The year in review...

January - Jason returned to school for his second semester of classes. We also decided it was about time to get some new furniture for our apartment to help with organizing. We got to experience the Sunday Film Festival and saw a movie that neither of us cared for. Definitely and interesting experience...unfortunately I can't say that we ever really saw any celebrities. I finally got my drivers license changed to my new name after a year and half.

February - Super Bowl Sunday we went over Daniel and Kali's and pigged out on lots of great food and watched the game. We also got to babysit Maeli while Brittany and Clay went out for their anniversary (a few months late). She loved me....We also went to H&R Block to have our taxes done...unfortunately Maeli was already counted for so we couldn't get that tax break.

March - Met up with an old roommate and her fiance for the first time in 5 years. It wasn't as awkward as I thought it was going to be and we had a lot of fun hanging out at Olive Garden...after waiting for a table for over an hour.

April - Jason's classes ended for the Winter semester. Paid off a car. And the apartment search continued as we tried to find something that would be bigger and less expensive than we are living now.

May - Jason and I went to a Renaissance Fair and had a lot of fun. Of course, Jason had ended up spilling most of his lunch on his lap so we stopped off at Target and grabbed some new shorts (who knew that they had a Target back then). Jason's summer class started. And we received the best news in the world when we found out that we were expecting.

June - We finally decided it was time to declutter and get rid of some of the old furniture that we had in the apartment. My desk and dresser had been water damaged a few years ago, so we went out and purchased a new desk from Ikea. Had our first doctors visit that confirmed that everything was going well with the pregnancy.

July - Had our second check up and finally got to hear the babies heart beat.

August - Birthdays, we didn't really do anything for our birthday's this year we didn't even make a cake or anything. We were just saving up our money for new expenses yet to come. Jason's fall semester began at the end of the month and we finally were able to find out that we were having a baby boy! Also finally went out and bought some maternity clothes, which was an interesting experience. Got to hang out with Kevin, Nicole, Noah, and Abbie while they were out and have a good game of wiffle ball.

September - Had a picnic on Labor Day (unfortunately it was too cold outside to stay for very long). Went to California for Jason's brother's wedding, got to walk along the beach and feel the cool breeze. It was a quick trip but we had a lot of fun. Bought a new bookcase to help store all of the books I had lying in different parts of the house.

October - Finally put together our wedding photo album. Jason built a changing table, I was very much impressed with his skill. Went to the ward trunk or treat in the pouring down rain. I didn't stay long because I didn't bring enough candy for everyone like I thought.

November - Celebrated our two year anniversary by going to Olive Garden and watching a movie. Also had to do the glucose testing which was interesting but not as bad as expected. We also stayed home for Thanksgiving and made our own turkey, thanks to Alton Brown for teaching us the proper way. Went out for black Friday and purchased a few things that we needed, getting up at 4am was amazing and we had such a good time just being together.

December - We bought a crib that was easy to set up. Jason's classes ended for the semester and he got decent grades. His car had some issues which I was able to take care of while he was at work. We did get to go to California for Christmas this year and we actually had a vacation that was longer than 3 days, which was nice. We decided to forgo gifts for each other and just focus on saving money for Braydon. New Years we had Brittany, Clay, and Maeli over for the annual new years party.

Quick Update

I haven't had much time to update within the last month so I'll work on writing up what we've been up to but I wanted to share some pictures with all of you.

I came home from work on our anniversary and saw these sitting on the counter. He knows I love Gerber Daisies!


We tried our hand at making our own turkey for Thanksgiving...I think we did a pretty good job. And a picture of Jason carving the turkey.
Here is my Christmas Ornament Wreath I made, I don't have a hot glue gun yet but when I do I can fill in some of those wholes and make sure that they ornament isn't going to fall off the hanger.
And of course, our most important purchase during the Thanksgiving weekend. We ordered our crib online on Thanksgiving night and got the mattress for free and shipping for $1.00, needless to say we felt pretty good about it. Now all we have to get is some sheets and we'll be good to go on that front.


And for the final picture, do not attempt to adjust your computer monitor. Yes, I really am this large at the moment. My belly button is starting pop out but only part way so Jason calls it a half moon.

Jason's Handywork

We finally finished it!!! Our changing table that we've been working on for the past month. Jason did some great handyman work.

**Disclaimer: Jason wants it known that the stain on the top portion turned out a lot lighter than it said on the can...and we are far too cheap to try something else. Before

After

Halloween Time...

Everything out here in Midvale is going well. We've been keeping busy with work and Jason has been staying busy with school as well. We had our 25 week check up and was told that the baby was doing well. The heart beat has slowed down a bit which the doctor said is normal with the growing that he's doing. He's definitely an active baby, he's kicking all the time and last night Jason really got to feel him do some cartwheels. It's pretty amazing to think that in a couple of months I will be a mom to a baby boy. Here is the latest belly picture...enjoy!


I went down to Provo yesterday evening to bring Brittany her sewing machine back and to take advantage of the free food that she and Clay offered. Brittany took my to the Kid to Kid down there and there are a lot more choices in regards to cribs and strollers and everything. I bought a car seat with the base for only $23 and then a few baby shirts for $1.99. I was pretty impressed with the pricing and hope that maybe I can go back another time and find some more great finds... Here is a picture of the car seat, I think Jason was impressed with the price.This morning Jason and I woke up and headed over to a new donut shop...ok, it's not new but it's new to us. It's delicious and it was packed full of people. It's a self serve sort of a thing so you had to try and beat people to the ones that you liked. Another thing that we did today is take a look at another apartment. We actually went down to the office to renew our lease and said that we wanted to resign for another six months and she asked us what it would take for us to stay longer. Jason asked about a two bedroom apartment and both Jason and I laughed when he said it but she looked at us and said that they do have a two bedroom, and she can take us to it right now if we liked. It's not too far, just on the other side of Heather St. One flight of stairs (added bonus right now), parking in the back, quiet neighborhood, two bedrooms, new carpet, fresh paint, new blinds, shower rod sits higher (Jason loves that part), and dining room area, all utilities paid except for electricity and cable, rent is $710/month for the two bedroom and we are paying $650 right now. Now there are a few downsides to this as well. Rent is $710/month, no cable, smaller kitchen (it has quite a few cupboards above the counters but not a whole lot beneath), no walk in closet, no balcony or storage unit, or washer or dryer hook ups. They do have a laundry on-site in the back of the building. We told the landlady that we'd like to think about it so she'll give us until Monday to decide whether or not we want to go for it. Our biggest issue is the space we'll lose in the kitchen and the no outside storage but we might be able to get better organized and store things in the babies room. I'm looking into selling my papasan chair (sigh) to make more space for everything. I'll let you know what we decide.

Our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat this evening and since Jason was at work I decided to represent the family and stand out in the rain to pass out candy to trick or treaters. Luckily the gentleman next to me offered the use of his umbrella since I couldn't use my trunk the way other people were (I should have taken Jason's car). I ran out of candy rather quickly since I wasn't expecting that many people, I figured it would just be our ward. I didn't take into account everyone inviting their neighbors or grand kids to come around and I think I got swindled by a few who made the rounds more than once. I left rather quickly once I ran out of candy, I didn't want any of the kids to start throwing anything at me. Now I'm home trying to warm up with a donut and some hot chocolate before Jason comes home from work and we can have dinner. I'm breaking tradition for Halloween and having tuna casserole for dinner rather than pigs in a blanket and tater tots.

A Slow Weekend...

This week I have been uploading photos to Wal-Mart to finally get developed after 2 years. I figured it was about time I actually filled up our photo album and some of the picture frames that we have. Now our issue is where to put the frames. I think we'll just do some rearranging of the ones currently on the walls and see what happens. Another thing that we have done is finally cleaned up a lot of the clutter around the bedroom which will help when we finally buy a crib. And Jason has built a changing table topper for one of the dressers, he gets really into it. I love my man! He even has a blister on his thumb and on the palm of his hand to show that he is a handyman. Jason had to work yesterday and he has to work today, but we were able to get in the annual conference breakfast before he had to take off. We did Blueberry Muffins, Bacon, and Hash Browns...delicious! Other than that we haven't done a whole lot this weekend. I'm sure I'll post a picture once I have things set up around the house. It's interesting, I've heard from two people this week who are expecting boys. Ours is still kicking quite a bit which confirms to that everything is still going well. I'll write more later.

It just flies by...

The summer went by so fast this year that I think I already forgot most of it. Jason had one summer class that he took that was over in about 3 weeks, he passed the class and now he is done with his generals and ready to start on the fun stuff. He started classes again on August 25 and so far he has been enjoying at least one of them. One of his teachers goes off on tangents which doesn’t allow him to really learn the materials he needs. Unfortunately he has this teacher for three of his classes and then the other class that this teacher isn’t involved in Jason is enjoying that one much more. He’s home a lot more right now because of his school schedule/work schedule. I get to see him in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and then he’s gone at work in the evenings on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It’s not fantastic but it’s not horrible either, he at least had yesterday (Sunday) off so it was nice being able to sit with him in church and hang out with him all day.

Every summer there are certain things that you would like to do like go on a picnic, visit historical sites, visit with family, go camping, play some wiffle ball, and go camping. I’d like to tell you that amazingly we did do some of these things. We went on a picnic for Labor Day, we packed up our stuff and headed to a local park and spread out the blanket and ate our delicious meal. However, it quickly turned too cold to be outside for too long so our picnic lasted about half an hour. We visited with family, my parents came out in July and then we went and visited Jason’s parents in September. Kevin and Nicole and Noah came out in August so it’s been fun to be able to see almost everyone (Jordan & Christina we’ll have to visit with you soon). The camping part didn’t happen this summer; we do have a tent but only one sleeping bag which we will have to remedy sometime in the future. We did go to the drive in theater which was a lot of fun; we’ve also gone to a Bee’s Baseball game. However, our most exciting thing we’ve been doing this summer is….preparing for our baby.

This summer we found out that we are expecting a baby. I had to take a couple of pregnancy tests in order to make sure that it was positive, however; a line is a line. During the first trimester I had nausea and everything but there was only one night where it got the best of me. I don’t know if I can look at French Dip Sandwiches the same way. There were foods I couldn’t bring myself to eat, anything with BBQ sauce, and foods that were just tempting like cookie dough. However, I’m proud to say that I have not succumbed to my cookie dough addiction. We are hoping that our baby boy will be healthy and strong and according to the ultrasounds he will be.

With a baby on the way we are trying to figure out how to accommodate all of our stuff and all of the baby’s stuff into a one bedroom apartment. We’ve tried to consolidate, Jason cleaned out all of the boxes I was saving for when we are going to move and took those down to the trash can in order to make more room for whatever we might need. We bought a new bookcase to try and get rid of the clutter behind the loveseat that I hope no one ever noticed. I can now fit all of my books into one place…until they start expanding again. Our latest adventure is trying to rearrange the bedroom to make room for a crib and changing table. We haven’t rearranged the room yet but I’m sure it will be coming soon, I’m getting too impatient. We went to Kid to Kid on Saturday to try and find something that we liked and we walked away with a changing table pad, our first purchase for the baby. Jason likes to wait for the sales or for January but I think I’ve talked him into finally buying a few things soon. We’ve been looking at crib/changing table combos to see if that would free up some more space in the bedroom. We have a dresser that isn’t in use that we could stick the changing pad on and then we can just get a crib. We’ll see what happens in the next few months. We’ve thought of moving several times but we can’t find anything within our budget that would allow me to feel safe while I am home alone. We'll see what happens.

My ever growing belly....

And my ever growing book collection.

Our new desk...

I think I've been telling Mom that I would post pictures of our new desk for about 2 weeks now and I kept forgetting about it. So, without further ado...here is our desk.

It's a little on the big side so we'll have to dismantle the top when we move but it has lots of storage and the white you see behind the monitor is actually white board so you can write on it with dry erase marker. Then the two white drawers on the left pull out to store paper and stuff and then storage shelves on the right. We also purchased these cool little magnetic holders that stick to the white board where we can put pens and pencils and headphones and stuff...One of the them is holding up the poster Jason stuck on there...I didn't take it down before taking the pictures because...well...I was lazy that morning.

I'll post another update this week...

Good Sirs and Ladies!

This weekend has been a lot of fun! Jason has had Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and today off so we've been able to enjoy each other's company. Thursday we went to the temple and out for ice cream afterwards. Friday we went to see Robin Hood in the theater. And the crowning glory was our day Saturday, we decided we wanted to go to a Renaissance Fair. We got a late start because we were up late playing a computer game that Jason found on the internet. So we headed out around 11:00..ish and planned on stopping off to get something for lunch, well Jason ended up wearing a little bit of it on his shorts so we had to stop off at Target to pick up some Tide-to-go and new shorts and a belt. And then we realized we were almost out of gas so we had to stop off and get that too. It's amazing what happens when you don't follow your wife's directions, I like to think I have a pretty good internal compass but I've come to find out it doesn't really work if you tell someone to turn after it's too late. We got lost, we lost sight of the freeway and instead of turning around to get on the freeway Jason wanted to keep going straight to follow the freeway on side streets, but we we eventually realized it wasn't the freeway. We ended up on Legacy Parkway but we didn't know that at the time, we thought we had passes our exit but alas we came across a sign that told us which way to I-15. We finally made it to our destination at Millcreek Hollow and I was glad that I wore my tennis shoes and that it was warm enough you didn't need a jacket. We got into the Renaissance Fair and started walking around, I was amazed how many people that weren't a part of it dressed up in full garb none the less. We saw Robin Hood, Three Musketeers, the Royal Family, Friars, Pirates, Italian Renaissance ladies, Gypsies, Peasants, Knights, Fairies (the pointy eared ones) and Elves...yes, I thought that one was odd too. They had a lot of shops for you to browse through with clever names, puppet shows, bands that played music from the time, magicians, pirate ships and shows, fire dancers, a food court (Yes, they did have turkey legs, $8 a leg) gypsy dancing, and best of all...jousting. And as usual Jason and I thought that there would be more shade than they offered and we hadn't even gotten our sunscreen out of the closet yet, so now we are suffering from our first burn of the year, I think Jason got it worst than I did. The one souvenir we decided to pick up were...foam swords, I won't let Jason have any real ones. After we saw the jousting tournament we decided it was time to leave and eat Mexican food. Today will just be a day to relax and hope the redness on these burns go away before tomorrow.

Jason in a fetching new hat, he wanted the silver shirt behind him too.

I realize now that this is the King and Queen coming towards us.

I ran into Captain Jack Sparrow.

My hoodlum...he looks too happy to be in there.

A pirate juggling swords

And jousting...

We're Very Much Alive

To all those who are wondering, we are still alive. The past couple of months haven't been too exciting with Jason in school and both of us working full times jobs. It's amazing that we are able to see each other during my lunch break almost every day and after he gets home from work. His classes are done for now but he has a summer class that will start May 17th, but it is only for a month. We paid off my car with our tax return, since mine had the least amount left. Now all of our leftover money will go towards Jason's car and then we will be debt free.

We've been debating with moving to a different apartment, one that has washer and dryer hook ups and a little bit more space. We looked at one called The Springs of Country Woods. It looks like it would fit our needs, especially if Jason might be transferred to the Midvale Famous Footwear store, it's right across the street. We'll see how the next couple of months go, we renewed our lease for three months which will keep us in this apartment at least until the end of July, it will be easier to move when Jason isn't in school. We'll keep you all posted!

In other news, tomorrow is Mother's Day so I just wanted to say Thank You to our Mom's, Grandma's, Aunts, Sisters, and Sisters-in-law and Friends (who are mothers) and we hope that you have a great day!

Super Bowl and the Sundance Kids

The past couple of weeks have been pretty exciting to say the least. We had the opportunity to attend the Sundance Film Festival, stand in lines at the DMV, make goodies for THE Super Bowl party, and spend lots of time together.

My boss at Express decided that she would give everyone a ticket to see a movie at Sundance and she’d also give us the day off as long as we didn’t take the same day off. We got tickets to see a movie called “The Dry Land” and so I got Thursday off, trying to match it up with Jason’s school schedule. We decided that we would try that morning to go to the DMV to finally get my name changed on my drivers license. It has taken so long because I work the same hours as the DMV and it’s impossible to get everything done before I start work at 8am. So we got down to the DMV on my day off at about 8am, license. So we had to turn around and head back to the apartment, after waiting in traffic for 15 minutes we made it back and luckily I knew where my passport was.. And we promptly turned back around and headed back to the DMV. This time they let me through and I figured that was a good sign. Since we were there to change my name I didn’t think that I would need to wait that long but no, we were sitting down waiting for our number to be called and finally after about an hour we got to talk to someone. During this time I was worried because our address had changed from the time before and I didn’t think I had anything valid in my wallet to say what our new address was. Luckily, the girl behind the counter took pity on me and accepted a letter I had from the Social Security office and the envelope mom sent our marriage certificate in as proof of address. We finally got out of there by about 10:20.

We decided we would go to IHOP that morning and that made up for all the standing around (Thanks Mom and Dad Poetschlag). Since we had all of our marriage certificate stuff we decided to go to our banks and get that situation straightened out. I think the only thing left I need to switch over is my passport but who knows how often we’ll be going out of the country in the next 7 years, so until then I’ll keep it as is.

That afternoon we headed out to Park City for the Film Festival, it was cold but a lot of fun. We walked up and down Main Street hoping to see a celebrity or two but I think everyone was so bundled up you couldn’t tell who they were. The movie we were scheduled to watch was called “The Dry Land” and I heard from others at work that saw it that they liked it, the only bad part we were told about was they show a slaughtering of a cow, they actually show it and it’s quite gruesome. The movie was…umm…interesting. It’s about an Afghanistan Vet who comes home and it’s about the post traumatic stress he experiences. The movie also contains lots of “F” words, rape, sex, and female and male nudity. As you can tell according to Hollywood those make a great movie and apparently the audience we were with didn’t have any issues with it. Jason and I pretty much kept our focus on the people in front of us rather then on the movie at some parts. Oh well, the best part was the Q&A session at the end of the movie where the director and some of the actors get up on the stage and answer some of your questions. Overall, the experience was good the movie not so much.

We decided that we would hang out with Daniel and Kali and their family for the Super Bowl this year and with that we wanted to bring some treats. After debating for a bit we came up with Sugar Cookies (Football shaped) and potato skins. I’ve got to tell you that they turned out really well. Here are pictures of our creations…I was quite impressed with our capabilities.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve in my family was always a big deal; we’d have an amazing dinner by candlelight and have Mannheim Steamroller playing softly in the background. Once dinner was over we’d clean up and grab our scriptures and head out to the living room where we would read the story of Christ’s birth. And then when we were younger each of the kids opened one present most likely pajamas to sleep in that night or when we were older we would open a family game to play that night. Then we would top off the night with a Christmas movie. This has always been a cherished memory of mine.
This past Christmas when we visited with my family in Oregon, things were a little more exciting than usual simply because of the three nieces and one nephew, and having the whole family together after three long years. Our Christmas Eve sort of followed the same structure but this year we went to the Stephenson’s to play the chimes and then home for the amazing meal Mom had prepared. Once we were done with dinner we gathered in the living room for the Christmas story but this time there were some twists, the girls wanted to act it out. Here is a cast of characters

Mary...................Tia
Joseph & Donkey........Jordan
Baby Jesus.............Maeli
The Angel..............Hayley
Innkeeper..............Jason
King Herrod............Clay
Narrator...............Dad

And since these videos are too massive to post on blogger, here are some links.





There is one more but I'll have to add that when I get home from work tonight.

DI Drive

This past weekend our ward had a DI Drive, and we found it to be a perfect opportunity to make our apartment look like it was well taken care of. We went through our closets and drawers and found clothes that we haven’t worn in over a year, we also found some appliances that we had ruined but still kept in a drawer in the kitchen. I even have a dresser that we should have taken to the DI but I forgot about it until we had already dropped our stuff off. This one DI Drive caused us to go through almost the entire house and get rid of things we no longer use or need, we had hampers full of stuff from when we first moved in that we finally went through. Now our apartment looks clean…at least until tomorrow. Another reason why we wanted to clean up the apartment was to make room for our new piece of furniture. We decided that we had too many dvd's and they didn't all fit in the DVD case that we had so we purchased one of these stands and thought we calculated enough but no, we couldn't fit all of them in there so we had to go back for a second one. Now, after organizing here is the finished product.




And I think he's cute while doing his homework so here's a quick picture of Jason doing Math.