Happy December!

Even though Lentil won't be here to enjoy this christmas we couldn't resist getting her a stocking, her stocking is the one in the middle
Here is a pic of one angle of our living room with our tree and stockings- we still need to hang our black shelf up next to the painting. I decided to post a picture of a portrait I did for my best friend's birthday (its of her daughter) mostly so Uncle Paul can see that I'm still doing art. And Finally....here is a more up to date picture of me at about 25 weeks- not my most favorite photo but its shows the tum tum

We had the opportunity to go travel up to Logan last weekend for a baby shower which was a blast! It was incredibly fun seeing my friends who I've missed so much! I also got to see one of my best friends on her birthday, since she threw the shower! We were hoping to be able to see some family while up there but the weather would not cooperate, and we ended up leaving early to drive back to Salt Lake. Nathan and I also battled snow storms on sunday when we had to leave preventing us from seeing more family- we felt bad that we were unable to visit some family but safety was our priority. I think we took a big sigh of relief when we finally made it home. We are also leaning towards staying south for christmas.

Lentil is getting bigger every week, and I feel like I've swallowed a basketball. I painted my toenails the other day and it took 20 minutes! Somedays I feel like I've already got my waddle on. I can't believe that I'm under the 100 days left mark and frankly its quite nerve wracking. However, I am really looking forward to the day I no longer have a human growing inside of me, yeah- still not my favorite. Who ever said God prepares you in that nine months to be parents was lying! (Nathan and I joke about that all the time)

Thanksgiving and More (wish I could come up with a better title)

Thanksgiving came and went and we had such a wonderful time! We had the opportunity to have two thanksgiving dinners and see both sides of our family. Nathan ate thanksgiving dinner with his parents, something he hasn't been able to do since his high school days. He also had the chance to play volleyball with his family that morning, I sat out due to my serious lack of hand-eye coordination, but it was really fun to watch them play!

We also had the chance to celebrate my mom's birthday, she would have been 50 this year. Of course the crazy daughter that I am, I took black "over the hill" balloons to her grave. I figure I would have given them to her if she was still alive. We shared funny memories of her and had some ice cream, it was such a joy to celebrate her amazing life.

We went through my mom's storage locker and moved stuff down to our house with the help of my grandparents. Finding a place for everything and trying to make it still look like our house has been an interesting challenge. We really enjoyed having my grandparents down here for a few days and we greatly appreciated all their help with moving in furniture. Our house is finally starting to look and feel like a home.

Lentil is growing and becoming very wiggly. I don't think I will ever get used to feeling a baby move inside me- it is the weirdest feeling I've EVER experienced. I'm not sure if I love being pregnant, I am very grateful for having such a relatively easy pregnancy but it certainly has effected my self esteem. Its worth it, but hard at the same time. Thank goodness for my supportive husband who tell me everyday, many times a day, how much he loves me. Lately I've really needed it.

Getting Lentil's Room Ready!

The finished changing table

Nathan putting the finishing touches on

the changing table

The cribs done! Complete with extra firm mattress

to make it extra safe

Nathan putting the crib together

Peeling off labels/stickers on the changing tables

(sweet outfit yes I know!)

Putting the changing table together

Getting everything out of the boxes, can you believe we fit it all in

our car!?! Needless to say I think it was the most entertainment

the Target employees had all evening!

Up and Down, Up and Down

This week has been such a emotional roller coaster week. This week marks the one year mark of my mom being gone which has created feelings of sadness and dissociation. Trying to deal with feelings of grief while being pregnant is no easy task. One minute I'm weeping and the next minute I'm giggling because Lentil is using me as a punching bag. I think the hardest part of dealing with the feelings of not having my mom around is that I'm pregnant with our Lentil who will be my daughter, and I was my mom's first. I miss the mom/daughter bond that I'm creating with Lentil.

On a happier note, Nathan was able to feel Lentil moving for the first time, which is making this pregnancy less one sided. We are still debating around names- its a good thing we have four months left, we'll need all of that time to decide on a name. We are soooo incredibly grateful for Lentil and the healing she is bringing to the family. She has already blessed this family in more ways then she'll ever know.

Another happy tidbit that I'm excited to share is that my little sister's art is featured in an art exhibit in the Rio Gallery in Salt Lake City. We are so proud of her and we can't wait to check out the exhibit! She has three pieces in the Art Beyond Boundaries Exhibit, which features work from artists who have disabilities. Here is the website for more information- http://library.utah.gov/events/art2009.html

Our little Girl

On Friday we had the opportunity to find out the sex of Lentil during the ultrasound appointment. This was as exciting as christmas morning for us, especially since we had a wager going on- whoever was right predicting the sex could pick the theme of the nursery. This was also Nathan's first ultrasound appointment. We really enjoyed seeing Lentil move around, she was especially wiggly because Stephanie ate some candy before we went in to make sure she wouldn't be shy. She kicked her feet around and waved multiple times, giving us beautiful photos for the assessment.

Lentil even had one arm above her head, just how Nathan sleeps, and the other hand on her cheek, just how Stephanie sleeps. That really made us smile! The only thing Lentil would not show us was her face, she had her chin tucked down on to her chest, with her head down. No matter how many different angles the doctor tried, Lentil would not look up. Lentil just kept tucking herself further and further against Steph's pelvic bone so it was impossible to see her face. Lentil is already showing us she doesn't like photos taken of her face, so she is already taking after Steph.

We are excited to have a little girl on the way, now if we could only figure out a name!!!!

I'll keep this short...

We're having a GIRL!!!!!!

Bonjour-Hi from Montreal

Nathan and I are enjoying our trip out to Montreal and we've had some very fun adventures! Getting to our hotel was probably the craziest. After we arrived in Montreal we debated whether we should take a taxi or try to find a shuttle to our hotel. A taxi from the airport starts at $35 dollars so we decided to try to find another route. Montreal doesn't have free shuttles to hotels like back home so we had to buy a bus ticket and take a bus to the bus depot and board a shuttle there that would go to most hotels. It took us about an hour to get to our hotel but we were grateful that we choose the bus route as the traffic was extremely bad and the taxi would have been even more expensive then originally thought.

Our hotel is in chinatown in downtown Montreal!!!! I have been to chinatown in San Francisco but this was completely different! It may have been chinatown but everyone still spoke french! Nathan and I had a great time just walking around the city, going to Old Montreal which looks a lot like Europe (so I am told, I'll get there eventually) and the Old Port. We were excited to discover that Notre Dame Basilica was just a block away, which was something we both really wanted to see. It was a beautiful basilica, I can only imagine what Notre Dame in France is like. We've also explored the shopping district and I'm so proud of myself for not buying anything!

Being pregnant and traveling hasn't been too difficult, with all the walking we've done I'm sore in places I never knew I could be sore in :) Nathan reminds me that his legs are sore too, so that I don't feel like such a wimp. The hardest challenge for me so far was breakfast. Montreal isn't a super big on breakfast, most people just grab their morning coffee and a croissant. So our first morning Nathan left early to go find some breakfast. I'm so grateful for him, he walked about a mile before he found a little cafe and brought back some bagels and fruit. What a life saver! (Heads up the bagels here are reported to be better than in New York, they are a lot less dense) After that we asked around and found and IGA, which is their grocery store, and it was pretty close. We bought some breakfast items and some snacks so we wouldn't be in such a rush to find food in the morning.

We have eaten at some really great restaurants, I haven't tried Poutin yet which is a local favorite, but we have eaten some Crepes. I discovered that I'm much more of a dessert crepe person and Nathan discovered that he doesn't really like them in any form, but we are glad we tried them! We also ate at a pizza place called Pizzadelic, the pizza here has very thin crust which was heavenly and our Barq's Rootbeer was made with real sugar!!! not high fructose corn syrup like back home! (it tasted more like Coke from Mexico) so good so good! Also we have come to LOVE the Formage Nature (cheesecake) here, its not as rich and softer than back home and oh so DELICIOUS!!! I will miss all the cheese that they eat here with EVERYTHING and the desserts!

Never a dull moment!

Nathan rocking his pink tie for breast cancer awareness month

The much sought after belly pic with awesome elastic pants!

I chopped off my hair again and this time went red!!

BIG changes

Lentil doing a dance for us!!
Moving in

Last weekend we moved into our new house with the help of some guys from our new ward (you offer them pizza and they'll do anything!). We had five or six guys show up so loading up our old place and unloading at our new house went pretty fast. We really appreciate all the help from people that didn't even really know us!!! Thanks new wardies!!! Now that we are in our new place the task of unpacking and cleaning seems daunting. We have been doing a little bit each day, so the mass of cardboard boxes scattered throughout the living room has been dramatically depleted but we still have so much left to do. I don't remember it taking us this long to unpack when we moved into our apartment in Logan, and we basically have the same amount of stuff.

Nathan has been enjoying work and is getting more and more excited about being a dad as the days go on! He loves that I'm already showing, even though I think I'm too early to be showing this much. He's also getting very excited for our upcoming trip to Montreal!! The other thing Nathan is really into is reading The Count of Monte Cristo, its funny because he bought it for me but I can only read it when he's not home because he'll take it over! So I'm waiting until he catches up to where I'm at in the book so we can read it out loud together. He told me the other day how he wasn't a reader until he married me and now he can't stop, its good to know I'm brushing off on him in little ways!

I have been enjoying giving tours to the 5th graders at the art museum, these kids really blow my mind! I must have been a super disciplined child because the majority of these 5th graders have an incredibly hard time staying in groups and following directions. Yes I understand that they are on a field trip and how liberating it is to be out of school, but honestly I feel like these kids have the attention span of 1st graders not 5th graders. They have extremely entertaining to observe on a psychological level but as a docent, it can be very exhausting! Nonetheless, its fun to entertain art centered conversations on their level, they come up with the most interesting ideas.

Lentil is doing well, I have had the chance to hear its heartbeat on my last two appointments and it is very surreal. I still can't believe there is someone in there. Although I do look like I've swallowed a mini basketball, so I know its in there. I know I will get bigger but man I feel huge already! I swear I shouldn't be showing this much for 17 weeks. Also we will officially find out its sex on November 6th, and I am counting down the days. SO stay tuned because we'll definitely post it!!!!

New Fridge!

The reason why I'm so excited about our fridge is that Nathan and I picked it out! The majority of our stuff has been given to us and we are incredibly grateful for it, but its always fun to pick out something new that is your style! SO here is a picture of our new fridge!!! The only difference is that ours is black, we were going to get a stainless one but our other appliances

(the range, microwave and dishwasher) are all black. So we opted for the black one! It was just delivered today and we got such a super great deal on it that we are overjoyed! Thank you Lowes! We were able to buy the floor model because they didn't have any in stock, saving us about $400.00! Lately we have felt like Lowes has become our second home, as we have had many little projects for our new house. We were also able to change out the locks which helps our sense of security. Its always a good idea when you buy a home to change the locks, you never know who has keys, and yes I am that paranoid. Nathan has done so much, I am very grateful and proud to have married such a great guy! A few more things to do and then we'll be moving in!

Keys to a new life

Just to bring everyone up to date, since the last week or so has been super chaotic, we are now officially homeowners! We closed on Monday and received the keys to our new place yesterday. We are relieved that everything is finally done! Nathan has his mind set on moving in this weekend, which means that we have to go buy a fridge, clean (both places) and pack. Nathan doesn't think we need to do much cleaning to our new place, but I am seriously scrubbing the place down! It grosses me out not to! So these next few days will be super crazy as well. Nathan and I have been debating paint colors and furniture arrangements and much to my surprise I actually let him pick out the main color that will be in the living room or loft! He picked Orange, I'm very excited about it! It will be a really good color, with our sage green couches we are thinking more of a pumpkin orange. The trick will be for me to make it more contemporary and less traditional (which you can do with some great pillows). We are just both excited to have a home and incorporate our own style!

Other fun news, we will be going to Canada probably over the weekend of October 24th and I have started my docent position at the local art museum. The art museum in St. George is very different from the one in Logan, its a lot less formal which is very different. And yes I can now officially say I have seen an incredible amount of southern utah landscapes. The museum does have a handful of contemporary abstract pieces which I am instantly drawn to, in a sea of red rock landscapes they are refreshingly original.

Cravings and Prego updates

I thought I would post a little blip about how the pregnancy is going and my latest cravings, so far my most intense cravings have been for cheese and eggo waffles, but not together, that would be gross. Cheese is the hard one, being somewhat lactose in tolerant cheese doesn't exactly mix with me, but when its all I want to eat I've been in a world of catch 22 with food. Nathan thinks its pretty funny, when all I want to eat are grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, cheetos, cheese sandwiches, crackers and cheese, apples and cheese, the list goes on and on! Also, for the last week or so I've been wanting to eat frozen waffles, for some reason, they just are amazingly tasty to me. After I toast them I put butter and syrup on them and pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds and I'm in heaven! This pregnancy has been giving us mostly laughs and some scares. I did have a situation about two weeks ago where we thought I had miscarried. I had an emergency appointment with my doctor and while everything looked great on the ultrasound, Lentil was even dancing, we couldn't figure out what happened. So for the two weeks after I had to be really careful because I was a "threatened miscarriage". My next appointment is tomorrow, and I feel really positive about things, and we feel the scare is long past. I also had the chance to go on a maternity shopping spree with my cousin and aunt last weekend, to Motherhood Maternity. I think I bought out the whole store! Its sad when your maternity clothes are cuter and more artsy than your non prego clothes! I love them and I'm excited to wear them throughout my pregnancy, I couldn't believe that I even found pants long enough! MIRACLE!

Ps- Nathan and I have a bet going, he thinks its a boy and I think its a girl... can't wait to see who wins!

We are going to be home owners!!!

Last week our real-estate agent showed us a couple of places that were bank owned properties that just popped up. These bank owned home are nice to look at because if you like one, then you can put an offer and know within a week if our offer is accepted or not and then be able to close in about a month. We like this idea because we want to be able to close on a house by the end of November so we can participate in the federal tax credit for first time home buyers. The problem with a lot of banked owned homes is that the previous owners weren't happy that they were loosing their house and so they would trash it. We want a place that is move-in ready and only need we need to do to it is paint the rooms. So needless to say we have come across some really bad bank owned homes... But not this time!

We found a beautiful townhouse that is located in Washington, UT. This is a three bedroom two and a half bath with a loft that could be either be a family room or a den. Its only 5 minutes from Nathan's work and the shopping district of St George. The neighborhood and area around it is still being developed. We put in an offer that weekend and by Tuesday our offer was accepted. We finally got all the papers for the contract signed by the selling bank so we can take it to our bank to finalize our loan. With any luck we will be able to close in the next couple weeks.

So with out any further delay, here's a couple of pictures that will give you a better idea of what our new home will look like...

The front of our new home

The living room

The kitchen

The dinning room

Looking up to the loft

The loft

Looking down from the loft

Everything else is normal bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry room, storage closets, and a garage. Nothing big to show there.

The master bedroom, laundry, and storage closets are on the main floor, while two bedrooms and a bath is on the second floor.

We are grateful for the job that Nathan is able to have here in St George that makes it possible for us to join the ranks of home owner.

Up and Running!

Yay our high speed internet was connected yesterday and we are sooooo excited! Nathan and I are glad that we can now be on our own laptops surfing the web, oh how I have missed my Mac. Tomorrow is our first doctor's appointment for our baby, and we are both excited to see how things are doing. I hope this pregnancy goes by super slow, I bet not many women say that. I'm not looking forward to labor in any way, so as far as I'm concerned the slower the better. For those that might be wondering we are going to find out the sex of the baby, since we would like to have everything ready for its arrival, and nothing is really gender neutral these days. It will also help us narrow down names, it helps having so many nieces and nephews, we have 25 or so names not to use. The name game has been our most exciting debate, Nathan enjoys classic names found in the Bible. (I've vetoed anything from the Book of Mormon or any church names, I'm just not a fan. If you move out of Utah and you have a name like Nephi, not only are you going to be teased for being Mormon you just made it ten times worse.) SO needless to say with Nathan's classic traditional taste and my not so traditional fondness for things that are original and unique, our kid should have a pretty sweet name! WE can't wait! 

Updates Updates! Read all about em'

It's been awhile since we've been able to update our blog due to our internet situtation. About a month and a half ago we set up internet and cable through a company down here called Elevate. Our cable was installed within a week but we are still waiting for our high speed internet. Everytime we call customer service we get different stories. Finally this past week we decided enough was enough! and we cancelled our internet through them. Our high speed internet will be set up on tuesday, and we are very excited. We currently are using some free internet that we are picking up from someone nearby but the connection is extremely slow and very flaky. After tuesday our blog will be updated much more regularly. 

Things have been going pretty well, Nathan is enjoying his job and he plans on going on a buisness trip to Canada in September. The verdict is still out if I can go too. I think he is starting to get the hang of things. I have been trying to get in contact with a local museum here to see about being a volunteer or a docent. I waited about three weeks before I heard anything back from them and I will be calling them this next week to set up my schedule. 

As most of you have already found out we are expecting! Yup, thats right, our eggo is prego! I am pretty scared and Nathan is super excited. He's been ready to be a dad for a while but was waiting for me to come around to the idea. We were going to wait til we were past our first trimester but honestly its too hard to keep something this exciting under wraps.  This also means my plans for my Masters will be delayed a little, but hopefully not too much. Truth is I would be doing it next year or so if there were decent programs and schools around (Hope I didn't offend any who went to dixie). The morning sickness has set in and although I haven't thrown up ( I'm not a puker) feeling like your car sick all day really slows me down. Rather than that our little "lentil" is growing week by week. "Lentil" is what we call it, since thats how big it was when we found out.

House hunting has been interesting to say the least, we found a home and placed an offer but we ultimately backed out of it. SO the hunt is still on, we have some promising prospects, with some townhouse/condos. The homes we see are either already under review or need too much work because they've been foreclosed. Its been slightly discouraging looking at house after house only to be disappointed. It seems that the market is only full of short sales, and since they are the brink of being forclosed the properties are trashed. 

New do

 Two weeks ago I went to the salon with one of my best friends Britt and added some teal to my current do! Britt had been trying to convince me to get some in for the past month after she put bright pink all over in her hair. They are actually hair extensions made from real hair, so they will not fade or ruin your actual hair by dying it this color. I'm glad Nathan is so supportive of my funkiness! 

Our temporary home in St. George

The bathroom, its kinda small but serves its purpose

The backyard complete with a patio
The master bedroom, I love the his and her closets, we had them our old place
The dining room, down the hall and to the right is the bedroom
The living room, through the doorway is the kitchen
A view of the fabulous kitchen
Another view of the kitchen with all new appliances
The front of our new place, this is our door. 

New job and a new place to live

Well Nathan got the job down in St. George! (We found out last Monday) We will be moving there hopefully on the 21st and 22nd of June. We went down south this weekend to find a little place to stay while we shop for a house. Due to the drop in prices and low rates we are strongly considering purchasing a home. This is really exciting but also somewhat scary. Nathan is very excited, he is working at RAM Company as a Manufacturing Engineer. We'll continue to keep you all posted! Here are some pictures of our cute little apartment we'll be staying at for the next few months.

Memorial day and Job Interview!

Over Memorial Day weekend, Nathan and I headed down to St. George for a job interview. Nathan received a phone call the previous thursday/friday asking him if he was available for an interview on tuesday. The interview went well and apparently it is between Nathan and another engineer. We are supposed to hear from the company this week as to whether or not they wish to hire Nathan. Nathan is extremely excited as to the possibility of living in St. George, he prefers that weather to Logan temperatures. Wonder why?! I am getting more excited about the possibility to be living down south in a bigger city, (especially since there is a Target, In-and-Out, Spoon Me and Tai Pan Trading located in St. George, all of which are NOT located in Logan!). We are really crossing our fingers for this opportunity for Nathan to grow and gain experience as an engineer. We will keep you all posted! 

During the first part of Memorial Day we had the chance to visit family and place flowers on loved ones graves. As you can image this was an emotional holiday, especially with Mother's Day a few weeks ago. 

Fun in Tacoma, Washington

My Felgar grandparents with Nathan on the Glass Bridge
Beautiful bridges and highways! yes I'm a sucker for taking pictures of trees even if they are along the roadside! What can I say? I LOVE GREEN!
The famous Glass Bridge

Nathan and I amongst the glass sculptures on the Glass Bridge

Mini Baja competition in Portland, Oregon!

The baja going up the "hill climb" event! This was a nasty course, only a handful of the teams made it up, USU was one of them!
The famous rear suspension! No other team had anything like it! everyone was taking pictures of it!!!
Nathan sitting in the baja during registration
Steph at the park across from the Lloyd's Center Mall
Nathan eating his ice cream bar at the Park 

We've GRADUATED!!

On May 2nd, 2009 Nathan and I graduated from Utah State University. Even in the rain it was a delightful day and we are very grateful to those who braved the pouring rain to share this moment with us! 

Graduation!

Nathan and I are very excited about our upcoming graduation from Utah State University on May 2nd. It should be a very fun day and we are excited to spend it with whom ever wishes to join! Nathan is still continuing the job hunt, its hard because companies just aren't hiring and no one is retiring! We are planing on going up to Washington and Oregon the week after graduation for Nathan's mini baja tournament. He is still hoping that they can get their baja ready, they've hit some glitches. I am looking into working at the University's art museum this summer, I really hope I get the position! All else fails Nathan and I will head to grad school. Nathan is thinking he might be interested in getting his MBA, and I am considering a masters in Art History. Thats about all thats going on! This week is our last week of classes, ever! (unless we go to grad school)

Finals are next week, cross your fingers, there's going to be a lot of late nights!