[.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 :)