Calling all Mothers (or Fathers)

Our little girl will be here in less than 2 months and as we prepare for her arrival we are looking for things that our baby will need. As first time parents it's hard to know, with all the baby stuff available, what she really needs.

So, this is where your help comes in. Thanks to a friend's advice, I've decided to conduct a small survey to see what is 1 thing you can't live without when you have a baby. I know we need a car seat, crib, and stroller, but what else is a necessity? What brands would you recommend, etc. I seriously have no idea what to get and it just overwhelms me. Your help would be greatly appreciated! :)

The Holidays

I know the holiday season has already come and gone...awhile ago....but since I'm a slacker at blogging and journaling my life, I'm going to catch up now. :)

I love the month of December because it's one big party all month long. I get to celebrate my birthday, Christams, and New Years. And this year was especially good.

Before My Birthday
It all started the week before my birthday with Bunko. Val hosted Bunko and being as thoughtful as she is she surprised me with my favorite cake...ice cream cake...and gave me a card that everyone had signed. I wasn't expecting anyone to know about my birthday, but I got 12 birthday wishes and a couple presents a week before my birthday. It definitely made my week! Then a few days later Julie and Lisa took me out for a birthday lunch. It was delicious and I had a great time with them. So, thank you everybody for everything. You have no idea how grateful I am.

On My Birthday
Well, my birthday was on a Wednesday and it was a pretty uneventful day because I worked and then Bret had to study all night for his test the next day. All the calls and cards and wishes I got definitely made my day a lot better! I'm terrible at remembering people's birthday, so I really appreciate everyone who called me.

After My Birthday: B-day Gift
Bret surprised me for my birthday and said he was taking me to Vegas that weekend. So, Friday afternoon we hopped in the car and made our way to Vegas. It was a fun, short trip and a good get away. We got to our hotel, Circus Circus, pretty late (for us) and walked around the hotel for a bit and then we went to bed. Saturday we slept in, shopped, ate, and then walked the strip that night. Vegas is an amazing place. It's so dirty, yet everything is so elaborate inside the hotels and so nice. But what made the trip even more fun is that we found out Mckell and Joseph, my brother and sister-in-law, were in Vegas that weekend too. Unfortuneately We didn't get to see them until later Saturday night, about 9:30, and that's when Bret and I were ready to call it quits. Can you believe it...10:00 we call it quits in Vegas. My feet were killing me and Bret's hip was hurting. Man we must be getting old! But it was fun seeing Mckell and Joseph even if it was for a short time.

Christmas Break in UT
A few days after we got back from Vegas it was time to head to Utah. We didn't get there until the night of the 23rd. Which, was luckily just in time for Bret to watch the Utah Bowl game with his brothers and dad. Luckily Utah won so it was a good night for all.

We were quite busy in Utah, but it was a good busy and we had a great time. We went to some amazing family parties, had 2, 3D ultrasounds, shopped, and got to see some friends. We weren't there long so we didn't get to do everything we wanted, but it was fun being back in the snow despite the cold.

The 3-D Ulutrasound
One of the most amazing things we did while in Utah was get an attempted 3D ultrasound of our little Bruschetta. And yes, I mean attempted.

One of my good friends has access to an ultrasound machine and was nice enough to let us come in and see our baby. My poor friend wasted a lot of her time because Brue was turned to where you couldn't get a good shot, and she wouldn't move no matter what I did. I tried jumping up and down, walking around, and just about everything you can think of. After a little more than a half hour Brue still wasn't moving so she told me I could come in the next day.

So I go in the next day and little Brue is still in the same position she was the day before. She didn't want to turn. She must be camera shy and apparently likes snuggling into my rib cage face down. After another 20 minutes of trying to get her to move, she almost turned around, but then turned right back around to how she was. After a half hour had passed I was about to leave when Lindsay decided to try 1 more time. Luckily it worked!

Brue had flipped and stay put. We were just about to get a good profile shot when Brue pulled her hands across her face so once again we couldn't get a good shot. After awhile she finally moved her hand down a little bit, but then she kicked her legs up. She did not want to be photographed! We waited a little longer and Brue finally moved her foot for a minute. Thanks to my friend's patience we were able to get a few good shots. They're not great, but we'll take what we get. I really owe my friend a lot for the time she spent helping us!! Thanks!

Some updates

We finally moved and we love it at our new place! Our apartment stays cool, it has new carpet, and best of all it doesn't smell like smoke. :) Also, we finally have internet again, so I guess I can't use that as an excuse for not blogging anymore. It's fun to be in a new place and live so close to some great friends and family. Speaking of great friends and family we want to say thanks to Brady, (Bret's brother) the Iron Man, who helped Bret move most of our stuff. I got a phone call at work saying that Bret and Brady had rented a truck and moved most everything. I was definitely amazed. Also, thanks to Matt Harmon and Zach VanDyke for helping us on a mintues notice with the truck and your moving skills.

On another note, since we live so far away from friends and family in Utah, I don't get to show off my attractive baby belly to them.

Okay, so maybe it's not so attractive, but here it is. In the first picture I'm 18 weeks and in the second picture I'm 22 weeks.

IT'S A GIRL

I know I've been a slacker at this whole blogging thing, but this time I actually have an excuse - our internet isn't working. We should finally have internet again when we move next week , but I couldn't wait that long to share the following good news so I'm using the school's computer.

We're going to have a little girl join our family April 1, 2010 and we're really excited!

For the majority of my 18 week pregnancy I was convinced we were having a boy since boys seem to be the dominant gene in both Bret's and mine families. But as my ultrasound appointment got closer I decided it was a girl. I've been telling myself that I thought it was a girl because of the "mother's intuition" that you hear about, but the truth is I just wanted to contradict Bret and since he thought it was a boy, I guessed girl. And look who ended up winnning the guessing contest....me! It was a sweet, sweet day of victory. Okay, so it was nice winning but for reals it was a sweet day because we actually knew a little girl would be joining our family and we couldn't be happier! The ultrasound technician said that she was "really fast" and she was having a hard time getting a picture of her. That made Bret happy because now he thinks he has an athletic girl. Little does he know that she was just moving because of all the orange juice I drank before the appointment. Also, during the ultrasound the baby was punching and kicking me. At least that's what it looked like. Is it a bad thing my baby and I are already fighting? Hopefully it isn't a sign of things to come. Anyway, we're so happy to have a baby girl come into our family. She's healthy and everything seems to be going great. Let the shopping and floods of pink colors begin!

The Beginning of Year 2

So 2 posts in 2 days from me, wow! I'm impressing myself. Let's see how long I keep this up. =)

As most of you know Bret started his second year of school today, which is so crazy! The new school year also means that we've lived in AZ for a year. I guess the saying is true...time does fly by when you're having fun. Anyways, it was fun seeing Bret in his scrubs and getting back into the grind of things again. Since I don't have kids or kids old enough to take pictures of the first day of school, I made Bret take his picture. I'm sure he's embarrassed I'm posting this, but too bad, so sad, I'm doing it anyway!

Summer of 2009

I spent the first part of the summer in Arizona working and hanging out with some friends while Bret studied for his boards. The weather was surprisingly nice here in AZ during June, but then we went to Utah for a week during July 4th, came back and it was 118 degrees. YIKES!! So, while in Utah we really partied up the 4th! Here was our exciting day: We slept out the night before the Freedom Festival parade so we could have a spot. It made for a fun, long night. Luckily we had Colby, Blaike, and Madison there to entertain us! And my mom and dad gave us some food. At 6 that morning Bret went golfing with his dad, brothers, and cousins. After that we hit the annual Ross picnic for lunch, which was fun like usual, and then made our way to the annual Rayburn 4th of July party, which was a "blast" with lots of fireworks and delicious food. Needless to say it was a good trip and we definitely gained a few pounds with all the good food :) Oh yeah, while in Utah we also hiked Timpanogos Cave. Neither of us hiked it before, so we really enjoyed it.

We made our way back to AZ and Bret was busy studying. Then July 30th rolled around and Bret's boards were finally over! I wasn't working anymore so we made our way to Utah for 3 weeks. It was a fun, relaxing break. It was so great to see family and friends again!

We did too many fun things to list them all, but here are some of the major highlights of our trip (of course the main highlight was seeing everyone again!)

Highlights

1. Seeing Brandon open his mission call to Washington DC...congrats Brandon!!
2. Brent and Amy's wedding
3. Crystal and John's wedding
4. The Demolition Derby in Nephi - it was so fun seeing these old clunkers run into each other










5. Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat











6. Fishing with the Gronemans. I caught my very first fish! The best part was that I didn't have to touch it thanks to Bret and his Dad.

7. Going to a cabin near Park City for a few days with my family - The only pictures we took were at a nearby resevoir where we went rafting.


















8. Bret really enjoyed golfing in Utah and went a lot.









9. Last , but not least, Timpanogos Cave

Life

Bret is studying and I'm really bored so I thought I'd blog about the random stuff going on in our life right now.

As most of you know we were planning on going to Canada for the summer to sell security systems but at the last minute our plans drastically changed. We decided not to go and Bret decided to join the National Guard instead. The National Guard offered a pretty sweet deal (hopefully it doesn't change)we just couldn't resist.
Now that we're staying in Arizona things seem to be working out better and it seems like we're supposed to be here.

Out of the blue the temp agency I work for called. With this temp agency I'm with you're supposed to call a couple times per week to keep your name on top of the "list." I hadn't called the agency for about a month and a half, but then out of the blue I got a call and they offered me a temporary job for 1 week. Unfortuneatley I couldn't do it because I had other obligations during that week.
I thought my chances were ruined because I passed up a job opportunity, but the next morning I got a call from the Temp Agency and they gave me an assignment that paid better and could possibly go through June. I just sort through paperwork, but hey it's a job and someone's got to do it :)