Andrew's birthday and a Salmon Bake

Like usual, I have a couple of things to catch up on...

First is Andrew's birthday. In his grandparent's ward they had an auction type of thing and they won a boat ride on Puget Sound. They decided to invite Andrew and me and make it a birthday celebration. So on Andrew's birthday, June 27th, we went out on the Johnson's boat on Puget Sound. It was a beautiful day! It was a little bit windy, but at least the sun was shining!

Mt. Rainier

Here's a picture of Andrew's grandparents, and then me and Andrew.

We rode up to Gig Harbor and had lunch at Anthony's right on the shore. It was delicious!

We had some cake and ice cream at Andrew's grandparents with some of of Andrew's cousins and aunt and uncle. I got Andrew a sheet birthday cake because that's his favorite.

For 4th of July we had a ward pancake breakfast. It was a rainy day so after breakfast we were looking for something to do inside. Andrew had the great idea to go to Wal-mart and buy a puzzle. It was actually really fun to spend the day working on a puzzle, I kind of felt like a little kid during the lazy days of summer. Later on in the evening we went over to a friend's house for some dinner and fireworks.

On Saturday after 4th of July we were looking for something fun to do around Washington and found an annual Salmon Bake on Anderson Island, a tiny little island about 5 miles by 3 miles. We did a little research and found out we drive up to Steilacoom and take the ferry over to the Island. Rather than paying 18 bucks to take our car over on the ferry with us we decided we would just go over as pedestrians and walk to the Salmon Bake once we were on the Island --according to mapquest it was about a mile from where the ferry docks. Well we got on the ferry and noticed some other pedestrians so we thought "ok, cool, other people will be walking to the festival too." Wrong. When we got to the Island they had people waiting to pick them up, or they had bikes, or some other means of getting to where they were going. So there I was, 6 months pregnant and wearing flip flops, headed off on our hike to the Salmon Bake. It turned out to be uphill about half of the way, and it ended up being more like a mile and a half, AND it was drizzling. The walk back to the ferry after the Salmon Bake wasn't as bad. It sure made for a fun little adventure! Here are some pictures...

Here we are on the ferry-notice the cloudy sky :)



Can you tell how excited we were to finally have reached our destination?? I think Andrew captured me mid-jump in the air.



The long anticipated Salmon platter


I really thought I was going to have to use one of the old school outhouses...luckily they had something a little more substantial.


Headed back to the ferry


Here comes the ferry!

Father's Day!

So we decided to go ahead and celebrate Andrew's first Father's Day this year. Plus Andrew's birthday is coming up this week so they will kind of be combined. I got him a shaving cream warmer thingy and I made him a coupon book; the taking out the trash one was his favorite!

We also went up to Seattle for a Mariner's game and watched them lose 5-2...they aren't doing very well this year! But we still had a fun time and had good seats. The only weird thing was we brought a blanket and actually had to use it! It was freezing! Apparently it is the coldest June on record in Washington!

There is a Babies "R" Us on the way up to Seattle so we decided to stop and register for baby stuff! It was pretty fun and I actually think it was easier/funner than registering for our wedding! Here I am with my handy-dandy clipboard.

This past week I made Red Beans and Rice which came out really yummy and I made homemade bread for the first time! We have a breadmaker, but I wanted to try making it all on my own. It was really tasty and kind of pretty, I was REALLY proud of myself! (it was a healthy pride though) Emily gave me the recipe a while back and I've been wanting to try it. I halfed the recipe and it still came out huge!

On a side note, I thought I'd post some pregnancy pictures. I never thought I'd be someone to post pictures of my growing belly, but I know some of you who won't be able to see me pregnant are curious what I look like, so here goes....

19 Weeks

21 Weeks

23 Weeks

This past week I feel like I really popped out, even though it's hard to tell from the picture...

Andrew's mom sent us some onesies and receiving blankets a little while back before we knew if it was a girl or boy. They are so cute and tiny and I can't wait to put them on our little girl! She also sent us some cute holiday bibs. Now our baby can make a mess in style! Thanks for all the goodies, Pam!

Now that we know it's a girl I went and picked out some girly clothes that were on sale at Gymboree and BabyGap. It's fun to see more little baby things in the closet!

Also, Jessica sent me a ton of her girls' hand-me-downs.

I'm so excited to have such a big wardrobe of cute clothes for our little one! Thanks Jess!

It's a girl!

So, today we had our first ultrasound and got to have our first look at our little baby.

After a lot of poking and shoving the technician told us she was confident we're going to have a girl, but couldn't quite get baby to cooperate for a visual. Our little baby was just content to sit at a really awkward angle for the entire ultrasound. The technician even tried to move me around some but it didn't work. Anyway, here is some footage from our visit. You can see her swallow and see her little heart beating. Awwww! It was pretty neat! We can't wait to meet her! Luckily everything measured good and the size and everything is right on for a due date of October 20th.

A couple of weeks ago while Andrew and I were at an eye exam we were talking to the technician and I told her I was pregnant. She told us her little girl was 16 months and she didn't plan on having any more kids so she wanted to give us a little swing. So we arranged to go pick it up from her and it turned out to be a really nice one and in good condition! It can swing two ways, has adjustable speeds and after a quick wash in the washing machine it was as good as new. She also gave us some baby toys that were basically new. Now we just have to wait wait wait to see our little girl!

The Big Easy is off the heezy!

For Mother's Day weekend I found some cheap flights home to New Orleans, so Andrew and I headed off last Thursday for a five-day stay in the Big Easy. Andrew's also on the wait-list at LSU Law School, so we spent some time exploring Baton Rouge and LSU's campus too.

Here's Andrew in front of the LSU Law Center...

Andrew thought it was pretty cool that there were purple and gold flowers all around campus, so naturally I had to pose with the flowers for a picture...

Here's Andrew with Mike the tiger. Geaux Tigers!

I also showed Andrew the Baton Rouge Temple...

We spent most of our time eating good food and sightseeing. Andrew had been to Louisiana once before when he was three years old, but all he remembers from that trip is a sweatshirt he got of some alligators playing jazz music. So it was fun to show him around where I grew up.

Here we are outside of the old U.S. mint in the French Quarter. Now there is a museum inside and since Andrew really enjoys history we took a little tour.


We rode the streetcar down to Camellia Grill with Amy and Jacob...

yummm!

My camera died so I took some of these pictures on my cell phone and that's why the quality isn't so great. Here we are at the French Quarter again. First, in front of a paddle boat by the river, then in front of Jackson Square, then eating some beignets at Cafe Du Monde!

We spent Mother's Day in Thibodaux, which is always a treat. Andrew finally got to meet all my cajun family. I even convinced him to try some crawfish, but he didn't really care for them and thought they were too spicy. Not me! I had about 3 pounds of them...yummm! I really had to pull out the maternity tops toward the end of my trip after all that good food we ate!

I can't imagine a better first Mother's Day! Thanks for letting us come and visit, mom! We had such a good time and can't wait until we can come back!

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!