Sunday, December 16, 2012

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

I want to toot my own horn for a second here: I took a graphics design class this semester and was able to learn a little about Adobe Illustrator. This Christmas tree, I created from scratch! From the star to the branches to the string holding up the ornaments, I "drew" it all in illustrator. After finishing the tree, I had a design friend, Katherine, take a look at it to help me smooth out a few of the lines. BIG thanks to Katherine!
Anyway, I was pretty proud of this piece!

2012 has been wonderful! 

I have grown closer to old friends, and made many new friends. I've enjoyed a great amount of time with my family and was blessed with a couple weeks this summer to spend with Mike's.
A lot of new changes have occurred in our little family.
Mike received an awesome promotion!
I became the first in my family to receive a Bachelor's degree (well, I tied with my brother-in-law, Jared)!
And the biggest of all big is... 
Mike & I found out we are pregnant with a little girl and are due in May!

I just want to thank each and every one of you for being a part of our lives. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people to share our experiences with. 

Here's to another great year!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Gender Reveal Party

December 10th took SO long to get here. It was a Monday, and I'm pretty certain that I have never in my life been more excited for the arrival of a Monday . 
On this day, we had our first ultrasound that would tell us if we were having a little girl or a little boy!
To celebrate our findings, we decided to have a gender reveal party! It was just with my parents and siblings, but it turned out to be such a hit! 
Before the party, we only told a handful of people the gender of the baby, including Mike's parents who live in Minnesota. However, we did NOT tell my family. It was SO hard to keep it a secret from them! By 9 am, we knew the gender and could not tell them until close to 8:30 pm! 12 hours of keeping this in was SO incredibly hard!

This is a picture of the banner I made for the party! (I added some twine to string them together)

The Box Reveal idea came from Pinterest. What would our 21st century lives be like without this website?
The idea is to get a large box, fill it with pink or blue balloons filled with helium, and open it in front of friends and family to share with them the exciting news!!
Its a little hard to tell what this picture is, but I will explain. The creation of this box was due to the fact that we did not have a box big enough to do the job we needed it to do. I had my friend Brelynn come over to help me create this.

 4 smaller boxes and several kinds of tape later, we did it. This box had 5 sides, and no top. 
We left it open so when we wrapped it up in silver polk-a-dot wrapping paper with the balloons inside, we could just punch through the paper to release the balloons! I could NOT have gotten all the balloons in here without Brelynn. Thank you for all your help!

My mom helped me create these gorgeous lips and mustaches. We made 10 of each of these, and let each member of the family, including our little nieces, pick which one they thought that Baby Every would be! 

Unfortunately, we lost the pictures of everyone's guesses, and the opening of the box, so I won't be able to share those with ya'll :[

I will do my best to describe it to you though!
So, most of my family picked mustaches as their guess. You see, in our family, we have 3 granddaughters, and on Mike's side, there are already 2. That is 5 girls that have come into our family in the last 3 years. 
Everyone thought for SURE that this baby would be a boy. Well, not everyone, but the majority. 
We took pictures with each couple/little family of their guesses.
After the guessing, we brought the GINORMOUS box downstairs to where everyone was seated. My dad suggested we all count down from 10 and when we got to one, we would punch open the box. 
10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 ............ PINK balloons everywhere!
I think most of the family was VERY surprised! And maybe I'm just emotional, but it was such a big event, I almost cried watching those pink balloons float to the ceiling!
 I also did not get any pictures of the food... However, all the credit for the yummy food goes to my sister, Dannielle and my sister-in-law, Cynthia.
Dannielle got Hershey chocolate bars and colored half of them with the SHE in pink and the other half with the HE in blue. She also brought pink lemonade and blue Hawaiian punch for drinks!
Cynthia made cupcakes (I did get a picture of that above) in bubblegum & cotton candy flavors (pink & blue)!
They did a fantastic job!





Saturday, November 24, 2012

I'll be home for Thanksgiving...

This was my first Thanksgiving where I was not at my grandparents, stuffing my face with the traditional.

Mike grew up in Minnesota, and one of his closest friends is Paul. Paul's family have since moved up to Idaho, while Paul is down in Provo attending BYU. 
Paul invited us to go up with him to Idaho to spend Thanksgiving with his family this year.

We drove up early Wednesday morning. When I say "we" drove... I meant that Mike drove. What a trooper. He drove every mile, BOTH ways. If any of you know me very well, my heart is full of gratitude for this act of kindness on Mike's end. I absolutely HATE to drive, and will avoid it as much as possible. 

It was so wonderful to share Thanksgiving with his family. They were so welcoming and made us feel as though we were home for Thanksgiving.
The food was absolutely perfect, the company was great, and we even had entertainment! (Paul's family does a talent show each year, and this family is TALENTED!) 




Sunday, November 11, 2012

Sweet Baby Smith!

This post is a LITTLE Late... LOL!
My dear friends Melissa & Blake finally had their little boy in September. With being 2 weeks late, and him needing to stay 2 weeks in the NICU, I am so happy that he is home & safe. 
He is such a sweet little thing and I am so grateful for Melissa. She has been such a wonderful friend to me & I am very excited to get to know this beautiful baby boy!
 Here is sweet little Smith!
 Smith sticking out his tongue all cute!
I snatched this picture off of Melissa's facebook. What a darling!
Melissa bringing her baby in to visit the office.
Melanie, Karianna, Melissa & Smith, & Hayley (Baby Ross is also in the picture!)



Interesting facts about the office: Melissa was pregnant and had her baby at the end of September, Hayley is pregnant and due at the end of November, and I am pregnant and due in May. 
For about a month, 3 girls working at MKVO were pregnant! 
We all joke that Melanie is going to be next! And the designer we hire to replace Hayley soon is probably going to get pregnant too! :]




Saturday, November 3, 2012

1st Trimester

The first trimester blew by so fast, yet it was slugging along like nobody's business.
Its already almost over though!


I've enjoyed many not exciting side effects of being pregnant:


nausea
migraines
tender breasts
frequent urination
exhaustion
lower back pain
light-headedness
dizziness
extreme bleeding of my gums
are those stretch marks?

oh.. and did I mention that I ALREADY have a little pregnant bump? No more buttoning up my pants... Going to have to hit up the maternity wear!

Seriously, you name the side effect - I've had it!


It has been a good ride though. Mike has been very helpful in making sure he does some extra chores around the house, gives up his usual spot on the couch, and allowing me to sleep in most mornings. He is right my by side EVERY time I'm headed for the bathroom to ...bond with my toilet bowl. 
I'm tellin' ya -- this man that I married is the absolute best!



By the way... Here is a picture of what the baby looks like at 13 weeks!
What a cutie!






Thursday, November 1, 2012

Here comes a Baby!


That is right. We are pregnant and can finally share the news!

It feels like it has been the longest 3 months (technically 2 months) of secret keeping ever in my life! 
Finally, we are almost 13 weeks along and are excited to tell everyone!

Mike and I found out that we were pregnant on August 30th 2012. 
I was expecting that I might be expecting! However, the previous week before we found out, I took 3 other pregnancy tests that were all negative! (turns out I calculated my expected "test positive" date wrong).
Finally, we saw a double line on the pregnancy test indicating we were pregnant! 
It was so faint, that I was not even sure about it, and we both kind of disregarded it and went about our day.
Later that morning, I had a discussion with one of my dear friends about the faint line that had appeared on our pregnancy test and she ASSURED me that we were indeed pregnant. Even if it was faint.
I had a hard time believing this, so I decided that two days later, we would test again. I did not make it a full two days before I was too anxious about peeing on a stick!
So we pulled out another one, and yup! You guessed it! Confirmed positive-o!

Our due date is May 11th 2013!! If our baby is lucky enough to be born on the actual due date, (s)he will share a birthday with his/her wonderful Great Uncle Gil!



Sunday, October 28, 2012

A Keen Halloween!

A Halloween celebration!
Mike & I took an evening out to enjoy some of Utah's Halloween festivities!
We went to a pumpkin walk & saw some incredibly carved squash!
Some of our favorites!


After going to the pumpkin walk, we headed over to the Shops at the Riverwoods. This place was fantastic for Halloween. They had pumpkins carved, games, booths, carriage rides, hot chocolate and entertainment. 



Saturday, September 15, 2012

Lagoon with the Family!

My dad got tickets from his work to take the family to Lagoon. It was so much fun! We haven't all been to Lagoon since I was little. This time was even more entertaining because we got to have all of my nieces there to enjoy the day with us. Here are some fun pictures from that day! Unfortunately, Mike was the only one who was not able to make it :[ He had to work that day...
 Here is my dad!
 Taylor
 Paris is having so much fun!
 Reagan
 My mom, Cynthia & the girls
 Me, Dannielle, and Dad
 Paris riding the cars!
 Paris
 Paris and Me hanging out.

 us again.
Mom, Dannielle, & I

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

REAL game!


The work gang took a trip up to the REAL Salt Lake Game. We used our pass or all passes to get free tickets! 
While we were at the game, Mike showed us how he could get us the hook-ups! We got some free food, drinks and icecream -- just because he knew a guy. Mike just has a guy for everything apparently!
 Melissa & I
Mike, Melissa & I at the game.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

DATE NIGHT!

Meet my DAD. Jade. You know, the really cool drummer for the Brandie Frampton Band!
Well, he played a concert in the park last night and did AMAZING! 

We had a little date night of it and enjoyed watching Dad ROCK!




Here we are having a crazy good time!




After the concert in the park, we hit up the wonderful 5 Guys, and went to see the one and only BATMAN!
and Kirsten found some popcorn in the parking lot :]

Wedding Festivities

Earlier this week, Mike and I got to go to a wedding! I love weddings! Mike's cousin got married in the Logan temple. It was such a wonderful experience and I loved the opportunity to remember what it was like on my own wedding day, just over a year ago. What a blessing and a privilege it is to be able to be there during such a joyous moment!
The Logan temple... One of my new favorites!
 Waiting with my nieces before the wedding!
Addison was a little tired!


Just had to take a picture of this gift. Its The Family Proclamation with pictures of the bride&groom around the sides! What a gorgeous couple they are! Props to whomever gave this to them!


Because the reception was the night before the wedding, and Logan is a little over two hours of a drive, we decided to stay at a Bed & Breakfast in Logan!
We stayed at Seasons at the Riter Mansion. It was a huge old home, redone to look amazing! 


DEFINITELY recommend it to anyone staying in Logan. And on CityDeals you can get $50 off ! 
Did I mention how fabulous breakfast was? Apple shaped pancakes with apple slices cooked right in them, topped with caramel syrup, a specialty at the Riter Mansion!



Every Family Updates

I have an unwanted back to school countdown. Because I am taking a class Saturday morning, I begin my final semester of college in just 20 days! Someone needs to tell summer to SLOW DOWN! 
This may be the first semester of my entire life where I'm DREADING going back. Normally, I am extremely excited, pumped and ready for a new challenge. The past two semesters I was so-so excited. Now... Kill me. 
I think I'm catching a BAD case of Senior-itus! 

Since summer is almost over, my husband and I have been trying to make the most of the disappearing days. The last week has been insanely busy for our little family. Busy, but great!

Last Saturday, I took my little brother to Seven Peaks. He and I haven't had a day together in the longest time! It was so fun to hang out with him, hear his stories, and realize that he is not really a "little" brother anymore! He has grown up so much and is such an amazing young man! Seven Peaks was quite the adventure for us! With a few hours of waterslides, wedgies, and a brief lightning storm, we decided not to stay much longer. So we hit up the Taco Bell and headed on home.

Sunday was so wonderful. Mike and I went up the canyon with some of my family (Mom, Dad, Taylor, and a couple of my aunts and cousins. Later in the week, more of the family came up) Mike & I went for a walk in the evening and enjoyed this beaut!
On Monday, Taylor, Mike & I went for a hike up to Scout Falls. Despite the fact that I work out now more than I ever have, this hike was killer for me (for those of you who know where this is, it really isn't that hard of a hike). My excuse? We left mid-day, 100 degree weather, and what was I wearing? Pantalones! I was SO hot throughout this hike that I finally reached down and ripped off the bottom half of my jeans. Check them out below :]


And here is the view!


Can I just say, these mountains are BEAUTIFUL! 

Another shot of the mountains on our way out of the canyon, during a brief thunder storm!


A big shout out to my mother, who plans our family camping trip every year! She always puts in so much effort to make the week FUN! Hiking, eating, jewelry making, movie in the canyon, murder in the dark, canasta and more! GREAT JOB! and thank you creating the memories!

(here's a few pictures...more to come!)

Reagan wanting to drink from the big girl water jug!

Putting rocks in and out of the tree stump! Hours of free entertainment!