Day 17

An art piece:

I'm not really sure what to put down on this one. I enjoy looking at art, but I don't have one particular piece that is my favorite. The only piece of art I have hanging in my house is this one:
It's been hanging in our living room since we got married and I still Love it!

What!

I was looking online today for some maternity clothes and I ran across this.

What! Please do not tell me this is in style or will be in style anytime soon!

Day 16

A song that makes you cry:

I don't think a song has ever made me cry. I'm not really a crier...I've never cried in a movie either. A book did make me cry once though...

Saying Goodbye

We're saying goodbye to the binki and possibly my sanity today. I gave myself a major pep-talk this morning to make sure I was really up for this, and then I snipped all the binkies! Josh hates it already, but we're holding strong so far.

Wish us luck!

Day 15

Your dream house:

I don't have a picture or a floor plan of my dream house, but I do have a list of things I would love for my dream house to include.

• as far as the style, right now I love craftsman style homes. I think they are timeless and so welcoming.
  
• Not too big. Somewhere around 3500 square ft. is as large as I'd ever want to go. Bigger than that is useless and it can be too easy for your family to get spread out and be alone at home.
• lots of windows
• a big solid wood front door
• family room, kitchen and dinning in the same area.
• I could make a whole list on just the kitchen. I love hoods over the stove, not a stainless steal sink, and a big pantry. Oh, and the fridge has to have water and ice in the door! Plenty of counter and cabinet space.
  
• hardwood floors, a medium to dark color of wood. Not too dark, not too light.
• carpet that doesn't look matted down right after it's been vacuumed.
• 4 bedrooms
• I used to think I wanted all the bedrooms together on the same side of the house so that the master was close to the kids room, but since we've moved into the house we're in now I think I like that the master is alone on the main floor and all the other bedrooms are upstairs. I like that I don't have to worry about waking up the baby once he's in bed.
• I love when the doors and windows are cased out in thick white trim
• lots of lights
• high counter-tops
  
• a good sized laundry room with a folding table and a place to leave my sewing machine up all the time.
  
• a big shower in the master that seals off all the way so it gets nice and steamy. I hate when I can feel a breeze in the shower!
• a good sized master closet so clothes aren't cramped, and a place to keep lots of shoes organized.
  
• a 3 car garage. Beau has too much stuff already and dreams of having more things like boats and four-wheelers, and dirt bikes. We will NEED a 3 car garage if his dreams come true.
• somewhere for a baby grand piano
• a cold storage
  
• I would prefer not to have a basement, but if we needed one it would have to be a walk-out (hey if it's my dream house I can say whatever I want. If this was reality I would be more practical and less demanding). I'm really not a fan of basements in general. I think they are dark, cold, and claustrophobic no matter what you do, but walk-outs are ok.
• The most important thing I learned while I was designing houses for 3 years and dealing with lots of different clients was that you can have a house with tons of awesome features and the top of the line everything, but if the house is not laid out correctly, it will just be an odd/confusing house with nice stuff in it, not necessarily a nice home. The floor plan/layout is the most important thing to me. It has to flow and just make sense. I don't know how else to describe it.
  
• Also important to me, but not everyone, is that there be no wasted space! Obviously it depends on your lifestyle, some people like formal living rooms or dinning rooms that are only used a couple times a year, but I will not include those in my dream house. My dream house only has rooms that are used daily, minimal hallways, lots of open space, lots of storage so things stay organized, and is welcoming and comfortable for everyone.
  

Grandpa and his tractor

Last weekend Grandpa stopped and stayed with us for a couple days on his way to North Dakota. Joshua was in heaven! Grandpa brought his tractor! He loves his Grandpa and he LOVES his tractors. He wanted to spend the whole day outside checking out the tractor. I only took one picture while he was here but I thought it was sweet.

Reading one of Josh's favorite books. Grandpa was explaining all about the different tractors.

Fun Weekend

This weekend we've spent a lot of time around the house having fun hanging out with Dad. It's always a challenge coming up with new things to do to entertain an almost 2-year-old in the house, but we've been creative and had lots of fun doing it. Friday night we built a huge fort that covered the entire front room! Then we crawled in and watched a movie while we ate banana splits.

Check that out! It was awesome!

Then Saturday Beau and Josh spent the morning outside working in the yard while I got ready for the day and then laid on the couch and read for a while. It was the best morning we've all had in a while. Josh was happy as could be just being outside with his dad and playing with his tools, Beau was doing some actually manual labor (that always puts a smile on his face), and I got to read for a couple hours! Sweet! Then Saturday night we did a little grocery shopping at Sam's and then went out to dinner at Cafe Rio. When we got home we still had a while before bed so we decided to paint. Josh LOVES to paint! He gets so excited if I even mention it. I asked him if he wanted to paint, and in 3 seconds he had run over to the table and was sitting on top of it waiting for me to get the supplies out.

So excited!

It quickly turned into finger painting.

For both of us.

And then it turned into toe painting.

I love this little guy! He's so much fun and such a character.

Only a month late

On October 1st we happened to be in Southern Utah during the St. George Marathon, so I got to go cheer on my two sisters, brother-in-law, and two friends. I have always loved going to the marathon but this year was even better because I actually knew people running. Every time I go I think maybe I should consider running it myself, but that feeling wears off pretty soon after and I pretty much don't think about it ever again. I'm super proud of the ones who actually do it though! They are Awesome!

This is Garrett at mile 23 looking smoke'n in his shorty-shorts. I didn't get a picture of him crossing the finish line, but he did so good!

Tara at the finish line!

And Tasha!

Then Colb and Andrea!

Garrett and Tara walking it out after they finished trying not to cramp up too much.

Tara and the Girls with their signs to cheer mom on.

Good luck next year all you crazies who decide to do it again.

Day 14

Your favorite shoes:

My favorite shoes are my red Gianni Bini heals. They're my favorite because they are unbelievably comfortable and they're red. I love colorful shoes!

Day 13

Your favorite outfit:

These days I don't really have a favorite outfit, in fact getting dressed every morning can be a hassle. One day something fits and the next it doesn't.
In general I like wearing skinny jeans with a cute pair of flats, a fitted shirt and a pea coat over the top. Dressing in cold weather is a lot more fun than in the summer. I love scarves, pea coats, and boots.

Day 12

Something you are OCD about:

What am I NOT OCD about!? Pretty much, I'm a clean freak and I can't relax if anything is messy in my house. It's not a good thing, trust me.
I guess what I'm particularly OCD about is having clean counter tops. I don't like to clutter things on the counter because it's just annoying to have to look at it and then put it all away after a couple days of it accumulating, so I just don't set it down to begin with. I always come in the door and put whatever is in my hands away. I also disinfect my kitchen counters almost daily. Maybe not the whole kitchen, but at least where ever I prepared food that day. I don't think I'm a germ freak in general, but the kitchen counters gross me out.
I'm also a freak about clothes being put away. Dirty clothes never hit the floor and clean clothes always get hung up as soon as they are out of the dryer. Sometimes they sit in the dryer for a week, but if I take the time to run the dewrinkle cycle and take them out, they get hung up right then. I don't want to have to iron anything if I don't have to.
Alright I better just stop there because sadly, I could go on all day. What can I say....I was born this way. Just ask my mom. She's told me stories about how when I was only 2 or 3 and I would go around the room and gather everyone's shoes up and put them in the shoe basket (I still do that too!). What 2-year-old does that and has any chance of being normal?

Day 10 and 11

Day 10 is a picture of you taken over 10 years ago, but I don't have a single picture of me from more than 4 years ago....so, I guess I wont be doing that one.

Day 11

A recent picture of you:

I Hate having my picture taken let alone posting pictures of myself on my blog! But my friend Andrea took our family pictures 2 weeks ago and took one of just me, so here it is.

Taleesa's Baby Shower

On October 9th my mom, sisters and I put on a baby shower for my baby sister Taleesa. The shower was a Dr. Seuss theme, and although it turned out to be a lot more work than I had in mind, I thought it was really cute and a lot of fun! Each section of the table was based on a different Dr. Seuss book.

There was Green Eggs and Ham

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Cat in the Hat

Horton Hears a Who

Hop on Pop

Taleesa got some awesome gifts! She was really taken care of.

It's kinda sad that this is the last shower for our family. Good thing we went out with a Bang!

Day 9

A photo you took:

Day 8

A photo that makes you angry/sad:

This is a picture taken of all of us at my Aunt Marsha's funeral last July. It doesn't look like we're all sad but we really were. If you look close none of us have any makeup left on because we've cried it all off. It was a seriously sad day and a really sad situation all the way around. I still have a hard time whenever I think about her.

Hogel Zoo

A couple of weeks ago we took Josh to Hogel Zoo for the first time. He absolutely loved it, of course. He's always loved animals and doing anything new (especially outside).

His favorites were the elephants

and the giraffes.

He had a blast in the playground!

But his favorite part was definitely the choo choo train!

I loved the face he made while we were going through the tunnel.

We all had so much fun at the zoo, and I'm glad we finally got around to taking the trip. We've been meaning to all summer. We'll have to go back again soon.

Day 7

A photo that makes you happy:

This one is tough because I literally have thousands of pictures just on this computer I could choose from, but I'll go with this one.

The first time I held Joshua.

When I think back to a time when I was beyond happy...that was the day. This picture also makes me extremely baby hungry.

Loving it...

I went to the Dr. a couple of days ago and it hit me for the first time while I was talking to him just how far along I was. I'm half way! Weird! I feel like I just found out I was pregnant a couple weeks ago. In the last day or two I think I have grown at least 4 inches (around). I've really popped out! I was just looking at pictures of our trip to Hogle Zoo we took 2 weeks ago, and I've doubled in size. I've been able to feel the baby move for almost a month but I just noticed yesterday that I can feel him from the outside now too. He's an active little guy! I think even more active than Josh was. Hopefully that isn't the way it's going to be a year from now because I don't think I can handle a child more active than Josh. I'm planning on this one being very sweet and mellow. haha! Right!
It's been really interesting to me to notice the differences between my first and second pregnancies. When I first found out I was pregnant with Josh, I don't think I thought of anything else but that for the entire nine months. I was constantly thinking and reading about what I was supposed to be eating, pills to be taking, sleep I needed, the nursery, all the new baby stuff to buy, names...and it was a LONG nine months! With this pregnancy I sometimes forget I'm even pregnant at all. I haven't bought a thing (not that I need anything other than diapers, but I haven't bought those yet), I have to try really hard to remember to take my prenatal, and I haven't even gone into the basement to find my Week By Week book yet. Not that I'm not completely excited for this little guy to get here, it's just different...I'm not sure why. Probably because Joshua takes up 95% of what I think about daily. You know the pregnancy dementia? It's BAD with this one! It's seriously about all I can do every day to just make sure Josh is taken care of. Not that I'm not physically up to it most days, it's that mentally I can't do more than that, keep the house clean, and make dinner every night. It's weird. And it's probably my only complaint about this time around. With Josh I was pretty much miserable the whole 9 months, but I have felt great with this one, my brain just feels fried ALL the time. I'm not going to complain too much though, I'm beyond grateful that I feel so well!
I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, but it has been a very exhausting week for this preggers, so I need to get rest while I can. I'll post a few this weekend and hopefully get caught up.

Day 6

20 of your favorite things:
Just off the top of my head. I don't want to think too hard about this...
1. My boys
2. Family
3.Traveling
4. A clean house
5. The smell of Fall
6. Cute boots
7. The Christmas Season
8. Sitting in church without Joshua
9. Laughing
10. Decorating/beautiful homes
11. Going on walks
12. Watching Josh discover new things
13. HOT showers
14. Bed time
15. Reading a good book
16. Learning something new
17. Finding a really good deal!
18. Relaxing while watching a good show
19. Cooking a new recipe and actually loving it when it's finished
20. Being outdoors

Day 5

Favorite Quote

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking less about yourself. --Dieter F. Uchtdorf