Two Years Down, an Eternity to Go!

October 6'th marked our two year anniversary, can I get a woot woot! These last two years have been years filled with complete and utter happiness, joy beyond belief, and so many miracles I couldn't even begin to count them. But of course we have had our ups and very low downs, just like anybody else, cause that's life. For example, Leland has brought so much joy into our lives, but at the same time, having a baby can be super hard on your marriage yo! So what does that mean for us?....WEEKEND GET-A-WAY! Holla!

I took Friday off of work so that we could have the entire weekend with each other. We packed up, dropped Leland off at Grandma Wright's house (so much harder than I thought it was going to be by the way), and then headed to good old Salt Lake City for our staycation as my coworker calls it. First we went to City Creek where we shopped our little bums off. And I guess I had Leland on the brain cause most of the stuff we bought was for him. We did buy our niece her Christmas present, my father in law a birthday present, and my dad a Christmas present, so most of the shopping wasn't for us. I am such a weird girl, but I honestly HATE shopping for myself! Shopping for other people is way more fun, especially your own kid! I did manage to get some new clothes, start my Halloween book collection, and get a DVD that I wanted though. One of my favorite moments at City Creek was when we bought some chocolate and watched the fountains and people watched. It was a good time. After our City Creek exploits were through we headed to our hotel, Little America, to check in. It is a pretty old hotel and I have always wanted to stay there- I liked it a lot. The rooms were HUGE! We were on the 8'th floor so we had a pretty good view of the city. That night we were tired so decided to order pizza and stay in our hotel room and veg out and be lazy. And of course we brought cheesecake from the cheesecake factory back with us. Yum!  It was fun to just relax and watch TV. I quite enjoyed myself.

Saturday morning I did a McDonald's breakfast run where I just barely made it back in time for conference to begin. We ate our unhealthy breakfast while listening to our church leaders and it was blissful. After conference we got ready for the day and headed to The Gateway for more shopping and people watching. We went to Lunch at Rumbi Grill and then went to see the movie 'Gravity' with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. It was an okay movie. It kind of reminded me of Castaway with Tom Hanks. It was pretty cool in 3D though. It's just one of those movies that I would watch once but never buy or care to watch over and over again. After the movie our plan was to go out to eat for dinner, but being the bad planners that we are we hit the after priesthood session rush hour so basically every single restaurant in Salt Lake and the surrounding areas were chuck full of men in suits and ties. We knew it was going to be a long wait everywhere and our bellies were saying "No thank you!" to that, so we went through a drive thru and took dinner back to the hotel.

Sunday was our actual anniversary so we had room service deliver breakfast and then watched conference while we packed up and got ready to go home. Check out was at noon and conference ends at noon, so of course everyone in the entire freaking hotel left at the same time. We probably waited a good twenty minutes for an elevator. Call me lazy but there was no way in hades that I was going to walk down 10 flights of stairs to the underground parking garage with luggage! We finally got out of the hotel and headed to Fruit Heights where I proceeded to smother my son in kisses and we were able to watch the last session of conference with my family and have dinner with them. I felt bad that I was away from Leland because he was super sick with the croup that weekend but I am very grateful that my mom took such good care of him. We really needed a weekend away and we had so much fun! Happy Anniversary Babe!

Birthday Celebrations

Another birthday has come and gone, and it really was such a good birthday. I guess I started the celebrations on the Wednesday before my birthday when Justin and I drove to Preston to have dinner with my grandparents. They are pretty much the sweetest and surprised me with a cake. They even had candles and sang happy birthday to me. It was so nice of them. The celebrations continued on Saturday when we drove to Bear Lake and met my mom there. She took Leland from us and we went to Pickleville Playhouse to see 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers', which is one of my all time favorite movies but I have never seen it performed live. It was amazing! I loved it! After the play we found a new restaurant called Coopers. It was so yummy and very well priced- we will definitely be adding it to our favorite restaurants in Bear Lake! The next day Justin and I decided to let my mom sleep in since she had insisted on waking up with Leland all night, so we packed him up, grabbed some breakfast, and took a beautiful drive up Charles Canyon. After our drive we went to lunch with my mom and then Justin drove home because he had to work that night and me and my mom took Leland to the beach. On Monday morning, which was actually my birthday, we slept in, packed up, and drove to Fruit Heights where Justin was already there and waiting for us. I was then able to go get a pedicure with my little sister which was a lot of fun and felt amazing. I really enjoyed that because I don't seem to get a lot of one on one time with my little sister. But anyway, after our pedicures we went to Olive Garden with my family, and then it was back to my parents house for dessert and presents. My awesome parents got me an ipad so I have now joined the Apple world. I got some other really good gifts but Justin gave me the most thoughtful gift of all which requires a little background story. So I have a father who is kind of the anti-hoarder in that he throws away everything! He probably de-junks our house a couple of times a year. Our family could probably open up their own D.I. with as much stuff as he has taken there. Which means that I do not have one single toy from my childhood. I have told Justin how much I would love to have just one barbie or just one of my dolls. Well, for my birthday, Justin found me my favorite barbies from my childhood from 1992, still in the box, mint condition. They are Aladdin, Jasmine, and the Genie from the Disney movie Aladdin. I couldn't believe it! Don't I have the best husband ever?! I seriously LOVED my Aladdin barbies- they were by far my favorite barbies from my childhood. I can't believe he found them, and still in the box too! I was so touched that he would do that for me. He told me that it took him over a year to find them- wow- now that's dedication! He is awesome and I am lucky and that's enough of that.

So thanks to everyone who made my birthday so special. 26 sounds really old to me, I'm practically kicking 30 in the butt, but I feel really blessed to have the family and the friends that I do. You guys are awesome!

Crazy Life

Do you ever feel like life gets a little TOO crazy? Lately I feel like Justin and I are running around like two chickens with their heads cut off. Our 'TO DO' list is piling up and nothing seems to be getting done. There is the garden to weed and water. The nursery to paint and decorate. The million little things we need to buy and do to get ready for our new family member. Then there are all of the daily chores; the laundry, dishes, yard work, and cleaning. Not to mention we both have very busy and demanding jobs right now. Justin is working six nights a week and I am up to my neck in the summer reading program. And also, it's summer. So along with all of these things to do we also have all of the summer activities going on. And lucky us, we are now scout leaders over the Bears and Wolves in our ward. How do people find enough hours in the day to accomplish it all??

Sometimes I would just like to set all of life's stresses aside for a minute and take a deep breath. I don't think I have taken a deep breath in quite some time. I am too busy running around. In all honesty this list of mine is piling up so high that sometimes I feel quite inadequate. I keep reminding myself that I am 35 1/2 weeks pregnant and its okay that I am not accomplishing as much as I want to. But that little nagging voice in the back of my head keeps saying, "Do more. Do more. Do more." My mind is ready to go but my tired, fat, swollen, pregnant body is screaming, "Slow it down will ya?!" Today I carried a heavy laundry basket. My husband asked me why I didn't just ask him to do it. My response, "I don't know. Because I am too stubborn." I think being too stubborn could be the death of me some day. I am not good at asking for help. Why is that? Here is my dear husband ready and willing and yet I trudge along doing things I know aren't good for me or for this baby. Stubborn. Stubborn. Stubborn me.

You wanna know the worst thing of all?!! It's the middle of July and I haven't been to my beloved Bear Lake once this summer! {Did some of you gasp at that last sentence? It's pretty shocking right?} I think that's what I am really in need of. A day with no stress. A day filled with sun, sand, and swimming. A day to unwind and recuperate.  Doesn't that sound just lovely?

What is the point of this blog? Well golly gee I have no idea. All I know is that I was lying in bed completely exhausted from a busy day. And it was only 9:00 which means that it was still light out, which led me to ponder how pathetic I was.  Well then I got out of bed to pee....again.... and all of a sudden I find myself down on my computer writing this blog. Because sometimes, you just need to write. Sometimes you just need to tell the world how tired and stressed, and how sick of being tired and stressed, you are. I also keep thinking about how these are the last few weeks that Justin and I will be just Justin and I. Never again will we be a family of two. So instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off, I hope we can start to cherish these last few weeks that we have together as just us, because our lives are about to change forever. And I also think that no matter how much we try and prepare for this, we will never be really, fully prepared. So here is goodbye to a family of two and anxiously awaiting our family of three.

Reflections and Resolutions

Happy New Year! I can't believe that another year has come and gone, time is going by so freaking fast! 2012 was a great, great year for Justin and I. Here is some highlights of the year 2012:

-- Becoming an Aunt and Uncle. In May my sister in law had a baby girl named Tenley. Who knew that it was possible to love another person's kid as much as we love that little girl! I LOVE being an aunt!

-- Buying a Home. This was probably the most stressful yet rewarding thing we have ever done. Being homeowners is so rewarding and so hard and so wonderful. We love our home.

-- Getting a dog. Ever since I graduated from high school in 2006 I couldn't wait to find a place to live that allowed pets. I wanted a dog so dang bad! Well, in August Zorro joined our family. How were our lives ever complete without that little weirdo?

-- Going on some great mini vacations. Justin and I decided that we couldn't really afford a great big vacation this year so we took some mini ones to a junk yard in Idaho for his birthday, St. George to see Aladdin at the Tuacahn for my birthday, and a super fun, family filled weekend in Bear Lake for my mom's birthday.

--Some of the greatest holidays to date that were filled with lots of extended family, great food, lost of laughs, and wonderful memories made.

--Celebrating our one year anniversary.

--And last, but definitely not least- finding out that we were pregnant. What a whirlwind of emotion that was (and still is).

I am really excited for 2013. And kind of already wishing it away haha. I definitely will try very hard to be patient and try to love the present, but in all honesty most of this year I will spend pregnant, so yeah- I can't wait for August when we finally get to meet our little baby Palmer. We are also headed back to the Tuacahn in May for Mary Poppins so I am pretty excited for that as well. Other than that we will try a little harder, do a little better, and love each other a little more.  I definitely think this next year will trump last year and I am pretty happy about that. So happy new year everyone! And good luck with those resolutions!