One Year Ago...

I could write pages on how our life was different one year ago, but last night I was reminded of how we spent our Saturday night exactly one year ago...

Our neighbors were having a Halloween party. The street was full of cars, they had games set up in the back yard, a bonfire in the back, and some loud music. It was not an obnoxious party, but it was not the type of party Dan and I would attend. I think we were coming home from a friend's house and were looking forward to a peaceful night's sleep. Assuming the party was ending soon, we had no reason to suspect differently.

5 AM... the doorbell rings. A minute later, the doorbell rings again. Dan wakes up and says "I think the doorbell rang." We were SO CONFUSED! We put our robes on, walked to the door and sure enough, some poor drunk soul was standing on our front porch wanting to come in. Dan (through the closed, locked door) tried to convince him he had the wrong house, but there was no hope for this guy. After 10 minutes of back and forth conversation, Dan finally told him to leave or we would call the cops-I was already on the phone in the back room. The guy's only response "Good, they will come sort this out."

Long story short... The cops came, the guy asked the cop to light his cigarette with a money clip and the cops happily escorted him home-somewhere on the East Side. An hour later we were left to go back to bed and attempt to sleep. This experience haunted me for nights, weeks, even months. Luckily I can laugh about this now.

I was reminded of this last night.... We were coming home from playing games with friends and 2 friends of our neighbors were walking outside in costume. They invited us over to join the party. It was late, but I told Dan he should go over just to take a picture for the blog-he declined. We got ready for bed, enjoyed a long peaceful night's sleep and had a great Sunday Day!

Surprise! Utah Part 2

Like I mentioned... We went to Los Hermanos on Tuesday for lunch and when I talked to my friend Susan that night she asked if I would be up for Los Hermanos on Thursday when we hung out (we had a busy day planned... maternity massages, shopping, afternoon naps as we watched "Jon and Kate Plus 8" and out to dinner.)
The answer... Of Course!

I should have been just a little suspicious. It's a good thing the baby seems to be "sucking my brains out" and it went right over my head!Manda and Susan planned a surprise shower for me and the baby! They sent invites out the week before and we all met at Los Hermanos in Pleasant Grove/Lindon Utah. (A couple friends couldn't make it-they live too far away.) Susan, Me, Miriam, Manda and Aimee were all there and we enjoyed DELICIOUS food, UNLIMITED salsa and chips and some frozen, non-alcoholic drinks! I LOVE!

Our little man got some new things, some of his only things since I mostly had girl things I had picked up along the way. He got a BYU hat, hooded towel, picture frame, a picture frame for the fridge, and a gift card. For me-cinnamon bears and a Willow Tree statue. It was great!

I should have picked up on the surprise... I called my friend Kristen who lives in Logan on Monday night, 10 PM her time and asked if I could come visit her Tuesday night late. When we got there, she had a little sweat suit for the baby all wrapped up! It had Music notes & and guitar on it, I told Dan it is the Baby's Guitar Hero Outfit. Luckily I am not that bright...
It was really great to visit Kristen and Jake and see their apartment! They got married in May, and of course we missed the wedding but I'm so glad they are still in Utah so I can visit! (Kristen and I were roommates in college.)

Also, we visited our friends the Larsen's in Centerville. This is our family away from home, always giving us a place to hang out for the weekends, a Sunday meal, and even filled in for my mom when she couldn't be there (like when I had my kidney stone removed- she came to the hospital when I woke up and then took me out to Cafe Rio for Lunch.)
Kris made our Little Man a hooded towel with sports balls on it. It is great because it will fit him as he gets a little bigger. We visited with her and Wayne and then watched movies on their projector. What a nice RELAXING night!
Dan went Frisbee golfing in the morning and Kris and I just hung out and talked. It was great!

Luckily I packed a 15 lb. tool set from my Dad for Miriam, so I had room to pack all of the extra things we were given (and the things I bought along the way.) We had a great trip!

*** I think I still need to post all of the great things Dan did while he was in Utah... That will be next!***

THANKSGIVING PANTS Utah Part 1

The real reason we go to Utah... FOOD
Dan and I arrived in Utah on Tuesday late morning. By Tuesday night we had visited Los Hermanos and Tucanos, 2 of my favorite restaurants, and on Wednesday for lunch- Cafe Rio.

Dan was there for work but Tucanos is his ALL TIME favorite restaurant. (Side note- at our wedding shower, we played the bubble gum game where they ask me ask me all of these questions about Dan and if I get the answer wrong, I have to put another piece of Bubblicious Bubble Gum in my mouth. They asked me what Dan's favorite place to eat was and I had NO idea... Sad to say, I added another piece of bubble gum to my already full mouth.)

So, Tuesday night we went to Tucanos in Salt Lake City with Dan's aunt Tina. The food was delicous, just like always, and we came out with FULL STOMACHS. I took a picture of Dan and noticed he was still wearing his sweats he put on at 4:30 AM when we left our house. I was wearing my first pair of maternity pants (I figured they would be more comfortable sitting on the plane all day.) We are SO CLASSY, but who cares! We needed somewhere to put the food-hence the Thanksgiving Pants!

***Friends Episode: The Rumor (with Brad Pitt)

Joey: (entering, wearing the maternity pants from earlier) All right where’s that turkey!

Phoebe: Joey! Those are my maternity pants!

Joey: Not now! These are my Thanksgiving pants!

The Baby...

Dan felt the baby move last night for the first time!!! We got back from vacation late Sunday night, and our whole trip I have been trying to get Dan to feel the baby. His strong movements seem to be so sporadic up until last night. :)

So that is the exciting news! I will blog about our vacation in the next couple days. At this point we are just trying to catch up on EVERYTHING, in addition to stay on top of everything we have going on this week. How long until the weekend?

Life's little victories...

This is our Baby!!! We had our ultrasound yesterday morning. It was scheduled on Tuesday (we leave to go to Utah next week and I needed to know before we went) so both Dan and I had to leave work to make the appointment and then go back to work. It ended up being a bigger pain than I had expected but I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE THE SUSPENSE. It was totally worth it, I think Dan would agree.

I was quite convinced it was a girl, and little by little I was convincing Dan that it was in fact a girl. I think Thursday night I asked him why he thought it was a girl and he said "Because they are definitely running out of boys." He wasn't sad, just resigned to the reality.

The last week was very interesting for me... I started to have dreams that we went to the doctor and they said girl, but we both really thought boy so we decided to go neutral (and it ended up being a boy) and then I had dreams we wouldn't be able to find out. It was just bizarre. And then, Friday morning I woke up and had this thought, "It is going to be a boy."

So I'm driving to the appointment and realized I should be prepared for any "unsuspected" news that we might get... for example "There are two!!!" or "There are only 8 toes" (and other more serious things than that. ) I just decided to be prepared and ready for anything.

We get to the appointment, we walk into the dark ultrasound room, the woman starts up the machine and we saw the baby!!! It was amazing! He was all curled up, like most babies are. But then he started MOVING like crazy and the tech could not get some of the measurements, (which is ok, because we get a re-check in 3 1/2 weeks at my next appointment.) She measured everything she could, everything was normal and healthy. (She did not count the toes, but I'm assuming there are 10...)
My favorite picture is this one because you can see the long legs stretched out.So, as she's showing us everything she finally gets a view "inbetween the legs." She points to something and says "It's a boy!" I turned to Dan, his hands go up in the air like the PACKERS just got a touchdown. I just looked at him in amazement- total disbelief.
At the end, when she was wrapping up, I asked her if I could see the p**** one more time-I didn't quite believe it. She found it, took a picture and printed it for us. :) Our poor son... this could be the #1 picture we show potential women 20+ years down the road...

Long story short, I am so excited about having a boy-still a little shocked but SO EXCITED!!! Dan tells me he has a lot to teach me about boys, which is an understatement.

He "put the stem on the apple" and couldn't be prouder. As we're walking out he says... "I'm going to have a Jack." (I told him Jack is still under discussion, but we'll save it for another day.)

It's all Baby...

I am officially 17 weeks tomorrow! Very exciting, but the baby bump/extra rolls around the midsection- not so exciting. It just kind of appeared in the last week. I don't show much when I'm wearing normal clothes, but the SPANDEX yoga pants can give you an accurate picture.I am experiencing some minor aches, particularly when I have a rough night of sleep. I attribute it to round ligament pains. Basically "Everything is growing, the ligaments are stretching." You've got to love hearing that all the time. :)

I decided the Wii Fit board and I would be friends again, 3-4 times a week. I keep reading that a little light exercise will give me energy, maybe even relieve some of the lower back pain. It worked on Monday, let's see if it will work tomorrow. We have a date 5:30 AM.

As for Dan. He is getting excited, he may not admit it but he is excited. He has even started to give me a little bit of sympathy. "What can I do to help?" is his common request as I am whining myself to sleep. He is always there to give a little back rub, turn the TV down way low at night (so it's almost on mute), and has been very good to give me a little extra space on the bed so I can be more comfortable.

We go to the doctor next week and will schedule the big ULTRASOUND then. I can't wait to find out the sex of the baby. For some reason, I think we are having a girl, but Dan tells me that's just because I want a girl. A lot of our friends are having boys, so my rational is "They must be running out of boys." Dan doesn't think it works like that. We shall see...

The perfect picture...

I was at the local "Home Depot" getting some keys made & some other odds and ends, AND I saw the most beautiful thing. A yellow butterfly, the size of my hand. BUT, it was stuck in the corner of the front window. I was in a hurry, like I always am, and decided to take a moment to "smell the roses." So, I watched the butterfly for at least a minute, it was really trying to break free but it was STUCK. I decided I would take a picture and then set it free (because I have seen on the discovery channel how to hold a butterfly without hurting it's wings-so I am a pro.)

HOWEVER... THE OPPORTUNITY PASSED!!! Our camera from time to time says "Memory Card Error" and I start and restart the camera at least 10 times until it does not have the error message. This has been going as long as I can remember, it is just totally random and has NOTHING to do with the memory card. I had tried everything.

So here I am, standing by the carts at "Home Depot" watching this butterfly, starting and restarting my camera for at least 10 minutes. It still says "Memory Card Error." Finally, I GIVE UP! I was so angry I decided to just save the butterfly, which did not cooperate, so I finally just left.

Yes, I am fully aware that I am the idiot. However, I irrationally tell Dan that I am buying a new camera and he kindly says "Did you ever call the company?" (This is usually my role in the relationship- calling to solve problems, get things for free, calmly discussing with businesses how they have let me down as the customer.) He got them on the phone, the company said to send the camera in for free and they would fix it! This camera is 5 years old! I was amazed. Plus they said they would fix the memory card door that I had taped shut since I dropped it in NC in January. I was pretty impressed!

So... long story short... Our camera was in the shop until this week. Sorry for the lack of posts. The camera came back today and I could not be happier, it's like a brand new camera!

Here is the picture I should have taken, if we didn't have a reject camera... You'll just have to imagine the Home Depot Window behind it. :)