Sunday Best

my sweet boys

2012-02-28T14:34:00.000-07:00

It is much more fun when dad is around. I love watching these two interact. I can already tell they are going to be the best of buds.

blake's birth...the photo edition

2012-02-26T16:08:00.001-07:00

*photos by Brandon

our "couples dinner"- complete with martinelli's

blake {at one week}

2012-02-25T17:35:00.001-07:00

(*ps. I'm sorry if I offended anyone by my last post in saying that we were sick of people asking if the baby was here yet. We really didn't mind that people were excited for us and interested in knowing what was going on. I simply meant that every time we got asked it made me worry that I would have to be induced.)

I can't believe Blake is already one week old today. It has been adjustment getting used to feedings and a new sleeping schedule, but overall I think Blake is a pretty content baby. We'll keep him around.

Things to remember:
-He has the cutest little whimper. We call it his dinosaur cry because it sounds like a baby dinosaur.
-He loves sleeping in the swing.
-He has had fun hanging out with Dad--especially watching his first BYU basketball game.
-I know they say that babies can't smile this early on, but I beg to differ. We catch him smiling a few times a day.
-In the past few days, he has become much more alert and doesn't sleep quite as much.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from his first week. It makes me sad to see how much he has already grown!

blake's birth story

2012-02-23T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have mixed emotions about sharing Blake's birth story. For one, it was such a special and spiritual moment for Brandon and I that keeping it between us seems like the right thing to do. However, I know I LOVE reading birth stories. It shows how miraculous the entire process is and brings a little bit of magic to ordinary days. So I guess I've decided that I'll share the details somewhere in the middle. That way, the sacred moments will be kept between our little family, but you can hear all the rest.

It all began on Thursday, February 16th. "Is this baby ever going to come, I thought?" I was okay with it not being here already, but the thought of having to get induced did not seem appealing (since I was planning on going natural-- more on that later). Plus, despite the curiosity and interest of family and friends, we were getting tired of everyone asking if the baby was here yet. (Like we would forget to tell them or something). I know that sounds rude of us, but I knew the baby would come when it was ready and we were perfectly okay with that. By Thursday, I had the feeling that things were going to happen soon. I was suddenly filled with motivation. I went to the gym. I ran some errands. I went to the Temple. I cleaned up and finished up some loose ends. Before Brandon left to ref basketball that night, we made a quick Dan's run and picked up what sounded good for dinner- Mac n' Cheese and Moose Tracks Ice Cream. Healthy, I know. He left and I fell asleep on the couch for a few hours. We hung out for a little while after he got home and then we went to bed.

Around 2 am on Friday, February 17th, I woke up to painful contractions. They weren't too unbearable to handle and I practiced my relaxation techniques to get me through them. I did that for about an hour and then finally woke up Brandon to tell him that I think something was happening. We started timing them and they were about 5 minutes apart. That went on the rest of the night. Brandon would rub my back and continually heat up my rice bag. We were tempted to go to the hospital, but I had an appointment with the midwives at 8:45 that morning. I got up at 7:30. I had packed our bags a few days earlier, but threw in a few more things just in case we needed to stay. I showered, did my hair and make-up and then we were off. The contractions hurt, but they seemed to subside a little. I kept thinking, "I can totally do this if this is what labor is like." Ha. Little did I know.

right before we left

The midwife checked me and I was dilated to a 2. Since my plan was to do hypnobirthing*, she thought it would be a good idea if I went home to labor and then come back when contractions were closer together.

*Sidenote- My reasons for hypnobirthing* I had heard such great things about hypnobirthing that once I found out I was pregnant, I started researching it. I read a book. We took a class. We diligently practiced for the month leading up to Blake's birth. My intent on doing it natural was never to be this super hero with bragging rights for going natural. It was just that in my heart, I knew that is what I wanted to do or at least try to do. I heard recovery was easier, babies aren't too drugged up when they are born, and I was afraid of the epidural itself and what it would do to me. In addition to that, back in November, I found out my platelet levels in my blood were low. The platelets are what causes your blood to clot. If your levels are too low, epidurals are not an option. Period. When I heard that, I felt like that was part of the reason why I had been so drawn to going natural in case I couldn't get an epidural. My levels were 185 at the beginning and then in November they had dropped to 105. They would do a blood test once I got to the hospital to check my levels in case I wanted to get one. Every doctor is different, but usually the cutoff level is 100.

Back to the story. So the midwife suggested we go home to labor. So that is what we did. Brandon took the day off work which I'm so grateful he did! We knew it was our last day hanging out together so we did something really exciting. We went to O'reilly to get a new headlight for our Pilot and then Wal-mart to get some snacks for the hospital. Contractions still came at this point, but I kept my mind off of them.

Once we got home, we were both so tired from no sleep the night before. We took a nap for a few hours. I thought by now things would have picked up, but they hadn't as much as we had hoped. So we stayed at home. Brandon made me a smoothie and I ate more mac n'cheese. It tasted SO good. Contractions picked up hard around 9:00 pm, but they were still inconsistent. I used some more of they hypnobirthing techniques to get me through. My favorite was sitting in our make-shift bathtub. Around 10:00, we turned on the Scarlet Pimpernel to help distract me. We got through an hour of it before I needed another bath. The warm water helped relax me and made the pain more bearable. At 11:30, I was in tons of pain. The pain had switched from my stomach to my lower back and it killed! I tried so many different things, but nothing seemed to work. I called the midwife and she said that it was probably because the baby was in the posterior position. She suggested I do some different stretches to turn him. I did, but the pain was still so bad. I called her back and she said that even though contractions were still irregular, I should come in to see what was going on.

At 12:30 am on Saturday, February 18th, we got to the hospital. Our stuff was still packed in the car. It was a little surreal driving there realizing the next time we were at home we would have a baby with us. I still remember the hospital being so quiet and peaceful when we got there. I could not stand up during contractions, so I sat while Brandon did all the checking in. They took us to a room to hook me up to the Fetal Monitor. At this point, we still weren't sure if I would be staying or not. Contractions were still irregular about 5-8 minutes apart, but oh, so painful. However, being checked was the worst part of all! I was a only a 4 at that point, but they wanted us to stay. It was a relief knowing things were progressing, albeit slow. And just a change of scenery from laboring at home all day was nice. We dimmed the lights, tried to relax and let things happen.

Things happened, but slowly. I was at a 6 for 5 hours.

The midwife shift change was at 7 am. Around 9, the new midwife said that I wasn't progressing quick enough so they would need to give me Pitocin. I was so opposed to Pitocin to induce labor, but by this point, I didn't think it was such a bad thing since I had already been doing this for so long. She also suggested I get an epidural because I was still so far from being done. They looked at my blood test and couldn't get an accurate reading. So I got my blood drawn again and waited for a half hour to get the results back. 82. That was my platelet level. It had significantly dropped since November. The normal cutoff level is 100, but the anethesiologist on call said his cutoff was 85. Ugh. Heart sunk. I had mixed emotions. I was kind of excited to have an excuse not to get one, but at the same time, I was super tired and wasn't sure how much longer I could go on.

Pitocin was making the contractions much harder and stronger, but because of the risk from my low platelet levels, I was not ready to jump on board with the epidural. Also, I was an emotional wreck by this point. I decided to get another pain killer, not quite as strong or effective, to help me. It was effective for the first 20 minutes or so, then it would wear off. I would get another dose and same thing, it would wear off. Finally at 11:00 am, I was ready to get the epidural. It was still a tough and very emotional decision because of the risk, but we said a prayer and felt good about going forward with it. At 11:30, I got the epidural.

At 11:30, I was a 7. But then for the next 3 hours, that is where I stayed. They would continue to turn up the Pitocin levels. Contractions still irregular. My oh my. We were beginning to think we would never have this baby!

Finally at 2:30, our midwife said that they would monitor me for the next 2 hours and if I hadn't progressed, a c-section may in my future. I lost it. I had already worked so hard and long and that was the last thing I wanted. I cried and prayed my little heart out.

At 4:30, the new midwife came in with the student resident. It was so untactful how the resident worded it. The first thing she said was, "We've decided that if you haven't progressed, we are doing a C-section." I said, "Now?" She said, "Yes." I didn't get it. Our baby was doing perfectly. Throughout the entire process, they called him a textbook baby because he was handling everything so well. If he was doing well, why couldn't I have more time to get there? I was angry. I wanted to put up a fight. I was emotional and in no state to hear that I needed a C-section. Brandon spoke up like my super hero and said, "Hey, before you freak my wife out anymore, can you please just check her to see if she has progressed and then talk about the options?" Go Brandon. I love how protective he was of me and my emotions at that moment. They checked me and I was a 10! I was singing Hallelujah! A c-section wouldn't be necessary after all, thank goodness. I still hated how they approached it though.

All the nurses and midwife left. Brandon and I had the next hour to talk and get excited. This was it. Our baby was finally coming!

At 5:30 pm, they came back in and got things situated.

At 6:15 pm, our baby was born. It was the most amazing thing. Brandon announced the gender. We both thought it would be a girl, but the moment he said it was boy, it just felt right and we were super excited. As much as a little girl would have been, I wanted an older brother for the rest of our kids. I just held him on my chest while they stitched me up. It took about 2 hours since Blake had his hand up by his face and tore me up pretty good internally. At that moment, I was extremely grateful I couldn't feel a thing.

As hard and long as everything was, as soon as Blake was born, I forgot all about that. I had a precious little boy in my arms. I will never forget how I felt. He was fresh from heaven. I was in heaven. We were a family of 3 and I felt super close to Brandon. I would do it all again tomorrow for that feeling.

And even though it went much differently and looonger than planned, I look back to the experience with such fondness. It was a positive experience overall. I would definitely try hypnobirthing again because I truly think it is possible to go natural if things can move quicker. But I don't feel defeated. I don't feel like a failure. My situation caused me to be flexible and in the end, I still ended up with a baby. The most perfect baby ever. I am in love.

lots of visitors for baby blake

2012-02-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

As soon as we let our families know we were at the hospital, they were anxious to finally meet the baby. I'm afraid we worried a lot of them since it took us nearly 24 hours after we got there to have Blake and let them know everything was okay.Grandpa King came just a few hours after he was born and then we had more of our families come on Sunday afternoon. Having visitors meet Blake for the first time was so special! He is one lucky boy.

Grandpa King

Grandpa Sunday

Aunt Rachel

Aunt Nicole + cousin who will be born in May

Aunt Hollie

Emme. Katie. Charlie and Justin

Emme is one proud cousin

Blake's great aunt, Marilyn

The Salmons were sick so they came to visit when Blake was 4 days old.

And somehow we didn't get a pic of Grandma Sunday at the hospital, but she was there, too!

blake's firsts

2012-02-22T11:27:00.003-07:00

Can we just stop time? I don't want my baby boy to grow up!

It is heaven having this little guy around. We both find ourselves completely content

to sit and stare at Blake all. day. long. For the most part, he is such a happy baby.

Here are some of his firsts...

first car ride
*going home from the hospital. He didn't mind the car seat at all.

first bedtime
*He loved being all snuggled up. He didn't sleep great the first night, but I didn't mind getting extra cuddle time with him.

first doctor appointment

*doc says he looks great. weighs 6 lbs 13.5 oz which means he has gained 6 oz since he left the hospital

p.s. I have a feeling Blake will be taking over our blog posts. Don't tell me I didn't warn you.

He is consuming our lives right now but we wouldn't want it any other way.

baby sunday is here!

2012-02-20T07:47:00.001-07:00

more pics and details coming soon...

but for now, we are just going to enjoy this perfect little boy!

we couldn't be happier.

love week: i love valentine's day

2012-02-14T23:55:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays. Yet, I seem to always forget how much fun it is.

It has never been a huge present or commercial holiday for me, but rather a day to be festive and

celebrate all kinds of love with simple things. Looking back on this year's Valentine's Day, I realized most

of our celebrating had to do with food. Hmm. I guess that tells you we like food. It could be worse. It was my turn to plan it this year, but since I wasn't quite sure where would we be, I kept the plans simple.

It started off with breakfast in bed. I found the most festive idea on Pinterest for heart cinnamon rolls.

Brandon loves cinnamon rolls and they were super easy. Jackpot!

I also put some love notes around the house and made a cd with love songs for Brandon's way to work. It's just too bad that he forgot to take it with him! When I got out of bed, I found a little present from B. Before work, he made these *festively shaped cookies and left a love letter. Letters are my favorite! He knows me well enough to know that I would want pictures and I found these on the camera:

*As a sidenote, the giant heart cookie has a story behind it. A week ago we were at the grocery store and as we walked passed a shelf of huge cookies with sappy sayings on them, I told him about the time when my sister's boyfriend forgot to do anything for her for Valentine's Day. In his effort to redeem himself, he brought over a giant heart cookie at midnight--probably the last one at the store. We've always laughed about this. Brandon thought it would be funny to leave a heart cookie for me. But don't worry, he also brought home flowers.

I made a yummy and festive dinner of heart twice-baked potatoes, sauteed garlic beans, heart steak, and chocolate dipped strawberries. Afterwards, we cuddled up to One Fine Day.

I'm so lucky to be married to Brandon. I love LOVE and love being in love with him. Our life is sure to change here pretty soon, but I'm glad we got to celebrate another night of just the two of us.

love week: i love gym time

2012-02-13T21:40:00.000-07:00

I have never been a big gym person. One, I don't like to pay the money and two, exercising in the fresh air is always more invigorating. But ever since my last two jobs have given me discount gym memberships, I have become a fan. And here is why: 1. I love being able to workout when it's cold. 2. Even if it's dark, I can still work out and don't have to drag Brandon along. 3. I love seeing how many calories I've burned. 4. Being surrounded by other people working out motivates me. 5. I can watch my heart rate and make sure I'm keeping it low enough for the baby. Speaking of baby, it's not here yet. But that is okay. A due date is just a guess anyway. We enjoyed our workout tonight together and I have to say that I'm grateful that baby has been such a trooper in letting me workout the entire pregnancy.

love week: i love freezer meals

2012-02-12T16:02:00.002-07:00

I love freezer meals. I love having things on hand and ready to pull out at a moment's notice.

I love to have a fresh meal each night, but sometimes, it's just not possible. And that is why I looove to have back-up meals in the freezer. It makes me feel productive and on top of things especially when I really am not. Since this baby has decided not to show up yet, we took full advantage of our time yesterday. We cooked up a storm and had lots of fun doing it. Have I said how much I love cooking with Brandon? He is the best partner to be in the kitchen with and not just because he is happy to do all the dishes. We got a little ambitious and made lots of food.

nearly every appliance and burner was used. got to love our tiny kitchen!

We made Chicken Enchiladas, Burritos, Seashell Casserole, Rachel's Casserole, Chicken Tetrazzini, BBQ pulled pork, hamburger meat, wheat pancakes, and 2 loaves of wheat bread. Whew! It makes me exhausted and hungry just thinking about it.

Too bad it won't last forever :(

love week: i love flowers

2012-02-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

We don't often have fresh flowers in our house, but when we do, they make me happy.

These beautiful flowers were from the shower my fellow YW leaders threw for me.

love week: i love packages

2012-02-10T21:05:00.001-07:00

I love getting surprises in the mail especially because it seems like a dying art. (but don't get me started on dying arts). My NYC sister sent me this festive Valentine's Day package complete with homemade heart garland and some red fingernail polish so I could feel sassy before the baby.Thanks Em!

love week: we love grandpa max!

2012-02-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

We love Grandpa Max and are glad we got to visit him before the baby comes and bring some Valentine's cheer. He is a fighter, a farmer, and one funny man.He is the only grandpa I have ever known and I love all the great times we have had with him! I can't wait for baby s to meet him.

love week: i love my job

2012-02-08T20:52:00.001-07:00

I had my last day of work. I'll be honest. I cried when I said goodbye.
It has been the best job I've had. I have loved my boss and all the things I've been able to learn and do.
I think it will definitely be an adjustment being at home, but I'm excited for the change.

last day dressing up and "loving" my chubby face.


i love that all my co-workers made guesses

the start of love week

2012-02-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have been inspired from this blog and this one who do love week each year before Valentine's Day and I think it is such a great idea. I figured I would try it out this year so we can share some of the things we have loved lately. Plus this may be the only festive thing we do this year if the baby decides to come before V-day.

First up: We love turkey sandwiches!

We've been working hard to finish our baby bucket list and cooking a turkey was on it.

We finally we did it (and by we I mean Brandon) and have been loving all the turkey sandwiches from it!

boy or girl? a little guessing game

2012-02-01T09:22:00.001-07:00

Baby Sunday will be making his/her debut soon!
We thought it would be fun to have a little guessing game and the winner will get a prize!

Leave a comment answering these two guesses:
1. Is it a boy or girl?
2. What day will it be born?

The person who guesses the right gender AND the closest date will win.

Here are a few hints.
-My due date is 2.12.- about 1.5 weeks away. (is it really that close?)
-The baby has dropped quite a bit
-The baby is approximately 6 lbs right now
-Most of my co-workers and the nurses think it's a girl. But who knows?

Good luck!

last week of work.

2012-01-30T08:37:00.002-07:00

I can’t believe this is my last week of work. Bittersweet I tell you.

I have LOVED my job and am sad to leave all of my awesome coworkers and fun job responsibilities.

But that means it is one week closer to meeting this baby. And that makes me so happy.

Things to remember:

-planning one awesome holiday party

-heading up the Christmas Toy drive

-organizing holiday pot lucks

-walks along the river

-Temple trips after work

-Target runs on my lunch break

-the nice things my co-workers have done like

-giving me rides home when we were down to one car

-sharing good car deals when we were looking (glad that is over!)

- trying to feed me lots of chocolate because it was “good for the baby”

-leaving my favorite soup at my desk one day

-playing counselor to many employees. You would be amazed at how open people have been just because I’m HR. I kind of love it.

Things I’ll miss:

-having a reason to put on heels and get ready each day

-an extra paycheck

-helping people and being in the know with what is going on the company

-event planning

Things I’m looking forward to:

-staying in PJs occasionally

-hanging out with the baby

-having time to cook, craft, and thrift again
-being able to chat with sisters and friends more often

january showers bring...

2012-01-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

We haven't had much of a winter around here (not that I'm complaining), but baby S has had some showers of it's own lately. What a lucky baby to have so many people love him/her already!

The YW leaders I serve with threw us a ward shower. The theme was sock monkeys. I wish I would have been able to get more pictures, but I was too busy chatting. There was delicious mini desserts and it meant a lot to have so many of the young women and other ward friends come. Baby got lots of books, diapers, wipes, onesies, sleepers, some cute leg warmers, a very fun crib sheet set, and lots of other goodies. My heart melted when I opened some very thoughtful homemade gifts--a quilt from Kim, a blanket and binkie clip from one of my mia-maids and some burp cloths from another girl in my class. This group of girls are so amazing and talented.

My friends from forever threw me a shower on Friday. The theme was "Melissa is ready to pop" I could not get over how cute and festive everything was. And I loved that Andrea got to join us all the way from Pennsylvania because she was one of the masterminds behind it all! Yep, that is her on skype.

Jaci. Kellie. Cassie. Amanda. Alli. Jenny. Me

Hope you guys don't hate me for this one. But what can I say? We have lots of fun together!

Check out all of these details!

the invitation

the decor

all of the food was themed as well.

there was "pop"corn chicken, "pop"eye's spinach salad, "pop"corn, soda "pop" and cupcakes.

we even got favor bags to take home.

inside there were pop rocks, a tootsie pop, popcorn, and a ring pop

I am lucky to have such a good group of friends. A lot of us have been friends since elementary. That is pretty rare these days. I hope my kids have as good of friends as I did growing up. It made all the difference.

Thanks to all the great gifts, we are feeling much more ready for this baby to come!

another sister

2012-01-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

Meet my friend Kim. We can thank BYU for making us friends. Any time a BYU game was on, you could be assured that our husbands would be watching it together. That left plenty of time for us to craft, talk bargains, or recipes, or just laugh. We got to be really close before she moved away and I miss her! She is one of those people I could talk to about anything. She is like a sister to me.

It's her birthday today and I thought about some of our fun times together. This is us at Olive Garden way back in the summer. We got there for dinner at 8:00 and didn't leave until 12:30 am. It must be their policy to not kick anyone out. We kept asking if they wanted us to leave and they said no. So we talked and talked and talked. I think we ate 4 bowls of salad and too many breadsticks to count.

She was an answer to prayer one day. I felt like I needed to be at the RS broadcast

back in September and she happened to call me up asking me to go. She scrounged

up tickets for us and then we ate PB&J sandwiches on the steps outside before listening

to the inspiring talks that I needed to hear. We cried together (hence the puffy eyes) and then

cheered ourselves up by eating fries and shakes and talking again for hours.

I'm so grateful for such good friends!

our outing today

2012-01-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today, we went on a little outing to the temple with Brandon's parents.

Then, we ventured to a new place for lunch...the Blue Plate Diner.

We were a little, I mean a lot over dressed, but it was still fun.

We ate some yummy food.

And enjoyed having one-on-one time with Brandon's parents.

They are very easy and fun to talk to.

the 36 week belly!

aren't they cute?

birthday time

2012-01-08T20:49:00.001-07:00

It was Brandon's mom's birthday over the weekend.We had a fun time going out to lunch with them and then having everyone over for dessert. We forget to get candles, so matches had to do. Did you know that matches burn much quicker than candles? Well, they do. So, it took all three of them to light the matches quick enough before they all burned out. We're so glad we got to celebrate with everyone!

make a wish!

cute Kate. she is so grown up now!

a 2011 goal complete.

2012-01-06T15:59:00.001-07:00

One of my goals last year was to "cook more". I know, it's such a vague goal.

But to document my progress, I recorded some of the best new recipes onto a blog.

You can tell when I wasn't feeling well from the pregnancy or that work was super busy

by the lack of posts in some of the months.

Poor Brandon had to eat a lot of cereal and pancakes during those times.

But once I felt good again, I loved to experiment with new recipes

and try to cook up new culinary masterpieces.

I really do love cooking and I hope to do even more this year!

If you want some of the recipes, visit the blog sundaybestrecipes.blogspot.com

And thanks to some of you who shared recipes with me!

it's 2012

2012-01-03T20:16:00.007-07:00

We rang in the new year with food, games, family, pots and pans, and a giant sleepover

in our little apartment. It was the best yet! We don't get to party often with Em and Kyle so it was a treat!

We'll start off with the food since we all know that is the best part of a party.

As for the games, we played Family Fued, Sparkle and the M&M Straw Game.

The New Year came. And we made sure our neighbors knew it.

Then time for more snacking and dessert. Justin brought moon pops. I admit, I never ate one.
At 2:30 am, we all decided to crash.

It's going to be a great year!

Oh Baby Oh Baby...

2011-12-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

Since Emily was in town over the holidays, my little sister Kristin threw us a double baby shower with relatives and some mutual friends. Kristin made it so festive with all the decorations and food. I sure felt spoiled and I'm glad this baby finally has some of the necessities because his/her mama has been slacking!

Who needs to have twins? We got a lot of the same things in matching bags. So fun!

Becky. Karen. Me. Cindy. Em

Sisters! Kristin. Me. Em. Katie

Cousin Juli and Kynli. Em. Me.

My Aunt Marilyn and Ruth

Lisa and Heidi- Cross-country friends from high school

Jeni and her cute girls Millie and Lizzie

Melissa and her girls

Amy and Ashley- the girls I used to babysit!

Cousin Cheri

My sister-in-law Jessica and mother-in-law

Nanny Reunion

2011-12-28T01:03:00.002-07:00

It's always fun when the family I nannied for comes into town.

This makes the 3rd reunion since I've been back and 5 of us nannies were able to make it.

The boys are so BIG now and sadly, I think they've forgotten that I was their favorite. :)

Christmas Day

2011-12-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

Beignets. Christmas Program at Church. Christmas Dinner at the Sundays.

Gingerbread houses. Opening Presents. Call from missionary sister Sarah.

Christmas Eve at the Kings

2011-12-27T00:42:00.000-07:00

Christmas Eve is a big deal in my family. We always start it off with a fancy candlelight dinner.

We read Luke 2 and this year we acted it out.

Then we write a letter to Santa and burn it and sprinkle the ashes over the snow.

Santa puts it together when he visits.

After the kids were in bed, we played "Christmas Eve Let's Make a Deal".

Brandon and I were the hosts, although he was the real star of the show.

Our Just "Us" Christmas

2011-12-25T00:39:00.000-07:00

It has become our little tradition to have our own Christmas Eve on the 23rd since we are usually with family on the 24th. This year, we both took the day off. We got to workout together, run some errands, take a nap, and then we went to the Temple and had a dinner with Brandon's family. On our way home, we stopped at the Christmas Utah light display. The line of cars was insane, so we braved the cold and walked to it. It's a good thing we did because this is the last year they will be doing it.

Once we got home, we gave our 11th day of Christmas present to each other and then snuggled up to Home Alone 2 on our air mattress by our Christmas tree. It was magical.

We loved that we got to leave out 3 stockings for Santa to fill this year.

Our Christmas morning together (which was really on Christmas Eve) was so perfect. Santa brought us a few fun things. Brandon has been loving his nerf gun. My favorite gift was a note that Santa had wrapped up. It said, "I think I hear the baby crying. You better go check on it." I went into the baby's room and Santa had brought and set up a pack-n-play. We can't wait until our little one is really in there (and hoping that it doesn't cry to much.) After opening gifts, we made yummy lemon ricotta pancakes for breakfast. I love my little family!

Merry Christmas from the Sundays!

2011-12-24T10:41:00.002-07:00

4th Advent and Other Christmas Things

2011-12-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

We have loved this Christmas season! It has been the perfect balance of festiveness and peace.

Some of the festive things we've done lately...

*Visit Temple Square with the Youth. We love the youth in this ward!

*Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Quite different from last year with David Archuleta,

but helped get us in the mood of Christmas nonetheless.

*Finally getting our Christmas card together. I wasn't sure if it would happen or not, but we finally did it!

Brandon is such a good sport! I'll post it later this week, but for now, you can see an outtake.
Oh, the things we'll do for a picture!

*Celebrating 4th Advent. We let the candles burn down as we listened to Christmas music,

wrote letters to missionary siblings, and read from the Bible.

*Yesterday after running some errands, I came home to this on our table:

Brandon has been doing the 12 days of Christmas for me. Talk about the most thoughtful gift

I have ever received. On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 6 Christmas Activities,

5 spending quarters, 4 songs that remind him of me, 3 love notes, 2 lindt balls, and one massage.

I look forward to every day for the next surprise.

Now just a few more things to finish up and we'll be ready for Christmas!

3rd Advent

2011-12-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

3rd Advent went like this: Kenny G "Christmas" setting the mood. Candlelight dinner with 3 of our couple friends. Singing along to the guitar and piano. Reading "I Believe in Santa Clause." And ending with some games. Only 1 more Sunday until Christmas!

Kenzi Jones. Diana and Jeff Harris. Lenny Jones. Me. Ashley and Jordan Eves. (B is taking the pic)

St. Nicholas Day

2011-12-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

Happy to report that St. Nicholas visited us and left a little present in our shoes.

We weren't able to eat our traditional reibekuchen + applesauce dinner, but that

is okay because we were at the best work party ever!

(Can I say that even though I helped plan it?)

Bowling. Laser Tag. Arcade Games. Dinner. Glow sticks galore.

And we walked away with awesome gifts plus $140 cash

that our awesome bowling skills won us. Sa-weet!

(wow. this angle makes me look big! but that's okay because T-2 months until
baby s makes his or her debut!)

2nd Advent

2011-12-04T21:59:00.001-07:00

For the 2nd Advent, we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional,

ate creme brulee french toast, and sampled our homemade fudge.

giveaway today!

2011-12-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

If you want to win some festive things for the holidays,
visit So Festive by Friday at midnight for details.

1st Advent

2011-11-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

Advent has started! We love this German tradition.

For the first advent, we went to the Messiah Sing-In

and ate pumpkin pie cheesecake and hot chocolate.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-26T23:31:00.000-07:00

What a lazy picture-taker I have been lately! So lazy, I didn't get any pics of our Thanksgiving weekend. If I would have taken pictures...

:: there would be a picture from our lazy Wednesday. I planned to take the day off work and tackle my to-do list, (I'm suddenly realizing that this baby will be here before we know it!), but as I'm learning, plans change fast. Brandon ended up with the flu, so I threw my list out the window and did what a good wife should...take naps and do nothing with her sick husband. It felt good.

::there would be a picture from our Pie Night. Yummy soup, homemade rolls, and a plethora of pies. This has got to be one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions that we do with Brandon's family every year on Thanksgiving Eve. Too bad B was too sick to eat much.

::there would be a picture from our Thanksgiving Dinner. We ate the big feast at my aunt Ruth's school this year since there was a group of 40 of us! We loved having the gym to play around in. We missed Grandpa Max since he was sick in the hospital. But, we got to go and visit him and bring him some Thanksgiving cheer.

::there would be a picture from outing to see The Help. Hands down, best movie we've seen in a long time.

It was a great weekend overall and we are excited for the Christmas season to officially be here!

I'm Thankful For...My Father-In-Law

2011-11-26T00:22:00.002-07:00

I'm grateful for a father-in-law that stayed up past midnight helping me fix the links on my watch.

He even filed down a nail to push the mini pins out!!!

-Brandon

We're Thankful for: Missionary Siblings

2011-11-21T09:08:00.000-07:00

Meet the newest called missionary--my sister Hollie! We were thankful we could be there to see her open her call. She will be serving in the Brazil Salvador mission. Kind of cool that her and Mike will be in Brazil together and will get home at the same time! That will make 3 of my siblings out all once. Man we'll miss them, but are so grateful for their examples!

I love this pic of Brandon and Charlie. I would definitely be okay with a boy!

We're Thankful for: A Baby on the Way!

2011-11-20T14:17:00.000-07:00

This is the biggest blessing of the year. Sure, we are enjoying our alone time, but to think this little one will be here in just a few months is so exciting! At 6 1/2 months along, I'm feeling great. I still have lots of energy (most of the time). This baby is an active one and always kicking and moving around. I've been loving dairy- milk, cheese, and ice cream and especially sweet things, but I'm trying to be good, I promise! My favorite comment lately was from a little boy who we used to teach. He came up to me and said, "Whoa, I can tell the baby is getting bigger!" Oh the honesty of a child.

We're Thanful For: Stable Jobs

2011-11-14T22:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no pics for this one...it would be boring to see a pic of us in our business casual.

You've already heard how much I love my job. Well, Brandon is no different. We are so thankful that we both have good jobs that we enjoy going to. We've learned that it is more important to have a job we enjoy than one that pays a lot of money.We love that we get to learn new things. And it's super fun to share co-worker stories or chat on and off throughout the day.

We're Thankful for: H&M

2011-11-11T23:05:00.009-07:00

On this 11/11/11, we are thankful that H&M opened here in Salt Lake.

We are especially grateful that we won't have to travel all over the world like last year

to shop there. :)

We're Thankful for: Christmas Music

2011-11-09T23:17:00.001-07:00

There is an ongoing debate at our house about when it's okay to start listening to Christmas music. But I say, a little doesn't hurt every once in a while, right? I love the way it inspires me, especially this song.

We're Thankful for: Our Ward

2011-11-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

We have loved our ward from the moment we moved in. They throw parties like nobody's business and everyone is so friendly and nice. A few weeks ago at the Halloween carnival (which was Amazing!), some of the ladies came up and asked, "How are you doing?" I later find out that that they were referring to me being pregnant because they weren't quite sure if I was or not. I found it kind of funny because I definitely cannot hide it these days. But perhaps the best story is how the first lady in our ward found out. She saw a pregnancy book I had on hold next to hers at the library. I'll have to remember to be careful what I reserve at the library in the future!

Here are a few pics of the carnival. They don't do justice, but this is the best I could get.

Me and Lulu...one of our primary kids. We love the youth but miss our primary class!

We're Thankful for: Sunsets

2011-11-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

My friend recently posted a pic of an Arizona sunset. It reminded me of this picture I took back in

August from our driveway. We're thankful for the sunsets because they help us slow down and

enjoy the simple things in life. We're also thankful for the view of city. It is so beautiful at night.

We're Thankful For: Brandon's Family

2011-11-06T21:11:00.000-07:00

Getting together with the Sunday family usually goes down like this--I chat with the girls and his mom as one of them is cooking up something gourmet while Brandon gets a chance to talk/watch sports with his dad and brothers-in-law. It's a good balance. We loved having a Halloween party with them this year (and missed the Taylors). It was fun to see everyone all dressed up in "lame" costumes.

we were pigs in a blanket. lame huh?

We're Thankful For: The First Snow

2011-11-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

There is something magical about the first snow.

It's a beautiful sight to see the earth covered in a blanket of white.

We also didn't mind that it gave us an excuse to stay in comfy clothes all day

and work on some things we want to get done before the holidays and baby come.

I'm Thankful for: Brandon's Thoughtfulness

2011-11-04T19:16:00.000-07:00

I always thought gifts were my love language. I know, that sounds vain. But, the more I have thought about it, the more I've realized that it isn't the gift that gets me. It's the thought behind the gift that means so much to me. In fact, anything thoughtful (gift aside) is what I appreciate and love the most.

I'm thankful for all the thoughtful things Brandon has done for me these last few months. Some of them include:

-I came home from the end of long work week exhausted. Brandon knows how much I love taking baths as a way to relax. However, we don't have the luxury of a bathtub in our apartment, so he decided to make one for me. He knew I would love it after coming home late from work. Inside that blue tarp was a nice bath tub of warm water waiting for me.

-He will often send texts or chats during the day that say something like, "I love you both so much" or he'll leave a note in my lunch that he'll pack because I'm running late.

-He's so patient when I fall asleep through movies. I can't make it past 10:00 anymore.

-We usually have cleaning parties on Thursday. To my surprise when I got home from work, I found this sign and the house already cleaned...

It's these little things that make marriage so rewarding.

We're Thankful For: A Second Car

2011-11-03T21:16:00.001-07:00

Even though we had to drive to Idaho to buy it, we LOVE it!
And after having it for a little while now,
we are especially grateful that no "check engine" lights have flipped on.

It is so nice to have a second car. We hope it stays in the family for a long, long time.

We're Thankful For...

2011-11-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

We put up the Thanksgiving decorations last night.

I forget how much I love this time of year until it gets here.

I love that we get to reflect on everything we've been blessed with.
We really feel like we have so much to be grateful for.

So this month, we are going to be sharing some of the things we're thankful for.

Tonight, we were grateful for...mac n' cheese. It's a cop-out meal (if you can even call it a meal).
But sometimes, that is the only thing that sounds good. At least I eat peas in mine.
We are grateful for modern day conveniences...even if it comes in a box.

Bon Voyage to Brazil

2011-11-01T20:32:00.001-07:00

the whole family (minus Em+ Kyle and Sarah) at Michael's farewell on Sunday

My little (who happens to not be so little) brother left for Brazil for his mission today.

I can't believe he is all grown up! I think he will be a great missionary!

King Family Halloween Party

2011-10-31T21:18:00.000-07:00

The King family Halloween party is an unofficial Halloween tradition, but we do it every year.

It is so fun to see what people come up with for costumes.

Kristin and Blaine planned it this year and made it very festive.

the Hawaiian and snorkeler

Miss "Cellaneous" and the Grudge

a Rodeo Clown and Santa's twin

Scarecrow, Lion, and Dorothy

Flynn Rider, Tangled, Pascal and the wicked step-mom

We had a festive dinner. We ate soup out of pumpkin bread bowls

and had orange-dyed vanilla ice + brownies + hot fudge

There is nothing like a friendly little "Trick-or-Treat" relay and cake walk to end the night.

Hip Hip Hooray!

2011-10-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

This is me and Em from last fall during my spontaneous surprise visit to NYC.

Em and I have been through a lot together over the years.

Marathons, business school, graduating BYU together, living abroad at the same time,

liking the same boys during college, having similar dating stories with our husbands, being in the corporate world together, etc. etc. etc.

But, who would have thought that we would have babies together?

Of course, we never planned such a thing, but it's happened.

We found out that Baby Poll is coming just 6 weeks after ours!

So Hip Hip Hooray for us and that our kids will have close cousins!

I guess our trend of doing similar things at the same time continues...

Dream Job

2011-10-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

This will be a short post, but I just had to say how much I love my job!
I love that I get to plan the details for our Christmas party.
I love that I get to coordinate our holiday service project.
And I love that I get to coordinate our Halloween Potluck Lunch.

Planning events make me happy-- especially when I get to do it for my job.

Park City Getaway

2011-10-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

We took a few days off work for a belated anniversary getaway to one of our favorite places, Park City. It was the perfect weekend to getaway. After a crazy month and a half of running around from place to place, sharing a car and searching for a new one and hosting parties, we were ready for a break. We made no plans (a first for us!) and it was best that way.

As I was packing up some things, I heard Brandon walk in. I turned around and saw this...what a suave guy I have! And he even packed Lindt for us as after-dinner mints. He sure knows the way to his pregnant-wife's heart.

We took the road less traveled and drove through Big Cottonwood Canyon to do some leaf- peeping. The colors were so vibrant!

We stopped and had a picnic on a rock, in the sunshine I might add, at Solitude.

We went swimming, worked out, shopped at the Outlets, slept in, continued our Harry Potter marathon, ate a lot (including a breakfast on the veranda), went to Fatali's art gallery and perused Main Street.

We really wanted a steak dinner on our last night, but since the only place we could find was asking $50 a plate, we decided we would have a nice romantic dinner in our studio. We picked up salad and garlic knots from Main Street Noodle and Co and bought the nicest cut of meat from Fresh Market. It might not seem like a vacation to some people if they have to cook, but we had a blast. We love cooking together. And it was the best filet minot I've ever had.

We wrapped up our trip with one last stop at the outlets and found a fun scarecrow walk on the way out.

Yep, we are teaching Baby Sunday how to be festive already.

And now, back to reality.

Lately...

2011-10-22T16:54:00.000-07:00

We've canned salsa

I hosted book club (but don't ask me about the book)

We had a family potluck with my Peacock cousins

and Brandon finished his soccer coaching season

Spudnuts Galore

2011-10-17T20:46:00.002-07:00

Our Spudnut Party was a success!

We made 275 spudnuts.

110 people showed up.

Our house was a little (I mean a lot) crazy,
but it was worth it and we loved seeing everyone!
And let me clarify, it is not because we are popular.
We believe that if you make them, they will come.

Save the Date

2011-10-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Just a little "witchcraft"

2011-10-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday night was a dream. I got to hang out with my sisters all night long. None of my sisters live in the same city so it is not too often that we get to be together. But on Saturday, I got to hang out with them all night long, including my festive cousin. We went shopping, found some awesome thrifty finds, had a fall dinner, and even did a little "witchcraft".

My mom made a similar witch years ago. We've always wanted to make one and finally got around to it. The best part is we only had to buy a piece of wood.

The festive table. I'm quickly learning that fancy dinners will be far and few between when we have kids. But that's okay. It will be worth it.

It's A...

2011-10-02T00:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday night felt a lot like Christmas Eve. I was so excited and anxious to see our baby s (we need a good nickname) at the ultrasound that I stayed up until 1 am cleaning, mopping the floor, packing away summer clothes (and those that don't fit anymore) and chatting the night away with Brandon. I'm sure he appreciated it since for the last few months I haven't been able to make it past 10:00.

We were nervous that they might ruin the surprise and tell us what we are having, but luckily they told us when not to look and we promised each other we wouldn't peek.

I have to be a little honest in saying that everything looked like jibberish at first, but once we could see the spine, heart, brain, feet, hands and profile, it was pretty awesome. He/she is growing right along schedule and as far as we can tell so far, everything looks great. Such a relief! It seems a lot more real now that we've been able to get a sneak peek. And I was right, all those little things I thought were kicks actually were. Now, I feel them much more often.

No more waiting for the golden ticket.

2011-09-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk from Saturday night was perfect. I could relate so much to it.

I loved the reminder that no one is perfect, despite how “perfect” someone’s life may look from the outside, or blogosphere for that matter. And that we can still be happy even if we don’t have the perfect hair style, wardrobe, car, or house. It is so easy to compare the best of someone else’s life to the worst of our own. Even though we blog about the happy things in our life (and what may appear to be a perfect life), we have our daily challenges that get us down and let me assure you, our life is far from perfect. I really admire those people who share what real life is for them. And I hope I can, too, be more open about our imperfect life, even though we are so, so happy.

I loved the advice he gave to not wait for the golden ticket. Wishing and waiting that life will be better when this happens or that happens is such a sad way of living. I get caught up in this mindset often and know that if I will just stop and enjoy the roses (or the fall leaves this time of year), I will be much happier because there really are so many things to be happy about!

Lastly, I loved the reminder that despite how dark our challenges may be, we can feel the love of the Lord through them. Lately, I’ve been missing my mom a lot. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I will soon be a mom myself. Or if it’s the realization that the person my mom was to me is who I will need to be for our little one. Or the fact that the holiday seasons are coming and she got so excited to decorate and celebrate. If she were here, we would probably be exchanging festive recipes and making crafts together. But thankfully, I have the blessing of having so many different ‘mom’ figures in my life. And extremely close sisters who fill that void.

I’m looking forward to this conference weekend for even more inspiration. And, I’m looking forward to starting some of our very own conference traditions. What traditions do you have?

Happy Birthday Marcelle!

2011-09-28T18:14:00.000-07:00

Marcelle is my friend. We met our Freshman year at BYU and I'm so happy that we are still such great friends 8 years later.

A few things I like about Marcelle:
1. Her style. I am so inspired from her artsy style. She is so creative.
2. Her loyalty. She is one of those friends that makes an effort to keep in touch.
3. Her love for adventure and travel.
4. That we would get together weekly to try new recipes, make crafts, explore SLC, or shop. I'm sad she moved away.

Today is her birthday. She is becoming quite the photographer and is doing a fun little giveaway on her blog with nothing but stylish and fun prizes. Check it out at marcellecalder.blogspot.com. I hope I win! And maybe you will too!

not the best pic of both of us, but the only recent one i have.

A tribute to my brother in-law!

2011-09-26T20:59:00.001-07:00

Justin is one of my best friends and so this, his day of birth, I decided to give him a shout out. Here are a few of Justin's redeeming qualities.

Justin is quite the family man. Even when you're far away (or he is far away) he'll be sure to stay in contact. I get more calls from Justin than any other person on my phone. I even have gotten a phone call from him every time he's been in Ghana. He hasn't even called Melissa from Ghana. He'll never forget you and he'll always know what you're up to because he cares.
He is the best person to talk to about business ideas. Even though we'll never go into business together cause we're family we always can bounce ideas off each other and think about things that we would have never thought of on our own.
He has the cutest kids EVER! (Until mine comes along. Actually Melissa and I are quite worried because our nieces and nephews on both sides have set the bar extremely high) Here's an excellent example of what i mean. Emmeline the BYU Cougar fan!
Justin is always trying to change the world for the better, even if it is only one fish at a time. I'm always impressed with his perseverance.
When he and Marley get together, I CANNOT STOP LAUGHING. They aren't even trying to be funny but when we play Risk, Monopoly or they start wrestling they are the two funniest people in the world because they are in their own little world. It's going to be so different when Michael leaves on his mission.

I could go on and on but the thing I like the most is that he never ceases to surprise me. I make fun of him all of the time for being such a baby when it comes to spiders etc. For example, when Justin sees this:

He looks like this

It's really good that Katie is around in these types of situations. But while we were up at a cabin in Bear Lake Justin amazed me with one of his skills. You have to see it to believe it.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Justin! Hope all is going well in Ghana and we can't wait for you to get home!

20 weeks

2011-09-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

I'm officially HALF way!

-This week, we'll have our big ultrasound. Even though we aren't finding out the gender, I'm so stinkin' excited to finally see them!
-I think I've started to feel the baby kick. Of course, I have no idea what this feels like, so I could be wrong. But, I hope I'm not.
-We've started de-junking and cleaning out the office that will become the baby's room. We'll keep things pretty neutral for now. I am still kicking myself that I didn't buy these prints in Paris last year:

I think they would be so cute in a baby/kid's room. I love the vibrant colors. If you are going to Paris anytime soon, will you let me know? I will hire you to get these for me!

-We found this bookshelf for $5 at a garage sale that will go in the baby's room. We painted it seal gray and I love how it turned out. I especially love the few picture books we already have for Baby Sunday.

-I'm still feeling great! No weird cravings (yet), still have the energy to run, and so happy to have a little baby bump!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

2011-09-22T21:55:00.001-07:00

We admit. We bought a lemon. Despite how fun our life was sharing a car 6 months ago, it was getting too complicated. We looked and looked and finally found a car (a Rav4) that was in our price range and that would last us forever. Or so we thought. Had we known it would be a lemon, we wouldn’t have bought it. But we didn’t, so we excitedly became a 2-car family. It had its perks…I could drive to work, pick up furniture projects and run errands. The flexibility was great. But as for the car, it was terrible! It had non-stop problems starting 3 days after we bought it.

The dealer wouldn’t do anything, so every few weeks, we dumped money into it thinking (and hoping) that once we fixed that, all of our problems would be gone. And then a few weeks later, we would do the same thing. Mechanic after mechanic could not pinpoint the exact problem and so we continually dumped money into the money-sucking car without any improved functionality.

There didn’t seem to be an end, so we decided to finally just trade it in and get whatever we could out of it. Yes, we lost some money. Yes, we learned a lot of lessons. And yes, we are back to being a 1-car family until we find a good, quality car that can be in the family for a long time. It is such a relief to have it gone, but I have to say that car shopping does not bring out the best in our relationship. Trying to find the perfect car can be so exhausting and stressful!

But for now, we’ll enjoy (?) the extra hour we get in the car with each other as we take turns dropping each other off at work and then commuting to the opposite end of the valley for our own jobs.

The lemon itself that caused us so much stress...

Coach Sunday

2011-09-21T19:20:00.000-07:00

Brandon has always wanted to coach soccer. His best friend Tadd asked him to coach with him and there was no turning that down! They coach 12-year old boys. It's fun to see him in action--even if their team doesn't win every game.

The Raspberry Inn

2011-09-20T19:40:00.000-07:00

After we went to the State Fair a few weekends ago, we stayed at the quaintest little bed and breakfast. Actually, it was my dad's house. I called him to see if we could spend the night since we had to be in Kaysville early on Saturday morning. Little did I know we were going to get the royal treatment.

We found this note and cookies on our bed when we arrived:

And the next morning he got up early to make us this delectable breakfast:

I think my festiveness came from my mother and father.

1/2 Birthday

2011-09-19T20:13:00.001-07:00

It was Brandon's 1/2 birthday on Sunday. I set an email reminder months ago so I wouldn't forget. He has been so cute to me lately (post on that later) and so I figured the least I could do was throw a little party for him. Plus, we've had a lot of young couples move into the ward lately that we've been wanting to do something with. So I combined the two for a 1/2 birthday party.

Brandon had no clue it was his half birthday. I wasn't sure how I would get him out of the house or how in the world I would make a cake without him knowing. Tell me white lies are okay in these situations? {Insert white lie #1.} I told him I was going visiting teaching. While he was taking a nap, I packed all the ingredients for a cake and put them in a cooler and hid them in the trunk. Instead of going visiting teaching, I went to my neighbors and baked the cake.

The same neighbor's husband is Brandon's home teaching companion. I schemed with him to have them go home teaching to get him out of the house. The funny thing is the couple they were home teaching were invited and kept trying to get Brandon to finish up because they knew a party was waiting.Needless to say, it all turned out perfectly. He was completely surprised, as was obvious with the look on his face when he opened the door:

To celebrate, he got 1/2 a cake, 1/2 a card, 1/2 the presents, and 1/2 working party hats.

We chatted and played games. I think it was a success! And it was so fun getting to know some of the other young couples in our ward.

the Eves

the Jones

the Adams + Austin

Baby Q&A

2011-09-16T14:26:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for being so excited for us! We are thrilled. We've been getting a lot of questions, so I thought I'd answer them here for all.

Q. How far along are you?
A. 19 weeks (almost half way--yay!)

Q. Are you going to find out the gender?
A. No, we love surprises so are going to wait!

Q. Have you been sick?
A. Isn't everyone sick at some point? I never threw up, but I had my fair share of nausea. I'm over that now though- thank goodness!

Q. Have you craved anything?
A. Not really. Except potatoes in all forms and cheese have tasted extra good the last few months.

Q. Do you have names picked out?

A. We have a few ideas, but we won't be revealing them :)

Now some questions for all of you...what advice do you have for us as we prepare for this awesome adventure?

Sunday Update

2011-09-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

...and we can't wait!!

State Fair

2011-09-10T13:47:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to go to the State Fair. And I've always wanted to go in a dress (just like the State Fair musical). This year we accomplished the first part of my goal (but someday, I'll go in a dress. But maybe I would need to go out of state for that).

funnel cakes. yum!

i prefer warm kettle corn.

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-09T07:16:00.000-07:00

Another weekend is already here, but before I get too far behind, a brief recap of our Labor Day weekend: movie + pizza night, real soccer game, byu football game, road trip to afton, wyoming for colton's blessing, a visit to the star valley cheese factory and bbq with new couple in our ward. whew! It makes me exhausted just thinking about it.

Help Alleviate Poverty

2011-08-30T21:42:00.000-07:00

I am usually not one to solicit help on this little blog of ours, but this is a very worthy cause and deserves to be mentioned here.

My older brother just graduated from the BYU MBA program and over the course of the last year, has been working on a new company that aims to alleviate poverty in rural Africa.Tilapiana works with rural entrepreneurs in Africa to provide them with the training, resources, and skills necessary to successfully run and manage their own fish farms. These African entrepreneurs are able to address the significant fish shortage that exists, as well as pull themselves and their families from poverty.

Tilapiana was recently featured in an international fish farming publication as an up-and-coming player in the fish farming industry in Africa. Tilapiana is ready to launch their pilot in Africa buts needs your help in raising $7500 to do so.

Between Saturday August 27 and Tuesday September 6, Tilapiana will be featured on the Tipping Bucket (www.tippingbucket.org) as their featured partner. The Tipping Bucket is an online platform that uses crowd sourcing to fund innovative projects that seek to change the world. Visitors to the site have the opportunity to donate (as little as a dollar, but hopefully more) to help fund the current project. If the funding goal is reached within the allotted time, then the donations gets processed and the partner organization receives the funds and moves forward with the project. If the funding goal is not met, then none of the donations are processed and the next project gets its turn on the site. Hence the tagline of "Change the World Or Your Money Back."

I invite and encourage you to vist the Tipping Bucket website (www.tippingbucket.org) to learn more about the Tilapiana project and to make a one-time donation using the Tipping Bucket platform. 100% of your donation will be used for the pilot in Ghana. In addition, your donation is tax deductible as the Tipping Bucket is a registered 501(c)3 organization.

Regardless of whether you make a donation, please help get the word out and get others to visit the TIpping Bucket website. Update your Facebook status, sent out a tweet, call all your friends, or send out a message via carrier pigeon. Whatever the method, please help get the word out.

For those who may work for an organization that matches your donations, this may be a great opportunity to increase the amount of your impact. For those who run their own organizations or in a financial position to do so, please consider making a matching grant to the total amount of funding that is raised over the next week. For me details or to learn about corporate sponsorship opportunities, please send an email to contact@tilapiana.com

Finally, if you would like to receive periodic updates on Tilapiana's progress, please click here and join their mailing list.

Once again, thank you for your support and I hope you will consider helping Tilapiana alleviate poverty in Africa.

3 years

2011-08-23T22:15:00.045-07:00

Our 3 year anniversary celebration was simple, yet sweet.
We are planning to take a little getaway in the Fall, but I am adamant about celebrating things on the actual day. So I planned a few simple things to make the day special. (Knowing I shouldn't even try to come close to what he planned last year). The day ended up being perfect. Besides the fact that we had to work, it was fun to be relaxing and hanging out every other minute.

I made banana-chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and had Jack Johnson's "Banana Pancakes" song playing in the background. This was a favorite thing of ours while we were dating. Brandon had left a surprise note and gift on the table for me.

And what do you know? We found that the rocks on our porch had magically transformed into this romantic design.

We received a gift card from a family in our ward as a thank you for teaching their son in primary. So, we used it to eat at Macaroni Grill. We had practically the whole place to ourselves and a very authentic Italian waiter, might I add. We have never taken so long to eat before. It was so nice to not be in a hurry. We talked about our goals for the upcoming year. And Brandon decided to tell me all the things he loves about me. What a lucky girl I am.

We have always loved shopping together, but we don't get to do it much anymore. I made sure that was part of the agenda. We weren't looking for anything in particular, but we found a few good bargains and loved just browsing Ross and Target together.

We finished off the night by watching our wedding video. It's crazy to think how far we've come since our wedding day. I'm so glad we chose each other. He really is my best friend.

Before & After: Yellow Desk

2011-08-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Remember this desk that I found off KSL for free?

It sat in our garage for a few weeks while we wrapped up our table and took a break from projects.

We finally picked out a color and worked like busy little bees on Saturday.

Now it sits happily in our little apartment.

And it makes us happy just looking at it.

Bear Lake: Part 2

2011-08-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

When we weren't at the beach, we were

getting into trouble

soaking up our time with the new nephews

watching Joseph at the Pickleville Playhouse

eating dutch oven and other gourmet meals on the "veranda"

and playing games, taking pictures, going on morning runs, playing soccer, and napping.

10 Best Things about the Beach

2011-08-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

The water was extremely high this year at Bear Lake, but we were still able to have some beach days at the North Beach. Miles of soft sand and clear water made it perfect. So perfect we spent nearly 2 full days there. I didn't want to lug my nice camera around, so all these photos are courtesy of Em and my Dad. (PS-does anyone know why pictures are blurry in blogger now?) And now, the 10 best things about the beach...

10. Water Football and Frisbee

9. Being buried in the sand. (This is one of Brandon's favorite things! And all the nearby kids even joined in!)

waking up after a short nap buried

8. Getting to wear beach skirts and dresses


Just so happened that all the girls brought them!

6. Swimming (and maybe skinny-dipping, did I really just admit that?) in the clear blue water

5. Chilling on the beach (and that includes eating yummy beach food)

4.Splashing with the babies

3. Being water cheerleaders. It's harder than it looks. It took me 3 tries and 4 people to get up!

2. Sand Castle Building. Brandon always does an immaculate job and I do a good job supervising. :)

1. Getting to hang out with these people all day long!

the whole clan

Marley is 19! Fiesta in the House

2011-08-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

My little, but taller brother turned 19 today! Emily planned a fun little party for all of us which was held at our place. Sadly, Brandon isn't in any of these pictures, but he was there. The theme was Fiesta! We ate Cafe Rio and the rest is shown in the pictures...

A fiesta is not complete without mustaches!

Grandpa Max and Dad

the birthday boy breaking open the pinata

all the party people including aunt marilyn, aunt ruth and grandpa max

One of My Favorite Places

2011-08-16T21:17:00.001-07:00

Three years ago today I went through the Bountiful Temple for the first time.

How grateful I am for that day and all the times I've been able to go back.

I love the peace that comes from visiting the Temple

and I am so grateful for all that I've learned so far about life and true happiness.

My Family (minus Sarah)

2011-08-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

We just had the best weekend at Bear Lake together.

More about our weekend this week...

Now Taking Reservations...

2011-08-08T19:35:00.001-07:00

Our dining table is finally complete! We would love to have you over for dinner since we finally have a table big enough to fit food AND plates.

It started out like this...

Some of the tops of the chairs were broken,

but handyman Brandon fixed them up all nice.

We sanded off just a thin layer of the shiny stuff. Then painting, painting, painting! We are very happy with the finished project. I don't know where else you could get a table and chairs like this for a grand total of $40!! (And that is including tables, chairs and paint!)

Summer Updates

2011-08-04T21:26:00.001-07:00

Brandon already alluded to the fact that I haven't been blogging as much lately.
It's true.
My excuse is that I started a new job.
And it's FULL TIME.
I am still trying to get used to working every day, but so far, so good.
It's a nice change and fun to do something that is more challenging.
I love the people I work with.
I love that I can go to the Temple on my lunch breaks.
I love that the gym is right across the street.
I love that we have company breakfasts every Friday.
I even kind of love that I have to dress up every day. Have I told you that I love wearing skirts?

So even though the house isn't as clean and organized
and dinner isn't always gourmet, it is a nice change.
I've been trying to use the crockpot more
and other easy-to-do-ahead meals. Any good recipes?

Any other free time lately has been spent working on our table, websites, guest books, playing tennis, and working out. Our table is almost done! Here is a sneak peek...

Religious Tolerance

2011-08-03T22:58:00.000-07:00

I know all of you are thinking "Wow, what's going on? Melissa hasn't posted in a bit and Brandon has posted twice? Crazy." Yep it is crazy but today I came across a blog (I promise I don't blog hop it was a link in the newspaper) that really touched me. You can read about it here.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/projectconversion/

It's a blog that covers "Project Conversion" which is a man who every month out of this year has lived a different religion. Last month he was as he says "an honorary member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" and this month he is practicing Islam. He has been a Buddhist, Catholic, Jew, etc.

It is extremely interesting about how open he is to new ideas and the level of religious tolerance he displayed. As you read you can definitely tell that he isn't a member of the LDS faith and looking at my religion through his eyes was a faith building experience.

A few of my favorite excerpts without going into too much detail so you can read it yourself is his experiences learning about the pioneers and the sacrifices they made and poses the question to us all if we would be willing to die for our religion. He also shares his experiences with the missionaries and how he was initially annoyed because it seemed like all the cared about was "cutting another notch in their baptism belt" but that when a young inarticulate missionary bore his testimony it struck him with such power that he opened up to them in a spiritual way that he had never experienced. He even shared some of his favorite quotes from General Authorities that inspired him. He closes his posts telling the missionaries to work hard and that he will miss being with the members of the church.

Anyway, if you have time, browse through it. I found it very interesting (his take on all of the religions, not just ours) and resolved to more tolerant of other religions.

The best calling in the church

2011-08-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

My parents taught me a very important lesson since I was very young. Never turn down an assignment or calling from a church leader. Sunday morning I almost did just that. Melissa and I have been in the primary teaching 4 and 5 year olds for a year and a half. I have never enjoyed a calling more thoroughly than I have of being a teacher in the primary. It may have been tough for Melissa from time to time to keep all of us in control but I am grateful for the opportunity I've had to serve with her. Sunday morning I had an interview with a member of the bishopric and they called me to serve as the secretary of the YM presidency. My first thought literally was to say no because I wanted to stay with our cute little class. I accepted of course and am excited for my new calling (especially because I get to coach the YM in sports) but will truly miss "the best calling in the church!"

Here is a picture of our last day of class in primary.

- Melissa, Caroline, Ashley, and Cougar*. Not pictured Brandon, Will, and Ainsley -

(Our lesson was about how Heavenly Father and Jesus love children from all over the world. Hence the costumes.)

*Cougar is the world's coolest kid. I think we were best friends in the pre-existence.

Inspiration

2011-07-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

We recently went to an outdoor concert with Jon Schmidt as the main performer. Although he was great, my favorite part of the show was hearing Steven Sharp Nelson play the cello. I have always loved string instruments, but I've decided that the cello is my all-time favorite. It is so inspiring to listen to!I could listen to it all day long. My favorite piece of his is "The Cello Song." If you want to be inspired, you should definitely watch this! If I didn't have so many other things going on, I think I would start lessons tomorrow!

Baby Boys

2011-07-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

What a busy and fun week it's been! One of my favorite parts of the week was meeting my best friend's new little baby boy, Emmitt. She asked me to do a little photo shoot of him. We couldn't get him to fall asleep (I'm still in awe at how people get those perfect and peaceful little newborn shots), but we still got a few good ones! And now, we can't wait to meet Colton, our newest nephew that was born just a few days ago.

Saturday Sundae Party

2011-07-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Our primary kids worked really hard to earn a Sundae party at the Sundays. We made giant sundaes and had lots of fun playing with water balloons and the hose.

Ashley and Caroline

Will and Ainsley

Cougar succeeded in getting Brandon soaked!

As If I Need Another Project

2011-07-15T15:53:00.001-07:00

We are already in over our heads redoing a dining table and chairs.

But, when I saw this FREE on KSL, I couldn't resist.

I'm thinking of doing it a fun color. Any suggestions?

Jimmermania...The fun just won't stop

2011-07-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Just wanted you to know that during church last week we had a baby blessing. And you guessed it a new family in our ward named their baby boy Max "Jimmer" Young. I liked the touch that their last name was Young. It fit real nice with BYU and the legend.

Don't be surprised if Jimmer doesn't top the list of "Most Popular Boy's Names" in a couple of years.

Before & After

2011-07-11T13:06:00.000-07:00

It's funny to see styles and my tastes change. I used to love reds and tans. Now, I LOVE pops of color, white, and crisp, clean lines.

When we first moved to Salt Lake, our bedroom looked like this:

blah and boring

Then it changed to this. A little more color, but still way too much tan.

Now, it looks like this. I'm loving all the color!

Our 3 Hour Camping Trip

2011-07-09T12:48:00.008-07:00

I got the spontaneous idea to go camping for the weekend. It sounded like the perfect way to get out of the summer heat, break our routine, and put some of our camping gear to use that we always say we are going to use. While Brandon was at work, I got everything ready and loaded up the car. I was so on top of things that I even decided to precook the tin foil dinners so all we would have to do is reheat them when we got there. And I made muffins for a quick and easy breakfast. In my mind, it was going to be perfect. Ha! It was far from that. Here are a few things we learned.

1. Campgrounds fill up fast on the weekends. But...even if it says "campground full", you might get lucky and find an empty spot. That is...until someone kicks you out. Hence... our 3 hour camping trip.

2. Make sure to check the box of matches. I had packed a box, but didn't realize there were only 10 left. We refer to our campfire as "The Miracle of the Last Match." No joke, every single match blew out. On our final attempt, we were able to get enough started to keep it going.

3. Particle board does not make good firewood. End of statement.

4. Apparently, I didn't precook the dinners long enough. Let's just say, they were the worst tin foil dinners we have ever eaten. But you know what they say that everything tastes better when your camping. At least the atmosphere helped, too!

So, we learned a few things. We'll chalk this up for a a good trial run. And next time, we will be more prepared and actually stay the night.

The Fourth

2011-07-05T21:30:00.000-07:00

Backyard Neighborhood Concert + BBQ + Water Parade + Fireworks

We LOVE the 4th!

the coolest neighbors in the world

The Twenty-Six Club

2011-07-03T18:38:00.001-07:00

It's official. I am part of the 26 club and I can already tell its going to be good. Brandon surprised me the whole day with lots of fun things to celebrate my new membership. It started off with a surprise breakfast in the fridge. Brandon had to go to work early. Since he knows how much I love sleeping in, he left it in the fridge for when I woke up. (I'm talking about the muffins, not the pickles :)

I enjoyed a lazy day off by working out, reading lots of emails, facebook messages, and birthday cards. I was spoiled with all the kind messages!

I had strict instructions to meet Brandon at his work in the afternoon. He had packed all of our swimming stuff on his own for an afternoon at the pool.

Then he took me to the the Mandarin, my favorite Chinese restaurant. I got sung to and Brandon gave me a super awesome coupon book. That means more adventures this year...

The last surprise of the day was having mud pie with some of my family. Did I ever tell you that I have sparklers on my cake instead of candles? Yeah, it's super fun.

B had also packed all of our stuff for a giant sleepover and party on Saturday with J+K+fam and Marley. Fun day. I like being 26.

Mrs. Powell's Was the Place

2011-06-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

for a perfect little reunion in Idaho Falls.

More than eating delicious cinnamon rolls, we loved seeing Hyrum, Kristin, and Blaine.

Lava Land

2011-06-24T07:26:00.000-07:00

While we were in Oregon, we visited Lava Land, part of the Newberry National Volcano Monument. It was fun hiking through all the lava fields. The best part though was seeing the view from Lava Butte.

the Salmons, Wilsons, Taylors, and Sundays

the caldera of the volcano

Over the Weekend

2011-06-22T19:50:00.001-07:00

We just got back from

We went there to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa Wilson's 60th wedding anniversary!

We rode beach cruisers, went on walks, hung out at the pool, played games, ate gourmet food,
and caught up with all the cousins that we don't get to see very often.

washers

tetherball

we got the fish-themed room. can you tell?

On Our Walk Tonight

2011-06-18T23:07:00.002-07:00

We are here in Oregon which explains why we were about 5 feet from this deer on our walk tonight. We are loving the fresh mountain air and being with extended family.

Farewell S+M+T

2011-06-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

Our good friends are moving to Arizona and we are sure going to miss them! We are so excited for their new adventure and can't wait to hear all about it.

We threw a little surprise farewell party for them. Most of the party details will be over at So Festive, but here are some pictures of the night.

This was right after a riveting game of bocce. We will have to have a rematch when they come back to visit.

We'll miss you!

It's Friday, Friday and Looking Forward to the Weekend

2011-06-10T08:55:00.001-07:00

My coworkers like to send each other random youtube clips. This is the newest one that has been floating around the office. And, since today is Friday, it's very appropriate.

You'll never look at Fridays the same.

And just in case you want another version of it, watch this.

We are excited it's Friday and almost the weekend. We're looking forward to:

grilled pizza + first day at the pool.

What are you excited for?

(And happy birthday to Em!)

Brugge

2011-06-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

Back in 2006, I visited Brugge, Belgium. I felt like I had been sucked into a storybook. Really, the cobblestone streets, cute little cottages, and boats on the canals made it seem like a fairy tale. I didn't realize places like that still existed. In addition to all the charm, I ate the BEST waffles and fries I have ever tasted.

The happy news is that there is a little piece of Brugge right here in Salt Lake City. B and I visited it for our date night. In fact, it is called Bruge's. A belgian man started this charming little waffle and fry shop. And as far as I can remember, it tastes pretty authentic. Mmmm. It's a good thing we don't live too close to it.

the Creme Fraiche was amazing.

Ferris Wheels and Carousels

2011-06-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

We got to spend an afternoon at Lagoon. My company rented out the entire park which meant no lines or crowds. It was a great way to escape "adulthood" for a while and feel like kids again.