NICKEL CITY

Last Saturday we headed down to Orem to celebrate Seth's brother Jordan's birthday.  Our first stop was Nickel City...funny story the last time I was at a nickel arcade in Orem/Provo was on a date in college...at least I thought it was a date...it is a good thing I stuck an emergency five in my pocket on the way out he door...when we got to the arcade my "date" decided we were going dutch.  Let's just say this trip to the arcade was much more enjoyable.  

After the arcade we shared a yummy BBQ dinner.  Seth was a little hungry after skipping lunch...and had to sample the beans.

Jordan was sweet enough to BBQ his own birthday dinner.  We brought down a few racks of ribs and he did the rest of the work.  We loved spending the day with family doing some of our favorite things.  Happy Birthday Jordan!

[sel-uh-breyt]

Last Tuesday Seth came home with the exciting news of a job offer.  The company he has been doing contract work for since November was able to offer him a job.  We pulled out a bottle of sparkling grape juice to celebrate.  I can't even put into words how proud I am of him.  He worked incredibly hard during graduate school, searched tirelessly for a job and now all of his hard work has paid off.  Congratulations SETH!

February RECAP

February = Birthdays.  For those of you who don't know...I was born on my Dad's birthday.  My parents spoiled us with dinner at The Mandarin the night before our birthday and lunch at our favorite BBQ joint the day of our birthday.  We also shared a marzipan cake at family dinner.  It was the first time in several years that we had been together on our birthday and it was nice to have someone to blow out the candles with.  Seth had no help with his candles later in the month.  I made him a yummy Snickers cake.

We spent quite a few nights at the Stake Center for Ward Basketball...it is hard to believe that by this time next year I will be trying to keep our little boy from nose diving off of the stage.

We did a little house sitting at my parents...it is really dog sitting...but it came with quite a bit of snow.

I attended the Utah Augmentative Communication Conference in Provo at the end of the month.  The last time I was able to attend was four years ago...wow life has done a serious 180 in that time.  I loved running into many of my graduate school friends and also loved learning more about my profession.

We also met two of the sweetest little angels this month.  Our friends the Newbold's welcomed their little Chloe to the world on February 10th and my best friend Amy and her husband welcomed Zoey to the word on the February 14th.  Last weekend we dropped a freezer meal off to both families and got to hold their little angels.

Skeletor

This photo above is from our most recent ultrasound this past Monday.  It appears I am growing a mini-Skeletor.  Can you see the resemblance?

For the most parts ultrasounds have turned into ink blot tests for me...the doctor points out a body part and I can't really see what she sees...well this little skull was quite obvious.  I think our son may be one of the most photographed babies still in the womb.  I have had an ultrasound at almost every appointment I have gone to.  At my 21 week appointment my amniotic fluids were looking low again and my doctor asked me to double or triple my water intake.  For the next week I managed to guzzle down 180 ounces of H20 a day...(gallon and a half).  I was very relieved to hear at my next appointment that all of that water hadn't just gone down the toilet...and my amniotic fluid levels were back in the average range.  Thank you all for your prayers...Seth, Skeletor and I appreciate them all!

Winter Wonderland

Friday morning I woke up to a phone call informing me that school was cancelled due to the snow.  It was the first time in the last thirteen years that school has been cancelled in the district I am employed by.  I was very grateful I didn't have to brave the weather to make it to work.  The snow had started to come down on Thursday just as school was getting out and it took me twice as long as normal to make it home.  I was content to spend a day at home in my pajamas lounging around.  It was nice that Seth received a text that he could work from home.

I wanted to show a few of my friends in South Carolina what a snow day in Utah looks like.  The two pictures below were taken on Friday evening.  The snow was literally up to our knees in places.  We decided to brave the weather and walked several blocks to pick up a movie.  We joked about how if it ever snowed in South Carolina like this...school would be cancelled for a month.

Saturday we met up with our friends Matt, Beth and Philip for a snowshoe hike up to Ensign Peak.  The trail was fairly packed...which I was grateful for on the way up hill.

The view from the top was AMAZING!  So nice to see all of the gunk cleared out of the valley.

We continued on our trek up to the Bonneville Shoreline trail.

We encountered several herds of deer along the way.

This was by far my favorite part of our trip...the powder was fresh and nearly up to our knees.  It was fun to run downhill in this section.  FYI...the Camelback was a good idea in theory...it was only 16 degrees outside and it froze very early on in the trip.

As we came out near City Creek Canyon we entered this beautiful Winter Wonderland.  It was absolutely magical and reminded me of a picture book or a scene from a movie.  I apologize for the weird lighting...it was pretty dark by this point and the only light in the picture is that reflecting off the snow.

Gender Reveal

We found out on New Years Eve that we are having a little BOY!!!  I went in for my third ultrasound to check on low amniotic fluid...and found out the great news that my amniotic fluid levels are doing much better...most likely due to drinking a ridiculous amount of water over the break. While we were there the doctor asked if we wanted to know what we were having.  The doctor was about to say it was a girl...and then paused and said wait a minute...after a little adjusting and poking our little one showed himself.  

That night we had dinner with our good friends and tried to reveal the gender of our little one in a fun way, with balloons...but our attempt failed.  Both the blue and pink balloons inflated...even though I poked all sorts of holes in the pink balloon.  We were happy to share the news with them regardless of our failed fun reveal attempt.  The picture below was taken at midnight that night.  It is exciting to think that this will be the year that we welcome our son into the world.

After our next failed reveal attempt with my parents...we decided to try a new idea.  I made cupcakes for Sunday dinner and filled them with blue whipped cream.  I accidentally let the gender slip to my sister-in-laws in our pre-dinner conversation...but our nieces and nephews were sure surprised.

Mueller Park

The day after Christmas we headed up to Mueller Park in Bountiful for a little snowshoeing.  It was fun to be get out and enjoy the snow.  This trip inspired Seth to plan a trip from Mueller Park to Ensign Peak in Salt Lake.  I volunteered to be the driver on that trip.