Jonny and Alli

Back to Logan!

2012-01-21T15:54:00.001-07:00

After what seemed like ages, we finally made it back to Logan.

Soph never sleeps in our arms anymore. She was so wiped out from the trip though, she slept in my arms multiple times, and I definitely took advantage of the snuggles!

Ever since we've been home Sophie has been enjoying all of her presents. Of course, her favorites are the things other people got her. She spends most of her time kissing her leap frog toy and playing her piano.

Here she is, reading her new book from Kristen and Isaac. She loves to carry the little animals with her everywhere she goes...

And here she is with her piano...

She plays with this thing all day long, it is so cute. The other day we stripped her down in the living room to check out a rash she had, and she wriggled out of my arms and B-lined it straight to the piano...

Jonny and I got her a play pen that I got during Black Friday. She was terrified of it :(

I tried going in with her, but it didn't help much.

Jonny and I actually use it more than she does! We have competitions to see who can make the most shots into the blue hoop at the top (I always lose). Maybe when she's a little older she'll like the blow-up thing, but for now we just make a mess and play with the balls :)

Christmas Break - Seattle

2012-01-19T09:51:00.007-07:00

This Christmas was awesome - we went up to Seattle to be with Jonny's sister Kristen and her cute little family. It was quite the drive up there! We drove with Jonny's parents and left at 3 am so Sophie would be asleep for as much of it as possible. Lucky for us, she is a champ in the car and didn't cry once!

I was so glad she had her leap frog toy, it occupied her attention for hours!

Kristen and Isaac live in Auburn, which is where I decided I want to live :) It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I don't like a lot of heat, and while I don't hate the cold, I definitely prefer cool/mild weather. I also love rain, so I think Washington and I are a match made in heaven. And Auburn was just a picture perfect place, in my opinion, so we will definitely be looking for jobs up there! (plus, that's where Kristen and Isaac live, so that's reason enough to want to live there!)

Anyways, we had a great time. They took us to see the "blue house"

Crazy, huh??

On Christmas Eve we had cheese fondue, which I swear, gets better and better each year. It was delicious!

I was so excited for Christmas this year, because of Sophie. She's still too young to understand what was going on, but we had fun anyway :)

Here she is, going through her stocking...

She loves those little books, and carries them around the house with her..

Jonny and I enjoyed our stockings as well...

Soph had no interest whatsoever in opening the presents. At least she enjoyed them afterwards!

Her cousins, on the other hand, were seasoned pros...

Of course, we had to stop for a bottle break...

Then went back to work on the presents...

Eli gave Sophie some piano lessons to show her how her new toy worked :)

On the last day we were there (Monday) we drove into Seattle. We made a quick stop at Pike's Place...

It was fun to see them throw the fish around!

One of the main reasons we went into the city was to go to Red Mill Burgers, which was featured on Man vs. Food. Unfortunately, they are closed on Mondays! We still had fun though, and it made me want to live in WA even more!

It was such a great Christmas! We love the Lind family and had a great time with them :)

Oh, and here is a video of Sophie singing in the car. Adorable.

Christmas Break - Highland

2012-01-12T09:22:00.015-07:00

We spent a good portion of our break in Highland, at my parents' house. We had a great time!

One day we all got together and made gingerbread men and houses. The kids were so cute, and went straight to work.... eating the frosting.

I gave Sophie a cookie, which she loved!

But then I got in trouble from Grandma for not putting frosting on it!

She went to work dipping her finger in the frosting and eating it very daintily :)

While she was occupied with that, I went around to see what everyone else had come up with. Ash made a traditional gingerbread man...

Drew.... did not.

His gingerbread man was eating another gingerbread man. Typical :)

Then there was Lexi's....

She struggled... then said it was Lady Gaga :)

I made my way back around to Soph, who had decided to throw her previous technique out the window and just dove right in!

I refrosted that cookie 3 times, and she loved every minute of it!

She even offered to share with her daddy :)

This picture reminds me of Drew when he was little...

He would always stick things on his face like that.

What can I say? My family is a little strange...

I'm the normal one, I promise :)

We spent the rest of the time there playing games, eating good food, watching movies, and just relaxing! Sophie loves her cousin Jackson. All he would have to do is look and her, and she'd giggle!

He loves her too, and always asks if he can hold her...

(I promise he was happy here, this is just how he would smile for pictures!)

Sophie also loves my parents' dogs. They love her too, but for different reasons :)

They definitely know where to sit if they want to be fed.

Because we weren't going to be there for Christmas, we got to open our gifts a little early. Sophie didn't understand it yet, but it was still fun to watch.

We exchanged this for the Leap Frog version, which is what my mom tried to get in the first place, and it is one of her favorite toys. She smiles everytime she sees it!

Lexi got her a tutu! It's still a little big, but so darn cute :)

Thanks to Mom and Dad for the awesome gifts! We sure are spoiled :)

When we got back from Seattle we went to Highland again, and Lexi and I made some delicious toffee cupcakes...

And I convinced my mom to get Just Dance for the wii, so we played that a ton. It was a great trip!

Christmas Break - Logan

2012-01-11T22:34:00.013-07:00

We had a nice long Christmas break, which was split up between Logan, Provo/Highland, and Seattle. I'll start with Logan, before we went out of town.

I put up our tiny little tree, knowing Sophie was going to love it a little too much...

Guess how long it lasted before she decided she just had to touch it?

About 2.5 seconds.

After a couple of days the bottom half of the tree was clear of ornaments, and they were all later found under the couches :)

We went to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party this year, for Jonny's HR cohort. I found this little number for Sophie at the DI...

My outfit came courtesy of the DI and Walmart...

And Jonny's? Well, his was courtesy of his sweet, loving wife, who just wanted him to look his best :)

I couldn't find a sweater for him, so I made one. I think it turned out pretty good :)

He is such a good sport. He wore this sweater (if you can even call it that) with pride!

We had a great time at the party, and Jonny won a really nice jacket, which was awesome!

Internship!

2011-12-16T12:39:00.003-07:00

Jonny was just offered an HR internship with The Industrial Company for next summer! It's so exciting! The pay is fantastic and they said their goal is to hire on their interns after their internships, so it could very well turn into a job.

BUT, we haven't decided if we are going to accept it yet. He is in the interview process with a few other companies, and we just really want to make sure we make the right choice. The problem is that the other companies are taking their sweet time to make decisions, and we have to decide fairly quickly if we want to accept this offer. Yikes!

Who knows what will happen, it just feels so good to get an offer!

A Non-Sophie Update :)

2011-12-13T12:31:00.006-07:00

I get so focused on blogging about Sophie, I forget to talk about Jonny and I! So here's what we have been up to lately...

Jonny is loving school. I am so glad he has something he loves so much, he is definitely the kind of guy who will be excited to go to work every day! Here he is leaving for school, looking very handsome, of course...

He is in the middle of taking finals right now, so he has been super busy. Because he loves all of his classes though, it's not so bad. He is currently looking for an internship for next summer. He's in the middle of the interview process with a couple different companies, so wish us luck!

Jonny also got voted to be the president of the MSHR Student Association, which is really exciting. Forgive me for being prideful, but I am so darn proud of him! What a stud!

I am doing the same old thing, taking care of the sweetest baby ever. Seriously. As I am typing this she is laying her head on my leg, giving me snuggles. Love her :)

I forgot to mention that we had our annual shopping trip with my grandparents and all of the aunts/cousins. We went to witches night out, so naturally we had to wear our witch hats!

We had Thanksgiving at my parents' house this year, with all of my siblings who live in Utah. Of course, my parents weren't even there because they took Lexi and escaped to Hawaii for a week! We had a lot of fun, but sadly I didn't take any pictures.

I went Black Friday shopping for the first time this year, and it was a blast. Katie, Ashley, and I went to see the new Twilight movie (which I may or may not have laughed so hard in, that I had tears running down my face. It wasn't supposed to be funny....whoops!). Then Ash and I hit up Walmart. We were in and out in an hour, so it wasn't bad at all.

Then we went to Kohls, where I wanted to get a walker toy for Sophie. I was running through the store, frantically asking people if they had seen it. I finally found a lady who told me where they were and I sprinted to the other side of the store like a maniac. It was well worth it though, because I got the very last one :) It's not like I bought any really expensive items, but I had fun chasing down the things I wanted. It was very successful! It was also very tiring though, and we didn't get home til around 3am.

The biggest thing that's happened lately is that we moved...again. We were only in that apt for about 5 months, but an apt came along that we couldn't refuse! Our friends called one day and said there was an opening in their 4-plex, and it was $200/month cheaper than what we were currently paying. Considering that we are in school and trying to save as much money as possible, we went for it! Our new place is pretty decent considering the price, and the living room is much bigger, so we're very glad we did it.

That's all I can think of, so I'll leave you with an awesome picture of Jonny :)

New posts!

2011-12-02T09:03:00.002-07:00

Be sure to scroll down, I finally caught up on blogging! There are a bunch of new posts, so don't miss em :)

Someone might get mixing spoons for Christmas...

2011-12-02T08:33:00.003-07:00

I don't think I will ever understand why babies like the things they do. Sophie has some really cute toys, but what does she always prefer to play with?

The toys that aren't even toys. Figures!

Some of her favorites are:

mixing spoons

empty water bottles

spice jars

my hairbrush

cardboard boxes

and of course, my cell phone

In an effort to find her a toy that she loved (and that was actually a toy), I took her to the store to pick out a doll. She was pretty grumpy when we went, so I figured if one could make her smile we'd get it.

There were a lot of cute ones, but no matter how many I held up to her, she just scowled at them.

Then I grabbed one without really thinking about it. It was only $3, and for good reason. The other dolls I found were adorable and clearly much nicer. This one was not adorable. Or nice.

But I held it up to her anyways.

I wish I had her reaction on camera! Her eyes lit up, she broke into a huge grin, and started giggling. When she reached for the doll, I gave it to her, and she promplty began to cover it in slobbery kisses.

You have got to be kidding me. It was so sweet, but why couldn't it have been a better one?

Needless to say, we came home from Walmart that day with the ugliest doll they had...

Oh well. The heart wants, what the heart wants.

9 Months

2011-12-01T22:13:00.002-07:00

I realized I never posted Sophie's 8 month pictures on the 8 month post.. Oops! Here they are:

Gotta love those chubby cheeks! :)

Well, the little bean is now 9 (1/2) months old! Here are some updates...

I went to go check on Soph during her nap, and this is what I found..

It's hard to tell in the picture, but she was sitting up, then slumped forward and fell asleep. So darn cute.

She is growing beautifully, and has stayed around the 50th percentile for height and weight

Sophie used to cry when strangers looked at her, now she LOVES people, which I am very happy about! She hams it up for people she doesn't know. She loves to pull a huge cheesy smile and put on a show for them. Only 9 months old and she already knows how to get people to melt and fawn all over her :)

She crawls like a madwoman now, and can walk around if she's holding on to something (usually the couch)

She absolutely loves being chased and throws herself into fits of giggles when Jonny chases after her. They always play this game where he crawls behind a corner, she starts to go after him, then he comes out (crawling) and chases her. She turns around, squealing, and tries to get away. She never gets very far though, because she usually ends up just falling to the ground, giggling :)

Sophie's laugh is hilarious. I need to get a video of it on here. Instead of a normal laugh, she sucks in air while making a squealish-type noise. She holds this for a few seconds, then does it over and over until she starts coughing. It is so funny!

Due to some constipation issues (poor girl) we have been trying to give her juice. We've tried prune, grape, and apple and she hates them all! What kind of kid hates apple juice?? It is so weird. Whenever we give it to her she pulls a face and won't let the bottle back in her mouth. Silly girl!

Oh my gosh. My daughter is heartless. She thinks crying is just about the funniest thing ever. Whenever she hears a baby cry she laughs so hard! When a baby starts to fuss or seems like they might cry, she gets a huge smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye and leans in, just waiting for the tears. It's kind of disturbing, but incredibly amusing at the same time :)

And here are her 9 month pictures...

Look at those teeth!

By the way, she was wearing her jeggings in these pictures (jean leggings) which are one of the greatest inventions ever for babies! When her regular jeans would fit her lengthwise, they would be so tight on her belly that we couldn't button them. If we did button them, she couldn't sit up because the pressure of the pants on her belly would make her topple over backwards :)

Marathon!

2011-12-01T21:14:00.006-07:00

If I wasn't so terrible at blogging, I would've mentioned this a long time ago, but Jonny ran the St. George marathon again!

We drove down the day before and stayed the night in Hurricane with Grandma. Aunt Lexi helped me get Sophie ready for bed that night, and this is what she ended up looking like...

I somehow didn't get a "before" picture of Jonny, but here is Aaron the morning of the race (he was the only other family member who ran):

They went to the DI to get warm clothes to wear at the beginning of the race, and then toss to the side. This year was so warm though, they could've done without them.

Jonny trained better for this one, and we thought he would do great. When he did his 20 mile run, he felt awesome and ran it at a pace that would lead to a 4 hour marathon. We figured with the adrenaline from the race, he could do it in 4 hours, no problem.

Unfortunately, he hurt his knee in the race :( The poor guy was in so much pain. He walked the last 6 or so miles, and he was so disappointed. I was still very proud of him though, because even though he had to walk that much he still did well :)

He is still having problems with his knee, so he's been taking it pretty easy. He plans on running another marathon though! We think if he does one that doesn't have as much downhill, it won't be so bad on his knees. He's determined to get under the 4 hour mark!

Pumpkin Walk

2011-12-01T20:55:00.002-07:00

A while back we went to the Logan Pumpkin Walk. Because of Sophie we went during the day, and even though it was pretty fun, it would've been even better at night when all the pumpkins were lit. Oh well!

The displays were so cute! For some reason when I loaded the pictures off the phone, they got messed up :( This one is the worst...

Sophie loved looking at the pumpkins...

Angry birds and Despicable Me were my favorite displays :)

It was a great family outing!

Halloween

2011-11-29T19:13:00.009-07:00

Jonny and I have never really done anything for Halloween, but because of Sophie, we decided to dress up and carve pumpkins this year. It was her very first Halloween, after all!

I saw the cutest idea on Pinterest: stick your baby in a pumpkin. Sophie was a good sport about the whole thing. When we first put her in it she immediately started chewing on it, but stopped once she realized how bad it tasted.

Considering the fact that Sophie had missed a nap and was grumpy, and it was really cold outside, and I have ZERO photography skills, I think I got some good ones :)

She caused quite the scene at our complex, people even came out of their apartments to see her :)

Here is Jonny's pumpkin...

And here is mine...

Last year after Halloween, I bought Sophie a spider costume for 85 cents. Yup, 85 cents. I decided Jonny and I would be spider webs so we would all match for our ward Halloween party. Our spider web costumes looked good for the first few minutes, but as time went by they looked worse and worse. At least Soph looked adorable!

She makes this face all the time, you can see it better here...

All in all, I think it was a great Halloween. We had a lot of fun!

8 Months

2011-11-10T09:37:00.008-07:00

Here are some updates about Sophie from when she turned 8 months old...

She said her first word on October 12th (the day before Jonny's birthday). It was "dada!" She says it all the time now, as well as babbling "nana" and "yaya" repeatedly :)

She loves dogs. When we go to my parents' house she chases them around, giggling, and they don't scare her at all!

Thank you to Kristen and Isaac for this, she loves it!

She's obsessed with climbing over things. I mean, obsessed. Everytime I sit on the floor with her she claws her way up my body, gets down, then does it again.

When she turned 8 months old she wasn't crawling yet, but would get in crawling position and rock back and forth. She would also hold herself in push-up position.

Sadly, she doesn't sing very much anymore. Pretty much ever since she was born she would sing in this high-pitched voice. It was the cutest thing ever. I would wake up in the morning to the sound of her singing in her crib. Unfortunately she grew out of this :( The only time she does it now is when she gives kisses. I think it's because while she kisses me I say "aawwww" in a high voice, so now she does her sing-song voice while kissing :)

She gets the hiccups when she laughs really hard - without fail :)

She was sooo relaxed in her Grandma Katseanes' arms!

She ate her first graham cracker at Grandma Lords' house and LOVED it!

2011-11-09T16:36:00.002-07:00

So, the American Academy of Pediatrics came out and said that bumper pads should be removed from cribs. They said they don't prevent injury, and can cause suffocation.

Well, we tried it out. Within just minutes of putting Sophie down for a nap she started screeching. I ran in to find that her leg had slipped through the bars and she was stuck :( After pulling her out and wiping away the tears, the bumper pads went back up.

I figured if she can still breathe like this...

...then I think she'll be ok.

Don't worry, I unraveled the blanket from her head after I found her...and after snapping a quick picture :)

6-7 Months

2011-10-08T09:25:00.016-06:00

I'm behind on blogging. Again. I just don't have the motivation for it, but I want to keep going because I like keeping a record of things.

So, here goes another catch-up post.

Sophie is now 8 months old, but I'll just cover months 6-7 here.

6 month pictures:

Can you tell I'm losing motivation for these pictures too? I didn't even wait to get a smile!

7 month pictures:

I know I say this all the time (as does every other parent) but she is really growing up so fast!

She loves to stand! We hold her hands for her and she thinks she is so big, it's adorable.

She babbles all the time now. She even says her first word, but I'll save that for the 8 month post :)

When she gets a hold of a new object, she goes through the same routine to make sure it's acceptable. First she will hold it and stare at it. Then she'll rotate it in her hands repeatedly, flipping it over and over. Next, she brings it to her lips, then back to look at it, then back to the lips, then back to look at it... (this step usually takes the longest). Then she brings it into her mouth, licks it, then brings it back to look at it, and repeats that a few times. Once she has deemed it safe, she chews and sucks on it until it is sufficiently covered in drool. What a weirdo :)

She learned how to sit up all by herself! She went from not being able to hold herself up at all, to propping herself up on her hands (see below), to fully sitting up all in about a day. Babies are such quick learners!

She is learning how to crawl. She learned how to scooch herself forward on her belly when she was 7 months old, but in the past week or so she can get into crawling position (she just doesn't know how to move forward yet!) The cutest part is that whenever she "crawls" she giggles the entire time, like she's having a blast!

She loves my hair. A lot. We're hoping she'll get her own one day, but for now she's still a baldy!

Back in August (at age 6 months) she cut her first tooth! She was fussy for about an hour and that was it. Then about 2 days later she cut another, with no fussing at all. I tried to get a picture of her tiny little teeth, but it was harder said than done...

You can kind of see them here...

I'll have to try again now that they've grown in a lot more.

I decided to finally take a picture of what she looks like when she cries. She doesn't full-on cry a ton, but when she does her whole face and eyes get red and splotchy. Is that normal?!

These are some of my favorite pictures of her recently. She's so silly :)

She's grown so much lately! I think the thing I've noticed the most is her level of comprehension. She just seems to be much more aware and she understands so much more around her. It's so neat to watch her stare at something and try to make sense of it. I love it!

2011-09-19T19:20:00.004-06:00

I am so excited. This little beauty just came in the mail today...

It's the Breville Juice Fountain Plus. We just used it for the first time and made some delicious grape-apple juice. I can't wait to start experimenting with this thing...

LOL :)

2011-09-13T17:08:00.001-06:00

2011-08-28T12:51:00.001-06:00

I was kind of skeptical of pinterest at first, but now I love it. It's so fun to browse through crafty ideas and yummy recipes. I've noticed a lot of people use it more as a place to daydream - you know, "pin" things that they know they won't ever have. While that's great and all, I try to be a little more practical.

I've actually gotten some pretty good ideas from it!

For starters, I found these oreo truffles...

They were so good and we even made them for my brother's wedding. I also found a recipe for rolo cupcakes, which Lexi and I tried out...

While I didn't like the cake itself on these, the caramel buttercream was amazing. I have made a few other recipes that I've found and they are delicious!

I'm not usually a crafty person, but pinterest has inspired me :) I made this birds nest necklace..

It's not near as cute as the example, but considering I did it in under 5 minutes, I think it turned out ok.

I also found this cute idea...

I made this "can of dates" for Jonny, and it's full of different, cheap date ideas. This isn't the actual can I made, mine didn't turn out as cute (I told you I wasn't crafty...)

Anywho. Just wanted to share my newest obsession with you all :)

Our New Apartment

2011-08-26T11:33:00.028-06:00

We moved into our apartment in Logan back in May, but it feels like we just barely settled in. We have been going back and forth from Logan to Highland to Provo for the past few months, so hopefully we can stay put for a while!

Now that we are a little more settled I decided to take pictures of our new place. We really like it so far. It has a pool (which we haven't used) and a gym, which I am proud to say I have been to multiple times! And there is a playground, which will be fun when Soph gets a little older.

We'll start out in the back of the apartment, which happens to be the ugliest :) We put all of our pictures/home decor in the front of the apartment, where it can be seen. And considering the fact that this is just another temporary home, we don't feel the need to go waste money on decorations for our bedroom/bathroom.

So here is our bedroom, bare walls and all...

This is the biggest bedroom we've had, by far, which only makes it look that much more empty without anything on the walls

And then we head into the master bathroom...
(Notice the bar stool at the desk. Yep, we're classy like that)

We have a walk-in closet, which I love..

When you come down the hall a bit you'll hit the guest bathroom..

See? This looks much cuter. The colors even match! :)

Then across from the bathroom is Sophie's room...

We bought her a changing table, which we really like. It's much easier to change diapers on there than on the floor.

And I absolutely love her crib! We got it for a great deal!

I spent forever looking for crib bedding, and only found 1 set that I really liked (that wasn't ridiculously expensive). I'm glad I spent so much time looking though, because I love what I ended up with!

When you walk down the hall there are some storage closets, and this adorable picture of Sophie :)

And then the kitchen...

The one thing I don't like about this apt is that there is a hallway kitchen. It's extra-wide so it doesn't really feel like a hallway, but I wish there was more counter space.

I love the cabinets though, it is nice to finally not have cabinets that can give you splinters :)

My favorite part of this apartment is right through these doors...

A washer and dryer! We got these for such a good deal, and I love them. No more laundry mats, and no more doing laundry at our parents' houses.

After we leave the kitchen we enter the family room (and there is our front door)

As you can tell from looking out the glass doors, we live on the first floor. I love not having to climb stairs with a baby!

There is still some empty wall space here, but again, I don't want to go buy a bunch of stuff for a temporary apartment.

And that's pretty much it! Hope you enjoyed the tour :)

Minute to Win It

2011-08-13T08:27:00.021-06:00

I'm sure you have all seen (or at least heard of) minute to win it. It's a gameshow where the contestants have 60 seconds to complete a certain task. For each level they complete, they earn more money.

My sister Andrea set up the game for our family, and it was so much fun! We played on teams and took turns completing the tasks.
Here are (most of) the things we did...

Throwing a water bottle and making it land standing up

Using your knees to balance a tennis racket and get the ping pong ball to stay put in a certain square

Drop coins into a bucket of water and get them to land in a shot glass inside the bucket

Blow up a balloon and use the air to knock a stack of cups off of the table

Stack oreos on your forehead

Transfer m&ms from one bowl to another by sucking them with a straw

Put an oreo on your forehead and get it to your mouth without using your hands

Empty an entire box of tissues using one hand

Stack dice on a popsicle stick that is in your mouth

Throw balls into a bucket on your head

Sack race

Fling rubber bands to knock over a stack of cups. Sadly, I got this one and I don't know how to fling a rubber band :(

Bounce pencils on the table and have them land in a cup

This one was probably the funniest. They had pedometers strapped to their heads and they had to get the most amount of "steps" in a minute. Tim had a good system going (that was hilarious to watch) and got close to 200, I think. Lexi on the other hand....

Just kinda flailed around like a madwoman and only ended up with 17 :) They both had pretty good headaches after!

Spin around to unroll a roll of toilet paper

(This is back from the sack race, I just don't feel like moving it...)

Bounce ping pong balls on the counter and have them land on a piece of bread with peanut butter

Hold a stick of spaghetti in your mouth and thread noodles on it without using your hands

Loop 3 keys onto a paperclip that is tied to a pen that is in your mouth

Knock over stack of cups with a ball in stockings on your head :)

(Again, not sure how this ended up here, but I don't want to move it)

Run in place and get as many "steps" on a pedometer as possible

Rub vaseline on your nose and use the stickiness to pick up cotton balls and transfer them to a bowl

This was another one of my favorites :)

Shake ping pong balls out of a kleenex box that is strapped around your waist

And finally, stack 3 golf balls on top of each other.

What a fun night this was... thanks again, Andrea!

Lords Family Reunion

2011-08-13T08:27:00.012-06:00

The past few weeks have been so fun. My entire family has been in Utah for my brother's wedding, so we've been pretty busy going to the pool, playing farkle, rook, and hand n foot, watching movies (indoors and out), going shopping at the Park City outlets, throwing a bridal shower, playing mini golf, minute to win it, boating, baking a ton, and of course, throwing up. We can't all get together without passing around the stomach flu. Everyone (except for my parents, somehow) all got it at least once, if not twice.

But even though we got sick, we had a great time. We went down to Ephraim (where Ashley now lives) to go boating.

Even though I really don't like water, I went tubing.

Clearly I enjoyed it.

Need a closer look?

You're welcome.

Sophie was put in the shade all day...

And got a little restless..

So we let her out for about 10 minutes. She was wearing 50 spf and had a hat on, but still managed to sunburn her cheeks!

During one of our trips back home, we got to see Jeno, a close friend that Jonny met on his mission in Hungary. He hardly speaks English, and I don't speak Hungarian, so it made for an interesting visit :)

We all went to Park City to shop at the outlets. I got a few things, but my favorite purchase?

A bikini for Soph for next summer. Darling.

Whenever we get together we take family pictures. Here is one of just my little family :)

My mom had the idea to watch a movie outdoors so we set up the projector and watched Tangled. It was so fun and the grandkids loved it!

Jonny wrote me a note out of pretzels one day :)

After all of that, it was finally time for the reason we were all here. My brother Drew married his darling sweetheart, Chelsea, in the Salt Lake temple. Lexi and I were in charge of making some food for the reception. We ended up making about 360 oreo truffles and 370 lemon cupcakes. It was quite the undertaking, but luckily we had lots of help.

The sealing was beautiful, as was the reception. Here they are coming out of the temple..

I realize these are terrible quality, but it's all I've got!

We all love Chelsea to death and are so excited that she's part of the family!

Rice Cereal: Takes 2-4

2011-08-13T08:26:00.010-06:00

Sophie's first time with rice cereal didn't go so well, so we tried again.

It started out great...

Until we actually tried feeding her...

Yikes.

She realized she just wanted to play with the spoon...

And when we didn't allow that, she played with her chair...

And that was that.

So we tried again.

It looked successful at first...

...until it all came spilling out.

So we tried again.

It may look like it went better, but it didn't.

Whatever we put in, just came right back out. We tried holding her head back a little when we fed it to her, and she swallowed some that way, but it just seemed mean.

So we keep trying (we gave up taking pictures). This girl just loves milk too much :)

Get ready...

2011-08-12T10:55:00.013-06:00

For a bunch of posts! I'll have to split them up so I don't get too overwhelmed and give up :)

I'll start out with the Sophie update. Here are her 5 month pictures...

Of course, we had to take a break for a spit-up issue...

Sophie has grown so much lately, it's just crazy. She tries so hard to crawl, but has only been able to move a few inches that way. She's surprisingly mobile, however, when she rolls. She can make it from one end of the room to the other pretty darn fast!

She sleeps with her bum in the air and her mouth wide open :)

She loves to squeal. She likes to see how loud and high she can get her voice to go. She goes so high a lot of the time, that no sound comes out. Silly girl :)

She loves playing with people's faces. She pats my cheeks and stares at my mouth when I talk. She also loves her dad's ears..

She loves to play with my hair, and slowly run her fingers through it. (She also likes to pull on it as hard as she can. Ouch.)

I can vacuum the floor while she's laying there, and even come up right next to her with it and she's fine. But if I wrap a towel around my head when I get out of the shower, she goes into hysterics. For some reason, she's only afraid of our red towels, she's fine with any others. And the second I take it off my head she starts smiling :)

We have tried many times now but she refuses to eat rice cereal. Maybe we'll try something else? I don't know...

Unfortunately, when Jonny's sister, Kristen, and her family came to visit we didn't take many pictures :( But here is one of Kolby playing with Sophie. The boys all love her so much, it's so sweet.

I say "mama" to her all the time to help her learn the word. For some reason though, she thinks it's the funniest word she has ever heard, and she cracks up everytime :)

She loves her tongue. She sticks it out like this all the time. So cute!

She recognizes her name, and turns her head when I say it!

Her legs are getting really strong, and she can stand for quite some time if we hold her hands..

She learned how to give kisses!! I love this. She grabs whatever she can (face, hair..) and pulls you in. Then she opens her mouth and goes for it! She used to just bang her face against whoever she was kissing, but she has become quite passionate, and loves to use her tongue (oh dear, we're in trouble!). If I try to pull away she just pulls me back in til she's finished. It is the cutest thing ever :)

She is such an easy baby. She sleeps 9-11 hours straight every night, and goes down to sleep without any fussing. When I put her down for a nap or bedtime I don't even have to rock her, I just lay her in her crib. She is usually sound asleep in under a minute! And if it takes longer, she just lays there quietly until she falls asleep. Like I said, easy baby.

And so darn cute :)

4 Months/Big Catch-Up

2011-06-29T14:26:00.013-06:00

The longer I procrastinate blogging, the longer these posts get, so get ready for a big one...

Here are Sophie's 4 month pictures. I tried to have her as clean as possible for them, but almost everytime I put a new outfit on her, she spits up on it. She also drools like crazy these days. So yes, there is a big wet spot on the front of her dress :)

Things have been great lately! My sister Ashley moved from Pittsburgh to Ephraim, UT! I couldn't be happier about this! (Well, maybe if she still wasn't 4 hours away from me...) We got to spend some time with them at my parents house, which is the halfway point between us.

Her adorable little boy, Jackson, insisted on wearing these gardening gloves because he was going to go work on building the new deck with grandpa :)

Sophie loves going to visit family because she hardly gets put down. Here she is sleeping in her Aunt Lexi's lap..

While we were at my parents' house I made these cake push-up pop things:

This is my favorite picture from the trip. It was taken with our phone so it's a little blurry..

Two weeks ago my parents came up to Logan for my cousin's wedding so they stayed with us. We went to a festival thing downtown, which was fun.

Here are my parents, picking out their henna tattoos...

ok, just kidding, they were looking at some halloween decorations :)

Sophie had a blast... can't you tell?

Here are some random bits about us lately..

Soph is in love with her hands. She stares at them all of the time!

Jonny and I always like to imagine what it would be like if adults acted like babies. What if we cried everytime we got a little bit hungry? What if we put everything within our reach in our mouths?

What if we....

always had our legs in the air?

haha.. babies are funny :)

Jonny's sister Kristen gave us a bumbo seat, which we love. Sophie looks so cute in it!

Family snuggle time is the highlight of my day :)

I realized that I have very few pictures of me since I gave birth. I guess there is something about being 65 lbs over your normal weight that makes you not want your picture taken :)

I am finally to the point now where I don't refuse to have my picture taken, so here it is.

I started my pregnancy 10 lbs over my normal weight (thank you, birth control pill). Then I gained a whopping 55 lbs over the pregnancy. I still can't believe it... But I am proud to say I have lost 45 of those lbs, and I'm not done yet!

So... Jonny and I are really enjoying Logan. He is in the middle of his accelerated business program, and really likes it. It will be even better though when he starts the HR program in the fall. He and some of my family got into the St. George marathon again, so he is training for that. It will be in October, and he is so excited.

I am currently looking for a job, so wish me luck with that!

And I'll end with one more picture of the bean. What a cutie!

Rice Cereal: Take 1

2011-06-26T15:49:00.004-06:00

The whole experience can be summed up by this expression...

What on earth is this stuff??

We were excited when Sophie's pediatrician gave us the go-ahead for rice cereal, but it didn't go over so well with her.

At first she wouldn't open her mouth, but after some time she finally did. But as soon as the cereal entered her mouth she would just spit it out. She didn't seem grossed out by it, more like she just didn't understand that she was supposed to swallow it. She seemed very confused by the whole thing.

She spits up a lot, and after she spits up she still has leftovers in her mouth (yum) which she has learned to spit out. So I'm thinking this might be why she would automatically spit out the cereal, but who knows, maybe she's just not ready.

After a while, she realized she would just rather eat her fingers...

It may not have been very successful, but we sure had fun trying!

And she managed to make quite the mess!

We'll try again in a week or so. Better luck next time, Soph!

Sophie Update

2011-06-16T08:53:00.004-06:00

Things have been a little busy for us here, so I never did a "3 month" post, and I didn't take her 3 month pictures until she was 3 1/2 months... Oh well :)

We never found out what was making her throw up. I went on the dairy-free and wheat-free diet for a while but she was just getting worse. She would throw up everything she ate and was getting dehydrated :( At that point her doctor said the best thing for her would be to make the switch to formula, which we did. It has taken a huge stress off and she is much happier!

She can now hold up her head on her own!

Sophie is growing so fast. Her personality is really starting to show, and I love it. She is so fun to be around and I have a blast playing with her every day.

She sleeps about 8-10 hours straight every night now, which is amazing! I couldn't be happier about this :)

She is fascinated by her hands, and will stare at them for extended periods of time. She also loves to suck on them. She likes to play this game where she shoves her hand in her mouth as far as it will go. This always results in her gagging, but she still does it over and over and over...

Here are the 3 (and a half) month pictures..

I love this one!

I will post the 4 month pictures soon!

This and That

2011-06-02T12:18:00.002-06:00

My lovely mom, Gwen, has started a blog! She loves to make cards so she decided to join the blogging world and share her creations. Her blog, this and that, was only up for a few days when she won a contest and got asked to be a guest designer on another blog! Pretty cool!

If you are in to that kind of thing you should definitely check it out, cause she rocks. Also, she did a shout-out for my birthday today :)

A little encouragement

2011-05-27T04:02:00.004-06:00

"'Don't you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead.' Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come."

This just in:

2011-05-18T14:59:00.002-06:00

Sophie might have a food allergy, so I have to go off ALL wheat and dairy products.

Oh my goodness. I drink about 4 glasses of milk a day, if not more.

I think I'm going to cry.

Moving Madness

2011-05-16T09:52:00.000-06:00

Life has been pretty busy for us lately. We moved all of our stuff up to Logan, but are back in Provo for a week so Jonny could get in 1 more week of work.

But first, here are some pictures of our little peanut...

Check out that hairline!

She is getting very good at holding her head up..

She is now 3 months old, but her giraffe is in Logan, so we'll have to wait to get a picture of her with it.

For Mother's Day, Jonny made me these coupons, which I found all over our apartment...

I was very impressed with his artistic skills. These were my favorite :)

He put a lot of effort into these, and I loved them. I told him I wanted to be pampered, so I got massages and sleep. Perfect!

One day I was in the living room and I heard Jonny talking to Sophie. I snuck over to the bedroom and found this :)

So cute!

Sophie loves her bath, but you can tell it's still a little scary for her.

She loves to hold on to things while she's feeding, so we got her to hold up her bottle!

Ok, now it's story time.. Last week Sophie started to spit up a lot more than usual, and then it turned into vomiting. By Friday she would lose almost her entire feeding. I took her to the doctor and was sent to the hospital.

The doctor thought she might have problems with her pyloric valve, which meant it didn't let food pass through so it would all come back up. She would throw up in the middle of feedings and pretty much all day long, so it seemed like that could be it.

She had a belly ultrasound scheduled at 4... which is when Jonny had to pick up the moving truck in Draper. Thank goodness my parents came to the rescue! My Dad picked up the truck with Jonny while my mom took us to the hospital. Sophie did very well with the ultrasounds. They couldn't find what they were looking for so it lasted a long time. She was a champ!

I was pretty much a mess the whole time... If she had this pylorus problem it would've required surgery. And I was stressed with moving and very tired, so it was a long day. After many unsuccesful ultrasounds we had to do an x-ray on her Upper GI Tract. Thankfully, 5 hours after arriving at the hospital we found out nothing was wrong. What a relief!

We were going to clean our apt Sat morning before we left, but my Dad didn't want anymore stress on me after the whole hospital ordeal, so he, my brother, and Jonny unloaded and cleaned our apt top to bottom while I was still at the hospital. It was a huge help.

I have been feeding Sophie formula to see if it helps and she has stopped throwing up. I'm glad that she stopped, but worried that the breast milk was the problem. I'm starting to nurse her again, so hopefully she will still be ok.

SO. On Saturday we moved into our new apartment...

I am very excited about this! We came back to Provo for 1 more week and are staying at Jonny's parents' house while they are in China. I can't wait to get back up to Logan and finish organizing the new place!

Easter

2011-05-04T13:28:00.001-06:00

Thanks to my lovely sister Andrea, Sophie had an adorable Easter dress to wear. Jonny was in charge of taking the pictures though... and she's crying in most of them :( (I might dress her up in this again and retake the pictures... don't tell Jonny!)

Even though she was sad, she still looked adorable!

For an Easter treat I made cake pops and decorated them like chicks. I like how they turned out :)

This has nothing to do with Easter, but it's proof of my daughter's TV obsession. She always gets distracted by the camera and can't stop staring at it...except when she's glued to the TV. She won't look away!

Haha.. I probably shouldn't encourage this :)

2 Months!

2011-04-22T21:04:00.000-06:00

Our little Sophie is now 2 months and 1 week old. This is very bittersweet.. I absolutely love newborns, so I'm sad that she is growing up so fast. It's been so fun though to see her grow and learn. She is becoming a lot more social.

Our friends gave us the idea to take a picture of her every month with a stuffed animal, so we could watch her grow!

Here are the one month pictures:

Things were going great...

But once Sophie realized just how much she liked her giraffe, things went from G to PG-13 real fast...

Things started off a little tense during the 2-month pictures when Sophie kept smacking her giraffe in the face..

But they quickly reconciled and have decided to just be friends :)

For those of you who don't get to see Sophie all of the time, here is what is going on with her these days:

-At 2 months, she was in the 45th percentile for weight (10 lbs 2 oz, I think) and the 75th for height (23 inches!)

-She has grown out of her newborn clothes and is in her 3 month clothes. Again, this is very bittersweet.

-Once she stopped screaming long enough to realize taking a bath wasn't going to kill her, she fell in love it. Now she cries when we take her out. Can you blame her? Soaking in a nice warm tub while getting a full-body massage? Yes please!

-She still spits up a lot. We usually have to set up a burp cloth in her carseat so she doesn't mess up her outfit (see above). I don't think she cares for it too much :)

-She still loves to smile! Every morning when she wakes up for the day, I make a huge deal out of it. When I go to get her I get really excited and smile and squeal for her. She always breaks into huge smiles, which melts my heart. I like to think that she is so glad to see her mom, but she's probably just thinking "Yes! It's the milk lady!"

-She is a hardcore TV addict. If the TV is on in the room she'll crank her head and twist and turn until she has a good view. She watched the movie Tangled from start to finish, she never looked away! (of course she was exhausted after, and fell asleep as soon as it ended. So cute.)

-She's getting pretty good at holding her head up. She can do it for quite a while before she tires out.

-She was blessed on April 10th (pictures will come later)

mid-sneeze :)

-I've been having milk problems, so I've been supplementing with formula. This has helped her sleep better. She was only sleeping 2-3 hours at a time, but is now back to averaging 4-5 hours, which is nice.

-She's starting to stick her bottom lip out when she cries. It breaks my heart! When she's upset she'll look so sad and frown. Then that little lip pops out and I want to cry and laugh at the same time, it is heartbreaking but so dang cute!

-She loves getting her nails painted. Ok, maybe she couldn't care less, but I like it :)

-She used to hate being swaddled, but now she loves it. Actually, we have to swaddle her every time she goes to sleep. If we don't, she'll flail her little arms so much that she'll hit herself in the face and wake herself up. It's kind of cute :)

So that's it for the Sophie update. I fall more in love with her every day. She is such a doll!

Hospital Photoshoot

2011-04-08T15:54:00.000-06:00

Bella Baby Photography came in the day after I gave birth to Sophie to take some pictures. I wasn't planning on buying any but... I caved :) She was just too cute! They came in the mail today and it makes me so sad to see how much she has changed since then. I'm glad I have these pictures to remind me of how she looked when she was born.

It's Official!

2011-03-28T18:57:00.000-06:00

Jonny just got accepted to the Master of Science in Human Resources program at Utah State University! We are very excited!

He visited the campus a couple of weeks ago and met with the director, administrator, and other head people of the program. It was very promising, so we were pretty confident he would get in. In fact, they told him not to apply to any other schools :)

We had a list of 5 schools he was going to apply to, but his top choice was Utah State. I thought it was kind of funny that we looked all over the country but his favorite program was here in Utah. He was going to apply to places in Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. They all would have been a much bigger move, which I was excited for. It would have been nice to go farther east for a while before we settle down in the west. But now that we are accepted I am really excited about Logan!

We ended up not applying to the other schools because we were so confident in Utah State. If he hadn't gotten accepted we would still have had time to apply to the others. Looks like we don't need to though!

There is a 10 week business program that he will complete before the semester starts, so we'll be moving in about a month and a half! Yikes! Time to start apartment hunting and getting ready to leave.

I am so excited to start this new chapter in our lives! Go Aggies! :)

See the resemblance?

2011-03-24T11:23:00.000-06:00

Yep, Sophie looks like her dad. Love it :)

Do you see me in her at all?? I don't!

One Month!

2011-03-15T15:14:00.000-06:00

Oh my goodness, the last month has flown by! My little girl is already a month old!

Things are going so well and Sophie is happy and healthy. She had a fever one night (which about scared me to death) but other than that hasn't had any problems. She is also sleeping much better during the night. She usually sleeps 4-5 hours, gets fed, then goes down for another 2-3 hours. The other night she even slept for 6 hours straight! It is so nice!

She is also one of the happiest babies ever. People who have spent a lot of time with her are so surprised that they've never heard her cry - because she rarely does! Just recently though, she started to cry/fuss. It really only lasted a day or 2 and now she seems back to her happy self, so hopefully that stays!

Here are some updates about Sophie:

-At her 2-week appointment she was 8 lbs and 20 1/2 inches (50th percentile for both height and weight)

-She loves to smile. She's starting to smile more now, not just when she's sleepy. She smiles so big it looks like she's laughing!

-She also loves to grunt. She grunts when she's happy, sleepy, angry, hungry... pretty much all of the time. Silly girl!

-She loves getting her hair brushed and her feet rubbed. I give her little foot massages and her eyes roll back in her head :)

She makes this face a lot. It's so funny!

-When she was only 2 1/2 weeks old I went in to check on her while she was sleeping and she was laying on her side! She had almost rolled all the way over from back to belly. She is pretty strong!

-She giggled for the first time. I'm pretty sure my heart melted into a puddle. It was so cute! (she hasn't done it since though)

-She has to sleep with her hands above her head. If you swaddle her with her arms in the blanket she'll squirm her way out so she can sleep like this...

-She loves to go to the bathroom when you take off her diaper. We learned the hard way that we always need a diaper under her bum while we change her, otherwise things might get messy :)

-She loves to be sung to. When she fusses (which isn't very often), she'll calm right down once we start singing.

Well, that's all I can think of for now, so here are some pictures!

Her belly is really starting to fill out. It's getting pretty round!

All Dressed Up!

2011-03-05T13:55:00.000-07:00

We decided Sophie looked too cute the other day, we just had to document it!

It didn't take long before she got real sick of taking pictures though..

Good thing the binkie makes everything better!

2011-03-03T14:22:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you spit up all over your mittens when mom is bundling you up for bed...

You get to wear socks on your hands :)

The Many Faces of Sophie..

2011-02-28T18:04:00.000-07:00

Sleepy

Hungry

Happy

Really happy

Really really happy

Not so happy :(

Serious

I'm not sure what this one is, but it's still cute :)

Week One

2011-02-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Where do I begin? Our first week with Sophie was quite the whirlwind. For one thing, we noticed this...

She has webbed toes! How weird! They kinda creeped me out at first, but now I'm used to them :)

Mommy enjoyed the stay at the hospital because Sophie was in the nursery during the night -they just brought her in when she needed feeding.

But, it was eventually time to go home, which meant we were on our own to take care of her. Let's just say, our first night home with her, I don't think she slept at all. At all.

The day after we brought her home, she started living in this:

She had jaundice and had to be under bili lights. Because the lights can be harmful to her eyes, she needed constant supervision in case she pulled her mask off.

For 3 nights Jonny and I took shifts sleeping so one of us was up with her at all times. Thank goodness her levels are now back to normal!

The bad thing about the lights was that they made her very sleepy, which made it very hard to feed her. She couldn't stay awake long enough to eat! But that is no problem now. If there were an olympics for breastfeeding, Sophie would take the gold. They told me to feed her for about 15-20 minutes in order to empty me. She can drain me in 5 minutes flat! I was worried at first that she wasn't getting enough but as of Monday, she had already gained back 4 oz and my Dr. said she must be eating like a champ :)

Little Sophie also had problems going to the bathroom. After 2 days of being plugged up, we had to use a suppository (I made Jonny do it). It was gross :( Thank goodness, it did the trick and she goes just fine now.

So now that she's eating and pooping just fine, that just leaves...

sleeping.

She sleeps just great during the day. A little too great. We can't seem to get her on the whole "awake during the day, asleep at night" thing. Any suggestions on how to do this are more than welcome :)

On top of a few eating/sleeping/pooping issues with Sophie, I got mastitis. It hurt worse than giving birth (not an exaggeration - it really did). Luckily, that is cleared up now as well.

So life with Sophie started off with a few little hiccups. They really weren't bad at all - nothing serious. But anything dealing with your baby seems like the end of the world when you are riding on birthing hormones (they finally seem to be going back to normal, but it was pretty bad.) So it of course made everything seem a lot worse than it was.

Now, however, if we could just solve this sleeping problem, I think life would be perfect. I'm not sure how much longer I can go with getting 2 hours of sleep a night.. It's a good thing my little bean is sooo worth it! I mean, just Look at her!

Yep. Totally worth it.

PS- Today is her due date and she's already 10 days old!

Sophie's Birth Story

2011-02-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

I decided I better go ahead and write about the birth before I forget too much about it, so here it goes (prepare yourselves, this is long!):

On Monday morning (Valentine's day) we went in for my 38 week appointment. I told my doctor I was a little concerned that I was leaking, but not much, so I didn't know if my water had broken or not. He checked me out and did the test and my water was not broken. But, he had me have an ultrasound to see how much amniotic fluid I had and it was pretty low. One of the nurses said "well, looks like you might have this baby sooner than you think!" I remember trying hard not to get my hopes up though, because the tech didn't seem concerned at all about the low levels.

So when Dr. Harward came in and said "Well, there's no reason to keep you pregnant so why don't you come back tonight and we'll do an induction" I was pretty shocked! Jonny and I just stared at him for a second and said "uh.... ok?" We went over to Orem Community Hospital (which is connected to my Dr's office) and I got a non-stress test done. By the time we finished it was after noon and our time was running out. We ran some last minute errands and tried to get things cleaned and ready the best we could. We also tried to sleep, but I only managed about a 1/2 hour.

We got to the hospital at midnight and they started me on pitocin. They put me on the lowest dose because I was already dilated to a 3 and having steady contractions (and they didn't want things to happen too quickly because I needed time for my antibiotics to kick in- I was group B strep positive). Everyone was really surprised when they hooked me up and saw my contractions. They said "are you SURE you don't feel anything? Most women would be in a lot of pain by now!" I had no idea I was even having contractions though!

After an hour or so I started to feel the contractions and got my epidural around 2:30 am. It was wonderful :) As my contractions got stronger and stronger though, Sophie's heart rate would drop with each one. This was because she had the cord wrapped around her neck. They had to lower the pitocin (which they had been raising up to this point) and I was put on oxygen. This fixed the heart rate problem but prevented me from dilating any more.

Jonny tried to put my hair in a ponytail. It didn't look the best, but it worked :)

After who knows how many hours, I was still only a 3. Yuck. This is when they told me I would most likely have a C-section. Double yuck. They decided to slowly raise the pitocin and found a good level that got my contractions strong enough but without affecting her heart beat too much. I finally got dilated to a 10, but this was only 1/2 the battle. I now had to push her out..

Jonny, anxiously waiting..

They said I would still most likely have a C-section, but we would go ahead and try to push just to see. We were very happy to see her little heart fighting and staying strong. After 16 hours of labor (and about 30 minutes of pushing), little Sophie Lynn Katseanes made her entrance into this world.

She had quite the conehead!

She weighed 7 lbs 12 oz, so I'm pretty glad she got to come early, who knows how much she would've weighed by the time Feb 25th came around! She was 20 inches long, but has probably lost at least an inch now that her head is much less cone-shaped :)

We are now adjusting to life as a family of 3. It's exhausting, but so much fun.

We love you, Sophie! :)

2011-02-17T17:45:00.001-07:00

After all of the...

nausea,

heart burn,

restlessness,

headaches,

fatigue,

swelling,

stretch marks,

sleepless nights,

hormonal breakdowns,

charlie horses,

vomiting,

discomfort,

back pain,

drooling (yes, drooling..)

shortness of breath,

cramps,

dizzy spells,

and of course, waiting...

she's here.

My baby is finally here.

And she is absolutely perfect.

38 Weeks!

2011-02-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

2011-02-05T10:38:00.000-07:00

Car seat/stroller travel system...........check

Pack n play................check

Diaper bag..............check

Baby clothes..............check

Bottles/burp cloths/binkies..............check

Nursing cover/boppy..............check

Blankets/bedding..............check

Baby bathtub and toiletries..............check

Swing..............check

Bouncer..............check

Stockpile of diapers/wipes..............check

Baby..............Working on it

I think we are completely ready for baby's arrival, which is exciting! I want to do a quick shout out to everyone who has helped out along the way. Babies require a lot of stuff (see above) and we were lucky enough to barely have to buy any of it. Between the baby shower and the generosity of family and friends, we were able to get the last things we needed with gift cards we had recieved. We feel so blessed. So thank you to everyone who has helped us out in one way or another, we appreciate it!

I am officially full term, which means my little one could come any time now! I am not counting on that though.. My Dr. said he'd schedule an induction less than a week after my due date, so I'm just going to plan on that and if she comes on her own, then great! I don't want to drive myself crazy thinking she could come early :)

So for now, I'll just keep waddling around, playing the waiting game...

yes, I really am that big :)

2011-01-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, time flies! I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone... For starters, I graduated! I am sooo happy to be done with school. It's awesome :)

After my last final I went up to my parent's house in Highland, where my sisters (who had flown in just a couple days before) threw me a beautiful baby shower. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures..

(About 30 weeks pregnant)

Katie made me this diaper cake.. so cute!

Haha... bending over is difficult these days :)

Thank you to everyone who came to the shower, it was a blast! And thank you to my wonderful sisters who put the whole thing together!

That weekend, we went up to Park City for a bit to spend some time at the condo, which was fun.

(31 weeks)

We got a little snow while we were there!

Sadly, I didn't take any pictures of Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve with Jonny's parents, and had fondue (YUM). Then we spent Christmas day with my family. It was so great to be with everyone, and we were definitely spoiled. Remember that cricut cake I really wanted? Yep, I am now the proud owner of one! I will definitely be putting it to good use. I am now 33 1/2 weeks pregnant, graduated, and not working. That means I have a lot of free time on my hands for the next 6 or so weeks. And now that Jonny got a full time job (hooray!) I will be in need of things to do. Hopefully I can become a cake master before baby comes :)

Beauty Marks

2011-01-05T15:45:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter if you know something is coming, it doesn't make it any easier :/ I knew I'd get stretch marks, but I still can't stand them. Yuck.

So this morning when I saw a set of fresh ones, I almost started to cry. Why does pregnancy have to ruin your body? Before I got too upset, Jonny said this:

"Those aren't stretch marks, those are beauty marks. You shouldn't be upset about them, you should be proud. When I look at those marks I see the marks of a beautiful, strong woman who is giving up so much to bear my children.

When you look at them, think of our baby and how much love you have for her already. Love those marks; they will be a constant reminder of your most precious calling in this life - motherhood."

Thank goodness for husbands.

2010-12-05T20:40:00.000-07:00

I am soo close to graduating, I can't believe it! I have 2 presentations this Wednesday, last day of class on Thursday, then finals are the next week. It is so weird to think I will almost be done with school for good.

In the mean time, I spend way too much time sitting on the couch watching my belly go crazy as baby kicks and stretches. It's so cute :)

Speaking of baby, the other day was so fun! Due to coupons and discounts, our parents ended up getting us our awesome stroller/travel system sooner than expected...

And our pack-n-play, which will be baby's bed until we move and buy a crib..

It's so exciting! We are so grateful for our parents and all of the things they help out with :)

Babymoon

2010-11-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

While in line at the dessert buffet (yum), some guy asked if we were on our "babymoon." I had never heard that term before, but that's what it was! And boy did we love it :)

We went on a 7-day Holland America cruise to the Caribbean. I missed a week of school, but it was sooo worth it! Here are the pictures...

Enjoying the view of our first port, Grand Turk

Oh, did I mention we got a free uprade to ocean-view? And a plate of chocolate covered strawberries? Thank you, Buddy from vacations-to-go!

I sure enjoyed it :)

Ok, back to Grand Turk...

It was so beautiful, possibly my favorite port. We got off the boat and were right at the beach, and we were the only cruise there so it wasn't crowded at all. Here is Jonny with our lovely boat, the Eurodam:

Our next port was San Juan, Puerto Rico

It was really neat, we walked around the city and took a tour of an old fortress. We took it nice and slow for me, so we took a lot of breaks. Probably more than I needed, but Jonny was so worried about tiring me out :)

There were iguanas everywhere, we had to be careful not to step on them because some of them blended in the grass a little to well!

The coast by the fortress

San Juan was wonderful, but even with all of the breaks Jonny made me take, and all of the water he made me drink, it still wore me out. My feet were huge by the end of the day.

Next stop: St. Thomas!

(notice the huge ankles/feet, they stayed swollen for the majority of the trip. I couldn't fit into my shoes!)

In St. Thomas we took a cab to the shopping area, which ended up just being jewelry stores. We took another cab to the beach, which was nice, but crowded. It wasn't my favorite port, but we still loved it.

For whatever reason, Jonny insisted on taking pictures of me with all of the towel animals. Silly boy.

But this time, I went to give the thing a kiss and his head fell off!

Our last port was Half Moon Cay, the island owned by the cruiseline. It was similar to Grand Turk, so I loved it. We enjoyed a gorgeous day at the beach.

Being pregnant kept me from doing a lot of stuff, but I still let Jonny have some fun. Here he is parasailing..

(ok, so I have no idea if that's him, but you'd never know! There were a few others that he went with, so it could be one of them...)

The beach was so pretty..

With perfectly soft sand...

I miss it already :(

I also miss the food. It was unbelievable! This is from the last night where they put on a show..

Jonny really got into it :)

We loved getting away and spending alone time together. It was much needed. One of my favorite moments was when we were salsa dancing (we took classes for salsa and west coast swing). Oh my goodness, Jonny loves to shake his hips! He had a little group of old ladies watching him, I could hardly dance I was laughing so hard :)

And I forgot how big of a deal being pregnant is when you're not in Utah! All of the cute old people (Holland America is definitely an older-person's cruiseline) couldn't get enough of my belly. And the servers in the lido all called me "mother" and Jonny "father." It was so fun!

We miss the Caribbean, but are glad to be home. Now we just have to focus on school/GRE/applying for grad school/work/teaching Gospel Doctrine/baby. Now you see why we needed a break :)

Jonny's Birthday

2010-10-16T21:23:00.000-06:00

Wednesday was Jonny's birthday, he turned a whopping 25! We had a lot of fun. I started off the day by giving him...

a snow brusher thing! Not the best gift ever, but he wanted one.

We went to guru's for lunch, then played mini golf.

Yeah, he's a weirdo :)

For his second gift I gave him...

cake mix! I'm a good gift-giver, huh? Well, he just wanted cookies for his birthday dessert cause I had made cheesecake a couple days before for his and my brother's joint b-day dinner. He LOVES german chocolate cake, so I decided to give him the mix and make it for him when he wanted it.

This silly boy keeps complaining about how old he is "a quarter of a century!" So I thought this candle was fitting..

We had enchiladas for dinner (his favorite) then watched a movie on the laptop in a park. It was so cold, but fun. Right before the movie I surprised him with his real present, an ipod shuffle. He loved it!

And here is another preggy pic:

The results are in!!

2010-10-05T13:24:00.000-06:00

Jonny and I are pleased to announce that we will be having a little baby girl! We found out yesterday, and I don't think we've stopped smiling since :)

Before we went in to the office I told Jonny that if it was a boy, I was going to be pretty surprised. Recently I've been having dreams about a girl (not a single dream about a baby boy) and refering to her as a "she" quite a bit. I certainly wouldn't say that I knew it was a girl, cause I really didn't, but for some reason in my head I always pictured a girl.

I was so anxious during the ultrasound and as soon as it showed "the position" I started crying. I knew right away it was a girl, cause well, there was nothing there :) But I waited til the tech made the official declaration before I really started bawling. It was so wonderful to see her little body! She (it's so nice to say she and not it!) was being rather difficult though, so we couldn't get a shot of her face. I'll have to get another ultrasound in a few weeks so they can see what they missed this time. We did get to see her wiggle her little fingers and move her arm up to her head. I'm pretty sure she was waving at us :)

What was Jonny's reaction to all of this? "I'm done for." He has such a soft spot for little girls, and our little one will no doubt have him wrapped around her finger. He can't stop talking about how cute she's going to be, and how he can't wait to hold her in his arms. It is so cute to see him get so excited, I just love it!

Oh, and I will post the ultrasound pictures as soon as I get them scanned!

The Dirty Dash

2010-09-30T19:13:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday Jonny and some friends ran in the dirty dash up at soldier hollow. It was a 10k mud run, which was so cool!

Here is the group! 2 teams of 5

There were obstacles throughout the entire course, including this giant slip n' slide!

A lot of people dressed up, I thought this team was clever. They ran the whole thing chained together!

This is right after they came out of the "mystery obstacle" which ended up being a marsh. yuck. It stunk pretty bad, and the runners had to be careful not to lose their shoes!

This happened to be the spot where spectators could throw water balloons, so the boys are trying to block them :)

Already getting muddy!

Here is the mud pit at the end of the course

It was crazy!

Can you even tell that he was wearing a white shirt?!

Yep, he got pretty dirty!

The team after:

They got to shower off after..

Jonny had such a blast, and I had so much fun watching it.

On a side note, I made sugar cookie fruit tarts (thanks for the recipe Kylee!) the other night. They were sooo good!

Here you go.

2010-09-22T11:06:00.000-06:00

Certain people have been getting on my back about not posting pictures on here, so here are some for you to enjoy...

Here is Jonny off to his last day of class at BYU

And this is from my birthday. I know that was a while ago, but I never mentioned it. Here I am about to enjoy my free dessert at Macaroni Grill, yum!

A while back we bought a picture frame set from Bed Bath but we finally got around to putting it up..

This one is missing a picture, we still need to get our graduation pics from Jonny's dad, so that spot is reserved for one of those :)

Ok ok, here is what people want to see....

Here I am at 6 weeks

And here is what I look like now (at 17 1/2 weeks)

But here is what I feel like...

I realize I have a looong way to go, but I already feel big (I know, I know..this is nothing compared to what I will look like in Feb). If it was just my belly that was growing, I'd be fine. But it's my whole body! I'm trying to eat healthy and exercise every day, but I can't seem to slow the weight gain. But hey, at least I have an excuse, right?! Well, I just hope it comes off fairly quickly after the baby comes.

The exciting thing is that I am actually starting to look pregnant. I ran into someone yesterday who I haven't talked to in years, and she said "wow, you're pregnant!" So if she noticed right away, hopefully that means I'm beyond looking just chubby, and actually look pregnant. But now looking at that picture, my belly still looks really small, so who knows :)

Patience is a virtue..

2010-09-10T11:03:00.000-06:00

Too bad I don't have any.

I am making myself crazy thinking about our little one. I could literally go right now and find out the gender. The catch? Fetal foto is kind of expensive. And why would I pay extra money when my own doctor will tell me the gender in about a month? It's just not worth it....right?

yeah, try telling that to yourself when you are staring at your little baby bump, not knowing if you should call it a he or a she. I have heard of many women who have that "mother's intuition" and somehow just "know" the gender of their unborn children. Hmm... not me! I don't have a clue!

As of today, I am 16 weeks along! I started my last semester of college, and it's going to be a fun one. Thank goodness I have school and work, it makes time go by very fast. I am still impatient though..

Here are some pregnancy updates:

Still sick. I take my drugs, and feel pretty good though. Last week I decided not to take my pill, cause I felt unusually good. Big mistake! My poor neighbor got to see me lose my dinner in our parking lot because I couldn't make it inside. oops :)

Along with my belly, the rest of my body seems to be expanding. Yikes. I no longer fit into any of my normal shirts, so I wear my baggy (well, they used to be baggy!) BYU t-shirts every day. I am putting off buying maternity clothes as long as possible!

Smells don't bother me as much anymore, and I have actually started cooking again. Jonny is definitely happy about this :)

Baby Kats is now 4 1/2 inches long! Now, if I only knew if it was a boy or girl..

Big News!!

2010-08-16T16:18:00.000-06:00

I'm sure most people know this by now, due to my extreme sickness, but....

I'm pregnant!!!!!!

We are soo excited to be welcoming a new addition to our little family! I am due on February 25th, and am a little over 12 weeks along. We had our first ultrasound a month ago and got to hear the heartbeat and see the baby :) We heard the heartbeat again today, and it is just so wonderful. It makes it feel a lot more real.

I was so sick at first and couldn't keep a thing down. Thank goodness for modern medicine! As long as I take my drugs and get a good night's sleep, I don't throw up and actually feel pretty good. I crave cheeseburgers all of the time, but just about every other kind of food tastes pretty bleh. I miss enjoying food, and can't wait for it to taste good again. Hopefully this won't last too much longer!

Jonny and I have always said we were going to go on a big trip before we have kids, so this put the pressure on to plan something. We just booked a cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, and can't wait.

Also, Jonny just graduated from BYU! I walked with him in convocation, but I still have one more semester left. He's just going to work for now, and apply for grad schools at the end of the year for fall 2011.

Life is pretty crazy, and will only get crazier.. We couldn't be happier about it though!

Alaska-Where the real fishermen go!

2010-07-31T13:07:00.000-06:00

I recently took a trip with some of the guys in Alli's family up to Alaska. All in all, we were up there for 10 days, and all we did was fish. It was so much fun. Alaska is one of the most beautiful places I have been to. This picture was taken around 10:00 PM. We went during the time of the year when thesun stays out for the longest amount of time, the summer solstice. It stayed out for about 20 hours. Although Alaska is a two hour difference, calculating in the hours of the sun it turns out to be a 5-7 hour difference in time.

This was taken at about 1:30 AM

Combat Fishing.

We went during spawning season. This means that all of Alaska will go out and fish. All the way down the river this is what it looks like. Fishermen 10 feet to the left and right of you. Also there is unwritten protocol as to how to go about fishing, combat style. Seeing how I was really just a beginner fisherman, I was a little nervous at first. But eventually I got the hang of it. Most fishermen are very respectful and courteous when it comes to personal space during combat fishing.

Deep Sea Fishing

Our Halibut Catch

Mark caught the biggest fish which weighed in at 63 pounds. It was an interesting experience out there on the sea trying to catch these Halibut. They are bottom feeders, meaning that they are all the way at the bottom of the ocean floor. We were catching these at a depth of 12o feet. When you finally catch one it feels like you are trying to pull up a small car, that is fighting to stay back down. It can be very exhausting.

On our last day we went 4-wheeling up towards this glacier. It was an incredible sight to see in person. The closer you got to it the more rivers and streams there were to cross.

Drew and I were forunate enough to ride the smaller 4 wheelers with a little lower ground clearance. Because of this we both managed to stall our machines in one of the crossings. Luckily there were some locals there watching us, and laughing at us as we tried to cross. They eventually pulled us in and helped us out. This man became my superhero of the day.

In the end it was probably one of my greatest vacations. The fishing was unbelievable, the scenery out of this world, and I came back with about 55 pounds of Halibut and Salmon. Although there are a lot of hidden costs in Alaska, the money spent was well worth it. If the chance ever arrives for a person to go on a fishing trip in Alaska, it is a no brainer. GO!!

Happy Father's Day!

2010-06-21T18:51:00.000-06:00

SO, I'm a day late, but it's ok because my dad is in Alaska and won't see this for a while anyways :)

Here are some things to know about my daddy, Mark Lords:

He is in love with the song "Cupid" and will sing it, off-key, at the top of his lungs. Anytime. Anywhere. (Including on the ski lift, with way too many people in earshot..)

On his 50th birthday, his front teeth fell out. Priceless.

Back in Vermont, he would come home from church every Sunday and get into comfy clothes. This would mean he wore his dress shirt, dress socks, and WHITE MICKEY MOUSE SWEATPANTS. But the best part is that he would TUCK his dress shirt INTO his sweatpants. Why? We have no idea. We made fun of him every time, but he always did it.

He has called me a "zit on the butt of life" more than once. Thanks Dad, I love you too.

As a mission president, he told all of his missionaries that he wanted them to have sex. Many people would have pretended that awkward moment did not happen, and just move on. Not my dad. He said "woah, I don't want you to have SEX! I want you to have SUCCESS!" I don't think anyone will forget that Zone Conference...

When I was little, he gave me a candy bar in exchange for being allowed to pick out my future husband. (He didn't pick Jonny out, but he definitely approved, so close enough!)

He is such a marshmallow. I love it.

I still remember writing him a letter when I was younger that said "I hope the man I marry is 1-tenth as amazing as you." Because yes, he is just that amazing.

Jonny thinks it's silly, but I still call my dad "daddy." And I'm pretty sure I always will.

He just melts whenever I would say "Daddy...please?" and give him a smile. I could get almost anything :)

(Spelunking in Mammoth Caves)

He's a family man, through and through.

He is such a hard worker, probably more than anyone I know.

(digging a giant hole in the sand with Lexi, just because she wanted to)

He is an amazing speaker. Whenever I traveled with him when he spoke in other stakes, people would always come up to me and say "Wow, your Dad is just wonderful. He is just as good as everyone says!"

He is so full of love, especially towards my mom. He is so romantic, even after so many years! He is such a good husband to her :)

He has such a strong testimony of Jesus Christ, and is a wonderful example of Him. His love of the gospel is evident in everything he does.

He is the best dad ever!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! I love you!

(Now hurry back from Alaska and bring me my hubby in one piece!)

Blast From the Past

2010-05-30T20:56:00.000-06:00

I have a PDBio test to study for, so naturally, I needed to find some way to procrastinate.. I've been going through pictures from our wedding slideshow. I just LOVE Jonny's baby pictures. He was (and still is) so cute! Here is a glimpse of Jonny and I growing up...

His bath.

Her bath.

All boy.

All girl.

All smiles.

All.... weird :)

A cheerleader.

A golfer.

In love :)

Trust...

2010-05-21T10:27:00.000-06:00

That's what needs to exist in a marriage where the husband comes home from work and the wife says: "Hey honey, I bought a 3-piece couch set tonight. We're picking it up on Monday."

Well... that's what happened! On Saturday night while Jonny was I work I went to my parents house. We stopped at Smith's to get some things and I saw a beautiful microfiber couch set. I fell in love. I couldn't call Jonny because he was at work, so I just made a quick decision and bought it. To be fair, it was over 1/2 off!

The problem is that we live in a cozy little apartment, so they don't all fit :) We left the recliner chair at my parents house, where it will stay til we move. We just have the couches, but even that is still a tight fit!

But it's ok, because we love them! They are so comfy!

Now I just need some cute decorative pillows!

Oh, and don't worry. Jonny was really excited when I told him, and was very proud of me for making a decision on my own, which I hate to do :)

Mommy Dude

2010-05-09T21:30:00.000-06:00

Yep, that's the nickname my brother gave my mom, however many years ago. We call her "MD" for short. Well, Drew does, at least...

There are a few things everyone should know about Gwen Lords.

She is a sucker for a good head rub. It was the only thing I could offer to delay my bed time when I was little. It worked every time.

She is a goofball. She finds the most random things hilarious, and they never get old to her. To this day, Drew can say "Ashley used to have a big head... but then she grew into it" and my mom will laugh even though she's heard it a million times. (Only a select few of you will understand this joke. Consider yourselves lucky)

When we go shopping together and I try on something super cute, she just has to buy it for me. I can't tell you how many times I was told "Don't tell your father"

She has a comeback for everything, and they usually involve inflicting pain upon her children (don't worry, she hasn't followed through on any of them...yet :) )

She is one of the only women I know who will make the whole family sleep over in a parking lot just to be first in line to get beanie babies. True story.

(we told her to "pull a face." She pulled 2...)

She is an awesome crafter. She used to do craft shows, but now is into scrapbooking and card-making. She is dang good at it.

She provides the family with some seriously funny memories... (her famous "bum shake" when she gets up to bat at family baseball, doing leg lifts against the counter..all day long, quoting "did a dingo eat your baby?", during an FHE for investigators Tanner turned on the stereo on accident. My mom's ACDC CD came blasting out of it. Priceless.)

(This is her listening to my dad sing "American Pie" in the car. It was painful for everyone.)

She has the magic touch when it comes to children. They are all drawn to her. Out of all of the wonderful callings she has had, I think the calling she has now is her favorite, and most fitting. She is in the nursery :)

She will do anything in the world for her children. Her life is devoted to family.

She is the greatest example of service. She has such a kind heart, and is constantly blessing the lives of others.

She is completely in tune with the spirit. We know to never question her on things, because she is always right. She always knows what is best for us.

She can always tell when something is wrong, even when we think we are hiding it so well! And she always knows exactly what to say or do to make it better.

She is beautiful. Inside and out.

Happy Mother's Day! I love you mom :)

Emergency Room

2010-05-05T10:44:00.000-06:00

A couple days ago Jonny woke up with a stiff neck, and it has only been getting worse. Yesterday the pain was so bad that it was making him nauseous and he almost blacked out a few times. His whole head/neck/back froze up and he can't move :( Last night it got even worse. He couldn't sleep and when I woke up at 1 am he said he wanted to go to the hospital.

So off to the ER we went! I knew the poor guy had to be in a lot of pain, because he never complains when he's sick or hurt, but he still felt kinda silly going to the hospital.

This is his sad attempt at a smile...

He had to get a shot in his bum :) He kept saying "you better not get a picture of THAT!" But once the morphine kicked in he said many times "I really wish you would have gotten a picture. You could have put it on the blog..." Yeah, I don't think so...

So, they gave him morphine with Zofran. The Zofran was to relieve the nausea that morphine causes. Well, the morphine had no effect on his pain, and even after 2 more doses of Zofran, he threw up a ton.

The upside of all of this is that I got to witness Jonny on drugs. It was amusing. Here are some of the things he said...

He told me that when he went to the hospital when he was little, they gave him apple juice. So I asked the nurse if they had any and she said she would get him some. He looked at me and goes (in a very slurred, yet offended, voice) "I TOLD you they have apple juice!"
No one was doubting you, Jonny...

He loved the zofran dissolve-in-your-mouth pills they gave him. He raved about how good they were, and asked the nurse what flavor they were (she said she didn't know they were flavored). He kept saying, in a strangely formal tone, "These really are quite delicious" When he got his 2nd pill he popped it in his mouth and yelled "Yeah! Dat's what I'm talkin bout!"

He said "Do you remember when we were dating and we would stay up late and I would get really weird cause I was so tired? This is just like that... but this time I'm on morphine.... AND apple juice..."

He asked if he could drive home. When I said no, he said "fine, but I really don't want to run home."
Don't worry, I didn't make him run home :)

Maybe what he said wasn't that funny, and you just had to be there. Or maybe it was the fact that we didn't get home from the hospital til 5 am and were both super tired. But I thought it was hilarious :)

Well, they took an x-ray and they think it is just a sever muscle spasm. So he's on muscle relaxers, but refuses to take the percocet because he doesn't want to throw up again. It's just weird that this is so painful. We've both had muscle spasms before, and they were nothing like this!

When Jonny woke up this morning he was in even worse pain than he was last night, and he was really nauseous again. I called some guys in our ward to give him a blessing, which they did. One of them even left work to do it! While he's still in pain, he's much better than he was this morning. I am so grateful for that :)

Cricut Cake

2010-04-29T09:18:00.001-06:00

Oh my goodness, I am in love.... I love to bake and decorate things. So when my mom told me about this new thing called the Cricut Cake, I knew I just had to have one...It uses all of the cartridges from the regular cricut, but it is made for food. It cuts sheets of fondant, frosting, gum paste, even cookies!
This brings me to the reason for the post. The lovely ladies at Cuttlebug are doing a giveaway for one of these little beauties. I am trying to win one!

Jonny and I made a cake recently, and these pictures just go to show that we would really use a Cricut Cake...

We rolled out the fondant and covered the cake

And put it on the pretty cake platter we got for our wedding..

Then came the decorating. It was pretty hard, but we managed with what we had!

It came out a little lumpy and awkward, but we loved it!

If I had a Cricut Cake though, this would have been a LOT easier :) Wish me luck!

Internship!

2010-04-16T13:50:00.000-06:00

I probably brag about my husband too much, but what can I do? I just love to talk about him! He had an interview for an internship today. It's for the Human Resources department of the Center for Health, Home and Hospice (I think..). He wanted it really bad because he could easily see himself working HR someday. They were so impressed with him that they offered it to him on the spot! We are super excited.

In other news, I totally scored at the Shade sale today :)

Wow.

2010-03-25T08:19:00.001-06:00

Wow #1- I am sick. Not just the little stuffy nose kind of sick, the exhausted, head weighs a million pounds, already gone through 4 boxes of tissues, knife in the throat, eyes so watery I look like I'm always crying kind of sick :(

Wow #2- I just applied for graduation. Hello crazy!?! I feel like I just started college. Ok, so I'm not done til December, but because I am walking in August with Jonny, I had to apply now. I'll be done before I know it!

Wow #3- A totally awesome girl in my ward invited me to help out with an easter egg hunt this Saturday for Shabby Apple. I am so stoked, because I will be able to pick out a darling little dress to keep. I just hope I can stop blowing my nose long enough to make it!

Wow #4- We have someone moving out of the apartment complex, so I posted it up on craigslist. I got sooo many phone calls and emails in the first like 10 minutes I had to just take it off. Thank goodness these little apartments are just so darling and cheap, now we have a huge waiting list for when another opens up!

I think I'm all out of wows for now. But 4 is plenty :)

5 Things I Love...

2010-02-21T19:14:00.001-07:00

5. Ben and Jerry's HALF-BAKED ice cream. It's a beautiful combo of my two favorite flavors: cookie dough and chocolate fudge brownie. Deeeeelicous. It also takes me back to the good old days of living in Vermont and going to the B&J factory and getting my face painted. Those were the days..

4. My JEANS. I can't really explain it, but I feel like a whole new woman when I put them on. Jonny calls them my "hot jeans" because he loves them just as much as I do :) There is something about a nice pair of jeans that makes you feel like a rockstar. Everyone needs a pair of rockstar jeans.

3. CROSSWORD PUZZLES. My mom says Jonny and I are turning into an old married couple but who cares, crossword puzzles are where it's at. We do one almost every day, and they are kind of addicting. We've discovered that the word oreo shows up in almost every one of them. Very strange...

2. I know most people hate this, but I have a serious love for GROCERY SHOPPING. When done correctly, it's a blast. I plan out my meals for a week, make a list, and have a ball at Smiths. Today I bought a huge package of sirloin steak (normally $22) for $6. That's right, 6 bucks. It's moments like this that I live for, and I'm glad the lady in the checkout line was there to be there with me in my moment of glory and congratulate me on my shopping abilities. This one is going down in the record books!

1. My HUSBAND. I love every thing about him. I love that every time he is in charge of dinner, he makes hot dogs or orders pizza. I love that he never gets mad at me, and is more concerned with my happiness than his own. I love the way he looks in his suit, and that he watches the Bachelor with me. I love how excited he is about life, and that he cannot wait to start a family. I love watching him play with the babies who sit in front of us at church; it's the cutest. He is the best and I absolutely love him :)

"Don't worry, in a few days this will be really funny.."

2010-02-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

Today was the day to go grocery shopping. I usually go by myself but I asked Jonny to come with me. He said of course, as long as we were super quick cause he had to study for a quiz in his afternoon class. No big.
I picked him up at 1 and off we went to good ole Smiths. Naturally, I couldn't find everything I needed so it took quite a while. Then as we were going to find a checkout line I decided to get potatoes. I ran to get them and when I came back Jonny was ringing up our huge load of groceries... in the express "10 items or less" self-checkout station. Oh dear.
The bags were so stuck together that we couldn't get them open to put our stuff in. We just piled our groceries on the little shelf, while people in line behind us were giving us some not so nice looks. Well, the dang thing wasn't working and kept saying "an assistant is coming to help you." Great. So an employee came over and lectured us on how there is a reason why these stations are only for a few items, and we had way too many. It was super embarrassing.
So then Jonny goes, "hey, do you have your wallet? I don't have my smith's card on me." Please, I have him with me, why would I need my wallet? We decided to have him run to the car and get it. This is the once-in-a-lifetime moment when I actually drove, and to my horror, I realized I had locked the keys in the car. Excellent.
We finished paying (without getting our smith's discount) and went outside to take care of things. Thanks to roadside assistance, the locksmith guy was free... and also far away. So we got to sit by our car in the parking lot, munching on the croutons I had bought, waiting. It was freezing so I finally decided to grab some hot chocolate. Of course right after I paid for it Jonny called saying the locksmith guy was here.
We got into our car and drove home. As I was carrying the groceries in, just to top off the whole experience, I spilled the hot chocolate all over myself and the groceries.
Thank goodness my husband is very patient, otherwise it would've been a lot worse. He just laughed at me :)

It's the greatest time of year...

2010-01-14T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here comes another long catch-up post..
For starters, we had our one year anniversary :) Jonny took me to Ruby River in Salt Lake for dinner. Then we walked around Temple Square to look at all of the Christmas lights, which was beautiful.
After the lights we went to a cute little pastry shop down town that I love. When my mom, sisters and I went to Paris we fell in love with the fruit tarts, and this place in Salt Lake is the closest we can find to the real thing. Delicious!

Our anniversary was so wonderful, we had a great time. Next came Christmas. We decided to buy a couple new decorations for our place and this is what we got. They were super cheap at Tai Pan so I was pretty excited about them..

We also decided to get a tree. I wanted a fake one so we wouldn't have to buy a new one next year too. It's not very big, but I love it. It was really fun to decorate my own tree!

On Christmas Eve we went to Jonny's parents' house. It was really fun to be with them. Every year for Christmas they make cheese fondue for dinner, and this year was no different! It was my first time trying it, and although I might have to get used to the taste, it was pretty dang good.
Then we drove up to my parents house that night so we would wake up with them Christmas morning. My goodness, we were really spoiled this year. My favorite gift was an adorable fossil watch that Jonny got me. I love it! Jonny also got a watch, his just isn't as cute :) It's a running watch with a heart rate monitor and all that stuff.

Christmas morning!

My sister's husband, Jordan, had his birthday while they were out here for break so I made him a cake. I made my white chocolate fudge torte (just as delicious the second time, might I add..) and then this cake.. I am really liking this whole cooking thing!

Favorite picture from Christmas break. Jackson looooves his Grandpa!

The family got the country and the classic rock rockbands, so we had a good time with those. Enjoy the singing in the video, it's the Lords family, what do you expect? :) Regardless of my family's singing abilities, Jackson couldn't resist the beat!

In other news, school has started again. Jonny will be graduating in August, and I will in December (a semester early!!) I quit the law library and now work as a custodian in the Administration building on campus. It may not seem very glamorous, but I love it. It's nice to get up early, and the job is pretty relaxing.
This semester Jonny is doing research in an infant lab with a professor, which is pretty cool. He is also working with another professor to get a study (which he did last semester) published in a journal. He also became a mentor for a kid from where he works, so he's going to be pretty busy! I am a public health major, and just switched to the epidemiology track, which I am really excited about. It's a lot of fun. I think we are really going to enjoy this semester!

One year!

2009-12-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already here, but it's our 1 year anniversary! The past year has been the BEST and I cannot wait for more to come :) Here's what life looked like for us on December 20, 2008...

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. I love him so much and am so grateful for how sweet he is to me. Life is good :)