Maternity Photographs!

Having a best friend that is a professional photographer is such a blessing! I can pretty much guarantee that the most important important moments of my life will always be well documented, and I will look amazing! Luckily this summer Kristen and I found a time and a place to take some maternity pictures of me! Yes it may have been 80 degrees, and it might have been a dog park, we also might have had both her kids, Copper, and Josh running around us, but I think they turned out amazing! I couldn't be more happier! Thank you again Kristen! You have such a great talent! Here are a few of my favorites!

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.