At This Rate I'm Giving Birth to the Equivalent of a Chinese Olympic Gymnast!!!!

This post is dedicated to my out-of-state friends and my out-of-country cousin who have requested pictures of my huge belly bump! Well, this week at my appointment I was measuring 40 cms but I am only 37 weeks! My doc guessed baby boy is weighing in at 8lbs 4oz! He told me he would consider inducing me but I have not dilated at all!!! In fact, I have not progressed one bit from my appointment last week! Please share your wives-tales on how to start labor so I do not give birth to a teenager!

Cousins by Chance, Friends by Choice

In the great eternal words of Annie Belle, "Cousins by Chance, Friends by Choice"! Both of my beautiful cousins celebrated their 23rd birthdays this weekend! Emily threw a summer BBQ fiesta that was out of this world! It was great to see all of my extended family and receive their words of wisdom on labor, delivery and the after math! Now I have 2 months of being scared out of my mind!

Below are my 2 best friends Annie Belle on the left, Emily Jane of the Right! Emily is moving to Canada in 2 weeks, Annie and I are going to miss her sooo much! No longer a table of 3 for our lunch dates!
Below is a picture of my HERO!!! The glamorous women in blue rocking the mic is my 79 year-old Grandmother Goose! She is the most fabulous, generous, fun-loving person! It is an honor to be related to her! When we invited her to take lead vocals on Rock Band she did not even hesitate! She was really good at it too!
Emily & Hank were generous enough to let us take their cruisers out for a ride! It was liberating to ride a bike! I felt like a human again although I think we all slightly looked like Pee-Wee Herman! I dig the pink basket!

Early Maternity Leave?

Wow has my world changed! Due to the fragile economy I am officially UNEMPLOYED! Two weeks ago Wednesday, June 18th, the advertising agency I worked for laid off 20 employees and I was one of them! I was laid off from ThomasArts where I have worked for the last 2 years! I was heartbroken when I was laid off because I have truly loved my job! I am enjoying my early maternity leave but miss my job and co-workers very much! Of course, I am still staying in touch with all of my favs! Being nearly 7 months pregnant makes it really hard to find a company that wants to employ you for 2 months then have you take 2 months off for the baby. Regardless, I am looking for work. So, if you have any great ideas please let me know!

First Baby Shower

Thank you to Annie, Ashlee & Michelle to throwing me a fabulous first baby shower! Thanks to all the girls who came! I had such a good time catching up with all of you! Not to mention I received darling and practical gifts. I have the greatest friends!

Top L-R: Rachel, Michelle, Dru, Me, Jordan, Tori. Bottom L-R: Lauren, Courtney, Ashlee, Ashlee, Annie , Megan.

The High School Posse

We had great food! These cupcakes were divine!

Look how cute this outfit is? The shoes are TDF! I can't wait for the little guy to wear them!

The Most Practical Present Award went to the... Pee Pee Tee Pee's! Hysterical!

Fashion Blog Obsession

A few months ago I had to research Fashion Blogs for a client at work. After reading a few I became addicted. The New York Times even wrote an article surrounding the craze and the business of the fashion blog world. After months of reading my friend & co-worker, Jamie, decided that we should put our online celebrity gawking and online shopping to use. So we started our own Fashion Blog. We basically post about how to look like a million bucks without spending it! It is a work in progress but I would like to invite anyone who reads this blog to check it out! The name of our fashion Blog is Impress to Dress (impresstodress.blogspot.com). We are dorks, I know! Read carefully you just may become a fashion blog addict!

Viva Las Vegas Gone Country

Four of my darling friends at work decided Friday to make a 34 hour trip to Vegas to the see the Country Music Awards; they took pity on the married pregnant co-worker and invited me to come along! We had a blast. We started our road trip at 5 pm Saturday and returned home at 3 am Monday morning. The capstones of our Vegas vacation was In-&-Out Burger and somewhere in between eating burgers we managed a church service, a pool, primping for the award show, bargaining with scalpers and The Award Show! Noelle, Laura and Valerie had tickets to the show but Cheryl and I were banking on buying tickets from a scalper. When we got to the outside of the arena when the doors opened they were selling tickets for $1,000. I love country music but I do not love it that much. With scalping prices at a high we tried to sneak in the "fillers" (the people who sit in the celebrities seats when they perform or go to the bathroom) line but it turned out that we needed to be pre-screened and be wearing a wrist band. Feeling like our options were out we took a seat on a bench and people watched which was spectacular as you can imagine. With 20 minutes before the doors closed Cheryl and I decided to see if the high rolling scalper had lowered their prices, they had come down from the thousands to the hundreds. As we scanned the area for more scalpers I saw a very large cowboy give a group next to us 3 tickets for FREE! Without hesitation I ran after him and said, "Sir, do you have any more tickets?" He responded to me that he only had one and handed me a ticket. I immediately looked down at the face value to see what we had to work with, $450! We couldn’t believe our eyes. We traded the ticket for 2 tickets and made it into our seats before the doors closed! SUCCESS! The show was amazing with great performances from, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Brooks and Dunn, Sugarland and a medley of greatest hits by the one and only Garth Brooks! We had a fun filled 34 hours with NO REGRETS!

Cheryl, Valerie and I in the back seat crew on the way to Vegas

Chery, Me, Laura & Noelle waiting for our order at In-&-Out

Looking creepy in the burger hat

Getting ready country style to walk the red carpet

Me & Val at dinner before the show

Cheryl, Me, Noelle, Valerie & Laura posing in the MGM lobby

Me & Cheryl showing off our tickets for FREE! Thank you rich cowboy!

Carrie Underwood rocking the stage
Garth Brooks rocking out to a medley of his greatest hits

Hello My Name is Earl Birthday!

I had the greatest 24th Birthday. After I woke up from sleeping in Jordan and I made a list of everything that we wanted to accomplish to celebrate my birthday! Thanks to Jordan being a fabulous friend and Historian she documented each event! Disclaimer part of my birthday was not to wear make-up and wearing our sweats!!!

First stop was shopping. We found the most success at Down East Outfitters. I bought 3 darling dresses and a charm bracelet! For those who's eggo is not preggo may I suggest you check out Down East's swim suits! They are amazing!

We worked up an appetite and of course had to go to the one and only Tom's Deli for a Turkey Sub! If you have not been there I would highly suggest going. It is just South of Holiday Inn on Bluff Street! YUM! We ate lunch there both days!



We then raced across town to Washington where we had appointments to get our hair did at the new Paul Mitchell Hair School . We fully understood getting our hair done at a beauty school could make or break the birthday! Jordan and I both loved what we ended up with! Can you really complain about an $8 haircut? We are trying to convince Zac and Chris that we need to go every 8 weeks for a cut! Below are our new and mostly improved do's!!!
After all of our hard work of getting our hair done we need a Route 44! The new brew is a Vanilla Lemonade! A great beverage of the summer! It is a must try! After being hydrated we need a pedicure in order to break out the sandals( speaking of which Chris gave me two darling sandals for my birthday! Picked them out himself)! Below is Edison who thought that is would be more fun to tickle my feet then massage them, semi-creepy!



Edison was also a great photographer as you can tell from this Pic!!!

While we were having all of this fun Zac and Chris were working on their glove tan and biking the red rock! From this picture you can probably imagine how bad they stunk!


We went to dinner at the Pasta Factory! Chris and Zac's friend from High School Scott and his wife Rachel came with us! They were hilarious and fun and we wished they lived in Salt Lake so we could hang out more.




After dinner we topped off the meal with Golden Spoon! That is right , for all of you frozen yogurt fans they have Golden Spoon in Saint George! Bring them back to the Wasatch Front, please!!!

We then went and saw the movie Baby Mama! I am not sure if I thought it was funny because I was pregnant or if it really was funny! Either way I would recommend it! Who can go wrong with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler???
And yes, we snuck this picture in the theater!

We came home and Chris surprised me with the best birthday cake, a candy apple from the Rocky Mountian Chocolate Company! It was delicious! I know I look like a creep in this picture but not as creepy as Chris's sly smile!
Toasted the day with sparkling cider that Goose left for us! As a request to my friends who live out of state and are not able to see my ever so big and growing baby bump, here it is! This was the end of the day so it looks extra BIG!!!

Thank you to all for the birthday messages! I apologize if I did not call you back! As you can tell I was very busy pampering myself!!!

Half-Way and A-Okay

I am now on the down hill slope! I am half-way through the pregnancy and feeling great!I had my 20 week ultra sound appointment and it was so fun to see the little guy! It was confirmed that he is a boy. We were able to see his; arms, legs, feet, hands, heart, aorta, bladder, stomach, brains... to name a few! I met with my Doctor this morning he said he reviewed the ultra sound and everything looked great! Besides my outer right thigh being numb and tingly I have nothing to complain about! The second trimester has been great! I take that back I do have one thing to complain about! ALLERGIES! I have been sneezing so much I feel like my eye-balls are going to pop out of my head! I was told by my Doc that the only medicine I could take was Benadryl but that made me way too tired so he suggested over-the-counter Claritin which has helped a little bit! I just don't understand why we have to be allergic to such a beautiful season!

But I will tell you what this beautiful season does bring;

Fun Flora Prints and Sassy Spring accessories! (photo courtesy of Jamie)

The spring time also brings ...

Jazz play-offs! Always great entertainment!

And last but not least, Spring brings the best day of the year, May 3rd, my birthday!!!

We are going to St.George this weekend with Zac and Jordan to bring in my 24th B-Day! I am sure that I will make a post of our adventurous weekend when we return!

1 year down, 1 more to go!!!

Yah whooo... Sammy has been out for a year! He is loving his mission, the people and the language. I have been missing him like crazy this time of year so I thought I would post pictures in case you are missing him too! These pics are from his last beautiful area, San Martin!

IT IS A ....

We are having a BOY!!!
We are so thrilled! I can't stop screaming! The Draino test does not lie! I was told by some wise friends to drink orange juice and eat candy before the ultrasound! He was so hyper, spinning, rolling, punching, kicking, posing!!! Maybe I did not need to eat the bag of sour watermelons!!! Before the Ultrasound Tech announced what the gender was I saw the goods and yelled, "It's a Boy!" She then told me I was right! It was so fun to see him! Wow I can say Him now and not It!!! Now it is time to think of a name for this little guy! Any suggestions?