Camping and waterskiing

A few weekends ago Chris and I went camping with some of our friends up Payson Canyon. We packed tin foil dinners and had smores and banana boats around the fire. Chris and I even slept out under the stars, it was so much fun! I was worried I'd have to wake Chris up to help me go to the bathroom in the middle of the night (you know...pregnant bladder), and we'd get eaten by bears or something. But I made it all the way until 7 am without having to go, so all was well!

Chris & Annalisa

Jen & Sam
(Jen is a photographer - all these photos are courtesy of her!)

Kelli & Jeremy

George & Ashley

Chris, Sam, George and Jeremy

Kelli and Annalisa

The next day we met Daniel and Julie at Utah Lake for some boating. I just watched, since I can't really waterski, but the boys had a great time! It was a perfect day!

Chris

Sam

Jeremy

24 Week Belly Pic

Okay, here's my cute pregnant story for the week. Chris really likes to talk to the baby and rub my belly to see if the baby's awake. I don't usually get to see Chris in the mornings before work, so when I walk in the door in the evening, the first thing he asks is "is the baby awake?" (Meaning, like is she moving right now?)

One day last week I had felt the baby rolling and kicking quite a bit in the morning, but in the afternoon while I was sitting in my chair at work I didn't feel much movement. So when I walked in the door that night and sat down on the couch next to Chris and he asked me if she was awake, I said I didn't think so. I told him I hadn't felt her move much for an hour or two, so I thought she was probably asleep. Chris put his hand on my belly anyway and bent down to talk to her. As soon as his hand was on my belly she let loose a HUGE kick, right where his hand was! It was so big, it shocked both of us and we started to laugh. So now our joke is that the baby knows her daddy already.

And occasionally, Chris is certain that the baby already loves her daddy more than her mommy. :)


Pregnancy Statistics
How far along? 24w1d
Gender: girl
Current Cravings: Ice cream sandwiches
Weight gain: +9 lbs
Best moment this week: actually seeing her kick
Belly button in or out: still in, but just baaaaarely!
Labor signs: just trying to keep my blood pressure down
What I miss: a few of my favorite summer shirts and jogging
What I'm looking forward to: ordering the crib this week!

Bicycles

Chris needs one of these to ride with the Bambina.Don't worry, we'll also get her one of these.

The Garden

Where we live there is really rocky soil. As in, if you try to dig a hole you will find more rocks than dirt. Big ones, too.

Last summer (the first summer in our house), I decided I wanted to attempt a mini garden. We don't really have a designated area for that in the backyard, but I found space in a planter and planted two tomato plants.

I watered them and watered them. I weeded them and weeded them. And they grew...but not very well. By the end of the season we had produced one single red tomato with a giant worm hole through it. It was pretty pathetic. And sad for my fragile, green-thumb-first-timer self esteem.

I decided to try again this year, only in pots. I did a bunch of research on container gardening and found out that tomatoes are supposed to grow really well when potted. I bought two tomato plants and some good potting soil and got to work on our back patio.

(I have bad aim with a watering can, as exhibited here.)

So far our tomato plants are looking pretty good. It's nice to be able to look right outside my kitchen window to see if they need water. They're getting really big, but no sign of tomatoes yet -- just blossoms. But I'm hoping that's just because we planted them late.

Chris is still skeptical.

Fingers crossed.

It's What Fun Is.

Last night after work Chris and I headed up to Lagoon to meet up with the rest of the Spencer family, who spent the day there. We had dinner with them and walked around and enjoyed the evening while the kids went on the rides. It was stinkin' hot until about 7:00, when it thankfully started to cool down. I even got to ride the train and the carousel -- which were baby-safe rides.

(You can see my belly! It's getting bigger!)

Here's a picture of me with my Hannah-Banana. A few days ago she got pushed off the top of a swingset by one of her friends and broke BOTH of her arms. But she was a happy camper yesterday, and still went on all the rides.


Notice the colors she chose for her casts? That's my girl! She's gonna be the perfect best friend to teach our baby how to be girly.

Three years down, forever to go

From our very first date...

...to the day we fell in love...

...from the day you put a ring on my finger...

...to the day we said "I do"...

...and all our days in between...

...I sure love you! Here's to three fantastic years and many more to come.

Dear Santa...

Does anyone else's husband have a hard time coming up with birthday and/or Christmas gift ideas? I'm throwing Chris a bone with this one today.

Behold. The item currently at #1 on my wishlist:

I saw this the other day when we were at Home Depot. Sometimes it feels like we live there. But on this particular occasion, we were back by the wood blinds when I stumbled upon it. Isn't it a beaut? It's basically an upright freezer chest with 8.8 cubic feet of glorious frozen space inside.

Why, oh why is a freezer on my wishlist, you ask? Oh, the possibilities! I got THIS recipe book for Christmas last year and I love it. However, I never have enough room in my freezer to really use it regularly. I love the idea of once-a-month cooking and freezing meals. I also love being able to buy frozen foods in bulk when I find a good sale.

In short, I think this freezer could actually save our family money. And the best part? Look how much it costs to run per year...

(This is Chris's biggest beef with buying a 2nd freezer. He let Utah Power haul away the old freezer we inherited with our house because it was a power hog.)

Thirty-nine dollars per year!?! I think I'm in love.

Baby's First Bows

Aren't these little bitties adorable? Hopefully our bambina will have some hair. Thanks, Rach!

{Clippies courtesy of Rach}

Baby Quail

We have a lot of quail in our neighborhood. I mean a lot. They like to nest in the bushes and dirt in a few select places in our yard for some reason, and every time we walk out the front door they scurry away. There's even a one-legged little quail that hops away, a little slower than the others.

When we came home from Jackson Hole last Saturday, we found this in our window well:


Aren't they adorable? Four teeny-tiny baby quail, with their mama perched up on the roof, watching them nervously. The babies were stuck in the window well, and kept jumping up at the sides trying to get out. (I can't figure out how they got in there in the first place. Did she hatch them in there?) Every time someone walked nearby, they'd start chirping and running in crazy scared circles, and the mom would swoop down and fly past your head as a warning to stay away from her babies.

We decided to place a long board in the window well (it's really shallow) at a slant, so they could just walk up the plank and out to their mama. Genius, right?

A few hours later, they were still in there.

Apparently quail brains are even smaller than I thought.

We finally had to get a cardboard box and scoop them all out. Once we set them free on the lawn, the mama flew down from the roof and scurried off into the bushes with them.

Phew. Crisis averted.

Jackson Hole

We had a great time this last weekend with the Pace side of the family up in Jackson Hole. Chris and I drove up on Wednesday night and stayed the rest of the week.

The scenery was beautiful on the drive up. Chris and I kept picking out beautiful places where we want to retire someday. There were at least 8 of them. :)

We stopped at a bunch of interesting historical markers, just because.

We found a cool one that showed where they think Jim Bridger signed his name into the rock in 1844.

One day everyone went on a hike to Jenny lake and Inspiration Point. (Except the pregnant people who don't hike. And the baby sitters.)

They took a boat across the lake and hiked up to the falls.

The view across the lake was beautiful.

The boys brought their bikes so they could do some mountain biking -- Chris's favorite.

At Teton Village (where we stayed) they had a lift to take you up the mountain with your bike so you could ride down. I think they went up and down it like 8 times in one day!

We went in to town and did a little shopping. They had two ADORABLE baby clothing stores! I was in heaven.

One night we also went to the Bar-J Wranglers. I had never been before and oh my gosh, it was hilarious! I would so do this every time.

The non-pregnant people also rafted the river one day, which they said was a blast. And we ate lots of good food, went swimming in the hot springs, and had such a good time! We can't wait to get away with the fam again next summer!

This last weekend...

On our way to Jackson Hole this last weekend, Chris and I stopped and took a picture of me in front of the world's first JC Penney store.

I know. It was amazing.

More Jackson Hole pictures to come...

Horses of Courses

We took the Hansens to see the horses at my parents house this week. The horses love it when people come to visit -- they come to the stall windows to see what's going on and beg for apples. We fed them a few from the tree and tried to get Bentley to pet them, but he wasn't too sure about it.

CoyoteJack chomping on an apple and Bentley saying "uh, I don't know about this, mom!"

"Those teeth look pretty big, Dad!" -Bentley

"Oh, this isn't so bad after all!" -Bentley

Rachel, Trevor and Bentley with the horses featuring shadow-Chris (with the camera) and shadow-Annalisa (making faces at Bentley).

21 Week Belly Pic

I've been feeling the baby kick pretty strongly for about a week and a half now. If I have someone near me when she kicks, I always put their hand on my stomach to see if they can feel it too, but they haven't been able to.

On Sunday I was sitting in church with my arm across my belly and I felt a kick so strong I swear my arm felt it on the outside. So later that night when I was sitting by Chris on the couch she started to kick again. I grabbed his hand and put it on my belly and waited. She kicked once or twice and I kept asking him, "did you feel that one!?" Finally after another big kick I saw his eyes light up and he said excitedly "I felt that one!" He was so excited that he kept asking me to describe what a kick feels like to me (not very easy to do!). It was very cute, and I think it made it a little more real for him now!

21 week belly pic

In other news, I got a call at work yesterday from our HR lady to let me know that when I have the baby in November I qualify for 6 weeks (8 if I have a cesarean) of paid disability leave through our life insurance at work. Yahtzee! It totally made my day. I'm excited about the prospect of having 12 whole weeks (and during the holidays, no less) to stay home and bond with our baby, but the idea of 12 weeks with no pay is a little scary. It was such a relief and a blessing to find this out. Things just keep getting better and better!

Pregnancy Statistics
How far along? 20w6d
Gender: girl!
Current Cravings: Crown Burger and Betos
Weight gain: +5 lbs
Best moment this week: Chris feeling movement!
Belly button in or out: still in
Labor signs: none, just a lot of stretching happening
What I miss: sleeping on my stomach and blue cheese
What I'm looking forward to: picking out a crib and making hair bows

Body Pillow Wars

A few weeks ago when my joints started to ache at night and I was having trouble sleeping, my mom bought me a giant body pillow from Costco. When I brought it home and tossed it on the bed Chris took one look and just shook his head.

It. Is. Giant.

It pretty much takes up the whole bed even without us in it, but it does wonders for my back and hips while I sleep.


One day last week I had to wake up earlier than Chris (which is unusual for us on a weekday). After I'd showered and gotten dressed, I came back into the bedroom to find this:


Chris is over on my side of the bed, with his whole body wrapped around MY body pillow.

Last night when I left the bed to use the bathroom at 3 AM, I came back to find Chris had stolen my body pillow and was wrapped completely around it. When I tried to snatch it back, his kung-fu grip wouldn't let go, so I had to relent and let him have it.

He teases me about sleeping with it but loves to "borrow" it when I'm not looking. Is our bed big enough to handle two body pillows? I'm skeptical.

Master Bathroom Remodel Progress

Our main floor bathroom is now about 90% done so of course Chris started ripping out the master bathroom to begin the remodel on it. Here are a few pictures of what the master bath looked like before we began the bashing. It's a small bathroom, so getting good pictures of it is hard, but you get the idea.


Once we tore out the vanity, toilet, linoleum and shower, this is what we found. It looks like about 40 years of a leaky shower. No wonder I could never get that darn tile clean! It was molding from the inside out. The subfloor and floor were so soft and rotted you could poke your finger right through the wood. You never know what you'll find when you remodel old houses! (And notice the brick in the photo? The brick on the outside of our house is structural. No other supports. Freaky? Yes.)


We ended up having to tear the subfloor and floor out all the way down to the joists to replace it. Here's a picture of how Chris and his dad spent last Saturday. And yes, Stan's legs are hanging through to the basement.

Now the new floors are in and the plumber has worked his magic. Now we're ready for some sheetrock and mudding, and then tile. More updates to come. Chris and I will sure be glad when all of this remodeling is over!