christmas comes but once a year...

and when it comes... we give a cheer!!! our first christmas as a married couple... even though last year we felt married... we were indeed not! for the last couple months chris and i have been saving 75 dollars every month to put towards a tv.  i have a fairly nice tv but it is big and boxy and heavy and with all the moving we are going to do the next 6 years we decided it was time to buy a flat panel tv like everyone else.  the week of christmas we headed over to sams club to buy one.  we had our budget (which had to include tax) and started looking at tvs.  we knew going in we could probably afford a 42" which is pretty huge for our little apartment so we went straight to that isle so we wouldn't even be tempted to go beyond our budget.  we sat there debating for at least an hour trying to figure out which was a better deal and what all the numbers and things meant.  the discussion included a couple of phone calls to my brother jack to is tech savy (as we are not) and finally we came to a decision... we bought a vizio 42" lcd that had apps... so it had wifi and whatnot so we could watch netflix right from our tv and pandora... etc.  we brought the box home and i told chris he couldn't open it till christmas since it was a christmas present. he didn't like that so i put a blanket over it like it was wrapped so it wouldn't stare him in the face for the next 2 days.

we also decided that since we bought a tv we shouldn't really buy anything else for each other... but in the end decided we wanted to open something christmas morning so we set the budget of 25 each to buy little stuff for each other.... man it was tough! we mostly bought silly food items and candy but chris did buy me a new daily calendar. this one has medical weirdness for each day.  i bought him a tiny pool table... that was originally 40 bucks but after being half off and having a 10 off coupon i was able to get it with in my budget!

the 2 weeks leading up to christmas were super busy!!! we had a million different parties and what not. first was the dental school christmas party where we had some pretty good food... got dressed up and talked with a couple friends from school.  the next night was the ward party where i was in charge of the music program and had to sing.  then sunday was the stake choir festival and i was asked to sing a solo piece for that as well. tuesday night was a girls night out with the dental wives in chris' class.  we all made cookies and brought a bunch to exchange and make plates to take to visiting teachies... which was nice to get that done too!  thursday i had a brunch with my visiting teachers which is really fun with bagels and other things to eat and lots of talking and hanging out.  friday was another christmas party put on by one of chris' class mates and mostly consisted of the mormon married couples... way fun night with lots of food and white elephant and other hilarious christmas games... and pregnant women.  i think 6 of us at the party were expecting. ha! the next monday was our "anniversary" and then on tuesday night was the relief society christmas party where my mom and i were in charge of the music and i brought the table decorations... way hilarious fun night! wednesday we had a dinner over at my brother sam's for my dad where we ate and opened a few presents.

thursday night was the party at my moms where we have dinner and then do a white elephant.... its always crazy!  the hotest items this year were the crap my grandpa brought from his house.  one he called a "safari kit" it had an orange and a bottle of diet coke and some other random stuff... but it included this little barrel coin bank that he has had on his dresser as long as i can remember and as kids we would always play with it.  his other present was a bag of what he called junk... he basically emptied out a drawer full of watches and what nots... but it ended up being the coolest bag of junk! it had this neat money clip that had a tiny watch on it... and it had all these neat antique watches and all sorts of stuff.  i ended up with the bag of stuff and sam got the bank.... but he really wanted the bag and i wanted the bank so we traded.

friday night we had off and needless to say i didn't want to do anything! so we just hung out at my moms... real low key.  saturday night was the christensen family christmas eve hoopla.  sam did magic tricks and we all sang along to his karoke christmas music.  my mom asked me to sing and impromptu "have yourself a merry little christmas" and then santa came and we passed out little gifts to the little kids.  it was a really fun night!

christmas morning chris jumped right out of bed and ripped the blanket off the tv.  we opened the rest of our presents and then got ready for church.  we got ready fast enough that chris opened the tv and started setting it up.  after church we had turkey lunch at my moms and then made a stop over at my grandma slades house to see my grandparents and my dad.  we then headed home and jack came over to help us set up the tv and figure some things out.

it was a really great day and a perfect first christmas as a married couple.  we are now enjoying the rest of chris's break from school buy getting a bunch of baby errands done including registering for baby gifts and registering at the hospital and a visit to the doctor... we are also working on organizing a few more things around the house and painting a rocking chair my mom gave me.  more on that once its finished!  merry christmas!!

sing... my angel of music...

on january 22nd chris and i will celebrate our first wedding anniversary... which is pretty amazing and exciting.  what a busy year we have had.  we wanted to do something really special for this first anniversary and since the baby is due fairly close to our actual anniversary date we decided to celebrate a month early... that way we wouldn't chance losing out on tickets to a show and hotel room.  we decided a while ago we wanted to see "phantom of the opera" before we left las vegas.  i saw it once when i was six... and have ever since been obsessed and have the entire musical memorized.  chris has been playing all the songs on the piano but hasn't ever seen the stage show.  so we bought our tickets for dec 19th and then thought hey... lets book a hotel room at the venetian for a night and make a whole little stay-cation out of it.  this was our last hoo-ra before baby comes.

we packed our bags and got to the hotel right when we could check in.  we hung out in the room for a while and got all fancy dressed up and headed to dinner.  we ate at "grand lux cafe" which is a sister of cheesecake factory.  the food was way good! then we headed down to the theater and found our seats.  the theater was built to replicate the actual opera house the musical is based on.  it was very neat.  our seats were up in the balcony but still really good.  when the show finally started i had chills and i will admit after they say "with a little illumination... gentlemen" and then the organ comes in all huge and rumbling and the chandelier begins to rise and take its place... i got a little teary eyed.  blame it on pregnancy hormones or just on sheer excitement of seeing the show again... i was chocked up the whole time.  the show was really good. i was really impressed with both christine and raoul.  they had beautiful voices which is good since they sing the prettiest songs.

after the show we walked around the grand canal in the venetian.  we listened to a few gondoliers and then got some shakes and took them back to our room.  by the end of the night i crashed and fell asleep pretty easily.  i woke up in the night all congested and not feeling great... i had finally caught the cold chris had had a week earlier.  its never fun to be congested when you are pregnant and already struggling to breathe.

in the morning we woke up at like 10.... nice long sleep and cleaned up our stuff and left.  it was such a fun night and a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary.  the food was great, the room was really nice, and the show was awesome!

marathon man...

this year chris has run in a couple different 5k races.  the first was "miles for better smiles" which the dental school puts on to raise money for childrens clinics.  it was a fun day.  we went out to tule springs and he ran the race while i talked to a couple of the other wives. it was a pretty short event as he finished in like 27 minutes and then we ate a little food and left.  needless to say chris was the only person from his class to show up and run.  slackers.  but he had a good time.

then in november he ran in "race for rob" who is the older brother of a friend of mine and a former unlv dental student who was about to graduate from endo school and had a massive stroke.  he is on the road to recovery but is faced with both massive school debt bills and hospital bills.  so they had a 5k to raise some money.  this one chris did really well in and placed 4th.  the winner was the old guy who is like 75+ years old.  it was a beautiful mid november day and a good experience all together.

baby crib etc...

back in october i got all adventurous and decided to sew a bunch of stuff for our little guy.  i found some really cute fabric online that was for a boy and not too baby-ish... but fun. so i sewed a crib skirt, fitted sheet, and bumper.  we didn't have a crib until recently (i found it practically new at the thrift store and spent $38 bucks.. score!) so i didn't have any way to take pictures till now.  i really love the animal print and think it is so sweet!

i also sewed a little quilt with some fabrics that also went with the collection.  i really like the camouflage.. nothing more boy than camo!  the back is white minky dot and the whole blanket it light weight and super soft. 

my sister saved a bunch of stuff from her baby and so she gave me her boppy pillow and i decided to make a new cover for it with the left over material from the bedding.  i just used the original cover as a pattern and cut out the pieces and sewed it together using velcro instead of a zipper like they had.  but i think it turned out way cute!

i also had the idea to make a cuddle buddy blanket with a few taggies on it.  my mom found this unbelievably soft puppy in her collection of animal toys and gave it to me... i cut out 2 small pieces of brown minky dot that were left over from something else and slit a hole in one side... slipped the dog through and sewed the hole shut... and then cut off the rest of the dog (poor guy).  then i cut little pieces of ribbon to go in each corner and sewed the 2 pieces together.... thus creating my cuddle buddy with tags.

i really love sewing and am sure i will have many more projects in the future! 

 

christmas crafts for family...

this year for crhistmas gifts for chris's family i decided to make something for them.  we dont have a ton of money currently being in school so i found a couple ideas that would work for my budget.  for his mom i made the christmas wreath out of yarn and felt and i was pretty excited how it turned out! for jeff and stevie i did the frame wrapped in yarn with the wood letter in the middle.  i decided to make theirs more of a all the time decoration instead of just a christmas one.  and then for catherine's little girl scarlett i made this psychedelic toddler quilt out of flannel and the back is a dark pink minky dot... super soft! we had them open them over thanksgiving weekend since we aren't going to be able to go back for christmas and visit.

thanksgiving in reno...

this year for thanksgiving (our first thanksgiving as a married couple)  we ventured up to reno to spend it with chris's family.  we left wednesday after school and lucky for us everyone was traveling from reno to vegas so our side of the road was very clear and we only had to pass maybe 13 cars.  the whole trip, including 3 stops for prego lady, only took 7 hours!! not bad eh?  we stayed with jeff and stevie so the first night we hung out and chatted it up.  thursday morning was spent getting ready for dinner at 4.  i mostly played with my little chunkster friend cadence... she is such a happy little baby and always smiles at me and laughs.  chris and jeff were busy watching 4 different football games... for reasons i wont mention but silly needless to say.  stevie was busy getting the phenomenal turkey ready.  at 2pm susan and the rest of the fleming clan came over and the real party began.  catherine and jeffery and scarlett soon showed up and at 4 we sat down to eat.

 there was soooo much good food!!!!  i made my overly sweet sweet potatoes... just the way i like them!  i also made the rolls my aunt joan always makes... i need a couple hundred more batches of practice before they come out perfect like hers.  stevie cooked the turkey and it was amazing.  i normally dont eat any turkey because its too dry but this was juicy and wonderful.  we also had green bean casserole and mashed potatoes and stuffing... etc.  it was all really good.  after dinner was cleared we played this dice game called farkle which was fun for me since i had the worlds luckiest first game ever!! i ended up winning the game with a 4000 point turn and killed everyone... i was never that lucky again but that game was awesome!

our amazing host family

the next day the twins went and played some golf... i slept in and was lazy around the house it was wonderful. friday night we went out to washoe valley to have prime rib with chris's dad and siblings.  another fun night that included watching "gaither christmas homecoming" which is this baptist singing group that do concerts.  their dad got them hooked on this video when they were growing up... so they sang along to their favorite songs... it was fun!  

saturday we went over to chris's mom's to look (and borrow) baby pictures of chris so i could bring them home and scan them... it was fun to look at chris (and jeff) as a baby!! super cute!  and then we  went to lunch with jeff, stevie, claire and cadence, jeffery, and catherine and scarlett at qdoba.  they have this queso burrito that chris loves! so we ha to eat there while in reno!  

sunday morning we went to a catholic mass with chris's mom.  it was really fun and neat for me to experience that and have a better understanding of what church was like for chris growing up.  then we jumped in to car said good bye and thank you to our hosts for being so awesome and hit the road.  it again only took us 7 hours to get home.  it was a really great holiday and we were glad we could make the trip up there!

beaver, ut in the fall...

we went up to our family cabin in beaver, ut to watch our church's semi-anual general conference broadcast.  we have been going to the cabin to watch every year twice a year for as long as i can remember.  its nice to get away from life's distractions and plop in front of the tv for 4 hours saturday and 4 hours sunday... and of course in between sessions we venture out and explore beaver.  this year jack and laura came down from idaho to join us and in between the saturday sessions we went for a drive up the canyon to see the changing leaves.  we got pretty lucky that everything was just beginning to change.  it made some trees look like they were on fire!  we stopped at this lake and were just in awe of how beautiful it was!!

isn't it beautiful! we stopped and let will run around and play with the rocks and dirt and took a bunch of pictures.  

after stopping for a bit we headed back to the cabin where gigi and meesha were waiting for us (gigi was sleeping when we left) and chris took the kids outside to play and look at the horses and take them for rides on the gator.  later that evening we got a lot of rain and when i looked outside i saw not 1 but 2 rainbows!!! a double rainbow!!! how lucky am i??

28-30 weeks...

30 weeks!!! i'm in the home stretch... with 2 months to go.  i'm still really enjoying being pregnant.  this week was a little scary as on monday my blood pressure was elevated and the doctor got a little worried when after resting for a bit it didn't go down very much.  he put me on bed rest for the week and wanted me to come back on wednesday for another bp check.  i was also scheduled to take the glucose test that monday and when i woke up that morning pregnancy brain got the best of me and i had some candy when i got up that morning... oh no... not just any candy... sugar babies... thats right the pure sugar candy.  needless to say my blood sugar test came back a little high.. haha.   the good news was my other blood tests (liver, proteins... etc) were normal meaning at this moment i dont have preclampsia.  i am still on light bed rest and have to go back in on monday for another appointment... hopefully my bp will be normal that monday so i wont have to go in once a week.  i did have to go in thursday this week for the forever long glucose test.  i showed up at 8:30 where they drew my blood and i had to drink the sugar drink, wait an hour, get my blood taken, wait an hour, get my blood taken, wait an hour, get my blood taken.  i had been fasting with no food or water since midnight and needless to say by hour 3 i was feeling very faint and blacked out twice.  the office was so nice though and let me lay down in a room with a tv and they kept bringing me water and what not.  definitely not a test i ever want to do again.  the results came back normal so i do not have gestational diabetes.   some other things i'm experiencing these days:

- i totally can't breathe.  after i eat i'm so cramped that i can't breathe.  when i roll over in bed i can't breathe. needless to say this big boy of mine is taking over my abdomen.

- as proven by the sugar baby incident i have lost my mind and can't remember anything.  i am getting better at writing things down when i first think of them or they are gone.

- the baby is one active little booger moving all the time.  especially being on bed rest he is dancing around like crazy.  not walking around and rocking him to sleep he just jumps.  especially when i lay on my side... it feels like he is jumping up and down stretching both sides of my body.

- my face has finally cleared up and i'm not breaking out anymore.

-i'm a little baffled at the idea that i still have 2 months and my belly is going to stick out that much further... 

- i'm seeing my first signs of stretch marks but they dont look too bad so far.

- my hair is dry which is amazing for a girl who always had greasy hair. its nice to not have to wash my hair 3 or 4 days at a time! way better than every other day.

we haven't and probably wont settle on a name till our little buddy shows his face, but here are the names we are seriously considering:

henry

andrew

daniel

joseph

we shall see.  as last time i will leave you with another silly photo shoot by chris.... he gets a little carried away with the camera