Baby Nursery

Over Christmas Break, Anthony and I are going to clean out the room that will soon be a nursery.. As of now, it is our study/office, which is translation for piles of books, scrapbook paper, our desks, and A LOT of books.

I am so excited to start planning the nursery. Back when I though the baby was a boy, I decided I wanted the colors Grey, Mustard Yellow, and Cream so it could be gender neutral. Now that is it a girl... I want it to be girly. Double standard I guess.

I started crochenit a blanket with a chevron pattern. I used the grey theme colors, and it is getting so cute. The pattern is here: http://www.caron.com/projects/ss/ss2_zigzag_baby_blanket.html

I am really excited, but I think I want the colors to bright and girlish.

We will see. I have a bunch of print outs so hopefully I will pick it soon.

Week 20... and feeling GREAT.

(Click to make larger)

I am almost 21 weeks (tomorrow) but I have been so sick that today was the first day since last week I actually put clothes on... I am glad that is OVER. I came home from work on Friday morning with a terrible cold. Being pregnant and sick is the WORST. I can only take Tylenol... What does Tylenol do for a cold?? Nothing. It got so bad, that on Sunday we went to InstaCare and they gave me some nasal spray and today... Voila.. I feel so much better! I am going to work tomorrow and I will be so thankful for my health.

Today, Anthony and I started picking out colors for the nursery. I am going to try my crafty hand and making everything. So here goes nothing. I will let you know my success and failure as it comes.

Updates on La la la LIFE

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone. I can't believe I have been teaching for almost 4 months already... and yet how slowly that has seemed to pass..

For Thanksgiving this year, Anthony chose to go to my Grandma Mary's house. (I have a monopoly on every Christmas Eve, so A gets to choose Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.) Dinner was divine. My grandma has some award winning apple pie... Anthony says I should learn how to make it, but there is no way to compare my cooking to her cooking.

My aunt Jill was in town with her 2 daughters and husband all the way from OREGON. We never see them. Last time I saw them was at my wedding, and I think it totaled 3 minutes.. so it was fun.

After my grandma's, we went and visited Anthony's Grandma Brown. She is an amazing cook as well. Anthony made all the rolls for their dinner the day before. I thought they were great, but his family is large connoisseurs of food, and apparently they weren't up to par. So he is going to make them for our Christmas Eve party... practice practice practice.

We set up our Christmas tree and I LOVE it.

Our house feels so cozy and warm.

and the BIG NEWS...

Anthony got accepted to Cornell for his MBA/MHA degree. We are super excited. We are still waiting for other acceptances, but this is my #1... besides the U of U for Medical School... the U doesn't send out their acceptances until March, so we might have to decide on Cornell before then. Tough decisions... I think New York would be so fun. It is about 2 hours away from Manhattan. It is in Ithaca, NY, which is BEAUTIFUL. Green and lush.

I only have 3 weeks until Christmas Break... yes, Thanksgiving break is over today, but I am ready for the next one! I think after Christmas, the baby is going to come soooo soon! I am READY.. mentally.. so far we only have JEGGINGS. yes, I got her jeggings. They are adorable.

Anthony's brother, Chris, and S.I.L., Ashley, had their baby girl on the 18th.

Evelyn "Evie" Mae Brown.

She is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen.

Full head of hair and her skin is the prettiest olive color.

It's a.....

We had our ultra sound appointment today. Everything is looking great. We saw the FEET, SPINE, BRAIN, HANDS, HEART, KIDNEY'S, LEGS, ARMS... and can I say... my baby has the cutest bum in the world?!

I am only 18.5 weeks right now so I was really nervous they wouldn't be able to tell what gender our little babe is... but they could and
it is a GIRL!

We were so sure it was a boy... at least I was. But we are very happy it is a girl. Her feet were tucked on her bum, like child's pose in yoga, so it took a good 20 minutes to find the right angle... sure enough there is nothing between the legs. hee hee.

We forgot to bring a c.d. so we can't upload the pictures. and I am not going to buy anything until my next doctor's appointment because I am still apprehensive that it could turn into a boy... but for now we call the lil babe a SHE.

We are so excited. My mom and grandma Pat came with us to the ultrasound so it was really fun. We have picked out a name, but will keep it a secret for a bit longer :)

16 Weeks

I feel like I should be documenting this pregnancy better since I am terrible at keeping my scrapbook up to date.

I have decided to keep a baby journal. I saw this idea on somebody's blog and thought it was cute. I will probably do it every 3-4 weeks.. unless I get bored and do it more often.

Happy HaLLoweeN

I hope you all had a very wonderful Halloween weekend. We sure had fun. We went to a few Halloween Parties, carved pumpkins, watched all of our scary/halloween movies, and Anthony ate yummy junk food since it makes me sick.

These are the costumes we made. They took FOREVER, but they were fun.
I have a baby in my belly and we put milk and cookies in Anthony's belly.

Ps.. I am now 16 weeks. We get to find out what the little babe is in 3 weeks! EEK!

Making room for the little babe

I have this habit of wanting new cars.

Some people say I trade my cars in like I traded boyfriends in... (before Anthony of course... silly.) Even if there is nothing wrong with them, I want something better... (Nothing is better than Anthony.)

I just get bored. I get it from my momma... The car thing, not the boyfriend thing.

Well, we bought my Toyota Yaris when we first got married in 2009 and I wrecked it about one month later (almost totaled)...

I LOVE that car. It gets about 36-42 miles per gallon. It is super attractive, reliable, and just great.

Isn't it so cute?!

Well, about a month ago somebody backed into me in a parking lot and it was damaged again. We figured that it would be really hard to ever get what we owe on it if we kept it for much longer. Trading it in was the best option and it is hard to trade in older cars.

Well, it is a good thing we decided to trade in because a carseat doesn't fit in the backseat... yes it is that small...

So we researched a lot of SUV/Crossover cars. We picked the Jeep Patriot. I love it, too. I feel MUCH safer in it and it is HUGE. Sometimes it looks like a lifted station wagon.. haha. It has less miles and will be big enough for our "oh, so growing family." Plus, it is all leather which makes for easier clean up with a little one.

Downside is the gas mileage. Boo...

Plus.. Anthony feel much more manly in this than the Yaris. haha.

Cravings

Well, I never wanted this to turn into the type of blog where the pregnant lady only talks about being pregnant... but there is NOTHING else going on at the moment.

I can finally eat some normal foods now. For 2 months I only ate saltines, fruit, water (LOTS AND LOTS), and gatorade.

I always crave these weird foods and then I get them and either don't want them or they make me very sick. What is weird is that I want things that I have never even liked before:

1. Sour Patch Kids gummies... I hate all gummy candy, yet I can't get enough of these!
2. White bread... I normally hate white bread, but it is the only bread I like.
3. I normally live off cereal... It makes me sick every day. I think I am becoming lactose intolerant. Yogurt also makes me sick.
4. Chips and Salsa... AMAZING. I have always loved these though.
5. Nectarines. Delish.
6. Green Powerade. I love this stuff.

Since I am nausiated all the time, I think about food ALL the time.
I can never eat it, but I want it because I am starving.Being nausious and starving sucks.
I can only eat very small amounts of food before I start feeling sick, but I am still hungry. AHH.. the madness.
So far... at 14 weeks I have lost 10 pounds. Why couldn't this happen when I tired diets?!
I haven't lost any for the past 2 weeks though. I think the main part is that I don't drink PEPSI anymore. I was addicted and the thought of it has absolutely no appeal to me at all. One positive thing. I guess being pregnant will break me of that habit.

Anyways... we have a doctors appointment on the 2nd and then the NEXT one we find out what it is.EEK!
Am I getting ahead of myself?
I am so nervous.
If it is a girl we already have the name picked out, but as for a boy there is still some debate.
Anthony has had his name picked out since.. forever.
But I find cute boy names everyday!

I also feel like I should be getting something ready for this little one, but I don't know where to start. I feel like I can't do anything until I know what it is, and even then, I can't buy anything until after baby showers.
Any advice?

Coming Soon... Baby Brown

I literally can't wait any longer.
It is true. We (meaing Marche) are pregnant!
13 weeks and 1 day to be exact.

Due date: April 19, 2011

(The actual due date is April 17, my birthday, but baby is measuring 2 days smaller so we say the 19th.... how they can tell 2 days apart is strange...)

I thought I had to make it official on the blog since Facebook has lied to you oh so many times.

We found out on August 26. I just decided to randomly take a test one morning... and VOILA.
POSITIVE.

I think I almost peed my pants...
I had always thought Anthony would know before I did because he keeps track of that kind of stuff....
Business major vs. English major.
The whole keeping track of things is his department.

I couldn't wait to tell him... and everyone.
Can you believe I kept it secret this long?

Anyways...
I went to work at Park's Sportsman and was DYING with anticipation to tell him.
(I get physically sick waiting for Christmas... this is so much better!)

I decided I would surprise him and take him out to dinner.
We have a favorite restaurant, Cocolito's, we go to about once every 2 months so I thought it was about time!
I told him I was taking him out for a "Back to School" dinner.
(Whatever that is...)

I bought 2 BYU onesies and a binky. Put them in a bag and off we went. (I put my PEE sticks in there too... to legitamize it.)

It was unbearable waiting for the chips and salsa... I didn't want to give him the bag when the waitress would interupt.

Finally it came!

He looks kind of weird... but I think he knew what was happening.

Does he look freaked out yet?!

And there we go!
We are going to be a mom and dad.
I have never felt so blessed in my life.

We thought it would take a long time to get pregnant... but anyways. I'm not going there.

My boss, Rick, was actually the first one to find out (besides Anthony) because I was so sick and drinking so much water I had to pee every 20 minutes.

We told our parents pretty much 2 days after we found out. I had to tell somebody! (I was only 6 weeks at the time... my dad said to call him back when it was real... bigger. haha.)

Yep... Nicole and Russell are going to be grandparents. Young grandparents. All my grandparents are young and I love it.

Pat, Mary, Jerry, and Morgan and going to be GREAT grandparents.
Genille is going to be a GREAT GREAT grandparent.
This babe is the first grandchild, great grandchild, and great great grandchild.


Sickness... TERRIBLE. I don't throw up, but I am nausiated all days. almost for 2 months straight now.
I am gradually starting to feel a lot better.
I lived off gatorade and saltines for about a month. Oh and all fruit.
Fruit is good.

The future Anthony...

This is actually Parker, the newest grandchild on Anthony's side.
A-freaking-dorable.

Cecret Lake Field Trip

Yesterday, I took all my 7th graders (yes all 70 of them) on a field trip up Albion Basin by Alta. We did a 4 mile hike to Cecret Lake! It was beautiful. I am so lucky I had Anthony go with me to help push me up the mountain! It wasn't too bad, even though I have felt like CRAP lately. I had enough energy to keep up with them and we had a great time. Only one student fell in the lake and he didn't really mind. I would have taken more pictures, but I didn't know if it was illegal to take pictures of students, so I just opted out.

We had about 7 parents volunteer to come and 4 teachers. I have been stressing about it for about a month and I have no clue what I was stressed about. It was awesome. The kids loved it and it was a free day out of the classroom.

We are reading Call of the Wild by Jack London, so that was the reason for the field trip. Get them into the wild and exploring! I don't think they understood that concept, but it was fun none the less.

I am SOOOOO sore today. My sides hurt and my thighs ACHE, but it was beautiful and I am so glad I went. It made me sad that we aren't going to be in Utah much longer and I haven't done any hiking in Utah.

The Belated Chicago Post

Well, we got back from Chicago exactly one month ago! So here is our trip mostly in pictures!

On the drive... Nebraska is FLAT. I can see logic in the 1600's theories.

Chicago Temple

The coolest house!

The Home Alone House

My first train ride.

Chi Town

The library

Subway

My first trip to H&M.. wasn't impressed

Largest T-Rex at the Field Museum

The Man-Eating Lions

On the beach... okay not really

On the Sky Deck: Willis Tower (old Sear's Tower)

203 stories up! a little scary

U-571

At the Chicago Art museum

Anthony and his homeboy

The BEan

Marilyn

Nauvoo

St. Louis

Hippo!

At the FREE St. Louis Zoo

I thought I was going to die of heat.

On the way home... Still flat.

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