Our trip to Utah

Just to warn you...this is a LONG post! Our trip to Utah can be broken down into two events: first, my arrival on Tuesday (April 15th) and subsequent stay with my sister Jessica, Scott, and their kids; and second, Andrew's arrival the following Wednesday (April 23rd) for his graduation.

1. Crash Course in Motherhood

The reason for my early arrival in Utah was to babysit Jessica and Scott's three children while they headed off to Ohio for a house hunting trip from Wednesday until Sunday night. They didn't leave until Wednesday around noon so I had some time to learn the ropes and read the "owner's manuals" Jessica had prepared for each of the children (Ethan-4, Grace-3, and Sophie-1).

Luckily Jessica prepared some notes for me on things like mealtime, snacktime, bedtime, playtime, etcetera; and also luckily for me they have pretty rigid bedtimes and are good about going to sleep. When I originally signed up for the gig I didn't think they would be leaving me with Sophie because she kind of has some special needs...aka, she's allergic to almost everything and she suffers from an acute case of separation (from her mom) anxiety. But no worries, Jessica also prepped me on emergency situations for Sophie in case she had an allergic reaction to something. She showed me how to use an oxygen mask contraption thing and also a special shot I have to give her in her side. She also left me the insurance card in case we had to make any trips to the hospital for such reactions.

Everything went a lot better than I thought it would with Sophie. She was just a little clingy and I had to hold her most of the day and she gets kind of fussy only having like 5 things to choose from that she can eat. Grace did ok but she can be a little moody and she wet her pants 3 of the 5 mornings I was there. I guess 60 % isn't that bad. Grace also requests interesting meal choices. One day she wanted a ketchup sandwich, which Jessica warned me about. After I made it for her and set it in front of her I proceeded to watch her open it (the piece of bread folded in half with ketchup all over the inside) and lick the ketchup off, take one bite, and then proclaim she's done. Ethan is pretty well-behaved and asks about a million questions a day.

All in all I would say things went really well and we had a fun time. My main complaint would be that I was really tired. The kids woke up around 6 every morning and most nights I didn't get much sleep because my little brother Freddie spent the night a few times with his friend Levi and I could hear the TV blaring until all hours of the night. Add not much sleep to an already fatigued pregnant body and cramps and you get one tired lady.

I tried to do one outing a day with the kids to occupy our time:

Wednesday we went to Fat Cat's, the local bowling alley, and my sister Laura who works there let us bowl a game for free.

Thursday we went to the park and got ice cream afterwards at the Creamery compliments of leftover money on Laura and Freddie's BYU meal cards.

Friday morning got off to an interesting start. Ethan and Grace woke up around 4:30 in the morning thinking that it was time to wake up for the day! Umm, I don't think so! So I had them climb in bed with me and they actually slept until about 8. I'm not gonna lie, that was pretty nice just having to take care of Sophie from about 6-8. Later that day we went to the grocery store and bought bread to feed the ducks but it was kind of overcast so we just went home and made a cake. Ethan insisted that my baby needed a birthday cake.

Saturday we went to Chuck E. Cheese's and later to the duck pond to feed the ducks.

Sunday we went to Levi Gruwell's ward for his missionary farewell kind of talk. It was quite the challenge going to a student ward where everyone is relatively quiet and then we march in with three little kids! Luckily Freddie, Laura, and Jessica Gruwell were there to help out. After church we all headed back to "my place" for a makeshift dinner. We rummaged through the cabinets and put together a pretty good little meal. I should have taken a picture of that! If our mom's could have seen us they would have been so proud of us all having dinner together on a Sunday afternoon just like the old days.

We also rented Alvin and the chipmunks I think on Thursday and the kids really loved it; they probably watched it about 8 times. And sorry Jess, Grace decided that she, Ethan and Sophie will be Simon, Alvin, and Theodore (respectively) for Halloween. Oh, also sorry to break it to you Jess, but we kind of broke your no TV rule a few times and filled some of our time with TV and the Wii. It was the only way I could keep some sanity.

Another way I kept my sanity was to set up a reward system for the kids. I told them I would take them to Chuck E. Cheese's on Saturday if they were good. I started them both out with 4 tokens and I told them they could earn more if they were good/helpful, but they could also have some taken away. Here's a picture of our little poster:



Needless to say, Ethan thrives on a reward system and Grace struggles with it a little bit.

Here are some pictures from Chuck E. Cheese's and feeding the ducks.









I really should have taken more pictures the other days too. I guess that is one thing I learned about motherhood while babysitting: take more pictures and write things down so you can remember what you do with the kids. My list of things I learned about motherhood will just have to wait for a later post, this one is getting way too long.

Jessica and Scott got back Sunday night after the kids were in bed. Because their basement had flooded the day before I arrived, I didn't have a room of my own once they returned so I slept with Grace in her bed. She moves around a lot and once again for the next couple of days I was woken up around 6 by sweet little Grace's voice.

On Monday I was free! Andrew said I could treat myself to a mini-makeover so I went and got my hair done and my nails done and I went shopping for maternity clothes with Jessica. I'm just about to the point where my normal clothes don't really fit the way I want them to. I found a couple of cute tops at Gap Maternity all for under 10 bucks. I think that's probably why Andrew wasn't too worried about me going shopping -- I mainly buy off of sales racks and I can't spend more than like an hour at the mall. In return for my babysitting, and just because she's a nice sister, Jessica let me go through her maternity wardrobe and sent me home with a ton of clothes to borrow for my pregnancy. She also got me the cutest little things from Gymboree (she's sort of an addict).




2. Andrew's Graduation

Andrew finally arrived in Utah on Wednesday with his grandparents, and his parents flew in a little later that night. His sister Jessica and her fiance also came up from Las Vegas for the occasion.

Andrew technically finished at BYU in December, but they don't have an actual graduation ceremony until April, so that is what we went for. Andrew's family is really big on the actual graduation ceremony's so it was important to them that he "walked". If it was up to us we probably would have just stayed home.

On Thursday we went to lunch at Tucano's, the Brazilian all-you-can-eat meat place. Andrew had promised some of his former roommates that when he got engaged he would take them there so while we were back in Provo he finally made it up to them (only about a year late). Afterwards we went to the big university commencement and Elder Bednar spoke.

Here we are taking some pictures in front of the cougar at the stadium.




Friday morning was Andrew's college convocation where he actually walked across the stage with other kids from his major.

Here's Andrew walking across the stage


Here we are at the Marriott Center




Notice the Y in the background...



Afterwards we went to Market Street Grill, which is where we had our wedding reception. After our meal, we got some chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake to go. It was the same kind that was served at our wedding, and it was just as delicious!

Here's Andrew before the cake got annihilated


We also couldn't leave Provo without buying a BYU onesie for the little baby

Go Cougars!

Saturday we all flew home which was kind of bittersweet. I was sad to leave Provo and not to be around my family, but at the same time I was anxious to get home and just be back in my own apartment with Andrew. We had a really good trip and I'm so thankful we got to spend so much time with family!

The past couple of weeks...

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. For Easter we had a nice dinner with some of Andrew's family. I made the infamous Sarah's salad and it was a hit. Andrew's cousin has triplets, so we finally got some pictures of them. We enjoy spending our time helping out with them, they are just so cute and so pleasant! (Jarom, Isaac, and Quentin)

We started off last week by kicking off the baseball season. Andrew was really excited about this...I'm sure it's been said before, but Andrew is quite the sports enthusiast, so the start of any new sports season is a holiday in our house. I surprised him with some cupcakes for the occasion and we watched the Mariner's first game.

Also, I guess I never officially announced that we are going to have a baby! The due date is October 20th. Here's the proof from a few months ago.

Also last week, we had a doctor's appointment and we were able to hear the baby's little heart beat. It was really neat. I guess it didn't really hit me until after we had left that yeah, I had heard a heart beating inside me that wasn't mine, and it belonged to our new little baby! I am about 13 weeks along. We are very excited and can't wait to find out if it will be a boy or a girl in about 6 or 7 weeks. Here I am with our first purchase for our little one.

We have also spent some of our time sight seeing. Here is a picture of us out by the lake on a really nice day (very unusual for this time of the year). In the background you can see the state capitol.

I guess our last bit of excitement is our new garden that we are working on. Andrew's grandparents are letting us grow a little garden in their backyard. This week we have been turning the soil and we actually planted our cabbage and cauliflower. In the other bed we will plant carrots and cucumbers and squash. Yumm, I can't wait to reap what we've sown :)

Well, I guess that's all for now. Now we're off to pick up some pizza for our (mainly my) Miss USA viewing! Gotta love family traditions!

Spring is in the air

Well, we want it to be in the air! It's still kind of rainy here in Washington, but we've had some pretty nice days lately. So last weekend we went over to Home Depot and picked up some flowers and a little planter box. We came home and arranged them and now they are sitting out on our patio. It's so nice to see some color and a little piece of spring out on our balcony everyday!

woah

I type a lot at work and I found this on Shar's blog and I was just curious how fast I type...I'm not sure but I think that is pretty fast!!

81 words

Speed test

Valentine's Day

Well our six month anniversary was just a couple of days after Valentine's Day so we decided to celebrate them both at the same time. Neither of us are really Valentine's day people. Last year I think we went to a BYU basketball game, I know, romantic, huh? Anyway, it will be fun to have a semiannual anniversary every year around Valentine's day. Here are some pictures from our wedding just to reminisce.

On valentine's day we went to Puerto Vallarta... not the Mexican vacation city, just a local restaurant we wanted to try out :) It was delicious. I got Andrew a popcorn maker because he loves popcorn (I think he could live off of popcorn and Mexican food and chocolate milk). And I got a new dining room table and chairs. We found it on Craig's list for only $50. We had to drive about 20 miles to get it, but I think it was worth it. It doesn't have a leaf so it only seats 4, but for our purposes right now, I think it's great. And now we don't have to eat dinner every night on our couches!

Don't you hate when you ask for this...



but you get this....



Yeah, I got a new haircut...well it's new in the sense that I got it cut recently, but the style is not new at all...Think 1999, the Rachel from Friends haircut.

So last week I went to get a haircut at the salon Andrew's cousin goes to. She's a cute spunky teenager and she usually has cute hair and she reassured me that her girl would do an awesome job! Well I've been wanting to cut my hair a little shorter, just because I'm not used to having it so long and it just gets kind of limp and stringy and I don't know how to do anything cute with it. I was thinking about probably taking 2 inches off, and keeping it pretty long in front, not a lot of layers because I had finally grown most of my layers out that framed my face. Also, I wanted to put some more lowlights in so my hair is a little darker.

Let me set the stage a little bit. Andrew's cousin Emily is used to having the finer things in life so I figured she would go to some really nice salon, especially when she told me what I should expect to pay. I was really excited to go to an "awesome" hairdresser who Emily raves about all the time and get a new look from some posh salon. So after work last Tuesday I headed straight over to the salon, got stuck in traffic, and got a little lost. Well I was expecting to notice the salon from the road, but finally I spotted it after circling the block probably about 3 times. It was this single wide trailer looking thing, not really what I was expecting.

Anyway, I thought well maybe it'll be really great and fancy when I get inside and they'll offer me a sparkling water or a a diet coke with a lime. WRONG! The interior very well matched the exterior. I walked in and it smelled like cigarette smoke. Everyone had on way too red of lipstick, over-processed hair and way too tight of jeans. I really think I would have turned around and left if my hairdresser and Emily wouldn't have been waiting for me right at the door. You know that feeling you get when you see who will be your hairdresser for the first time and you realize you don't like one thing about their style? Yeah, you automatically wonder what they will do to your hair. Anyway, she sat me down to get started and asked me what I wanted so I proceeded to show her a picture of L.C.'s new haircut and told her that basically I wanted it to look just like that. Easy enough, right? WRONG! She did the coloring and from the looks of it when it was wet it looked just fine. Then she began the cutting. Well I wasn't turned towards the mirror so I didn't really know exactly what she was doing. Then she started to blow dry and I could tell it was pretty short especially in the front. I thought it was just maybe the sweetheart bangs that L.C. has in the picture I showed, wrong again!

Well finally she turns me around and I honestly felt like I was having a bad dream. I'm not really the kind of person to get attached to my hair but it really wasn't what I wanted and I've never been the kind of person that's able to verbalize something like that. So she was like do you like it and stupid me just nodded my head and was like mmmhmm. Andrew's sweet cousin was like ohhh Sarah it looks so good. I really think she meant it though. She styled it just like I was Rachel from Friends, but a little poofier. Needless to say, I didn't leave a tip.



Ok, I know, I know, you might think it really doesn't look that bad, but this picture doesn't really do it justice and I hate taking pictures of myself, so this will have to suffice. I guess just the way she styled it and how it was really short in places that I didn't want it short really disappointed me. Well it's just hair, right? Anyway, I can't wait to go visit good old Provo in April and get my hair done at my usual place.

It turns out I like to read!

So I finished my first book of the new year last week. For my birthday Jessica gave me Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. When she gave it to me I thought, oh, well that looks like a lovely book, maybe one day one of my daughters will want to read it. For some reason, I've always thought that I'm "not a reader." I think it's because Jessica always liked to read when we were younger and it was her thing, so I had to be different. I never minded reading for school and such, but I never sought out books on my own to read; that is until last summer when I got hooked on the Twilight series, thanks to Eliza Gruwell :). I really enjoyed reading the Twilight series so when I finished reading them, I was really craving some more good books. This was all just before my wedding and starting a new job, so I soon became preoccupied with other things and I forgot about my newfound interest in reading.

I started reading Goose Girl girl on our plane ride out to Washington. It started out kind of slow, so I didn't really think I would latch on. Well once I started working, I decided I would bring it to read on my lunch break. So I read everyday at lunch for probably about 35 minutes. It was easy reading and I soon found that I was anxious for lunch, not just to have a break from working, but to get back to the book. It's a cute little fairy tale! Thanks for the book, Jess, and for reminding me that I actually like to read! I'm going to try and read a new book every month this year. We'll see how it goes. If you have any other suggestions for books, let me know.

Interesting...

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Brown

You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/rd/50651/color/index.jsp?testname=colorogt&resultid=F

New addition to our family!

Introducing......


SKIPPY!

Andrew and I got a new car this weekend. Since his truck is manual transmission, I don't really like to drive it, plus I needed a way to get to my new job. I've been looking for a new car online for about the past three months. We decided on a Hyundai Sonata, mainly because it's comparable to a Honda Accord but cheaper. I had narrowed it down to 3 cars that were the best deal, so we went to look at them on Friday. One of them had sold, so we had two to choose from. We chose this one because it was BYU blue and it had a V6. So there you have it, our 2006 Hyundai Sonata.

Lots of Good News...

So my first piece of good news is that I got a job! Yay! I got hired to work for State Farm at their Pacific Northwest Operations Center. I'll start Monday, and this couldn't have come at a better time! It was getting pretty boring being at home all day long by myself. We actually picked our apartment because it was closest to State Farm in hopes that I would get the job there, so I think things worked out really well!

Moving on to my next good news, I found the best recipe for Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut cookies! I found it on the internet, and apparently it is a Mrs. Fields' recipe. Andrew's Grandma likes to shop at Costco and most things come in two, so she's been very generous in sharing with us. Last weekend she sent us home with this can of nuts, and I really wanted to make something with them rather than just eat them all...

I'm not a big fan of white chocolate, so, lo and behold, Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut cookies:

Here is the recipe, you should give them a try. And if you have any other recipes that use Macadamia Nuts, please share.

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
2.5 cups oatmeal (it says powderized, but I didn't take the time to do it and they came out just fine)
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
12 oz. chocolate chips
1.5 cups nuts (you could probably use any nuts and they would come out delicious)
Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. (Don't overcook them)

Last bit of good news, we finally got a desk. We got it from Wal-Mart, so of course we had to build it ourselves. Here's Andrew putting it together.

And the finished product...


We really like it and it came with a little bookshelf. It's much better than sitting on the floor with our computer on its box. Our butts were beginning to leave an imprint on the carpet. The rest of the furniture on our "to get" list aren't really necessities, so we'll probably just try to get them slowly one at a time: a dresser, end tables, maybe a coffee table, and a dining room table and chairs.

One last thing, not really good news, but kinda cool. Anytime something scouting related is going on, Andrew jumps at the chance to go so last night we went to a Court of Honor for a young man in our ward. Here's Andrew with all his gear on.

He probably likes going so he can show off all of his patches, 60 of them to be exact! Pretty cool, huh?