22 Weeks- THE KICK!

I FELT JACKSON KICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't describe how excited I was laying in my bed at 6 am yesterday morning.  I felt what felt like a kick, but I couldn't be sure, because I thought, "Hey, it's 6o'clock in the morning, and maybe I'm delirious...?" Ha ha. But then I was sure I felt it AGAIN.  And then, to totally reassure me, he did it again last night when Brock and I were laying on our couch watching t.v.  I said, "Sweetie! Sweetie! Feel!"  So he put his hand on my belly, and sure enough he felt it too! I wasn't crazy after all!  It was the most amazing feeling in the whole world!  Now I hope he does it all the time!  I love the reassurance of knowing he is safe & sound in my belly.

Jackson is now the size of a spaghetti squash, which Brock thinks is funny because he loves spaghetti squash.  That is pretty big; no wonder I can feel him in there! Oh, and he weighs about 1 pound.  :) That is crazy to me, because I think my twin brother and sister only weighed about 4 pounds when they were born.  He even has tiny tooth buds now-Wow!

Everyone keeps giving us the most adorable baby clothes!  He is going to be one stylin' baby I tell you what!  This past weekend my mom couldn't resist, and gave us a new camouflage onesie that has a little fuzzy moose on it.  It says, "Wild About Grandma!" So adorable!  And Darla (my second mom) said she had to give us a few outfits, so that it would give her an excuse to go buy more :)  She gave us the cutest little snuggie I ever saw!  It's one of those footless onesie things that is so snuggly and soft.  I just wanted to hug it!  She also got us a camo outfit she got from Sturgis, that has a little matching visor, and a onesie that says, "I love my mom!"  Jackson is going to look like his dad the second he comes into this world.  He already has 3 camo outfits!  One from my Brock's mom that she got at Cabela's (it's the real deal, Mossy Oak and all!), and then the two from our other moms :)

We got the crib all set up, and it looks amazing! Even better than I expected it would.  The nursery is coming together nicely.  Its still got a long ways to go, but I'm liking how it looks so far.

Weekend in the Big S.L.

This weekend was soooo much fun! Brock and I were finally able to make it down to Salt Lake to see the family (who I missed dearly!) It had been about 2 months since I'd been down, and even longer for Brock! It was a well anticipated and needed mini-trip for us!

Friday night Brock was exhausted from working a 60-hour work week (wow!), but he still drove us down there anyway (thank you honey!) We didn't end up getting there until probably 9 or so, because we wanted to eat at Maddox in Brigham City on our way, and then we got stuck in construction! Surprise surprise. When we finally got there, we visited with our family for a couple hours, and then headed off to bed. Derek and Kaylee (my twin 16-year-old brother and sister) had both got braces since the last time we saw them, and Casie (my 18-year-old sister) had started 3 new jobs (you go girl!) It was so good to see them!

My sweet Grandma & Papa Bird came to visit us Saturday morning.  I had missed them so much!  They brought us a tortoise they found, so that was kinda cool.  We ended up giving it to my little cousin Gage.  They caught us up on what they'd been doing, and we gave them all the baby updates (which was a very long list of course!) 

After they left we went and visited my sweet cousin Brandy, who is recovering from Cancer. She just quit radiation and they're going to do another MRI in two months.  I pray everything goes well! She is such a sweet girl.  She offered to give us a bunch of her baby stuff she doesn't need anymore, which we really appreciate!  We got to see her two little munchkins as well, which was really fun! They are getting bigger by the minute! Little Jazzy copied everything her big brother did, which was adorable.  It made me so excited to have kids of my own, and really excited that they will always have a big brother to copy :)  I always wished that I had a big brother to take care of me.  Good thing I had a great dad instead!

Me & My Second Mommy

Saturday night we had the most fun.  It was actually the main reason we went down to Salt Lake.  My mom and all her best friends play Bunco (a fun dice game) once a month, and this month was couple's night!  They had a couple who couldn't make it, so Brock and I were their replacements.  It was an absolute blast!  It was at my mom's best friend Darla's (who I call "Second Mom") house. She made lasagna, and Brock and I's favorite thing ever--her all-famous queso chip dip!  We eat that stuff like it's going out of style!  We played the game (neither of us won sadly, but Mom did!), and everyone got tipsy (except me of course!)  After we all danced around to loud music, and I fell asleep on the swinging chair in the backyard (Hey, Jackson sucks up all my energy, ok?!) Overall it was a very fun time.

Love this picture! Dad & my step-mom Melanie

Darla, Melanie, Mom, Leslie

Brock & Terry 

Jacelyn 

Me & Sydney 

My Uncle Kevin & some guy I didn't know...

When I zonked out 

Mom & Me

Sunday we relaxed the morning away...ate yummy pancakes and read the newspaper.  That afternoon we headed back over to Darla's place for another party, and more chip dip!  It was her husband, Sheldon, and her son, Brody's birthdays.  It was good to see everyone again.

I'm glad we got to spend so much time with all the people we care about! I wish we could do it more often!

Demo Derby

So my first experience at a demolition derby was a good one.  I'm not sure exactly why we like to watch cars ram into each other, and I'm also not sure how safe this can be (especially considering the fact that one of the girls, yes "girls" lost her tire!), but for some reason it is exciting to watch.

It was me, Brock, and our good friend Jasmine who went.  We weren't exactly sure where it was at (just knew it was somewhere around Bear Lake), so I googled it, and found out it was in Montpelier.  So we drove clear out there, past Paris (I wish it was the Paris you're thinking of...), and finally get out to this hodunk town, and there it was--a bunch of beat up cars and small town folk :)

After the derby, where we enjoyed scones (yum!), fresh glazed donuts, and a little carnival, we headed up to Brock's family's cabin.  Sandy (my mother-in-law) was there, and so we were telling her about the derby.  Turns out, she was there!  So she says, "I can't believe that number 244 (or something like that) won!  I thought number 32 should've won!" And we're like, "What? Number 11 definitely won!" We had all voted on which car would win (I voted the pink hatchback ha ha ha), but Jasmine's car ending up winning, which was definitely number 11.  Turns out we were at a completely different derby!  How the freak does that happen?! LOL!  Sandy had gone to the one in Laketown, which is way closer than driving all the way out into no-man's-land where the one we went to was. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. OH WELL! At least we had a good time!  

This is the pink chick car that I voted for!  Look, it's missing a tire! I couldn't believe how long she kept going that way! I kept thinking she was going to tip over for sure, but she kicked some butt! YOU GO GIRL!

I stole Brock's hat (which he wasn't too happy about), but the sun was just soooo bright!

We saw the weirdest thing!  People rode around on 4-wheelers with two people on them.  The person on the back had a balloon taped to their head, and they were holding bats.  They rode around and tried to hit each other's heads to pop the balloons, ba ha ha ha ha.  We got a kick out of it!

Me & Jas after the derby.  Jackson and me were cold (hence the blanket, and the big belly!)

Jasmine won a bear on a shooting game at the little carnival! WOO HOO!

Digi Scrapbook

This weekend consisted of a lot of digital scrapbooking, because I had nothing better to do!  I was going to have a girl's weekend up at one of my friend's cabins, but one by one each girl cancelled :( Since I was going to be out of town, Brock decided to go "scope" for elk, because the hunt starts in less than 2 months. So to make myself useful, this is what I did with my weekend!  Enjoy! P.S.  They are all photos from our honeymoon, which I am trying desperately to get caught up on.

This is the formal night they had on the cruise ship.  Brock bought me that adorable dress before we left--such a sweet husband! It was kind of fun to get dressed up to the nines!  They served of us fancy drinks (that the were on the captain, even better!), and of course a huge gourmet dinner as well.  I swear, all we did was eat on that trip!  But we just couldn't help it, the food was just soooo good! 

This was on Catalina Island, where the cruise ship dropped us off.  It was such a beautiful place!  While we were there, we went and bought miniature bottles of wine, and put them in our coffee mugs, so we wouldn't get in trouble for carrying them down the streets (tricky, tricky).  We also went and got an amazing couple's massage-so relaxing!  

This was a picture taken while we were on the little boat that took us from the cruise ship to Catalina Island.  We were so happy!  I would give anything to be back there!

We also went on a ride in a submarine while we were in Catalina.  What a fun experience!  There were lots of cool fish; the bright orange ones were definitely our favorite.  Supposedly, they are California's state fish.  Really cool!  While we were on there, we got to pay some extra money to get some fish food that burst out of the side of the submarine right by our window.  It made it so the fish swarmed everywhere, so we got to see a lot at once.  Super fun! 

The cruise ship was so huge and awesome!  It was so fun to hang out on the deck!

This is out on the deck of the cruise ship.  One day we just decided to take it easy, and sun bathe the day away!  All the drinks tasted so much better out on the ocean...ya think they did something special to them?... :) 

We could eat sushi anytime we wanted FOR FREE!  We totally took advantage of that!  We also bought plenty of Saki of course :) 

This was in Ensenada, Mexico-the other pace the cruise ship took us to.  We had an absolute blast there!  I bought that fake Dolce & Gabana purse for like $20 bucks or something-what a steal! The little markets were really fun to wander around.  Brock bought Cuban cigars, and I bought lots of jewelry.

This was another picture from the formal night.  Brock is such a stud!

Another one from formal night-yay for Screwdrivers! 

This is from Ensenda when the tour guide took us down to the beach to see the awesome Blow Hole.  It was so cool! 

The tour guide also took us to this little hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that was surprisingly DELICIOUS! The guy playing the guitar was really funny!


Well, I am that much closer to being done scrapbooking the honeymoon.  I will get there at some point I'm sure! We just took SO many pictures!

21 Weeks!

We have passed the halfway mark! Woo-hoo! This means I can make it through the rest of the way, right?! Only 4 months and 6 days to go...

Last we week, we found out that Jackson is longer than a banana! That is pretty big! And I am REALLY big, lol!  I swear, I feel like my belly grows an inch a day! I have to bend forward to see my toes now, I can't just look down ha ha ha.

I have been having a few minor sick days the past little while.  There have been a couple of mornings where I get really dizzy, and feel like I'm either going to pass out or throw up : / Not fun!  And yesterday I felt kind of nauseous for most of the day, and into the night :( Not very good for my sleep...

I have also been getting these insane leg cramps in the middle of the night.  It's always in my calf, and it feels like I got shot (well, I imagine this is what getting shot might feel like...not that I ACTUALLY know.)  Seriously though, it hurts like no other!  I have had it happen probably 2-3 times before last night, and then while I was sleeping last night, it happened 3 times! In one night!  My neighbor said that she would get them when she was pregnant, and she got them so often that she knew how to get rid of them.  She said she would flex her foot really fast and hard, which would pop her ankle, and that cured it.  So I tried this out last night, and it worked! But, I think because I did that and didn't let the cramp run its course, it kept happening :( So I'm not sure what's worse-a whole 5 minutes of pure torture, or one-minute spurts of torture...?  All I can say is neither are very fun at all.

Also, my tailbone has been in a frenzy lately.  It is really hard to get situated in a position that doesn't hurt.  This is especially bad at work, because I sit for the majority of the day...

Anyway, enough of the bad, and on to the good!

I have been feeling little Jackson in my belly quite frequently now, which is really exciting!  It's just kind of fluttering feelings occasionally, but I know it's him in there!  It makes me have peace of mind to know that he is doing well enough to flip around and do some little tricks :) When I don't feel anything for a couple of days, I find myself getting a little worried, even though my doctor said not to.  He said I will only feel him every so often until about 24 weeks, and then I should feel him a lot more (and Brock might even be able to feel him by then too!)

Jackson even has little eyebrows, and eyelids now!  How crazy is that?!

If anyone knows of anyone who would be (or is) a good nanny, or someone who runs a daycare, I would really love to know about it!  Obviously, close to Logan is important!  I haven't quite decided what to do in this department yet...If my life were perfect, I would LOVE to stay home-I hate the thought of leaving my baby with someone I don't know, but it looks like this is just not possible right now.  So at least knowing that I am leaving him in good hands would make me feel a whole lot better!  Any suggestions would be wonderful!

Doc Appt. #3

I had my third doc appt. today, and it went perfect!  Everything is going great inside me :) I thought for sure my doctor was going to say I was fat, and had gained way too much weight (ha ha), but he didn't! He said I was right on track.  I measured about 21 inches, which I guess is good for almost 20 weeks along, and the baby's heartbeat was beating loud & strong.

My doctor started poking at my calves & ankles, and asked if they were swelling.  I couldn't believe that he could tell!  But I totally can!  Since it's the middle of summer, I've only been wearing flip-flops, so I hadn't really noticed anything-until last week, I put on some real shoes (or attempted to) twice, and they were super snug! He said it's probably the heat that it making it so bad, and it probably doesn't help that there is no air conditioning at my work :( I hope it's not so bad in the winter, or I will definitely have to invest in some new footwear.  The sad part is that they probably won't fit anymore after I'm not pregnant.

The end of the appointment wasn't the best part.  That's where they said, "We want to take all your money." Lol.  (In a lot more words).  But hey, it'll all be worth it :)

Baby Updates & everything else happening with us!

Interesting things I'm going through: I have been craving pickles and anything potato-mashed, scalloped,fries,baked,funeral...oh funny story-I had to go buy pickles, and when I got home from the grocery store, guess what I did! Dropped the plastic bag with the whole jar of pickles in it right on my tile floor! Shattered everywhere :-( I am also losing a lot of hair. I mean I have a lot of hair as it is, so I usually lose a pretty good amount, but now its gotten so much worse! This weeek alone, I have clogged the vacuum (which my wonderful hubby fixed yesterday), and also clogged the shower! My friend said the same thing happened to her when she was pregnant, so I guess I shouldn't worry too much. I still don't want chicken. At all. Ever. For a while I wanted no meat, but now its just chicken-kind of sad really. I usually love chicken!

As for what's happening with Brock and I, we are just loving life. Tonight we are headed up to Bear Lake for Raspberry Days, which is always a good time. Heard there is going to be dancing, lots of yummy food, and of course the all famous raspberry shakes! We are staying at Brock's family's cabin, and they'll be up there too which should be fun! Right now I'm patiently waiting for Brock to get home from work, which is seeming like an ultra long time, but i'm sure that's just because I am excited.

The weeks keep flying faster for both of us. People always say the older you get the faster the time flies, and I guess this is the truth! It seems like each week is getting faster and faster. It does it even seem like it should be Friday yet!

Brock has been very busy at work and has been getting off pretty late everyday, but we can't complain, because we love the overtime! I have also still been working. We've slowed down for the summer at the roasting plant, because people don't drink quite as much coffee in the summers as they do in the winter. But that doesn't mean a cut in hours, which is good? Ha ha, just kidding (kind of) about the question mark.

I don't know if I mentioned that Brock is now working for Birchcreek Landscape Excavation, and he loves it! He is doing about the same job here as he did for the city, which he always enjoyed. I mean what boy doesn't like playng in the dirt? ;) He gets to drive big track hoes, back hoes, and a brand spankin' new Peter Built! So he is just loving every minute of it!

18 Weeks! Almost half-way there!

So close to half way, I can't even stand it!  Wonderous things are happening to both me & the baby.  This week I felt him moving around in there, probably doing some crazy back flips or something (because we all know, he is going to be Brock's little boy-a little daredevil!)

I can't feel him if I touch my belly (like on my hand), but I can definitely feel some ultra strange butterflies in there every once in a while, and so since I haven't ever had a feeling like that before, I'm assuming that's him :)

I've been feeling dizzy occasionally, which is something I'm going to have to ask the doc about, but when I googled it, I read that it's pretty normal...

Jackson is about the size of a bell pepper now, WOW! And weighs approximately 7 oz.

I keep shopping & shopping because I'm just too excited not to!  This week he got some adorable bibs, one with a little elephant on it that feels all soft & fuzzy, and some mini sized shorts with aligators & turtles on them!  I just cant get over how teeny everything is!  Everything is so much cuter when it's miniturized!  Also, his Grandma & Grandpa Maurer got him his first real camo outfit--adorable!  I'm sure he will be just as fond of Cabella's as his daddy is!

We have been on a constant search for the perfect crib! This is a hard task to accomplish.  I have found probably 5 or 8 that Im thinking about, and the Maurer's also offered to let us use Brock's old crib if we can't find one we're in love with.  I am having the hardest time making a decision, but seriously, when am I not??  I am probably one of the most indecisive people I know--especially when it comes to the important stuff.  And this is pretty much at the top of the list right now.

Here are a few pictures of ones I'm considering...tell me what you think! 

So this photo is really small, sorry I couldn't find a bigger one.  But
it is pretty cherry wood, and I really love the solid sides. 

The drawer underneath is pretty awesome, and would be good storage space for extra sheets or blankets.
 I also like the stylized back, and how it's higher than the front.

The back is cute, and the simple style is classic and pretty.

Obviously Jackson's room isn't going to be pink, so just
 ignore that part haha, but the crib itself is cute.  

This one is beautiful!  Love the back!  It has a little higher price tag than the others, but it
might be worth it...?  But would this be good for our next child, even if it was a girl?

Any of your advice would be very well appreciated!  

This Saturday, we threw a little yardsale to try to make some room in our house for Jackson.  And surprisingly, it was a success!  We got rid of some things we didn't need anymore, and by the end we had a little extra cash in pocket to help with the nursery.  Our friends Landon & Tiffany came over and brought a few of their things as well, so that made it fun.  Mostly, we just felt like we were hanging out all day, and it didn't feel like work at all!  The Otter Pops probably helped!  :)  I got some major sun, and am a little on the red side today, but hey-it's all worth it in the end.  

Brock is up tubing the Oneida River in Preston, ID today with some friends.  Last year I had a little accident that included a popped tube and a bruised up Chantel, so I decided it probably wasn't the best idea to try it again while prego.  I hope he's having a good time though!  

I am just enjoying a relaxing Sunday, which was very well needed/wanted/deserved.