mom made.

Some of the food, after we'd already eaten a lot of it. Lol.
Gifts!
Julia and her daughters, smelling the "dirty diapers."
Mmm. Twix! Lol.
A couple of em.
Playin games.
Kathryn and Rachel, collaberating over some game.
Margaret and Lara.
Playing Babyo.
Baby Shower!
Opening gifts. And oh yeah!! Turns out my dad came up too! He came up behind me and tapped on my head while I was opening presents. Lol.
He got this little toy firetruck with a little girl fire fighter (My dad was a fireman, now a fire marshall.)
Soft little slippers.
Once we got home to Rexburg, I laid out all the gifts to take pictures.





Thanks to everyone!

Our Little Spring Break

In order to get the heck out of Idaho for a bit, I planned a little trip to Utah for Brad and myself.
We drove down to Jenna and Travis' place on Wednesday afternoon, listening to "The Hunger Games" on the way.
I am SO glad that Brad is finally reading... er, listening... to this book!
It's seriously an awesome series.
After getting to American Fork, I went with Jenna while she did a little bit of grocery shopping and while we were out, she told me that Train was playing in Salt Lake City on Thursday night!
EEP!
So when we got home, I looked up the time and ticket prices and whatnot and Travis picked up some tickets for Brad and I on his way home.
That night we played some games and then Brad and I stayed up and watched the Avatar blu-ray that Travis went and bought at midnight.
Thursday was an exciting day!
TRAIN!
AHHHHHHH!
They've been one of my favorite bands for a very long time now and I have all of their songs about 97% memorized. Lol.
We went out for lunch with Jenna and the girls to Costa Vida and then Jenna and I played a card game called Hand and Foot until Brad and I left for the concert.
We got in around 5:30 and apparently Train wasn't playing until 8:30 (there were a few bands and it was in a big outdoor amphitheater kind of thing with food booths and stuff) so there was a bit of waiting around.
We shared a funnel cake and bought a couple sodas and listened to a couple local bands and then found our way down into the standing crowd where we ended up for the following 3 1/2 hours.
Some guy named Karl Wolff was on first and I think I recognized one of his songs.
He's the dude in the purple shirt.
Next on was some band called Hey Monday, but I didn't get any pictures of them.
They were pretty good and i've heard one or two of their songs come up on last.fm while I'm doing housework. Lol.
Then we had to wait what seemed like forever for Train to come on.
Our legs were killing us from standing so long (and from having an extra 30 pounds hanging off the front of me) but that couldn't kill my anticipation!!!
Finally they came on and they sang a bunch of stuff.
I sang along with every sang and did a little bit of dancing and screaming.
It was so fun!
I took one video, which I tried to load but it didn't work.
But when I started to record another song, my camera batteries died!
Argh!
I can't believe I didn't think to bring extra batteries!
Oh well.
The memory will forever live on in my mind. :)
It was awesome and now i've only got three more musicians to see before I die, since i've already seen N*sync and Brightwood: Maria Mena, Michelle Branch, and Dishwalla, although they've broken up. :(

Today, I spent some me time at Ikea, eating meatballs and lingonberries and buying items at great prices. :)
Soon after I got back, Jenna and I left to go to a Women's Expo at UVU.
There were a lot of different booths and it was pretty neat.
Jenna and I both bought some cute flats for $10 and I wish I could have purchased some of the cute baby stuff they had, but it was all a little too exensive.
We left the expo after a little over an hour, then brought Travis lunch at work and headed home.
Tonight, we're all gonna play some 7-Up, Ticket to Ride, and maybe another game or two.
Tomorrow, my aunt if throwing me a little family baby shower, so that should be fun.
After it's over, Brad and I will head back up to Rexburg.
It's been a nice little get-away and probably our last one for a while, so i'm glad we tried to make the most of it.


Oh, on Tuesday (the day before we left) Brad and I went to nature park to feed our bread leftovers to the duckies!
We had two loaves of bread that only had the butt ends left, a couple pieces of stale sourdough, and we had some leftover french bread from the previous friday, so I figured we could feed them to the ducks rather than throw them away before we left town.
Nature love! Haha.
Eating a piece of sourdough.

Liege

Last week, Brad somehow got a craving for Belgian Waffles.
The sugary kind, not the typical American kind.
Anyway, we drove to a few different stores in IF looking for either vanilla sugar or pearl sugar and found neither.
He ended up just making his own kind of vanilla sugar.
We also went to Target to make our baby registry and buy a waffle iron, but back to the Liege Waffles.
It was SO fun watching Brad in the kitchen.
He didn't know where anything was, so it was pretty funny.
I decided to document the process in pictures. :)

Mixing the chunks of sugar into the batter. Liege Belgian Waffles are known for being buttery and sugary, so they have big chunks of sugar in them that ooze and carmelize while cooking.

Here we go, first one! And our brand new waffle maker.

There's the first one, all crunchy and sugary on the outside.

Look how cute he is with our pink oven mitt!

Brad's creepy eyes. Haha.

He thought they turned out pretty well and considering I don't really like waffles, I thought they were pretty good too.
He made them last Thursday night and his last day of work on campus was the following morning, so he got up for work early and made a bunch to bring for his co-workers.

Speaking of his job, his last week he was able to work 8 hours a day, whereas he was working 2-3 hours a day previously.
He would come home SO tired and was constantly falling asleep everywhere- on my shoulder, on the couch, sitting in front of his computer, playing the xbox, etc...





In other news, we really enjoyed last week, despite the fact that it snowed on Monday and Tuesday.
A LOT of people were out of town, so the parking lot was always empty. :)
We also spent some time with our friends Cynthia and Jon.
On Tuesday, we went over to their place and shared leftover pulled pork.
Both Brad and I and Cynthia and Jon had made pulled pork for dinner on Sunday! We thought it was a funny coincidence and decided to share our leftovers with each other.
After we ate, Jon and Brad left to help another couple move while Cynthia and I played this fun strategy game called Acquire.
Then after that, me and Cyn took off to watch "The Last Song" at the theater and the boys played some video games.
Then Friday, they came over to our apartment for dinner and games.
I decided to try and make everything homemade and let them all be my guinea pigs.
I made my own alfredo sauce, tossed it with some penne and chicken that I cooked up, and served homemade french bread on the side.
They all said it tasted good, so I guess i'll believe them.
I'm just always so skeptical about my cooking.
We then played Acquire again, this time with the guys, and I won! Yay!
Then we played Flux (I love that game!) and Cyn and I had some good girl talk while the boys played more video games.
It was a fun week and i'm so excited for the weeks to come (Summertime!)

This week I'm determined to be outside a lot.
The weather today was 70 and sunny, so Brad and I made several trips to the laundry room (I had a LOT to catch up on), we tried to get the scooter started after a long winter (which we couldn't get it to work. Guess we'll try again later.), we browsed the closing sale at Hollywood Video and then got smoothies at Jamba Juice.
Overall a good day for getting my hubby out of the apartment. Lol.
Tomorrow i've got my next prenatal check-up.
Just another routine thing where I wait for half an hour only for the doc to tell me everything is going perfect and to come back in a couple weeks.
Oh, we kind of got out health insurance thing figured out, but they'll only cover the costs if there are complications, so everything else will just be paid by us, but oh well.
At least we'll be covered if anything goes wrong.
On Wednesday we'll be heading down to Utah for a few days.
We haven't gotten out of Idaho in far too long and i've got a serious itch to travel.
We'll be staying with Jenna and her family until at least Saturday.
I plan on spending at least a few hours at Ikea on one of the days we're down there. :D
Friday and Saturday there is some kind of women's expo at UVU, so i'll be checking that out with Jenna while Brad will watch our little nieces.
Saturday, my aunt is throwing me a family baby shower, which i'm really excited for!
Then, we'll probably leave late Saturday afternoon, early enough so that we can stop at Costco in Pocatello on the way home.
The toilet paper and paper towels I bought there last August have finally just about run out.

The weather, the friends, the traveling.... nothing can keep me down!
Not even the return of everyday morning sickness and overwhelming fatigue.
:)

Spring is springing!

The snow is all melted!
Yay!
This week should be pretty awesome. A LOT of people are out of town because the semester ended last Friday, so the parking lots and roads have been empty, which is just wonderful. Also, the temperature got above 65 today! I wanted to go on a picnic but when I asked Brad he immediately said no.
Lame.
So, I decided to just go by myself. I made a lunch and packed a beach towel and a book to read and as I was getting ready to head out the door, Brad asked me what i was doing.
He said "Going on a picnic?"
"Yeah"
"With me?"
"No."
"With who?"
"Myself."
And then he got all sad and said he couldn't let me go by myself because he's my husband and he didn't know I was serious about wanting to go and whatnot, so we packed him a lunch too and he came along.
I appreciated him joining me, but it meant I wouldn't really get to lay out in the grass and read like I wanted to, but oh well.
It ended up being pretty windy anyway. We just went to Smith Park, ate our lunches, and then came home. I would have liked to have done something else since we were already out of the apartment, but that was a no-go.

Here we are!
Can you tell i'm just a little bit tired? Haha.
Tomorrow i'm going too see Last Song with my friend Cynthia, which should be fun! It's been nice hanging out with more girls lately.
OH! I almost forgot, someone stole my identity!
Kind of. We noticed a couple charges in our bank account that were definitely NOT made by either one of us, so we talked to the bank and cancelled our cards and filed claims...
I'm pretty sure it was my debit card info that was used because the bank's fraud center called my cell phone number instead of Brad's to confirm the suspicious activity or whatever.
$499 to Newegg.com does not fly with us and whoever did this had better get in trouble!
Jerks.
Taking money from a poor little pregnant woman.
Anyway, it's all a pain in the butt because now both Brad and I have to change our info for a million things like car insurance, health insurance, netflix, amazon...
I just don't understand how anyone got the info in the first place! We only trust our number with seriously trusted sites. :(
Oh well. The bank said we should get the money put back in and we've got new cards on the way.
Kind of puts a damper on my happy week, but nothing can keep me down, especially when rain is in the weather forecast. :D

Her is how Brad spends most of his time. Lol. (Thats a little xbox 360 mic he has on)
Peace out!

It's a long one!

I guess i've got some catching up to do!
The last week has been pretty busy, in both good and bad ways.
Brad has been crazy with school work and projects and finals coming up.
I feel like i've barely spent any time with him lately, which stinks, but it will be over soon.
That is, until Fall semester starts. Grr.
I've been able to spend some time with more of the girls from the ward though, which is wonderful.
After being in Rexburg, off and on, for 2 1/2 years, I finally feel like I have a group of friends!
Sure, when I was single I had my roommates, but still.
I think it was 2 Fridays ago that a bunch of us got together for a girl's night in the lounge.
It started at 9 and I didn't get home until after 1!
Brad stayed home and played Call of Duty with his friend Mark for a bit while I was gone.
Anyway, it was tons of fun!
We played some games and ate desserts and really got to talk and get to know each other.
Here's the group (I stole the pictures from Stephanie. Thanks!)

Yes, I know i'm ginormous!
Anyway, I love these girls and i'm so excited for all the future stuff we'll do together!
I think it was the following Sunday that Brad and I went over to Daryn and Mat's place and played games with them, as well as Stephanie and Hans.
Curses can get pretty crazy! Haha.
The next Tuesday was a RS activity on nutrition and fitness, which I gave a spiritual thought on.
I know, me giving a thought on nutrition and fitness is kind of an oxymoron, but I think I did alright. Lol.
It was fun; we learned about what kinds of foods are good for you and portion control and then we did some exercising for a bit.
I felt pretty lame since I couldn't do a lot of the things, like jumping jacks, but I tried my best with my lame modifications.
It was probably pretty funny to watch.
Saturday, I spent like 2 hours going to every store in town looking for a certain kind of Easter candy for Brad, but everyone was sold out!
It was kind of lame, but I made due with what candy and stuff I could find.
I really shouldn't put off Easter shopping.
Later in the day, I went with Daryn and Steph while they did their Easter shopping (and I bought some candy for myself. Darn impulse buys).
Brad and I tried to dye some eggs later, but the dye was cheap, and all the cute Martha Stewart ideas I was trying wasn't working, so we kind of gave up.
Sunday afternoon, in between conference sessions, I presented Brad with his Easter basket!
I made my own using leftover candy from his.
I think we've both been on sugar highs the last couple days. Haha.
Especially Brad. He's been extra kooky lately.
I spent a good chunk of Sunday trying to make some Easter cake pops from Bakerella's blog.
Basically, I was making balls of Red Velvet Cake on a stick.
Here are my hands as I was squishing the cake up with some frosting and trying to form the balls.
They were supposed to turn out like these, in the picture below...
... but everything went wrong!
I had forgotten to buy orange sprinkles for the feet and beak, so I decided to try and dye them somehow.
Unfortunately, I seemed to be out of red food coloring, so I couldn't really make the color orange.
Then the candy wouldn't melt right (the stuff that coats the cake balls) and it got all weird and crumbly.
So anyway, nothing was working out and now we have 30+ balls of cake on sticks sitting in our fridge.
I've been slowly eating them undecorated.
They taste really yummy, they just don't look so cute.
If anyone wants any, come on by! Lol.
Sunday evening was a pretty busy one.
I was making the cake pops for two different parties Brad and I were going to, both in the lounge, one right after the other.
First was with our friends the Ensigns and 2 other couples.
We all brought a dish, a drink, and a dessert and had a potluck type dinner.
We watched a movie on the TV in there and then played Apples to Apples for a bit.
While Brad and I were waiting for everyone to arrive (we were the only ones that live at University Courtyard, so everyone else had to drive over), we took some pictures.
I can't seem to get Brad to take a good picture of me, but these will suffice for now.
Here I am, just about 31 weeks along.

After the first party, we had a birthday party for Stephanie!
Daryn got together a bunch of us to bring spaghetti and garlic bread and salad and what not and we had dinner (the second dinner for Brad and me. Lol.)
Afterward we had cupcakes and played Pop 5.
Stephanie is so cute!
We're almost all caught up now! Yay!
Today I had my next check-up.
Everything is going along perfectly, thankfully.
I wish it was almost over, but i've still got 9 weeks to go.
I just want to lay on my back again and be able to breathe!
Not much is going on this week, apart from finals for Brad.
I've been trying to film my belly moving, because she goes CRAZY in there sometimes, but I never seem to have my camera accessible when it happens.
It is SO fun to watch!
I guess i'll just have to try harder to catch her in action.
Until then, I hope everyone is having a great April, even though it's snowed here almost everyday since the 1st of the month. Poo.