Finally!!!!

It has been quite some time since I have been able to post. Mostly because I lost my camera cord and I always like to have pictures in my posts. I just ended up buying a new cord so here I am! And finally, here is a post to update y'all on everything.

First we will start with my birthday. Back in June...... We were able to go up to my parents house on a Saturday for some fun times with the family.

Of course there was a pinata, I don't know if we can have a birthday party without one now!

The thing was so heavy it fell off the hook in the first swing!

We proceeded to hit it while it was on the ground.

It was really fun because my parents not only filled it with candy but also with a few baby things for me and some toys for Lucas. 

For graduation my parents gave me a sewing machine, and for my birthday they supplied me with the sewing necessities! Now I can get things done! It was really awesome to get these and put together my sewing kit.

I also got my diploma in the mail! So my parents wrapped that too, it was pretty much amazing.

With pregnancy comes weird cravings and also non-cravings (where some food sounds disgusting). My mom has always been the birthday queen and growing up she would let us choose what kind of cake we wanted and she would whip it up decorations and all. Well.... This year all I wanted was Twinkies and Popsickles. So, thats what we had!

Okay, pregnancy update time! The baby is still growing strong and is quite active right now! It is a boy and we already love him. Here are a few progressive side shots of the belly for those who haven't seen me. 

This last one was about 5 weeks ago and I have grown A LOT since then, more pictures soon....

I had a few girlfriends over for a cupcake night in July.

We made owls.....

horses.....

flowers.....

and penguins! 

We made a mess but we sure had a lot of fun!

For the 24th of July we have started a tradition, well the boys have, of creating a HUGE show. This year was bigger than ever!

The boys set up the display.

Fuse.... Duct Tape..... Plywood.....

And Toys.....

After it was all set up we had to wait for the sun to set. The boys got up and explained what they had built, then the sun went down. We realized a street lamp was bringing a lot of light, but don't worry! Nikki's brother was able to shimmy up there and put a black bag over it to block the light.

Then it was time for a show!

Lots of people showed up and I think everyone was impressed with the display.

Now an update on our nursery! I have always had a special love for Dr. Seuss. When we found out we were having a baby I wanted to have a Seuss theme for the nursery. Lucky for me I married an AMAZING artist! He is painting murals on the walls!

So far he has one wall outlined.

We just have to plan, outline and fill in the others and all will be set! 

  

Well, thats all for now! More to come soon now that I have a camera cord!

I call him Daddy

Today I am bursting with a lot of emotions. Call it pregnancy hormones, call it crazy, call it whatever you want but I feel like I need to explode a bit on my blog about one of the best examples in my life. My daddy.

What an amazing man he is. I can't even count the times he has comforted me and raised my spirits up in a time of need. My daddy has always been the one I run to when I am feeling sad. He is also one of the first people I tell when something good is going on. I am so close to my dad and I would not have it any other way.

As I think about my dad I think about how much he has taught me. One of the biggest things he has taught me is how to serve others. I have never seen anyone as willing to serve as my dad. He will drop anything and help those in need. He has served me in so many ways through my life and I love him for teaching by example such a wonderful concept.

My dad taught me how to pray. Prayer wasn't always an easy concept for me to grasp and it wasn't something I always did. With my dad there to guide me and remind me that I can pray anytime I was able to latch on to the concept and I am forever grateful for that. Because my dad taught me what prayer is I can now pray all the time and know my Heavenly Father loves to hear from me.

My dad taught me how to sing. To some this might not seem like a big deal but to me music is my heart and soul. Music speaks to me in ways I cannot explain and it is a way of expressing myself that cannot be matched. I remember the first time I saw my dad sing in public. "You Raise Me Up" was the song. He is a tremendous singer and I am so glad he could show me what music can do. I never feel closer to my dad than when I am singing with him at the piano in our home.

My dad taught me to believe in me. This is a concept that is hard for many people to learn as they are growing up and I will admit that I struggled figuring out who I was. No matter how much I struggled, or how mad I made him when I messed up, he was there to tell me who I really am. I finally started to listen and I am really glad he kept trying.

I love my daddy very much. He means so much to me. I know I am meant to be in his family and I am so grateful for what he and my mom taught me (and are teaching me) throughout the years.

Graduation Trip!

I worked hard to graduate! Spent 5 years of my life writing essays and doing math problems to get good grades. Took my time in figuring out my degree but once I knew what it was I went for it! It took a lot of time, dedication, and money! It feels good to have it all done and have that degree under my belt. So, to celebrate we went on a trip!

We were going to go on a cruise, or to New York, or somewhere really exciting but the thing is that we are not very wealthy people. Wealthy with love, not with money. So we decided to play it safe and go to Vegas. After all, it had what I wanted: sun, warm weather, a pool, good food, fun shows, and of course..... time with my hubbie!

We started planning and making reservations in January. We went with our friends, Liz and Jared, and all 4 of us had it all planned out. Then, I got pregnant! I was so glad we had planned to go to Vegas and not on a cruise! Or to Disneyland! Turns out our Vegas plans were a blessing to me and my terrible terrible morning sickness. I mean can you imagine being on a boat when you are already throwing up pretty much everything? Bad idea! Bet you won't hear someone else say that going on a visit to the Vegas Strip was a blessing.....

We drove down on Wednesday night. We stayed at the Luxor which was really nice. Best hotel Tyson and I have stayed at in Vegas. I liked it a lot. Wednesday we walked a bit of the strip but after just a short while we were all very tired and went to bed.

Thursday we woke up and were excited to get things going! But we wanted to find some deals for the different things we wanted to see. So we visited what looked like a reservation desk.... Turns out it was one of those time share things. Well we told them three things we wanted to see, they got us a discount and all we had to do was sit through 3 hours of being pitched on a time share!

We did not buy a time share. But I did eat the free lunch and enjoy the discounted tickets. I was actually very bored during the whole presentation.

One of our discounted deals was to the Aquarium at Mandalay Bay. I LOVE this aquarium! After our LONG presentation we headed over to see those sharks!

There was a pool where you can pet the rays as they swim by.

Tyson's favorite, jellies!

And a whole lot of sharks!

Afterward we stayed in the area and got our caricatures drawn. I was nervous at first (so Liz and Jared got theirs first) but I think they look amazing! She was a really great artist.

That night the couples split up. Tyson and I went to see Ka! It was a Circ Cu Soleil performance and it was AMAZING! The stage went sideways, people were flipping over each other, there was sand. Oh my it was one of the best performances I have ever seen in my life. I loved it. The tickets were a gift for Tyson on our Anniversary (a while before our trip) but they were well worth the wait!

Friday we decided to walk along the strip and find things we liked. Of course, one of my favorite stops is the M&M store. You might think this would be a hard stop for me with my recent allergy to chocolate, but no. I have recently discovered that baby has cured me of this allergy and I can happily eat chocolate again! Yum.

We had a lot of fun with the M&Ms.

All of us were tired after walking around in the sun. We wanted to go swimming. On our way back to the hotel we saw an oxygen bar. So of course we stopped! Spent a while sucking on flavored oxygen while getting shoulder and neck massages. Yeah it was worth it!

We didn't end up going swimming that day but did see the Lions!

That night we wanted to see another Circ Du Soleil show and there was one in our hotel. Chris Angel and Circ Du Soleil sounded awesome! Stunts with magic shows! No, it was stupid. No stunts, just magic tricks that were lame. Nothing like his Mind Freak TV show which I thought was cool. He is dumb and not a very good performer, great on TV.... not great on stage.

Saturday morning the boys wanted to go ride the Stratosphere, Liz and I stayed behind and went to the pool. We were only there two hours before my new pregger sensitive skin was crawling with a sun rash so we went inside. As Liz was in her room getting ready for the day and the boys were off playing I got locked out of my room! My key card reader on the door had lost its battery juice and I was stuck. Security came, then called a locksmith, I waited for a little over an hour to get in! Sigh, after I got in Tyson and Jared were back so we all went to eat some lunch.

After eating some food we went to the Titanic exhibit in the Luxor. It was really neat. I had seen the one in Salt Lake but that was small compared to this one! I mean this one had a huge chunk of the actual ship in it! The largest piece of the outside wall of the ship ever to be removed! It was so awesome! Too bad we couldn't take any pictures.

More walking, and more random things were seen.

Then we took a gondola ride in the Venetian! It was so fun! Our driver (if they are called a driver, he didn't have to row but just steered the thing) was really nice and a really good singer.

Next was Phantom! It was soooo awesome! Tyson and I have seen it in Vegas before but it was definitely worth it to go again. It was also really cool to be there as Jared experienced his first "theatre" experience. He loved it!

Sunday morning we went to the Bodies exhibit in the Luxor. I will admit, I was pretty grossed out most of the time. Liz and Jared loved it because they are biology people and think it is cool, Tyson loved it because he is an art guy and just thought it was awesome to see all the parts. I was grossed out because it was dead people I was looking at! The one part I really liked was the baby part. Which is weird because that was the one part that had a warning "If you think you can't handle this room here is an exit" none of the other rooms had that! Anyway, I know those little baby spirits are in heaven so I was okay with it. Plus they had a baby that was the size mine was at the time. So cool to see the development as baby grows! Well we don't have pictures from that because they are not allowed.

I had never seen a fountain show at the Bellagio. When we went to see it they had cancelled them due to strong wind. But we got lucky! A few hours later they started up again and I got to see!

Sunday afternoon we walked around some more and played. We ended up getting tickets for another Circ Du Soleil show on Sunday night. This one was called "O". The O is because in french the word, eau (pronounced O) means water. It was SOOOOO cool! They had a giant pool that people kept diving into! We had a lot of fun!

Monday we checked out of the hotel and drove over to the Hoover Dam! We didn't drive over the dam because there is that new bridge where you can see the dam. So we went on the new bridge. We walked halfway across and then it was time to walk back. All the while we told the best dam jokes we knew.

It was really cool to see the dam from this angle!

The boys are always good at posing for pictures.....

After the dam we drove back home. It was a really nice trip. We all got to relax and still had a lot of fun. Plus, I only threw up a few times! I am convinced the morning sickness gets worse with stress though.... because the minute I got back to real life and work the sickness came flooding back!

Stay tuned for more updates to come!