Baby Funk

This is the ultrasound from 8 weeks. I'm 15 weeks now, so I'm sure it looks quite different. It was funny because the nurse was trying to find the yoke sack, and looked for it at a bunch of different views. Finally she found it. It is that circular shaped thing under the baby's' head. She said, "I have never seen this before! It is using the yoke sack as a pillow!" From this, I think the baby is going to be quite cuddly :)
So as far as how I have been feeling... Well, month 2 and 3 were pretty rough. I lost 8lbs in two weeks just because nothing sounded good and I wasn't eating very much. I never threw up, just lots of dry heaving, gagging, and watering eyes. I was starting to feel much better right before Thanksgiving and actually felt like eating, and then I came down with some kind of 24 hour bug the day before Thanksgiving. I got over that, but still have lots of crud in my throat and nose. My stomach is so much better now. I feel like a new person. Chase comes home and is always surprised at what I have gotten done, compared to the last two months. I don't feel like laying on the couch all day anymore :) My mom says that I should feel great the next few months, until I start getting big, and then it is a little uncomfortable. I hope she is right!
The only craving I have had is oranges and orange juice! I have at least one orange a day and orange juice almost every morning. This craving started around Thanksgiving and it hasn't stopped. At least it is somewhat good for me, and isn't ice cream or something!

At our first ultrasound, we found out that we are due May 31st, the exact same day Chase starts school out in Omaha, Nebraska....how ironic. We will be doing lots of planning to figure out how to make everything work out with a move, Chase's finals, a new baby, one of Chase's most intense semesters, and living far across the country. Obviously this baby is supposed to be here when it comes, so I know we will figure it out with lots of loving family and friends. We may be moving when I am 8 1/2 months pregnant, but it will be an adventure. What isn't in life?

Here is a video from 8 weeks. You can see the heartbeat! Technology is so amazing.

Thanksgiving Break

It was Hollister's 5th birthday on November 21st and he asked me to make his cake. I made it out of homemade fondant and I loved how it turned out and so did he!

Hollister with his cake. He took Mr. Potato head and ate the body parts off one at a time. It was pretty funny.

We finally broke the news to everyone! Since it was my little brothers' birthday, we decided a fun way to tell them that we are having a baby would be to wrap up a gift that would give it away. I made shirts for both of the boys saying "Uncle Trey" and "Uncle Hollister" and Hollister opened them up on his birthday. When my parents finally read what they said, my mom just kept saying, "You're kidding, are you serious? YEEAAHHH!!!" We laughed, cried, and hugged. It was fantastic. They boys didn't really get it at first. My dad said, "Trey, you have a sister who is married, graduated from college, and then what?" He had know idea. So then we said, "First comes love, then comes marriage....." Trey said, "Ooohhhh.....then comes the baby in the baby carriage." It was so cute. They are so excited! Every few hours they would ask how big the baby is. Unfortunately, I would have to tell them about the same size. I have a feeling the next 5 months are going to go by pretty slow for them :)

We went swimming at a natural hot springs and Hollister thought it was so funny when I told him the baby was swimming with us. Later, when we were watching a movie, he informed me that the baby was also watching it with us. I have a feeling these "uncles" are going to be over the top with this baby.

My brother-in-law Cody married his fiance Kristy over the Thanksgiving break. She is such a fun girl and I'm excited to have her in the family!

The girls' at the reception.

My cutest nephew!

Ugly Sweater party! We had a pre-Thanksgiving feast at our friends the Jensens' and wore ugly sweaters! We had delicious food, lots of laughing, and got to hang out with some of our friends. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, something is wrong with my camera).

Halloween Festivities

This is at our ward party with the stinking cutest kid ever. Ethan was a rock star and I seriously could not get enough of him. He kept showing us his belly, where he had rub on tattoos all over. Oh, and he was constantly sticking out his tongue and making a peace sign.

Chase and I won the costume contest!

We went to a Halloween party at the Milllers' a few days before Halloween. We made quite an entrance with Chase's cane and our old people voices. The whole night we were cracking jokes about being old, it was just so easy to come up with them. We sang karaoke and everyone wanted Chase and I to sing the song "Summer Lovin" from Grease. It was pretty dang hilarious.

We also went to an IDEP party in Idaho Falls with all the people in Chase's program and their families.

We picked out pumpkins in a pumpkin patch, carved them, ate dinner, and laughed a lot. It was so fun! Here is how our creepy skull and crossbones pumpkin turned out!

We're Pregnant!

It's true! We are having a baby! I thought I might be pregnant, but Chase wanted to wait two more days until his birthday to take the test so he could find out he was going to be a daddy on his birthday. Those two days about killed me, but after Chase opened his presents, we took the test and we were happy to find out that we were expecting!

After we took the three tests, which were all positive, we decided we had to celebrate, not only because we were going to be parents, but also because of Chase's 26th birthday. We went to Red Lobster and the hostess taking us to our seats asked, "Are you guys out celebrating anything?" I burst out, "We just found out we are going to have a baby!" She laughed and said congratulations. It felt good to tell someone, even if it was a complete stranger.

We had always talked about what we would do if we found this great news out, and we had previously said that we would go buy something for the baby. We went to TJ Maxx and browsed through the clothes and toys. Nothing really seemed right so we went to the books. We found these two cute "Where is Mommy" "Where is Daddy" books. They are darling and at the very end, you put a picture of yourself in the back of the book.

We are so excited for this new adventure in our lives. I'm grateful to have had almost four years, by the time our baby arrives, with the love of my life before we go on this adventure. I couldn't be more happy to add to our family and strengthen and challenge our relationship as a couple. I feel a little overwhelmed that Heavenly Father is entrusting us with one of his children. Fortunately, I feel somewhat prepared in that my younger brother Trey was born when I was a freshman in high school. I stayed the first night in the hospital with my mom, and held him, changed him, and took care of him that first night. My mom tells me she was so grateful I was there to help take care of him the first few months of his life and how "well-equiped" I am to take care of a baby. To this day, I have a special bond with Trey, and I can't imagine what it will feel like to have one of our own in a few months!

Another Girl's Trip

I had such a blast with my sisters and my mom in Salt Lake! We went to the show "Thriller", a dance compilation of scary/Halloween dances at Kingsbury Hall by the Odyssy dance theatre.

Here we are with one of the zombies from the show.

The next morning we got to go to a question/answer session with Elder Bednar. It was absolutely incredible. I couldn't believe how simple and prompt his answers were. He spoke to us for two hours! Half-way through the session, he asked, "How many people here came with a question, haven't asked it, but have received an answer?" Tons of people raised their hands including my mom and I. He said, "This is the spirit speaking to you, and teaching you the things you need to hear right now." It was a very spiritual and uplifting morning for all of us. I am so grateful to have prophets and apostles on the earth today that teach us EXACTLY what each of us need to hear and do to return back to our Father in Heaven.

Trip to Buhl

Chase and I took a trip to Buhl a few weekends ago, which was very fun/eventful, like usual. We celebrated Chase's birthday with some poppy seed cake.

We watched the weirdest, most dumb movie I have ever seen! It's called Coraline.. and it was so creepy. I'm surprised the boys didn't have nightmares. The bad parents have button eyes, so when the boys were in the bathroom brushing their teeth, my dad put these buttons on his eyes and scared the boys. We all were laughing so hard :) haha

We went to my parents rental house in Buhl to help do a little yard work and burn some of the weeds. Well, my mom was in a rush because we only had an hour in between the boys' soccer and flag football games. She was pushing the garbage can, with the lid open I might add, and it ended up tipping over and pulling her over with it. She hit her face pretty hard and was dripping blood all down her face. We helped her up as quickly as we could and called my grandma (doctor maryl :) She came and helped but some super glue in the cut.. Fortunately my mom is doing much better now but it was a little scary at the time.

Here we are at the boys' soccer and flag football games.

That night we came home and had a bonfire of our own..

My brothers also showed us their fort/clubhouse that they have been working on. It's down by the pond on my parents property and they basically just cleared it out so that you can hang out in the trees and have a club :) They are so cute.

Jean Makeover

Here are some cute jeans I got and thought I would stitch around them to make them look a little cuter. I used embroidery thread and just stitched over all the stitching on the jeans and....

Look how cute they are now!

Lamp Makeover

Here is what the old lamp looked like. Totally cute, I know, but me with my crazy sleeping habits, knocked one over in the night and busted the base. I was left with one working lamp.. until I picked up these beauties below at a yard sale for $8 total.

I primed and spray painted the bases white.

Then I made these fabric flowers that I was planning on hot gluing to the shades from the old lamps, since I liked the size and shape better than the ones that came with the yard sale lamps. I sewed down a strip of fabric on the widest stitch length setting.

Then I gathered them up to make these cute flowers.

I ripped off the old trim on the lamp shades

Then I started hot gluing on the yellow fabric flowers I made... and then I decided they needed a pearl in the middle of each of the flowers so I glued those on too.

And here is the final project! I am totally in love!

Canning Salsa

My mom brought us a huge box of these delicious tomatoes so Ash and I thought we would try to can salsa. Neither of us have ever canned anything by ourselves so this was a pretty big step for us. We had a great time and the salsa is yummy!

Here are all the flavors simmering together!

Ash is going to kill me for putting this picture up:)

Look how pretty!

We ended up with 28 pints!