Baby on Board

We have shared some very exciting news! We are expecting Baby #1 this fall. Here are some highlights from the past few months!

I have taken pictures every week but until now, nothing has really changed much in my appearance. I lost quite a bit of weight at the beginning because food tasted terrible. But now, the baby loves all foods (especially cheese and milk. Go figure since I am from Wisconsin). I gained back all the weight I lost so I feel much better. I have a video of hearing the heartbeat but Google Blogger won't let me load it. So I'll add it to Facebook to listen to. We heard the heartbeat at 10 weeks and again at 14 weeks. No ultrasound yet but we'll have one done in Texas to find out the gender. We're very excited to welcome a baby into our family this fall!

Well worth the delay

Yes, I am fully aware that I haven't posted in a long time. We haven't really been up to very much. We're pretty boring. But, this weekend was fun so here are the highlights.

We test drove cars on Friday between the blizzards. It was fun. We're looking at becoming a two car family in Texas so we decided to get a head start and test drive some in Utah. Joseph liked one car and I liked the other so this should  be a fun decision to make soon.

Then, Saturday morning, Joseph decided to run the Rex Lee race at BYU. Joseph played football in high school but has never run a race before. Running is not his favorite pastime. But, Joseph's professor likes running this race every year and volunteered to pay Joe's entry fee to have him run. Who could turn down a free race? Well, we woke up Saturday morning to a few inches of snow and nasty weather. But Joseph was a trooper and still ran the race. He didn't walk at all, which I was very proud of him for that. His time was pretty good too. He already started talking about running a 10K one day.

Joseph with his professor and some other classmates.

My attempt at getting a picture of Joseph finishing.

His cool down

Then, we got our new couches after the race. We like them. It felt wonderful to get rid of the pink couch we had for over two years. Our new furniture is very comfortable.

So this is a picture from the store. They look green here but they are actually brown. We just got the loveseat and couch, not the table or anything else.

  Saturday afternoon, we had a bunch of friends over for lunch and to decorate Easter eggs. I am starting to realize that soon, all of my friends will live thousands of miles away and I won't see them this often. So it was great to see everyone one more time before we move far, far away.

Joseph's Humpty Dumpty egg

Our friends, Allison, JJ, Becca, Janet, and Jacob

My pink egg with polka dots

That is all the exciting stuff that happened this weekend. Stay tuned for more news...

Anniversary and Christmas 2012

On December 18th, Joseph and I celebrated two years of marriage! Woo Hoo! We went out to eat for lunch and Joseph grilled steaks for dinner. We went to CLAS ropes for their winter river cruise, which was really fun.

The flowers Joseph got me. I love daisies!

Freezing on the boat.

A few days after that, we flew to Wisconsin for Christmas. It is such a blessing that we can go visit my family. We got to see lots of family and friends. There was a big snow storm when we got there so there was enough snow to go snow-mobiling around our yard. I got lots of gifts for my Christmas village. My family has always had villages and I decided I wanted to carry on the tradition. Here are some pictures from Wisconsin.

My mom. You can tell my family loves Green Bay Packers!

The village set up at our house.

Brandon and Suki

Using the label maker my brother got me for Christmas!

 My parent's dog, Molly, loves chasing laser lights. My dad got a helicopter that lights up for Christmas. Molly went crazy. I couldn't pick one video so now you have two for entertainment.

We came back to Utah in yet another snow storm. We went back to work for a few days and then left for St. George to have Christmas with Joseph's family. We got to see lots of people and enjoyed playing Perudo on New Year's Eve. We went down to Joseph's sister's hobby farm and I got to feed lots of cows and horses. It was a great Christmas there. Joseph finally got a drill that he's been asking for since last year. He can't wait to use it. We also got a bocce ball set that we played down in St. George so that was exciting.

Joseph playing battleship with his nephew.

Opening gifts

Joseph's dad opening a gift

We got Parcheesi for Heather and Trent.

Now, we are back to our normal routine of working. While we enjoyed seeing family, it is always nice to be home.

BYU Basketball and Gift Making

For fun this winter, we bought some tickets to the BYU basketball games. The game we were looking the most forward to was Utah vs. BYU. We went to it last weekend and had a blast. My favorite part of the games is the beginning where they introduce the players. I took a video of it but of course, it won't load. So here is a youtube clip from a different game this season. Thankfully, we beat Utah.

 

This is the gift I made for my visiting teaching people. It was a lot of fun and actually pretty easy to make. I did feel sort of weird buying baby food jars only to dump out the food to make them.

Other than that, we are looking forward to visiting Wisconsin soon for the holiday. Also, Joseph and I finished up finals last week. I found out my professor wants me to work on publishing a paper I wrote for her class. Grad school is the best! If only the next 7 semesters can be the same!

Happenings around the Home

So we've been busy as always, which means I haven't updated our blog! Here are some highlights of the past few weeks.

We went to Joseph's brother's home for Thanksgiving. I made a really cool cheese ball and veggie platter but I forgot my camera. So his mom took pictures but I don't have them yet.You'll have to wait... but just know it was really awesome! We had a good Thanksgiving and I got the day off! Hooray! We slept in and watched the Macy's Day Parade. It was a good Thanksgiving.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we went to Joe's parents and replaced the brake pads on our car. They've been squealing for a little bit so I finally complained enough to have them changed. The best part: I got to help. I took off the tires all by myself. Here is the evidence of it. Also, I took a picture of their cat that I like. His name is Whitey.

We also went to a BYU basketball game right before Thanksgiving but again, I forgot my camera. I predicted the score and I was only three points off! It was a pretty empty game, as in there were not many people there, so we got to sit closer. We got tickets for the Utah vs. BYU game this week so we're excited!

I also decorated our home with Christmas! We love our little Christmas tree and our pretty ornaments! We put our wreath, nativity, and lights too! I love Christmas decorations!

Yesterday, we went up to Sandy for the Festival of Trees, which is a huge fundraiser for Primary Children's Medical Center. Here is the recap of the best trees we saw.

There were about 5 Utah Ute Trees but only one BYU!

This tree was called Chemis-Tree. It was pretty cool.

We were surprised to see a Packer tree there but were quite happy!

The top of the tree!

Just a few more weeks until Christmas! And we're so blessed to be able to go to Wisconsin again!

More Celebrations

It's a late post, but as the saying goes "Better late than never!" We've had a few reasons to celebrate the past few weeks so here's the highlights!

Joseph turned the big 2-4 a few weeks ago! The weekend before his birthday, my friend, Chelsea and her husband came to visit from Logan. Pretty soon we won't live in the same state so we got together while it's still easy. We hiked Squaw Peak since the weather was beautiful. It was a great hike and we enjoyed having them come visit. We also went to see the new Bat-man movie, which was pretty cool. For Joseph's birthday, we had a nice dinner (steak!) and just hung out. Joseph had to take a national engineering exam the day after his birthday so we didn't do a whole lot because of that. We went to see his family as well and they gave us a water purifier for Texas. Neither of us like how the water tastes in Texas so we wanted a purifier so we don't have to keep buying bottled water. Here's some pictures.

This is new. Before this rock, there was no marker and you had to guess where to turn.

Mt. Timp from Squaw Peak Trail

We made it alive!

Chelsea and me.

The couples.

Walking back down the trail.

Also, we celebrated accepting a job offer! Joseph had many opportunities to interview and go to Houston for site visits with other companies this fall. In the end, we made our decision and have accepted an engineering position with Dow Chemical Company. It is the same company Joseph interned with over the summer. We like the company and know they will treat us well. We will be moving to a different city than where we lived over the summer: Lake Jackson, Texas. It is about an hour south of Houston and about 10 minutes away from the gulf coast. The town is pretty nice and Joseph will work with some BYU graduates. We're pretty excited to finally know what we're doing come May!

My Favorite Season

Fall has grown to be my favorite season for many reasons. One, it is my birthday. Two, I love the weather. My favorite, most comfortable outfit is jeans and a long sleeve shirt so fall is perfect for that. With that, I love the colors that come out in the trees. Three, I love listening to General Conference, which takes place in the fall and spring. Four, football resumes, both college and NFL. And I love football. Luckily, I've been able to do all of those things these past few weeks.

A few weeks ago, BYU played Utah in the rival game. We had some friends over and I made these color-fitting cupcakes.

Then, Joseph and I celebrated my birthday (his is in two weeks!). We went to Joe's mission reunion the night of my birthday and it was fun. His mission is growing so rapidly and great things are happening in Barcelona Spain. For my birthday, Joseph got me a cake turntable so I can decorate cakes better. I was quite excited. I also had the opportunity to talk to my family, which is always great! For a mutual birthday lunch, we went to Tucanos this weekend and I love going there! It was very yummy, as always!

The weekend before my birthday, Joseph and I had time to drive up into Provo Canyon and go up to the place where we took our engagement pictures, Cascade Springs. The leaves were beautiful and it makes me sad to know they will go away and white snow will blanket the area soon. But we enjoyed just walking around and looking at God's beautiful paintings.

My attempt at being creative.

General Conference came and went. Joe and I were able to get tickets from our ward over the summer. I love going to the Conference Center! We also went to Joe's parents for part of conference to see them. It was a wonderful conference. I still can't believe young men can serve missions at 18 and sisters at 19 now! And the announcement of two more temples in the world! What wonderful news!