Missouri Trip

I had been itching to get out of Utah for quite some time and the best time for us to travel is during the summer since I am out of school.  It's always fun to go to California since there is a variety of activities to do there, but we both hadn't been to Missouri since our wedding reception back in 2010.  Even then, Scott really wasn't able to see much of the place I lived for 20+ years because we were only there for two days and there was a huge thunderstorm while we were there.  I decided that it was time to go back for a visit.  My dad & Roberta are out in Missouri and I like it because there's always an excuse to go back and visit.  I don't have any hopes or wishes of living back in Missouri again, so it's nice to have a reason to go back and stay in touch with my past.

While trying to figure out dates of when to go back, it seemed that the earliest we could go was at the end of June and when counting out the weeks, I would be 34 weeks pregnant on our vacation.  34 weeks seems a little late in pregnancy to travel, but I really wanted to see my dad and get out of Utah.  We had actually planned on driving, but the bigger I got, the more uncomfortable it got to sit for long periods of time.  Driving 15 hours would not have been fun, so we changed our plans and flew, which I am so glad we did.

Since we were now flying, we had to figure out how to get to and from the airport plans.  We didn't want to leave a car at the airport for a week and we were leaving in the middle of the afternoon on a Monday, so finding somebody to take us was a little difficult.  So, we resorted to public transportation and it worked great.  We took the bus from the stop right behind our house to the trax station and then took that all the way to the airport.  We got there in plenty of time and didn't have to worry about cars or inconveniencing anyone.  On the way home, my brother Aaron was nice and asked if we wanted a ride home from the airport to which we gladly said yes.

Scott & I had a great time in Missouri and I'm glad that he got to see a lot more than our first trip out there together.  Since we flew in Monday and didn't arrive until later in the evening, not much else happened that day.

My dad was kind and let us borrow his car everyday as long as Scott took him to work and picked him up.  It worked out great.  Tuesday, we both slept in from the long day of travel the day before and went out to lunch at a restaurant that was definitely meant for an older (senior citizen) crowd.  The food was good, but it was pretty funny to see the age difference between us and the other customers.  While trying to find lunch, we stopped at a fruit stand and picked up some really yummy fresh fruit.  Can you guess whose idea it was to stop and get some? :) 
       After lunch, we waited at my dad's house until it was time to pick him up and then we all headed to get some BBQ!  First, we made a stop at Roberta's work to really get an idea of what the company she works for does.  She's in the financing department of this company (Castle Creations) that builds the motors for remote controlled cars, airplanes, etc.  She took us on a tour and Scott was even able to play with one of the test cars.  He had a little too much fun.

After a tour of Roberta's work, we headed to get some true Kansas City BBQ!!  It was Scott's first time having real barbeque, so of course I had to document it. 

We went to Oklahoma Joe's (I know, funny name for a bbq place in Kansas City), which is a very highly rated BBQ joint.  We ate dinner earlier in the evening, but it was still crowded and as we left, there was a line out the door!  You know a place is good when it's busy no matter what time of day you go to eat.

 Before picture: Scott excited to taste Kansas City BBQ!

After pictures: I think these are self explanatory on how he felt about the food. :)

Wednesday: Wednesday was a busy, but fun day.  My dad took the day off of work to spend some time with us and he took us on a tour of Hallmark/Crown Center.

Portrait done with just basic salt and pepper shakers.

Scott made his own bow!

Um, I really wanted ice cream okay?  Sheridan's is really yummy.

After Crown Center, we headed to look at Union Station and then went to check out the World War I museum and Liberty Memorial.  I had been once before, but didn't see all of the museum so it was good to go back and see it all.  It is the only World War I museum in the United States.

View from the top of the Liberty Memorial.

We then went home to rest for a few hours before heading to the Royal's game!  We did go to a Royal's game our first time out to Missouri and I just remember it was so dang humid and we were sweating like crazy.  Luckily, it was a good weather week in Missouri and the weather truly was perfect all week.  The Royal's won in the 10th inning! It was a good time.

Hall of Fame and who is that person with the giant belly? :)

Tried to get a picture of the screen saying Royal's win, but this is the best we could get. Ha.

Thursday: For Christmas, my Aunt Kathy gave us a movie gift card, but the only problem was that it was for a movie theater that is not out here in Utah.  So, since we were out in Missouri, Scott & I took the opportunity to use that gift card and see a movie.  We went and saw the new Superman movie, Man of Steel, and the theater we went to has amazing seats! All the theaters in the building have these seats, not just special showings.

These seats made this pregnant lady very happy to sit through a 2 1/2 hour movie!

Don't fall asleep!

After the movie, we went and picked up my dad and then gave Scott a little tour of the plaza.  We ate at this Italian restaurant, Brio, that was pretty good and we wanted to walk the plaza more, but there was some pretty bad lightening going on, so we headed home.

Famous J.C. Nichols fountain

Friday: There was still money left on the movie gift card, so we headed to see Monsters University, which was cute.  We then went home to hang out for about an hour and then headed to do a session at the Kansas City Temple.  I'm a little sad this temple wasn't here when I was growing up, but I'm glad it is there now.  It is a small temple and it was good to be in the temple with Scott, especially since he missed going to Brigham City.  I was silly and forgot my nice camera, so my pictures are from my phone.

After the temple, we headed to my friend Kaitlyn's house to have dinner with her, her husband and their little boy.  Kaitlyn and I go way back in our friendship, being friends since we were 11 years old.  She was my best friend throughout high school and even though we're not super close now, I'm glad that we've kept in touch.  It was nice to meet her husband and baby boy and just catch up with how everything is going.  Silly me again, I forgot to get a picture of all of us.

Saturday: This day, we met up and had lunch with my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Don.  I haven't seen them for quite a while and Scott had never met them, so it was good for that to happen.  It was unfortunate though that my aunt was not feeling well at all that day, so the visit was cut short, but we sure did appreciate the time she took to come and say hi.  After lunch, we headed to play mini golf and I used a coupon I had for a free game I won quite a few years ago.

Scott's hole-in-one!

Robert's hole-in-one!

Dad's hole-in-one!

My hole-in-one! Seriously, when did my belly get humongous?!

After mini-golf, we headed back home to just relax the rest of the night.  Roberta made us a delicious dinner of grilled chicken and asparagus and baked sweet potato.  After dinner, we played card games until it was time for bed.  Sunday, we traveled back home.

I am grateful that we had the opportunity to go out to Missouri and have a vacation before the baby comes.  Even though I was 34 weeks pregnant when we went and couldn't do some fun activities (like go to the amusement and water park), it was a lot of fun.  Thanks dad & Roberta for being so hospitable!  We hope it's not 3 years before we come visit again.

High Five for Saturday

Okay, so usually it's High Five for Friday, but Friday was busy so we're going with Saturday.  This seems to be the best way for me to organize those random things that just don't need a post of their own, but should be shared.

1. I'll start with the oldest piece of news first.  One of the realizations of owning your own home is that you have to fix (and pay for) anything broken yourself.  Another realization of owning a home, with a yard, is that you should keep it in good condition.  There's a lot of up-keep to making a yard look nice and we've sure struggled to keep our grass green.  There's been quite a few sprinkler issues and the heat this summer hasn't helped any either.
       With the help of brother-in-law Lane, Scott found out that he needed to replace a whole pipe that was leaking.  It was a process to replace it and I got pictures of it!

Old pipe that was leaking.

The water wasn't turned off when Scott unscrewed the pipe and it flooded in about 5 seconds.

Scott trying to clean up the flooded mess.

New pipe.

Scott sure worked hard on this and I'm glad it's made a difference!

2.  About two weeks ago, we found out that Panda Express was having a night where free samples of their orange chicken were being given out.  Panda Express is one of Scott's favorite restaurants, so he was super excited to find this information out.  Scott had to work that evening, but you couldn't get the free sample until 9pm anyway.  Once Scott got off work, we headed straight to the nearest restaurant near us.  It had just barely turned 9pm and we didn't have to wait long to get our food.  We headed over to Brita & Lane's and stopped at another Panda Express close to their house.  We got our food inside the restaurant and as we were leaving, realized that this restaurant had a drive-through!  We got in the car and drove through the drive-through and got two more orange chicken samples.  At Brita's, we made rice and ate our free dinner while playing games.  It was quite cute to see Scott so excited about getting this orange chicken for free, especially since I'm usually the one to go crazy over free stuff.  It was worth it to eat dinner at 10:00pm.

6 boxes of free orange chicken!

3.  I love this comic!  Right now, it really is like that with Maddie, but soon it will become B.O.L.--Baby On Lap!  It just cracks me up how true this really is.

Sorry it's sideways. I'm not sure why it won't upload the other way.

4.  Yesterday my mom, Kyle & Brianna helped get some projects done around the house that need to get done before the baby comes.  Scott, Kyle & Brianna worked on getting the family room painted and it looks great! I'll post pictures of the room soon.  Mom & I worked on a lot of nursery items, which I will show once it's all completed.  There's still a few more things to finish up, but I am really excited with how things look so far.

5.Hmm...I'm struggling to think of five things, so I guess it's High Four for Saturday. Doesn't really sound as good as High Five for Friday does it?

Family Baby Shower

Saturday, the 15th, my mom and sister threw me a really great baby shower with the Omer relatives.  They both did a fantastic job with the food, decorations and invitations.  I was really impressed with everything they did.  I'm thankful to everyone that came and for the gifts that I know our baby girl will love (okay, so I'll like the cute outfits way more than her).

Dessert: pink popcorn, dipped oreos, M&M's, raspberry cheesecake and snickerdoodle bars

Up close shot! These were delicious!

Brianna made these cute cards saying what everything was.

Main dishes: Spinach salad with fruit & avocado, mini quiches, rolls & grapes.

Up close shot of the quiche! My talented mom made these from scratch!

Up close shot of the banner!

The cute, cute invitations! Totally putting this in the baby book.

Annika & Sharlynne helped hand presents to me.

Bouncer/swing from Brianna.

Elephant bookend

James brought some fun entertainment to the party.

Blanket my mom made out of this awesome minky fabric with elephant print. Super soft & cute!

My cousin Catie made this cute outfit!

Aunt Joann, Rebecca & James.

Cute baby outfits!

Cute baby outfits!

Sarah & Catie

Melissa, Laura & Liz

Aunt Debbie, Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Joann, mom, Rebecca, Annika, Brianna

Night shot!

Again, I was thoroughly impressed and just loved how everything came together.  Thank you again to my mom and sister, Brianna for putting this together for me!! I love you guys!

Brigham City Temple Trip

Way back on June 8th, the family (except for Scott because he was working and Rebecca who was taking care of 5 kids) traveled up to Brigham City to do a temple session.  The location of this temple is a little bit further away, so it was an all day affair.  It is a smaller temple, so you have to make reservations for the session you want to attend.  I was able to do another family name and I hadn't been to the temple in a bit, so it was nice to go.  The only thing that was an issue was my temple dress was a little too snug on my pregnant belly.  If I go to the temple again between now and when I have the baby, I'll have to make sure that the temple has clothes for me to rent because my own temple dress sure isn't getting used again.

Afterwards, we met up with Rebecca and the kids at a park and had lunch.  Brianna, Kyle & Aaron took off after and the rest of us drove to the Golden Spike National Park.  "It commemorates the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad where the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad met on May 10, 1869. The final joining of the rails spanning the continent was signified by the driving of the ceremonial Golden Spike." (source: Wikipedia.com)

We stayed there until they closed and then headed home.  I didn't get too many pictures and they were all taken on my phone.  The quality of pictures really isn't that bad on my phone, but I need to start taking pictures with my nicer camera (especially since the ones of the temple were taken out of a car window).

31 Weeks and other baby related things

I have hit my 31 week mark and the countdown is on!  Only 9 weeks left until our baby girl is due to arrive.  Baby is 3 1/3 pounds and about the size of a coconut.  This is also the time where baby starts moving around a lot and this baby girl sure is.  It used to be that she would only really move around when I needed to eat and then after I ate.  Now, it happens at anytime in the day, but she moves around a lot at night before I go to bed.  Scott found out that if he pushes in a little bit on my belly that she'll kick back and he'll play with her for a few minutes.  It's going to be so fun to play with her outside of my belly.

Everything else is going really good.  My belly is continuously growing and it will be interesting to see how big I get in the end.  I've had quite a few people tell me how small I am for how far along I am.  I wonder if I'll get a big growth spurt and overnight my belly will suddenly be twice the size it is now.  All I know is that I'm okay with being small.

 It's been a while since I've done this questionnaire (11 weeks to be exact), so let's do it again just for fun.

How far along?: 31 weeks! Only 9 weeks to go!
Total weight gain/loss?: Um, I'm going to say that I honestly don't know for sure, but I'm going to guess around 15 lbs.
Maternity clothes?: Yes, but I'm still wearing a few non-maternity clothes as well.
Stretch marks?: Nope, not yet!
Sleep?: Sleep is still going good, although I am worried on how it's going to be during the warm summer months.
Missing anything?: Being able to walk for a long time without my feet hurting.
Movement?: Oh yeah! This girl moves around like crazy and sometimes it's uncomfortable, but I'd rather feel something than nothing.
Food cravings?: Nothing really specific right now. I still like cereal, smoothies, watermelon and ice cream.
Anything making you queasy or sick?: Not anymore!
Have you started to show yet?: I'm going to say yes.  :)
Gender: Baby Girl!!
Labor signs: No and I hope not to have any until at least 38-39 weeks.
Belly button in or out: Can I say neither? It's flat right now and I'm just waiting for it to pop out.
Wedding ring on or off: On 
Happy or moody most of the time: I'm happy. :)
Looking forward to: Our trip to Missouri at the end of June!

I signed Scott & I up for a childbirth class that we'll go to in July and I hope it will have some helpful information.  I am also going to get some maternity pictures done here in about two weeks! I debated about doing it for a bit since I could just have Scott take some pictures of me in a park somewhere for free, but getting them professionally done will give pictures of me being pregnant an extra touch.  I really want to be able to put some pictures of me pregnant in her baby book and not be embarrassed to look back on them later.  It's just something that I want to do and something that will make me really feel pretty while pregnant. 

One day last week, Scott opened up the front door to go outside for something and found a package at the door.  I asked who it was from and the only thing on there said it was from somewhere in Connecticut.  We both do not know anyone who lives in Connecticut and I knew that I had not ordered anything online.  In the package was this adorable diaper bag!!  There was a note with it that said "Congratulations on your new arrival! Hope you enjoy the bag! Amy."  There was also a business card for her business.  Scott & I did not know who this Amy person was and even checked facebook just in case.  After being really confused for a bit, we decided that I must have signed up for something online and got sent this bag.  Well, come to find out a few days later that it was my sister-in-law Kristene that sent it to me!  I guess she forgot to put in a note from her and had us both really confused for a few days.  The bag is cute and it even came with a matching changing pad!  I can't wait to use it.

 The nursery is slowly coming together and now that I am out of school (hooray!), I will have more time to put it together.  Here is a sneak peek of some of the things we have so far. 

The crib and glider!

Cute little book shelf...still need to get another purple basket.

Dresser! It's still downstairs because it's too heavy for me to help lift upstairs. Also, still trying to figure out how or if to change the handles at all. Thoughts?

Cute picture from David & Kristene!

I am going to get some wood lettering to put her name on the wall (you'll have to wait until I get done with that to find out her name!) over the crib and we are going to put some shelves up above the dresser as well.  I'm also thinking of hanging some Chinese lanterns in the corner where my glider is that were leftover from my wedding (luckily one of my wedding colors was lavender purple).  I am still trying to think of what else to put on the walls, but I might just wait until the baby is born and put up some pictures of her or hang up a shadow box or something like that.  I am going to make some curtains as well as a crib skirt out of matching fabric.  I might get a small rug too, but we'll see.  The nursery probably won't be fully complete until a few weeks before the baby is due.

Like I mentioned in my earlier paragraph, school is out for the summer!!  I am excited to be done teaching, but I have been feeling a little stressed out with figuring out my maternity leave for the beginning of the next school year in August.  I was telling Scott & Brita that teaching is the worst job to be sick or take a leave for.  With my job, I have to get someone to cover my job and it has to be someone that can teach my subject area, which consists of multiple different things.  It's hard because I don't have a text book that the substitute can use, so I really have to research & find someone good.  There are some days where I wish I had an easier job to where taking this maternity leave wouldn't be so difficult to figure out.  So, I will also be spending my summer preparing lesson plans along with finalizing baby plans.

The teachers I work with were very nice and gave me a gift card to Target and a delicious Costco cake!  I also received this beautiful hand-made baby blanket from another teacher.

Anyway, I think I've caught up on all things baby girl related!  I hope to be updating a lot more with baby showers coming up, maternity pictures, completed projects and just fun summer activities.