Baby Time

Well, it's been a week since we made the news public knowledge but in case you haven't heard: we're expecting a baby due December 9, 2013! We could not be more delighted! We've had to wait for this to happen for quite a bit longer than we'd expected but I truly believe that everything happens when it's meant to... even if that was a pretty frustrating concept to swallow for a while there.

They say you get a more reliable result if you take a pregnancy test first thing in the morning. I had been planning on taking one on a certain morning in early April but, on a whim, decided to take it the night before as well. I thought if I did it then and it was negative, as I'd expected it to be, that it would soften the blow the following morning. I'm not sure if that logic makes sense but it did to me at the time. When the test was done at first glance it appeared my usual negative sign-- one line. As I focused in more I noticed a very faint second line appearing. I'd never seen that before! I ran downstairs and showed it to Bryan who said, "What is that second line?!?!" We were afraid to get our hopes up so we decided to wait until the morning test to really be confident in it. The following morning, lo and behold, I really was pregnant. I'm not sure how many tests I took but I took a lot. I tried a few different brands, too, just to be sure. Included in those was the Clearblue test that simply said "Pregnant" on it. It was so amazing to see and I could scarcely convince myself to believe it could be true!

A day later it was my mom's birthday and we were headed down to Utah to spend Conference weekend at Bryan's mom's house. It was perfect timing! Since my family are all spread out and not close we called them all on the drive down and decided to wait and surprise Bryan's mom and sister in person. My family were all very excited, especially my mom! I'm her last daughter to have a baby-- I thought it was a pretty great birthday surprise. When we got to Utah Bryan's mom was still at work so we set up a banner across her kitchen ceiling that said, "Congrats, Grandma!" and we'd bought some noise makers from a party store. I was lucky enough to record her reaction to the banner (not seen in the video, as it was above our heads):

What a gratifying reaction. When we saw Shelley the next day we replaced the words with, "Congrats, Aunt Shelley!" She was very excited as well but didn't scream :).

Anyway, things have been going along smoothly. To be honest I've been a nervous wreck over how smoothly it has been going, worrying that my hCg levels aren't where they should be or that my baby stopped growing. I bet when the baby comes, healthy and whole, I'll find a new host of things to worry about. I've not really had morning sickness. I've thrown up a total of three times. Usually if I don't eat first thing when I get out of bed I start to feel gaggy and that's when it happens. Other than that I've had a stuffed nose and a blossoming of pimples around my mouth. Nicely descriptive, eh? Both are, apparently, pregnancy symptoms. I've also been having a lot of tailbone pain whenever I exert myself. My sister says it's due to a chemical called Relaxin that your body releases to make childbirth easier. It seems pretty early for it to be happening but I'm not really an expert. I had my first check up at 7 weeks 1 day and Bryan came with me. It was so neat-- they did an ultrasound and we got to see the little bean of a baby! Best of all, we got to see and hear it's heart beating! I had my second appointment a couple of weeks ago at 11 weeks 1 day. As you'll see in the pictures below, baby is starting to take on a rather baby profile! At that appointment his or her heartbeat was a whopping 182 beats per minute! As of today I am exactly 13 weeks and, from what I've read, my baby is the size of a tangerine. I'm heading out of my first trimester already and it seems to have gone by really fast. After my last ultrasound I felt a lot more reassured about not being as sick and now I'm feeling like I'm really lucky! We're very happy to be having a baby in 2013-- for tax and health insurance reasons. Baby couldn't have had better timing! Regardless, I would have been happy to have baby whenever I could. And now, in case you haven't already seen them on Facebook, some pictures:

 7 weeks 1 day

 11 weeks 1 day

I think I'll either take these every week or every other, depending on how much change there is. This is me from last week. I feel like a very subtle bump is starting to form but I'm not sure it'll look much different from this. Anyway, wahoo!!!

The House

Well, we're officially in our new house and have been for a little over a week! It's been pretty great and we can hardly believe this place is really ours to do with what we wish! I could paint all the walls bright magenta if I really so desired! Luckily, I do not so desire. Pictures will be forthcoming but may take a while. We are still not unpacked all the way and we have some furniture purchases to make once our checking account stops looking so sad. Our TV is currently residing on a box full of board games... I'll probably post about each room at a time rather than a full house walk through, anyway.

The one irritating responsibility that has been thrust upon us is the constant yard work we need to do. The builders planted sod in our front and side yard and we had them put in grass seed in the back. Well, this would normally be fine but apparently we are in a drought so the water connected to our sprinklers (irrigation water) is being severely rationed. For a few days we were told we were only allowed to use them once a week! Now it has gone back to three times a week. As the experienced gardener may know (I didn't really know anything about this until we moved in...), new sod and grass seed require quite a bit more water than just three times a week! We are allowed to use as much water from the hose bibs in our front and back yard (this is city water) as needed but that requires hooking a sprinkler up to a hose and moving it around the yard every ten minutes, multiple times a day. It's easing down now because we're suppose to water less as time goes on and the roots need to fend for themselves. Still, it's less than ideal and our yard is only barely starting to come alive.

Well, enough complaining about that! We do really love our new house. My parents are coming out this week for a visit and we're very excited. They haven't been to Boise since they helped us move into our townhouse. Now that we are less cramped maybe it will feel more inviting. Anyway, life is good! Bryan has a good stable job, we love our cat and we have this new, beautiful house! We are very blessed.

Catch Up

It's now that time of year where I start to get slightly better at blogging again. I find it funny that I am so diligent from the summer through Christmas and then I just forget that there are three more holidays coming up. I make a big deal about them around the house with decorations and meals but I rarely blog about them, so I thought I'd play a little catch up.

On Valentine's Day I got up early and made Bryan some red crepes and heart shaped bacon for breakfast! I sent him to work with a little heart shaped homemade frozen pizza and some raspberries. After work, we went to a very neat french cafe called Le Cafe de Paris. I can't remember what Bryan ordered but I had a leg of lamb and a lovely little mousse for dessert. We exchanged some chocolate and Bryan told me I could pick out a chick flick! We watched Leap Year, which was pretty good. I was so happy because it was a really clean movie compared to everything else that has been coming out lately. Here are some picture of my food and the wreath I made.

On St. Patrick's day I made green waffles for breakfast and corned beef and cabbage for dinner but I didn't manage to get a picture of either! Oh well! It was on a Sunday this year and I realized that Bryan didn't have a green tie to wear to church so I looked up a tutorial and found some left over green fabric that I had and voila! That was a fun day-- afterward we got to go check out our house (which is almost done!).

Bryan's green tie! He took it off immediately when we got home from church so I didn't get a picture of him actually wearing it.

The wreath I made for St. Patrick's Day!

For Easter I pretty much forced Bryan to dye eggs with me even though we don't have any kids. They didn't turn out perfectly but we had fun. It turns out that if you mix equal parts of red and blue dye you don't get purple somehow... instead Bryan got something that looked a bit more like a dinosaur egg. As is tradition in my family, I cooked a ham and made my mom's Cheesy Potatoes. We also had salad and jello. We had a special Easter program in our ward and were able to reflect on the sacrifice of our Savior.

 I made this cute little bunny from a tutorial on the Purl bee. It was a lot of fun!

I can't take credit for this wreath... I saw it at Target and fell in love with it. I tried to make my own similar wreath but when I finally found the right kind of eggs it would have ended up costing double the amount to just buy this one from Target.

This past weekend we were able to go to Utah and watch conference with Bryan's mom, Shelley, Ella and Ethan. We had a fun time there! It is nice to be able to spend time with family.

My next post will probably be about us moving into our new house!!! We are hoping it is the first week of May-- we are incredibly excited!

Crazy Cat People

So, I have a problem. I can't seem to stop talking about my cat even when I realize I have been talking about her to someone for a good ten minutes. Is it normal to be so obsessed with a cat? We find pretty much everything Callie does adorable. Even when she is just sitting there blinking tiredly at us (I like to call this the, "slow blink"). Oh well! Here's a video of Callie being playful, just because:

Home Sweet Home

Well, the cat is out of the bag! We've been sitting on some big news for a little while and now that we've announced it on Facebook to the general populous I can shed some light on the details. Bryan and I are in the process of buying our first house and we're not just buying, we're building! This past summer we spent Sunday afternoons driving through neighborhoods and dreaming of the day we could buy a house and all that we could do with it. We didn't think it would happen for a little while longer but things just seemed to work out. We're glad to be getting in when the market is good for buyers. We didn't really consider building for our first home-- the idea seemed unaffordable and grandiose. Then we came across CBH Homes, Idaho's largest home builder. What they do is have you choose one of their communities and a lot within that community. Then you choose a floor plan from their selection and then you go to their Design Studio and customize your house. We had already met with a lender and decided between ourselves how much house we could afford and in this case the cost to build this house was pretty much the same as the cost of a similar preexisting house. Anyway, the logistics are pretty boring but somewhere around the end of April or early May, we're going to be homeowners! The floor plan is a two story, 4 bed, 2.5 bath that we hope to grow in to. We walked through a lot of floor plans but we fell in love with this one. The community is very nice and has a nice open area for sports, picnics, or what have you. It also has a pool, basketball court and playground. We just barely got done customizing our house and we're very excited for them to get started! They haven't broken ground yet due to freezing cold weather but they are going to in the next couple weeks. It feels like a very grown up thing to become a homeowner. Aren't I just like nineteen...? I guess you always just feel like you no matter how old you are. Anyway, life is good.

Christmas and New Year's

Well, Christmas is over and life is back to normal. I figured I ought to stop procrastinating this post because it's going to be a big one but well worth it. This year, Bryan and I went to Maryland for Christmas and almost all of my siblings and their families were there. It was packed but so much fun! I think I'm getting ahead of myself, though.

I'm a firm believer in waiting until after Thanksgiving to start listening to Christmas music or decorating... but I am also a firm believer in doing those things the day immediately following Thanksgiving. Well, I guess I wasn't able to do so since we were still in Utah but as soon as we got back to Boise it all began. Bryan and I were very excited to celebrate our first Christmas season here. Last year, we had a small pre-lit tree that I'd brought with me from my single years. We got a few decorations but not all that much. This year we went and bought a live Christmas tree, which we were very excited about. I haven't had one since I was a little girl and I think it has been even longer since I've had colored lights.

Probably the only things I didn't like about the tree were stringing the lights (that took forever) and Callie constantly trying to drink the tree water. I think we'll stick with real trees for a long while.

Here is our finished masterpiece! I made a tree skirt for it but it turned out to be too small so I think I'll make or buy a different one next year.

Here's just a little video of all our decor. I made those stockings as well.

What is it with cats and Christmas trees? Callie was pretty obsessed with it but didn't try to knock any of the ornaments off, surprisingly. I love this picture of her under the tree.

In mid-December Bryan's mom came to visit us. We decided to have a small Christmas with her so we opened those presents early. That was a lot of fun. We even had Eggs Benedict-- a Whitney family Christmas tradition!

Here's Bryan with a couple of his gifts. He gets Lego's from his mom every year. I got a pretty sweet 4-in-1 programmable crock pot that I love a lot. After opening presents and eating, we went down to the farmer's market. There obviously weren't nearly as many stalls as there are in the summer but that just made it all the more relaxed and we were able to enjoy the beautiful decorations downtown.

The next week we prepared to go to Maryland. Our good friends, the Andersons, let Callie stay with them and we are very grateful for that. We pretty much always fly Southwest but they don't have a direct flight from Boise so we first flew to Denver and then on to Baltimore. Our other options were to stop in either Albuquerque or Los Angeles... which doesn't make a lot of sense but we were grateful to get the flight through Denver. One thing is that I forgot to check us in so Bryan and I had C boarding passes and weren't able to sit next to each other on either flight there. We were very grateful when we finally got to my home!

We got in kind of late and went straight to bed and the next morning we were up and headed to Williamsburg! My mom has always wanted to go to Williamsburg around Christmas because she's heard the decorations are beautiful but no one has ever wanted to go (mostly because it is three hours away) but this year we decided to go to this really neat resort nearby with an indoor water park! As you can imagine, there are a lot of us so we took four separate cars. We rode with my parents and decided to take the back roads to avoid traffic on I-95... it took longer than anticipated... and we got a little lost. Needless to say, we were very relieved to make it there.

We all ate dinner at the resort's buffet (which is where I am in the above picture with Jack) and then headed to the water park for a couple of hours. It was really neat-- there were all kinds of slides and rides. My nieces and Bryan tricked me into going on one called the Tornado. I knew it was going to be scary but they made me go backwards and there was a huge drop. From outside the ride my brother in-law could hear me screaming, "Oh my gosh, oh my gooooosh! I never want to do this again!" I did it again. They also had a wave pool, hot tub, kidde water park, etc... It was pretty awesome.

We had to check out at 11 AM the next morning but we weren't done with the water park yet so we got up early and went to IHOP for breakfast and then back to the park. Then we got all cleaned up and headed to Williamsburg itself. Now, my mom had wanted to go see the lights at night so she, my dad and sister had gone while the rest of us were at the water park the night before. I asked my sister that morning how it was and she said, "Underwhelming. There was no electricity back then."

Somehow my camera switched to a sepia mode but I really liked this picture of my sister Lindsay and Sylvie.

We spent a little time in Williamsburg wandering the streets and looking in shops and even happened to see this parade. Then we had lunch at a tavern and headed back home.

The next day was Sunday so we all went to church in my home ward. It was surreal to be back because the ward has changed a lot since I lived at home and not at all at the same time. The day was also my oldest niece's birthday! We celebrated that with presents and cake.

 

 On Christmas Eve day it started snowing a little and then a lot! For the first time in years we had a White Christmas! It was beautiful!

 

That night we had a delicious Christmas eve dinner with ham and all the tasty dishes that my mom made for us on holidays growing up. After that we had a Christmas program and the kids put together a nativity. It didn't go perfectly to plan but it was cute and entertaining. Above is Jack playing baby Jesus in the manger.

Then Christmas morning arrived! As all the children saw the presents beneath the tree I couldn't help but think, "Bloodbath at the cornucopia." They weren't like that at all, actually. The families all gathered their own presents and it was very orderly. I think it is more fun for me to see someone open a present I was really excited to get them than to open my own presents. That's half the fun of Christmas! I got some great gifts as well. Mom and Dad gave everyone a lot of emergency preparedness stuff this year, which will be really good to have.

In the afternoon we drove to Virginia to see Bryan's dad and brother. We exchanged presents, played a rousing game of Nintendo Monopoly and the Bryan and Mike played video games for a little bit. We went out to eat at a very nice restaurant called The Chart House and then came back to their apartment for apple and chocolate pies.

On Wednesday, Bryan and I went with two of my sisters and their husbands to see The Hobbit. Due to childcare we had to divide seeing it between two nights for half to do the babysitting while the other half saw the movie. We liked it a lot! I leaned over to my sister half way through and asked, "Are there any women in this book?" I was a little disappointed until Galadriel came and then I was satisfied with the female presence in the movie. I think I just like feeling like I have someone in a movie to relate to and generally gravitate to liking the female characters of books and movies best.

On Thursday we decided to make gingerbread houses from scratch! I must admit that Lindsay spearheaded most of it and she did such a good job on the gingerbread.

Bryan working on our very own gingerbread house.

Ava's look just makes me laugh so much. I can't think of the right word to describe her face-- just kind of "sigh."

The Brownings kids went to bed before we decorated our houses so they did theirs the next day.

Here are all of our houses!

And this is our completed house. Bryan did most of the structural parts and I decorated it.

The night we decorated our houses was also the night that the Brownings and my parents went to see The hobbit so we babysat their kids and put them to bed. I got to feed Jack his bottle and put him to bed and it was so tender--he is such a sweet little guy. As I've never had kids, I just had to check on him to make sure he was breathing. As I was walking up the stairs I saw some little legs running down the hall from the Browning's living room. I walked into Elijah's room with him laying in bed but wide awake. He'd snuck into the living room to play with Lego's and took a Lego Batman catalog with him under his covers. When I took it away he said, "You're not my mom!" and I said "Yes, but if you were were here she'd want me to do the exact same thing. We need to go to bed." He didn't put up a fight after that and just sweetly chattered about Lego's until I left. Even though he'd been a stinker he was still pretty cute about it. He said a lot of sweet things while we were there. At one point I was talking to him about Christmas and I said, "Isn't Santa the coolest guy?" and he said, "No, I think Jesus is." That just melted my heart.

Now for just some cute moments during the break:

"What are you doing with that camera, Aunt Alyssa?"

Lijah loves his baby brother!

Ava put this hat on her head of her own accord and came up to me. What a cutie!

Me and Sylvie Jane the sweet smiler!

Don't worry, she wasn't actually upset. Sometimes if she is slightly upset she tells Lindsay, "I'm going to scrunch up my eyebrows!"

Sweet Ivy with her adorable brown eyes!

Okay, I just had to get this picture. Bryan and my brother in-law were playing Minecraft and the kids naturally gravitated there and had to watch. This happened a lot.

In the evening on Friday we drove to Virginia again, this time to visit David and Weston. It was very nice to see them-- we just talked and the boys played a strategy games. It was just like old times.

On Saturday we took family pictures and then went to Cafe Rio for dinner before heading to the DC temple to see the Christmas lights.

On Sunday we went to church and my parents went to a meeting later on and found out that my old ward boundaries are changing! Now it really will be completely different when we go home.

The next day was New Year's Eve. For lunch I met up with one of my oldest friends, Emily. We had a good time-- every time we get together its just like old times. We laugh a lot and have good conversation. I was so glad to be able to see her. Later that night we all played Harry Potter clue and watched Enchanted. We ate snacks and shrimp, watched the ball drop and kissed at midnight! Then we had to pack for our trek back to Boise the next day.

This time I didn't forget to check us back in and we had a pretty pleasant two flights back to Boise. It's really nice to get back home after a trip but even when you're done it is so hard to say goodbye. We had a great time in Maryland. We played "Idiot" a lot and held adorable babies. We are very blessed to have all the sweet nieces and nephews we do. I'm also very grateful for my good, strong parents and my sisters and their husbands. When we're all together I just feel at home. I wish we could be together more often but I'm so glad we were able to be there this year. We had such a good Christmas!

Thanksgiving

Well, I meant to post about this like a million years ago but I kept getting an error about my photo quota being reached. I'm pretty sure that's untrue but now we're back so all is well. I was determined to get this up before it was actually Christmas. Anyway, I hope everyone had a delicious Thanksgiving! We went to Utah to Bryan's mom's house and had a great long weekend spent with family.

Here is Ella being a beautiful princess while we talk and wait for the food to finish cooking. In addition to the Parks, Bryan's Grandpa Vern and his wife Karen came.

A while back I teasingly said to Bryan, "You should learn how to do more manly things-- like carve a turkey." Well, that challenge was accepted and Bryan carved our turkey this year!

As you can see, he did a really amazing job. I was so proud of him!

We ate very well!

I made pies again this year. I made apple, chocolate pecan and pumpkin. I tried to make the crusts fancy but in transport from Boise to Morgan they got kind of destroyed... Sigh, oh well! The apple pie was probably the best again.

All dressed up in our autumn attire for Thanksgiving!

We decided to start a new tradition this year and celebrate White Friday instead of Black Friday by going to the temple. It was really neat to go to the Salt Lake temple for the first time.

After, we went to the City Creek shopping center and grabbed some lunch at the Blue Lemon. It was so delicious and a nice break from leftovers. Then, we walked around and did a little Christmas shopping/browsing while enjoying he decorations.

Browsing in Restoration Hardware-- I love that store. Bryan really liked these steam punk goggles.

We really enjoyed this fountain and all the lights. It was a nice transition into the Christmas season. When we were done shopping, it had gotten dark and so, as we walked back to the car, we were able to enjoy the lights at Temple Square. 

 On Saturday we celebrated Bryan's birthday with his family. He got a milkshake maker! That was a great investment-- we've had a lot of delicious milkshakes since.

He even got these really cool milkshake glasses that were the perfect final touch.

Callie came with us and got a lot more comfortable in the house but Cranberry the cat, who lives there, was not super happy sharing her domain...

 

On Sunday we headed back home. All in all it was a wonderful and mostly (besides the cooking!) relaxing holiday. Now we are looking forward to Christmas and after that I think we'll be kind of glad to have the holiday season behind us and get back to normal life.