Thoughts from Today

Today I was just reminded how short life can be. No one died. I just got some super sad news about a friend who is incredibly strong and has been battling for her life for a long time. She has persevered through all the up hill battles and has remained positive throughout the entire process, but her body is struggling to keep up with her spirit. She needs a miracle. I am sad. It makes me want to ensure that I am loving my family more, bring kinder to others, and living it up in anyway I can no matter what life throws at me. I am grateful for so much and hate to waste time being angry about stupid things at work I cannot control, which has pretty much been my week. But all that doesn't matter. What matters is how I chose to react and the relationships with the people around. Go, and give someone a hug today and do a good deed or something. Just remember why we are here and enjoy the journey.

A little story about ME

Look who is having a baby... Let me tell ya this girl does have talent, but I am also interested in her own personal philosophy of family and child bearing. I pretty much like to hear anyone's philosophy on those things. I like biographies for similar reasons. Why people made the choices they do and where they came from and where they are going sorta thing. I have my own story that I am sharing a little here and there.

Beyonce said in the following interview ,
"I feel like a woman. I feel like I'm very aware of who I am. I feel great and I feel like 30 is the ideal age [to start a family], because you're mature enough to know who you are and to have your boundaries and your standards, and not be afraid, too polite -- but you're young enough to be a young woman," she said. "I'm so looking forward to it."

I like her thinking. First off, I am not saying there is anything wrong with having kids before you are 30 or after you are 30. For me, I wanted to have at least one child before I was 30, I guess deep down I knew I would need that time to personal get ready. I am meeting my mark. I am 28 and will be 29 when our son is born.

Here is some of my story.

I was the youngest growing up so I didn't have a lot of exposure to babies and youngsters until I was older and was a nanny and then had nieces and nephews of my own. Honestly kids scared me!! When we first got married I knew I wanted to wait so I could get to know ME for a while and be married. I knew the kid thing would happen but I needed ME time and was a little scared and selfish all rolled together. Sounds like I was a bad Mormon or something, WRONG! God gave us choices and this was my/our choice. For the first few years we got a lot of grief and I think apart of that was because we lived in Utah and the culture there is so stiff when it comes to these kinds of things. One day a friend asked us if we were getting a divorce because we didn't have kids yet? WHAT the @#$@! (He was demoted on the friend list btw) People's happiness should never be measured by the amount of kids they have. Some people don't know other's circumstances. My Aunt gave us the best advice after we were married. She said, "Having kids is deep water, don't jump in unless you know how to swim." Not to be preachy, my blog deal with it, but she is right. It is a big commitment emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially. Yeah ya gotta have faith, but faith without works is dead and I preferred to have strong preparation for that step in my life. I needed to take my time with this decision and become more confident in my ability to mother as well as myself. I had fun too, I got a college degree, worked in the corporate environment for 5+ years, and got a great career started that I know I have options with should I chose to continue down that road.

For years I emotionally and spiritually was on a motherhood quest, but the health quest wasn't quite there until after this moment. Because of my invincibility I was a reckless dare devil. In my lifetime I have been in countless biking, tumbling accidents, and was even thrown out of a moving car, another blog post another time. I walked away from all of it without a scratch. It wasn't until I had my roller blading accident at the age of 26. I broke my broke my fingers and suddenly woke up a little and decided that maybe I should start being more cautious about my health and take care of it if I want to carry something in it. I also remember having an experience many many moons later with some friends. They are a wild and crazy bunch and often times they invite us to join them on their adventures. Lars and I went on this particular adventure that lasted into the wee hours in the night and it was a fun time. But it didn't have the edge it used too. SO after that moment I realized that we are growing out of that phase in our lives and ready for the next phase. Which logically meant a family. After more financial prep and prayer and blah blah blah we were for the most part getting on our way.

We knew waiting was a risk but we took that risk with a "come what may" attitude. I always knew that when we decided to start a family it would be perfect and things would just fall into place and it will be perfectly beautiful for us and our timing. Let me tell you, it has been. :) Preparing for this the last few years have been wonderful for us. Just wonderful and it keeps getting better and better. A long while ago when Lars and I were folding laundry together out of no where he says to me, "ya know, I love you so much we need to have kids." awe :) I am sure we could have had kids sooner or maybe even later. But now is awesome and well I really cannot imagine it being any other way for us. There are just so many little things that have happened that confirmed that this is the right time for us. It does have its tough moments, but the good absolutely out ways the bad and this whole process just strengthens my testimony about being a child of God and eternal families.

Sunday we watched Hook with some friends. Peter Pan, Robin Williams, needed a happy thought to fly and through all sorts of physically exercises and self searching he learned that his happy thought was that he was a Daddy. This too has become one of my happy thoughts that have gotten me through some of the crummiest days.

So Beyonce you spoke what I was feeling. Yes, I do feel like a woman. I love my body and I am also aware of who I am. I feel amazing and I also so look forward to this process and the new adventure that lies before me.

Muppet Monday

So I cannot review this quite yet because I haven't finished sampling it on Amazon just yet. All I can tell ya is I heard some samples on the radio and I wasn't entirely crazy about it. Maybe it is just the classic person in me or that the radio didn't choose the right songs to sample? Not sure. I should be sampling it later this week and then will have a review for ya. You can sample it on Amazon and share with me what your thoughts are?

BLOG CRAZE

For the next month I am going to be a crazy blogger. I have been given an assignment at work, receptionist for a whole month in addition to all my other fun admin duties. The only sad part is I won't be working from home during this assignment and also have to work during the office hours and won't be able to come early to leave early sorta thing :( But I do have some perks. Like having me a little break from running around other sites and less trips to downtown LA. Plus in between all my work I can get more goofing around accomplished. So reading your blogs, other books, and updating my blog will be apart of the task of goofing off. If you have any recommended blogs let me know.

I have a check list app on my phone because I love check lists. One of my check list is titled, "Things to Blog About". Seriously, through out my day I think of fun or silly things that would rock on this blog. I have a lot of weird thoughts and I plan on sharing them. Some are baby related and some are just about me and my life in general. One thing I have been wanting to blog about for months now has been my personal history. And a little bit about Lars too. I want to recount my entire life from start to present. Not just so you can have a good read but because this is like a journal for me and someday I will print it and put it in a nice book and hope that my kids will enjoy reading this in addition to all my journal books that I have kept since forever.

So be prepared for as long as this blogging mood is hitting me THERE WILL BE BLOGSSSS

Belly Bump Shots

I haven't been real good at being consistent with any belly shots. But here are some goof off camera shots I have taken with my camera phone. I love my belly, it is fun to rub and see grow. It is especially fun to find clothes that make my belly pop. When I wear loose clothes it isn't so obvious that I am pregnant and then the next day BAM! I look preggo.

Playing with my shadow

~16 weeks~

Red and white polka dot dress my mother wore at her sisters wedding as a bridesmaid


~16 weeks~

wearing my favorite AFI shirt


~17 weeks~

Probably my favorite belly shot to date

~18 weeks~

wearing another one of my Mother's dresses that she wore when she was my age.

I love wearing my Mother's old clothes, they are vintage and cute and they work with the belly.

Pickles and Ice Cream

When it has come to cravings lately the two most popular items for my belly that I cannot get enough of have been...

Blueberries in any form, muffins, pancakes, bagels, and especially yogurt.

AND

Rasins especially chocolate covered rasins.

Pickles are still gross and ice cream is still good but not having it as often as I used too.

Muppet Monday

So since we found out that we are having a boy this Muppet Monday is dedicated to Lars. Gonzo has always been his favorite character. And here is Gonzo has a Muppet Baby.

Lars is really good and doing Gonzo's voice too. Maybe we consider decorating the nursery with the Muppets, particularly Gonzo. Gonzo rocks because he is weird but has a huge imagination and is friends with chickens. The coolest thing about kids is their imagination. Something I hope to encourage our kids to grow.

A Dragon, a Unicorn, or a baby...

SO the last few weeks a lot of people have been asking me what we are having and recently the answer I have given them has been, "oh maybe a dragon, or a unicorn, but I guess a baby boy or girl could do."

Today we went to the doctor and found that we are having a boy!!!

As if the picture at the top didn't give it away.

He was seriously break dancing on his head the whole time. The ultrasound tech had me roll around and go on a walk around the hallway to see if I could move him so she could get better measurements of his head. When it came time to see what the sex was he wasn't shy and the first shot was the money shot but the tech checked a few times before saying anything to us, but Lars and I knew what those 3 dots meant. I felt surprised at first cause both of us have been having baby dreams with a little girl in them. But I guess that won't be just yet. I am very excited to have another cute guy around the house and look forward to just about everything we could possibly do together.

The tech also said that he is tall and that might move up our due date. I imagine he will be tall, blonde, and blue eyes. I would love it if he had Lars feet and skin tone, but my teeth.

We originally only had girl names and I wasn't sure we were going to be able to come up with any boy names. But, as has been this entire process, things have just fallen into place. Shortly after our doctor appointment we went to lunch and by the end had a boy name picked out. We are both Danish/Norwegian/Scandinavian so we want our kids names to be very unique. Right now this is the current favorite: Roan prononunced Row-uhn

I think it has a cool warrior/viking sound to it.

Here is the little guy holding his knees up.

He is trying to look at us here

His spine

Here he is looking at us, you can see his eye socket. I call this picture skeletor :)

T.G.I.F

I know it isn't Friday yet, but everyone should watch this video. It is hilarious and has a very 90's feel to it. It also has a ton of special guest stars, many of whom were most famous during the 90's. I won't tell you who they are, you will just have to watch it all the way to the end to find out. Plus this song is really fun and catchy and I cannot help but play the air saxophone anytime I hear it.
Enjoy and Happy Humb Day!

Archery Analogy

While I was at girls camp I helped supervise their archery activity by overseeing the girls while they received instruction and played archery. The next day I was asked to give a talk during morning exercises that tied in with our theme, the 13th Article of Faith. Through thought and prayer the following analogy came to me that I also shared in a sacrament talk recently and wanted to share on my blog as well.


Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from "arcus" (Latin). In archery there are three components, the target, the bow, and the arrow. On one end of the arrow there are three feathers, two of the feathers are the same color, these are called the Hens. The third feather is called the Rooster and it is a different color from the Hens. This is important because when you place the arrow on the bow and get ready to aim you must place the Rooster in a outward direction. Otherwise the Rooster feather will collide with the bow and throw your arrow off your target.

This can be likened until Life. Living with Christ again or eternal life is our target. When we do what is right, keep the commandments, are kind to others, etc. then we are keeping our Rooster feather in the right direction so our efforts will be aimed at our target and when we shoot the arrow we will hit the target. When we don't do those things then the Rooster is facing the wrong way and even if we think we are aimed at the target just right the arrow will dance away from the target because the Rooster feather collides with the bow.

Many of the girls had trouble pulling their arrows all the way back on their bows. Most of the time they were really hard to pull back, but would usually ease up when they reached the back. The bows were each unique and different depending on bow strength. They had some easy and really hard bows to use depending on their size and height. No matter what bow the girls chose almost all of them needed help pulling their arrow back into place before shooting it at the target. The camp sites teachers were a big help to girls in this regard. Many of them stood behind them and assisted with pulling the bows back while others kept the arrows on the bow while the girls pulled back.

This is likened unto life and the trials each of us face. We all try to stay on course and keep our arrow on target, but when it comes time to shoot the arrow we cannot do it alone. True, we can get help along the way from our parents, leaders, friends, and Bishopric. But the one person who is and will always be there to help is our Savior, Jesus Christ, through the atonement. He knows exactly what trials we are going through and if we turn to him and utilize the atonement in our own lives then he will be there to help us pull our arrows back and shoot to meet our aimed target. He loves us and will always be there, we just have to let him in.

I know that if we do our best to keep our Rooster in the right direction and rely heavily on the Lord for strength through trials then we can meet our target. He does so in my life countless times. I am very grateful for the atonement and the knowledge that I will live with him again and that families are forever. Amen.

Muppet Madness

So I was searching for a video to post and I googled "Muppet Madness" and this link appeared.

SEEEEEE

Along with this

How cool is that. SO I guess I have another new source of Muppet information.

A Wonderful Story

Many years ago in a land of Utahns lived a sweet girl with stringy blonde hair and goofy glasses. She was fun and had a zest for life. One day she was in a van full of friends on their way to play lazer tag. She was in the front seat and seated in the middle was a cute boy with shaggy blonde hair and a gorgeous smile and laugh.

On a dare said girl turned around to said boy and spoke, "Ya know what? I think you are cute!" Shaggy blonde boy then smiled his gorgeous smile and said something that stringy blonde hair girl never thought a boy as cute as him would say to her, "Yeah...I think you are cute too." Both of them smiled at each other and thus began a wonderful courtship.

Months later this goofy couple made their 1st best decision together and were married for time and all eternity on August 12, 2003 in the Mt. Timpanogous Temple. Many many years later this goofy couple made their 2nd best decision together and started growing their family. They had no idea the joy this decision would bring to their lives and wish they could express their exuberant gratitude and love they feel.

They now celebrate 8 years of blissful togetherness and have blossomed into a swan like

yet still a little goofy wonderful family. :)

V-Town

So last weekend we went up to Vallejo to have some fun and see our friends baby get blessed. While there we watched Zodiac. If you don't know anything about the movie let me at least tell you this. It is based on a true story about a serial killer and most of the killings took place in or around Vallejo. Yes we didn't watch it until dark and I did get scared especially when Lars wanted to drive to some of the locations after the movie. No we did not do that, but it was pretty cool to watch the movie in the same town and I recommend seeing the movie and maybe even reading the book.

Other fun things included but not limited to:

Making homemade ice cream everyday

Eating homemade ice cream everyday

Going on walks

Sleeping in

Playing with the kids

Keeping the kids from hurting themselves while they played

Keeping the husbands from hurting themselves while they played on the kids toys

We especially had fun making homemade ice cream that when Lars and I returned to Anaheim the first thing we did was buy our first ice cream maker. It is simple, just throw a recipe together and put it in the device. No rock salt or ice needed. It is perfect and we are having fun with it.

The guys chillin

Evelyn playing with bubbles. This girl was super cute. Last year she was shy, this year she made up for by hugging everyone over and over.

Family Love

Making a List and Checking it Twice

So I am working on getting a list of baby things to get before our little bundle comes. I am sure we don't need to have everything right away and can get some things afterwards. I am a list person and I have been feeling anxious about making some progress in this area so a list will help put my mind at ease.

Since this is my first I thought I would open the floor to your thoughts. If you know of any items that you found useful and can't live without or items that were a waste of time and money please do share.....

Cowboys and Aliens and The Muppets

I have been off the radar with all the Muppet Mondays. Honestly I am working on drafting a letter to a number of people that might be able to get me tickets to The Muppet Movie Premiere, which has been my latested obsession.

In the mean time there are other really good movies out that I would recommend. So in honor of

Please enjoy the above Muppet video.

I really liked Cowboys and Aliens because it truly was a Western. The acting and effects were good and the story was pretty cool too.

Plus watching Daniel Craig for 2+ hours is a good deal in my book. :)

But my favorite part was that is was actually a Western. People don't make those anymore, or they do but they add to much modern stuff that it isn't. This was a Western with some Aliens, but the main focus was the Western and the two main characters seeking redemption.

As LeVar Burton said, "But you don't have to take my word for it."

Go check out Cowboys and Aliens for yourselves.