1. Have a baby! :) Yea!
2. Become a pro at changing diapers (a lot of diapers).
3. Fit back into my favorite dress and pants.
4. Go fishing with my husband.
5. Finish school.
6. Be consistent at writing birthday cards.
7. Have a fantastic 2009!
I have found that I am at times completely oblivious to my growing belly. I honestly don't know how I could forget about it, I still have about 2 months to go, but I look like I could deliver tomorrow. I never thought that I could shut my own stomach in a car door or lean into the bathroom counter and bounce right back off, but I have and I do. It makes me laugh every time. And it is only getting worse the bigger I get.
A bigger belly has it's pay-offs though. I can sit there and watch my stomach morph into all sorts of different shapes and angles. I can feel my baby boy rub across my tummy as he turns and searches for just a little extra space.
There have been quite a few women who have told me that they regret not taking more pictures of themselves while pregnant. I haven't taken tons, but I have been trying to get a few. Here is my most recent picture. I am 32 weeks and can't believe I only have 8 weeks left!
I can't believe that we have just a little less than 2 months to go until we get to meet this little boy! Time is flying by and I don't think it will go any slower during this holiday season.
Last night at Lamaze class we were able to go on a tour of the new Women's Center here in Logan and I cannot tell you just how much fun I had. I am so excited.
But no matter how excited I am, I still have to face the fact that I have loads to do before he gets here. One thing I am proud to say is that I have finished his blanket. Although his blanket has been finished for quite some time, there was a time in the midst of making it that I honestly thought I wouldn't have it ready on time, if at all. I am not crafty and I really surprised myself by the outcome of this blanket. So now I have to brag a little and show it off. 
The blanket honestly took me forever, but I am pleased with the finished product. The little outfit in the picture is the first and only outfit I have bought for him (hopefully he won't get sick of wearing it every other day) and the lamb was a gift from his Grandma Geri.
Morgan's nephew Mason had a marvelous birthday party this year. His birthday is on Halloween and is usually Halloween themed. This year, he had a costume party and a bunch of really fun games. All us adults even got in on the fun.
I couldn't stop laughing at the sight of Morgan. I didn't look so great either, but Morgan in a dress with pink hair was quite a sight.
We had donuts on a string eating contest. Yummy!
And we even got to mummify Grandpa!
We headed out to Greg and Maleia's (the 71 Ranch in Elko, Nevada) for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful weekend with family. The weekend went way too fast, though. We arrived in Elko on Wednesday evening and before we knew it we were having to get ready to come home.
We are sure lucky to be surrounded by such a wonderful, loving family. Between both of our families, we have an abundance of support and so many fun memories and traditions.
I am! I am! I am so excited for Thanksgiving, I just can't wait. That's why I made a pumpkin pie already and have been dreaming of the Thanksgiving break for only about a month. :)
What a wonderful time of year! Who can resist a break from school/work, spending time with family, taking extra time to remember all we have to be thankful for, and of course.... 
....all that wonderful food.
Birthdays are the best! Especially when it is my sweetheart's birthday!!! His birthday was on the 3rd, but we celebrated with his family on the 12th. We also celebrated his sister Melissa's birthday on the 12th. It was so fun. Morgan flattered me and asked me to make him Baked Alaska. I was so excited. I love to make Baked Alaska, but I still haven't perfected it. Although, I will say that this year's cake turned out pretty great! (I promise I am not bragging at all :)
Happy Birthday to my handsome, wonderful husband!!
I love how excited kids get about birthday candles and yummy cake!! (There are two kids in this picture, Morgan and our nephew Henry.)
Just another random picture Morgan took of me. He does that a lot. :) At least I know he likes me . :)
Morgan's sister Melissa and her darling family. Happy birthday Melissa!! I love Jon and Emma's big eyes in this picture, they look a little surprised. :)
This last picture was just for fun. When we got home after his birthday party, I made Morgan take this picture. I am about 25 weeks along in this picture.
I know this post is way behind schedule. At least I am getting to it. My brother Greg, his wife Maleia, and their darling little girl Dani were able to come up from Elko, Nevada and spend the weekend with us. My brother Gordon, sister-in-law Alana, and their cute little guy Alexander, also were able to come up for the entire weekend. We started the weekend off with a Friday night dutch oven feast. My brother Gordon fixed us up some yummy potatoes and chicken and Morgan (it was his birthday) made some delicious cobbler. Saturday we were able enjoy conference, but between and after conference, we spent time together. Sunday was just as enjoyable and also very relaxing. I love conference weekend. Here are just a few photos from that weekend. The last one is especially neat!!!
This is me and my sister-in-law Maleia waiting to be seated for lunch at Firehouse.
My two nephews from Pleasant View also came up and spent the weekend. By Saturday night I am pretty sure they were restless. I remember having a hard time as a kid sitting through ALL of conference. Well, Morgan thought that they might enjoy a four wheeler ride, so we took them on a little excursion between conference and Priesthood session. They were so cute about getting to ride on the four wheeler. They were all smiles.
This last pictures is especially neat. This is me with 3 of my sister-in-laws, all of us are pregnant with boys. From Left to Right (I might be slightly off on the EXACT due date, but you'll get the picture) - Alana is due December 25th, Maleia is due January 10th, I am due January 29th, and Cammie is due February 12th. Isn't that crazy!? We are all pretty excited to be having little boys all about the same time. And NO I promise we didn't plan this. :)
Needless to say we had a fun Conference weekend and were so happy to be able to spend some good time with family. We are so lucky to have such wonderful families. I know they have to put up with a lot, being related to Morgan and I, but they seem to tolerate us well. :)
Almost immediately after I found out that our baby is a boy I have been wanting to buy everything in sight. Morgan was sweet enough to take me to buy an outfit for our little guy, but I was warned to keep myself under control after that. I have only bought one more item and then have focused my attention on finishing a blanket I have been working.
I am so proud of my self-control. I know that as I get closer to my due date I might not be as disciplined. :) Good thing I have a great husband to help keep me in line! :) Don't get me wrong, he is just as excited as I am, he is just much more level headed about these types of things than I am. I am lucky to have him.
Does anyone else feel like one of those crazed shoppers at Christmas time when they are pregnant (and not only when they are pregnant at Christmas time)? I am just hoping that if I keep my mind focused on homemade projects for the nursery, I won't be so compelled to buy over priced products from the stores. It sure is neat, though, the prospect of getting ready for our little guy. We are so excited.
Here are some pictures from our ultrasound on 9/3/08. This was also the same visit we found out we were having a boy.
Is he sucking his thumb in this picture? We hope not. For sure his father, and someday dentist, hopes not!
I love how funny they look at this stage, being mostly skin and bones. Regardless, he is pretty cute!
Is he hiding from the camera? Maybe he will be camera shy like his mom.
This is one of my favorite pictures! We were able to count all 5 of his darling little fingers.
Isn't this one adorable?
I think we got more pictures of his hands than anything else! :)
Now that we know we are having a boy, we need to decide on a name for our little guy. At least, we better have a name picked out before he is blessed. Wish us luck!
We have decided that choosing a name for our baby boy is a very difficult task. Morgan and I are so stubborn and picky; I think we might not have a name until after our little guy is born.
It is so funny how you never think too far into other peoples kids names, but once you start naming your own children, it seems that you can think of every possible way they could be teased about their name, or if it will sound 'old' or too 'baby'
Morgan finally made it home. I don't know how he did it so quickly (he left Friday at 7:00 PM and arrived home at 8:00 AM on Sunday morning). All I can say is I'm so glad he is home and that he made it all that way safely!
Thank you Dad for driving with him and helping him make it safely.
We moved to Canada at the first of the summer with hopes of 3 months filled with all sorts of adventures together. Well, we were right about the adventures part, not necessarily the together part.
The first of July, I came home for several reasons (one being tied closely to our exciting new development of being pregnant). The reasons aside, we were going to have to be apart for 6 weeks. Any of you couples who have been apart from your spouse for a while knows that it is just not very fun. We tried to talk as often as we could, but seemed to mostly just email. Thanks to Morgan's parents, who have a home phone service that includes Canada, we have been able to keep in touch a little better.
After about 5 weeks of being 'single', my countdown to Morgan's return is now officially at 10 days. I can't wait! Morgan always keeps me laughing (he has some killer jokes that can rival that of my mom's, we call her jokes 'Geri Jokes'). It will be so nice to be together again.
But I can't say that I am not grateful for Morgan's internship. He has had a great summer and has really impressed the company he worked for. He has wonderful new skills and a whole bunch of memories.
I am really so proud of him for working so hard and taking so much initiative, especially as an intern. He really proved himself a good pick for WESA.
Oh, and I am hoping he makes it home in time to celebrate our two year anniversary on August 18. My dad is flying out to drive with him, and the 18th is also my parents anniversary, so I really hope they can make it home since there are two anniversaries to be celebrated on that day!
I had my first prenatal appointment with the doctor today. I had a hard time picking a doctor, but I am so glad that I went with the one I did, she seems like a wonderful doctor.
I was excited to meet her, but really to tell you the truth, I was a little more excited to be able to see some little snippets of our baby. Our little baby (whom I have been calling 'she' for now, it just feels right, but I have one month until we know for sure), anyway, she was so active. The poor doctor was having a hard time catching a heartbeat or even getting the measurements. It was so neat watching that little baby (and I mean little, only 6-7 cm), flipping backwards, frontwards, upside down, and sideways. She really wasn't going to hold still very long for us. Finally we were able to get a good heartbeat, at least enough for the machine to get an average 'beats per minute' and then we were also successful in catching a pretty good portrait. She may be active, but it looks like she knows when we mean business. :)
I have updated the blog like a madwoman. I had so many photos from our drive and wanted to get them on here. Well, I have finally done it and am proud to say that I am all caught up. I think the posts go back a page or two. Anyway, I will have to be better in the future at putting things up as they happen.
Fourth of July is coming up and we are planning on heading down to my brother Jeff and his wife Emily's house. They have three adorable children. We are so excited and can't wait to see them. It is nice to be able to be this close to them. Hopefully, I will have lots of fun pictures.
As for the the Star Spangled layout of our blog, I was just in a patriotic mood, with the Fourth of July coming up and all. I love America and feel so grateful to be able to be a citizen and partake in the rights and blessings bestowed on our great land and country. We are truly blessed.
The last couple times we have gone to the grocery store, Morgan has wanted to buy some lobster. This last time, I couldn't resist. The lobster was 3.99 and he promised me he would cook it outside. Fish smell does not bode well with me.
Here he is about to put the two little guys on the grill. Bon Appetite!
The following pictures are of the Parliament building in downtown Ottawa. The Parliament covered a lot of area and it actually took us quite a while just to walk around some of it. There is a free tour, however, it is about 45 minutes long. One of these days we will go back and go on the tour.
In this last picture you see the Ottawa River and on the right is Quebec. Quebec and Ontario are just separated by this river. It is beautiful!
We have been hearing a lot about this ribfest and everyone was saying we had to go. It was Saturday and we were already planning on heading downtown, so we thought we would stop and see what all the excitement was about.
The smell was intoxicating and we were still in the parking garage, on the 3rd level UNDERGROUND. When we got to the street where all the vendors were lined up, we decided we had to try some.
We stood in line and got the combo they called "Vegetarian's Nightmare". I had to laugh. We were able to try some ribs, chicken, and my personal favorite, a pulled pork sandwich.
The vendor we decided to try was actually from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They won this contest last year and supposedly were the best this year too. And after eating their food, I would have to agree, they win.
Morgan was in heaven. I haven't met a guy who doesn't love some good ribs every now and then!
And here is the pulled pork sandwich. The amount of food we got was insane. We were definitely both full.
Well, we finally made it to Ottawa. We actually came in about a week ago, but I am a slacker and haven't updated the blog. We had a very good 36 hour drive and some wonderful adventures along that way. And even though we have only been here a week, we have had some crazy and wonderful experiences in our short time here. Those stories might have to wait for another day.
We are so grateful to be up here and for the wonderful people we have met so far. We will have a wonderful summer! I can't wait to be able to share all our neat experiences with all of you. I don't know if I will be able to do my stories justice, but hopefully they will be somewhat entertaining.
We decided to go on a picnic on Sunday afternoon (our first official day in Ottawa) and we found this beautiful park. This is actually part of a massive set of biking/jogging trails. They have nature trails all over, but supposedly this one is the most impressive. Needless to say we had a wonderful picnic.
So this was a real store. We pulled off for a quick fill-up and to stretch our legs a bit and after a minute or two of sitting there, we finally looked up and noticed the sign on this building. We laughed!
We were also able to stop in Palmyra at the Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah. We were the only ones there and were able to enjoy complete silence and peace.
Morgan, you better start saving your money!!
The story behind this picture is simple. We were walking around the most darling town (Niagara-On-The-Lake) and we were getting pretty warm in the sun. We saw a shaded cemetery and decided to walk through it. This cemetery was amazing. There were so many neat old headstones. And then we saw this. A very impressive tomb. The side showed some different details, but we didn't take too many pictures of it.
I love cemeteries, especially the old ones. Sorry you have to share in my fascination, but thanks for you interest anyway. Anyone else think old cemeteries are neat or do most people think they are creepy?
I am so grateful we were able to see such an impressive sight! By the way, we took this amazing panoramic picture ourselves! We have a great camera that has wonderful panoramic ability. I was pretty proud of this work of art!
It's good to see some American Pride still out there!
This was the bridge to Canada at the Michigan port-of-entry! They are completely redoing the bridge, the construction was crazy, but I am glad we still got a chance to go over the really neat part of the bridge.
This was our first time seeing the Niagara Falls! How magnificent! Oh, and our room that night was on the 12th floor of this hotel with a direct view of the falls, we were so lucky.
The mist coming off the falls really felt nice. The first part of our drive was cold and rainy, but the last part was really hot and muggy, so it was nice to cool down by the falls.
So, this was a sight along our drive. I couldn't resist taking a picture. It's not every day you see a bridge like this in the states! It is really a beautiful structure!
Morgan's dad had his birthday the other day and we had such a fun birthday party! All the grandkids just love grandpa and as you can tell from the picture, are usually as close to him as they can get (the kids also enjoy the part with the candles).
Happy Birthday MarDell! We love you!
Morgan and I had the chance of going down to Greg and Maleia's Ranch. We had so much fun.
Morgan is a wonderful rider and was had a wonderful time riding like a madman! Him and Greg were a hoot! They were like wild Indians running up and down the open, grassy plains.
I had a blast on the horse, too. There were areas where the sagebrush was just about as tall as I was on the horse. Then we would come to these completely open, grassy areas and everyone would gallop, run, trot, whatever. We had the chance to ride through the river a couple of times. Anyway, all in all, we had a great time and a lot of variety in our riding.
This is one of the views of the ranch barn. Morgan loves pictures of barns, so I thought I would put this one up for him. There were a lot of other beautiful pictures of the ranch. The guest bedrooms are so nice and the beds are really comfortable. We loved being able to ride horses, play horse shoes, eat the great food (prepared by a ranch chef), and most of all, see our wonderful family!
Dani is growing up so quickly. She is always busy talking, playing cowgirl, and tormenting their cat Grigo! We loved playing with her and spending time with Greg and Maleia. Oh and I almost forgot to mention that Gordon, Alana, Alexander, Curt, Julie, and Mom and Dad came out as well. We had a blast together and I hope we can all do it again.
My mom made her own birthday cake and it was so beautiful, I had to put a picture of it here for everyone to see.
And here is a picture of just me and my mom!
In conjunction with the last post about my mother-in-law, I just wanted to take a minute to tell you about my wonderful mom. She too is a woman of many talents. Her current talent is working as a flight attendant. She has loved being able to travel to new cities and see new things. Really, she has always been great at everything she does. She has taught me more than I can even comprehend. I am so lucky to have her as my mom.
Mom (and Dad), you are wonderful! And Happy Birthday today! Yup, May 21st is Geri's Birthday! We celebrated this morning with flowers and a couple donuts with candles in them. We try to be original. :)
I just wanted to take a minute to tell you about my amazing mother-in-law. This woman does it all. She is a fantastic gardener (fruit, vegetables, and flowers), she is an amazing cook, she is one of the most charitable neighbors I have ever met, her service to the church amazes me, her thoughtful actions and words always have a way of making you feel wonderful. I am so grateful she is the mother of my sweet, handsome husband and that she has raised him to be the man he is.
Thank you Madelyn for being my favorite mother-in-law. :) You really are the best mother-in-law! Sorry everyone else, you will have to settle for the second best mothers-in-law.
