Outnumbered!!

Come November I will be outnumbered! That's because we are having a little BOY and we couldn't be more excited!!! Since probably high school I've said I'd like to have a boy first. I have all sisters and growing up I always wished I had had an older brother, so I thought it would be fun to have a boy first so that the rest of our kids would have an older brother :)

I guess we should come clean..haha. We've actually known it was a boy since our first ultrasound at 14 weeks. The tech was pretty sure it was a boy, but we wanted to wait until we were a little more sure. We didn't want to have to go back to everyone and say "Oh never mind..."

Yep! It's a boy..haha!

His little feeties!

His little profile. You can see his spine so well!

My dad and Amber have been on a Colorado River trip through the Grand Canyon with some of my extended family until tomorrow (my dad got to take Amber since she wasn't old enough when the rest of us went several years ago), so my mom has been home by herself all week. It was weird to only be announcing to her..haha. We went over with a blue onesie to announce! Then we called Jill and Amy in Provo and even Jen in Africa!!

I have also posted 2 ultrasound videos if you're interested!

This first one shows baby's profile.

This next one is pretty funny! It shows baby's bum bum and boy parts (looking up)..haha. Trent thinks our poor baby is going to be pretty embarrassed one day with the first picture I posted and this video. Oh boy!

I am now 19 weeks along and feeling good! It looks like baby boy is growing and developing just the way he should, for which we are so grateful. I'm definitely starting to show so I'll post a picture in a few days!

I'm headed off to Provo with my mom in the morning! We'll meet Dad and Amber there and get to spend the next several days with Jill and Amy before Amy goes into the Missionary Training Center (MTC) on WEDNESDAY! I'm just bummed that Trent can't come along too :( This will be our first time being separated since we got married 3 years ago!! But I'm really looking forward to getting out of this ridiculous heat and spending time with the fam bam!

Scripture Power

A few weeks ago we picked up some new scriptures for me. Trent actually got me new scriptures for my 22nd birthday, but they didn't have the snap on them like I wanted. Deseret Book didn't have them in stock anywhere in Utah (at least in blue) when Trent went to purchase them, so he settled on ones without the snap. Well I knew I wouldn't be happy if I just settled, so they have been sitting around, unopened, with us for a year a half. They even endured our move down here..haha.

Like I said, a few weeks ago Trent spotted the scriptures I've been wanting! And last week I was able to get them engraved! I love them!

Check out these beauties!

I love how shiny and new they are :)

I got my last scriptures as a gift from my grandparents back when I was baptized when I was 8. They were pretty well marked up and written all over and some of my notes in them were a little embarrassing..haha. I love that I now have a fresh, clean slate (if you will) to work with, especially now that I'm older and a bit wiser. I have been so excited to start studying and marking them up :)

If you haven't ever had a chance to read these (particularly the Book of Mormon), I would encourage you to do so. I know they are true! If you need access to some scriptures just let me know.

Tonight I was reading King Benjamin's (love him!) speech in Mosiah chapter 2. I love verses 20 through 22. They say:

20 "I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another--

21 "I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

22 "And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you."

I am so grateful for such a loving, giving, mindful Heavenly Father and know that I am "eternally indebted" (verse 34) to Him. The least I can do is serve Him and keep His commandments.

As Of Late

This last week Amy was in town for a final trip before she heads off on her mission.

Saturday we ate at Sweet Cakes Cafe in Mesa (their cinnamon rolls were featured on TLC's Best Food Ever!) and did a little shopping.

We got this picture for Jill. Her boyfriend is Drew..haha.

Sunday, Father's Day, our family was pretty involved in sacrament meeting. Amy gave a farewell talk (I know we don't really call them that anymore). She wasn't too thrilled since she doesn't know a single person in our ward..haha. Then I gave the closing prayer and Amber played postlude music.

Dad with 3 of his 5 girls :)

*We love you Dad and are so grateful for you and how you so willingly support our family!*

Tuesday we got to go through the temple with Amy. It was a very nice experience. Unfortunately Mom was the only one to get a picture afterwards because we were trying to be quick and get out of the heat ASAP!

That evening Mom made a nice dinner and we did s'mores. Amy had been talking about doing them all week and we finally got around to them the night before she left. My parents don't have a gas stove, propane for their outdoor grill, or a fire pit so we made do with one of those itty bitty jars of petroleum jelly (I believe) that came in a survival kit..haha.

You can see our little tiny jar of a flame..ha

Amy gave Haddie a haircut and totally botched it. Poor girl! See that big dark section? Yeah that's pretty much to her skin (yes her skin is darker than her hair). My mom made Amy stop when she noticed, so now Haddie has a funky bald spot..haha.

Amy was off to Virginia (home sweet home!) yesterday and the rest of us usuals (Mom, Dad, Amber, Trent, and I) got to go to the circus last night! Trent and I were really looking forward to this because we read "Water for Elephants", and saw the movie, and really enjoyed both. The circus came to the stadium where the Suns play!

At the very beginning we all stood and sang the national anthem. I loved how they dressed the elephant :)

These next two pictures are of the Grand Spec (I'm assuming from "Water for Elephants") - the big opening scene.

Sorry for the poor quality pictures. It was hard to get good pictures because we were up pretty high!

Here were the zebras and horses.

Not a great picture, but here was the tightrope.

They had many people get on it at the same time and they'd jump over each other!

They had lots of tigers!

This last tiger hopped kind of like Tigger..haha. It was hilarious!

My favorite part was probably the elephants (and the gymnasts, but I couldn't get good pictures of them because they were moving so fast!), hence all of the pictures! They were so funny and just all seemed to have such personality. Whenever they had to move to a new position (or when they walked on and off the court) they would grab the tail of the elephant in front of them. I would always notice the ones who couldn't quite reach the other's tail and they just seemed to get so frustrated. It reminded me of siblings who are expected to hold hands when out and about..haha.

There wasn't really a good time for Trent and I to get a picture while we were there, and then we split up from my family pretty suddenly because of the crowds (plus we parked separately). I insisted on a picture though so we got one in the car before heading home..haha.

I really loved our time at the circus! We'll definitely have to take our kids someday! I think every child should have that opportunity.

In other news, we find out what baby is in ONE WEEK, as in next Thursday! Any guesses as to whether it'll be a boy or girl? Pretty much my whole family seems to think it'll be a girl. We shall see!

My Patriotic Craft

Sunday I finished making this 4th of July craft to display in our home and we just love it! You can find a tutorial for it HERE.

I started this project on Friday when I got together with two other girlies from the ward (congregation) for a craft day. We all decided we wanted to make our own "grand old flag" so we were off to Hobby Lobby for our materials.

You pretty much just need a styrofoam block (I was able to find 12" X 10"), glue, fabrics in red, white, & blue, and ribbon if you want to wrap it around the sides of your flag (you can't really see the ribbon on my final product, but it finishes it off nicely).

The most tedious part was definitely cutting the fabric into 2" x 2" squares. We went to Ashley's and turned on "The Proposal" while we were crafting :) It seriously took me like the whole 3 1/2 hours we were there to cut the fabric. My back was killing by the end! The girls were quite a bit faster than me. I guess it's the perfectionist in me!

With Brinly and Ashley before Brinly and I headed home so Ashley could head to work. You can see my blank styrofoam block..ha. The girls had already started their flags. Ash made a bigger flag than us because she already had styrofoam on hand.

I took a break for several hours once I got home. Later Trent helped me measure out how wide each stripe should be. Obviously I wanted it to be perfect ;)

Then you simply wrap your fabric around a pen or pencil and dip the point in the glue...

...and then stab it into the foam! This is the fun part!

On Saturday finishing up the stars.

Sunday - getting close!

I am very pleased with how it turned out! I have leftover fabric and can't seem to walk by my flag without seeing a white spot and filling it in with more fabric..ha.

I was kind of bummed when I finished because it was fun for me to make! It didn't take much concentration so it was actually pretty relaxing! I hope you like it and consider making one for yourself :)

Drowning

A friend of mine linked to this article on Facebook about how drowning doesn't look the way most of us think drowning looks. For a few reasons this article really struck me:

1) It is officially summer break in AZ and many will spend a lot of time at the pool/beach/lake/etc. over the next few months

2) I graduated with a degree in Public Health and recognize the importance that everyone be aware of the signs of drowning

3) Whenever anyone has ever asked me the one way I don't want to die, I've always said drowning. I guess there isn't really any appealing way to die besides of old age, but drowning has always been very frightening to me.

Please take a minute to read THIS article. You won't regret it, especially if you have kids and/or spend a lot of time by the water. Specifically pay attention to the signs of drowning.

Maternity clothes

So here is the first picture of my bump! Here I am today at 15 1/2 weeks. Naturally I have noticed my changing belly for a while now, but this last week was pretty much the first week that Trent really started to notice :)

We have our gender ultrasound in about 3 weeks! Can't wait!

In other news, this last week Trent's aunt Tracy (my aunt-in-law I guess!) was in town from Colorado. She and my mother-in-law decided they wanted to take me on a little maternity clothes shopping spree while she was here. At first I was thinking it was way too soon to start looking at maternity clothes, but they both kept reassuring me that we should at least go look and try things on and that I didn't necessarily have to get maternity clothes (I could look at regular clothes in a bigger size).

So we were out shopping Friday and they were so right! It was so fun! We went to Motherhood Maternity and I tried on a TON more clothes than I have ever tried on in one dressing room at one time! They had a belly bump in the dressing room that I could strap on that was supposed to add about 3 months. It was hilarious! I can't believe I will be getting so much bigger! I really wish we had thought to take some pictures, but I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the clothes in my room, and I was trying to move quickly because Tracy and Tanis were patiently sitting outside the dressing room the whole time, waiting to see my next outfit :)

It was a successful trip for sure! I was able to get a bunch of clothes that I can grow into, but that also look good on me now :) Thank goodness for empire waist and ruched tops and dresses!

I am so grateful for my thoughtful and generous in-laws. Thank you so much Tracy and Tanis!