Build-A-Bear Birthday

Today is our adorable niece Sadie's 3rd birthday! She is getting so big!!
Her mom needed a babysitter for a few hours the other day while she did some birthday shopping, so Josh and I decided that, as our gift to her, we would take her to Build-A-Bear!

When her mom dropped her off at our house, she didn't know where we were going or what we were doing. She just knew that we had a birthday surprise for her!
When we got there, the man helping us gave Sadie a sticker so that everyone would know it was her birthday.

Of course she picked a Pink Bear! Here it is before getting stuffed...
In front of the stuffing machine...

For the first little while, Sadie was really shy and had to have either me or Josh holding her at ALL times!! She wasn't really interested in all the fun things they do while making your bear. But once it was finished, she was happy as can be!



Here we are giving her bear a bath...

And choosing an outfit. She picked the cutest little white fur coat!
Here she is squeezing her bear so tight that she was literally shaking and red in the face!

She also chose to put a little sound effect in her bear's hand. Every time you squeeze it, it sings a fun Happy Birthday song. It was stuck in my head for the rest of the day! Hopefully her parents aren't too sick of it yet ;)

We then went to give her bear a birth certificate. Guess what she chose as her bear's name? Stella!! Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever heard? It made my heart melt.

And here she is leaving the store with a new bear in its little home!

We sure hope Sadie had as much fun as we did! This makes us excited to take our own little one there when she is old enough :) We love you Sadie Mae!! Happy Birthday!

Halloween 2011

This year's Halloween was pretty laid back for us. Josh and I have never been big on celebrating Halloween...Maybe that will change next year when we have a little one! In fact, Josh and I have NEVER dressed up together for Halloween in the 5 years we have spent together. I still don't know if I would count this as dressing up, but at least we did something extra this year! I found these iron-on decals online and bough some black shirts for us. Pretty easy costumes!

Cradling my skeleton baby :)

Every year, my family carves pumpkins. Its a tradition we have done ever since I can remember, and I plan to keep it going!

Josh's grim reaper:
My witch's hat and spider:

And here are everyone's pumpkins on display for the trick-or-treaters:

Halloween night was pretty much spent eating junk food and watching movies. Pretty exciting huh? Hope everyone had a fun and safe holiday!

25 weeks

Getting Bigger!!

My belly is definitely growing quickly! Which means Stella is growing!!! We love being able to feel her move every day. I am to the point now where I am feeling movement pretty much all the time and its so much fun! Its a feeling you really cannot describe. Sometimes I look at my stomach and only the right side is poking out, or only the left haha! I feel deformed sometimes...but it makes it that much more fun!

We only have 15 more weeks to go. She is coming fast and I don't feel like I am prepared to be a mom...so those 15 weeks are needed. But at the same time, I just want to meet her already! We are so excited to have our little munchkin here.

Some of you know that I had to find a new doctor. Talk about STRESSFUL!!! We found out that my original doctor is having a baby about two weeks before me, so she wouldn't be delivering me, or even really following me much anymore. I was pretty bummed because I loved her. But I wanted the doctor who delivers me to know my history and not be some stranger! So we started asking around and doing some research. I was a total stress case! Just ask Josh haha...I think he thought I was going crazy! So many people recommended Dr. Terry. He actually delivered both Josh and I so that would have been fun to go to him! But unfortunately, he is at the end of the career, and I don't want to have to find ANOTHER doctor when our next baby comes. So we ended up going with someone else in his office...Dr. Thackeray. And let me tell you, having to switch doctors was a blessing in disguise! I cannot describe how much I love this doctor! And I have only met him once so far! He is so caring and loving (not to mention LDS which is just an added bonus). He asked me questions about my personal life and told me some things that I never would have even thought of asking. Josh didn't even have a huge opinion on our first doctor, but he loves Dr. Thackeray which means a lot! We love him way more than we even loved our first doctor...so I guess it was meant to be! :)

I am trying to be better about posting pictures more often of my growing bump...so stay tuned!

Our Project

I wanted to have a little nightstand to keep next to a glider or rocking chair in Stella's nursery, but didn't want to spend a lot of money. So we headed to good old D.I. Seriously, I don't care what you say about that place...sometimes you can find some real treasures there! We bought this one for $10.
It was in pretty bad shape. The top drawer was missing, there was no back to it, and it completely wobbled. Whoever owned it before cut a weird chunk out of the bottom of one side, so we had to even it out. (Sorry I don't have pictures of that). To top it off, it was home to a spider and plenty of webs...gross! So it got a good cleaning. Since only one drawer was there, we also had to buy a completely new set of knobs. And since this nightstand was so old, they don't make knobs anymore to fit the holes that were already there. So my dad helped us out by cutting some cute panels for us. I love the way they turned out!

Also, the color was HIDEOUS and I wanted to do something fun!

You've seen the before....and here is the after!

I also made these cute little guys for her room. I have a slight owl obsession so I couldn't resist! I got the wood cutouts at wood connection, and the decorative fabrics are from the bedding my mom is making for the nursery.

Things are slowly coming together. I have so many projects, I may have taken on a little too much. Only three and a half months to go!!

Miss Maddi

It is this beautiful girl's birthday today! Yes, I am posting about my dog. Only because I love her so much!! She is three years old today!! I can't believe it has been almost three years since Josh gave her to me before leaving on his mission. She has been the entertainment of this house to say the least!! And with us living with my parents right now, it has been so fun to live with her again. I love coming home and having her so excited to see us, and waking up in the morning to her wagging tail. We were blessed to get her as our dog. She has the sweetest personality and she keeps us smiling!

My family has had dogs ever since I was a baby. There is nothing quite like having a dog in your home. They bring such a light into your day!!

We love you Maddi! So glad you're ours!!

It's a...

We just found out this morning that we are having a little girl. Almost everyone we asked was absolutely certain it was a boy, so we were a bit surprised to hear we were having a baby girl. But we are THRILLED!! Now its time for the fun to begin...decorating a nursery, buying cute girl clothes and hair accessories...I can't wait! We have decided on the name Stella for our little one. Not after anyone or anything, we just heard the name one day and have loved it ever since. She doesn't have a middle name yet, but possibly Anne since that is my middle name. We will see what we come up with :)

I am also officially 20 weeks today. I can't believe I am halfway! So far, this pregnancy has flown by! And as of right now, I LOVE being pregnant!

Some things to note:

-We are feeling baby girl kick and bump more and more each day and it is the funnest feeling. She is most active bright and early in the morning, and I love to just lay in bed and feel her moving around.

-I haven't been feeling nauseas at all, other than the occasional moment or two.

-I have the biggest appetite I have ever had in my whole life and feel like I could eat everything in sight!!

-I am starting to get a bit of low back pain but nothing too major yet.

-I have been attending prenatal water aerobics. Let me tell you, it makes me feel so great after I'm done! Its quite a workout for a pregnant girl, but its fun to be with other women who are pregnant and share stories and have fun together!

-I am actually starting to look pregnant now, instead of just chunky. And its so fun when people ask when we are due and what we are having. I love bragging about baby already! ;)

-I am getting quite a bump! Here is a picture of me at week 20...

A lot of people say it looks like nothing, but it feels massive to me! :) And I'm proud of it!!

We went to Target today to buy baby's first gifts. I couldn't resist these adorable little tiny boots!

And Josh got her these cute bath time things!

Josh is going to be such an amazing dad. He loves to feel baby moving and gets so excited everytime I ask him to hold his hand to my tummy, even if its at 5 in the morning and I have to wak him up for it! He tells baby girl every day how much he loves her and can't wait to meet her. I know she already loves him too!

We can't wait to meet our little Stella!

365

...days ago, this happened....

I can't believe it has been a year! Time definitely flies when you are having fun.

Our anniversary was actually yesterday, but I am blogging today because we spent the weekend relaxing in Park City together. We went to the same place we spent our honeymoond. It was so nice to relax and just spend time together with no interruptions and no worries!

I am absolutely CRAZY about Josh! After a year of marriage, and five years total together, he still has a way of making me giddy. I am basically the luckiest girl in the world! Sorry to break it to the rest of you...but I got the BEST husband ;)

One year down... Eternity to go!