Baby Update

So I took this pictures last week, hoping that I would find time to post them some time this week and here we are, so they are a week late, but it doesn't mean we aren't excited.

I had another appointment with the doctor at 24 weeks and everything is going well. Heart beat sounds good, and my weight gain seems to be on track. As you can see from the picture our little girl is starting to make room for herself in my tummy.

I have started to feel her kick with more aggressively lately, which is kind of fun. I can know tell you they are kicks and not just flutters. Dan asked me the other day what it felt like, and the best way I could describe it was kind of like a bubble popping in your stomach.

In other news, we got ourselves a pack-n-play, from a couple on craigslist. It just so happened that when Dan was up there picking up from them he noticed they also had a crib that they were trying to get rid of. Along with the crib they were giving away a glider chair, so now we have all the furniture. The next task is I need to find fabric I like to create the baby blanket. Also, if we get ambitious enough, we might try reupholstering the chair. It's a project, but it could be fun.

Books

One of my goals this year was to read one new book a month. I enjoy reading, but I find that when I don’t focus on it I will find other things to do instead. That being said, so far this year I’ve done pretty well. I’ve read the following books each month:

January – Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

This is a book that I actually read as part of a book group. It’s a novel about two girls in nineteenth century China. The history and culture in this book were very interesting. The two girls talk about their experience with foot binding and other Chinese traditions. It was an interesting, quick read. 

February – Little Princes by Conor Grennan

I LOVED this one. Maybe it’s because of the memories of Nepal that it brought back for me. Or maybe I was just inspired by the power that one person can have. This is a true story based on Conor Grennan. He originally decides to take a year out of his life and travel the world. He starts his adventure off by volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal. It is here that he falls in love with the little boys that have been orphaned by children traffickers. During the civil war there, parents were promised that their children would be cared for in exchange for money, but the children were abandoned and left as orphans. It’s kind of sad what these kids go through, but most of the book is about Conor and his desire to reunite these children with their parents. He even started a nonprofit foundation in Nepal called Next Generation Nepal, whose goal is to reunite the families. It is amazing what he accomplishes.     

March - The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

This book was a very interesting read. The author takes a different subject each month and focuses on what she can do to make herself 'happier'. I think one of the things that I liked about this book, is that the author is not an unhappy person to begin with, so she just knows that there are things that she can do to make herself happier. Also she isn't perfect, so she shows that it's definitely something you have to constantly be working on. I love that she focuses on anything and everything from organization to relationships. It definitely helped me see that there are always ways that I can be happier about where and who I am.

April - Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis

Much like Little Princes this book is so inspiring. The book is about a young woman, Katie Davis, who right after high school travels to Uganda to teach kindergarten at an orphanage. The book talks about how she discovers that Uganda is where God wants her to be. She ends up staying and sharing the love that God has for all of His children with the children and people of Uganda. It’s amazing how much faith she has. She talks about how even on her hardest days, she sees these people and feels God’s love for them and longs to share it with all of them. Not only is her determination, but her faith is very inspiring.     

April Bonus - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This was actually the second time that I've read this book, so it doesn't really count as one of the new books I read this year. But I reread it in preparation to go see the movie. It’s definitely a quick read. It seemed that once I got started with it I couldn't put it down. I really enjoy books that keep me moving through them.

I have a couple other books that I will be picking up in the next couple of months, but as always looking for any good suggestions that you may have.

A Long Update

 So if you follow my blog at all you would probably think that Dan and I are still on our honeymoon. And although at times I wish we were, we definitely aren't and a ton has happened since than. You'll just have to bear with me, because this could be a long post.  Especially since Dan and I are nearing 10 months of being married.

When we got back from our honeymoon we had our open house in Arizona. We were blessed enough to be able to hold our open house at the house of one of the counselors in my Bishopric. We were so grateful for their generosity and the generosity of all those who helped prepare food and decorations. It was wonderful to celebrate our wedding with all of our family and Arizona friends. Our friend Annie (who did our engagement pictures) was wonderfully enough to also take some at our open house. 

Getting back from our honeymoon meant getting back into real life. To be honest the first week back was a little hard, but we did it. Not for too long though before we headed away on another vacation. Pioneer Day is one of those holidays that is only really celebrated in Utah. Pioneer Day's is a big holiday for Dan's dad who is up in Utah, so we decided that we would head up there. We went to the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days, so that Dan could go fishing with his nephew, we went to the Spanish Fork rodeo and spent some time with Dan's dad.

Also when we were up there his Grandparents had their 50th Wedding Anniversary, so they decided to have a family reunion at Fish Lake. I was excited to go to Fish Lake. I remember my mom always talking about the trips that they would make to fish lake when she was little.

It was fun to get the opportunity to meet all of Dan's family, although I'll say it was a little overwhelming because there are so many of them. (11 kids between his mom and dad, no to mention all his Aunts and Uncles). When we got back from our adventures in Utah, it really was back to normal life. Between work for both Dan and I, school for Dan and our callings in the ward we stayed pretty busy. Hence the lack of blogging.

It wasn't until October that we had anything else of note. In October, my family came out from California to witness the wonderful marriage and sealing of my brother Rob to his wonderful wife Anna in the Mesa Temple. I don't think that I have ever seen my brother so happy... I was happy for them both. If was fun to see all my family when Dan and I weren't the focus of all the attention.  

At the end of October, Dan and I celebrated Halloween by carving some pumpkins. I found the idea for the cute little pumpkins on someone else's blog (I don't who anymore) but I wanted to try it. I think they turned out so cute. I also liked getting the white pumpkin that I turned into a cat. You can tell who likes having cute things for Halloween (me) and who likes the scary part of Halloween (Dan).

November brought Thanksgiving. We were excited this year, because this year we got to spend Thanksgiving in one of my favorite places... Gunlock, Utah. I love Thanksgiving at Gunlock, because I get to spend time with my family, enjoying down time with them and out in nature around Gunlock. We had our annual Thanksgiving Day parade, so much better than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

This year we even had a 5K race. It was fun to be out running. Rob ending up winning, which wasn't a big surprise, but we enjoyed the run, even for those to walked some of it. 

We also took our annual family pictures. This year we added (which we are definitely grateful for) two new people to our family pictures. So fun to have a picture of everyone together.

 

Sadly, Dan and I didn't take many pictures for our first Christmas together. The only picture that I took were of the stockings that I created for Dan and I. I think they turned out really well. I'm glad that my mom has taught me how to sew, because I enjoy working on projects. 

We stayed home in Arizona, put up a tree in our house and celebrated at home before heading over to Dan's mom's house for Christmas afternoon. To be honest I'll admit that it was a little weird to not be home for Christmas, because I'm always go home to California for Christmas. It's fun to learn new and experience new traditions for Christmas.

And finally we are into this year. There hasn't been much that we done of note up to this point this year. Dan is currently looking for a new job while still working at the bank, I'm still working as a traffic engineer, we both are staying really busy with our church callings. I'm working with the young women, which has been really good, but challenging in it's own right. Dan is currently serving on the Elder's quorum presidency.

One of the things that I've done is create a Mormon.org profile. It was part of our ward mission plan to set up a profile. Click here to check it out. I would highly recommend to anyone else to create their own profile on Mormon.org. It's a really easy way to do missionary work.

Another things that I've gotten into lately (thanks to my sister) is Pinterest. It's been a great place to store recipes that I want to try, crafts that I think would be fun to make, or other fun stuff you find at random online. It's basically an online peg board for anything that I want to be able to find later.

Last but definitely not least Dan and I are REALLY excited to announce (at least on the blog) that we are expecting a little girl into our family in September. This last week I was at 20 weeks, which means that I'm officially halfway through my pregnancy!

Up until this point, my pregnancy has been really easy. The most exciting part of finding out we were pregnancy was hearing the heartbeat for the first time. I've been lucky enough to not really get any of the morning sickness that most women experience during the first trimester. Other than the fact that I get up in the middle of the night to go to the restroom, been a little more tired than normal, my clothes are starting to get a little tighter, and I'm starting to feel the little flutters of our baby girl in my stomach, I wouldn't think I was pregnant. We had a couple ultrasounds of our little baby which has been really fun. There is something amazing about actually seeing our little baby for the first time. Everything about the baby looks healthy so we are super excited. As of our last appointment the baby weighed 10 oz and I had gained 1 lb. The doctor wanted me to gain more weight by our next appointment, which I thought was funny, because I've been eating like crazy lately, just not gaining weight. We got a REALLY cute dress and head band bow from a friend earlier this week, and it made more more excited cause she is going to be really cute. I LOVE little clothes, especially the clothes for little girls.

Things I definitely look forward to are getting more cute clothes for my little girl, feeling her move more and finally having Dan be able to feel her move as well. Since we now know it's a girl we are also currently trying to pick a name for her. We are so excited and I will definitely be better about keeping my blog updated.

Honeymoon- Canmore Nordic Center

So on our way back into Calgary we stopped at the Nordic Center in Canmore. It was the location of all of the cross country skiing events for the 1988 Winter Olympics. I have a dream of some day going to see something at the Olympics, so I thought it would be cool to see. Dan got even more excited when he found out that it is used in the summer for mountain biking. We sat and waked the mountain bikers for a while. It was a wonderful day to sit outside. I think that Dan was a little jealous that he didn't have his bike with him. Maybe next time we head to Calgary.
You will be happy to know (as am I) that thing brings us to the end of the post from our honeymoon. We had so much fun, we will never forget it. And we would highly recommend anyone who loves the mountains or anything beautiful to head to Banff in the summer.

Honeymoon- Johnston Canyon

Our last full day in Banff, we headed out to Johnston Canyon in the morning. It was a beautiful hike up a canyon. The hike walked along Johnston Creek up the canyon. At some points along the path the trail was along catwalks that were built right into the side of the canyon wall. We unfortunately didn't get any pictures of the catwalks. But we did take some pictures of the beautiful waterfalls that we saw.

Honeymoon- Columbia Icefield

On our way back down from Jasper we stopped to check out the Athabasca Glacier which was part of the Columbia Icefield. First of all it was amazing to see a glacier that close, but it was also amazing to see how much the glacier has shrunk over the past few years. There was a trail that hiked up to the glacier and there were different signs along the path, that marked where the glacier had been during different times. I was kind of sad that we didn't actually get to walk out on the glacier, but it's dangerous, so they limit the number of people who can go out on the glacier. We could have taken a tour, but decided not to. It was still really cool to see though.

It's a New Year

So it's the New Year... and yes I'm still here. I find that like so many other things the further I get behind and the more that backs up for me to do, the less often I seem to find time to catch up. So to kick off the New Year, I'm just letting you know I'm here. Life is still good. Work is keeping me busy. My calling at church, working with the Young Women also keeps me busy. I love working with the girls. It's been fun to get to know them. Life with Dan is also going well. We went on a wonderful bike ride last week which I really enjoyed, and it was fun to spend our first Christmas together. So here is a resolution for this year. I will do better at not getting so over whelmed by things that I fall behind on. I will just move forward.

Happy New Year to all.