ABC's about me

A= Age: 22
B= Bed size: full for now but as soon as we get a house, we are gonna get a king size! Then my poor husband won’t have his feet hanging off the end of the bed every night 
C= Chore you hate: doing dishes and putting laundry away
D= Dogs or Cats? Neither, I don’t really like animals
E= Essential to start your day: glasses or contacts
F= Favorite color: blue, green, or pink
G= Gold or Silver: silver
H= Height: 5'2" or 5’3”
I= Instruments you play(ed): umm…I played the recorder and violin a little bit in elementary school
J= Job Title: Mom! And student til December
K=Kid(s): Alyssa, 3 months
L= Living Arrangements: I live with my sweet husband and baby
M= Mom's name: Shari
O= On time or late: depends but I like to be early or on-time
P= Pet Peeve: Don’t really have any
Q= Quote from a movie: “The florist says they have people everywhere, they don’t mean in the same room.” Can’t remember the exact quote but it’s something like that. It’s from a James Bond movie….
R= Right or Left handed: right
S= Siblings: Cindy (20), Ryan (17) and Amy (14)
T= Time you wake up: Whenever Alyssa wakes up and needs to be fed. Usually 5-7 but then she and I go back to sleep for a little while longer
U= Underwear: G’s
V= Vegetable you dislike: fresh mushrooms (I like the canned kind though if they are chopped small)
W= Water or juice: I like juice better but water is good too
X= X-Rays you've had: teeth, ankle
Y= Yummy food you make: Our new favorite is Pepperoni pasta. Also homemade hamburgers and French fries
Z= Zoo favorite: Tiger!!!

You will be missed Grandpa!

As I was filing papers the other day I came across the funeral program for my Grandpa McLean. I was not able to attend the funeral but my mom brought me back a program. It hit me that my grandfather was actually gone. Charlie McLean passed away on July 6th, 2009. Just 3 days (almost to the hour) before Alyssa was born.We like to think that Alyssa and Grandpa got to meet each other and spend some time together in the spirit world before she came to Earth.I was sad that I couldn’t attend the funeral but got caught up in the birth and life of my new daughter. I hadn’t really had a moment to reflect on my grandpa’s life until now. He was a great man. Grandpa was a quiet man and was soft-spoken. He was a strong man who loved his family and did all he could to support them.

He suffered for most of my life with Parkinson’s disease. This meant that his body didn’t always cooperate with all the things that he wanted to do. It was sometimes hard for him to walk and I remember my Grandma always letting him put his hands on her shoulders for support as he walked behind her.

My grandpa liked to go for walks and I remember going on many walks with him and my grandma. We would go to the park by their house in San Diego and walk around, enjoying the beautiful scenes of nature.

My grandpa also liked to sail. He raced sailboats when he was younger and won many of the races. He would take us out sailing when we went to visit. Sometimes he would even let us help steer the boat. I always loved going sailing with him.

My husband Jim only knew my grandfather for a short time. Jim was only able to meet him after Grandpa got very sick. Jim and I went up to visit him and my Grandma the summer before we got engaged (2007). It was a great trip and I am so glad that we were able to go. One of my favorite memories is going to the waterfall in Oregon where my grandparents lived at the time. It was fun for my grandpa to be able to get out and to enjoy nature again for a short time.

While I miss my Grandpa McLean, I know that he is in a better place, a place where he won’t have to suffer anymore. I am grateful for the knowledge that I have and for the Holy Spirit which brings comfort to us in times of grief. I am grateful to my Grandpa for accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ and joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ, I can see my grandpa again. I know that the plan of salvation is real and that there is life after death. I am so glad that I will be able to see him again and get to know him better in the next life. I hope that I can pass on the legacy that my grandfather left me of hard work, strength, intelligence, humility, sacrifice, love and charity.

I love you Grandpa!

Alyssa is learning how to play with her rattle and other toys. Here is a video her daddy took while playing with her last night while I was at school. You can hear the microwave in the background. Watch her throw the rattle at the end. too funny :)

Here are some pics of my sweet girl Alyssa
aka: baby duck, duckie, bug, princess.
She is getting so big!

Shots :(

Alyssa got two of her immunizations yesterday. I am doing her two month shots in 3 sets of 2 instead of all six at once. I almost started crying with her when they gave the first shot, it was so sad to see my baby in pain. She cried really hard for about 5 minutes, then I changed her diaper and nursed her and she was happy after that. What a brave girl!

House of Order

Our Stake Relief Society is sponsoring a guest speaker named Marie Ricks. She is a BYU education speaker who has a program called "House of Order". The class is 8 weeks long and started last Thursday. After only one class I am motivated! She has such great ideas. One of my favorites is having a housecleaning plan. She talked about it only briefly but she had a sample that people could look at and it was such a great idea that I had to make one!



You use index cards, dividers, and an index card box. I made one tab that says "daily", a divider for each day of the week, and a divider for each month of the year. Then I took 3x5 cards and wrote different tasks on them. In the upper right hand corner write how often the task should be done (daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, annually etc.) For example: Read Scriptures, Exercise, and Straighten living room are daily tasks. Clean the bathroom, Vacuuming, and Dusting are weekly tasks. You can decide which days or months you want to do each task and then place the 3x5 card behind that divider. Each morning it is easy to know what needs to be done, just take the daily cards out as well as the weekly cards for whatever day it is. As you complete the tasks, place the cards back in the box.

I truly feel that when our houses are in order, it invites the Holy Spirit to dwell in our homes. I feel much better about myself and my life when the house is clean and having this plan is an easy way to organize the cleaning so everything can get done each day.

Back in Utah

We are now back in Utah and started school again at BYU on Monday. I only have 2 classes left to take this semester so Alyssa and I get to stay home on Tuesdays and Thursdays. School has gone well the two days we've been. Alyssa has been really good for me but a little fussy for Jim, hopefully she decides to be good for him too. Alyssa and I hang out in the Wilk a lot while Jim is in class because they have a great little mothers lounge. It's inside a bathroom but has two couches and two comfy chairs. I have gotten the hang of breastfeeding in public with a blanket and feel more confident about that after getting two nursing camisoles(that way I can feed Alyssa and still feel modest!)
Alyssa is 8 weeks today and has started to smile recently. It just melts my heart every time she smiles at me. I love being a mom. She is sleeping great and usually sleeps through the night. She goes to bed at 9 or 10 and sleeps until 5 or 6, eats and goes back to sleep for another couple hours. It's a great blessing because I do much better and I'm much happier when I get enough sleep.
Here are some pictures of Alyssa

Yes I am officially a slacker at blogging. The last post was over a month ago and that was from my sweet husband Jim and not even myself. Oh well, as a new mom there is always a long list of things to do and not enough time to do them all. Alyssa is now 5 weeks as of yesterday and doing great. I love watching her grow each day. I think she is starting to recognize my voice when I talk to her. Now I am just looking forward to her first real smile.
I just want to say that I have an incredible husband. He was so supportive during Alyssa's birth and the long, hard labor leading up to it. I really couldn't have done it without him by my side. He is also a great father to his baby girl. She sure loves her daddy and calms down easily for him. He is so good with her and so willing to help.
We only have 2 more weeks here in California. The first half of the summer went by slowly but this second half has flown right by. We've enjoyed spending time with family and we are glad so many of you were able to be with us for Alyssa's blessing. We plan on driving back to Utah on August 28th and then starting school on the 31st. That will be the next adventure in our lives and I am just hoping that our baby likes school and that I can learn how to calm her down quickly so we don't disturb all the students in the Clyde building.

Sorry there aren't recent pictures up yet. The internet here is not high speed and I haven't been successful in my attempts to upload pics. Hopefully we will get some up when we get back to Utah and high speed internet!

Alyssa Pics

Baby Alyssa is Finally Here!

After 32 long hours of labor and an emergency c-section, a healthy baby Alyssa was finally born at 2:56 in the morning on Thursday July 9, 2009. We were hoping for the 8th so that she would be born on 07/08/09, but we are just thrilled that she is healthy and happy. It was a rather difficult delivery.
It started on Tuesday night at around 7 p.m. The contractions continued into the next day and we headed to the hospital after tracking the contractions for several hours. Jim made a chart of the contractions on Excel. When we got in to the hospital, Julie was dialated to 1 cm. After four hours of contractions, it was still at 1. So they sent us off, the nurse said that eating something might help the contractions get stronger or stop all together. So we went to the food court at the mall. The plan was to walk around the mall in hopes that the contractions would get stronger. That kind of happened. While taking an hour to eat a hamburger, the contractions increased in intensity and duration. It quickly became apparent that we would be lucky to walk back to the car.
We then called the on call doctor (Our doctor was off that day) to ask if she would prescribe some pitocin and an epidural to speed up the contractions. The doctor said that Julie wasn't in labor, which was completely ridiculous. She was in so much pain she could hardly talk on the phone. So, we decided to check into Circus Circus, a casino right next to the hospital. The hospital had a deal for $30 dollar rooms. It was quite the ordeal to get Julie into the room. By then, the contractions were very strong. It was all we could do to get Julie through the ever-intensifying pain levels. The contractions were now lasting about 2 minutes or more with just 30 second breaks in between. We monitored them for an hour, then called the hospital. The nurse we had worked with earlier told us to come right back in to see what was happening. Luckily Julie was at a 3 and was emitted to the hospital. She was set up on IV's and finally given a pain medication in the IV.
That made a huge difference. Within minutes, Julie was asleep for a couple of minutes. Later that night she finally got the epidural, which took the pain all away. What a blessing that was to see after all of the pain she went through earlier in the day. As midnight approached, we were all anxious to see if Julie would get to a 10 and be able to deliver before midnight. The nurse kept coming in and changing Julie's position. The problem was that the baby's heart rate kept dropping and staying down after each contraction. The nurse could sense a problem, and eventually called in the doctor around 2 in the morning. Julie had been progressing slowly through the night, but went from 6 cm. to 10 from 1 to 2 in the morning. The last hour was hectic.
Another problem was that the epidural had leaked into Julie's spinal fluid, causing numbness from the waist down. This became a problem when it was time to push. Julie didn't have enough feeling to really push the baby out. It would have been a problem anyway due to the baby's low heart rate. So the doctor called for an emergency c-section. Julie was so strong and didn't hesitate. Our goal was a healthy baby, Julie was willing to do whatever was necessary. After surgery, little Alyssa came out at 2:56. We soon learned that the source of the problem was the placenta. For some reason it was extremely calcified. That usually happens on a late delivery, but she missed her due date by only three hours. Due to that, she was only 6 lbs. 1 oz. when she came out. She is very healthy though. Julie has been recovering well, she can now take some laps around the recovery wing of the hospital. We will be here until Sunday.
Baby Alyssa is very calm and cute. She enjoys snuggling, sleeping, and eating. We are thrilled to have her in our little family.

Catch up

I know it's been a long time since I posted so I will get you all caught up with our lives here in Portola. Things are going great here in California.
Jim is working for Bastian Engineering which he really enjoys. Lately he's been doing lots of surveying work and he loves getting to be outside for most of the day. He is also busy with lots of projects at home. He has been watering and mowing the lawns which look great, and washing the cars every saturday. It's funny how much he loves to do those jobs. He and his dad are also planning to build a shed and a greenhouse this summer.
Both Jim and I are working with the youth in our ward. Jim is the first counselor in the Young Mens presidency and I am the second counselor in the Young Womens presidency. That has been fun for us and it's nice to be able to both go to mutual together. I taught my first YW lesson a few weeks ago and I am also teaching this Sunday. Jim has also taught a few times.
The pregnancy is going well. I'm not really uncomfortable at all yet but I am still looking forward to Alyssa coming. We are down to 6 weeks! We are pretty much ready except for setting up the crib, stroller, carseat etc. It's all still in boxes for now. Alyssa is doing well and seems to know when we are rubbing her and talking to her because she starts moving. We are really looking forward to having her join out family. I am taking advantage of this time to rest and relax before the months of sleepless nights start:)
That is pretty much what's going on in our lives. We love it out here in the mountains. It's beautiful here, especially the bright blue skies against the green trees. The only downside is the bugs. I hate all the bugs that are here and it scares me a little when the bats come out at night but other than that life is great.

Well we made finally made it to California, our new home for the summer.The trip usually takes 9-10 hours. It took us 12! We hadn't gotten very far (about halfway between Salt Lake and Wendover)when Jim started to see smoke coming out the back of the truck. We stopped and found out we were leaking fluid. At first Jim thought it was oil which would have been really bad. Instead we were just leaking transmission fluid. Still bad but not as serious. Jim called his dad who said that the transmission probably overheated and the fluid was leaking from the overflow. We let the car cool down a little and then continued to Wendover where we got some more transmission fluid to put in. We didn't want to overheat the transmission again so we drove 60-65 mph instead of the usual 75 which is the speed limit out in the desert. It made for a long trip but we feel so blessed that we were able to make it safely and without any more problems after we put more fluid in the truck. Heavenly Father was definitely aware of us and answered our prayers to be able to make it here. Baby Alyssa is happy to be in Cali. She started kicking a lot as soon as we got to Reno and kicked in California too. I guess she knows that this will be her home. Last night when we got here to Portola it was freezing! It was also cold this morning but we started a fire which warmed the house up and luckily it's sunny today so it's warm outside. I forgot from last summer how cold it is when we get here. Looks like it's hoodies and blankets for awhile, but it's worth it. It's beautiful here and it's so nice to be away from the stress of school and crowded cities.

Yay for Easter!

I guess this post is a little late since Easter has already come and gone. I love Easter though because it means spring is here! I guess the Utah weather doesn't know that it should be spring though because it is currently snowing :( Anyway here are some pictures of our Easter eggs. Coloring Easter eggs is one of my favorite parts of Easter, that and remembering our Savior and his sacrifice and resurrection for us.



We went to my parents house for Easter and to celebrate my little sisters birthday. Amy turned 14 on Easter.




My favorites are the red, white and blue egg and the Alyssa egg. The Alyssa egg was made for our baby girl. I think we have finally decided that her name is going to be Alyssa. It's getting more real as she is kicking more and now that she has a name. Only 12 more weeks until we meet our baby girl.

Baby Shower

We had our baby shower last Saturday. It's still three months until the baby is born but we are moving in less than 2 weeks now to California for the summer so I wanted to see everyone before leaving. It was a lot of fun. We did a family and friends shower in the morning and a ward open house shower in the afternoon. My aunt Ariana is an incredible chef and made all the food and treats. She made everything look so pretty!



Here is some of the yummy food.






We had chicken salad sandwiches,"stroller wheel" pasta salad, mini chocolate chip cookies, lemon cookies, fruit and veggies...





And these adorable mini cupcakes. Yum!




Thanks to everyone who came! We got tons of adorable baby clothes. The fun thing about having a girl is all of the cute clothes! I'm so excited to dress her in all of the cute things people gave us. I think Jim is warming up to the idea that she will wear a lot of pink :) We also got a swing from my mom, a bouncer seat from my grandma, and a homemade quilt made by Ariana (she really is a multi-talented woman!)





After the shower, we have pretty much everything we need for our little girl! Only a few more things to pick up before she comes. Thanks again to everyone for all the cute gifts!

Less than 100!!!

Yea! We are less than 100 days from meeting our baby girl. That doesn't seem like very long, the time is going by so fast.

And I passed my glucose test! I was only at 87 and the limit is like 140 so I was well under. Hooray for not having gestational diabetes or having to take another test!

Well last night I was laying on the bed with my feet up because they were swollen. I didn't think you were supposed to have swollen feet this early in the pregnancy but oh well. It's a little annoying lately because my shoes are all getting tighter and smaller. I guess it's a combination of loosening ligaments and water retention. I guess I am just getting a preview of the discomforts I'll have when I get to the third trimester. Anyway as I was laying down I was looking at my belly and suddenly it jumped. It was so funny. The baby was kicking so hard that I could see my skin push out. I called Jim over and he could see her too, she was going crazy in there:) but when he put his hand on my stomach to feel her and she stopped kicking. Our silly little girl has been doing that a lot the last few days, I dunno why she won't let daddy feel her. A few days ago though, Jim did get to feel her alot. She was kicking tons and Jim said that's the most he's been able to feel her so far. He is going to be such a good daddy, I love when he touches or talks to the baby. his "baby time" is one of my favorite things and makes me love him even more. I love it when our little girl kicks. Yesterday made it a lot more real when my skin was poking out from her kicks and it was really exciting. It'll be fun to watch my jumping belly now and know that there is a tiny new human life inside of me.

25 Weeks

Here are some belly pics taken today at 25 weeks along.


On another note, I took the glucose test today to screen for gestational diabetes. I had heard lots of horror stories about the glucose solution so I was a little nervous but it actually wasn't bad at all. It tasted just like Sprite soda so it was easy to drink. Then I waited for an hour and read baby magazines. After an hour they drew my blood to check the glucose levels. The girl had a little trouble finding the vein and after poking one arm and checking the other, she called another girl over to try. The second girl was able to find the vein and got the blood right away. I'm hoping to pass this test so I won't have to take the 4 hour one which sounds like no fun at all.

Adorable!

My mom bought this for my birthday. I love it! I think it is so cute. You probably can't see it in the picture but it has a picture of a giraffe on it and it says "little girl" on the pocket. I can't wait to put my baby girl in this. I think it will make for some really cute pictures.



This is another one of my favorite things we have for the baby. We got this dress before we even knew if she was a girl. Jim thought if he bought a girl thing, then we'd end up with a boy. He was wrong so we get to dress our little girl in this cute dress. The only problem is that the smallest size they had was 3-6 months. I thought this would be fine and it'd be a little big this summer, but when we got home we realized the tag actually says 6 months on it. Maybe our daughter will be big though because her daddy was almost 10 lbs. at birth. Mommy is hoping that she isn't quite that big though, ouch.

Kite Flying

The other day we went out and flew kites again. It was a lot of fun. Jim bought two kites for us to fly when we were celebrating our anniversary last week. It ended up being a lot of fun so Jim decided to get another kite and some more string. We flew the kites in our own backyard. We have learned that Pleasant Grove has a lot of wind which makes it the perfect place because you don't have to run very much to get the kites up. We live in my aunts basement and luckily she has a big backyard. We brought her kids out with us and it was fun to see their excitement since a couple hadn't even flown kites before. We got one kite up 600 ft, another kite up maybe 300-400 ft. and that last one up probably 100-150 ft. The coolest thing was having all three kites up in the air at one time. We wanted to take a picture but before we could get the camera out, the lowest kite decided to nose dive right onto the roof. I love that it is now warm enough to start going outside again. I love the spring time and being outside in the sun after a long cold winter.

More pictures from the last ultraound

Here are some pics that never got put up from the last ultrasound.



Profile picture at 21 weeks



Baby's spine

Our Perfect Day!

My husband is amazing! I don't how I got so lucky to have him but I am sure grateful that he is in my life. Sunday was our 1st anniversary so we decided that we would celebrate on Saturday. I woke up Saturday morning and Jim had made me a delicious breakfast of french toast and fruit. After breakfast he gave me a photo book he had made for me of pictures of us when we were dating and since we've been married. I loved it. Jim also gave me little "tickets" for different places to go and said we would have a busy day ahead of us..

The first place that we went was the Bountiful Temple where we were married. We walked around and it was fun to remember our wedding day.



The next place we went was miniature golfing. We went to a course called Hollywood Connections. It was really fun. Jim even shot a hole in one!



Next we went and flew kites at a park in Orem. Flying kites was something we did when we were dating. We did successfully get one kite up for a while but the other one didn't work so well. I guess we needed a little more wind.



After flying kites we went to the Provo Temple where we got engaged. We sat on "our" bench where he popped the question and just enjoyed the memories and excitement we felt when we first got engaged.



Finally we ended our day by having dinner at our special restaurant. The Great China is a little restaurant in Orem that we went to on our first valentine's day. We have since gone there for subsequent valentine's days and birthdays. We love it because it is never crowded, it has great food (my favorite is the chicken with snow peas mmm....) and it has great service.



Pretty much we had the perfect day together. I was so impressed that Jim was able to spend the whole day with me and that he didn't have to do homework. He was so sweet to plan the whole day and take me to all the places that have special meaning to us.

We celebrated our actual anniversary yesterday but eating cheesecake (Jim's all time favorite dessert) and watching our wedding video.
It's only been a year since we were married but so much has changed already. It was fun to look back and see that now we are expecting a baby girl and many of the friends and family that were at our reception have since gotten married or had babies. We look forward to many more years of being happily married together.

Baby Name Poll

Click HERE to take our baby name poll and help us come up with a name for our baby girl.

This is a video of the ultrasound from yesterday. The doctor gave us a VHS so until we get it transferred to DVD, we made a video of it on the camera. Sorry for the bad tracking and colored swirl :)

Her little feet!

It's a Girl!!!

Today was the day of the big ultrasound. The appointment was at 2:20 which made it a long day of waiting. Then we had to wait in the doctor's office for an hour before going in. Jim and my sister Cindy came. Seeing our baby was a neat experience, we saw it from the top of the head down to the little feet. The doctor measured and pointed out lots of major body parts and organs. We saw different parts of the brain, the four chambers of the heart, the stomach, the bladder, and the little thigh bone. She was dancing around during the ultrasound, making the doctor earn his pay. The doctor said that everything looks good. He ruled out some major birth defects, so we know our baby won't have spina bifida, cleft lip, or holes in the heart. We were very excited to hear that the baby is healthy. She still only weighs one pound, so we will keep her in the oven for a bit longer. The last thing that the doctor showed us was the gender. Jim could tell that it was a girl as soon as the doctor panned in, it left no doubt. We were a little surprised, as we both thought it would be a boy, but we are very excited. We're still unsure on the name. If you have any brilliant ideas, let us know. For now, we will call her Yosie (Short for Yosemite Park) or Brooklyn "The Bronx" Park. Yosie is my dad's name for the baby. She already likes the Yankees, daddy's little girl. Jim can't wait to buy her a little Yankees outfit, she would look so cute in pin stripes. I think that's a great idea as long as it's pink. I don't want to have any confusion, people thinking she is a boy when she is little. I plan on dressing her in lots of pink with cute flower bows on her head so that doesn't happen. We are so excited to meet our baby girl! She should come 07-08-09.

21 Weeks

Today we are officially 21 weeks! This means that we are over the halfway point! I am still only barely showing and I'm not sure that strangers can tell I'm pregnant yet but my stomach is growing. I am starting to feel the baby move a little bit but it's not strong enough for Jim to feel yet. Hopefully it will be soon. I am feeling tons better now that I am past the morning sickness phase. It's good to have enough hormones for a healthy baby but I am grateful that I am no longer throwing up everyday. That was no fun. My e-mail updates from Baby Center say that the baby is 10.5 inches from head to foot. About half the size it will be when it's born. It's still a little weird to think that I have something that big inside of me. The baby is growing and developing and I don't really have to put any effort into it. It's amazing to me that my body knows what to do to create another human being. A baby truly is a miracle.

The time has come.....

I can no longer wear my pre-pregnancy jeans and have switched over to maternity jeans full time. For awhile I would wear maternity jeans sometimes and do the little hair elastic belt loop trick at other times. I have given into the comfort of maternity jeans though and they are here to stay. I currently only have two pairs so I feel like I am a little limited in my clothing selection each morning. The first pair I have is from Savers. I went and bought a pair of used jeans for $6 when my regular jeans were starting to get a little tight. Last week I bought my first new pair. I decided on the secret fit belly jeans from motherhood maternity. After looking at many reviews online, I found them to be very highly rated. So far I must say that the reviews are right. They are very comfortable and I like that the elastic also goes up high in the back. I also like that I can wear them all the way up or folded down.I like all the way up better though because then there isn't a line midway up my belly. So far I can still wear most of my pre-pregnancy shirts, which is nice. I have a few maternity shirts but other than t-shirts,most maternity shirts I have seen are fairly low cut. Anyway I am sure that I will be buying more maternity shirts soon. We will also be able to start picking things up for the baby in the near future. We find out the gender on Monday. Hopefully the baby is in a cooperative mood. We have been having little talks lately with the baby about how it's okay to be immodest and show us during the ultrasound. We are excited to know whether we will have a boy or girl.

Oompa Loompa Sighting?

This morning on the way to school we soon found ourselves waiting at a red light at an intersection in Provo, UT. This intersection is famous for some of the slowest pedestrians on earth, sometimes it appears that they are not even moving as they attempt to cross the intersection in the short light sequence. Today was no exception. At first glance, it appeared that another slow walker was going to cross in front of our truck. Upon further review, it appeared that this man was no regular pedestrian. He was a bit short for an older man. He was slightly on the heavy set side and swung his hands to the side as he walked. His skin was a little bit darker than the typical Provo resident. It took a moment to put it all together, but I soon realized that we were watching an Oompa Loompa strut his stuff down the streets of Provo. The bounce in his step was unquestionable; he had escaped from the chocolate factory. Hopefully we will see him again. If we only had a movie sound track CD in the truck, he would have broken into dance for sure.

Valentine's Day 2009

I love Valentine's day! I didn't always like Valentine's day...I think it's one of those holidays that is definitely better if you have someone to share it with. This was Jim and my 3rd Valentine's day as a couple. The first year we had only been dating about a month. He went all out though...I woke up to roses, see's chocolates, a poem he wrote for me, flower petals spread on the table, and I think a balloon. I loved it! This year he bought me a huge stuffed animal. It's really cute. I think it's a duckling but we think it looks like a baby eagle. He also bought me two sets of roses. He bought a dozen beautiful red roses (my favorite) and then later added a dozen white roses. (Yes he is the perfect husband.) The flowers were accompanied by a card, some chocolate, and breakfast.

We made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast together. They turned out really well and we strawberries and whipped cream on them (YUM!) My cute husband also noticed that if he cut the strawberries a certain way that they looked like little hearts. He is so sweet.



I love celebrating Valentine's day because it reminds me of how lucky I am to have a husband that I am deeply in love with and who I get to be sealed to for time and all eternity.

Jim and I later that day at a luncheon for our friend Christa's wedding