Birthday BBQ Burger Bonanza!!!

For Josh's 24th Birthday we decided to have a BBQ! I didn't want it to be just a plain old BBQ so decided to spice it up!  We called it a "Birthday BBQ Buger Bonanza." We had everyone bring their most favorite and crazy burger topping, and we provided a few of our own! Everyone did their best to make the biggest meanest looking burger. I told everyone not to hold anything back, if you wanted two patties and lot's of bacon, then do it!! We also set up a slip-n-slide for the kids to play with! And, when I say kids I mean Josh too! It turned out to be a lot of fun! Everyone had fun creating a burger bonanza, watching Josh show the kids how to work the slip-n-slide, and eating lot's of yummy burgers! Oh and because it was Josh's birthday I got to be the grill master! It was my first time manning the grill and I think I did a pretty good job.  I only dropped like four burgers!! We were also blessed to have our best friends and professional photographer there to take some awesome pictures! It was a really fun night, and it was great having everyone there!

 We also made these cute mini burgers to go along with the theme! 

 This wasn't even all of the provided toppings...Like I said it was a total Burger Bonanza!

 Josephine was crazy on the slip-n-slide! She kept going and going! Isaac did it a few times, and Emily was a little scared of it!

 Josh had a blast! I am glad too, because it was his birthday party! It was funny though because he was super sore for the next week!

  Kroten was a little scared too, but luckily Jared was there to help out!

Here are a few shots of some our burger bonanza creations!!

 Isaac was clearly a fan of our homemade salsa!

 Noel and his Burger!

 Jordan getting her Grub on!

 My mom! Yum doesn't that look good! I know what you are thinking...You want burgers for dinner tonight!! Me TOO!!!

 The Birthday Boy with one of his creations!!!

 My Dad with his! Gross! Look at all those ONIONS!!!! I believe all of the men had at least two burgers...

 This one is mine! Yes I love FETA!!!

 Jared and his first...Grilled mushrooms was the topping they brought! Yum!

 Kroten and Kristen!

 We also made this crazy chocolate chip cookie/oreo's/brownies dessert for Josh. It was topped with Ice Cream and Hot fudge! Can I just say it was AMAZING!!! Thanks Kim for introducing me to the recipe!!!!!!

And of course it isn't a Birthday party without someone getting to blow out some candles! Happy Birthday Josh! I love you! I hope you had as much fun as we did at your party! I just don't know how we are going to top this next year!!

Thanks again Kristen for all of these awesome pictures!!

Blog Slacker!

I have been awful I keeping my blog updated. The really sad thing about it, is that I am the one that will hurt the most from it. So many amazing things are happening in my life now, and I am not keeping track! I try to blame it on that fact that we don't have a camera, but I do have an Iphone that has a camera. I am making another vow to try and keep up! If not for all of my adoring fans, (lol Yeah right!) then for myself and my family!
        Today I am 36 weeks and 1 day pregnant! Time has been flying by! I still can't believe we will be having a baby in less than four weeks! We have three names picked out, and no I am not sharing them. Sorry! We are going to take the list with us to the hospital. I have felt pretty good this whole pregnancy, which is a great relief. I was worried about getting Gestational Diabetes, having outrageous pain, high blood pressure, and everything else that could go wrong, but it never did! Don't even have swollen ankles!! (Yet) Spartacus (which is what we call him for now) is doing awesome also. He is growing right on schedule according to the ultra sounds. We had one on Wednesday and he was measuring 6 lbs   5 oz. Which is an estimation. He is still kicking, hitting, and head butting, like crazy! He is currently head down. According to the ultra sound tech he also has HAIR!!! We are already in love with little guy and can't wait to meet him. I feel like I still have tons of things to do though! Here is a side by side of my growth this far in the pregnancy! The color is a little different in each one, but you get the idea! There is definitely a baby growing in there!!

 

It's a Boy!

If you haven't already seen my facebook then you haven't heard! We are having a boy! We are both really excited! Still a little unbelievable too. We were able to have a small gender party with our family and close friends! It was something I had been wanting to do, and it didn't seem like it was going to happen. But, luckily for us it worked out that we were able to have a dessert after Easter dinner on Sunday! As if anyone needed anymore sugar!! LOL!!  I made the cake and some cupcakes, and we decorated in pink green and blue, along with a nice Easter theme. It really was fun telling everyone that way. I would love to do it again! My Brother-in-law Tim was able to get a little video of the Grandmas cutting that cake. I am so grateful for this! I didn't even think to ask someone to do it. It nice to have people in your lives that remember things like that! He knew how important it was to us, and helped create something we will have forever! If you haven't seen the clip yet, here it is!

Here is a shot of the goods! It is a picture of a picture so there is some glare. If the tech hadn't pointed it out, we would've had no idea what we were looking at! I am going to try and scan more of the ultra sound pictures and post them.

There ya go!

Pregnancy has been an interesting experience so far. I never really got morning sickness. I just throw up at random times for a few days, then I have a few off, then I throw up for a few more. It is a little strange. I haven't been super tired since the first trimester. We hit 20 weeks last week, so that means we are half way there! As far as food cravings go nothing ever sounds good, even when I am hungry. I will randomly want strange things. Monday night around ten I really wanted a ham and cheese hot-pocket, and then it passed and I didn't want it anymore. I hate Taco Bell! Don't really like chocolate, and I love everything sour and spicy! If it burns going down I want it!  

Around 17 weeks I thought I started feeling the baby move. I couldn't really tell if it was him or just gas bubbles. I had been reading online that around this stage of pregnancy, if you shined a light on your belly the baby would move away from it. So josh thought it would cool to try it out. He got a light and started scanning across my belly. Right when he got to just below my belly button I felt a weird little flutter in the same spot. a few seconds later it happened again in a different area. I knew it had to be the baby. Since then I have been able to feel him move. At first it wasn't very frequent maybe a few times a day. Usually a little bit after I ate. In the past week he has been moving like crazy. In the evening especially. It feels like he is doing aerobics or something. Josh got a listening devices from someone at his work. It is built for listening to your baby's heartbeat and movements. You aren't really supposed to try using it until you are in your third trimester, but we have gotten it out a couple times. Last night the baby was especially active, so Josh wanted to try listening. For a while he couldn't hear much. They baby had relaxed a little and hadn't moved around a lot. But, after a little break josh put the device on my belly, and right when he did I felt a big thud and josh heard it. The baby had kicked right where Josh was listening, it was perfect! I was so happy that Josh got to experience it! I think he has been feeling a little left out because he can't feel anything when the baby moves yet. We realized then that he could only be heard if you were listening right where he was moving. So josh would move around, and I would tell him if and when they baby moved. He moved a couple more times after that and Josh got to hear it. He wanted me to listen to see if I could hear so I put the head phones on, and sure enough I was right over him when he did a little wiggle. It sounded like a fish swimming underwater. Like when there are shows about underwater stuff, and you can hear bubbles or fish moving. That is was it sounded like. It was really a neat thing. We got to hear our little guy swimming around! I look forward to hearing and feeling him move more and more as this pregnancy goes on.

Creative Title & 15 weeks

As you can I see I thought up the most creative title of all time for a blog post! I know I am hilarious! I wanted to post some more pictures of our first two ultra sounds, but with school and and a wedding this month has been too busy! I am hoping to stay more updated. As soon as I can scan the images I will post them.
    On Sunday (going by the latest ultra sound), or Tuesday (going by the first ultra sound) we are (or will be) 15 weeks along!! For the blog and for my personal sanity we are going to go by Sunday. It is much easier to keep track of, and I don't want to be too confusing. So we are 15 weeks and we get to find out what we are having on April 22!!! I am super excited! There are several theories out there as to what it might be, but most of my crazy baby dreams have been about boys! I don't know if that means anything, but we will see!!
   I still can't really believe I am pregnant. It has been an amazing experience so far and we are over joyed! Before we found out I found out I was pregnant the first time I was a little freaked out. ( I am freaked out this time, but that is a different story.) We had just gotten married and I wasn't sure if we were ready. When we finally did get the news that we were indeed pregnant I was so happy. All of the freaky stuff I was worried about went away. I was so excited to be a mom, and for Josh to be a dad. Unfortunately it wasn't really time for us and we lost our first baby. I think I went into a little depression mode, then I went into a "I need to have a baby now crazy lady mode,"then a ok Heavenly Father what is going on mode???, and then I went to a doctor. Basically nothing was really wrong with me. I was ovulating. I just had some weird cycles. So, I started focusing on other things. Josh started going to school I changed my major again and again. We got to know each other better. I stopped focusing on what I couldn't and didn't have and started focusing on the things in my life that I did have. Josh and I had a blast. We were having so much fun, in fact I started being okay with idea of not having kids. We have a bunch of super cute nieces and nephews.Maybe, we weren't meant to have the 14 kids we had planned on. I was happy with where we were, and where we were going.
   In October of '10 I went to a Doctor about my migraines. They had been getting really bad. So bad, that I would have one at least once a week. They did a bunch of blood work, and found out I was really low on Vitamin D. I started taking Vitamin D3 everyday.  Then I went to California for a month. I missed Josh dearly. It was the longest we had ever been away from each other. I came how around Dec 2.  It was Christmas time, and it was all holly and Jolly! One of my most favorite times of the year! This is where my little "It's a Christmas Miracle" quote comes in.  I say that a lot. If I find money somewhere...It's a Christmas Miracle, if something crazy happens...It's a Christmas Miracle. I don't know why I say it, or when I started saying it but I do. Flash forward to the week of my 26th Birthday! For my birthday we had our families up for a dinner on Sunday the 9th of January. The night before we had to go to WINCO and get some supplies. There just happens to be a Dollar Tree right next door. I knew I was a few days late on cycle so I asked Josh if we could get a pee stick. We were both pretty sure it was going to be negative, ( They always were) but they are only a buck each. 99.9%  of the time he always says no. It always seemed like a waste because they were always negative. This time though, for my birthday, he said yes. As soon as we got home I ran to the bathroom and tried it out. right away I knew it was negative. I told him and it was no big deal. 30 seconds later I started laughing hysterically and yelling that it was positive. He didn't believe me. He came running into the bathroom, saying "seriously??" I should him and told him it was! He had to check the box to make sure he was reading it right. Then we both started cracking up. We were like crazy people on laughing gas! For the second time in our married lives we were pregnant. We were super excited, but we were also terrified. We called it our Christmas Miracle because he/she was conceived right around Christmas time! We pray to Heavenly Father everyday and thank him for this blessing. We are beyond grateful and take nothing for granted.