Christmas in UT

Well, Christmas has come and gone once again! Daniel and I had an absolutely wonderful Christmas this year! Dan was so excited about Christmas this year because, and I quote, "this is the most presents I have had since I was a little kid"! We both got some really nice things. I am thinking that Dan's favorite present was probably the remote controlled helicopter that he got from Mom and Autumn. He said when he opened it, "this is going to drive you insane". He is right... I can already tell that I am going to lose my mind (and trust me, that is easy for me to do these days... pscyho pregnant chick pops out at times) when he is flying that little helicopter around our tiny apartment. Although, I have a feeling that I am not going to be the only one going insane because of the helicopter flying... Jack will too! However, I sense that Jack will have more fun than I will :D Thanks Mom and Autumn ;) We got some games from Mimi and Daddypa, which is really nice, because we have been wanting to add games to our collection so that we have things to play together and with the kids (someday). I got Pirates of the Caribbean 3 from my sister in-law . I also got a bunch of movies from Dan, he got me Pirates 3 also (obviously we will be returning that), A Bug's Life, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Ratatouille, and Monster's Inc. We now officially own all of Pixar's animated movies :D I got some more maternity clothes from Dan, Carol, Mom, and Autumn! Which means that now I have more than 2 shirts that fit! Dan got me the book that I wanted called Belly Laughs. The book is by Jenny McCarthy and her sense of humor is right up my alley... I do not like reading pregnancy books like "What to Expect While Expecting", I enjoy things that are a bit more light hearted and real. The last pregnancy book that I read was The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy. It was an informative, yet funny, down to earth book. Dan also got me Baby Laughs, also by Jenny McCarthy. Baby Laughs is about the first year of motherhood! We got a really nice picture frame from Carol that has 11 pictures in it (I think... something like that)! I got a monogrammed necklace that I LOVE from Mom and Autumn! Dan got a NC State hat and I got a UNC hat from Mom and Autumn too :D Dan wore his State hat to Carol's for Christmas dinner, the family busted out in "Duke is puke, Wake is fake, but the team I hate is NC State"... Dan was like, "what?"... it was obvious that he is not from NC, but I still love him :D Dan got some really nice things too... if I do say so myself :D He got some new clothes, cologne (Very Sexy from Victoria's Secret), a 2 GB flash drive, and of course, a big chocolate penguin! I will post pictures from Christmas soon! It snowed over 6 inches on Christmas Eve... Shari and I built our very first snowman (us NC girls do not get many chances to do that you know)! We also got to make Gingerbread houses and the traditional Glass Candy at Carol's on Christmas eve. Dan was not there for most of that though, cause he had to work and it started to pour down snow on his way back from Ogden to Murray. After Carol's on Christmas eve, we drove to Ogden to go to Dan's brother Chris' house for Dan's family gift exchange. We all around had a great time this Christmas! I am 19 weeks as of today, but here are some pictures of me at 18 weeks. I will be having an ultrasound next week... I am measuring big and they are going to be enlarging the pictures for due date calculations or something like that! Anywho... we will let you know how all of that goes!

Something must be right :D

Tonight I went to our ward's (actually, it was our ward and the 7th ward) Relief Society Christmas dinner. I had a great time and highly enjoyed the company of women :D I think that I have reached the point in our marriage that I am now ready to starting making friends again and actually socialize with other people than family and my friends via internet... imagine that! Perhaps I was really ready to do this early, but it did not HIT me until this week. I suspect that this epiphany occurred due to the fact that I have had the past 2 weeks off. I have noticed that when I have 2 weeks in a row off that I end up getting depressed... this has happened about 3 times. Anywho... I went to Relief Society and enjoyed it! I set at a table with my visiting teachers and 4 other women. One of my visiting teachers is pregnant and as you may suspect, that was fun :D She is expecting a boy too and like me, she is switching doctor's. She is 33 weeks and switching in about 2 weeks... she has already switched once because her first Dr. was one of those in and out, to the point kind of people... which is hard with a first baby. She is switching this time because she found out that her doctor has a very strong opinion on epidurals, pain medication during labor, and episiotomys. She wants to do a natural birth and her Dr.... not so much. Needless to say, that has presented a problem for her. I am having to switch doctors, although I REALLY do not want to, because of my insurance. I have an idea of who I might go to, although, I am really thinking about switching to a certified nurse-midwife instead. I want to do labor without pain medication (as much as possible) and for more than one reason, I do not want an epidural (the blood clotting problem being one reason). Nor do I want an episiotomy if it is not needed, which from what I have heard, the doctor that I am thinking about switching to does them A LOT. So, I think a midwife would be a good thing. Another one of the women sitting at my table was Sister Wallace... her husband and her are serving a mission in our ward. Interesting thing is, Sister Wallace's brother in-law (Bishop Stewart Wallace) is who married us. So, I got to tell the story of how Daniel and I met and then got married :D People's reactions are always so funny. My visiting teachers thought it was the coolest story ever (they are around my age). Sister Wallace asked how my parents reacted and then told me as a mother, she would have killed me. She also asked me a question that many people ask, "How is that working out for you?" I find this question to be particularly funny for several reasons. 1)We are still married (something must be going good)... 2) We are expecting (we must "like" each other at least a little) 3) What do they expect to hear... if I was really unhappy in my marriage, do you think that I would be like, "You know what, it was the worst decision that we could have possibly made... we regret it!". I mean, SERIOUSLY... obviously it must be working out for us :D On a side note, I have not felt the baby move much today and he suddenly started moving around in there a bunch! So, we had dinner (salad and lasagna) and then there was a little presentation. It was done by a lady (yeah... I do not know if she was in our ward or not)...she talked about an organization that she set up in honor of her son who passed away at the age of 15 (he was struck by lightening on a bunk at Scout Camp). The organization is called Paul's pass-along books. The concept is simple, you take a book, you read it, you log it into bookcrossing.com, and you pass it along. I got the book Knuffle Bunny... it is a book that I have heard a lot about in various pregnancy and parenting magazines and was planning on buying it to put into the baby's book collection (which is not in existence at this time). I thought this would be a great chance to take the book home, read it, share it with Dan, see if it is something that I really want to buy for the baby's collection, and pass along to someone else. It is most certainly a book that we will be buying and putting into the collection. I thought the book was really cute and both Dan and I LOVE the pictures :D I am adding pictures of my belly at 16 weeks too... then, I am signing off!

Snow and snoring

Dan wanted me to relay an experience that I had yesterday, which he thought was just too funny. I reminded him, as any good wife would, that he DOES have access to the blog as well and that he could tell you... but alas, here I am :D I called Dan the other day after getting off work and dropping off Jennifer's baby with Carol, to let Dan know that I was exhausted and going to take a nap. Of course he wondered why he needed to know this, but whatever. So, I got into the house, got all cuddled up in bed, and then Jack came into the bedroom and curled up at my feet. I sighed a sigh of releif thinking to myself, "this will be a nice nap and I will actually be able to sleep without Daniel's snoring". No sooner had I stopped thinking this did I hear the noise I was looking forward to not hearing, snoring. It was then that I realized that our cute little kittie was snoring, not purring like he usually does, but SNORING. I had to laugh and call Dan and let him know of my naptime experience, he got a kick out of it of course.
As for many people across the US, it snowed here yesterday (sorry NC family)! We got at least 8 inches in Salt Lake, Carol got a foot. The snow knocked out our power for a little while, but I did not mind since I was curled up in bed, sleeping. I thought about going outside and playing in the snow, since this is the first real good snow that we have had since I moved to UT. However, I could not bring myself to doing so, primarly because I do not have the proper clothing to do so, especially now that I am at least 30 pounds heavier than I was when I got married. Needless to say, the few winter clothes that I do have (since we do not need REAL winter clothes back home), do not fit... at all! I will be buying some maternity clothes at the end of this week... it will be nice to have at least a weeks worth of clothes that really fit, comfortably.