Part 3: March

March 2012

The very beginning of the month we had a little scare though, when I noticed some blood one morning, at about 6 weeks along.

My midwives' office is fantastic though, and scheduled an ultrasound for me that afternoon. Darren was able to meet me at the office right after school and we got our first look at our little guy!

Everything looked good to the ultrasound tech, so they sent us home with our first picture and we felt SO much better.

Other than that, nothing much happened in March. At least I hope so, since that's the only picture I have for the month :)

Part 2: Cakes!

February 2012

I've wanted to take a Wilton cake decorating class for pretty much the past 10 years. I signed up for one when I was at BYU, but it was cancelled because not enough people signed up.

I didn't get around to trying again until my parents gave me a gift certificate for one for Christmas!

I signed up for one starting in January, but once again it was cancelled. I was hesitant to try a third time, but decided to go for it. This time it worked!

The first week we practiced frosting cookies, and then each week after that we had a cake or cupcakes to bring in and work on.

Week 2 - Borders

Week 3 - Flowers and Cupcakes

Week 4 - Everything!

I really enjoyed having something to look forward to every week, especially since I was miserable most days with morning sickness starting the middle of the month.

I want to do the next few courses, but I actually think I could manage those at home on my own. It was nice to have somewhere to go, but it was super easy and I probably could have taught myself with just the student manual. So glad I did it though!

Rewind, Part 1: Valentine's Day

So, I'm avoiding writing "Thank you" notes from our baby shower in California, and I finally got all of our pictures on the computer from the last 6 months, so...I guess it's time I updated this thing! Get ready for a bazillion updates over the next few days/weeks...

February 14, 2012

This year for our Valentine's Day celebrations, Darren and I decided we'd keep it relatively low key. We went out to dinner the Saturday night before, and decided to do dinner at home that night.

I decided to make a gift for Darren this year, and it took me weeks to do. I finally finished it a day or two before, and hid it in our closet.

We had planned on doing gifts and cards around dinner time, but as the morning evolved, our plans changed a little...

About 4am I got up, like I usually do, for a bathroom break. For really no reason (other than we had been trying for a few months) I decided to take a pregnancy test. I really didn't think anything would come of it. I wasn't late yet, so I figured it'd be too early to tell anyway. Boy was I wrong...

I swear I stopped breathing for a few seconds. It was one of those moments that you hope will come some day, but then you're staring at this stick in your hand and that moment is here, and you have no idea what to do.

I didn't want to wake Darren up, so I just set it on the counter hoping he would see it when he got up. Then I started wondering if it would still say "pregnant" when he got up a couple hours later, and on top of that there was no way I was sleeping knowing I had such huge news for him.

I think I was able to wait about an hour before I woke him up and told him I had something to show him. Of course, I didn't turn on the bedroom light so he couldn't see anything. Haha. He took it into the bathroom and came right back and gave me a huge hug. We were both so excited (and scared!) for this new change.

We both tried to lay back down and go to sleep, but that didn't happen. We decided to get up and I gave him the gift I had made him...

I am a pack rat and keep literally everything with any smidge of sentimental value, so I made him a scrapbook of everything we'd done in the preceeding 3 years. It was fun to go back and see how many baseball games we'd been to, how many moves we've made, and everything else we've done together.

The flyer for the FHE activity where we met, the putt-putt score card from our first date, and the movie ticket stub from our second date.

He surprised me with this beautiful flower arrangement...

Funny story about the flowers...Darren had ordered them from a florist online and asked them to be delivered during the day on the 14th. Unfortunately the florist was going to be super busy that day and decided to deliver them on Sunday, the 13th, without calling and asking him if that was ok. He was super upset, but I was surprised anyway, so I loved them!

He also had a photo of the Oakland Temple, taken by our wedding photographer, enlarged so we could hang it in our living room.

I had been wanting to do this for a long time, so I was thrilled when he went and did it for me! I love having it on our wall, and knowing it was taken the day we were married.

It was definitely a Valentine's Day we won't soon forget.

As a bonus, here's the first pregnancy picture we took a week later...

2/22/12, 5 weeks

Mother's Day!

So, since it's been a few moons since my last post I thought it was time I put something new up here. I've been feeling a TON better the last couple weeks (adios morning sickness!), but then I got the cold from Hades and am finally feeling like myself. One day I'll back track and fill you in on everything that has happened since January...

Anyway! Mother's day was great this year! It was actually the first year that Darren and I have even celebrated it. I kinda felt funny celebrating before since we didn't have kids, and none were on the horizon either. Darren decided he wanted to make it really special, so he took me out to dinner Saturday night and then made me a delicious chocolate cake for dessert at home. 

Sunday morning we woke up and Darren brought me in a bouquet of tulips he bought the day before and stashed in our spare bathroom. 

Along with a few new movies that he thought I would enjoy :) 

I grew up watching (and LOVING) Harry and the Hendersons, and Darren did the same with Mrs. Doubtfire!

After breakfast (yummy waffles!) we got ready, snapped a quick picture, and then we were off to church.

 Chopped my hair off this week

16.5 weeks (looking at this makes me think I'm huge!)

We ditched out on the last hour of Primary and headed down to my parents' to celebrate with my mom.

We talked, ate and played a million rounds of Uno Attack and a game of Ticket to Ride before it was time for us to head back home.

I definitely had a great day. Maybe if you're lucky you'll hear from us again sooner, rather than later :)

As Phoebe Buffay Would Say...

"Are you in there little fetus?

In nine months will you come greet us?

I will...buy you some Adidas."

Well, our little fetus won't arrive in nine months, but in just over SIX months! We are due October 24 and are so excited for this new adventure.

Easter Dinner is also somewhere in there. I don't think I'm that big yet.

Cricut Craft

I found this idea on some craft blog months ago, but never made them. After getting my Cricut for Christmas I decided it was the perfect time!

I got fifteen 2" blocks from Michaels and painted them white. Then I cut the letters out onto contact paper and then used them as stencils so I could paint the letters on. I thought about using vinyl for the letters, which I will probably do next time, but decided against it since I didn't have any around. I really wanted to get this project done!

I finally finished them a few days ago after going back and touching up a few places. They're sitting on the bookshelf in our living room and I just LOVE them. There are over 50 phrases that can be made with the blocks, so I'm excited to change them with the seasons!

PS - I have FINALLY gotten all caught up so there are a bunch of new posts below, if you haven't seen them in the last few days.

New Table

We have a dining room table!! This is something that we have (and by "we" I mean Darren) been working on since we moved out here in July. If you can remember back to when we lived in Idaho, we bought this beauty at the local DI:

Yea...not very beautiful. We knew we didn't want to keep it the nasty burgundy color it was, so we just had a tablecloth over it the whole time we were in Idaho. When we knew we'd be living at my parents' this past summer we decided that we would take advantage of their carport and re-do the table!

We spent way too many hours out in the heat with liquid paint stripper, gel paint stripper, and then finally an orbital sander, trying to get the layer of burgundy paint off, as well as the lime green layer that was underneath it. We learned way too late that the sander was definitely the way to go. It took us (again, Darren) until Thanksgiving break to finally get everything sanded off. We then went out and picked out a stain, only to find out that when applied to the wood it turned an ugly orange.

By this time we both felt totally defeated. My mom suggested putting a darker stain over it, but I didn't really want a dark table. We decided though, that that was probably the best bet. We went and got a VERY dark stain, but then decided to wipe it on instead of letting it just layer up. Hopefully that makes sense :) The end result is exactly what I wanted. Darren was able to finish staining while we were down for Christmas and we brought it all back up with us when we came back after New Years.

We still had to apply a clear coat to protect it, but that didn't take nearly as long and it's been mostly set up (we've somehow misplaced the screws...) and we both love it. I think Darren might a bit more, since he put the most sweat into it, but that's ok. Here it is!

Maybe Darren has a future in wood re-finishing...