barry manilow... my new boyfriend...

last night chris and i got free tickets to see barry manilow... i would be lying if i said i wasn't excited... cause i was giddy like a little girl.  i went through a phase when i was a teenager and would listen to this cd i have called "ultimate manilow" and its all his big hits...and i listened constantly, so yes i know almost every song by heart. so i begged chris to take me... he's a really good sport.  when we walked in they gave us these awesome red glow sticks to wave around during the show.  the audience was mostly 50+ very excited women and their husbands... ha!

(click to enlarge)

the show opened up with him singing "come... come... come into my arms" and lots of screaming women... yes including me.  i will say i was shocked how good he sounded for being a 68 year old man... i mean really good... he sounds about like he did in the beginning only his vibrato is a little slower... but really good! still hits all those high notes!!

the whole show was entertaining and fun as he kinda goes through all his hits and then mixes in a few new songs... all the while kinda telling his life story... i being pregnant was a little chocked up the whole time.. at any moment i could have easily produced tears... at one moment there were a few that made their way out of my eyes.  he shared the story of his beginning and his grandpa taking him as a 4 year old to this recording booth in time square where you could record anything for 25 cents... and he played a little of it... mostly his grandpa coaxing him into singing and the kid saying no... haha... and then he said his grandpa wouldn't give up and finally one day he got him to sing and some guy play the piano... bla bla bla... but it was so cute! and then in the show barry manilow sang "this ones for you... where ever you are" and i totally lost it! they brought down a picture of him as a tiny kid standing next to his grandfather.  i think the reason this hit me is because my own grandpa vern has always encouraged me to sing and praised me every time i did..  but he has always been my biggest fan... so thinking about that barry's story really touched me.

the whole show was so great! he plays the piano off and on (and very well i might add) and he would show clips from old tv shows like his appearance on american band stand where he sang "oh mandy" and then the movie screen moves up and he comes out singing the song and at one point sings a duet with himself in the video... very cool!!!

chris' favorite song was "copa cobana" it went on forever and they did a whole huge finally party with the entire audience standing and dancing waving their red glow stick in the air singing... i had a huge smile on my face the entire show and was so excited to go... i'm lucky chris was so willing to go and he enjoyed it more than he thought he would.. and recognized enough songs... we are now listening to the cd in our home... i have a feeling i'm going to have these songs stuck in my head for a month!!!

wee babe update...

this week i had my 12 week appointment with my dr.  it was exciting because they did a screening for down syndrome which means i had an ultra sound and got to see the baby again!! this time it actually looked like a baby! it had a head mouth eyes feet and hands... i also got to hear the heart beat this time... amazing! can't help but have a huge smile on your face hearing something like that.  the ultra sound tech lady was trying to measure a space on the back of the baby's neck... i think measure the fluid there and she couldn't get a good view because the baby was trapped in a nook right by my bladder... so she kept pushing kind hard trying to get the baby to move.. and all the baby did was get the hiccups!! but that was also really fun to watch... to see it jump up and down like that.  here are the pics from that day:

(click to enlarge)

i think the one with the alien face it totally creepy but the profile shot is soooo sweet!!!!

(click to enlarge)

here are the updates on the wee babe:

- measure a week ahead of schedule... which i think it will the whole time because i have a super short cycle... so just going off my LMP will put me a week ahead... 

- the baby looks good the measurements this time all looked good... 

- my baby update email that i get every week compared the size of the baby to a kiwi... so chris and i have been calling it kiwi... its better than "it" until we find out the actual sex of the baby... (which will hopefully happen at my next appointment!!)

my prego updates:

- i already look pregnant... my stomach sticks out so far from bloating that i totally look pregnant... which i think is actually fun! 

- i am still nauseous often but have made it through my entire first trimester with out vomiting so i count myself lucky.

- i have started getting really bad headaches in the afternoons but my doctor gave me something for that so hopefully it helps!

- i have fully experienced pregnancy brain where i can't remember what i'm doing or what i'm trying to say... etc... thats annoying.

- this morning i experienced my first dizzy spells... that was hilarious.. i felt like i was trying to walk on a very rocky boat.  had to hold on to everything around me.

- i cry at everything!!!! i can't watch tv with out getting choked up, i can't hear sad stories with out crying, i have seen harry potter twice now and cried fairly hard both times, and tonight we went to Barry Manilow (post about that soon!!) and i totally got choked up with TEARS several times... its embarrassing.  i am singing in church tomorrow and really hope i make it through the song with out crying.

- i am super excited to start feeling the baby... and i have started touching my stomach all the time... not sure what thats about but i catch myself just rubbing my lower belly when i'm standing.

chris and i have also had a good time picking out names... we play the veto game and usually that consists of my coming up with the worst names ever and him taking me seriously and then vetoing them.  we do have a few that we actually really like but until we really know the sex of the babe its hard to think of names... for now we will play the crazy name game and see how much we could ruin the baby's life with just a name... haha like the johny cash song "boy named sue" 

mammoth creek cabin...

for the fourth of july chris and i headed up to mammoth creek with my mom and my siblings to the old family cabin.  my grandpa and his brothers built this cabin a million years ago... now it is owned by my mom's cousin so we rented it for the weekend.  it was so much fun to go back!  we used to go every summer when i was little till i was about 8.  my mom would take all us kids up there with her mom and we would spend a week... and during that week we would play in the river (which is just outside the back door of the cabin) and we would run up the mountain side outside the front door and play in this ancient fort (which still stands) and we would go out to this field to hunt for horny toads and we would visit the lava caves... etc.  

my siblings and i were so excited to go and kept sharing all of our memories from previous trips.  mine of course being the one where my aunt julia took the little kids on a little hike/walk where we ended up across the river from our cabin up on a road... you could totally see us below and she had us all take our shirts off and wave and yell at our moms down below who were in the back yard reading books... 

it was really fun to see the cabin... even though improvements have been made it still looks much the same... 5 bedrooms with a million beds crammed in each one and 2 bathrooms... the front room has the dining table and kitchen and then there is a little den with tv and what not... the favorite place to hang out is the back porch... so fun to sit in a chair and read a book while watching the river and seeing the kids play all over...

(click to enlarge)

the first day we were there we took a hike to cascade falls... its fascinating as the water is just shooting out of the side of the mountain... it come from the navajo lake above and then eventually the cascade falls goes under ground to become mammoth creek springs... its very cool. the hike was really crowded but still fun and easy (thank goodness) 

(click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

we had a good time playing by the river.. it was way too cold and way too full to actually get in but the little babies had a great time putting their hands in and throwing rocks...

(click to enlarge)

we also had a hilarious time trying to get a good picture of the three grandkids... as proven below it was impossible but the result of trying was still really funny...

(click to enlarge)

the next day we visited the lava caves... they are these underground tunnels that are crazy dark... like with out flashlights you cannot see anything... i even felt like i couldn't breathe it was so dark... we made the half mile way through the tunnel and crawled out this tiny hole at the end and were covered in mud... but it was totally worth it and way fun!

(click to enlarge)

the boys also had a good time climbing on the mountains of lava rock....

(click to enlarge)

i took our nice camera up with us so chris and i could have a little fun taking nice pictures... i got some really cute ones of my nieces and nephew... they are just so darn cute!

(click to enlarge)

on the last day chris decided he had to jump in the river... it was very cold and moving fast but he had to do it at least once... our camera has this really neat sports mode that take continuous pictures.. so you get to see the whole movement of chris jumping and and the river pushing him over... it cracks me up when his leg pops up out of the water... he said it wasn't that cold... it feels the same as lake tahoe.. and i said yeah... that means its cold!! 

(click to enlarge)

on the drive home we took the scenic route to look at cedar breaks... which is breath taking!! 

(click to enlarge)

the trip overall was amazing and fun and so great to spend all that time with my family and get to share our memories with our spouses ... and it was fun to just be there again... you are so cut off from the world up high in the mountains like that and its really just kinda nice!!

our wee babe...

the beginning of this story isn't super funny or even that interesting:  boy meets girl- they get married- and decided to start a family...  it seemed that simple and really it was EXCEPT that emotionally it was so much more personal than i ever realized...

deciding to have a baby was easy.  i'm 27 and we were both just ready and really wanted to start our family.  i also really wanted to have my first baby here in vegas where i am surrounded by my mom and my family... i'm a total mama's girl and wanted my mommy to be close by. ha!

it was an interesting roller coaster from month to month getting hopes up and then being disappointed... i became so much more sensitive to others around me that were going through the same thing.  i never want to ask "are you pregnant yet?" cause sometimes its just not that easy... and then you have to share your disappointment of not being that month... and then once you are you kinda want to keep it private for a little bit but its hard with everyone asking "are you prego yet?" haha... anyway. when may hit i really had a feeling i was.. but i'm too impatient to wait for the most telling sign... so i took a test... like 6 days early... and it had the faintest of faint positive lines... i didn't even tell chris cause i wasn't sure... i mean i knew it meant i was pregnant but it made me nervous being so faint... so i took one the next day with the same result... i came out and showed chris and he was like... ok?  haha having no idea what the 2 lines meant... i said i thought it meant i was pregnant but he was a little hesitant to get excited... i told my mom and she was the same way... i think its because the line was so faint.  but it was there and i KNEW i was!!! so for the next 4 days i kept taking the test till the last time and it came out with 2 solid dark pink lines... yep positive!!! chris was more excited at this point.  we set out and told our families right from the start... i had wanted to wait and tell the general public till later and really held off as long as possible...

after my first appointment it became much harder to not say anything... i wanted to tell everyone about that tiny heartbeat beating like crazy and getting the real visual confirmation that there was a baby inside me... surreal moment!  well... as time went on we told more and more people and now here we are at 10 weeks and we've let it out.  my family will tell you i have NEVER been able to keep my own secrets... NEVER.  i get too excited and its all i think about and i am usually one to share thoughts... therefore people end up knowing.

we are so excited!!! its funny to think how we are going to fit a little one into our tiny apartment that i have packed full already... but i am willing to pack up lots of stuff to fit a little one into our lives.

how am i feeling??
- i am super bloated and already look pregnant at almost 11 weeks
- i am nauseous all the time... zofran helps a little but not always
- i am sleeping a lot.  i'm not working so when i don't feel good i just sleep.  i dont sleep at night except random 3 hour spurts so i'm usually sleepy in the day
- i haven't puked at all... not once so i count myself lucky and feel i can't complain too much about the nausea since i can still eat (usually)
- i feel as though i have lost my mind. i forget things and get lost in the middle of sentences forgetting what i was saying

that is about it.. i will brag that chris has been amazing through all of this!  he does the dishes... all of them which is a bigger task since we don't have a dishwasher.. and he takes out the trash... and he never complains when i don't make dinner for the 4th night in a row.... he tells me i'm beautiful and to just take it easy.  i'm spoiled and in love.

busy months full of secrets...

its been forever... i know but i have a good reason! we've just been busy... and my mind has been occupied that i haven't thought about blogging :)

in june we took a trip to the san francisco to go to jeff's dental school graduation.  we flew out friday morning so we could baby sit for jeff and stevie so they could go to the big alumni gala party thing... it was fun to play house for the evening... i fed claire and then chris took her for the rest of the night... played with her and read her stories and put her to bed while i had cadence.. fed her and just held her... 5 weeks old and just sweet and tiny.. i never wanted to put her down... and she didn't want to be put down so it worked out perfectly!

on saturday we woke up and took our time getting ready... and then headed out to the beach... by the bridge... and i have no idea what the beach is called... BUT it was really pretty.  sadly we couldn't stay because it was incredibly cold and windy and we were prepared for neither... i was instantly getting an ear ache (which is normal for me in cold wind) but it was a little miserable.. so we drove to this other spot and got some ice cream and got back in the car... we then got the driving tour which was way fun... my kind of tour where i can stay in the car and just look... san fran is a pretty place.

that evening we met up with the rest of the family for dinner... it was really fun to see them all again and to enjoy dinner... the food was really good.  after we went back to the apartment and chatted with jeff and stevie till late... i like talks like that!

sunday we got up and had breakfast at this vegan restaurant where we had oatmeal and french toast and it was all really good! and thank goodness it was quite the walk so we could burn off some calories both ways! sunday afternoon we got ready and went to graduation... it was 2.5 hours.. but for the most part entertaining.. it was interesting to hear where everyone had come from and where they were going...  after graduation we packed up and headed off to the airport.  it was a really good trip and we are so excited for jeff to be done and soon working as a real dentist.

on this trip we also announced to his family that we are expecting our first baby!!! yep thats right! come february we will have our very own little spillers baby! i will blog more on that later... but it was fun telling his family.  i had chris tell his parents.. when his mom arrived he began by apologizing saying sorry for it taking us a couple months but we were pregnant... haha and then after talking to his dad for a minute he just blurted it out.. well... marilyns pregnant! haha both cracked me up...