Snowmobiles and Christmas Trees

Saturday we took a short family trip up to the snow. It was only about an hour drive to Butte Meadows, where we parked the trailer and unloaded the sleds. I had not yet had the chance to ride the snowmobiles since my parents bought them a few years ago, and I really loved it. Not that that was any surprise. My family loves big toys!

My brother Justin and his littlest girl Gracie posing on the sled.

The older two of Justin's children had so much fun riding the snowmobiles with Grandpa. Cole wanted to go slower and Rylee wanted to go faster.

Me and Tiffany took a long ride by ourselves enjoying the back snowy roads.

We drove up into Christmas tree cutting area and h iked around to find the perfect tree. Then we chopped it down. Ok, so I wasn't much help in that department...just kind of supervised.

In case you can't tell behind the masks that's my brother, Cody, and me.

My niece Rylee and I made a snowman with Grandpa's help. Don't laugh at how pitifully small it is...it wasn't good snowman snow. We had the hardest time getting the snow to pack together.

Brendon is still in Hong Kong so he missed out on the fun. But he arrives home tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited to have him home. Ten days is a long time to be without a husband.

Details

Thank you for all of your congratulations and support. We are very excited. Brendon can't wait to be a Dad and I've always known Motherhood would be the most fulfilling role for me.

Due Date: July 17th. We have always wanted a July baby (4th of July is our favorite holiday), so we are so grateful it worked out so perfectly.

Gender: We aren't going to find out (I know! Call me crazy...but I LOVE surprises) so you'll have to wait until July to find out. Yes, we do realize this means we'll get lots of green and yellow stuff...but it's worth it. You are welcome to make your predictions...I find it very amusing and fun.

Pregnancy: So that makes me a little over 9 weeks along. I feel surprisingly great. I have had just a few episodes of nausea, but mostly just sluggishness and laziness. I am usually a pretty energetic person and lately I just don't feel like jumping out of bed and attacking my day like I used to.

p.s. We have had our girl name picked out since we got married, but I am struggling with boy names. My criteria is that names be somewhat rare with no risk of becoming trendy, but I don't want them to sound made up. If you come across any cool ones let me know.

First Comes Love...Then Comes Marriage

I think you know what comes next.

Far Far Away

Friday afternoon Brendon is leaving me to go on a required study trip here:

(Hong Kong)

(Taiwan)(Macau)

Let's just say I'm a tad jealous!

Darling

I love this necklace. Isn't it so precious?

Surprise!

Spontaneous, fun friend that Kayla is - she flew in from Vegas for Brooke's birthday party last night as a surprise. What a fun night we had talking and laughing and eating Indian food!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving vacation at Brendon's family's home in Orem and it was quite a treat to get away for a few days. His mom had the vacation jam-packed with fun things to do like watching a Jazz game and a Messiah sing-a-long, and in between we did lots of laying around and eating. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving if we didn't.

Twilight Girl's Night

I had never before done the "movie at midnight" thing...so I thought it would be fun and ridiculously immature to see Twilight at 12:01 on Thursday with a huge group of ladies (all over age of 27). And it was fun! The movie was cute...but more importantly the company was great!

We had a delicious dinner at The Cheesecake Factory beforehand and then talked girltalk for hours while we waited in line. Some of the girls in our group dressed up as blood.

I Heart Feathers And Glueguns

I knew these headbands would be fun to make! I have been having a blast making tons of them lately. Here are a few of my favorites:

Featured

I received an email from Jennifer at Pasaii Design Studio this morning letting me know that they had featured one of my dresses on their blog today.

That made me smile!

Farm Filled Weekend

This past weekend we went home to Gridley and invited some friends to come along: the Bergers (Brooke and Christian), the Hansens (Brenley, Justin, Jorgen, and Shelley), and the Deans (Emily, Logan, Eva, and Jane Esther). We packed the weekend with all sorts of stuff, and we were exhausted by the end of the day Saturday!

We all took turns riding the three golf carts around the farm. I had forgotten how peaceful and relaxing golf cart rides can be :)

We all had our turns with the rifles and skeet shooter. I would just like it to be known that on my turn they launched two skeet simultaneously and I hit them both. Sharp shooter!

Christian tried to convince Brooke to ride with him on the dirt bike, but she preferred the stability of the four wheelers.

Our first order of business Saturday was to watch a walnut cracker in action. We all had jobs picking out the bad nuts or loading them into the cracker.

Brooke enjoyed the monotony of the sorting job on the belt. Brendon was able to handle touching the walnuts for a surprisingly long amount of time before his allergies kicked in.

What was most impressive was that this cracker was built by my dad's mechanic as a fun hobby.

My mom loved having all the babies around!

We ended up cracking and processing enough for all of us to take five ziploc bags full of walnuts home. We are quick workers!

We also saw the small persimmon orchard and ate some from the bin. Most of us had never tried persimmons before.

Brooke had a blast smashing all the rotten kiwis underfoot.

Eva and Jorgen obliged us by holding up their kiwis every time we asked them for pictures. Behind them is what kiwi vines in a kiwi orchard look like. We loaded up on our year supply of kiwis while we were there.

Some of the ladies took a quick trip up to my mom's dance studio to do a little tap dancing. Emily and I tried to remember our maxi-ford turns. Eva enjoyed prancing around in her new sequined costume.

We had a bonfire and made hot dogs and s'mores for dinner.

CB decided that a pitchfork worked much better than wire hangers. Ha.

We had such a great time. Thanks to our friends for coming along!

My Super Easy Sunday Meal

Now...I don't usually do cooking posts...because I am by no means a chef...not even an aspiring one. My idea of a great meal is one that takes less than 5 ingredients to make :)

Sunday I decided to use the yellow curry simmer sauce we bought at Trader Joe's (love TJ!). I chopped up two pork chops and three potatoes and threw them in the crockpot (on low) with one can of light coconut milk. After three hours I added a bottle of yellow curry simmer sauce and left it all in the crockpot for about 3 hours more. I whipped up some whole grain couscous (having a new love affair with couscous by the way...I've never really cooked with it before) and the meal turned out more delicious than I could hope for from a 5 ingredient meal. I encourage you to try it if you're lazy like me.

Now...do any of you have great couscous recipes (think simple!) that I need to try??

Be Still My Heart

If I had an extra $655 burning a hole in my pocket...I would buy these. Because they are beautiful! And I LOVE bows.

Feather Love

I am loving the new feather trend for fall. I keep seeing it everywhere and I need to get my hands on one of these fabulous head pieces. Except by "get my hands on one" I mean "get my hands to make one because I won't pay exorbitant prices for them"...and sometimes it takes a while for me to gather all the supplies and the motivation and the time. But I guess by blogging about it now I'll be held a little more accountable for actually accomplishing it.

Happy Halloween

Saturday night we went to a haunted house with our friends Brooke and Christian and some of their San Francisco friends. We had such a great time. Brooke and I held onto each other for dear life through all of the haunted rooms, while the boys acted like they weren't scared (even though I know they were!) I get so freaked out in haunted houses...but I love to do them every year. They really get you in the Halloween spirit.

Flashback

I finally uploaded some of Brendon's photos from our summer vacation. Maybe I am biased...but I think some of the artsy ones are pretty good for his few weeks with his new camera as a photography novice.
Garden of Gethsemene (with Kyler...Bren's cousin we stayed with in Jerusalem)

Mykonos

Mykonos

Mykonos (these birds were as big as me!)

Mykonos

Mykonos

Oia, Santorini (Greece)

Oia, Santorini

Oia, Santorini

Oia, Santorini

Oia, Santorini

Oia, Santorini

Oia, Santorini

Athens

my favorite bead shop in the Jewish Quarter in Jerusalem

camel crossing

Jerusalem

Jerusalem