Sipping hot chocolate...

while the snow falls down outside. Nice and cozy!

Birthdays and boys and more, oh my!

On Monday Ryan and I went up to Flagstaff to spend the day. Little did we know that we were headed into a winter storm! It snowed the entire day and we left just in time! We ate lunch, walked around old town, and toured the Riordan Mansion. We had the most amazing hot chocolate that came in bowls, not mugs. It was fantastic! Then yesterday we found out that we're having a boy! Yes, the baby cooperated much better this time. He was swimming around and posed nicely for the camera. We are so excited!

Double URGHH!!

So what is with Chilis? I used to love that restaurant, but after tonight I'm not so sure. Maybe it's just because I'm pregnant, or maybe they are just lame. I go there craving their caribbean chicken salad and, to my horror, cannot find it anywhere on the menu. So I politely ask the waiter, who tells me that it's discontinued! Well, don't tell a pregnant woman she can't have what she's craving! Take a deep breath...Then, I decide to order the lettuce wraps because they are my second favorite. What?! They're discontinued too?? What is this? Did they know I was coming and want to mess with my mind? Needless to say I was forced to eat second-rate food that I wasn't craving. They seriously should have given me my meal for free after all of that trauma! I left feeling less than satisfied. Boo on Chilis!

URGHHH!

What a frustrating doctor's visit I had yesterday! First, I step on the scale only to find out that I've gained 8 pounds since my last visit (only 4 weeks ago). I winced slightly and felt my cheeks turn hot and red. Then the doctor made a snide comment about it..."wow, looks like you had a big weight gain this time!" Like I hadn't noticed...thanks for reminding me. Then the baby was very uncooperative during the ultrasound. It was "pretending" to sleep all curled up with its legs tucked under and wouldn't budge. When the doctor tried to push around on my stomach to get it to move, it kicked at him. Nice. I already have a stubborn, fiesty child. I bet it will have red hair!

So, I am going back in bright and early in the morning on December 23rd to have another look and I am NOT leaving the office until I know what it is. My sister is waiting to unload tubs of boy clothes on me at Christmas if it's a boy. Wish me luck...I'm going to need it.

Sick!

The only thing worse than being sick is being pregnant and sick! Ugh... it started out with strep-like symptoms (a sore throat and fever) and then moved into my lungs and head. Now it's just a cold. Humph! This week has c r a w l e d by it seems. I managed to make it through the whole day at work today, but am now very tired. I am thankful for a kind husband who took care of me and went without dinner for a couple nights in a row. What a trooper! It was soup and toast for me. Hopefully I will finish recovering this weekend.

Spooky Stuff

Can you guess who carved which pumpkin?? I'll give you a hint...mine took about 30 minutes to draw and carve. Ryan's took over an hour! He really gets into this type of thing!
Ryan and I had a pretty uneventful Halloween. We didn't have very many trick-or-treaters, so Ryan munched on the candy all night and I took the rest to school for my kiddos. We watched a movie (The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown) and I made this yummy white chicken chili and cornbread. It is finally cooling off here and feeling more like fall.
I am 14 weeks now and still feeling great. I am not really showing yet...I just look like I've been eating too much Halloween candy! It will be great during the holidays...I can just wear some baggy clothes and chow down! Ryan and I have been having fun thinking of names and how we want to decorate the nursery. My only real "cravings" so far have been bagels w/ cream cheese (which I've been eating almost every morning for the past 2 weeks) pineapple, raspberries, apples, broccoli w/ ranch dressing, and sourdough bread. I guess it's better than pickles. Oh, and thanks to my sister I've also been eating mass quantities of the Dreyer's Loaded icecream...chocolate peanut butter cup flavor.

It's a .... we don't know yet!

For those of you who don't know yet, Ryan and I are expecting! I am 12 1/2 weeks along and feeling great. It's been fun so far learning and reading about all the amazing things that are happening to my body. It will be an exciting journey : )

Apologies...

I'm such a slacker! My last entry was at Easter! So Jenn, you're doing better than me :) I have some pictures to post but am currently at school on my computer, so I'll load those up later. There are 9 1/2 days left of school and I can't wait! My kids are starting to not be cute anymore. They are bordering on obnoxious and I am starting to get that burn out feeling. Last week my family came out to Arizona to enjoy our freakishly cool weather for this time of year. It's currently cold and cloudy outside now and tomorrow it's suppose to rain. Very random, but appreciated! Anyways, I took my mom and sister to get their first pedicures and I think they enjoyed it. Jenn's feet are very ticklish and apparently my mom's are too! They couldn't handle the pumice stone.

Ryan and I had a gorgeous reception and, like I said, the weather was perfect. It went by a little to quickly though. I feel like I wanted to do it over to enjoy it more. I promise to post photos soon!

Easter

The Easter bunny knew just what to bring me this year... a whole bag of Ghiradelli DARK chocolate : ) Ryan and I had our first guests since the roommates moved out and they stayed in our newly remodeled guest bedroom. After church and an Easter brunch of massive french toast smothered with fresh strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, we took a little nap. (Hey, Sunday is the day of rest, right?) Then Ryan and I headed over to his mom's house to celebrate family style. We had lots of yummy food, including a coconut cake that I made for the first time. We were watching the Sound of Music intermittently throughout the night and I was shocked to look over and see Ryan and all of his brothers singing right along with me during the puppet song (or as we all know it, the "Yoda-lay-whoo" song) My mom remembers when I used to watch that scene over and over again. I probably wore out the VHS tape in that part!

DISNEYLAND

Spring Break just kind of crept up on me. It seems like the 3rd quarter of school goes by the quickest. Ryan and I were lucky this year to have our spring break overlap, so we headed out to California...where else? It felt like sooooo long since I'd seen my niece and nephews...and sure enough, they were all taller and Carson was much fatter. He is so happy and smiley and such a good baby! Ryan couldn't believe how little he cries (I'm sure Jennifer is thinking otherwise right now because he's been teething). Anyways, we went to California Adventure one day with my sister and the kids. My dad came too. We couldn't get him (or my husband) to go on the roller coaster, however, the rest of us enjoyed ourselves. (Although Bradley insisted that it did not go upside-down.) The next day Ryan and I (big Ryan) went back to Disneyland by ourselves. It was such a perfect day...70 degrees and NO lines! Peter Pan was our longest wait at 20 minutes, but even Space Mountain was only 10 minutes...it was great. Although, not as much fun without little Ryan holding the map pointing saying, "we go here, and here, and here..." but fun enough for two big kids like us : ) Ryan did have to work a little bit on over spring break. He had some homework and he had to take a fire test for LA County Fire Dept. where my brother in law Steve works. We hope that he did well because that would be a dream for us to be able to move back to California. Jenn and I could be in the same ward! And I could see my cute little ones every day! Check below for some more Disneyland photos.

Counting Down...

I never thought I'd be counting down to Super Tuesday...but, with a husband who is a political science major I guess it comes with the territory. He's on the phone right now calling for the Mitt Romney campaign to encourage voters to vote on Tuesday. I have never followed an election so closely in my life. It's actually interesting! I have seen all of the debates and listened to more talk radio than any human should be allowed to!

I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking recently. I've been experimenting with some recipes of mine because I've decided to write a cookbook. I realized the other day that I make up recipes all the time and am always being asked by friends for the recipes (which I always have to guess at because I just sprinkle and pour...I don't measure). So Ryan suggested that I write a cookbook. He seems to think it will be a big hit. I guess all of you will be the judge of that.

Check out my Slide Show!

Happy New Year!

Well, it's 2008...I can't believe it! Ryan and I graduated from high school 10 years ago. Let's take a look into the past:
10 years ago...
Gas was .99 a gallon
It was $5.50 to see a movie
Min. wage was $5.25
The avg. home price in Temecula, CA was $120,000
Pretty depressing, huh?

Ryan started back to school today. He has 4 classes this semester, but one is online. Of course all of his classes are at night so we're back to hardly seeing each other. We had a great Christmas break though and were able to visit lots of family in California and Utah. I am having fun at school trying to teach my kids about place value. It's so hard for me to teach things that are so simple to me! I just expect them to understand it. I wish I could get into their little heads sometimes and see how they are thinking about stuff. I have also been teaching them compound words which is pretty hilarious. Because of their first language being Spanish they were putting the words together backwards, like "cagebird", "housedog", etc. The best one was something out of a horror movie...They were suppose to match up "lady" and "bug" but put "buglady". Cute!