A Carriage Ride

We decided to take a trip to a neighboring town and take a carriage ride to see some Christmas lights.  We luckily had the carriage all to ourselves.  They can hold up to four, but it would have been tight and just awkward facing another couple throughout the whole ride.

The cold, chilly air felt good to me, but poor Travis was freezing!  We enjoyed the ride through the quaint, little neighborhood and I think it helped us get into the Christmas spirit since we've mainly been preparing for the upcoming arrival of our baby.

Holiday Wreaths and Some Antique Door Knobs

I've been working on a lot of projects lately to try and get them done before the baby comes. Here are a few...

This pine cone wreath was a mammoth of a project. Here is the tutorial. If I knew how long it was going to take me (3-4 hours a day for 2 weeks) I would have thought twice about attempting it. Now that it's done though, and hanging up, I am glad I accomplished it. When my mom was in town we made a stop at Michael's and found a bin of mini pine cones for 80% off! Each bag was less than a dollar! We got a lot of bags because we weren't sure how many I would need. I didn't even come close to using them all, but a lot of them were unusable because they were malformed. Our place was such a mess while I was working on it. Pine cones were everywhere; all over the table and on the floor. I couldn't pick up the ones off the floor since most of them were under the table. Travis lovingly did once I was done. I think he was just so glad that I was finally finished that he would do anything to get the area cleaned up. Oh, and did I mention that they were scented? As I slaved over this wreath it felt like my nose hairs were being singed off from breathing in the scented fumes.

I saw another tutorial on how to make this ornament wreath. It is super easy and I think it looks really good. I found the ornaments at the Dollar Tree. They actually have a lot of cute Christmas decorations there if you've never checked them out. You can't beat paying a dollar for these ornaments.

I saw something like this in a store displaying things, but it wasn't for sale. I figured it would be easy to find some door knobs and a scrap piece of wood in my dad's wood shop to easily pull it together. I love going to antique shops and I found all the door knobs there. Some were expensive and others were really cheap so it cost a little more than I thought it would. I love it though and it was the easiest project I've done in a while. All I did was screw some holes in the board, counter sink the holes, find screws that fit the door knobs (they almost all needed different sizes/lengths) and paint the board! I love how it turned out!

BYU Vs. Fresno State

As soon as Travis found out BYU basketball was coming to Fresno to play Fresno State he knew he had to go.  Even if it meant dragging his, about to pop, pregnant wife.  We decided to be as prepared as we could be for the weekend in case the baby decided to come.  We had all the hopsitals from here down to my parents place on the GPS.  We forgot one important thing though-the car seat!  Luckily, the weekend was non-eventful in the labor department and we were able to enjoy our last trip sans baby!

Our good friends from law school, the Olsons, are living in the Fresno area and we were able to visit them before we headed over to the game. 

We got to meet their little boy, who is the cutest!  Too bad we didn't get a pic with him.  Next time.  We had lots of fun catching up with them and hopefully we'll get to see each other more often!

We met my family at the game.  My Dad and Mom were sporting Fresno State gear since it's my Dad's alma mater.  The game was good, but I had a hard time sitting there even though the seats were padded and comfortable.  It also didn't help that the arena was like a 100 degrees!  During half time we got up and walked around and got some ice cream which helped.  Luckily, basketball games aren't very long.  Oh ya, and BYU won!!  Go Cougs!

More Shower Fun & 36 Weeks

My sister lovingly decided to throw me a shower while I was in town for Thanksgiving. We played fun games, I received lots of good advice and I had a lot of fun being with family. If you can't see my sister very well in this picture, it's because my stomach is eclipsing her!



I've also reached 36 weeks!! Technically I'm 9 months even though I've got more to go (hopefully). He is head down and nice and low. The Dr. said I can have the baby at any time now. If he is going to come early, I'd like him to come in the next week or two, but if not, then I hope he hangs in there until after New Years!
Some things I'm going to miss about pregnancy just in case I don't make it to 40 weeks to report.
-Feeling him move.
-Tracking where he moves when he has the hiccups.
-Having him in my stomach where he is contained and behaving at all times.
-My clear skin.
-How fast my nails grow.
-Becoming instant friends with strangers who want to know the details about the baby.
-Feeling him karate chop and/or headbutt the inside of my left hip. Oh wait, I won't miss that!

What a Difference a Year Makes

We love tradition and luckily so do Kara and Aaron. Last year we had Kara and Aaron over for Baked Potato Soup and then headed out to see Twilight! This year we did the same thing and saw New Moon. I even said the prayer similar to what Travis said last year; thankful that Kara and Aaron could spend the night with us. Jokes ensued after the prayer, just like last year. Even though a lot was the same, there were a couple differences. One, being that New Moon was done better than Twilight and the men seemed to like it more. Also, Kara and Aaron added Gracie to their family and we are soon adding someone to ours!
It was a fun night and I was glad to get out since I've been feeling under the weather. We thought it was a great movie. After reading the book Travis was leaning toward Team Jacob and after seeing the movie he has turned to Team Jacob for good. I'm not all that thrilled about his decision.

We'll see what next year will bring us when Eclipse comes out!

Baby Shower

Kara decided to take on the task of throwing me a baby shower. I thought it would be best if we had a dessert bar since lately I've been wanting sweets like crazy. Kara went above and beyond by providing a chocolate fountain, making cake pops and chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. Other desserts that were brought were the cutest cupcakes and, my favorite sweet right now, 7 layer bars (aka hello dollies, aka magic bars). I had a great time! I appreciate everyone who came and loved everything I got! Thanks girls!

We also played a game called "Travis Says". Kara asked Travis questions prior to the shower and I had to correctly guess his answers. Some questions included, how did Kate tell you she was pregnant, what are you looking forward to the most about being a Dad, do you think the baby will come early, late or on time and what is the worst/annoying part about Kate being pregnant. Everyone at the shower read me a question and if I got it right, I could open their gift. If I got it wrong then they asked me another question until I got one right and then I could open their gift. Luckily I made it through everyone who was there without running out of questions.

My Mom was able to come up for the shower and stayed the weekend. We did a lot of shopping and she helped me get some stuff for projects that I hope to finish soon! Thanks again Kara!

I am also 8 months along! It is weird to say that I'll be having a baby next month. I'm actually hoping to go late (closer to my original due date, Jan 6th) so I hope it's not really next month. I want to be done with all the holidays and I think it would be kinda cool to have all 3 of us born in January. We would cover the beginning, middle and end of January. It would make for a busy month though.

Halloween Festivities

I think this is the first year that Travis and I actually dressed up for Halloween together. Since I'm pregnant we had a lot of couples to choose from. We contemplated dressing up as Britney Spears and K-Fed, Heidi Klum and Seal, and the couple from Juno. I didn't want to have to buy anything so that made our decision harder. In the end we decided last minute to dress up as Jim and Pam from The Office. We already had the appropriate clothes! Travis even made the name tags-it says Dunder Mifflin Paper Company along the bottom.

We were invited to attend a Halloween party this year. Some people that attended were Jon and Kate plus 8, a knocked up cheerleader and her quarterback boyfriend, a bun in the oven and a baker, a pea in the pod and a farmer, Glenda, the good witch, and the tin man, a pimp and his 'ho' and Amelia Earhart and Moses/Terrorist. If you can't tell there were a lot of pregnant ladies attending.

We split up into groups and competed in activities. Our first activity was a mummy wrapping contest. I don't have a picture of our mummy, but we won! We wrapped Amelia and she was covered perfectly from head to toe!

Our next activity was a relay race. The first person in the group had to run to a street sign and back. The second in line had to eat 6 Saltine crackers then try and blow a bubble of bubble gum. Once a bubble was properly blown the last person had to carry an egg in a spoon to another street sign and back without breaking it. Our team won again!!

Next, a member of our team had to use their mouth to dig through a pan of spaghetti and find 5 gummy worms. We came in second place, but we think there was some foul play involved because we were sure that we won that too.To end the competition we had to answer some trivia questions about Halloween. Oh ya, and we won that too! Our group was awesome! We had a fun night and thanks to Lindsey and Ed for such a fun party and for all their hard work putting everything together.

Halloween day was pretty low key for us. I gave Travis a hair cut, we watched football, and went for a walk. I made Chili again and Frozen Peanut Butter Pie for our Halloween feast. I made the pie because I like the spider web design. I wish I had a fake spider to put on the pie too, but no luck.

We ended the night watching a scary movie and waiting for Trick-or-Treaters. Unfortunately, we had no-none, zero, zilch Trick-or-Treaters. So we still have all our candy sitting on our counter that will most likely be consumed by us.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

San Diego

We just got back from a great trip to San Diego. Travis had a work conference down there and we thought it would be fun to make a little vacay out of it.

The beautiful view from our hotel room.

Our first day started with Travis' best friend, Brad, and his wife picking us up for lunch. We wanted to try a pizza place that we saw on Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. That show hasn't let us down yet. It was delicious!!

We spent the rest of Travis' lunch break by walking around an outdoor mall. Kirstie and I met two hotties while walking through one of the stores.

The next day we walked around our hotel and Seaport Village. This picture doesn't do it justice, but we saw the biggest yachts outside our hotel. I can only imagine what they cost.

We tried going to Hodad's for dinner the first night, but the line was out the door and down the street. We also saw a sign that said they were out of bacon! That's the whole reason why I wanted to eat there. We tried again the next night and got there earlier. We walked straight in and got a table and they had bacon a plenty! It was pretty good except their burgers were giant grease balls and I somehow spilled all over myself. The bacon "pattie" on my cheeseburger hit the spot though!

We visited Old Town, got some fudge samples (our husbands wouldn't let us buy any) and got scared to death by a man who we thought was a mannequin, but was real.

Saturday we saw some seals at La Jolla Shores and then headed over to Torrey Pines Gliderport to watch hang gliders do tricks.
Unfortunately, it wasn't very windy and we only saw two paragliders take off and they didn't do anything special. We then headed back to Brad's to watch BYU get their butts kicked by TCU.

On Sunday we went to Balboa Park to see the world's largest outdoor organ. They give free concerts every Sunday so we enjoyed a few songs and the nice weather.

Thanks for everything Brad and Kirstie!

Our New Tradition

Travis loves football. When we moved to this area he wanted to start a tradition of going to one high school football game every year. We started this tradition last year by going to a neighboring city's game. The team we saw had a BYU recruit, so he has reasons for what game we decide to go to. It was a just regular high school football game. Nothing special.

This year, Travis decided to watch our city's high school team because he knows a boy from church who plays on the team. We couldn't make it to a home game, but last Friday they were playing a neighboring city 10 minutes away. We showed up on the visitors side and didn't expect anything out of the ordinary.

It was the home team's homecoming. They had an awesome half time show where they turned off all the lights in the stadium. All the band members' and color guards' uniforms glowed in the dark and I have to say it was pretty cool! After the band played they had fireworks!! Legit fireworks, too! I thought the schools were in a budget crisis.

After they announced the homecoming queen and were getting ready to start the second half, their water polo team streaked the field! They weren't completely naked-they were wearing their tiny Speedos. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of that. They were running really fast!

Our team actually pulled out a win. It was a really close game, which made it interesting.

I don't know what team we will go watch next year, but I can't imagine that they can live up to our most recent experience. It was the funnest high school game I've been to and that includes all the ones I actually went to IN high school!

Goodbye 2nd Trimester

I have reached the end of my 2nd trimester! I have a feeling these last months will go by faster than I had anticipated. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I keep going back and forth.

I am 7 months along and he will be here whether I'm ready or not!

There is a reason why the 2nd trimester is known as the Honeymoon stage. I've enjoyed the increased energy, not having a raging appetite, and being able to eat most foods without getting sick.

And the thing I've enjoyed the most is my face clearing up! For once in my life I've gone months, yes months, without any zits! Also, my face used to get really oily and for months I haven't had to worry about it. I'm actually hoping this isn't pregnancy related because I don't want my face to go back to "normal" once my time is up. I did start using a different face lotion about the time my face started clearing up and being less oily, so I'm hoping that's my golden product. We shall soon see.

Now that most foods don't automatically trigger my up-chuck switch, I've been enjoying eating again. Also, my hankerings for certain things have gotten stronger and most recently include bacon, cheeseburgers, mexican food, and of course chocolate and peanut butter. I watched an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate, Bacon edition, and I was dying!! My mouth was salivating, my tummy was rumbling, I couldn't concentrate. It all looked so good and I needed to get myself some bacon! One of the things they featured was a bacon cheeseburger from a place called Hodad's in San Diego. We just so happen to be going to San Diego soon and I will be insisting that we go there-maybe more than once.

During my first trimester I couldn't stand anything sweet. Just seeing commercials on TV would give me that sick feeling in my stomach. It was the weirdest sensation knowing how much I love anything sweet, but feeling like I would throw up if it got near me.

Travis' sister, Michelle, has a theory about this. She thinks that if you don't crave sweets and crave salty things during the beginning of your pregnancy then you'll most likely be having a boy. And it's just the opposite for a girl. If you crave sweets at the beginning then you'll be having a girl. She is 3 for 3 (2 boys, 1 girl) and I'm 1 for 1 based on her theory as well.

I was starting to have anxiety over if I would ever be able to eat anything sweet again. Luckily, I'm proud to say that I have been cured. Since about the 13-14th week I slowly started to want sweets again. Now it's back with a vengeance. Almost like I'm trying to make up for all those weeks of not being able to eat anything sweet.

Some things on my sweet list are gooey brownies with chocolate sauce, peanut butter rice krispies smothered in chocolate, and chocolate cupcakes. Also those small, innocent cartons of Haagen-Dazs chocolate ice cream with peanut butter swirls, I just can't get enough of. I can down a whole carton in one sitting when supposedly there are three servings in there. Don't ask how many I've purchased in the last two months. Let's just say, don't worry about them going out of business any time soon.

I can't believe I'm nearing the end-7 down, 2 more to go! AHHH!

Halloween Wreath

I finally got around to making a Halloween craft this year. It will probably be the only one I get around to though. I love decorating for Halloween and there are a lot of things I'd love to make, but I feel like October is speeding by.

I've been seeing black feather wreaths here and there and I contemplate getting them. Some are too expensive and others, in my price range, look cheap. I went to Michael's to find some black feathers and to get as much as I would need would have cost a fortune. I decided to buy a feather boa instead. It wasn't the exact look I was going for, but I thought it would work. I bought two 6ft boas and headed for home. I still had a ton of wire left from my card/picture holder to use as the wreath form.

I made a form out of the wire, wrapped the boas around it and secured with twisty ties. I also used hairspray to make the feathers more stiff.

Here is the finished product. Travis lovingly refers to it as the Black Wreath of Death.

Wedding Fun

A couple of weekends ago, we drove down to the LA area for Travis' cousin's wedding. It was nice to see family and be apart of a lovely wedding. JR and his wife were sealed in the Newport Beach Temple. The area and temple were beautiful.

Here is the gorgeous couple!

This is the pregnant lady line-up. Suzanne, my cousin, (on the left) is due the beginning of December, I'm due the beginning of January and my sister in law, Michelle, is due the beginning of February. Oh, and we are all having BOYS! We all hope they will be the best of friends!

They had their reception on a boat called "Eternity", which we thought was appropriately named. The harbor looked absolutely picturesque at sunset.

The event was 'black tie optional' and let's just say lots of fits were thrown, not only by me, about trying to find something appropriate. To try to find a modest dress that is fancy enough for a large pregnant woman was not the funnest experience. I still don't know if it was worthy enough, but I at least I wasn't wearing skinny jeans and converse, like some dude there.

Here is a picture of the immediate family that came to the event. We took up a whole row.

We had a little too much fun taking pictures of ourselves...

We had a really fun night and probably the highlight for me was watching a drunken lady dance in a dress that was a little too short.

The next day we walked around Laguna Beach and had to have lunch at BJ's Pizza. It's the home of the original Pazookie. It's basically a freshly baked cookie with ice cream on top. Michelle has been making them for years in ramekin dishes. I loved having the original, but I like our version a little better. I think our ratio of cookie to ice cream is perfected.

While we were walking around down town we saw this cute telephone booth. This was our first picture attempt and as we were walking away we saw a couple getting their pictures taken with the telephone booth and they did cute poses. So, we went back after they left and tried again to take a cuter picture. Against Travis' will, I might add. That's why he is not smiling!

JR's wedding was a great excuse to get together with family, who we won't be seeing for Christmas this year, thanks to my little bun in the oven.