Here I Am!

So a few people have requested pictures of my pregnant belly, so here I am! I'm about 5 1/2 months pregnant here. I'm getting to the point where it's difficult to bend over to pick things up and move around like I used to, but I'm OK with it. I know it's only going to get worse! I don't know if I mentioned that we have decided to name the baby Addison Lynn. I have loved the name Addison for at least 10 years and I was lucky enough to marry someone that likes the name too. Oh and the middle name Lynn is after my dad. His middle name was Lynn. We haven't decided if we will spell her name Addison or Adyson. What do you think?

This and That

Matt and I celebrated our 2nd Wedding Anniversary on the 23rd of June. It's amazing how much can happen in 2 years! A lot of life changing things! I'm so grateful I have had Matt to help me through the hard times as well as be a part of the happy and exciting times! He is a wonderful husband and I feel very blessed. Since our Anniversary was in the middle of the week, we decided to do most of our celebrating on the weekend and we went to Park City. We just kind of explored and shopped around a little. We had the best Pistachio gelato! It was every bit as good as the pistachio gelato I had in Italy. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Matt's face when he ate it! He was skeptical until he had a bite of mine and then he ate all of his plus some of mine and he just kept saying "This is so GOOD!" It's not often that Matt gets that excited about food. I tend to be the food lover in this relationship! I actually did bring my camera, but it's hard for me to remember to pull it out and take some pictures. I'm working on improving that! Anyway, I did get a picture of Matt with this moose statue that I thought was pretty hilarious! Isn't she beautiful?! You can't really see in the picture, but she has long eyelashes and sequins on her eyelids. Oh and she's wearing jeans!

This past weekend, I spent the 4th of July in Idaho at my grandparents. Matt wasn't able to go because he wasn't feeling well. I helped out with a barbecue my grandma was in charge of. The town has a little parade, and then food and fireworks afterword. All I did really, was make sure people didn't take more than one cookie. That was a tough job though! It's hard to be stingy like that! The fireworks were great! We sat right under them and they were big and loud and beautiful! The next day we celebrated my grandma's birthday and I got a funny little picture of her blowing out the candles on her cake. There were so many that some of my cousins decided to roast some marshmallows! She turned 79!

The next day I spent some time with my other side of the family and celebrated my other grandma's birthday! It's always easy to remember both of my grandma's birthdays, because they are within a day of each other! It was so nice to be able to spend some time with extended family! I have so much fun just chatting and listening to their stories! I'm related to some pretty hilarious people!

Today Matt and I went in for our official ultrasound. You have to go to the appointment with a full bladder and it's completely miserable! I'm so glad they gave us a CD of everything because all I could concentrate on was NOT PEEING! I think that would be the humiliation of my life! We got some good pictures of her face, arms, hands and legs. I felt her move for the first time last night and she has just been kicking away for the past hour or so. It's such a weird feeling! Kind of like fluttering or twitching. My due date changed to November 29th. We'll see if she decides to come on that day or not!

Home

I have a little catching up to do since my last post. We moved into the house in Bountiful a few weeks ago and have been busy making minor improvements. We painted the walls a nice green color and the kitchen yellow. The walls used to be kind of a mustard color. Matt fixed the door, which is great! The other door didn't close very well and had a hole in it! Matt did a great job! A few days after we moved in, we decided to figure out how to get the swamp cooler working. Matt has never dealt with a swamp cooler, so my uncle was kind enough to help us get it working. About a week after hooking up the swamp cooler, I came home on my lunch break to find water bubbling up behind the paint in the hallway! It was such an ordeal figuring out how to turn the water off! I had to get down into the crawl space and figure out where to turn the water off. Anyway, with Matt patiently helping me over the phone, I was able to get the water off. Later we found that there was a little tiny hole in the pipe. So now the hallway looks like this!

I planted a little garden in the back and it's growing! I'm so excited! In a month or two, we will have beans, peas, corn, eggplant, squash, and tons of tomatoes! It has been raining non-stop for the past weeks and so my poor tomato plants were literally uprooted. Hopefully they will recover. I also planted some flowers and herbs in the front of the house. Of course I did all of this with the help of my mom! She's the queen of gardening. I didn't take pictures of the inside of the house because we still have some work to do.

Today I had another visit with the doctor. He did an ultrasound and guess what?! We are having a girl! Matt's super excited. He was always convinced it was a girl! I'm excited too of course! She was so cute with her little legs and arms moving! It was so fun to see her!

Will we have a boy or girl?

It has been way too long since I last posted, but I'm pretty sure I have a good excuse. Matt and I have been here in Utah for about a month and a half. Packing was crazy! We only had a one bedroom apartment, but it's rediculouse how much stuff we accumulated over the past year and a half. We had some challenges with the moving company we chose to move our things across the country. We ended up paying twice the amount of the original estimate. That was shocking and frustrating, not to mention completely unfair. It took them over a month to deliver our stuff and they broke one of our chairs. I wouldn't recommend Mega Movers to anyone! Stay far, far away from that company! After a VERY long 30 something hour drive, we made it to Utah. The next day we had a wonderful little surprise! So do you think it will be a boy or a girl? Matt's convinced it will be a girl. I have had a few episodes of morning sickness, and some nausea, but it really hasn't been terrible. I am amazed at how completely exhausted I have been! I didn't think it was possible to be so tired! I had my first doctors visit a little less than a month ago and we were able to see the baby and it's little heart beating. The Doctor said the baby has a strong heart beat, which is great. The baby is due December 5th.

Blizzads in Georgia?!

Last weekend Matt, Matt's mom Cindy and I made a trip to Tennessee to visit Matt's brother Mike and his cute little family. We had a nice time just hanging around with Easton and Malia and Mike and Wendy, but we didn't get out much because it was SNOWING! It wasn't just a little snow either, it snowed all day! Apparently it snows a couple of times each year. Who knew? I was amazed at how many accidents there were...to the point where the police were asking that people not call in if they just got into a fender bender. Crazy. On the way home we hit a blizzard in Atlanta. This was Matt's first experience driving in a real snow storm and he did a good job. There were so many cars that had slid off the side of the road. It was clear that people were not used to these kinds of weather conditions. Anyway, I'm hoping we won't hit any bad weather when we make our move out to Utah. We only have about two and a half weeks left! I can't believe it! I don't have a clue what I am doing! It's tough trying to get everything organized and packed, not to mention figuring out what to use to transport all of our stuff! I'm sad to leave Georgia. It just started feeling like home and I will miss being so close to Matt's family. They are such good and loving people! I'm excited to be near my family, I just wish I could have the best of both worlds!

A Day for Firsts

So I am terrible about updating my blog. I'm usually feeling pretty good about myself if I update it like once a month, BUT I am changing my ways and I am determined to update my blog at least once a week. So today I tried sushi for the first time ever! I ordered California rolls because I thought that would be a safe choice...WRONG! It had crab in it. I have made efforts to like crab, but I have come to the conclusion that crab is just disgusting no matter how you eat it, whether it be crab cakes, crab legs, crab dip....crab is just a nasty little creature to eat! I ate the sushi with the icky crab in it and tried to mask the taste with some soy sauce. I focused on the flavor of the cucumber and avocado. I almost threw up. I chewed as fast as I could and gagged a couple of times, but I got it down and I was proud. We also ordered some fried cream cheese and that was so good. How could it not be? It had CREAM CHEESE in it AND it was FRIED. What could be more unhealthy and therefore delicious?
I also tried Frisbee golf for the first time today. I had a great time despite my many trips into the woods to search for my Frisbee. I can't say I'm the best aim, but I got some good tips from my patient and encouraging husband and by the end, I saw some improvement. There were a lot of people out there that were really serious about the game...speaking in code and making strange movements before tossing the Frisbee. No smiling, no laughing... just serious. What's that all about? That's no fun at all! Anyway, Matt and I had fun and we didn't bother keeping score. Thank goodness or I might have looked just as unhappy as the people around us!

The Best Way to Feel Heaven in Your Home is to Have Someone You Love in Heaven

My mom received a plaque with the words "The Best Way To Feel Heaven in Your Home is To Have Someone You Love in Heaven". I thought those words to be fitting for the title of this blog. My dad passed away recently, and though this blog is difficult for me to write, I feel it is important to pay tribute to him. Over the past couple of weeks, I have heard story after story of the service and love my dad gave to the people around him. I knew my dad to be a generous man who followed promptings without hesitation, but he almost always did his acts of service in a very quiet and private way, so it wasn't until after his passing that I was able to hear of the impact he had on so many people. His acts of service ranged from playing his bagpipes for those that were sick or grieving, to offering a perfect stranger money, a hotel room and a bus pass to get home. He showed love and acceptance in such a way that so many of the people he knew thought that he was THEIR best friend. Not only was he a good friend to nearly everyone he came in contact with, he was a good son who took care of his mother after his father passed. He was a good brother who always had his siblings best interests in mind. He was a loving and devoted husband who continually searched for ways to make his wife happy. Most importantly to me, he was a good father. Not only did he take time to play with us and laugh with us, he always took advantage of opportunities to teach us valuable lessons. I am sure Kiera, Ian and Sam learned similar lessons from my dad, but these are lessons I personally learned from him. He taught me to be an honest and hard worker. He taught me to think of others before myself. I learned many lessons from him just by observing him. I remember after a serious work accident he was in about eight years ago, he was laying in the hospital covered in dirt, with bruises and broken bones and he asked a nurse how she was doing when she came into the room to take care of him. It wasn't a casual "how are you doing" either, I knew he sincerely wanted to know. That really impressed me. He taught me to have a better understanding and love for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as he lead us in family prayer and scripture study and talked to me often about different areas of the gospel. I will miss his council and comforting words. I will miss his constant support of the decisions I make. I will miss those rough and worn, but gentle hands that would playfully tug on my hair and pat my shoulder as he walked by or squeeze my hand in times of discouragement and reassure me that everything would be ok. Although I won't be able to feel those hands any more or see his face, I know that heaven isn't far way and he will often be near. Whenever I hear his name mentioned or think of the life he lived, my heart will swell with pride to know that he was my dad.