We finally got our shutters painted and up on the house, it gives the house a lot more personality.  It breaks up all the blah beige.  It is hard to see it in the picture but we painted the front door the same color. Next up painting the baby's room.  We are just Do It Yourself fools.

I think the best sound in the world is the sound of Brad laughing whenever the baby kicks him.  I don't have any amazing thoughts about this new little one who will be joining our family, but it makes me so happy that Brad is excited and happy about the baby.  Of course it makes me giggle when I mention that on his days off Brad gets to watch the baby, and I get to see the look on his face.

I do have to say that I feel I truly won the husband lottery. This is the man who made it possible for me to not only survive the holidays in retail, while living through the first trimester of pregnancy.  I can honestly say that the only reason we had clean clothes to wear or clean dishes to eat off of is because Brad took care of it.  He is always doing wonderful things like that.  He heard me telling a friend about the Stampin'Up party I am hosting tomorrow, so today he took it up on himself to clean up the house so I wouldn't have to worry about it this evening.  The cherry on top was when he informed me that he thinks I am more beautiful now then when we got married.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I am so grateful that I can give our child such a thoughtful and caring parent.

Feeling very accomplished today!

I have finished one of my sewing projects that I decided to take on before the baby arrives. I realized this winter that I desperately needed to replace my bath robe that I made for myself about 11 years ago. It is literally falling apart. Well today I finished the replacement. Yeehaww! Once it gets washed a couple of times is should be sufficiently soft that I can get ride of the old one. Now on to the big project making the babies crib bedding. I have picked out the cutest fabric ever. Once I get the quilt top put together I will post a picture so you can all see. We have also picked out a color for our new shutters that we are putting up on the house. Next weekend will be painting day and then our house will not be so beige anymore.

If you are ever in cache valley and in need of a pedicure I can tell you the place to go. Serendipity is the best. But then again anywhere that will pamper my feet for a hour is pretty high on my list of awesome places. One of the perks of being pregnant is that my fingernails and toenails have taken on an amazing toughness. I have the best fingernails I have ever had in my life, the hormone swings may make for some interesting emotional states but they certainly provide some nice benefits.

Introducing Pepsi

Since I am 20 weeks pregnant I guess it is time to introduce the world to the new addition to our family. Since the doctor says the baby is approximately the size of a can of soda we have chosen the name Pepsi. So far everything is progressing normally, but I am glad those ultrasound techs can tell what is going on because for the most part it just looked like a whole bunch of light and dark blurs. We are so excited to welcome this munchkin to our family. My due date is July 26. So far I don't look pregnant I just look like I am getting chubby around the waist. I promise to post pictures as my waist band expands.

Final East Coast Trip update

On the last day of our East Coast trip Brad and I were able to spend a day in NYC. It was amazing, people everywhere, shops, restaurants, etc beyond imagining. We decided that since we were only going to be there for one night that we would go to see a Broadway show. We ended up getting tickets to "Phantom of the Opera". It was amazing of course, but the best part was when Brad commented to me as we were walking out of the theater "If we had more performances like that in Logan I would be willing to go to more musicals."
This is the view from our hotel room. We stayed in this nice hotel just a few blocks from Times Square. You can't see much detail but this is a design studio of some kind, our hotel was on the edge of the fashion district. They were still going strong at 1am when Brad and I got back from our broadway show, and the lights were all still off when we left the hotel at 11am. Definitely what you have always pictured as the late night NYC life.
Can't go to Times Square and not take a picture of the naked cowboy. Needless to say there was much rolling of eyes on Brad's part.
This is also from our hotel room window. The parking structure on the right has car elevators so that long term cars can be lifted up to take up less space. Evidently necessity is the mother of invention.
This parking garage is the same concept where the cars are up on lifts to create more space.
All ready for our big night out on the town. After the play we just wandered around downtown, it is true NYC never really sleeps, it was midnight and everything was still going strong. We had fun wandering around picking out pastries from different shops. We took it all back to the hotel room and had a feast. Definitely the city for amazing eats, I would be poor and weigh 1000 pounds if I lived there.

Fun little restaurant we stopped in for lunch. Needless to say we were a little unprepared for the prices. $20 for a BLT seemed a little ridiculous no matter how yummy it was.

Finally catching up on trip pictures

So one of the best parts of this trip back east was the chance to see long lost friends. Christi and I grew up together and even participated in show choir in high school together back in the day. We haven't seen each other for almost 10 years. She was kind enough to offer Brad and I a place to stay while we were in DC so we didn't have to worry about a hotel. She even took some time to go sight seeing with us.
Afton and I were roommates way back when I was in grad school. She was a very goofy and exuberant 19 years old. We had a lot of fun together she kept me from taking myself too seriously. We met here at a local shopping center and had a wonderful meal together.


It is amazing what a telephoto lens can accomplish. This was from across the mall, by the washington monument. I figured even though we didn't have the time to actually walk over to the White House I would get some fun pictures.
When we were touring the various war memorials there was a group of veteran's touring with active duty service men. I managed to get some pretty moving pictures. In fact when they all walked up as we were at the Korean Memorial I almost started crying it was such a moving sight.

You probably can't make it out but this is what their t-shirts say on the back, "If you can read this, Thank a teacher.... If you can read this in English, Thank a Veteran! Remembering the price of freedom... Honoring those who paid the price!"
The Smithsonian museums are by far the coolest, free activity ever. We spent hours there and only made it through a couple of the facilities. These are just a few of the pictures that I took.

This is a glass sculpture that is outside the hall where the Star Spangled Banner is displayed. It was absolutely beautiful shimmering in the afternoon light. That was definitely a cool display because they provided a digital rendering of the flag pointing out various imperfections and where they came from. It was very moving.
You can't really see it because I had the exposure set wrong on my camera but that is the captial building in the background. In my last post I managed to get the pictures from our day in Amish country posted. So now I am going to try to get things up to date.

East Coast Trip day 4 Hanover County

We spent a day out in Hanover county driving around that beautiful peaceful country side. We stopped at a place that gives a kind of insight into the Amish way of life. There were these chickens wandering around the grounds and this one was just too cute to not get it's picture taken. We took a wagon ride around the neighborhood with tour guide explaining the specifics of the Amish Religion and culture. The whole area looked so peaceful and quiet even the areas that weren't so Amish in population. I commented to Brad that I could really like living somewhere like that with a seeming slower pace of life.