Saturday, May 28, 2011

May Long Camping!

It seems to be a tradition of many to go camping on the May Long Weekend.  Luke and I decided to cash in on the tradition.  

Luke has a field trip next week to the Grand Canyon and after figuring out that it would be cheaper to buy instead of rent some camping supplies, we went to walmart and bought a few things.

One thing we bought: a tent for $15 (on sale from $20).  This way if the tent isn't great, we didn't put a lot of money into it.  But we wanted to test it out.  So we had a campout last night...

a campout in our living room.


Luke barely fits in the tent length-wise.  Like my Dad said "i've seen those two-man tents, and i don't know who those two men are" 

But we are happy with our purchase(s).  (we also got a sleeping bag, head lamp, waterbottle, foam for the sleeping bag all for less than renting them for the weekend)

We were even going to make smores - but i opted to make cookies instead.  

Whether camping outside or in the living room, the worst part is still waking up and having to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. 

I am glad we got some camping gear - it made for a great start to a long weekend. 

Family Visit

I am now almost 25 weeks, but i neglected to post this picture from when i was 23 weeks.  I swear my belly is twice as big now. 

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to have some family come visit.  Mom, Dad, Jamie, Jenelle and Candi all came down for a quick weekend visit. We opted to go to Salt Lake to visit Wilma and her Family (i didn't know if i could think of enough things to do here in Rexburg to keep everyone entertained for the weekend)


It was great to be with so much family.  Dad got a great deal on hotel rooms thanks to William Shatner (priceline) as he would say. 
We started our day early at Aunty Wilma's (old) favorite store of course. It's just not the same as it used to be.
Grandma Takahashi treated us to a great lunch at Tucano's.. THANK YOU GRANDMA!
(Blade looks great in this picture)


After lunch and some shopping (mostly window shopping) we were treated to frozen yogurt from where Nicole works.


Looks like Chay got something interesting




Then we headed to The church Museum. 




I missed what i heard was the best part of the Museum, everyone dancing in the kids exhibit, but i hear there is video of it all somewhere. 

The rest of the weekend we spend hanging out at the house.  Lots of games were played, and tears shed as a result of lots of laughter. OHh and we ate some really good burgers and fries.


I failed to mention that this was Luke's first time meeting the Gathers - i hope they were as impressed with him as he was with them.  


It was fun to spend time with everyone, and the weekend went by too quickly.  

Friday, May 13, 2011

22 weeks


22 weeks... 

I am now 22 and a half weeks.  plus a day. 

I have a hard time imagining the "your baby is the size of an english cucumber" or "a head of cauliflower"
I can't eat enough Cool Ranch Doritos
Snacks are my best friend
my pants are getting really tight 
Baby Allred likes James Taylor


Sunday, May 8, 2011

i guess i forgot to mention...


there are lots of things that have gone unblogged for quite some time.  Candi's birthday, our packing, pictures i took while experimenting with my new camera in the snow.. etc. So here are some things that are worth noting:
 First day of school April 2011



And now to more crucial news, which seems fitting with Mothers Day being tomorrow:



This news came in January. And our baby will arrive come September. 

Happy parents after seeing this:





We decided to celebrate the day by going to the Olive Garden and going to see a movie at the dollar theatre.  Both i don't have pictures of, but these pictures are both from that day.
 


And here are some pictures of my growing belly - mostly for my records. 

15 weeks.


I have since enlisted Luke as my photographer.. 
19 weeks.


And at 20 weeks (and a few days) we went and got an ultrasound.  
Baby Allred happens to be Baby BOY Allred. 
The sex of the baby was quite obvious, the pictures aren't quite as cute as this one:

If you can see that is our little baby trying to suck his thumb (just like his Dad used to).  His head is on the left and his arm is coming up into his mouth area on the right of the picture. 

Because of our great news, and my growing body and new aches and pains, sleeping position, lack of sleeping etc we bought this:

It is a pregnancy pillow


Here i am demonstrating one way to use it.  


It is actually REALLY comfortable, and Luke loves to steal it in the mornings after i get up.  it is so comfortable that he did, infact, sleep in one morning and almost missed his class (a great story in itself as he got up quickly, ran his hair under the bath, broke the towel rack off the wall, ran to school and got a blister on his heel from not tying up his shoe, sat down in class only to realize he had gone to the wrong class, races to the right class, remembers he needs to print something, etc etc.. )


 Here is my 'bump' at 21 weeks. I am more than halfway done now!!! 

 I don't know how apparent it is, but i do feel like i am growing at an alarming rate.  I have got some cute (which is hard to find) maternity clothes that i have so far avoided wearing, because i know that soon that is all i'll be wearing. 


We are more than thrilled for our family to continue to grow, and we are SO grateful for all the blessings that we have seen in our lives already. It is interesting to see how answers to prayers aren't always what you expect them to be, or what you think you are capable of.  We have learned that when we follow those answers, we see doors open (like things working out with our Doctor down here, so we don't have to end up paying tons of $$$$$, me getting my green card in record time, being able to go to Phoenix AND Hawaii.. the list goes on) and we are just so grateful to always feel so taken care of. 

Because it is mothers day tomorrow, Luke took me out for lunch to Olive Garden (i guess that is our place to go to celebrate - i think it is the cheap soup, salad and breadsticks). We had the best service we have EVER had at a restaurant i am pretty sure, and Luke is a raving fan.  He told me he even wanted to blog about it on my blog - i'm still working on him actually doing that.  

If anyone else is like us, one of the best things about Olive Garden is the chocolates they give you at the end of the meal - well Benji (our server) hooked us up. he brought us this 'to-go' box and told us not to open it until we were out of the restaurant.  

We were beyond happy, and even more impressed with this service, when this is what we saw:


I feel bad for any server we have in the future - there is no way they can measure up to Benji.


Afterwards we got our groceries for the week and headed home.  I enjoyed the evening by getting some chicken enchiladas ready for tomorrow and some chocolate chip cookies.  It's been a great first (day early) mothers day.



So in closing, I just want to say Happy Mothers Day to my own mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers and all those other mothers in my life. I am only pregnant, but i can see that it's not as easy being a mother as i always thought.