Merry Christmas!

I saw this on my friend Kristol's blog and thought it was so awesome I copied her. Consider this our Christmas card this year!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Champs!

Sean has been playing on a basketball league with some friends at the Flash Factory in Lehi (used to be Open Court) and tonight they won the championship! It was fun going and watching the games each week and chatting with the other wives. They were undefeated and earned their bragging shirt!

Yeah, we're stylish

Sean and I went to an ugly sweater party the other night. Here are the hot little numbers we picked up for the event:

I was totally grossed out because I didn't have time to wash them before wearing. I wore a long sleeve shirt underneath mine to try an minimize the amount of contact it had with my skin! Sean's beautiful ensemble was found in the women's section at D.I. and comes complete with shoulder pads. He looked quite smashing. My sweater is made of 52% ramie-- whatever the crap that is. All I know is it was itchy and I will never wear something made with it again!

8 months and nursery

The picture is self-explanatory-- we're getting close! Sean and I have kicked it into high-gear in trying to get everything ready. We've made a few trips to Babies R Us, only to have to call family members for help and suggestions on what to buy. I had no idea things such as strollers, baby bathtubs, diaper genies, crib mattresses etc. were so complicated!

The nursery is just about done and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I catch myself spending a lot of time in here just because I enjoy the room so much. In my opinion it is simple but classic. We decided to keep our queen guest bed in the room and I am really glad we did. We were also going to add bead board, but decided the room didn't need it once we got everything situated. Maybe in the future! Here are a few pictures:

The red dresser is one of my favorite parts of the room. I was having a really hard time finding a changing table that I liked that wasn't $800. I found this at an independent local store for a great price and I love the color! I bought a changing pad and cover, placed it on top and voila! I'm planning to keep wipes, diapers etc. in the top drawer. One of the big bonuses is that it is taller than a normal changing table-- perfect for tall people like us.

Now it's on to finishing up the Christmas to-do list while we wait for the main event!

Concert and quick updates

We were fortunate enough to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas concert Friday night thanks to my sister-in-law's parents giving us tickets. My family has been going ever since I can remember and it is one of my favorite traditions. The performance was great and walking around temple square always puts me in the Christmas spirit. It helps me forget about the hustle and bustle of Christmas and focus on Christ. We had a great weekend and got to spend time with family from both sides.


As far as other updates, Sean is in the middle of finals right now. He's taken one, has one tomorrow and finishes his last one Friday. Needless to say, he's spending most of his time studying. He's also in a basketball league with some friends at the Flash Factory in Lehi and so far they are undefeated! This week starts the tournament so good luck to team Lew-dogg!

Friday was my last day of work. My co-workers were really nice and took me out to PF Chang's for lunch. When we came back from lunch I found a giant box by my desk-- they bought me a glider! Very cool. I was really lucky to work with some awesome people and working for such a large and successful company gave me a lot of opportunities. I learned leaps and bounds about the world of pr. I am excited to be moving on, though it is somewhat bittersweet. I am looking forward to the joys and challenges in my new job as mom.

Extra! Extra!

I'm talking to Sean yesterday and he asks me, "Did you see KSL has a copycat version of your story on their Web site?" Curious, I check it out and there it is!

Some background: About four years ago I was writing for BYU's newspaper, "The Daily Universe." It was a required class for public relations. Our final project was to write a feature story on anything we wanted. I spoke with my editor about wanting to write about BYU-INFO (a phone number people can call for information on anything from why the flag is at half-staff to needing the phone number to a particular person or department). My editor had heard that there was an older couple living in North Salt Lake whose phone number spelled out BYU-INFO and suggested I give them a call. You would think BYU-INFO's phone number would in fact spell out BYU-INFO, but it doesn't. The number for BYU-INFO is actually 422-INFO. Long story short, this couple whose phone number spells BYU-INFO was getting a lot of accidental calls from people trying to call the other number.

I interviewed the couple for the story and even went to their home. They were awesome! Instead of being mad about all of the extra calls, they enjoyed them. I found out that they actually tracked on a map with push pins where the callers were calling from. They loved talking to the people and found the whole situation humorous. Sounds like the perfect feature story, right? I thought so too. So I wrote my story.

As I said, it was my final project and after submitting my story I headed home to Idaho Falls for Christmas break. Little did I know the chain reaction my story would start. When I returned from the break I learned my story had been picked up by the Deseret News, News of the Weird (which is national!), tv stations, radio stations and other newspapers. Obviously I was shocked, and I must admit, sorta proud of myself.

So here is my ORIGINAL story (hint hint KSL). Keep in mind if you read this that I was a young pr student and my writing skills were not quite up to par...

And here is the link to the story in the Deseret News.

So here we are, more than four years later and KSL decides to ressurect the story on their site. It was kind of fun seeing it pop up again, although I wish the reporter would have given me some credit instead of claiming it as his/her own!

Holiday treats

We had our ward Christmas party last night and I signed up to bring a dessert. I saw this idea of topping cupcakes with chocolate snowflakes in one of my mother-in-law's magazines. They were so simple to make and I thought they turned out really cute! I just used a boxed spice cake mix and topped the cupcakes with buttercream frosting (with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon added). To make the snowflakes (I also made some trees) I bought white chocolate wafers (you can buy them at Roberts or Michaels in the cake decorating section), melted them down in the microwave and piped them onto waxed paper. If you don't have piping bags I'm sure a Ziploc bag would work! Anyway, I thought it was a fun idea.

I found a recipe for frozen hot chocolate the other day and Sean and I decided to try it out. My hot chocolate mine as well be frozen since the snow is taking its dear sweet time to show up and most days I don't even need a jacket. It's too bad too because at work we have an awesome free hot chocolate machine and so far I haven't felt the need for it. I am still dreaming of a white Christmas! Anyway, we both really liked this recipe. I tell myself it can't be THAT bad because there is no ice cream in it-- just chocolate, sugar and whipped cream is all! ;)Here is the recipe if anyone wants to give it a try:

Frozen Hot Chocolate

4 ounces of your favorite chocolate

2 teaspoons store-bought hot chocolate powder

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (I used more)

1 1/2 cups milk

3 cups ice cubes

whipped cream

chocolate shavings (optional)

Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt in microwave on low heat or in small saucepan. Once melted, add hot chocolate mix and sugar, stirring constantly until thoroughly blended. Remove from heat and slowly add 1/2 cup milk, whisking until smooth. Cool to room temperature. In blender, place the remaining 1 cup milk, room-temperature chocolate mixture and ice. Blend on high speed until smooth and the consistency of a frozen daiquiri. Top with whipped cream and enjoy!

'Tis the season

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We had an awesome Thanksgiving in Idaho Falls. Spent lots of time with both Sean and I's families and indulged on tons of yummy food. Our actual Thanksgiving dinner was at Sean's sister Erin's house and everything was delicious. We had quite the spread--turkey, ham, two kinds of stuffing, yams AND sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, orange rolls, mashed potatoes, etc. Sean and I were talking about how we're lucky that both of our families have great cooks so we have an awesome Thanksgiving meal every year. We're also lucky to be from the same place-- we get to see both of our families for every holiday. Anyway, we have a lot to be grateful for.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is on to:

We put up our Christmas decorations tonight! Sean turned on the Christmas music and it really put us in the spirit of things. Here are some pics of the tree and decorations:

Sean's aunt made us these awesome Christmas pillows that I look forward to getting out every year.

We obviously are missing a stocking for me and our soon to be son, which is why my goal is to make some. We'll see if it actually happens!

This year will be our first Christmas together where we aren't spending it with our families in Idaho Falls. I will be almost 37 weeks pregnant and my doctor said no traveling after 36 weeks. I must admit, I am not too keen to the idea of delivering a baby in Malad or getting stuck in a snowstorm and delivering in our car-- especially since I'm pretty sure Sean would pass out and I would be left to fend for myself! At first I was sort of bummed but now that I've had time to think about it I'm actually really excited. We'll have all sorts of time to do fun stuff together and come up with some of our own traditions.

I came home from work last week and found this surprise on our kitchen table:

The note said, "I can't wait to spend Christmas with you. Love, Sean" For those of you wondering what this is, it is an Aebleskiver pan. Basically you use it to make miniature pancakes that you can fill with yummy stuff like applesauce. I loved them growing up and always thought of them as a sort of special treat. I've been talking about wanting one of these pans for a really long time and Sean thought it would be fun to have them Christmas morning. I can honestly say it was one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received!

Twilight

So we had a Twilight girls night out this past week. My friend Lauren organized the whole thing and scored us movie tickets for opening night! No, I didn't dress up as a vampire, and no I didn't wear fake teeth. Roll your eyes if you will, but we had a great time!

I discovered the Twilight series two summers ago while living in Virginia. Basically me and all of the other office wives read them and loved them. We had many a Twilight conversation by the pool! Our poor husbands thought we all went nuts.

Anyway, we started the party with dinner at Olive Garden. We went to the midnight showing and I have to be honest, I wasn't sure I could stay awake that late! I am like an old lady who needs to be in bed by 11pm and I couldn't even use caffeine to give me a buzz.

I didn't expect a lot from the movie, and when I originally saw the cast I had some serious doubts. Luckily I really enjoyed the movie and left very entertained. Edward was WAY better than I thought he would be. I was pretty dang tired driving home, but I made it through. This last picture is in the theatre and you can definitely tell by my eyes that we were approaching the wee hours of the morning!

7months and 2 showers

In case you're not sick of these pictures yet, here is my 7 month picture:

I've been a slacker on the whole rubbing the cocoa butter on your stomach to prevent stretch marks ordeal, but as you can see, I should really start taking it seriously!

Lucky me got to have two baby showers! The first was in Idaho Falls a couple of weeks ago and was given by my good friend Andrea with help from her mom Bev (my second mother growing up), my sis-in-law Erin and my mom. It was a brunch shower and it was awesome! Andrea and her mom made three different kinds of quiche that were all delicious. My mom brought cinnamon rolls (of course they were homemade), and Erin brought a really yummy fruit platter. Almost everyone I invited was able to come and it was so nice to see everyone there. We played a really funny memory game-- compliments of Erin. Everyone gave us such nice gifts—lots of cute outfits, stuff for the nursery, blankets, toys, etc! Seriously though, everyone went above and beyond with the gift giving.

My second shower was last Saturday and given by my good friend Heidi and my sister Emily. This was more of a "friend" shower, and it was equally awesome. I got to see a lot of friends I hadn't seen in awhile, which was great. The food was also delicious—raspberry pound cake, these amazing caramel bar things my sister makes, yummy pasta salad, fruit etc. Heidi also put out a few of my faves including Oreos and Dove chocolates—she knows my weaknesses so well! We played a funny game where you melt different kinds of candy bars in diapers and then have to guess which candy bar it is. I thought I would dominate this game because I do love my candy bars, but I only guessed 2 of 7 correctly!

I was again amazed by everyone's generosity and thoughtful gifts. I have great family and friends! Muchas gracias to everyone. You all rock! Here's a picture of all of the loot :)

These are already hanging on the wall in the nursery so they get their own shot. They were a gift from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law Erin:

I have been lusting after these ever since I saw them at Mini Bazaar a few months ago!

I am also very excited about the gift from my parents:

Finally, I had to take a close up of these for Sean:

Anyone who knows Sean well knows he LOVES Michael Jordan and anything with the jump-man symbol. I have seen Sean taking them out of the box and stare at them lovingly multiple times. Thank you Kinley and Cory!

And special thanks to Andrea, Bev, Erin, mom, Heidi and Emily for being so cool and actually throwing the showers. Having thrown a few myself, I know it isn't the easiest undertaking and I really appreciate it!

Happy Birthday Sean!

Sean turns 27 today! For some reason, the date is wrong on this post-- should say Nov. 19th. We're not really celebrating until this weekend since Sean is busy today with school, church meetings and a basketball game, but happy birthday regardless! I did tell him I will make him whatever dinner he wants, so we'll see what he comes up with. I'm crossing my fingers that his b-day presents arrive today. This weekend we'll head out to dinner to celebrate and probably catch the new James Bond.

We've also got a BBQ and birthday cake planned with the family while watching the BYU vs. Utah game on Saturday. Should be fun since we have both die-hard BYU and U fans who will be in attendance. I asked Sean what kind of cake he wants and he chose German Chocolate. Sounds good to me-- easy to make and no decoration necessary!

Anyway, happy birthday Sean! Now for the mush: You truly are my best friend and I hope you're day is awesome. You are honestly the best person I know and I am lucky to be growing old with you ;) XoxOx (big kiss, little hug, little kiss, big hug, little kiss)

A happy weekend

Had a great weekend in Idaho Falls complete with an awesome baby shower for me (a post dedicated to this is coming) and the opportunity to see my little brother Thomas and his wife Megan sealed in the Rexburg temple.

Megan took out her endowments Friday night and I was fortunate enough to be there. I realized I hadn't been to the temple since before Sean and I left to Philadelphia, so I was definitely past due. Philadelphia doesn't have a temple yet-- although they announced in Conference plans to build one! I realized it had been awhile when I could BARELY button up my temple dress. Any sudden movements and it could have been ugly! Anyway, the Rexburg temple is beautiful and I am grateful I got to go.

Thomas and Megan were sealed Saturday afternoon. We are so happy for them and can't believe it has already been a year since Megan was baptized. Congratulations both of you!

The only downer of the weekend was that my family celebrated Saturday night by going out to dinner (restaurant will remain unnamed) where I think I might have gotten a case of food poisoning. I'm still not sure if it was food poisoning or the stomach flu. Regardless, I woke up Saturday night (well, technically Sunday morning) at 3 am and was sicker than a dog. I'll spare the details, but luckily I am feeling much better and can eat again!

Sand dune action

Last weekend Sean and I met up with the Casale clan at the Little Sahara sand dunes. Usually Sean just takes off with the boys so I was excited I was invited to tag along! I think Sean was pretty excited to be able to haul his own bike-- he bought a carrier thing that fits into the hitch of our new 4Runner (we recently ditched the Accord because it was on its very last legs). I obviously didn't ride, but I still had a swell time hanging out. I was trying to recooperate from Halloween so I was more than happy to just hang in Rob and Heidi's sweet Toy Hauler and snack the afternoon away.

Ready to ride-- I love how macho he looks in all of his gear!

While the boys were off riding we climbed to the top of one of the dunes. The view was really cool and I'm just happy I made it to the top without collapsing!

Here's a little video of Sean playing around a few minutes before we loaded up and headed home:

Halloween '08

A redneck and a cowgirl (with child) were the costumes of choice this year. Sean's ensemble consisted of torn jeans, a NASCAR shirt, fishing vest and mullet wig (which he found more joy in wearing than I think is probably normal). I had to dress western for work so I wore cowboy boots, a brown skirt, Sean's XL flannel shirt (basically since I didn't have a shirt that would work that still fits), a leather fringed vest, bandana and hat (hanging on my back).

So Omniture pretty much goes crazy for Halloween. I had been warned by all of my co-workers, but I still didn't know what to expect. Here's how it works-- each department comes up with a theme and is given a budget to decorate their area around that theme. We're talking over-the-top decorating-- WAY over. Departments compete against one another for prizes and in the afternoon, friends and family of employees come trick-or-treating.

The marketing department came up with "Wild West" and I volunteered to be the Phyllis (or Angela) from pr-- as in I was a member of the party-planning committee. I am still amazed at the transformation of our area. One conference room was turned into a saloon-- complete with a player piano and a bar serving homemade rootbeer. We also had a campfire scene, a gold mine, a jail and gallows and a shooting range (which was really flat screen t.v.'s, Wii's and a shooting game). PR was in charge of the jail and gallows, and I have to say I think we did a pretty fine job. We even covered the entire department floor in straw! We made Channel 2 news at noon-- click here to see the video (the video is on the right and is called Halloween Bash 2). You can see me at the end of the clip when we all yell "yee-haw"-- I'm sitting on the straw bale on the right.

Other departments did an awesome job also. There was a Candyland, Wizard of Oz, cnchanted forrest, mini golf course (that Sean and I both think was better than any mini golf course in Utah we've been to), Gotham City, BYU vs Utah (where they actually built a football field out of real sod) and a bunch of others. It was so fun dressing up and really getting into the spirit of things.

Towards the end of the party I thought I might die of exhaustion. There were literally a thousand or more kids and parents who came trick-or-treating. I borrowed some cowboy boots from my sister-in-law for my costume, and while they were awesome, I thought my feet might need to be amputated at the end of the day. I came home from work and collapsed in our recliner and would have been more than ok with putting on my pajamas and going to bed at 5:30 pm. Don't worry, I wasn't that big of a loser. Sean had to help the young men at our ward's trunk-or-treat so I put on my slippers and hobbled over to join the party. Truth be told, I have never loved the trunk-or-treat idea, but I was sort of grateful for it this year. I don't think I could have walked to my door over and over again to pass out candy!

Hope everyone else had a happy Halloween. Now it's on to turkey day!

This year's masterpieces

In following tradition, Sean and I headed to Springville last weekend and picked out our prized pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. I think there's just something so much more satisfying and enjoyable in going to a pumpkin patch . I won't judge you if you bought yours from Wal-Mart-- loser. haha! jk

The chosen ones:

We carved them tonight and tried something new-- we cut the hole out of the bottom instead of the top. Makes sense, right? Easier to light the candle and the top is left intact!

The finished products:

Glamor shot:

Nov. 4

One week until this election fiasco is over (hopefully-- remember the hanging chads?). I don't know about you, but I am pretty tired of election coverage 24/7. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about voting and educating yourself on the issues, I'm just really tired of hearing about it all. This election seriously started two years ago.

I was in a waiting room last week watching CNN. Of course they were talking about the election. The lady sitting next to me turned to the lady sitting next to her and said something to the effect that she was sure McCain would win. The lady she was speaking to said something along the lines that she was still an undecided voter and that she liked McCain but had a lot of reservations about Sarah Palin. So then the lady who said she was sure McCain would win said, "Who is Sarah Palin?"

I'm not kidding.

For real? Um, where have you been hiding out the last few months? And how can you sit there and expect anyone to give you any credibility after saying that? Baffling.

6 months

Well, I'm starting the last leg—hello third trimester! As you can see, my tummy has definitely grown this past month. Oh, and in case you've noticed, I am wearing the same outfit each time I take one of these pictures. This is on purpose! According to my pregnancy book, I'm supposed to be gaining about a pound a week now—yikes! I've noticed in the last two weeks or so people are starting to feel comfortable enough to ask me when I am due. Most of the curious stares of "Is she pregnant?" are gone. I'm actually really happy about this because it means I look pregnant, not just fat. When I weighed myself the other day I had gained 18 pounds. It's amazing how different 18 pounds can make you feel. I already feel like I waddle when I walk (something I am consciously working very hard to correct)! A new friend named heartburn also decided to show up a couple of weeks ago. I've never had it before, so I'm a wuss about it. I really can't complain though—I know I have been pretty lucky thus far since I generally feel like life is moving on as normal.

In more "baby news," I scored an awesome crib a few weeks ago. There is a warehouse in Orem that makes baby furniture and sells it to high-end retailers. Their cribs are usually around $600-$700 in stores, but they are going out of business and decided to open doors to the public to get rid of the inventory. I happened to run across an ad and decided to go check it out. I really wasn't expecting much, but I am so glad I went because I picked up this baby:

It's SOLID wood and the sturdiest crib I've found so far. It's a really pretty cherry stain and just seems like it's high quality. The best part? I bought it for $200. That is cheaper than the cheapest one I could find at Target (after shipping). I like this crib much better than anything else I have seen—including Pottery Barn Kids. If you are looking for a crib, e-mail me and I'll give you directions to this place!

As you can also see in the picture, we painted the nursery. It's a really light, pretty blue (think robin's egg). Being amateur painters, I was kind of nervous about how it would turn out, but I have to say I think we did a pretty darn good job! No major accidents or spills. Thank goodness for Sean's steady hand—he free handed the ceiling line. I tried fit or about 20 seconds and we both decided it would be best if we left that task to Sean. :)

And for one final baby-related story: Sean had his head on my tummy this morning trying to see if he could hear the baby's heartbeat. I hadn't noticed the baby kicking much, but as soon as Sean put his head on my stomach, he kicked him hard in the face! We both burst out laughing and I just told him it looks like he's going to be a mamma's boy! ;)

Moonlight Ride

Sean and I headed with my brother and sister-in-law to Sundance's moonlight ride the other night. It starts at 9pm and you get to ride the chair lift up and back while checking out the scenery under the light of the full moon. We went last year also, and it has turned into something I really look forward to. The four of us rode the chair up together and had a great time cracking jokes and laughing at couples passing the other direction who were crammed on one side of the chair (making the chair look like it was going to tip over). One couple thought it was a good idea to have the girl sitting on the guy's lap without using the safety bar-- geniuses. The mountain looked really cool in the moonlight, and we even saw deer! It was a chilly night, and made me want to go skiing :) Maybe skiing will help me lose the extra pounds after our son is born-- I'll have to hit up the siblings for some babysitting action!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

I was looking through some cooking blogs the other day and I came across this recipe for pumpkin cream cheese muffins. I've already admitted I am a little pumpkin obsessed this time of year, so when I saw the recipe I knew I had to try it. And oh my, I think I have found a new vice in life. These are SO GOOD. Sean says they are the best muffins he's ever had, and I believe him because he's wolfing them down as fast as I am. I've tried limiting my intake to two of these per day, because let's face it, muffins are really just cupcakes masked with a different name to make it ok for you to eat them for breakfast. Anyway, if you're a fan of pumpkin anything, do yourself a favor and make these! I followed the recipe exactly, except I omitted the ground cloves. Why? Because both my mom and sister claim they are pretty strong and I didn't feel like shelling out $8 for them!

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:
For the muffins:
3 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs
1 ¼ cups vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:
½ cup sugar
¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour
4 tbsp. butter, cubed
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

Tagged

My friend Lauren tagged me!

A- Attached or single: Happily attached!

B- Best Friend: ooooohhhh hard to say (except for the obvious: Sean) My best friend since 4th grade who I tell everything is Andrea, but I have a handful of lovely ladies I'd consider best/very close friends!
C-Cake or Pie: both, but if I have to choose one, cake (preferably chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!)
D-Day: Saturday—no work and always something fun going on
E- Essential Item: lip gloss
F- Favorite Color: pink, light blue, bright green
G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Both! I'm a big fan of gummi anything
H-Home town: Idaho Falls
I- Indulgences: Cadbury Mini Eggs at Easter, Oreos
J- January or July?: January-- our family will have a new addition!
K-Kids: One on the way!
L-Life is incomplete without: family, laughter, church, good friends
M- Marriage Date: April 24, 2004
N- Number of Siblings: Three. An older sister and brother and a younger brother
O- Oranges or Apples: Both. I hate Red Delicious apples though. The skin is bitter and they are always mushy.
P- Phobias or Fears: Something happening to Sean
Q- Quote: Love to one, friendship to many, goodwill to all.
R- Reason To Smile: Got to hang out with some of my nieces last night
S- Season: Fall
T- Tag: Taryn, Beth, Courtney E., Cecily, Gina
U- Unknown fact about me: When I was little my life's ambition was to be an ice cream scooper at Baskin Robbins
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I love meat and I am not ashamed!
W- Worst Habit: Sean says it's leaving egg shells in the egg carton
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasounds. Never had an X-ray!
Y-Your favorite food: I love a good steak, pasta, etc.
Z: Zodiac Sign: Aquarius

Alpine Loop

I couldn't be happier about fall finally showing up here in Utah. The temperature is starting to drop and there is crispness in the air that I love this time of year. It is by far my favorite season. Fall represents the beginning of holidays, yummy food, better clothes (I pretty much hate summer clothes at this point), beautiful foliage, etc.

We painted the nursery this weekend and needing to get a break from the fumes, Sean and I decided to drive the Alpine Loop while listening to conference. My sister told me traditionally the fall colors are at their peak during conference weekend, so we thought we'd see what the canyon had to offer. Luckily we took the camera, because it was a GORGEOUS drive.

The colors were amazing and when the sun came through the clouds the trees almost looked like they were glowing! We were both in awe at how beautiful it was. We feel so lucky to be living so close to the mountains. How anyone can deny there is a God who created this earth is baffling to me. Hooray for fall!

Weekly Funny - Taco Town!!!

Jenny and I were watching SNL commercial parodies and we saw this and both thought it was hilarious. My favorite part is the end when the guys are yelling Taco Town. Pure genius.

It's alive!

For the past few weeks this is what our evening has consisted of:

Before we left for Philadelphia, our Mazda started making a really crazy noise when you went faster than about 15 mph. It was embarrassingly loud and lucky me got to drive it to work for the two weeks I was still in Utah and Sean was in Pennsylvania. I took it to a mechanic to see if he could diagnose the problem. Well, that nice man told us he was "certain" it was a bearing on the clutch that needed to be replaced. I stuck it out with the noisy car and decided Sean could deal with it (since it is his other true love) when we got home. Thinking we're being proactive, Sean orders a new clutch and it arrives on our doorstep the day after we get back to Utah. We had the clutch replaced. The noise didn't go away… in fact it was worse.

We took the car to another mechanic for another opinion. This one says he's "sure" it's the transmission and proceeds to tell us for a mere $1200 he will replace it. Um, no thanks. Instead, we made a memorable trip to a pick-and-pull yard out in the boonies west of Salt Lake and picked up a used transmission for $250. Note: I thought it might be a fun little adventure to go to the pick-and-pull yard—WRONG. We stood in a greasy "reception area" for 45 minutes and listened to employees tell dirty jokes in Spanish. I told Sean I would rather saw off my own arm then go back.

So we got the transmission replaced with the used one we bought. We're all stoked to go pick it up and have two cars again. Yeah, would have been cool if the transmission was the actual problem! The mechanic scratched his head and says, "It's a mystery. We just don't know what's wrong." Thanks buddy—really helpful information. Probably good we didn't PAY YOU THE $1200 FOR A NEW TRANSMISSION THEN!

At this point I was ready to blow up the stupid car and tried to convince Sean to buy himself a truck. I knew getting rid of it would be hard for Sean since this car has been his little project (turbo, suspension, exhaust, etc.), but I didn't want to keep paying for people's guesses of what might be wrong. Miraculously, Sean found a guy in Ogden (we'll call him the 'blessed one') who had a lot of knowledge and experience with Miatas. After driving the car for about five seconds he told Sean the problem was the differential (don't ask me what it is because I don't know). He offered to sell us one at a much lower price than anything we could find online, and knowing my hesitation about paying for more car parts we don't really need, he even said he'd buy the part back if it didn't fix the problem. When we picked it up, he taught Sean how to replace it himself and told him to call with any questions or problems. Now THAT is an awesome mechanic!

So like I said, we've been down in the garage for the past few weeks. I set up a beach chair and read a book (I told him he can't be under the car by himself for obvious reasons) and Sean wrenched away. Luckily, with the help of some friends (Sam, Rob) and my brother, the car is finally put back together… and… and... wait for it... the NOISE IS GONE! Can I get a Hallelujah people? The Miata lives on!

5 months

Here's the latest picture of my tummy as requested (this is for you Taryn). We took this picture on Saturday when I was technically 5 months 1 week, but close enough I say! There is more of a bump forming now, which is very exciting. I'm still wearing regular clothes, but there have been a few things I've gone to put on and taken right off after seeing myself in the mirror! We're going to try to take a picture each month so I'll try to post them as we go.

I've been asked a lot if we have any names picked out yet. So far we both love the name Jackson-- it's the name we already had picked out for a boy more than two years ago (you know, back when we thought I'd be pregnant in a month or two-- hah!). We're not 100% set on it, but it is the front runner. If anyone has heard any good boy names or has any suggestions (one you won't kill me if I end up using) let me know. Let me just say now that I will veto any names that are unisex!

Remember how I won that virtual baby shower a few weeks ago? Since this post is baby themed, I thought I would post a picture of all of the stuff I have been sent so far:

I know it's kind of hard to tell what everything is, but you get the idea! The cards in the front are gift cards-- one for personalized onesies and one to go towards announcements. I actually got a basket of baby clothes and a blanket in the mail today that didn't make it into this picture (mostly because I was too lazy to take another one). I can't tell you how fun it has been receiving all of this stuff!

Our next goal? Get going on the nursery. I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do sorted out in my head... we'll see if it actually turns out the way I am envisioning! I'll save those details for another post-- maybe after we've actually gotten started!