Zach & Cristi Benedict

Chair Slipcover & Baby Update

2012-01-19T20:09:00.000-07:00

Remember this ugly, drabby rocking chair (a "hand-me-down" we acquired when we first got married) that was in our living room when we lived in our apartment? I purposely saved it for all these years with the intention of making a slipcover for it. I knew that it would be perfect for a nursery and for rocking my sweet baby to sleep. It swivels 360 degrees in a circle as well. Pretty handy. It's hard to tell by looking at the photos, but it is fairly large and pretty comfy.

I had never attempted a slipcover for such a large chair, so I turned to the internet for advice. I found several YouTube videos, but none that were quite what I was looking for. Then I found a fabulous lady's blog, from Eagle Mountain, who was selling her very own slipcover "how-to" DVD. I bought one. I watched it several times before attempting to make my own slipcover. I felt pretty confident that I could make at least a semi-decent looking one...not even close to perfect, but good enough. Here's how it all turned out:

Before: the ugly rocking chair.

I chose the color white (I know...dangerous choice with baby spit-up on the way) because I wanted it to completely match the rest of the nursery. But that's the great thing about slipcovers is that you can easily remove them and wash them! The white is so shabby-chic and dainty, I skipped over the practical choice of color and bought what I thought was cutest! :)

The back and the side arm with the attached pleated skirt. Can you tell my measurements are off for the back center seam? :) Oh well, good thing it's the back where it won't be visible.

The piping was the hardest part...only because if my measurements were wrong, I had to seam-rip not only the slipcover itself, but the piping too. It was double to work if I made a mistake.

Done and done!!! I still need to iron out some of the wrinkles, but I thought it turned out great!! It's not as clean-lined and crisp as getting it professionally reupholstered would have made it, but a slipcover is the next best thing. I'm going to get a cute throw blanket and a pillow to finish it off. It's going to look cute when the nursery is all finished!!

. . .

Baby Update

For my last couple of doctor visits my belly had been measuring very small (about two weeks behind schedule), so just to be safe my OB scheduled an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels and the baby's body measurements. The results were actually opposite of what we thought...the fluid levels were fine and the baby was actually measuring six days ahead of schedule! Crazy. My doc says I must have abs of steel to be hiding her so well. lol. :) It was a relief to hear that everything was fine.

I'm now past my every-other-week doctor visits and onto my weekly visits. As of today (and if you're counting the six day measurement jump) I'm right around 35 weeks along. The time to deliver is getting closer!! My belly button finally popped out a couple of weeks ago. It's strange looking. I still haven't developed the "linea nigra" (the dark line that runs up and down the belly), water bloating/swelling, or stretch marks! Phew! But I'm fully expecting their arrival any day now. I'm getting close to the end, so I'm sure all of that will appear soon.

The baby loves hanging out up in my rib-cage and jabs me all day long. She is sooo active. Even the ultrasound tech was laughing at how much she wiggled. It kind of drives me nuts though...not the most comfortable feeling. It's getting harder to eat large meals when the baby is taking up most of my stomach room. I fill up pretty quickly. I've started eating smaller meals more frequently. Putting on shoes or bending over is becoming more difficult. Zach has to help me out a lot. :) And I think I walk with a little bit of a waddle too.

Overall, things are good. I can't say I'm one of those girls who LOVES being pregnant, but I am happy that everything has been going pretty smoothly. I'm getting more and more nervous as the countdown gets closer to the end. I feel so inadequate at times...like what the heck did I get myself into! I'm scared of the late night baby cry sessions and the emotional break-downs I'll probably have, but I know it will all be worth it. :) I can say I am excited to meet her though and see this little thing that's been living inside of me! Just last night Zach and I were talking and he was saying to me how he can't wait to hold her and kiss her cheeks. It was cute. Sometimes I forget that I'm not going to be doing this all alone; that I'll have Zach there to help too. I'm so glad I married him. He helps ease my fears.

New Year's Eve

2012-01-12T16:38:00.000-07:00

Mike and Brit hosted their second annual New Year's Eve party at their fabulous home. We had so much fun. The Nelsons cooked up their traditional "Raclette" dinner for all of us to enjoy. It was delicious.

We popped open Christie and Quentin's "Christmas Crackers" (a European tradition) and wore the paper hats that were stuffed inside.

I love Christie's spunky personality.

Mike got a new gun for Christmas. It was quite the attraction. Don't mess with Christie.

After we ate, we played games until midnight.

We played the card game "Acey Deucey" with quarters. Most of us had terrible luck---and I think I might have had the worst luck of the night. I lost all my money to the worst hands. It was still way fun though.

Christie and Quentin came out on top! Winners!

The clock hits midnight! Happy New Year!!

Mike and Brit were fully prepared for midnight. They handed out firecrackers, blow horns, popping streamers....it was loud and fun!

Zach decided to do some sort of ridiculous tribal dance over the firepit and singed all his leg hair off! :)

Why do boys love to play with fire so much? :)

We had a great night. I was surprised I lasted all the way til 3AM. Totally worth it. We couldn't ask for better friends.

Christmas Season

2012-01-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

Oh how I LOVE the Christmas Season. We had a nice end to 2011. Being together with the ones we love is the best part about this season. Here's a few things we did throughout December...

. . .

Benedict Family Christmas Party

Zach's family knows how to throw a Christmas party...tons of great food, a lot of people, and a visit from Santa! There were actually quite a few family members from Zach's mother's side that I had never met. It was fun to mingle and get to know everyone.

My handsome man and his dad. I think they look so much alike.

All the kids loved hanging out with Santa! I had to tell him what I wanted for Christmas too. ;)

We're nerdy and dressed up in matching Christmas colors for the party.

I always enjoy watching Zach interact with little kids. I know he'll be a great dad. His chance to prove that is coming soon!

Miss mia and cute little Itsy-Bitsy! That cute little puppy will be staying with us while Zach's parents are in Texas for Christmas.

. . .

Tepanyaki
We got together with our fabulous friends for dinner. It was great. Our chef dude was pretty funny. I love the food there. Their sweet noodles are so good.

Love these girls.

Shannon's hub, Chris, had to work...we missed him that night.

Allie and Jon with there adorable new baby Carter! He's so squishy and cute.

Cookin' up the great food!

I loved snuggling with baby Carter. He's a cutie.

Great dinner. Thanks for organizing it, Sara!

. . .

Christmas Eve

Steve and Sandra hosted Christmas at their house this year. They always get pretty big Christmas trees. It makes the room smell so good. Love that. We threw the entire family's gifts under the tree. There were quite a lot. We had a nice dinner, opened up one gift per person, had a Christmas message by my parents, and then played a few games. It was fun. I love being with family.

Our baby Madison was kicking a lot. She's excited for Christmas too! :)

Their second Christmas together as a couple, and first Christmas being married.

Now that Natalie's a year older from last Christmas, it was so much fun watching her open gifts and enjoy the excitement.

Phil and Kelsey joined us later that night after they spent part of Christmas Eve with Kelsey's family.

Getting ready to eat dinner.

Traditionally, we open one gift on Christmas Eve and it's usually PJs. We didn't do that for the adults this year, but Natalie got a cute new pair!

She loves to play "mommy" with her dolls. She wraps them in blankets just like her mom did to her. So cute.

Zach has had several people tell him he looks like Michael Hall, main actor on the TV show Dexter. His co-workers gave him a collector's item Dexter doll for Christmas. Funny!

We opened up a cute new outfit for our baby Maddie from my mom! It was surreal. I can't believe she'll be here in a little over a month!

"Pappa" reading her stories.

We all want a piece of Natalie...we fight over who gets to hold her and play with her. Oh the perks to being the first grandchild!!

We played games for the rest of the night. It was hilarious. My brothers are so funny.
. . .

Christmas Morning
We were up and out of bed ready to tear open the gifts at the crack of dawn...not really through, more like 9:30am.

The puppies celebrated with us too! I always make them wear stupid Christmas outfits. :)

Ready to bust open the gifts!

Sandra revamped this trike for Natalie with stickers and vinyl lettering. So cute!

Love the excitement!

Munching on Sandra's delicious Christmas morning cinnamon rolls.

Boys and their gaming systems...slightly obsessed.

Diamond earrings from Dad!

Diamond earrings from Steve!!

My mom bought me a "mother's ring" with February's birth stone in honor of the month my new baby girl will be born...well, lets hope it's February. :) She might not come until early March. It was beautiful. I loved it! She got one for Sandra too when she was pregnant with Natalie.

All ready for church in her pretty Christmas dress.

The puppies love playing in the snow. They enjoyed Christmas too. :)
. . .

Phil and Kelsey's Wedding
We celebrated the marriage of my youngest brother, Phil, on December 28th. They were sealed in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was great. More pics of that to come later!

Love my siblings.

Chandelier Make-Over

2011-12-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have seen this chandelier at Ikea. It's been in stock there for quite awhile. It's silver, simple, and easy on your wallet at only $40. In my opinion, it's okay as it is, but it's not nearly girly, overdone, or chic enough for my taste (or for my baby girl's nursery). It is simply too boring for me. I decided to do an over-the-top, tasteless, make-over to it! The outcome I had in mind was nothing short of "way too much!" I wanted it to look like it was dripping in pearls and diamonds. That was my goal---make it as flashy, cluttered, and extravagant as possible. Not classy, but gaudy! I was excited to do this project. Some of you will love it and some of you will hate it...personally, I LOVE it! :)

Here's what the original chandelier looked like.

I went to a craft store and bought a bunch of extra accessories to add to the chandelier; strands of pearls, lots of crystal pendants, and beaded lace. I even bought a HUGE crystal pendant to hang at the very bottom. The pendant is oversized and ridiculous---exactly what I wanted! :)

I then took apart most of the existing chandelier pieces to leave only the bare metal. I covered anything left over with tinfoil to avoid getting hit with the spray paint. I had Zach spray paint the entire thing white; chain, base, and light sockets included.

I began adding each strand of pearls and strand of crystals, one by one, with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.

I wrapped the base of the light sockets in pearls and secured it with hot-glue.

I finished it off by adding the crystal pendants to the sides, middle, and the large one at the bottom.

Love the giant pendant!

I had Zach install it in the nursery.

All done! I probably could have continued adding to it, but I made myself stop and call it good. I love it! It's a perfectly gleaming mess of "way too much" that looks fabulous in my little girl's nursery! :)

Holidays

2011-12-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

Happy Holidays to everyone! Such a fun time of year. Love it. We've been super busy with friends and family these last few months. It's been fun. I finally got around to getting our Christmas cards sent out today. I've enjoyed receiving a lot of ya'lls Christmas cards too. Thanks for sending them our way!

This is our 2011 Christmas card I made in Photoshop. We snapped a quick shot on our porch on Thanksgiving day. Nothing too fancy I guess. :)

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Thanksgiving Feast

We had a nice evening with the Benedict family and the Woodward family at Zach's sister's house. We ate a delicious turkey dinner, ate amazing desserts, looked through the Black Friday newspaper ads, watched football, movies, and just hung out together as a family. It was so relaxing...exactly what I love about Thanksgiving.

The fam and our pups! We miss all of the rest of Zach's family who now live in Texas.

Samantha set up a pretty table for us all.

Delicious food.

The puppies love getting together!

Mia dressed up in her Indian outfit she made in school. She's so cute!

Lounging around after we stuffed our faces.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Lighting of the Riverwoods

We decided to go to the opening night of the Lighting of the Riverwoods. It was magical. The lights were so beautiful. I love that most of them are the newer LED lights so they are super bright and pretty. They have a countdown for everyone to participate in...when they reach zero, the whole place lights up! There were LOTS of people who came to listen to the musicians, enjoy the great restaurants, visit Santa, and they even had free carriage rides with hot chocolate! They also had elves walking around handing out free glow sticks and cookies. The whole place was packed. It was fun getting our Christmas season started with my family that night.

It was pretty cold, but we were bundled up and happy.

Hawkers next to the life-sized Nutcracker

I loved watching Natalie's face while she observed everything around her. She's such a cutie-pie.

Jon Schmidt played some fun Christmas songs and most of his own music. I recognized a few songs from the EFY cds I had in high school. He was great.

Sooo many people.

Hanging out in Santa's cottage.

Natalie chillen in Santa's huge chair.

She was a bit shy when Santa came to greet her. :)

Newlyweds!

Toward the end of the night, it started to snow pretty heavily. It felt a lot more like the Christmas Season with all the snow dumping down. It was fun.

.. .. .. .. .. ..

Kelsey's Bridal Shower

Kelsey is marrying my little brother, Phil, in a couple of weeks. They have known/dated each other since high school. Kelsey even wrote Phil while he was on his mission. She's awesome. We're excited to have her join the family. Sandra, Erica, and I threw her a bridal shower at Mimi's Cafe in Sandy. Yum. Love that place. Here are a couple of their cute engagement pictures, and some pictures of her bridal shower.

LOVE this one. So cute.

Her shower invitation!

Kelsey is a sweetheart.

Opening some lovely gifts from her girlfriends.

Kelsey and her sweet mom.

All her sisters.

Sister-in-laws!!! :)

Grandmas, aunts, and cousins.

Several of Kelsey's high school friends from Morgan Hill, CA.
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Sneak Peak
I still need to do a post about my sister's wedding! It was fun. She was a beautiful bride.

More to come! I have lots of pictures to share! :)

Nursery Progress & Baby Update

2011-11-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

I have been so excited to start on our baby girl's nursery. Both Zach and I have been checking out a lot of websites (especially Pinterest; my account is full of baby ideas) and stores to find some fun things to put in her room. The only bummer is almost everything out there is pink!! I'm not a hater of pink, I just really didn't want a typical pink nursery. And most of it is Winnie the Pooh type of stuff too; which is not what I wanted at all. I wanted something different, a bit more sophisticated. So I started shopping online for different kinds of fabrics that I could sew her crib set with myself. I ordered some sample fabrics online that were all in the colors of teals, blues, and purples (I love peacock colors), but when the fabrics arrived they weren't really that great. They were cute as individual fabrics, but as a bedding set, they didn't really match too well. So I decided to drop teal/purple idea. Plus, my mom made a good point too---she brought up the possibility that if we were to have all boys after this, I would have missed the opportunity to a girly pink nursery and would probably be using a lot of blues and greens again for the boys in the future (wow, do we over-analyze or what! lol). But it made sense to me. What IF we had all boys after this? Who knows. I thought I might as well get my pink girly nursery done now while I have the chance just in case I don't ever get it again in the future. Man, I think I'm taking this whole nursery thing way too seriously...WHO CARES, right??!! The baby certainly won't care! I guess I can't help it...this is all a first for me, it's new and exciting, so I'm going to enjoy myself and decorate away!! :)

Isn't this so adorable! I found this cute pic on Pinterest and I totally want to copy it. Even though her nursery won't be peacock colors, maybe I can still do a cute photoshoot with an elaborate headband like this with these colors. Oh man, I can totally see myself getting carried away with all these fun girly things. I hope I don't break the bank!!

My original plans...scratch that.

These are a few fabric samples I ordered that I thought would look good for a teal and purple room. But, I'm just not in love with them as an all-together set; they don't really match. Maybe I should have gone with one printed fabric, and the rest solid fabrics. Oh well. But I still think they are cute fabrics individually.

I didn't want the money I spent on fabric samples to go to waste, so I cut and sewed the sample fabrics in random pieces to make a quick eclectic-type quilt.

Not exactly a matching quilt, but it actually turned out better than I thought it would. At least we'll get some use out of the sample fabric now.
.. .. .. ..

So what fabric did I decide to use? Well, after a lot of searching, I found an all-matching set of fabric in these colors: salmon/melon pink, olive/citrus green, mustard yellow, and a touch of taupe/gray. It sounds weird, but the fabric I chose actually brings all of those colors together pretty nicely. The fabric I ended up buying wasn't my first choice as far as style of fabric goes (I wanted a more dainty shabby-chic look and less of a tacky Hawaiian look), but it was on sale and it matched as a set. I also bought several yards a melon colored solid fabric in a shiny satin to add a little more girly chicness next to the cotton prints. Hopefully it will look cute when I'm finished making everything.

I love this melon colored satin fabric. It will add lots of girlieness to the room!

Since deciding to tackle a large sewing project like a nursery, I decided to buy a new sewing machine! I've had my last machine for ten years so it was time for an upgrade. My first choice would have been a Bernina, but it would have set me back a nice $3000! Heck no. So the next best thing, in my opinion, is the good ol' Brother machine. Their tension holds really well and they last for a long time. I love that my new one is digital; so much easier than a manual one. I LOVE it.

I've already jumped into sewing the crib set. I started the ruffles that will go around the top of the bumpers.

Ruffled curtains for the window. I'll probably put more melon satin fabric behind the sheer panels to give them more depth and color. And they definitely need a visit from Stanley Steamer.

I'm also definitely going to get our rocking chair re-upholstered in a tan/taupe linen fabric. Here Tiger and I are watching Zach set up the baby's crib. It was quite a weird feeling to watch him do it...I just can't believe I'm at the "mom" stage in my life already. Please don't ever let me wear "mom jeans" ha ha. Or drive a mini-van with the back window covered in stickers of our entire stick-figured family with each of our names! :)

My dad built this cradle for my mom when she was pregnant with their first baby. My dad called me up one day and asked me if I wanted to use it for our baby. I was so excited! He got it down from the attic and drove it out from California to Utah. So sweet. It's a sweet family heirloom now. We'll use it in our master bedroom until the baby is old enough to sleep in the crib.

I bought cute shabby-chic furniture off of KSL. The set I bought looks EXACTLY like the furniture I had as a little girl growing up. I was excited about that.

Zach is sanding and painting it white for me. It's going to look so cute in the nursery!

This is my actual desk from when I was a little girl. My parents have saved our furniture after all these years. I think it's neat that I'll get to pass down my old furniture to my own daughter.

I bought these cute crystal knobs from Dear Lizzie for the dresser/changing table drawers.

They are all primed and ready for a glossy white finish. I can't wait until they're done!
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Baby Update

I'm 6 months along now (as of today, I'm actually 26 weeks along). At my last OB check-up, I measured about two days behind my original due date. My doc re-set my due date for February 29th...LEAP YEAR!! So crazy. Just like most women, I probably won't deliver on my due date, but if I do, that'd be kind of crazy to have her on a date that only happens every 4 years.

While at my appointment, I brought up my concern about still not "showing" very much. My tummy still seemed too tiny to be carrying a 6 month old fetus. My doc measured the length from my hip-bone to my rib, and said I had a pretty long torso which allowed lots of room for the baby to hang out. The baby is stretching my tummy upwards instead of out. I was relieved to hear that. :) I may not look very pregnant, but at least a small tummy has kept me from getting stretchmarks. ha ha. I'm grateful for that.

I found this fun questionnaire online and enjoyed reading other pregnant ladies' experiences. I thought I'd share my own:

Due date?
February 29, 2012...leap year!

How far along?
26 weeks or 6 months

Was it planned or unplanned?
Planned. It happened really fast.

Is this your first pregnancy?
Yes! Pretty nervous.

Latest food craving?
Sweets! Anything candy, chocolate, or sugary. I'm not normally a sweets person, so it's been weird to have those cravings.

Total weight gain/loss?
Total gain: 0 lbs. Total loss: 25 lbs.

Maternity clothes?
No. Still able to wear my regular clothes.

Stretch marks?
None. Thank goodness.

Sleep patterns?
It's difficult to fall asleep at night, but when I finally do fall asleep I snooze through the rest of the night pretty nicely.

Any baby movement yet?
Yes! Mostly at night. Lots of wiggles and punches. :)

Have you started to show?
Yes. Not very much though.

Labor signs?
No, but occasional cramping and belly stretching pains.

Has your belly button popped out?
No, not yet.

Top name choice?
Madison Collette

Worst thing about being pregnant?
Barfing for 3 months straight! Awful!!!

Best thing about being pregnant?
The excitement and anticipation of finally meeting my baby girl!

The first person you told?
Besides my husband, my mom.

More scared or more excited?
Probably an equal mix. As a first time mom I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm excited to meet her.

Mostly happy or mostly moody?
Mostly happy. Thankfully, I haven't really been moody at all.

How many times a day you pee?
At least 5 or 6 times a day. It's annoying. :)

Words of wisdom?
Pamper yourself and relax as much as you can before baby comes and turns your world upside down! :)

Halloween Weekend!

2011-11-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely time hanging out with friends at Allie and Jon's annual Halloween Party. They are generous hosts by providing lots of food, games, and treats! We love them. Tianna and Derrek came up from San Diego too. It was great to see them. Everyone's costumes were fun. I love Halloween!

We all had a good laugh at Allie's "White Trash Prego" costume! She's due in one week!

Ladies

Gentleman

They held a quick fashion show to vote for the best costume.

Love these gals.

Zach and I were a Vampire and Vampiress. I should've bought the fake "fang" teeth, but I never got around to it. Oops.

... ... ...

Trick-or-Treating

My dad was in town on business, so he came with us to take my niece out for her first year of trick-or-treating. She didn't really know what to think of everything. She starred at all the kids in costume around the neighborhood. It was cute. She eventually learned how to pick out candy out of the bowl. I LOVED watching her. It reminded me of being an excited kid on Halloween. We took her around the entire block. She got a lot of candy!

Beautiful Peacock ladies! Sandra did a great job making both her own and Natalie's outfit! They turned out so cute. She is one talented chick!

Natalie's first stop of the night was at our house. When we opened the door, she held out her bucket without saying a word. I loved it! :)

I love that our Traverse Mountain neighborhoods are so family-friendly. A lot of families were hanging out outside with fire-pits handing out hot chocolate and candy.

Love my dad. He was so thrilled to be out and about with his granddaughter. We ended the night by stopping at Natalie's house to trick-or-treat to her mamma peacock. It was a fun night.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Witches Night Out

2011-10-25T21:08:00.000-06:00

Gardner Village hosts the best annual witch party around. I couldn't believe how many more people attended this year than last year. There were hundreds of witches everywhere. Maybe it was because it was such great weather. It was pretty warm and no rain. Us girls had fun dressing up, checking out the decorated boutiques, and eating the food. I'm excited to take my baby girl there one day. She'll love it.

We met up at my house and then off we went.

When we first arrived, we immediately spotted these fabulous witches! They really went all out. Their hats and outfits were amazing. I loved all the glitter.

Loved these vintage vampire ladies. They said they made their own costumes. Awesome!

Pics of our witch hats. We got together a couple days before to decorate them.

Allie was such a good sport for coming with an almost due baby in her belly!! She is definitely ready for her little boy, Carter, to come. Exciting!

Afterwards, I went back to Steve and Sandra's house to spend time with my parents while they were still in town. Natalie looked cute in my witch hat!

... ... ... ... ...

Britney's Baby Shower

I didn't take very many pictures, but Britney's shower was really cute. It was nice to meet a lot of her high school friends. She got a lot of really cute gifts for her soon-to-be baby girl.

Love these chicks. I wish they lived closer to us.

The proud mom-to-be with her friends. So happy for you Brit!!

I made Britney this subway art picture in Photoshop for her baby's room, but I think we're going to change it up a bit when the baby comes. Maybe we'll add some of the baby's stats to it and make it a bit more modern and less frilly. We'll see. Can't wait til she comes!

It's a Girl!!!

2011-10-09T21:48:00.000-06:00

Most of you already know this by now since we posted it first on Facebook, but Zach and I are going to have a baby girl!!! Even though we were originally leaning a bit more towards a boy, we are still soooo thrilled to be having a girl. From what the doctors can tell, so far, the baby is healthy and growing well; and that's all that matters to us. As of now, we have decided on the name Madison Collette Benedict. Had it been a boy, we liked Trey Thomas Benedict; so I guess we'll save that name for later. :) We have already looked at cute girly nursery room ideas. Zach sends me emails throughout my day at work of cribs and bedding he finds online. I think it's so sweet that he cares so much and wants to be involved with the decorating. ha ha. Love that guy. To say the least, we are so happy and excited. We are getting anxious to meet her now. I'm 20 weeks along, still not showing much, but still feeling really good. I've been having a few aches and pains in my lower back muscles and stomach muscles from my belly stretching a little, but it hasn't been too bad. I've also been able to feel her kick and move for the first time over the last week or so. It's the weirdest feeling ever! I laughed when I felt the first little kick. It was fun. Anyway, here's a little blurb on how our OB visit went...

. . .

When we arrived at the hospital, we were so excited and anxious. Erica came along too. I was a little surprised at the nervousness I felt along with the excitement. I was dying to know. I couldn't wait another minute. After about 30 minutes of sitting in the waiting room, the nurse finally called us in. I told her I wanted to know the gender right away before doing all the measurements! She laughed and agreed. We called my mom in California and put her on speaker phone so she could hear the whole thing. There was a large flat screen hanging on the wall in front of us so that we all had a clear view.

As soon as the nurse flipped on the monitor and began the ultrasound, right away I saw the baby's cute little bum and saw female parts! I immediately said, "Oh, I thinks it's a girl!!!" The nurse agreed with me but wanted to be sure, so she moved the ultrasound wand around my belly for a better view. After a little bit of wiggling, the nurse finally confirmed that indeed it was a girl! We all started screaming and laughing...and then my mom started to cry. :) I couldn't believe it! But I was so happy. Zach was cute and had the biggest smile on his face. We kept looking at each other and laughing. It was an exciting moment.

We continued to watch and were able to see her tiny developing heart, organs, brain, and limbs. My favorite part was seeing her profile. It was all so surreal. She had made great progress since our last OB visit. After everything was over, they burned me a DVD of our ultrasound video, and we left. I called my family members on the ride home to tell them the good news. Steve and Sandra are happy that little Natalie will have a girl cousin to play with. February will sneak up on us, so we are motivated and happy to get everything ready for when our sweet baby girl joins the world!! :)

On our way in! Both Zach and Erica got off work early to be there with me. We were so excited!!

Before I got pregnant, I spent a lot of time researching hospitals and doctors. I finally decided to go with the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray to deliver our baby. They have a great women's center and the OB doctor I chose had great reviews. She is so kind. She doesn't rush our visits and really wants the best for us. So far, I couldn't be happier with my choice.

Here we are anxiously waiting to be called in. It felt like forever.

A pic of my jellied belly (I still don't even look pregnant at all). And a celebratory kiss right after we found out!

My sweet sister and my mom hanging out with us on speaker phone. :)

New photos to hang on our fridge!

A girl!

Little foot and toes!

The profile pic with her cute button nose!

Erica's Bridal Shower & Baby Update

2011-09-28T16:30:00.000-06:00

What a crazy fun day!!! There were SOOO many girls that showed up to support Erica---high school friends, former mission companions, old college roommates, current roommates, co-workers, family members, future in-laws...all wonderful girls!! There had to have been about 40 girls packed in my family room and kitchen. A few even drove up from St. George and down from Idaho! We were all packed like sardines (sorry to those who didn't have a seat), many had to stand while Erica opened her gifts. She loved all who came and all the wonderful things they gave her. It was hilarious to watch her open gifts and scream from excitement... especially the lingerie gifts! Ha ha. I love Erica's personality so much! She had a blast and was soo happy the whole day.

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Here are a few of my favorite engagement photos of the happy couple! They both look great. Her pictures are stunning.

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A few pics of the decorations. It was fun putting it all together.

I decorated our mantel with some of Erica's beautiful Engagement and Bridal photos.

I added rub-on sayings and thick decorative stickers to each photo.

I made a simple "Bride To Be" banner with a few of their photos.

As well as a picture banner.

I displayed her bridal shower invite in a cute frame. I also spray painted an oval frame and hung my home-made flower ball in the center. It look cute!

Yummy fruit and party-favor M&M packets.

I also wanted to display her wedding jewelry and shoes.

A college roommate reunion photo op! All these great gals reunited for the first time in years since being Freshman and Sophomore college roommates. Erica was delighted to see everyone together!

Erica's future mother-in-law and sisters-in-law. Two more sisters are not pictured here.

My grandma and Aunt Carole helped us prepare some of the food! Thanks!

With all the commotion, I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone who attended. I feel bad that I missed out on a photos of a lot of girls who came to support Erica. I wanted Erica to remember everyone.

Our "other sister" Autumn! She pretty much lived with us while going to high school in Morgan Hill. She has been just like a sister to Erica and I. We just love Autumn!

Time to open gifts!

Cute apron!

LOTS of lingerie! :)

Kitchen utensils and fall decorations for her new apartment.

She had a blast opening everything up!

My mom and Phil's current and also former high school girlfriend, Kelsey! Wedding bells are in the near future for Phil and Kelsey. We all just love her!

Mom and all her girls!

My cute friend Britney and I are both expecting!! We have always said we wanted to start having kids around the same time...well here we are! She is due in November and I am due in February. So exciting for us to share this first-time pregnancy experience together! I actually have quite a few girlfriends who are pregnant for the first time right now. It has been awesome to have such close friends go through this with me. We can gab all we want about our changing bodies. It's been fun.

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Baby Update

I am now 18 weeks (barley 5 months) along. I'm almost half-way there! And the best part is, I feel great! I haven't barfed since I was about 15 weeks. So awesome! :) I can eat regularly and have even been craving a few things...like steaks and starchy foods. It feels soooo nice to be out of that black hole of nausea. I have never been more grateful for my health than I am now. I still get really dizzy, and sometimes almost faint when I stand up too quickly, but it's not difficult to deal with. My body feels like it is constantly tired, but my brain seems to have insomnia. ha ha. I don't sleep well at night, but I feel physically exhausted. It's the weirdest thing. It's all stuff that's easy to handle though, so I don't mind.

Baby B should now be about 6 inches long from head to rump, about the size of a mango. As for me, I'm still really not showing much at all. Unless I lean back, wrap my hands around my clothes and belly, you can't tell I'm pregnant. I'm hoping a small belly now will help with stretch-marks and loosened skin later...but I'm a beginner, so I have no idea. Any good "belly balm" lotions or tips out there to avoid stretch-marks when my belly really starts to grow? I've heard stretch-marks can be hereditary, so I might be in the clear based on my mom's experience. So far, so good.

We have our next OB appointment on October 4th to find out if it's a boy or girl. I'm so excited for that! I'm really, really hoping for a boy. I know Zach is crossing his fingers for a boy too. He needs a little partner in crime. But obviously, over all, we just want a healthy baby...boy or girl. So I'll be sure to let everyone know as soon as we find out! Once we know, we're going to start painting and getting the baby's nursery ready. Eeek! Cant' wait.

New Things

2011-09-16T10:45:00.000-06:00

Now that I'm feeling much better and have more energy, I've finally started to do things I enjoy again. I've ventured out into the world and hung out with some friends. It feels so great to be social again! I was cooped up in the house for way too long. :) I've also been playing catch-up in the blogging world, too. A couple new exciting things have happened recently in my family...

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Gustavo and Erica are Engaged!

My cute little sister is getting married! She has been dating Gustavo for a little over a year now and they have finally decided to tie the knot. He proposed to her in a helicopter ride over the Salt Lake Valley. Erica LOVED it! Gustavo grew up in Los Angeles, CA and moved to Utah after his mission to attend BYU. He and Erica met through mutual friends. They have set their date for October 13, 2011. It's coming up fast! They'll be sealed in the Salt Lake Temple that morning, have a luncheon in the Ambassador Room of the JS Memorial Building, and then a reception at Heritage Gardens in Sandy. They'll also be having a second reception in Los Angeles before jet setting off to their honeymoon. Erica is sooo excited! We're all happy for them both!

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Elder Phil Hawker's Homecoming

Back in July, my youngest brother came home from his mission in Denver, Colorado. It was the first time our entire family would all be together since Erica left for her mission in 2008; it had been almost 3 years. It was exciting for everyone. Phil was a great missionary and definitely had some bittersweet feelings about coming home. He really loved the people of Denver.

We were all waiting anxiously for his plane to land. I was fighting pretty bad morning sickness. Yuck. But I wasn't going to miss that day for anything.

My parents were overjoyed and so proud. It was their last child to finish serving a full-time mission.

Phil meets his niece, Natalie, for the first time. It was cute! She was scared of him. ;)

We're all together again!

We're glad to have him back.

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Our 4th Anniversary

Zach and I celebrated four years of marriage on August 30th. Well, actually, we didn't really celebrate at all...my fault. I was still pretty dang sick. :( We spent our anniversary hanging out at home watching movies. Lame. Maybe we'll make up for it later with a vacation or something. My being sick the last couple of months really killed our fun life. Oh well. We did reminisce a bit about our wedding day and how fun it was. I even took some time to update a few more pics and details to my "Wedding Day" post on my blog: HERE. The last four years have been really fun. We've been able to accomplish a lot of things together. Now with a baby on the way, we are ready to tackle the next chapter in our married life!

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Father and Son

Zach and his dad have been doing more hunting this month. They both love to get out and go hiking together. Zach comes home from his weekend hunting trips with a lot of pictures and stories. He loves it!

Panoramic view of the pretty aspens.

Like father, like son. :)

On their way up the mountain. Zach said they covered about 10 miles that weekend.

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Honoring September 11, 2001

Erica and I spent a day running errands in Salt Lake to get some stuff done for her wedding. One of our stops was in Sandy at the South Towne mall. We were pleasantly surprised by a mob of "bikers" gathered at a nearby park honoring the victims of 9/11. We decided to head over to the park to check it out. It was awesome. Flags were everywhere. Each flag posted at the park was honoring an individual person that had passed away during that terrible day. Erica and I walked through the field and read a lot of the cards tied to the flags. It was sad but inspiring. A little while later, all the bikers took off together to cruise in a long line down state street. It was pretty cool to see them all show their support for our country. I think it's wonderful that the tragic events of 9/11 brought our country closer together, rather than tearing us apart. Yay USA! :)

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Zach's 29th Birthday

I can't believe my husband turned 29 earlier this week!! I feel like we're getting so old. ha ha. Where has the time gone? I still think he's handsome as ever though. :) We had a low-key dinner at Wing Nutz with some family and then opened presents at our house afterwards. I didn't take any pics. Ooops.

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Fishing with Tiger

Erica took tiger fishing up at Tibble Fork Reservoir. She said he LOVED it! He ran around in the water and enjoyed smelling everything in sight! He's such a cutie.

Guys' Trip and Baby Update

2011-08-28T11:32:00.002-06:00

Zach really enjoyed is annual guys' trip. This year, the boys headed to San Diego for some deep sea fishing. Mike did a great job organizing the trip. The boys stopped and stayed one night in Las Vegas, and then continued the drive on to San Diego. They spent one of the nights sleeping on the fishing boat. Zach always comes back from his guy trips with funny stories. :) He loves getting out and spending time with his buddies. He had a great time this year.

Seafood dinner in Vegas.

Too bad it was cold and cloudy.

Games at night.

Zach is lovin life!

Learning how to bate the hook.

Q's prized catch!

The gang.

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Bow Hunt

Zach camped with some friends up in Strawberry for the bow hunt this year. It is his first year being able to use his new bow he bought last Fall. He was really excited.

He found a waterfall on a hike.

So pretty.

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2nd Trimester!

FINALLY!! I have waited anxiously to be out of the first trimester for a long time! I have started to feel a little bit better the last couple of days. I'm still not back to 100%, but any sort of relief feels sooo great!! I have graduated from my bed to the couch, and have even ventured out to my backyard a couple of times. lol I can't tell you how much I appreciate "feeling good" and not feeling so nauseated anymore.

Zach and I went to my second OB appointment last Monday. Everything went well. The baby's heart beat was loud and normal. My doctor was surprised at how much more weight I had lost compared to our last visit. I weighed in at 109.2 lbs. Eeek! :( All that barfing just about killed me. ha ha. It took quite a toll on my body. My doctor recommended I head down to the hospital's cancer center for IV treatments if I got any worse. Luckily, I've been doing better the last few days and have been able to keep food down. Hopefully I can gain some healthy weight back in the next couple of weeks.

Also in the last couple of days, my baby belly popped out just a little! :) It looks more like I ate a nice big dinner rather than a baby bump, but it's a little bit of progress. We'll find out if it's a boy or a girl within the next few weeks. Both Zach and I really hope it's boy, but of course we'll be happy with a girl too.

I Used To Have A Life

2011-08-07T13:10:00.002-06:00

I'm typically not much of a complainer; however, I need to vent...but first, a disclaimer: I'm really am so lucky and grateful I'm pregnant, I don't take it for granted, and I know things could be much worse, but you can't knock a girl for needing to vent about the negative aspects of pregnancy, right?! :)

Before I got pregnant I used to go out and enjoy life, but nowadays I just sit around my house doing everything possible to keep myself from throwing-up. For seven straight weeks now, I have been sick. It has been a nightmare. Morning sickness is so much harder than I ever thought it would be. And by the way, whoever termed it "morning" sickness must not have had it all that bad. Some of us unlucky ones are sick all morning, noon, and night! I fall asleep nauseous and wake up nauseous, day in and day out. In fact, I have literally almost forgotten what it feels like to actually feel good.

If I'm not throwing-up, I feel like I'm just about to. Anything food related repulses me. I gag at just the smell of it. It's a major chore to try to eat anything. Nothing sounds appetizing. I've been living off bland crackers, bread, and soup. Occasionally, a couple of Chedder Cheese Dorito's will sound ok (which I didn't like before I was pregnant) and maybe a popsicle...on a good day. I have lost a lot of weight too. I started out at 130 lbs and now I'm down to 115 lbs. Yikes. I've been forcing myself to drink nasty "Boost" drinks packed with extra vitamins and calories to try to keep my weight up. And I swear I have a super-powered nose...all smells are enhanced, but not in a good way. My poor dog smells so bad to me. I can't really sit next to him or cuddle with him anymore. So sad. Smells that I used to like aren't so great anymore. It is the weirdest thing.

I have been taking 8 mg of Zofran (anti-nausea drug) twice a day...and it doesn't help all that much. It seems to help some days and totally rejects me other days. Its negative side effects are major headaches. So ontop of being nauseous, I have throbbing headaches. It kills me to read forums online about how wonderful Zofran is and that's it's the "miracle" drug...cause it hasn't done jack for me. Bummer. My OB has had me try other anti-nausea medications, all of which did nothing. I've tried both types of Unisom (Diphenhydramine and Doxylamine) and B6 in all different kinds of combinations; in the morning, at night, only 25mg of B6, 50mg, extra strength Unisom, half a Unisom...but yeah, nothing helped. I've tried Ginger Tea, specialized pregnancy popsicles, Gatorade, lower dose prenatals (cause those make me sick too), not taking prenatals at all, smoothies, and multiple types of food remedies. But nothing helps!

So I have been forced to give up trying to help or fix the nausea all together, and am just facing it head on. And it's been hard---really hard. It's physically exhausting and emotionally draining. In my mom's pregnancy experience, she usually stops feeling sick by 14 weeks, so if I'm anything like her, I'll hopefully be out of this black hole in 3 weeks. I can't imagine being one of those poor ladies who feels this type of sickness their entire pregnancy. I hope that doesn't happen to me. I think I would die.

To say the least, being pregnant so far has sucked! It has been a long road and I haven't even hit my second trimester yet. I still have a long way to go. BUT, I can't say I haven't learned a few things about myself and my relationship with God throughout this difficult journey. On really hard days, with lots of tears, I found myself begging God for any type of relief...but not much relief came. I received a couple of blessings from Zach and my Dad; both implied that I needed to learn something from this experience and go through it just as many other women have in the past. Neither blessing promised much physical relief, but I was granted peace and comfort emotionally.

After many tearful nights and frustrating prayers, I finally received some comforting answers. I was flipping through an old Book of Mormon student manual and a particular page spoke directly to me. The topic was trials. I read a few lines and immediately started to cry. I knew God was speaking to me and comforting me through these words..."The Lord has made no secret of the fact that He intends to try the faith the patience of His Saints. However the Lord knows our bearing capacity, both as to coping and comprehending, and He will not give us more to bear than we can manage at the moment, though to us it may seem otherwise. By trusting God--including when we feel forsaken and alone--we can learn to be righteous in the dark. God gives us deliberate tutorials. These learning experiences must not be misread as divine indifference. Instead, such tutorials are a part of our divine unfolding."

That night, along with a few other experiences, I finally came to terms with the fact that I have to go through this sort of "right of passage" in pregnancy to really appreciate the sacrifice and love it takes to have a baby. The challenges of pregnancy are only a prerequisite to the blessings of the miracle of birth and motherhood. It would be impossible for me to grow and learn through this experience without facing challenges. The way I handle my struggle makes my personal journey a road of emotional/spiritual progression instead of resentment. So even though I still feel awful, and I am counting down the days until it's over, my suffering has new meaning. I can find peace in knowing that this struggle is part of my journey of faith and trust; my journey to learn to be 'righteous in the dark.'

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Here are a couple of outings just days before I got super sick...when I used to have a life! :)

Miss Utah Pageant

Michelle, me, and Natalie attended the 2011 Miss Utah Pageant. It was a blast! All the girls were so beautiful and talented. We had great seats right upfront. Our favorite was Miss Draper who's platform was something along the lines of helping people recover from prescription drug addiction. I thought that was awesome. I admired her drive to try to resolve something so "taboo" as prescription drug abuse among Utah residents. She was awesome.

Waiting in our seats and ready for the show to begin.

The little "tween" contestants did a cute routine.

All the lovely ladies.

Afterwards, we chased down some of the girls to get some photo opts. They were all lovely!

Miss Draper. She ended up getting second runner up. First place winner, Miss Utah, was Miss UVU (who we didn't get a picture with).

Miss Brigham City. I don't think she won anything, but her dress was soo sparkly and pretty. We had to get a pic.

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Mamma Mia on Broadway

Samantha's kids love the movie, so she decided to take them to go see the play. She invited Kathy and I along too. It was a cute play. The kids loved singing along to the music. I love how beautiful Capital Theater is. The ornate details inside are gorgeous.

Ready to go in and sing!

We bought some snacks and up to the balcony we went.

It was a full house. Tickets were sold out.

Intermission.

Loved that chandelier!

We're Pregnant!!

2011-07-24T15:54:00.005-06:00

Zach and I are excited to announce that we will be welcoming our first baby in February 2012! As of now, I am only 9 weeks along. It may be a bit early to announce this great news (since miscarriage is still quite common for many women at this early stage...we're crossing our fingers that we don't encounter that), but we couldn't keep it a secret any longer! My actual due date is February 27, 2012.

Zach and I decided we wanted to try to start a family last April while we were listening to the talks during General Conference. Several of the talks and themes prompted us to really start praying and thinking seriously about this huge step in our lives. I had strong witnesses during that weekend that helped reassure me that the timing was right. Several additional witnesses that transpired in the weeks following also helped confirm our decision and eased my nervous mind.

After finally deciding we were ready, two months later I got pregnant! I really wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly. I had heard from many others that it could take 6 months to 1 year to get pregnant the first time, so I was fully expecting things to happen much slower than they did. I found out I was pregnant when I was 4 weeks along. I had about a week to celebrate and function normally, and then the sickness kicked in right away. :( Yuck. Since week 5, I have been oh so incredibly sick; more than I ever thought I would be. I can barely keep food down, and I am nauseous all day and all night. Nothing seems to really help. I have tried every remedy possible, both medicinal and natural, but no matter what I do I still feel like crap. It's awful. I have been down and out, in bed or on the couch, for what seems like years...and I still have several more weeks left of my first trimester! Blah!! I miss my life and my appetite.

But on a positive side, I have had a great support/help system. I have the best boss and co-workers who have taken over some of my work load and let me do my remaining tasks from home. What a blessing! Zach has been awesome too. He's been so patient and kind. He runs errands for me, gets me whatever I need, and takes great care of me. My girlfriends have been so kind with loving texts, phone calls, and dropping off goodies for me. And I've really appreciated all the awesome Facebook comments from everyone! So nice!! Thank you, thank you!!! I really appreciate the love. My sweet mom also flew in from California to stay and help me out for a couple of weeks. She has been wonderful! She spent all day Saturday cleaning my entire house for me...down to the dusting and laundry. She is amazing. I couldn't have done it without her. I feel really lucky.

I'm excited to one day meet this baby and become a mother, but to be totally honest I'm also scared to pieces! Having a child is a major physical and emotional sacrifice. I have always been aware of the great blessings that children bring, but I have also been real with myself in realizing the trials and work it is too. Knowing those things, I have purposely waited to have kids until I was older; not only to make sure I was emotionally ready, but to also finish my goals and personal wants (finish college, go on vacations, buy a house, be financially stable, newlywed time with Zach, etc.) before becoming a mother. Call me selfish, faithless, prideful, or even risky, but that's what I personally wanted to do in life before committing to raise a family. :) Now that I have completed all those things, the time is here! I am scared and have no idea what I am doing, but I am ready to dedicate my time to learning and growing with this baby and figuring out motherhood!
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How I Found Out

It was early Friday morning, June 17, 2011, when my alarm went off. I got up to shower and get ready for work. Since Zach has Friday's off, he was home with me still snoozin away. I headed to the bathroom to pee, and I glanced at the pile of "All A Dollar" pregnancy tests I had purchased a couple of months ago that were stacked on the back of the toilet. I thought, "Maybe I should take one." I could faintly remember that I was supposed to start my period that same morning, but it hadn't come yet...maybe I was pregnant? I hadn't tracked my ovulation that month like I had in previous months because, frankly, it was kind of a hassle and I wasn't interested in dealing with it anymore. My cycle was pretty regular, so I just figured my body would do it's own thing, and when the time's right, it will happen when it's supposed too. So I non-chaluntly decided to take a test. What could it hurt. Since we had only been trying for two short months, I assumed I probably wasn't pregnant yet. I peed on the test, put it flat on the floor in front of me, and without waiting for the results, I jumped in the shower.

I continued to get ready for the day. About a half hour later, I remembered the test. I peeked in the bathroom and glanced down at the test. I could see a faint light pink line below the dark test line. My eyes widened! I bent down, grabbed it, and just starred. I thought, "Could I really be pregnant!? We've only been trying for two months. What did a "faint" pink line mean? Is this dumb "All A Dollar" test legit?" I immediately regretted buying the cheap test and wished I had bought a more reliable one.

I ran over to Zach to shake him and wake him up. I shoved the test in his tired eyes and said, "Babe, I think I might be pregnant!" He sat up and squinted at the test. I said, "But the pink line is barely there, so I don't know if I'm pregnant or not." He looked up at me with a smile and said, "Well, a line's a line. Good job, babe." ha ha. He's always so calm. I immediately started jumping up and down screaming and laughing with excitement...and then plopped on the bed next to him and began crying with fear; total mix of emotions. I was soo happy and so nervous at the same time. I remember saying through my tears, "I don't know how to be a good mom." Zach was sweet and reassured me that everything would be ok. We talked for a few minutes about our new upcoming adventure.

I then called my mom and told her the good news. She was so happy! She screamed out her bedroom window to the world, "Cristi's pregnant!! I'm gonna be a Grandma again!" Ha ha. It was funny to hear. However, I still wasn't totally convinced---I wanted to buy another, more reliable, pregnancy test. So I headed to work, and told my co-worker Natalie about my experience, and later on my lunch break headed to Smith's Marketplace to buy another test. I went directly to Smith's restroom and took the test...a nice bright blue "+" sign showed up immediately! That, for me, made it real. I really was pregnant. I calculated my last menstrual period date and figured out that I was about 4 weeks along. I met up with my friend Britney for lunch and shared the exciting news and called my immediate family members too. Then I went back to work and confirmed to Natalie that I really was pregnant. From then on it felt real, and I was excited!

Once I knew I was pregnant, I called my OB's office and scheduled an appointment for when I'd be 8 weeks along. Now all there was to do was wait and cross my fingers that everything goes well.

My ghetto "All A Dollar" test and my expensive EPT test! Both provided the same result! :)

On July 21, 2011, I had my first ultrasound at my 8 week appointment. It was so surreal seeing that little peanut inside my body! My OB pointed out the head and feet. We could hear and see the heart chambers pumping really fast. It was incredible. I thought I would cry, but I didn't; I just kept smiling. It was such a neat experience. Zach and my mom were both there too. Zach took lots of pictures and video. He was all smiles too.

My doctor said the baby was measuring about 9 weeks (which would explain why I got sick so early; I was probably further along than I thought), but she said she would keep my original due date the same for now.

Our first family picture! ha ha

My mom cried a few happy tears. She is thrilled to have another grand-baby to spoil! ;)

Here's a short little video of the baby's heartbeat!

Accent Chair Makeover

2011-07-03T16:01:00.002-06:00

After one of my braces consultations in Salt Lake, I decided to make a quick stop at the Sugar House DI. I headed straight downstairs to their furniture section. Immediately I saw this rickety, old, dirty chair...oh what potential it had! A flood of refurbishing ideas were running through my head---cute new upholstery fabric for the cushions and new paint with a glazed finish. And thoughts of where to place it too---a reading nook in the guest room, or in the entry way, or even better our porch! Yes, that is what I decided to use it for, our porch. I was excited.

This wonderful little chair was up for sale for $25.00...a great price, but I knew I could get it for a bit cheaper. With a little charm and negotiation(ok, and a little flirting too), I talked the nice man down to $15.00!! I'm terrible, but it worked! :)

Mr. Chair and I went cruising home together. It was a beezy trying to get this chair to fit in my car. Luckily the nice DI guys did it for me.

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Demolition Time

I knew this was going to be the worst part. I used needle nose pliers to wiggle out the piping and staples. Trying to get out every little staple was such a pain, so I got lazy and left a lot of them still in the chair. Actually, I got lazy with quite a few steps in the this chair re-do process. ha ha. Since I knew it was going to remain outside, and probably get beat up over time in our ridiculous Utah weather, I didn't bother slaving over the minor details. :)

I started out by tearing off all the old fabric and batting. I stripped it down to the foam seat.

Those little buggers were really stubborn. Maybe I just needed bigger stronger tools...or hands. I should have made Zach do it. :)

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Fresh Paint

Once I was done demolishing, I took it down to the basement for some painting. I gave it a light sanding and spray painted a few coats of primer. When I applied the glossy top coat, the paint began to crack!!! Yikes! I was bummed. I started over....sanded, primed, and for the top coat, I used a better quality type of paint. That worked. No more cracking.

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Glazed Finish

I took my Dremel tool and ruffed up the edges to create a weathered look. Since I knew it was going out on our porch, I purposely made it look extra damaged.

After everything was distressed and sanded, I painted on the brown glaze. I did several coats of the glaze to make it antique looking. I wanted it to look really old and used. If this were an indoor chair, I wouldn't have done so many coats of brown. I liked the extra glazed look since it was an outdoor chair.

It's all dry and ready for fabric.

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New Upholstery

Whenever I'm in a fabric store, and I see fabric I like, I'll usually purchase a yard or two to save it for future projects. So for this particular chair, I needed specific outdoor fabric that would be durable against the weather. Because of my fabric buying habit, I had already had few types of fabrics to choose from. I laid them all out and decided which one to use.

This is my make-shift craft room. I spend way too many hours in there.

Since I had painted the chair white with a brown glazed finish, I decided to go with a fabric that had creams and browns within the print. Even though damask prints are getting pretty "played-out" lately (I still love it; it's a classic print), I decided to go with the brown damask anyway. I can always change it later if I get really sick of it.

Tiger stopped in to say hello while I was sewing. He's sooo cute! :)

Instead of wasting money to buy a new zipper for the cushion's slip cover, I just recycled the old existing zipper. I seam-ripped the old zipper and added it to my new fabric. And once again, I was lazy, and didn't bother getting rid of all the extra existing thread when I was done seam-ripping. I'm ghetto I guess. It was pointless to to me since I knew the zipper would be tucked way in the back anyway.

The cushion slip cover is finished. Next step, the back cushion. Zach was my cute model for me. He's my biggest fan. He's good at complimenting my work! Love him for that. :)

I measured and cut the cushion dimensions, sewed the cover, and stuffed the existing cushion in. Another lazy moment: I didn't bother to remove the old fabric or zipper. :) It didn't matter to me.

I stapled the left over fabric to the foam seat. I didn't worry about covering the whole foam seat since I knew the top cushion would cover most of it anyway.

I hot glued ribbon over the staples for a finished look.
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All Done!
Once everything was finished, I took it out to the porch to stay! I thought it turned out cute. Now our front porch is much more inviting.

To add to my porch's seating area, I decided to make a burlap pillow. I had a couple girls over for a craft night to make our burlap pillows together. It was fun. I wasn't real happy with how mine turned out, so I'll have to try it again in the future. The "B" is a bit to big for the pillow. Oh well, it will work for now.

I'm happy with how everything turned out...and especially for such a cheap price!

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Before and After

LOVE IT!

Las Vegas

2011-06-21T17:48:00.003-06:00

Erica's good friend from high school, Heidi, asked us to meet up with her in Vegas for a quick weekend getaway to celebrate her upcoming marriage to her high school sweetheart. Erica was actually the one who set them up in high school, so she's proud to say she is a great matchmaker! Heidi booked our hotel at the fabulous MGM Grand so that we could spend hours at the famous Wet Republic pool. We had a blast together! It was so fun getting away and spending some time with just girls. I loved it!

The weather was perfect! Not too hot, and clear skies.

The famous Lion statue in MGM Grand's lobby.

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Poolside at Wet Republic

After we checked in and had our luggage delivered to our room, we headed straight to the Wet Republic pool. We pretty much lived by the pool the rest of the weekend.

Note to self: bring your own beverages! My Strawberry Daiquiri was $12.00!! Plus tip. Ouch. Good thing it tasted good.

Laying out in the sun and relaxing is my favorite type of vacation. Not a care in the world!

Heidi and Erica hadn't seen each other in awhile. They had fun catching up and reminiscing about the good 'ol high school days.

We couldn't get enough of the pool. We stayed there until 7pm that night. Then it was off to walk the Strip.

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Dinner at the Venetian
We walked from one end of the Strip to the other. Our feet were so tired when we finally made it to the Venetian for dinner.

On our way back, we decided to take the Monorail to the MGM Grand instead of walking. Ha ha. We're wimps.

Enjoying the pretty view of the gondolas on the river that runs through the Venetian.

The lovely "Outdoor Restaurant" inside the Venetian.

A quick stop at the wax museum with good 'ol Harrison Ford. After that, it was back to the hotel to get ready for the club!
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Studio 54 Club
That night we hit up MGM Grand's Studio 54! It was so much fun! I hadn't gone out dancing in quite awhile! The DJ was awesome. I can't get enough of Hip-Hop.

Beautiful Heidi and Erica, all dressed up and ready to dance!

Heidi and Michelle(who just recently got her braces off! Wahoo!)

On our way down to the club. We were pumped!

Studio 54! And its $20.00 cover charge---but it was totally worth every penny!

Love my family!

Dancing the night away! We didn't get back to our room until 4:30am. We were wiped out.

Relaxing in the lounge area.

Erica and I danced like crazy! We were so hot and sweaty from dancing so hard...the best!! ha ha!

. . . .

Back to the Pool

The next morning we went back to Wet Republic for another day of lounging and getting some rays. It was perfect.

The lazy river took you around all of MGM's pools.

Erica and I chillin out together.

Our girls' trip was amazing. We all had a fabulous time. I think trips like this are good for the soul! :) Even if it's only for the weekend. It's so nice to get away from the daily grind. I LOVED this trip!

Summer Is Here

2011-06-08T17:01:00.023-06:00

It seems that summer has finally arrived here in Utah...and hopefully here to stay. It's been warm and rain-free for almost a week now! I was getting pretty bad cabin fever before the sun finally decided to show up. I'm excited to start some fun summer activities! I'm ready to lay out in the sun and dig out my flip-flops and sandals. It's about time!

.. .. .. .. ..

Dinner Date
I welcomed the Summer with a visit from Tianna! She came to Utah for a few items of business and made room for us girls too. We definitely miss her now that she lives in San Diego (and Sara who's in NC for the summer). Tianna organized a fun little dinner for us. She picked a delicious Mediterranean Restaurant called Layla in Holladay. It was so good. I loved my lemon chicken and rice. It was really flavorful. I'm definitely going back there again with Zach.

Allie has a cute baby bump now! She's expecting a little boy in the Fall. We are all so excited for her.

Beautiful ladies. Tianna, we sure do miss you.

Allie and I

It was a nice night with the girls.

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Utah Valley's Parade of Homes

I also kicked off my summer by hitting up the Parade of Homes with Britney. We bought tickets last week and have only been to a few houses so far, but we'll continue to go to the rest of the homes this week and next. There are some awesome houses this year!!! I got a few pics with my phone...sneaky! :)

Snapped on our booties and we're ready to go!

I love these East Coast styled homes! It reminds me of Cape Cod, MA. I love the bright white trim.

Master bedroom built-ins and fireplace! I'm in LOVE!

Cute girlie room.

Gigantic vaulted ceilings and lofts.

Huge walk-out basements.

Indoor basketball court...AWESOME!!!

Simulated golf course! Awesome again!

.. .. .. .. ..

Hail in June

Before summer arrived, we had a pretty crazy hail storm a few weeks ago. When I served my mission in Texas, I definitely saw bigger pieces of hail than this recent storm here (hail that was literally the size of golf balls...ouch!). Even though the storm we had wasn't as crazy as Texas storms, I was pretty surprised at how much hail we got! It was quite a lot!

Our court was covered in hail and puddles.

Our gutters were clogged and overflowing with hail.

I had Erica take a quick video on my iPhone of the storm. :)

.. .. .. .. ..

Rainy Rodeo
Also before summer decided to show up, Zach and I went to the Eagle Mountain Rodeo with Ben and Ashlee. We braved the cold rain and wind and surprisingly we stayed the whole time. I felt bad for the riders. It was so cold and wet. Zach and I won a few prizes by spinning the KBULL 93 wheel and I also caught one of the t-shirts they were throwing out to the crowd too! I guess it wasn't that hard to catch since we were pretty much the only ones there! :)

Stompin around in the mud.

Cute Ashlee chillen in her poncho.

Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at In-N-Out Burger in AF. Zach's sportin his cowboy boots. Despite the rain, we had a good time!

A Touch of Fancy

2011-05-24T11:15:00.004-06:00

Awards Dinner at the Grand America

Zach really likes where he works. He especially likes his department. Sometimes he comes home with some pretty funny stories about the hilarious people he works with. I've only met a few of them, and they really are great people. Zach's department was invited to the company's annual awards dinner. Specific departments were recognized for their extra effort in contributing to the success of the company. I think it's nice that the company rewards its employees with a fancy dinner...and that the spouses get to come too.

Zach and I arrived early to save seats for his department. When we first arrived, we walked around Grand America's courtyard. The flowers were in full bloom. It was beautiful.

We were served drinks and appetizers in the foyer while we waited to enter the ballroom. Yum.

L-3 rented out a huge, beautiful ballroom. I was obsessed with the chandeliers. They were massive. Zach took a pic directly underneath one of them. It looked awesome. I'd been to several work parties at The Grand America in the past, but every time I go there, I'm still in awe of how beautiful it is.

We met up with Zach's parents.

The room was packed!

They provided free drinks, a fabulous dinner, a great band, and dancing! I loved the pretty ice sculptures too. It was a fun event. I especially liked meeting more of Zach's co-workers.

. . .

Betsy's Baby Shower

My sweet friend, Betsy, will be welcoming a baby girl in July. She was thrown a lovely shower by many of her cute girlfriends. Betsy is one kind and genuine gal! And beautiful! She's married to a great guy too. Her husband, Jeff, is hilarious. Zach and I love getting together with Betsy and Jeff. There's never dull moment; we're usually rolling with laughter.

She has the cutest baby belly!

Betsy received some cute gifts. Kenzie had a blast helping her mom open them all. Congrats Betsy!!

and later that night...

Nate and Courtney's Wedding

Zach's cousin, Nate Benedict, married his long-time girlfriend, Courtney, at the beautiful Cucina Nassi. It was a sweet ceremony. Nate immediately started to cry when he saw his beautiful bride walking down the isle. It was so cute. I love a guy with a sensitive side. It must be a Benedict thing...Zach's the same way. Zach cried more than I did on our wedding day. ha ha. It was sweet. :)

They had a lovely ceremony.

Zach's parents, Kathy and Tom.

Little Miss Mia and the Woodwards.

Z and I right before we scarfed down a delicious dinner. It was a nice evening.

Spring Time...Sort Of

2011-05-09T16:30:00.006-06:00

Utah's Spring weather is ridiculous! Just when you think it's starting to warm up, it snows again. Ugh. Our usual spring time activities this year have been a bit dampened by the rain and cold. Regardless, we've been super busy and having a lot of fun hanging out with friends and family. Most of these pics were taken with my phone. I've been too lazy to get out my real camera. I need to be better at that. Oops. Here's a post of what we've been up to during this not-so spring time...
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Coloring Easter Eggs
Erica came over the night before Easter to color eggs with Zach and I. We wanted to decorate a few eggs to add to Zach's niece and nephew's Easter Baskets.

Zach had to draw an Elk on one of the eggs. Will this hunting obsession ever end!!?? :)

Tiger was interested in what we were doing. He loved to sniff the eggs. We also rented "Tangled" that night. Such a cute movie!
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Easter Dinner
The next day, we had a lovely dinner with Zach's parents at his sister's home in Draper. We also celebrated Mia's 4th birthday. Riley was cute and played a trick on Zach---he colored and decorated an egg for Zach that was NOT boiled. Ha ha. Love those kiddos. They are too cute.

We finished up the night at our house with my siblings and cousins and watched "The Ten Commandments" on TV---an Easter tradition in my family. And Zach finds his lost sheep. :) Happy Easter to everyone!

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Johnny Carinos

I LOVE Italian food. It's my first pick for any meal. We went out to eat with some friends for Jeff's birthday. I ordered a delicious lemon chicken pasta. Soo good. Happy Birthday Jeff!

My lovely sista.

Jeff has some great roommates. Awesome guys.

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Open Mic Night
Our friends Ashlee and Ben recently moved onto our street and attend our same ward. They are quickly becoming great friends of ours. In Ben's free time, he plays in a band with his brother. They invited us to attend their show at Wingers in SLC. They were great! We chowed down on good food, enjoyed great company, and listened to several talented artists. We're excited to see them again. Great job Ben!

The beautiful Ashlee and her husband Ben. Love this couple!

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Sara's Goodbye Dinner

Sara and Cody are moving to North Carolina for the summer to sell with Pinnacle Security. We organized a small goodbye dinner for Sara to wish her luck on their summer sales adventure. We sure do miss her already. I'm looking forward to her visit in June! Along with Tianna!

We ate at the Blue Lemon in Alpine. Scrumptious food. We stayed and chatted long after the place closed. I love gabbing with these girls. We could talk forever!

Goodbye hugs!

Good luck Sara and Cody! Miss you guys!

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Mother's Day

Though it was cold and rainy, Mother's Day was awesome! My family conference called my little brother Phil on his mission in Denver Colorado. He is the last missionary to serve in our family. For the last twelve years, my parents have had the opportunity to look forward to Mother's Day and Christmas Day phone calls from all of their missionary children. Since Phil will be coming home on July 27th, this last Mother's Day phone call was the final call they will receive from one of their kids. It was bitter/sweet.

Phil is doing incredibly well! He's had nine convert baptisms in the last six weeks that have come mainly from street contacting and tracting! He's doing amazing. He's in leadership and enjoying every minute serving the people of Colorado. We're so proud of him. It was so much fun talking to him. We can't wait to see him in July.

We spent Mother's Day morning being lazy and lounging around. Tiger loves to jump in bed with us in the mornings to cuddle. He climbs under the covers just like a person! ha ha. It's soo cute!

Our ward is awesome! The Bishopric set up an incredible brunch for Mother's Day. During the entire last hour of RS, all of the women in the ward relaxed, chatted, and snacked on fresh fruits and chocolate fondue!!! It was so delicious. I appreciated the time and effort the men put into thanking the mothers...I got to enjoy the perk and I'm not even a mom yet. :)

This is a picture taken a year ago, but here are my two lovely Moms, Kathy and Julie!

My mother-in-law, Kathy, has been good to me. She has welcomed me into her family from the very beginning of Zach and I's relationship. I can still remember the first time I met her back in the Fall of 2002. We attended Zach's little brother's football game in Salt Lake, and then went out to dinner with his family afterwards. It was then that I got to know Kathy personally. From then on, as Zach and I continued to date, she was always proactive in making sure I was invited to all of their family functions. I've always felt comfortable and loved around Zach's mom and the rest of his family. A fond memory I have with Kathy happened when Zach and I had only been dating a few months---she asked me if I wanted to go for drive and get a "treat" with her, just the two of us. I had no idea what she meant by "treat," but I accepted the invite. While driving to Park City, we chatted about the Benedict family history, about Zach's life and how glad she was that we were dating, and just about life in general. It was a nice drive. Once we got to Park City, we pulled up to a McDonald's drive-thru. Kathy ordered two large Cokes for us...two "treats!" I laughed and LOVED it. From then on, the nickname "treat," in replace of Coke, has stuck. Zach and I call it that all the time now. Happy Mother's Day, Kathy!

My own mom, Julie, is one of my best friends! She and I have some of the funniest conversations. My mom has a contagious laugh and likable personality. I appreciate that she makes her own family a major priority, yet, at the same time, she also cultivates her own social life and career. She has a great balance of both! She has a lot of wisdom and knowledge when it comes to people skills and the gospel. She's a great role model for our family. I have many fond memories with my mom, but one in particular happened when I was a senior in high school---I was the Laurel President in Young Womens, and my mom was serving as a counselor in the Presidency. The entire YW were asked to help clean a needy lady's house in a nearby neighborhood. Well, this house wasn't a typical cluttered messy house, this was like one of those houses you see on that show, "Hoarders: Buried Alive!" We walked in and immediately looked at each other with wide, surprised eyes! It was disgusting! This lady owned at least 10 cats, all of which pooped everywhere!!! There were dried boogers on the walls and trash all over the floor. You couldn't even see the floor. Junk was piled everywhere! We both went and found a little corner together to start cleaning, but all we could do was laugh hysterically as we scraped off dried boogers and picked up cat poop!!! Ha ha! We were laughing so hard we were crying!! Call us immature, but it was the only way we could get through that morning of cleaning without gagging or passing out from the smell! :) We had to make the best of a nasty situation. It was a day I will never forget! We laughed for hours, even after we were finished! It is a memory we still reminisce and laugh about to this day. My mom is great. She has taught me so many wonderful things over the years. I love her so much! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!

Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction

2011-04-22T12:30:00.002-06:00

I've had a mild case TMJD (a type of jaw pop or click) since high school. Whenever I chew gum or eat tough meats, the upper joint in my jaw clicks. It isn't too terribly painful right now, but my doctor says that it will only get worse as I get older. Yikes. So in order to fix my jaw-popping problem, I'll need to have jaw surgery!!! BLAH! :( And in order to make the jaw surgery completely successful and accurate, I'll need to have a two-year treatment of braces---which I'm actually really happy about! Perfectly straight teeth?? Yes please!

The first year of braces will prep my jaw for surgery by correcting my cross-bite (after the first year, I'll then have the jaw surgery), and the second year of braces will perfectly align my teeth to accommodate my new jaw-line. TMJD is actually common in many adults; my mom had the same problem too. She didn't get her jaw fixed until her early 40's. Because she waited so long, she was having severe headaches, earaches, and jaw pain. So both my doctor and my mom think it's best for me to get the problem fixed while I'm young, rather than having to worry about it when I'm older.

Soooo braces and surgery, here I come! Both the braces and the surgery are going to hurt like crazy, but I'm up for it. I'm especially grateful for modern technology/medicine to fix my jaw instead of having to suffer when it gets worse later on in my life.

What I'm really excited about is the type of braces I'm getting-- Damon Braces! They are the newest and greatest braces on the market. Instead of having to use rubber-bands on the brace brackets, my braces will have a self-ligating (locking) system built directly onto the brackets. My orthodontist says the self-ligating braces will be smaller, less painful, and can move my teeth faster than traditional braces. Though they are a bit more pricey than traditional braces, less pain and faster treatment time is totally worth the price.

For the first few months, my orthodontist wants me to wear the metal Damon braces for strength and mobility on my teeth. After that, I can wear the white/ceramic Damon braces so I won't look like such a metal mouth. :) I'm actually really excited to get braces (not for the pain or the fact that I'll look like I'm 14 years old) but for the results!

So to my dear friends, co-workers, and family, when I see you at our get-togethers, our double dates, our girls' lunches, and our work meetings---please excuse the obnoxious metal in my mouth when I talk, and the nasty pieces of food that will most definitely get stuck while I eat!! Haha so gross. Oh the joys. None the less, I'm excited and I know it will be totally worth it!
. . . . . .

The Braces Go On!
April 21, 2011
I got my braces on yesterday morning. It wasn't too bad. My Orthodontist and his assistant were awesome. They were gentle and explained everything they were doing as they worked on me. I actually didn't really have any pain at all until later that night when my teeth were beginning to move---oh man, I could have ripped all my teeth out! The pain is awful, but still totally worth it to me! :) I took a few pics with my phone at my appointment. I had to document the beginning of my journey through braces.

Here I am right before I'm about to get my mouth full of metal!!

I starred at a beautiful view of the Salt Lake Valley while I waited.

The office is spectacular! It's so beautiful and clean. All the staff are so nice too.

Ta-da! All done. I look freakn ridiculous!!!!!! Ha ha! Some people don't look bad with braces, I, on the other hand, don't pull them off at all! Feel free to make fun of me all you want! :) I look like a 14 year old with silver teeth. Hopefully when I get the white ones, I won't look so metal mouthed!
When I got home from work that night and saw Zach, he just started laughing at me cause I looked so miserable from the pain. He kept hugging and kissing me and telling me how cute he thought I looked with my new grill. If only what he said was true. Haha Oh well, the outcome will look great. Until then, I'll be sportin my new "brace-face" look for the next two years! Yee-haw!
. . . . .

Later that night we attended Vince and Brooke's wedding reception. I couldn't throughly enjoy their yummy food with my sore teeth. Lame. But it was a fun night. We loved messing around in their guestbook photobooth!

Great Times with Great Friends

2011-04-17T17:19:00.006-06:00

Both Zach and I have some pretty awesome friends in our lives. All of them are such great people. I especially appreciate my girlfriends. They mean a lot to me. I don't always take pictures of all my time spent with my girlfriends, but this post includes a few recent outings I remembered to take a few pics of...

Dinner at Ruby River

We celebrated the birthdays of both Shannon's and Sara's husbands, Chris and Cody, with a nice dinner at Ruby River in Sandy. Zach loves going out to eat at places with delicious steaks. It was a nice mellow evening. No pics of the boys...oops.

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Lunch with Erin

My lovely friend Erin came up from St. George for a quick visit over the holidays. We got to squeeze in some time together for lunch and catching up. Since our fun days as roommates back in college, Erin and I have now stayed friends for a little over 8 years. She is so down-to-earth and sweet. She and I get along so well. I love her to pieces.

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Walks with Erica

My homegirl Erica is always down to hang out with me...even when it's taking the dogs out for a walk in the freezing weather.

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Relief Society Sisters

These two lovely ladies and myself get together quite often to plan for our monthly RS activities. They are stellar girls. They care about the women in our ward, they can be counted on to carry out responsibilities, and they are super creative. I feel lucky to serve with them. This particular activity was the annual Relief Society Birthday Party. It was a big activity to prepare for. It turned out great! We made adorable "Purse Invitations" out of card stock and hand delivered them to all the women in the ward. Our "purse" theme coordinated with our devotional's theme for the night, "Pursuit, Persevere, and Personal." We had a lovely dinner, a couple of speakers, and some purse activities. It was a successful night.

We had delicious homemade Panini's with fruit salads and garden salads. A nice, light dinner.

Aren't the purse cakes and cupcakes beautiful!?
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Poker Night at the McArthurs
Sara has an awesome basement "lounge." It's perfect for hanging out, playing games, and watching movies. Sara and Cody have always been great hosts. Even now with a baby in tow, they still manage to always have fun things planned for their friends and family. I love that about them.

Before we arrived for games at the McArthurs, Zach and I had just finished up dinner at the Olive Garden with some new friends from our ward, the Williams. We had a blast with them! And they only live a few houses down from us. Perfect.
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Fast Kart Speedway

Christie always sends me texts with the best Groupon deals. She's a pro at finding fun activities for all of us to do. Zach was pumped when I told him our date with Christie & Quentin and Mike & Britney was going to be at Fast Kart. He loves driving fast and a little competition. It really was so much fun. Zach lapped me at least four times. He was fast!

How is it that grandma hair nets, sweaty helmets, and the smell of exhaust can be so much fun!

We finished up our date at the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was a fun night.
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Tianna and Derek's Farewell

Tianna scored an awesome new job in her hometown of beautiful San Diego. She and Derrek were heading out of Utah permanently, so we all had one last night together before they left. We had a nice dinner at the Spaghetti Factory in Orem, and afterwards a movie at our house. We sure miss them already. Tianna, it's not the same without you. Please come back!!??

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Zahara's Baby Shower

Cute Zahara's baby came last week! He came a bit early, but everything is going well so far. She's a happy new mom. She had a baby shower at her in-law's beautiful home in North Orem. She looked fabulous as a cute little pregnant lady! She received lots of great gifts from her friends. One gift in particular I totally covet---her new Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. They just came out with a new collection called "Cake." Adorable. I'm totally getting one.

Her cute baby bump.

and later that night...

Zuppas with Allie and Sara

While our husbands were at the Priesthood Session of Conference, us girls grabbed a bite to eat at one of my favorite places, Zuppas. I loved holding little Gage and chatting it up with these great gals.

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Michelle's Birthday

We celebrated miss Michelle's 21st birthday at TGI Fridays in Sandy. She is one beautiful girl. We had a giant table of 16 people and a million laughs. Great night.

Family Time

2011-04-07T22:05:00.011-06:00

Natalie Turns One
My niece celebrated her first birthday on February 25! Sandra put together a beautiful garden themed party for little Natalie. She's a happy and healthy baby girl!

Beautiful mommy and birthday girl. I loved the cute hat Sandra made. She looked just like a little Garden Nome. :)

Daddy's girl.

Birthday cake! She was shy and a bit overwhelmed by all of us staring at her, but once she tasted the cake, she ate a ton!

Yum!

Auntie Cristi and Uncle Zach!

She had great helpers while opening her gifts.

We turned on music so we could watch her dance and shake her cute booty!

Cuddles with Grandma and Grandpa Mounteer.

Loves from Auntie Erica.

Sandra's family.

Time to clean up! Erica and I liked watching her splash and play in the tub. Natalie had a fun little birthday party. She sure is loved by so many people.

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St. George with my Grandparents

My grandparents own a cute desert house in St. George. They like to take a break from the snow at their home in Sandy by spending most of the winter in warmer St. George. They invited Zach and I to join them for a weekend to visit Zion and the St. George Temple. It wasn't as warm as we had hoped, but it was better than the snow we were used to up North. I also got to visit my dear friend Erin while we were there. Love that girl. Overall, it was a relaxing weekend.

We spent one afternoon driving through Zion.

Zion was beautiful. There were random wild turkeys running around.

We stopped and ate lunch at a restaurant in Springdale.

Zach loved the animal museum next to the restaurant.

The next day we headed to the temple. It's gorgeous inside! So unique. My grandparents told us a lot of great stories about the history of the St. George Temple.

Walking around the temple grounds after our session.

Hanging out at the house.

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Zach's Newest Toy

I guess Zach's collection of hunting guns and knives wasn't enough... he had to have a bow too. He had been researching all different kinds of bows for several months and finally bought a Hoyt Rampage XT. He LOVES it. He's set up a shooting range in our basement and on the property up behind our house. He can't wait for next season's bow hunt.

This is Zach's first shot with his new bow! He says it takes 70 pounds of pressure just to pull it back to shoot; so target practice can get pretty tiring. Tiger likes to follow him around. :)

His home-made target.

I love his cute smile! :)

I was at a baby shower last weekend when I got this text from Zach...he was so proud of his perfectly accurate shot! I laughed at how excited he was.

Here's the picture from his phone; an arrow shot right down the center of another arrow!

Zach also sent me this pic from his phone when he was on his goose hunting trip with my brother and some friends. Zach's turning my brother into a hick too! ha ha. :)

Slightly Obsessed

2011-03-16T16:30:00.003-06:00

Next month will officially mark that I have been out of school for one whole year! And what a splendid year it has been. Talk about tons more FREE TIME! I have absolutely reveled in all the extra hours my "school-less" days have provided! I have had so much more time to do fun little "me" things that long classes and homework kept me from doing back in the day---for instance, I've been recreational reading instead of textbook reading (can I get a hallelujah!), I've had more time to follow my favorite music artists and designer blogs, I've been more involved with friends (and particularly Zach's Facebook. ha ha. He's a good sport and lets me run wild on it), and best of all, I've been doing lots of DIY projects (which I will post more about later...I've experimented with Glaze painting and finally finished my window valences). This last year has been a much needed "me-fest" and I've been so happy! As of late, I've been spending some of my free time obsessing over these lovelies...

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Alice Lane Home Collection

Aren't these couches awesome?! My friend Britney is getting her whole family room made-over this month by Jessica Bennett (owner of Alice Lane) and her design team...I can't say how completely and utterly jealous I am; it's going to look fabulous! Brit and I love to jump online and check out all her newest collections. You can also visit her store in Orem. I can't wait to see Brit's house when it's all finished.

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Drake

Totally random, but I've always been a fan of Hip-Hop and Rap. Comes from my Cali, Bay Area roots I guess! ;) My first concert ever was in 7th grade with my best girlfriends---we saw Tyrese live. Throw back! We loved it! My slight obsession with Drake (and pretty much all of Lil' Wayne's "Young Money" peeps) came when he dropped the single, "Forever," and also when he was ever-so charming on a Jimmy Kimmel episode. He continues to climb the hip-hop/rap latter and I am eating it all up. He and I hang out a lot together in my iTunes and Pandora accounts---he takes walks with Tiger and I on a daily basis too. :) I especially loved him in the video, "What's My Name" with Rihanna. Too suave! He's quite scrumptious. Zach likes him too, so I don't think he'll mind if I drool over Drake a bit longer. :)

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Candice Olson: "Candice Tells All"

FINALLY! My all-time favorite designer not only came out with a new season, but a brand new show! YES! Her new show has a bit of a different spin on it than her last one. She explains the "how and why" of her design plans. She also explains the roles of her entire design team that works under her. It's an awesome new show that I absolutely love! I love her taste. I love her personality. She's great!

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Gel Nail Polish

Ok if you've never tried it, DO! My friend Betsy told me about this; it is wonderful. It's not your typical nail polish; it's a gel. It is the same type of gel they use on acrylic nails, only it's painted directly on your real nail, so there's no damage to your nail beds. It's cured under a light for an instant dry and hardening. It doesn't chip or crack for at least 2-3 weeks or more! It's hard to believe, but its true! The two most popular brands for this new polish are Shellac and OPI's Axxium. I've tried both, and since I'm not an expert I can't really tell the difference---they both seem great. I've had a lady in Traverse Mountain do my nails out of her salon in her basement and she likes OPI's version better than Shellac. Either way, gel nail polish has revolutionized the nail polish world. Right now I have a plum color on my fingers and a light, sparkley pink on my toes. I love it! I'm hooked.

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Photoshop CS5

I've always loved Photoshop---from the early versions of 4.0 all the way up to CS3. But for the last year, I've had the newest version, CS5, and I LOVE this bad boy. It's got so many awesome new features! The newest feature on CS5 is the popular Content-Aware tool. I can easily remove unwanted junk in my photos with a swift stroke of a brush. The tool will automatically replace the object I've removed with what's in the background of your photo. It's awesome. I'm no Pro, but I love fiddling around with CS5 and learning new things. I actually created my current blog background and blog header with CS5. I could spend hours on Photoshop. It was worth every penny.

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Cesar Millan: The Dog Whisperer

My friend Sara let me borrow this book to help me better understand my sweet dog, Tiger. I'm almost half way through and I've really enjoyed it so far. Cesar goes into depth about the mistakes humans make with their dogs and how to effectively correct the problem. He's all about teaching you how to raise a happy dog with a nice balance of "dog instincts" versus "human instincts." His writing is fun and easy to understand. I've been trying to incorporate a lot of his tips into my dealings with Tiger. So far so good! :)

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Netflix

Why is Netflix so addicting! It is so easy to get hooked to a new season of a new show! I can cruise through hours of new shows without commercials or waiting for the next episode to air the next week. Such a delightful waste of time, right!? :) But Z and I both love it. We finished "LOST" a couple months ago. What a crazy, trippy show. It was suspenseful and intriguing...and Zach had a crush on Kate. ha ha. Now I'm about half way through "Desperate Housewives." That show is surprisingly witty and fun. Netflix is awesome. Nothing's better than curling up in a blanket with Zach, a bowl of popcorn, and a good movie on Netflix. Love that! Does anyone else love it as much as we do!?

. . .

I could go on and on about more of my little "me-time" obsessions. Those were just a few of my favorites! :)

This and That

2011-03-02T15:15:00.001-07:00

Michelle's Dental Assisting Graduation

Michelle has been taking Dental Assisting classes for the last year and a half. She has since graduated and is now on the hunt for a great job. We attended her graduation and later went out to eat to celebrate. Way to go Michelle!

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Joe's Crab Shack

Ok, so I totally love seafood, its so unique and delicious, but when I tried eating a 'whole' (as in not cut up, and all body parts in tact) lobster for the first time, I couldn't do it! I was surprised at myself! I guess having to see the spidery-looking legs, the eyeballs, the long antennas, and claws all sort of just creeped me out. Sebastian was laying there on the plate in front of me, and he didn't look tasty at all. I'm normally not such a wimp, but in this instant, I totally was. I lost my appetite. I completely passed on the lobster and snacked on the shrimp and clams. Now those were good. I let Zach have my lobster. He loved it.

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Craft Night: Fabric Flowers
A couple of months ago, Brit and Zahara decided to get together for dinner and fabric flower making. We watched some tutorials online to figure out how to make a couple of different styles of flowers. We used a bunch of extra fabric I had saved that I had used to sew some of my high school prom dresses---lots of shimmery golds, iridescents, two-toned pinks and blues, satins, velvets, sheers, and sparkles. With all the different fabric and beading we had, we thought they turned out pretty cute.

We attached some of the flowers to headbands.

The boys watched sports while we crafted the night away.

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Shannon's Birthday
Our dear friend Shannon celebrated her birthday with a massive table of friends at Goodwood BBQ in Draper. We later stopped at Sweet Tooth Fairy for a delicious cupcake dessert.

The lovely birthday girl. She is one of the sweetest girls I know.

Sweet Tooth Fairy has a corner full of cute things to buy. One item for sale was this cute birthday crown. We all decided to one day set up a craft night to make this same crown, but customize it in our own style. It'd be fun.

Happy Birthday Shannon!

Life Is Good

2011-02-23T16:15:00.003-07:00

Before Zach and I were married, we both attended student wards together. We always loved our college wards. There were so many great people and activities. I especially loved hearing Sunday School and Relief Society lessons from our very own peers. I admired those peers who had strong testimonies and taught such powerful lessons---lessons that all of us college kids could completely relate to. Church left me feeling rejuvenated and grateful for the things I had heard and felt that day.

When I came home from my mission and began attending a college ward again, and right away, my Bishop called me to be the 1st Counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I immediately felt the pressure to be all the things that I had loved about my peer leaders back in the day. I wanted the girls in my new ward to be able to positively relate to my lessons and activities. I wanted the new Freshman to have the same great experience I did when I was eighteen. The time I spent serving in that calling was such a positive and rewarding experience. Though it was time-consuming and sometimes challenging, I made many great friends and had some wonderful experiences with my peers. I really did love serving the girls in Relief Society. I served in that calling for almost a year, right up until I got married and moved out of that awesome college ward and into a family ward. Blah. I knew it was going to be hard to say goodbye.

Now I don't want to "hate" on family wards (our new ward was great), but moving out of such a fun college ward and into a ward with an entirely different social atmosphere was an adjustment. It was almost depressing. I totally missed my old ward and missed my calling. And to top it off, we got called into the Primary (as a lot of newlyweds do) as Sunbeam teachers--don't get me wrong, teaching those cute Sunbeams was definitely rewarding and fun in its own way, but since we were so new to the ward, being in Primary made it a bit harder to meet and socialize with everyone. And I also really missed hearing Sunday School and Relief Society lessons every week. I wasn't feeling that same rejuvenation every Sunday like I used to in my college ward.

Well, over time the adjustment became easier. I learned to change my pattern of thinking and to embrace my trial rather than to just suffer through it. I realized that if there was something I could learn from this situation, I might as well learn it the right way. I decided to choose my own happiness and take control of my own thought process. Even though this particular situation was a small and relatively insignificant setback in my life, the positive mindset I chose to engage in can be applied to so many other situations in all of our lives; especially much more serious or difficult ones. My mom wrote a great post on her blog about this topic. You can read that post HERE. In one of her last lines she says, "Truly, we can be proactive rather than victimized in our suffering." So whether we're dwelling on the past and longing for what used to be (or even looking back with regret), struggling to accept a difficult situation in the present, or afraid of what is to come in the future, by positively choosing our thoughts and actions we can avoid our own negative reactions and pain---we can choose to be happy! :)

So with all that in mind, I made an effort to quit dwelling on the past and looked ahead to the future. I looked for things that enriched my Sabbath, even if it was through the Primary kids. I found the good in what was once a disappointment. I learned to accept--without placing any type of condition on it. I found peace where I could not find it in the previous months. That small experience helped me re-learn a few simple life's lessons I had forgotten. If in the future I find there is some sort of void or burden in my life, I need to remember to fill it with accomplishment, hard work, and a positive mindset. By thinking only of my own sadness, my "slump" or burden will only get worse. If I remember to see things through spiritual eyes, I can become motivated by love and not by force. I can seek the power of the Atonement to help me continue in faith to find a change of heart. Thankfully, I did find the change of heart I needed. :) We spent the next three years in that ward. We made some good friends and great memories.

Moving into our new ward here in Traverse Mountain has been awesome. Thanks to my accustomed mindset of a family ward, I haven't thought twice about being back in a college ward. ha ha :) Zach and I were both welcomed in by wonderful people. There are LOTS of young couples and families, our same age, that both Zach and I can relate to. Our chapel, overflow, and gym are completely filled every week. I have already found so many things in common with a lot of the other girls. It has been such a blessing.

I have since been called to the Relief Society Meeting Committee (formerly known as Enrichment Night), and have really enjoyed planning monthly activities and working with great women. I have gotten to know the women in our ward so much faster because of this calling. It's been awesome. Since the Relief Society Purpose is to increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek out and help those in need, we decided as a committee that we wanted our activities to try to have good substance and meaning. We wanted the women to learn things, or be reminded of things, that would accomplish a lot of the goals in the RS Purpose.

So for this particular activity, we centered the theme around being savvy with your money. We titled it "Dollars & Sense." Each of us girls in the committee gave a little 20 minute "talk" or blurb about things like couponing, budgeting & planning, retirement saving, life insurance, getting out of debt, etc. I was glad I had Zach to help me prepare my tid-bit---he knows a lot about financial planning. Each of us gave some good pointers/tips and had a lot of positive discussion with all the ladies....plus good treats! It was a great night. I love these girls!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hugs and kisses to my sweetheart, Zach! Hope you all enjoy this day with that special someone!

My Body Feels Like Jello

2011-02-10T22:25:00.003-07:00

Geez. I am sooo out of shape! Tonight Michelle and I completed day one of Aerobic Bootcamp! And oh my gosh, ALREADY my legs and arms feel sore and weak. I'm totally dreading waking up tomorrow...it's gonna hurt, bad!

Traverse Mountain holds aerobic classes in a church gym for the women of the entire TM Stake. They actually have great qualified gym instructors teaching the classes too. Last week was Zumba, this week was the dreaded Boot Camp. I've never done so many squats, sit-ups, lunges, jumping-jacks, push-ups, and plank holds in my LIFE! It has seriously been years since I've worked out hard like we did tonight. It was rough, but worth it.

I've never ever been a fan of working out, so it's about time I start taking better care of myself. And I have a ridiculous addiction to Coke and eating out...totally unhealthy. I just need to suck it up and endure the pain now, so that my heart can thank me later!

Michelle and I right after our intense workout. We're sweaty and tired, but we rocked it!

My Sister

2011-02-03T23:28:00.002-07:00

I miss the holiday season already. The snow isn't as fun now as it was around Christmas. And taking the Christmas tree down is always such a bummer. Good thing starting a new year is always refreshing, so cheers to 2011...

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My Best Friend, Erica

Every fresh new year always starts out with a birthday celebration for Erica on January 10th. I praise the day that girl was born. She is my very best friend. She is loyal and kind. She's generous and is a great listener. She also tells the best stories...she's always got some adventure to tell me about. We have a wonderful relationship. I attribute our good relationship to my parents--when all my siblings were young, we weren't allowed to say mean things about each other, or name call, or anything that would hurt their feelings. If any of us ever broke those rules, or got in fights with each other, my parents would make us HUG in a corner and say five nice things about the other person. Oh man it was torture! ha ha. But it worked. My parents also made up family activities that required us to do something nice for each other once a week. We'd leave each other nice notes, make their bed, or do their chores, etc. It helped us understand the importance of service and love at a young age. Obviously, we weren't perfect kids or the perfect family, but our house rules laid a good foundation for us to become great friends as we grew up together.

Surprisingly, Erica and I hardly ever fought; we've always gotten along really well. But it wasn't until I was hitting my young adolescent years that Erica and I truly became great friends. I can still remember the first time she asked to borrow a pair of my favorite shoes. I was about twelve years old and she was ten. I remember being a bit hesitant (she was younger than me, I was afraid she'd ruin them. ha ha), but regardless, I let her borrow them. When I said yes, the look on her face was priceless; she was so excited. From then on, our relationship went from likable siblings to loving best friends. We shared everything together. We've always kept an easy open line of communication with each other. She has the kindest heart and yet also has a spunky, wildly-fun personality. She's got a great balance of both. When you put both Erica and I in the same room, you're sure to have a million laughs and over-the-top excitement...maybe a bit too much. :) We have the best time together. I love her dearly.

I tried to find a bunch of old pics of Erica and I together as kids, but most of them are at home in California...they need to be scanned. :/ So unfortunately I only have a few pics of Erica and I during our childhood, and some during her junior high and high school years. She is one special girl!

We would rock for hours together on our family room rocking chair.

Check out my mom's huge 80's hair and our trendy side pony-tails! ha ha Ridiculous. :)

Our trip back East to see the church sites and pioneer trails. We also made a pit stop in Utah to attend our cousin's wedding at the Timpanogos temple. At that time, we never would have guessed that as adults we'd end up living in Utah and that the Timpanogos temple would become one of our favorite temples to spend time together in.

Her braces come off!

Being weird.

Lovin' our rabbit.

Attending high school events together.

Winter or summer, we LOVED the beach.

Remember when it was cool to take "Clique" pictures at the mall with your best friends, and then hand them out to everyone at school!?...ha ha :) That was long before digital cameras were invented.

Hanging out at home and watching our boyfriends play sports together.

Doing Erica's hair for her Senior Prom. We took pictures at her friend's house on the beautiful CordeValle golf course.

Erica graduates.

We took some family pics before Erica left for college and before I left for my mission.
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Erica's Birthday Dinner

For Erica's birthday this year, we kept it light and had a small dinner at Chilis with the fam. Erica is now 24 years old and lovin life.

Some of her friends stopped by to say hi.

Happy Birthday Erica!

iPhone Unload

2011-01-24T20:45:00.002-07:00

I have a bunch of totally random pictures from 2010 just hanging out in my iPhone. It's about time I uploaded them off my iPhone and into my computer. I went down a brief, but fun, memory lane while looking through all of them. I thought I'd share some of my favorites...although most are of my niece and dog. :)

Last summer, Mike & Brit and Zach & I had a lovely dinner at Tucano's in Provo. Afterwards, we walked around some of the shops at the Riverwoods. In one of the stores, Zach found this treasure...a ginormous Rainbow sandal! ha ha. Random.

Some old favorites of Tiger as a puppy. His color has completely changed since then. He's almost all white now. Crazy.

Tiger loves to tear things apart. Erica and I think it's so cute!

(left pic): Zach is my little handy-man. My boss let me order some new furniture for my new office at work. I sure as crap couldn't put it together by myself, so I called Zach to the rescue. My boss paid him $100 for helping me out! So nice! (right pic): Zach also helped me with our giant collage of pictures in our family room. I can always rely on him to be meticulous about the measurements. He's good with numbers. We re-arranged it about three times though...sorry Zach. Poor guy was pretty patient with me and my perfectionist picture hanging. :)

Every morning Zach leaves the house two hours earlier than I do. When it was time for me to head to work on my birthday, I found this cute note on our garage door. I love sweet little gestures of kindness like that!

I have always loved Maggie Sottero's wedding dress collections. My own wedding dress was an ivory satin Maggie Sottero and I absolutely loved it. She's a fabulous couture dress designer. Every now and then I like to look online and drool over her newest line of wedding dresses. Sometimes I'll text a pic to Erica of some dresses I think she might like for her wedding day. :D ha ha. She's not getting married anytime soon, but its still fun to browse and admire.

(left pic): I've been eyeing this picture of the SLC temple for awhile. I love that Temple. I still haven't bought it yet. (right pic): The most delicious chicken lunch. Since Zach has work off every Friday, he likes to pick me up at work and take me out for a nice lunch date just the two of us. My favorite place is Blue Lemon in Alpine. I LOVE their food.

More of my favorite little ones!

I totally love her! Natalie's huge smile and personality is so fun. She loves to jump.

Oh how I WANT to take this sofa and seat home right now! I love the grey cooling color, I love the velvet, I love the long thin cushions, I love the tufted back, I love the modern yet classic look! I want them...today. I want them for our family room so our sectional can go down in the basement. Too bad our basement isn't finished yet. I like to stop by and visit them every now and then at their Thanksgiving Point Boutique. One day they will be mine. I bet the store owners think I'm crazy! :)

ha ha. Zach can literally fall asleep anywhere! The poor guy gets up so early everyday that by evening time he's exhausted. One minute we're having a conversation, and the next minute he's out. ha ha ;)

(left pic): I was waiting in the Arby's drive thru and saw this ridiculous truck. If you look closely you can see a moose head on the hitch, camo screen-printed windows, and ghetto stickers repin' Cabelas. I had to take a pic and send it to Zach. He had a good laugh. (right pic): And then there's Zach who claims he's NOT a hick. I like to think otherwise! :) ha ha.

Our first snow fall while living in Traverse Mountain. It was a beautiful day!

(left pic): We see a lot of deer around our neighborhood since we are pretty high up on the mountain. I sent this pic of fresh deer tracks to Zach while he was at work. He loves living up here. (right pic): Drifts of snow up against our garage.

Both Tiger and Zena were staying in our mudroom while we were out and about. Well, someone left the mudroom door open a crack, so Tiger and Zena opened it up and went to town in our house for three hours while we were gone! This is what we came home to! Brats. :) They even ripped out all the cotton from Zena's bed. Crazy dogs. That wasn't a fun clean-up.

Steve and Sandra's ward meets in the same church building that our ward meets in...only at separate times. We stole Natalie for a little bit while they taught their classes. Zach and I love playing with her. We actually fight over who gets to hold her. ha ha. She sure looked cute in her Christmas dress.

Guess we weren't paying much attention to the speakers. Woops. :)

We gave Natalie a Sour Patch Kid. ha ha. We're so mean!

Mike & Brit have a great fire-pit (or more like fire-rock) in their fabulous backyard. It's gas, so it doesn't leave us smelling like a camp fire. They invited us over for some smores.

Natalie liked starring at the fire.

I always want first dibs on babysitting Natalie. I was happy when Steve and Sandra went to a party and asked me to watch her. We hung out and Skyped with Grandma Julie.

(left pic): My lunch at work. Zach loves Chick-filet, so I sent him this pic of my lunch to make him jealous. (right pic): I sometimes like to go for drives around Highland and Alpine on my lunch break. Kind of weird I guess, but I like to gawk at some of the huge mansions. :)

Steve and Sandra have an awesome entertainment system in their basement...the boys certainly enjoy it the most when they're playing Call of Duty.

They're pretty funny to watch.

Love them.

Cute.

Trying to decorate super tall vaulted walls can be kind of tricky. The bigger the wall, the larger I wanted my decorative pieces to be; I felt like small pieces would be too cluttery. So I found a HUGE mirror at Homegoods to go over our bed. It didn't even fit in my car; I had to have Steve pick it up in his Jeep Grand Cherokee. I love it!