8.5 weeks and counting...

31 Weeks: Yeah I'm all belly :)

New Pregnancy Observations:

1. Heartburn: Sweet Mercy. Its brought me to tears at times. I'm carrying really high and so I guess that causes the heartburn to be worse and more frequent. The doctor suggested I use Zantac instead of Tums so we'll see how that goes

2. Them - "You're about ready to have that baby aren't you?"
Me - "Nope I still have about 2 months"
Them - "Oh wow...hang in there"
Enough said.

3. Belly Acrobatics: In the last few weeks he's gotten big enough that I can identify body parts as they roll across my belly. It's not so much short kicks any more but short spells of rolling, pushing, stretching, etc. Its been really fun to watch and feel. Sometimes it makes me laugh out loud to see a foot protrude as he stretches his legs or to watch him roll and then roll again trying to find a comfy position.

4. Swelling: My feet and legs get huge if I spend all day on them or wear tight shoes. Its kind of fun to press my fingers in and watch the dents stay. By fun I mean gross. :)

5. New Kind of Excitement: We're getting so close and that has brought on a new kind of excitement. We get to meet our sweet little boy in just 8.5 weeks. We get to become Mommy and Daddy. I cant wait to hold him and smell his sweet head and cover him in kisses and loves. This whole thing is so incredible!

mmm...Steak!

A year and a half ago while Dave and I were in San Diego we accidentally had dinner at Ruth's Chris Steak House. I say accidentally because we had no idea what we were getting into when we walked into the restaurant to eat.

We were visiting some old battleship right on the pier when we got hungry. Across the street we saw Ruths Chris steak house. Dave said he had heard of it, and that it was supposed to be way good. We were thinking it would be something like Outback or Ruby River both in quality and cost. We were wrong.

As we were being seated at our table we looked around and realized we were quite under dressed in our t-shirts, flip flops and shorts. Hmmm...we thought, maybe this place is nicer than we realized. Then the waiter handed us the menus. Both of us were in shock as the price for just a steak was anywhere from $30-$80! That didn't include sides which were served family style. We thought very seriously about just getting up and leaving but we were too embarrassed. We ordered the two smallest steaks on the menu with two sides. I wasn't sure I had an appetite left after doing the math in my head of how much this single meal would cost.

But then they brought out the food and after I took my fist bite I didn't think a thing more about the cost. It was the most amazing steak I'd ever had in my life. They cook the steak in an 1800 degree oven and then bring them out to you on a 500 degree plate where they season it with butter, salt and pepper. Thats it! Steak sauce on this steak would be a tragedy. The sides were excellent too. To top it off they brought us a free creme brulee for dessert. This was one of the best meals I'd ever had, in fact I think I'd choose it for my last meal.

Ever since San Diego we'd been dying to go back so for Valentines day we decided not to get anything for each other but to save up for another incredible meal at Ruth's Chris. It was every bit as good as we remember it!











I also have to mention the beautiful flowers Dave got me. I'm so spoiled!!! Tulips are my favorite flower. He managed to get me an incredible bouquet of 30 red, pink, and white tulips!

Madelyn's Blessing

Some pictures from our trip last weekend to my sister's where they blessed their little girl Madelyn. We had a blast!

Frozen Hog

So Ben and I tackled the Frozen Hog bike race on February 2nd. I've wanted to do it for years and Ben needed to try out his new mountain bike, so what better way to do that than a 7 mile bike race in the snow?

This year was particularly tough, the website says, "This year the trail featured a longer loop, more twists and turns, and more climbing. Sport riders faced their longest and toughest Hog, in a year when conditions conspired to make things even tougher." You can read on the site that the first loop wasn't that bad, but the second one got all churned up from all the riders and most of us walked probably 75% of it. Last year's winner came in in 32 minutes with the slowest time being 1:23. This year the winner came in at 1:03, Ben and I came in at just over 2 hours.

For a sweet shot of Ben biting it hard face first into the snow, watch this video at 1:03.

Megan and Ella came and watched too. It was fun to have them there and Ella was excited to get out and play in the snow.


In the end it was ton of fun, not too bad of a race. I'm sure we'll do it again next year, but since I talked Ben into doing this one with me he's making me do the Bear Lake Classic road race (52 miles) with him in May. It shouldn't be too bad as long as I can fit into the tight clothes.

Prego Mego

Prego me at 26 weeks.

I kept forgetting to take a new belly pic so his morning I took one of myself in our bedroom mirror. I'm 26 weeks today! Kind of exciting, kind of scary. I start my 3rd trimester next week. Its crazy how fast this second trimester has gone. The first took FOREVER, but since I've felt better it's flown.

New pregnancy discoveries:

-Feet in ribs: The first time I felt his feet in my ribs I was afraid to move because I thought if I bent the wrong way it would break his little legs. It was really excited though, feeling little feet in your ribs has to be a pregnancy right of passage. NOTE: He's decided that my ribs are the perfect place for his little tosies, they're almost always there.

-Grace is not a word I'd use to describe me: With the increase of blood (40% increase) you body works much harder to do pretty much everything. Hurrying is kind of difficult, I can still speed walk but when I stop I'm huffing and puffing. Don't even ask me to run up a flight of stairs. I can do it but it's not pretty. I can't really slide between narrow spaces any more with any dignity, if my belly fits then my booty doesn't.

-Have you picked a name yet? Don't answer this question! Even if the person doesn't come right out and shoot down your favorites the grimace on their face says plenty. I've learned to just say, "no, not yet".

-Ghetto Booty! I didn't realize that my booty would get so much bigger. Not only does it pop out to off set the major popage going on in the front, it just gets bigger. I just hope this isn't permanent!

Overall I feel great! This pregnancy has been really good. There's still lots to do in the next 3 months, but I have such great family and friends and a really great hubby. I know everything will work out.

Here's a link showing how the baby is developing right now:
http://www.babycenter.com/6_your-pregnancy-26-weeks_1115.bc

Powder to the People.

Okay, I was waiting to post this because I didn't want to post over the baby pictures like I thought this was more important, but now Megan replaced the baby with kitchen shots, so I think I'm clear. My friend Kevin called me up at like 11pm one night during the Christmas break saying he had a free pass to the Canyons the next day and it just so happened to be snowing like crazy. So I took care of some work stuff, called in sick the next morning, and went.

What a perfect day. I normally don't like skiing The Canyons because the snow isn't as good as other resorts in Utah and it takes forever to get anywhere. However, it does help when you have a free pass, 3 ft of fresh, some locals to show you around, and a friend who's a professional photographer. Here are some of the shots Kevin got of me:



I really like both of them for different reasons. It was a lot of fun to scope out lines and just blow through the powder getting as many face shots as possible.

By the way, everyone should really check out his site, www.kevinwinzeler.com. He really is talented and can shoot some great stuff if you ever need a photographer. He has some calendars for sale right now too, you should buy some.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving...

I got a lot of really great things this Christmas. Dave always spoils me. However I received one gift that I'm still just giddy over. We finally got a dishwasher! Woohoo! I can't explain how excited I am. My parents gave it to us for Christmas. We decided to put the dishwasher in the back corner of the kitchen where a cupboard is. It would fit perfectly there. After we bought the dishwasher Dave and I were looking at the cupboard discussing how we'd install it, when we saw a big black pipe running through the back of the cupboard. With the size and position of the pipe we determined the dishwasher would stick out from the cupboard about 4 inches. This would not do. But we already had the dishwasher! I was so upset. All that stood between me and a clean, dirty dish free kitchen was a big black pipe, and it wasn't going anywhere. The wall behind the pipe was cement so it couldn't be moved.

We decided to call Tyler, our brother in law who has professionally done custom cabinets for years. He took a look and decided we should just rebuild the entire bottom set of cabinets. The old ones were in pretty bad shape and it would be pointless to try to salvage them. So the weekend after Christmas, he and Dave built all new cabinets and doors. We bought new countertop from Home Depot and this last week we got it all installed. I'm in heaven!!! Not only is the dishwasher installed and running beautifully, but I got all new cabinets to boot! We're going to do the top ones in a few weeks. Here are some pics: