NC HERE I COME

This will be short, sweet, and to the point...

I AM GOING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The only question I have is am I going to get a "missionary greeting" at the airport? I guess we will just have to see how many people love me!

hahaha jk...I can't wait to see everyone, especially my HUSBAND!!! It will have been 25 days!!!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know if you can tell, but I am a little excited.

23 weeks

So I have now entered my 23rd week and it is crazy how fast I am growing. I feel so huge already. Yes, I know I will continue to grow, and I know I am only at the beginning of feeling HUGE, but for now...I will just say I feel huge!

Our little girl is a foot long and a little over a pound! HOLY COW, so is still so small!


Speaking of small, I went to see my cousin's little baby girl today. She was born just a few days ago and was PRECIOUS! I got to hold her and hear the whole labor story. It was nice to hear her side as well as her husband's just so I am not as ignorant. I know it is different for everyone, but she is still alive so it gives me hope! hehe.


Well, here is my picture for the week!

Our New Car!!

Ok, so for you of those who don't know, Meredith and I have been looking for a new car and I finally found it! After weeks/months of searching I found the deal that I wanted. It is a new jeep laredo! Ok not new but it smells like a new car and the engine is so clean it could be new. On wednesday I was able to go to a car auction thanks to Meredith's Uncle. I had been thinking that we would have to spend up to 17,000 dollars for what we were looking for. That is the jeep grand cherokee limited edition, however after thinking about it and not winning any car auctions online, Meredith's Uncle and I decided that we needed to go to these auctions in person. Thank goodness we did. We were not in the auction for more than 15 minutes and I had bought a car. It was the first jeep to pull up, and it was beautiful. Granted it did not have all of the extras that Meredith and I were thinking we might want, but we are poor college students with a baby on the way, plus the extras were outrageous anyway(dvd player, nav system, and etc.). We really just wanted a good car that could last us a long time. Since the jeeps have gotten the best ratings for SUV's in its class, we thought it would be a good car for us, plus Meredith loves how jeeps drive.

Now, I just want you all to look up on NADA.com what the price of a 2005 Jeep Laredo with 27000 miles on it would be. It also has the roof racks and the Boston Acoustics stereo. Most of you are probably thinking no thanks, so I will just tell you. Almost $18,000, I bought mine after all said and done (registration, tax, license plates, etc) for much less than that. If I wanted to I could turn around and sell it and make a good profIt on it. It is absolutely gorgeous, oh and it still has a bumper to bumper warranty, and I can extend that for another 3 years after the initial one ends. Here are some pictures, just take a look at how clean it is, this is how I bought it, plus the engine is brand new!

Yay for good Uncles who have the hook up and Yay for car auctions!

22 Weeks and Pumpkin Squash

Well, I just thought I would put another picture of me at now 22 weeks. The pregnancy is going really well. I am not having any problems anymore. The only thing is, I am not sleeping very well anymore. That whole going to the bathroom 500 times a day has started. It was sorta bad at the very beginning of pregnancy, but it stopped after about 8 weeks. Now, I am waking up all the time at night.

Our little girl is now almost 1 pound, 11 inches long and about the size of a spaghetti squash. Wow that is crazy how fast she is growing!

Also, something that is really great, but can be not so great when you are waking up in the middle of the night...our little girl moves a LOT at night. When I get up to go to the bathroom and lay back down, I feel like our baby is doing sommersaults in my stomach. I am excited that I can feel her move, but when you are trying to go back to sleep at 3 in the morning, well you get the picture. It is really fun to feel her so often now. I am just excited for when other people will be able to feel her (especially Adam).

So here is me at 22 weeks!

The Countdown

I just thought I would take the time to count down all the important/fun things that are going on soon. By soon, I mean between now and like September!

-6 more school days until Memorial Day

-9 1/2 days of school left

-14 days until I get to see my little baby again! (I have another ultrasound)

-15 days until I get to fly home to be in NC with my husband and my family in the greatest place in the entire world!

-28 Days until Chad's 26th birthday haha YOU OLD MAN!

-31 Days until Amy (my sis-in-law) turns 16! That is scary!

-42 Days until our entire family leaves for ITALY!

-54 Days until my (soon to be) sister-in-law turns 19!

-66 Days until Nana's Birthday!

-68 Days until I turn 23!!!!

-79 Days until I get a new little sister-in-law!

-88 Days until Alison (another sis-in-law) turns 20!!

-130 Days until our little girl is DUE!

We have a lot going on this summer and I can't WAIT!

21 Weeks and Carrots

I am officially 21 weeks along (I will update the picture on the sidebar later...). I can't believe I have been pregnant for this long. I thought I would share with all of you that I have finally gone shopping for some maternity clothes. This is the beginning. I can still button up my jeans, but they were getting mighty tight around the tummy. So I have lasted 21 weeks with my "pre-pregnancy" jeans. All of my other clothes didn't really fit well anymore. I don't really have many "maternity" shirts yet, but I do have many normal shirts with empire waists that work very well.

So I just thought I would let you know that I am finally in the most comfortable pants of my life. I don't understand why we don't just wear elastic ALL THE TIME!

Katie threatened me on Saturday, when I came home with my new purchases. She told me that I better not continue to wear maternity clothes after having a baby or she would have to let Clinton and Stacy know! I am very TEMPTED!!! I mean who doesn't want professional advice and $5000 to spend?!?!?!

But my little girl is now the length of a carrot about 10 1/2 inches from head to heel and weighs about 12 ounces! She is growing so fast!

One last thing just to make my sis-in-law Michelle happy...at 25 weeks she had gained a total of 17 pounds...
Mishi...I have lost about 15 and not put anything back on. HAHAHA!! I LOVE YOU!

ps. for those who don't know...she is due in July!

I hope everything is going better for you! Keep taking care of yourself!

Another name blog...

This goes right along with the last blog, so please help us out.

The grandparent names that I/we have read about just aren't working yet. So Katie, Chad, Me, Adam, Tyler, Lauren, and Cameron and all made a decision. We think Mom and Dad (Joy and Bruce) should be called Joycious and Brucious.

Yes, we all do understand that it might be a little difficult to pronounce at the beginning, but how CUTE!!!!

This name, I think began because of my little brother Tyler. I am not really sure why or how, but I guess my mom can correct me with the exact story...just read the comments later...I am sure she will give a full explanation.

For those who don't know, our family is full of nicknames. Cameron is da Booba, I am Geeze, Tyler is Dudnens (I have no idea how to spell it) I don't think Chad ever really got one since he was the oldest child. My mom just came up with stupid baby names and they have stuck! Booba/Cameron is the only one that has REALLY stuck. Anyone who really knows Cameron has probably called him Booba at some point.

But with this knowledge, for some reason (which a further explanation will come if there really is one) my Mom got the name of Joycious. We LOVE calling her this, and to include my Dad he is the Brucious.

So with this knowledge, what do you think about these names continuing forever as grandparent names.

Please let us know what you think!

Thanks for your help!

Need Some Help

So now that I am having a little girl, my mom is thinking about what she and my dad will be called as grandparents. She can't find any name that she thinks is cute or that she likes.

We now need your help and suggestions on what to call grandparents.

They will NOT be grandma and grandpa because that just DOES NOT fit them. Also, Adam's parents will be Grandma and Grandpa I am sure. Nana and Papa are already taken. For those who don't know...my mom's parents are Nana and Papa and that would just be weird!

They don't want any "old" sounding names, so we need your creativity! Please leave your comments with your suggestions!

Thanks for your help!

ps. Wendi I really appreciate the Moo Moo and Poo Poo, but I don't quite think that is what we are going for. Could you imagine a little girl walking up to you and saying this is my Poo Poo. I think she would get some weird looks! Maybe that is just me, but oh well.

One more blog for the day!

So a few of you...*cough cough*... Michelle and Cassie...have asked me to put ultrasound pictures up, and I have been kinda hesitant. The reason behind this is I am not really happy with the pictures I have. I feel like the technician was just in to do what she needed to and be done. She didn't take very good pictures and it made me kinda sad. But here are a couple of pictures that I do have. They are on the side bar also...

This is her profile.


This is her foot...you can see the five little white toes. If the picture was taken 1 second earlier, there would have been a VERY cute picture with both feet side by side.



I also am putting up a picture of me at 20 weeks. So here you go, for those who have been waiting for pictures!

More Yellowstone Pictures

Yellowstone Trip

Meredith has been bugging me all day today to write a blog about our Yellowstone Trip this past weekend. I told her that I had to edit and go through all of the 746 pictures that I took this weekend and then I would post the blog. Yes, that's right 746 pictures! I did end up with a lot of good photo opportunities and well, lets just say that my 4 gigs of complact flash did not suffice. Thank goodness I brought my laptop and I was able to upload my pictures to it each night. Well I have not quite finished going through the pictures but I still wanted to write a blog today.

Well we left Provo after Meredith's ultrasound appointment on Thursday afternoon, we got into our hotel at 9 pm. That night Meredith and I decided that we would just relax and go out in the morning to find animals and enjoy the Northern part of park. On Friday morning I got up at 5:30 am. That's right 5:30 in the morning! Many of you might be thinking, "this is vacation right?" Let me just tell you that I am a nature freak and getting up at 5:30 in the morning to watch animals is ideal. Meredith of course stayed in bed until 9. That morning I found 3 wolves and watched them for an hour as they ate and played by an elk carcass. Of course I saw other animals but the wolves were the highlight of that morning. No good picture opps though. I then went back to Meredith and we enjoyed the day hiking and driving through Lamar Valley and the northern part of the park. We weren't able to hike as much as we wanted because there was about 4 feet of snow at any given part of the trails. In the evening we made sure that we were in Lamar Valley where we have had lots of luck seeing animals in the past. It was also where I saw the wolves that morning. We again were very lucky because we saw a Grizzly bear walking in front of our car. We watched it for a good 30 minutes as I took pictures like crazy from the car. At one point the bear went to the door of a bathroom that Meredith had used many times before. She said that she would freak if she opened the door from using the bathroom to face a grizzly bear. The bear then gave me lots of photo opportunities as it came towards our car closer and closer. It got to about 15 feet away when I decided it was time to back our car up. (We were safe the Ranger was right there with us as well!) We of course never left our car and would have had no problem closing our window if the bear were to come any closer. (Thats for anyone who thinks that Grizzlies are scary or were worried about us while gone, we also have bear pepper spray for when we hike!)

That ended Friday on a great note!

Saturday of course I woke up early again. Thank goodness because I saw two grizzlies courting! They were play fighting and enjoying each others company like two brothers would except it was a female and male. They were pretty far away but then came closer and I have many shots of them as well. Keep in mind that most people who go to Yellowstone never even see a bear or wolf. It was a good weekend!

That day Meredith and I had decided that we were going to go to Old Faithful and play down there. It was a slow day because there was more snow and we were not able to hike very much. We decided that the north loop is a much better place to see animals, however Sunday morning we found that we missed the most amazing thing by 45 minutes.

Sunday we planned on heading to Teton but were sidetracked by two bison carcasses we did not see the night before. As we stopped to see what was going on we talked to a lady who had been there the night before. She said that at 8 pm her and her friends saw three wolves take the two bison out. If we had only been there 45 minutes later driving by we would have seen the wolves take them down. It made me angry but it was my fault as I was the one that suggested we go back to Lamar for the evening. Anyway, these carcasses were so close to the road that the rangers decided that they had to move them. We waited hoping that we would see a bear or something eat the carcasses. We did see two coyotes try but could not eat because the carcasses werent opened up enough for them to get in. The rangers then arrived and took them off.

We then drove home to Provo and arrived at 6:30 pm. I have attached a link to my flickr account with some pictures that I took there. Also here are some pictures as well.

Today is the last day!

So I just thought I would share with all of you that today is kinda a sad day for me!

Today is the last day I get to see my husband for 3 weeks!
He is going to NC for an internship and leaving VERY early tomorrow morning.
I have to finish my job here in UT, and that doesn't end until the end of this month.
I will be joining him and my family on May 30.
I know I will be fine here. I am living with Chad and Katie for the month.
I know he will be fine in NC living with my family.
I am just sad. It just isn't the same.
Yes, we have been apart before. He goes to a conference every year for a week with all the other Facilities Management students, etc.,but oh well.
Three weeks is a long time.

I just thought I would share my sadness with everyone!

The Joys of Technology

So we all speak of how much we love technology, and don't get me wrong, I love it too, it just is SOOOOOO aggravating when it doesn't treat you well.

While my family was here, Adam's cell phone got this weird message on it that said something to the effect of initial programming required. This was very strange considering he has had the phone for over a year! He couldn't do anything with his phone. He couldn't answer calls or anything with the message on it. So Saturday night we went into Verizon to see what they could do to fix his phone.

We walk back to the technical support desk and explain the situation. The tech guy takes the phone and gets this really confused look on his face. Of course, this is NEVER good since he was supposed to be the one helping us. He then returns the phone to Adam's hands and says your hard drive is ruined and there is nothing we can do. You are supposed to be our customer service people and there is nothing you can do?!?! Then he says, let me look up your warranty on the phone...of course...it ended last month, so we can't help you there. Then he says well you can pay $20 and renew your plan with us. Adam and I look at each other just thinking fine, we like Verizon's coverage and everything so why not renew our contract.

We then go to look at the phones...THEY ARE RIDICULOUS! The phone that I have had for over a year...and is nothing special was over $100. There was nothing of decent price. So we ended up buying Adam a new Blackberry Pearl because that is what he wanted anyways. It was only like $30 more than the other crappy phones they had there, so why not right! This is just ridiculous to me though, that they don't have something else, as a company, they can do!

Well, at least Adam is happy with his new phone. He has been playing with it since he got it!

Sometimes I just HATE TECHNOLOGY!

A lot of Catching up!

So 2 weekends ago...the 22-25 of April, my family was in town. My brother FINALLY graduated from college and is now looking for a job. We are so proud that he finally got through. But on Tuesday night, my mom and Tyler flew in and then on Thursday morning Dad and Cameron flew in. We had so much fun, so here is just a little recap of everything that happened. (You may notice we went out to eat a LOT!

SORRY THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG ONE!

On Tuesday when my mom got in, we were all starving...by all, I mean the 4 kids (Chad, Katie, Adam and me) who were waiting for their arrival, so we went straight to dinner. We went to a little mexican restaurant and all kinda shared meals. We went home and talked for a little while, but all of us were tired so we went to bed.

On Wednesday (yes I took off of work the rest of the week), my mom and I went to mine and Adam's old apartment and spent the morning making sure everything was clean and cleaned out. Adam had basically moved everything out and cleaned a ton, my mom and I just did the finishing touches to make sure the place looked nice and we didn't leave anything! So we finished this and went back to Chad and Katie's place...where by the way all 8 of us stayed while the family was there. Yes, it is a 2 bedroom apartment. WE HAD FUN!
Well, that night, my uncle came into town to pick up his son who was leaving BYU, so he called to take us out to dinner. Chad, Katie, and his son (Trey) were all at a Ben Folds concert, so they didn't get to enjoy dinner. The rest of us went to PF Changs! SO GOOD! The only bad thing is that Adam had a final at 8 PM so once the entrees actually got there he filled up his plate and had to leave. He didn't really get to eat anything, so we brought it all home for him! The rest of the night we kinda just hung out and had fun.

On Thursday, my dad and Cameron flew in and my mom and I went to get them. We both went because my mom really wanted to go to this discount Deseret Book store in Salt Lake. IT WAS SO COOL! Everything in there was so cheap and we spent way too much time/money in there. Cameron and I even had fun just walking through the store looking at baby books and just seeing what was in this 20x20 ft store. IT WAS TINY! There was just so much there! Finally after NUMEROUS hours and even ringing up our stuff twice, because their computer stopped working, we finally got home. The rest of the day was just fun and talking, then that night we went to Sonic to eat and then went bowling as a family. About the bowling...I would just like to say that Katie is the luckiest person on the planet. She would bowl and knock down like 2 pins and begin heading back to all of us...then 5 seconds later like 4 other pins would fall down! NO, the ball didn't hit anymore. NO, the pins weren't spinning and happen to knock other pins down. NO, the little pin picker upper thing didn't accidentally knock them over. THEY WOULD JUST FALL! I will never understand her magic!

PS. This day we also went to the doctor for me and in this baby room we had my mom, dad, and Adam. Then we got to go back for the gender check and brought Katie as well! That was a lot of fun to find out I was having a little GIRL!

On Friday, we had Chad's graduation. It was early, so all of us were up and out the door by 7:30 AM! We spent the day with Katie's family as well, because they came down for the graduation. They also brought down Rock Band, and I bet you will never guess what they spent the day doing...
Since they were playing rock band, Katie, her mom, me and my mom all went shopping for PED EGGS!!! My mom wanted to get Katie, me, and her one since Wendi's Ped EGGCELLENT blog! So we went there first and decided it would be fun to go shopping for little girl clothes...So that is what we spent hours doing! It was so much FUN! That afternoon, I also forgot...we went to Tucannos Brazilian Grill for lunch! OH MAN was that good! We were all so full when we left, but it was worth it!

On Saturday, we began our day with Adam, me, Mom, and Dad trying to do something productive like go to BYU campus and see the new Gordon B. Hinckley building since none of us had been inside. Little did we know that on graduation weekend, they would not have the alumni building open. Who would have imagined? So we ended up in the bookstore until we went to Happy Sumo...a sushi restaurant for lunch, and then the boys went golfing and the girls went to my cousins bridal shower. We all had fun during the day. That evening, Katie and I really wanted to go to Outback for dinner. So I called to put our name on the call ahead seating list. We figured it would be about an hour or so before they could get us in, but were we wrong! I called at like 5 and they told me there was no way we could be seated until at least 9. I understand there are a lot of people here for graduation but you have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! I ended up calling Outback in Sandy (40 mins away). Yes, we REALLY wanted Outback. They could get us in no problem so when the boys got home from golfing, we headed up to Sandy for a great Outback dinner.

Sunday, we went to Church, ate our leftover Outback and then my family took off for NC that afternoon.

It was a really long and busy weekend, but it was fun to have everyone here! Sorry, I don't have any fun pictures, I kept forgetting my camera! But there you have it...that is where I have been lately.