[.sometimes, you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself.]

You can't go the month of December without decorating "ginger bread" houses, or graham cracker houses for that matter.

Being the competitive person that I am, Brooklyn and I were bound and determined to have the better graham cracker house, or at least I was [brooke helped by coming and eating a skittle here and there, or decorating the ice cream cone trees].  Watching Jenna and Isaac struggle at first I was confident that the "strong foundation" of my house would stay right in place.

At least for a minute.

Yes, that blow dryer was what I was using to harden my frosting more quickly.

Isaac and Jenna at least had four hands to keep the walls in place :)

 

 

Right after I finished my shingled roof, it caved in.

Luckily Kevin's engineering skills were put to use and he helped Brooke finish up the house so that I could go to tithing settlement.

 

 

Our semi-finished product!

 

 Brooke named our house Gingy and both Isaac and Jenna named theirs Dopey, because it was dope! Oh boy!

I think they both turned out really cute!?

But hey, it was fun!

[.no one has ever become poor by giving.]

A couple days ago I entered to win a birth story!  Whichever picture on her site has the most likes will win.  I am currently in second place!  I can't believe how close I am to first place!  We have until Christmas Eve to make every vote count!
This would be the VERY best Christmas gift we could ever ask for!
I can't believe how much love and support I have seen from our friends and family already.  I am overwhelmed with love and am completely grateful for those I have in my life who love and support us.

Here is my 27 week baby bump photo of Miss K!
 

 

If you would like to help us win, click on the picture and be sure to LIKE it on facebook!  Your vote definitely counts!

 

On the other hand, we just got back from our 28 week appointment today.  Everything is going well.  We now go in for appointments every two weeks!  I can't believe how FAST time is flying by!

Enjoying every moment getting to know this little girl!

[.life is better when you're laughing.]

I just couldn't help myself.

 

I can't help but think how cute her little bum will be wearing these!

 

Baby girl moves like crazy and loves to keep me up all night long.

Actually the other night was the first night in a while that I didn't sit there for hours, looking at the clock, waiting for my alarm to go off.

 

Friday Jenna and I went to Lance's parents to work on a quilt and then went to the What A Woman Wants expo.  We were there for about two hours and finished it off with a free ten minute massage.  Afterward we went to Fashion Place mall to see where Jenna could spend her shopping spree [from work] money.  By the end of the day we were both a little slap happy and just wanted to go home and get in our beds!

 

Saturday, I helped my friend Sarah host a baby shower for a girl from our work having twin girls.  With full intention of brining my camera, I completely forgot to bring it to the shower!  It turned out really cute and it got me pretty excited to start having some of my own.  I started to realize how quickly time has gone and that it will only go faster from here on out.

 

Sarah, Jacinda and I went to Playing for Keeps after the shower.  It's usually tradition that we go to Zupas before a movie but since we just finished with the shower we vetoed that idea and brought leftover snacks instead.  I always love going out with these girls!  We always have such a good time. I will miss Sarah while she is on her mission in freakin Paris but Jacinda and I will be sure to keep up on tradition.

 

Also, this last week, Lance and I bought an upright freezer!  It is weird but I am seriously so excited about it!

I can't stand living dinner-to-dinner, not knowing what to make and not having much on hand to just throw a dinner together.  Sounds crazy, but this freezer is my motivation to precook meals and have them ready to go for Lance when he has to work.

I'm planning to spend one day a week [then, hopefully only once a month] to prep all of our dinners ahead of time!

I'm hoping I can come up with plenty of clean [not clean as in washing the vegetables before..] recipes that will freeze well!

 

Last but not least, I have to brag about my husband for a second.  I've always told him that I wouldn't ever push him to eat the way I would like him to.  I feel that by doing so it would just make matters worse.

I know that when people would always criticize me or make comments when I was eating horribly that it would only make me want to hide what I was really eating.  So that is the last thing I would want to do.

The last couple weeks, I have noticed a change in him.  He may not love it now or may not even stick with it forever, but it makes me happy to know that he is trying and doing awesome!

I was SUPER happy when I made a fully clean meal and his response was that he loved it!  I'm hoping to make more and more meals that I can get that same response.  It makes me excited to start cooking meals that both of us will eat!

[.you are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequence of your choice.]

For Thanksgiving this year, we were able to spend time with Lance's family.  It's a little difficult sometimes to try and spend as much time with every single family I have, so Lance and I have decided that we make it a point to spend the whole day with one family and then just trade off the other years.  To start off the morning we went down by Utah lake to go shooting.  All the boys brought their guns, clay pigeons and ammo.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, dinner was amazing!  I'm pretty sure I was in a food coma for about an hour afterward.

It didn't help being sick and not eating for 2 whole days before Thanksgiving, then to "all-a-sudden" have an appetite for everything in sight.

I ended up making lunch lady peanut butter bars and pumpkin cheesecake pies for my dessert.  They were both experimental recipes and I was pleasantly surprised with both :)  Jenny made yummy apple pies and Tori made both a chocolate pie and a cheesecake, cake.

 

 

 

 

 

Once we let our food settle, we all hit the 8 o'clock Walmart black friday madness.  It was a bit ridiculous, but entertaining none-the-less.  As if Walmart wasn't enough we decided Target would be a good choice afterward.  It was funny seeing the boys get all hyped up and cheer on the crazy shoppers.

 

I'm glad we were able to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with Lance's family.

 

Since we already did the black friday deal Thursday night, Friday we Lance and his brothers helped Tim and Kamie move out of their apartment.  I felt a little useless to help but at least Miss K was cheering on the movers the entire time!

 

I guess maybe I did do a little black friday shopping?  Kind of.

It wasn't really a black friday deal, but I thought it was a good deal:)

We bought our crib and I absolutely love it!

I'm hoping it is only as pretty in person as it was online!

 

Lance and I spent Saturday morning up in Wolf Creek cutting down our Christmas tree!  We actually found 3 trees that we liked and just had to decide which one would be best!

Hopefully we made a good pick!

 

I wanted to get home quickly so that I could start setting up Christmas decorations (the small amount that I have).  I always seem to forget how long it takes me to put lights on the tree.  This year I feel like our tree looks like a Dr. Seuss tree and I'm happy with it!

As much as I miss the huge, bushy, prelit, stack the top on the bottom kind of tree, I really do enjoy going with Lance to find "the perfect tree".  I told him that next year we are going to work hard for our tree. Hike our butts deep into the mountains to get it.

He just rolled his eyes, he knows he loves me :)

 

 

[.those who are the hardest to love need it the most.]

Saturday night Lance and I went to the new Traverse Mountain outlets with Isaac and Kevin.  Afterwards we went to Cabella's and Dickey's for dinner.

 

Dickey's allows you to get free ice cream after your meal.

Once I saw that Kevin, Isaac and Lance were finished with their food I offered to go get them an ice cream cone.  Isaac and Kevin said yes.

It took me back to making ice cream cones at paces where I felt the need for the cone to look perfect.

I made the first cone.  Wahlah.

I started making the second cone and the ice cream stopped.  You could imagine how mad I was when my need for perfection was ruined with only have an ice cream cone, and not only that but little blops of ice cream on top of each other.

I started to laugh at myself (yes, I do that frequently) as I was walking back to the table with an ice cream cone and a half.  I let Kevin and Isaac choose who got which one.

Lance still needed one so I told one of the workers up front that they were out of ice cream.

 

I'm sure they weren't surprised being that they had already run out of pork, rolls, bbq sauce, and fries.  Not to mention the garbage cans were over flowing out of the top.  Isaac was a little afraid to use the bathroom, thinking they would be out of toilet paper!

 

The worker went to pour in the ice cream and I patiently waited for a couple minutes to try the ice cream machine again.

I walked back to get Lance a cone and it still wasn't working.

 

Meanwhile, a guy sitting at the table next to the machine asked if I ate all the ice cream.  He probably saw that I already made the two previous cones.

 

Once Kevin and Isaac finished their cones, Lance went back to see if it would work.

It did and he came back to the table with a nice cone.

After the fight between my stomach and my mind, my stomach won and I justified that I would be okay to put a little bit of ice cream in a cup and enjoy some myself.

I walked back, again, with my empty cup, pulled down on the trigger and nothing came out.

WHAT THE HECK!?

It must be a sign.

Can't a pregnant lady get some freakin ice cream around here!?

[.do small things with great love.]

Well that was a little ironic.

I felt the need to vent for a minute.

I looked on pinterest to find a quote that had to do with what I feel the need to vent about.

Needless to say, it was the very first quote that popped up when I went under the quote category.

 

 

This is just something that has been on my mind the last little while.

Something that Lance and I will talk about frequently.

There are so many people in my life.  So many different sides of the family.  Lance's friends.  My friends.  Those we work with.

The part I've been thinking about most, is the part in the quote that says they'll make an effort to be in it.

I know those that make an effort to be a part of my life.

Those that ask questions about me and actually care about how I am doing and how my life is going.

Those that call and make plans, rather than just talk about it.

Those that actually want to make plans, rather than feeling "obligated".

Sometimes I feel like I slack to make an effort to be part of others lives.

But then I sit there and think, they aren't making an effort so why should I?

I am a people pleaser, but I realize I can't please everyone.

So at least if I try and make that effort at least once a month then I can feel better about it.

 

Reserving the space in my heart for my family: Well, I have a different family dinner every sunday, does that count? - check.

 

Reserving the space in my heart for my Heavenly Father: always room for improvement, but improving - semi check.

 

Reserving the space in my heart for my friends: working on it.

 

That being said, I do have amazing people in my life.  I don't know what I would do without them!  I've just come to realize that I know how it makes me feel when those who I feel should make an effort don't and I don't want to make those that matter to me feel that same way.

 

Venting sesh, over.

 

[.if you don't like what's being said, change the conversation.]

I'm beginning to feel somewhat huge.

Every single night I feel like I have to lay flat on my back over a bunch of pillows to make my ribs stop hurting.

I wake up every night around 2:30 or 3:00 for who knows why.

My heartburn has stopped, for now, and I sure am glad that I haven't spent my days over the toilet bowl for over a month now.

I'm mostly registered for things we need, which is still like everything! :)

I'm still not sure Rudy knows what is about to hit him.

 

Here's to 25 weeks!

 

 

[because my 24 week picture made my stomach look funny!]

 

[.for one minute, walk outside, stand there, in silence, look up at the sky, and contemplate how amazing life is.]

I've come to the conclusion that Lance is a way better husband than I am wife.  I got my birthday present early this year and I have some pretty cute neices and a beautiful best friend to practice on with my new lens!

 

On Halloween we went to Lance's parents and had dinner in a pumpkin.  I loved Reagan's fairy costume.

 

 

 

 

This last weekend I was able to meet my new neice Londyn.  Mandy, Lorin and their cute family are in town for Jake and Chelsea's wedding this coming weekend.  Friday night I went to the Bountiful temple for Chelsea's endowments.

It's always nice to be able to go when it is for family.

We went to Winger's afterward to celebrate.

 

Here are a couple pictures I took at Londyn's baby blessing yesterday.

 

 

[.what you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.]

I don't like to be the one that posts every little detail of my life on facebook.  That is why I have a blog.  Where I can obsessively post about how cute my dog is and where I can post about day to day things that happen with miss k.

 

Our 22 week appointment was last Wednesday.

I'm very glad that we have been able to schedule our appointments where Lance is able to be there with me.

 

It is crazy to think that 6 weeks ago at our ultrasound I couldn't feel the movement that I saw on the screen.  Now, I swear this little girl never stops moving.  I pretty much know what time of day it is based on her movements.

 

I love watching my stomach moving and sitting there wondering what she will look like and how she will sound.

 

Here are a couple clips of miss k.  So far, her hands have always been right next to her face.

I love when she taps her forehead and when you can see her stretching out her fingers.

It's kind of hard to see, so I guess you kind of have to have an imagination when looking at these ultrasounds.

 

 

Off to look for more fabric :)

[.fall seven times, stand up eight.]

Boy, have I missed Moab?!

 

Lance and I were able to go to Moab a couple months ago and ride the four wheelers.  That was "Lance's way" of the Moab trip.  So, now I needed to break him into "my way" of the Moab trip! HIKING!
One of the best workouts out there!  The weather was a little chilly at the first of the morning but other than that it was perfect!
The skies were BRIGHT blue and I LOVED it!
Secretly, so did Lance :)

I am sad, however, that we missed mine and Lance's neice and nephews first birthdays and the halloween weekend up in Richmond with Lance's family.
Happy birthday Harrison!
Happy birthday Reagan!

---------------

Here's to a TON of pictures!

The first thing we do when we get to the room is... well duh, jump on the beds!



Before we even entered the park...

My mom got pulled over and somehow managed to get out of a ticket going 22 over the speed limit.
I'll never know.

Ya know when you go to Lagoon and you have that first ride that you just have to go on!?  Mine was always colossus!  Well, that is the way I felt when we got to Moab.

Delicate Arch is my Colossus!

 

How is that for a 22 week photo?

It took about 7 shots to get one that actually worked, where it didn't look like I was constipated from pushing my stomach out so far.

Have you ever had one of those moments where you just feel like doing a cart wheel?  Well...



After Delicate we went to Balanced Rock and the North and South Window arches.



I snapped this photo about 1/2 a second before....

she missed a step and almost knocked her face open.  I could have sworn she did.  I'm such a good daughter to take a picture of my mom on her butt instead of helping her up.
That's why I have a husband right?:)





Don't worry there is just a drop off right behind us.


Photo credit to Lance :)

We ended up gonig to Zax for dinner that night. Mmm.

Saturday we got ourselves ready for Double O Arch.  Also another one of my favorites.

I must say I felt a little handicapped this time around.  I usually love to jump from rock to rock and run back down the trail once we've made it to the arch.  But I have a wonderful husband that kept reminding me I am carrying our child.  So I took it easy and let him help me like a gentleman through the crazy rocks.

Whenever he comes to help me it makes me realize that the last two miscarriages haven't only affected me but him too.

I love the Double O Arch hike because of the view you get along the way.











Lance was Brookie's buddy this hike.



Once Brooke saw that we had to walk across the top of this rock she was done, said she was going to wait for us, but Lance came to her rescue and offered a piggy back.  Sometimes I forget that Lance is her brother and not an uncle.  I thought it was adorable.









Can you see why she might have wanted a piggy back? You feel so huge yet so tiny at the same time.









Apparently we are all spazes because Jenna fell off the rock about 1/2 a second after this shot!  We were walking and taking the picture to catch-our-hair-flowing-in-the-wind.
Note to self: Don't walk and take pictures at the same time.





We made it to the Double O!
The bottom O seems so big and then you walk to the other side and the top O is ginormous!

As I walked back down through the little O, I see my husband...climbing up the side of a rock like Spidy!



 All of a sudden he disappeared and I saw his shadow walking up along the top. So I ran back over to the other side, and yes, there he was standing in the ginormous O!

 

On our way back, I saw this gap between some rocks and wanted to plank between them.  Probably not a good idea.. So I made everyone else do it :)

 

 

 

 Brooke was a little too short to plank the gap so she decided to jump off the rock instead.

 

 

We shot some other pretty cool pictures along this hike but Jenna has them on her camera.

Oh boy will I have some adding to do!  Have you ever seen so many stinkin pictures in a post!?

 

After our hike we did some shopping, sat in the hot tub (well I dangled my feet) and watched one of my clients pageants.

 

For the last day in Moab we tried an arch I've never been to.  Corona Arch.

 

 

 

Okay, the description of this hike was a bit deceiving.  Moderately easy?  My butt!

 

 

If it were moderately easy do you think you would need metal ropes and ladders to help you get through it?

Didn't think so.

 

It actually wasn't too bad, it was an awesome hike!

 

Perfect way to end our last day in Moab!

 

 

The view from laying under the arch.

Oh, yeah...  Jake only has 10 flippin weeks left until he's home from TONGA!