A Progression

Since I found out I was pregnant, every four weeks I have been taking belly pictures. I have enjoyed watching and feeling my body change (well.... sort of...). Here's my current line-up:

Still not much to show for being over half-way there (23 weeks today!), but I certainly feel larger. People are usually surprised when I tell them how far along I am. Most people had no idea until I announced it via Facebook when we found out the gender. Doc says it will be obvious to the whole world by 24 weeks. It's been obvious to me since 12 weeks, when some shirts and pants were put into hibernation for a while!

Little baby girl is moving around a LOT lately. So much, in fact, that a few nights ago I dreamt that she managed to stick her entire leg out of my stomach. It was rather freaky so I shoved it back in. Then she stuck out her head. She had dark curly hair and glasses and was not very cute. So I shoved that back in, too. :) Ryan can feel her kicking and rolling around, and I love that he is able to share that wonderful feeling with me.

The #1 most common question I have gotten so far: "How are you feeling?" I feel great, thanks for asking!! Seriously though, there is not much I can complain about with this pregnancy thus far. Morning sickness has been minimal and easily tamed by food. Mood swings have been pretty much nonexistent, and yes, Ryan realizes he is blessed for that. I haven't felt completely exhausted hardly at all, and have actually been able to keep up with exercising 5 days a week. I think the only thing I really don't like is how much I have to go pee! I am sure that will change in the next 4 months, but I am not anticipating anything completely awful (knock on wood!).

I cannot wait to meet this little girl!

Peoria

Last week I traveled to Peoria, IL, with my sister and mom to visit my other sister and her family for a week. It was a 14-hour drive to get there, but it wasn't as bad as I was afraid it might be. I did, however, get to experience some lovely swollen ankles and feet from sitting for so long. 

We did lots of fun things while we were there! We made Oatmeal Scotchies... and Crystal showed us her totally impressive baking skills!!

The three sisters all wore the same shirt (that we bought separately). Crystal and I wore ours on the same day, but we wanted to take a picture of us all matching, so Holly put hers on too. This was taken after a 5-hour shopping and dinner outing. It was SO fun! Probably one of the biggest highlights of the whole vacation for me.

 We went to Wal-Mart! The girls both got a new toy from Nana (my mom) and we picked up some groceries.

We played outside! It was surprisingly not humid for the majority of our stay. One day we got out the slip 'n slide and watched the girls play for about an hour. It was fun to see them get so ridiculously excited about something.

We played on my iPhone and iPad! Brielle and Aislynn both very much enjoyed getting to play with electronic gadgets. After a while, I had to start suggesting that we use our imaginations to have fun instead.

We sat around being cute! Aislynn woke me up on this particular morning by jumping on my air mattress. It was startling, but cute. :) Then she put her little doll to sleep in an oh-so-fluffy Kleenex bed.

We went to Monkey Joe's! Monkey Joe's is a fun place with lots of bouncy things and slides. Apparently my age and size were not the only things restricting me from getting to play, too.

We made banana bread! We found a recipe similar to my mom's (which is totally delicious), and were pleased to find out that it was quite yummy! Brielle and Aislynn thoroughly enjoyed getting to eat a little of the batter.

We went to Steak 'n Shake! This restaurant is all over the Midwest, and since I was the only one of the group who had never gone, we decided to make a stop there for dinner one night. I had a scrumptious burger and then shared a Mint Cookies 'n Cream shake with the two littlest girls. I even got to wear a totally awesome hat!

And then, it was the last night there. It came so quickly!

Thanks for letting us crash at your pad for a week, Brendon and Crystal and family! It was so much fun to spend time with all of you, and I hope we get to see each other again sooner rather than later!

The Order of Things

Ryan and Chantal, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

First comes love...

June 10, 2010

Second comes marriage...

August 14, 2010

Third comes a baby (girl!) in a baby carriage!

~ December 15, 2012

This, that, and the other

In the past little while we (Ryan) have been busy getting the backyard landscaped. It is coming along nicely! We have five cute trees planted (2 maples, 2 aspens, and a spruce). The sprinkler system is FINALLY installed. And as luck would have it, there was a ginormous downpour of rain the same day that Ryan filled the trenches back in, so they have sufficiently settled. Thank goodness they were filled in... otherwise I would have cried for him.

We watched some pretty awesome fireworks on July 3rd. Yes, the third. Our little town does it a day early in an attempt to get a good turnout. I don't think they were disappointed this year, as many surrounding areas had their fireworks cancelled due to the massive amounts of fire in Colorado this summer. I was really quite impressed by the whole shebang - they had food booths, bouncy castles, a climbing wall, and several other fun things to do before the fireworks. Granted the fireworks didn't even start until 10 PM because of wind and that wind was not particularly warm. But Ryan and I had our little camping chairs and cards and we had a good time! 

We saw the new Spiderman movie. It was a fantastic movie, especially compared to the previously made Spidermans. Spidermen? Anyway, I certainly recommend that one. I do not, however, recommend ordering nachos from Rock Bottom Brewery, unless you like really crispy cheese.


We had people over for dinner. Not that this is necessarily a new thing, but I was really really excited about the food we ate (the company was good too; it was a couple of friends/coworkers of Ryan's). A monthish ago after a temple trip with my parents we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I ordered their Chicken Bellagio, and I was not disappointed. Ryan was even jealous, and that never happens! Then one day on Pinterest I came across the recipe. And it is the legit recipe, straight off of the Cheesecake Factory website. The dish has pasta in a basil oil sauce, topped with a little Parmesan cream sauce AKA alfredo, then breaded chicken, prosciutto, and arugula. It was so beautiful. I also served homemade breadtwists from fabulesslyfrugal.com and broccoli with toasted almonds. 

For dessert I made a bundt cake that is a copycat of a Nothing Bundt Cake that I found on favfamilyrecipes.com. I was originally planning on whipping up a box of brownies due to the more involved-ness of the Chicken Bellagio, but Ryan quickly requested the bundt cake, and how can I turn him down? He was happily surprised when he saw I had decided to make it after all, which made it all worth it. 

We went to a Rockies game. We played the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was pretty good, and our seats weren't too bad either! Front row! (Thanks, Dad!) We got rained on pretty much the whole game, but thankfully we were prepared with our rain jackets and tarp and we left relatively dry and warm. I can't speak for any of the other people we were with, but the rain didn't dampen Ryan's and my experience! We got to eat yummy Monster Chicken Nachos and Polish sausage and hang out with my family. It was really quite fun. Unfortunately the game was delayed at the top of the 9th inning with two outs before the potential end of the game. We were ahead by 3, so we decided to just leave since it was pretty late and the rain didn't seem to be letting up anyway. The Rockies ended up winning! 

It has been a great summer so far, and I have a feeling it is only going to get better!!

The Girls Went Camping

This past February/March I was called to be an Assistant Camp Director for the young women at church. I suppose I "had it coming" because I kept talking about how much I enjoy being outside and nature and such. I accepted the calling, but found myself a little worried that I would enjoy it. You see, when I attended girl's camp as a youth it wasn't the most amazing experience of my life. Sure, I had fun, but I didn't LOVE it by any means.

This time was different though. I took part in planning the whole thing for our ward. Crafts, campfire dinner, and handouts. It was fun to see the girls get excited about the Happy Pills (Skittles) I put in their mail slots, or watch them enjoy the campfire biscuit pizza and s'mores cones that we made for dinner the first night. 

We were blessed with ZERO mosquitoes. Which was pretty awesome because apparently last year there were just swarms of them everywhere. The weather was not hot (in fact, it was quite chilly - I wore my coat or sweatshirt the entire time), and our particular campsite was right next to the bathrooms. That was pretty awesome! :) The food was good and all of the activities planned were fun or wonderfully spiritual. I actually haven't felt the Spirit as strongly as I did at the firesides or testimony meetings for a long time. I suppose that is a downfall of having a million primary kids in our ward.

I really enjoyed getting to know the young women as well as the leaders in our ward/stake. I think we all had a lot of fun. And I gotta say, I wouldn't be totally opposed to the idea of going again in the future.

Here are some pictures of the adventures the girls had! As a leader, I found myself to be much more of a bystander, which I was perfectly fine with. 

Our campsite. Our name was Camp Los Fuegos

Some of the girls got this teeter totter thing completely balanced!

Archery

Volleyball

Rifle range

This little dude was a stinker. We had our garbage bag tied to a plank of the table. He hung down by his back legs and dropped in, then chewed himself out! It was pretty funny and cute.

We got a pinata for ward night

And ate dessert nachos - churro chips, chocolate and caramel syrup, and marshmallows

Canoeing (this was 8:30 in the morning! It was not warm!)

Part of the low ropes course

We had a fire ban so the last night we had a propane fire to sit around during Bishop's Night