The Adventures of Nate & Steph

Woosh, that was January.

2012-02-05T20:46:00.005-07:00

January just flew by us, Nathan and I both had birthdays which means January ROCKED! Nathan celebrated his 28th birthday with Amelia and I. He requested that his birthday be a "mello" celebration with just us. Very Nathan like. Amelia and I made him a cake, made him some cards, and gave him a present. He had a wonderful time. He can't believe he is 28, I've had to remind him a few times. Amelia and I sang "Happy Birthday" to him at any available opportunity.

January has been an extremely busy month for us. Nathan has been busy playing volleyball, Amelia has been a red tornado and I have been busy with art stuff. The Museum installed a new exhibit which meant meetings and training for docents. Plus I've had to teach Art Masters at a local elementary. Which by the way, was on Alexander Calder an engineer and an artist. Could that be any more fitting for me? If you haven't seen his work, google him, its worth it.

We also celebrated my "golden" birthday. I turned 26 on the 26th. I wanted to do something special, and Nathan made it special. He made me a red velvet cake (from scratch, no less!) and he didn't mess it up! My grandparents were passing through and brought me a cake, and took us out to dinner. Two cakes? yes please. My cousin also stopped by on friday adding to the family fun. Just as she was leaving people started showing up. I thought it was just to say hi, nope, Nathan planned a surprise party with my friends and totally got me for the second time. He is sneaky!! My friend made an amazingly chocolate choco-holic cake. 3 CAKES!!! thats right, I am that cool. I also chopped off my hair and added some blue and purple to it to commemorate being 26.

For those of you that are wondering, we had a great Christmas. I did leave my purse at home which had my phone charger, camera and of course wallet in it. So Nathan had to do all of the driving. What a good sport. We went to Logan and spent time with my best friend Joanna and her family. I wish we had more time so we could have visited all of our Logan friends, but it just wasn't in the cards. We spent Christmas with my family, which was amazing. Christmas Eve we had everyone together, first time EVER for Christmas, and the first time since my mom's funeral. We even tried to visit some of Nathan's sisters but two of the three weren't home. At least we were able to see Suzanne and the kids. We also went over to my dad's and spent Christmas with him. Overall a very fun trip.

Amelia is doing great, we are loving the terrible 2's and the tantrums, NOT. She is very independent and stubborn, she got that from both Nathan and I. She LOVES to help out in the kitchen, play outside and watch Curious George. She has a Curious George stuffed monkey that tags along with her most of the time. She loves to wear our shoes and clothes, today she wore one of Nathan's shirts around most of the day. She thinks its hilarious to pretend to sleep, she even tries to snore but it just sounds like heavy breathing. Her favorite songs right now are: Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Head Shoulders Knees and Toes. She continues to bring laughter and delight into our lives, plus a little frustration (to be honest).

ONE MORE TIDBIT- Nathan wanted to trim Amelia's hair because it was in her eyes, so snip snip went the scissors and drive drive we went to a local salon to fix the hair cut. We had quite the laugh over it. For fun here are some photos, and for your pleasure they are out of order, thats right, we like to keep things interesting here.

Amelia in Nathan's T-shirt

Amelia's hair cut.

My haircut, there is blue and purple on both sides and in the back.

Super chocolate cake made by my friend. Recipe is on pintrest. SO YUMMY.

Super delicious red velvet cake made by Nathan, YUM.

Nathan's birthday cake. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN.

Amelia's car car. Best christmas present ever, thanks grandpa Dave.

Christmas #2 at Grandpa Dave's.

Frosting sugar cookies. Amelia is the best cookie helper.

Wheeler Christmas Card

2011-12-21T19:53:00.005-07:00

We were too slow to get out Christmas cards so we decided to blog a Christmas message this year. We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, soaking in every minute with friends and family. Happy new year to everyone, and may the new year bring joy and happiness to everyone.

Amelia waiting to see Santa.

Merry Christmas from Nathan, Stephanie and Amelia Wheeler

Skip November

2011-12-04T21:02:00.011-07:00

Yes you read that correctly, my blog skipped November. That was on purpose. November (although Thanksgiving is fun) is a hard month for me. I just run on survival mode during that month, especially the last half of the month. Now that December is upon us I will share what we have been up too since my last post. Nathan went on a business trip to Cincinnati, OH and was gone for Halloween (my favorite holiday). Amelia and I still had a blast, we went to the library Halloween carnival, out to lunch, to the mall for trick or treating AND more trick or treating around the neighborhood. Phew! What a fun and busy day. We may or may not still have Halloween candy left over. I also taught Nathan how to paint a pumpkin for his work's pumpkin contest, I think he did a great job. We continued the theme of altering famous paintings, this year was of American Gothic by Grant Wood.

Some of my Evan's family came down to celebrate my cousins birthday and we had a blast at a local corn maze at Staheli farm. Of course my aunt and I were on a team (the two most directionally impaired individuals). Lets just say our whole group was out of the corn maze and Nathan had to come rescue us after the group waited 40 minutes for us to show up. Thank goodness he found us and we followed him out. I hope everyone believes me when I say I get lost easily.

Amelia loved playing in the corn slide at Staheli Farm.

Amelia riding a horse swing.

She loved these tiny tractors.

Amelia dressed up as a monkey for Halloween, in honor of Curious George, her favorite.

Amelia's loot....I mean our loot.

Nathan painting his pumpkin, like a pro!

The finished product, I think he did a great job. Yes he did 95% of the painting, and designed the concept. I just did a tiny bit. I guess being married to an artist is rubbing off.

Thanksgiving was fun because Nathan's sister Suzanne and her hubby Stuart and the kids came down. With a little help Nathan and I made our first Thanksgiving meal and it was a SUCCESS. I know a few of you are completely shocked, but its true! I didn't burn anything and the turkey was incredibly delicious. Amelia loved having cousins to follow around and play with. The end to a perfect turkey day was jumping in with the craziness of Black Friday. I went with a friend and we hit up Target and midnight, it was insane. I loved every minute of it. Well, standing in the checkout line for an 1 hour and 45 minutes wasn't the greatest but when your with a friend you try to make the most of it. I could not believe how many people were at Mc Donald's and Del Taco at 3 am. Thats just gross.

Amelia playing with chalk on Thanksgiving.

Final prep for Thanksgiving meal.

Ps- This year my tree was up before December 1st, I broke my own rule BUT it was after Thanksgiving.

For those that are interested, Amelia is really into climbing and running around. She loves to eat the crust off her wheat bread first, she would rather snack all day and not eat dinner but we don't like that idea. She loves Elmo and Curious George and playing with chalk, and just being outside. She loves giving kisses and "shhhing" people. I can't believe she'll be 2 in a few months.

Octoberfest

2011-10-12T20:46:00.005-06:00

It's October, one of my favorite months (possibly my number one favorite month) and I am eagerly awaiting for it to cool down. I know some people might love it being in the 80's but it doesn't quite seem like fall without sweater weather.

We had a special treat a few weeks ago, my grandparents came for a visit from out of state, and met Amelia for the first time. They really enjoyed watching Amelia be a spirited toddler. They gave Amelia a really cute dinosaur sippy cup and she still prefers it to any of her other sippy cups. I hope they had a good time visiting us because we sure enjoyed having them.

Amelia has a new talent. Apparently she found out about the "planking" craze and wanted to add her own spin to it. For those of you that don't know what planking is- its lying face down in challenging spots and having your photo taken. There are photos all over the internet. I hope that sums it up enough for any planking enthusiasts who may be reading this. Amelia has been randomly laying down where ever she can, its hilarious. She is "reverse planking" and she's a pro. She thinks its pretty funny too. She also loves wearing Nathan's ties. I think she gets that from me.

We have been having some car troubles with one of our vehicles, so Nathan has been working on it and so have the mechanics. Amelia loves to help out in the garage, but mostly she just likes to play in the cars. She used to get really excited when Nathan got home now she just runs past him because she wants to play in the car. Not sure letting her do it was a good idea because now she's obsessed with the car.

General Conference weekend was interesting, no one tells you how impossible it is to watch it with a toddler. Good thing its online and in the Ensign. My cousin stayed with us over General Conference weekend. I drove her back sunday evening only to get to her dorm and realize she left her keys at our house, so we had to drive all the way back. Thank goodness for Wendy's Frosty's to make the trip a little less frustrating and a lot more fun.

Nathan and I also had the pleasure of seeing The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn with the Majors! We were really excited to have them come down and stay with us. We always have a blast when they come down. The show was amazing- no wonder every night has been sold out. It was our first time going to Tuacahn and we were not let down. We recommend it to anyone and everyone! Now we just need to find a time to go up to Logan- someday Logan friends, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I hope everyone has a fun Halloween. I can't wait to carve pumpkins and eat handfuls of candy corn. I just wish palm tree's leaves changed colors. A girl can dream right?

Amelia's teepee, best spot to read or hide

Amelia sitting in the front seat of the car, just relaxing

Reverse planking-aka Amelia laying down, her new favorite thing

Amelia and Grandma and Grandpa Felgar

Four generations!

Summer Lovin'

2011-09-11T18:00:00.005-06:00

Yes, I've been at it again. Procrastinating with this blog. When will I learn? Who knows...

Well August was a pretty good month for us. We took Amelia camping for the first time with my grandparents. She liked playing in the tent but the first night was terrible, we could not get her to go to sleep. Finally at 4:00 am we drove down Payson Canyon to my grandparents house and spent the night there. The following night she slept in the trailer without any issues. I guess tents are for playing but not for sleeping in her mind. She loved running around and didn't want to stop even to eat, she even tried her first roasted marshmallow. AND for those that are wondering she did eat some dirt, and she is still alive, although I did try my hardest to keep her from doing it.

Eating her first roasted marshmallow

We even found a mini Bryce Canyon!

Amelia loved exploring.

This is my favorite photo of Nathan and Amelia at the lake.

Amelia and I also helped my cousin move into SUU (Southern Utah University). Amelia loved helping unpack and running up and down the dorm hall. I couldn't believe how nostalgic I was that day. Remembering all the fun times I had in college and how that time is now past. I had someone give me directions thinking I was a student, which was better than the freshman I met in my cousins dorm who thought I was moving my daughter in. Yeah that aged me about 20 years or so.

Labor Day was fun because we just stayed home and played. I did go pick up my cousin (from SUU) and she spent Sunday and Monday with us. She gave Amelia a Ho Ho and they were instant friends. For the record, I took most of the Ho Ho away. I didn't want you thinking I was a bad parent, giving my child a whole Ho Ho... Our neighbor gave us a box that was the same height as Nathan so of course he went down the stairs in it. Amelia went down with him twice. The box proved to be quite fun. Amelia also had a blast playing with water in the sink with my cousin, Amelia loves playing in water.

Nathan hiding under the box and wiggling his finger through a hole.

Amelia playing outside.

Found daddy!

Amelia playing with my cousin- loving the bubbles.

Amelia playing with Nathan-ignore the messy house por favor.

We've had a pretty good summer and we can't wait for fall. For those of you that are enjoying fall weather we are jealous, and you can be jealous that its still pretty much summer here.

Can't wait for October, Halloween is my favorite holiday and I want to break out the halloween stuff...must wait...until October 1st! I can do it- I can do it- I can do it!!! maybe :)

Procrastination is fun, sometimes.

2011-07-10T18:27:00.010-06:00

So its been awhile... I have been checking other blogs pretty regular and I keep telling myself that I need to update my own, but I'm kinda famous for procrastinating. I'm bribing myself with a treat if I update this blog. Sad but true. So aren't you a lucky audience?! You now get an update all because of a wonderful treat motivating me to update this. To bad I can't share my treat with you. I would if I could. Maybe.

So we went to Minnesota successfully and had a blast. Amelia did really well on the flights out to Minnesota but on the return flight from Denver to Vegas, she kinda had a rough time. She was overtired and wanted to run around but it was a full flight. She fell asleep just as we were making our decent into Vegas. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Grant's family and Steven's family. Amish people are nice and Amish children like to stare at your vehicle. The Mall of America is a fabulous place. Simply fabulous. Nathan hung out in the amusement park, riding roller coasters and I window shopped. I can't believe I didn't BUY ANYTHING. Are you shocked? I sure am. However going to Ikea sure changed that. My sister in law Kara and I are huge Ikea fans, and we spent a good amount of time throwing around design ideas. I guess I helped inspire her because the next day she went back and had quite fun shopping. Side note: the funniest thing about the Mall of America is that the PC store is right across from the Apple Store.

My dad and sister also stopped by for a fun little visit. Amelia really loves playing with her Grandpa Dave. Katie spent 1/2 the time they were visiting sick, so that was quite unfortunate. We are so glad they made it home safely and Katie is doing much better. We were able to see them again over the 4th of July weekend when we went up north. Our trip up to Salt Lake would have been completely awesome if my grandparents had not been in Illinois. I know they really missed seeing Amelia. We were able to visit with my BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD <---she's so special I had to use caps lock. We went to the zoo with Joanna (best friend) and the Norton family (which are my second family) to celebrate Joanna's daughters 3rd birthday. The zoo had animated dinosaurs and Amelia loved them. After a fun time at the zoo we had lunch at our special spot. The Pie. Best. Pizza. Ever. The rest of the afternoon we spent with visiting some of my family. Sunday and Monday we hung out with Nathan's sister's and their families. Overall, a wonderful weekend.

So, the main reason why I've been procrastinating blogging, besides traveling, is that I've been teaching classes on Ancient Greece at the museum. Its a summer class program for kids, with art projects, learning, food, etc. The kids love it. I also dress up as Poseidon for the famous debate between Poseidon and Athena. It just makes for busy weeks. I almost forgot, Amelia had her first haircut, she was growing a mullet and it needed to go. She looks so much better without the red mullet thing going on. Also her latest thing is to change her shoes throughout the day. She loves wearing shoes. I'm pretty excited about her love of footwear.

Phew, that was a lot of updating. Now since I can't share my actual treat with you I guess you, my internet audience, will have to be satisfied with a few photo's from our summer fun. Bon appetit! (By the way, these photos are not in any particular order, hope that doesn't bug any of you with ocd. If so, then I did it on purpose just to bug you)

This photo is for Amelia's great grandparents Ruth and Stan who sent her this cute dress, she loves to wear it and carry it around.

Joanna and I at the Zoo. with Amelia, Tia and a cool dinosaur

Amelia and Nathan in front of the life size T-Rex, Amelia wasn't even scared of his loud roar.

Amelia and Aunt Katie goofing off

Amelia and Grandpa Dave

First haircut. Mullet be gone! (I know she looks naked but she does have her diaper on)

Nathan and Amelia at the Mall of America

Amelia rocking some Amish headgear

Us at BW3's in Minnesota

Up up and away!

2011-05-22T18:47:00.002-06:00

So its been a month since I've blogged. Time sure does go by fast and slow in the mom world black hole. So here is a little bit of what's been going on in our lives. Last week my sister and my dad came to visit for a few days and we had a really good visit. I made sure we went to this huge nursery thats in town because my little sister is like the plant whisperer. She was in heaven, and we only saw about 1/16 of what they had to offer. She helped me pick out two pots with sturdy plants that I should be able to keep alive. So far they still are alive. Must be a miracle.

Amelia loved that my dad would hold her hand and walk around with her 24/7. I firmly believe that all that walking around with her finally gave her the nudge to walk. Sunday evening she started walking and hasn't looked back. I spend most of my day picking up a mess only to turn around with 3 other messes waiting for me and Amelia no where in sight. The other skill Amelia can now add to her resume is queen bee tantrum thrower. Terrible twos? Try terrible 13 months! It doesn't help that she's decided that her molars need to come in now, ignore the fact that she only has her two top teeth and two bottom teeth. The red tornado doesn't do anything orthodox, and I don't think I'd have it any other way. Check back in a few months and I might have changed my tune. Kidding... or am I?!

Nathan and I are really looking forward to visiting Nathan's two brothers (and their families) in Minnesota this upcoming weekend. It will be Amelia's first time flying. I hope she doesn't cry the whole time. No one wants to be the parents of a crying baby on a long flight. I'm sure most of us have been on a flight with a crying child, and its never a pretty sight. Nonetheless we are excited to be going.

Yesterday we did some spring cleaning. We cleaned out our under the stairs closet and reorganized. I know you may be thinking "Yawn, spring cleaning", but I am so glad we finally got around to doing it. I don't like clutter, it makes me feel claustrophobic. I really like going through a closet and getting rid of stuff, my motto is "If I haven't used it in 6-12 months, I'm not going to, so hasta la vista JUNK." I highly recommend it. Very liberating. So yes, I did just blog about cleaning.

This summer I will be helping teach summer art classes for kids at the art museum. Greek and Roman art here we come! The activities are going to be awesome, I'm really excited about it and the kids are really jazzed up as well. I'm kinda giddy that I will be the art historian for some of the classes.

Well I think thats about it... Hope everyone has a good Memorial Day!

Ps- Glad we all survived "The Rapture" phew, that was a close one. I think I need a t-shirt that says "I survived the rapture of May 21, 2011".

Kites and Sickness

2011-04-22T18:21:00.007-06:00

Well the Easter weekend we had planned has been put on hold. Amelia got sick Thursday, not just a little cold, we're talking miserable sick. She had a fever that we couldn't get to go down, even after rounds of the Ibuprofen/Tylenol combo. Thursday night, I took her into the walk in clinic. Turns out Miss Amelia has the Coxsackie Virus, aka Hand, Foot and Mouth. Except she just has the mouth infection. Poor baby has blisters in her throat. We think she caught it at the Kite Festival last Saturday. So Easter will be a chill at home weekend, since she's extremely contagious. Hopefully Nathan and I can catch up on some sleep, the past two nights with Amelia have been horrible.

Speaking of the Kite Festival, it was really fun this year. Besides Amelia licking the school bus seat which is probably where she caught the virus, kites were able to fly this year. Last year there no wind, which made for a lame festival. The other fun part about it was Garrett, Melissa and Olivia Rasmussen were able to join us! It was awesome having them stay with us for a few days while on their way to Mesa, Az. Olivia and Amelia became fast friends and it was hilarious to watch them interact together.

We also had our family photo's done at FotoFly. They are the most amazing photography studio. For those who are curious, they're located in Draper. Loved them. I highly recommend them. And because you asked nicely here are a few to enjoy:

Amelia's First Birthday

2011-03-30T08:46:00.005-06:00

Amelia celebrated her first birthday yesterday and even though the day was busy, she had a blast. She loved hearing the happy birthday song, so we sang that song throughout the day. We had a few neighbors and friends over for some cake and ice cream. Suzanne and Stuart surprised us by stopping by on their way home from Vegas. Nathan had to work late on her birthday and he was really bummed about it. Luckily he made it home to see her eat her cake (which is always the best part of a party). We can't wait to celebrate some more this weekend with family. Life with a toddler has officially begun.

Our neighbor gave Amelia a baby sock monkey, for those of you that know Nathan you know that sock monkeys are his least favorite thing, so that was pretty funny.

Nathan made Amelia a log cabin out of a box. He believes all kids need are a box to have fun, he was right. Amelia loves playing in her cabin. Her favorite thing to do is to look at her birthday cards in the cabin.

Amelia unsure of the smash cake. I think she was experiencing some performance anxiety.

After a few tastes she realized "hey this is yummy!"

Pretty happy and running on a sugar high.

She loved opening presents

The owl cake I made

Amelia's owlet smash cake

A few pictures are better than none

2011-03-20T20:12:00.005-06:00

I can add photos again!!! perhaps my whining to the blogging universe paid off because my toolbar is back and I can add photos again. WAHOO! so here are some photos from our spring break fun:

Amelia and I going down the slide, she loved it.

Amelia loves to up and down the stairs, over and over and over again.

Amelia and Tia jumping and rolling around on the air mattress

Amelia and Tia chillin in the car

Me, Amelia, Joanna and Tia at the dinosaur museum

Spring Break!

2011-03-20T16:30:00.001-06:00

After college you no longer get to experience the lovely week of spring break. In fact, I didn't even know it was spring break week until a friend told me. You might be wondering why I'm mentioning spring break because it no longer applies to us, but the most wonderful thing happened to me over spring break. My bestie of a best friend Joanna drove 6 hours to visit, along with her little girl Tia and Momma Maria. They are like my second family. I was so excited to see them that it felt like christmas, I was bouncing off the walls and didn't sleep a wink the night before they arrived. We had beautiful warm weather and we took full advantage of it. Playing at the park and soaking up the nice warm sun. Tia shared her love of dinosaurs with Amelia and we even took them to a dinosaur track museum. Amelia got her first dinosaur toy, of course she picked out a ferocious T-Rex. She loves carrying him around and chewing on him. I was sad to see them go, after trying unsuccessfully to have them live permanently in our guest room and bribing them with cupcakes. Grad school called Joanna home. I'll see them again soon so it was more of a see ya later.

Well I really wanted to upload some photo's to this post but Blogger isn't letting me! What gives?! Well that is frustrating. On a side note, Amelia has taken 3 steps but would prefer to crawl or cruise along the furniture instead of walking. Her birthday is in two weeks and then I will officially have a toddler. I cannot believe how fast time has flown by. I will have to make another post later with more updates and hopefully photos because I'm slightly grumpy at Blogger. GRrrrr....

What's been up

2011-02-17T21:48:00.005-07:00

So the reason why we've been such slackers in the bloggity blog world is because I decided to take on a project. It involved transforming our kitchen table. I've been surfing some do it yourself blogs and I snagged the idea of painting our table and chairs. What color? you might ask, DIFFERENT colors. I will say! So Nathan and I sanded down the chairs and table, primed and spray painted them. It was a lot of fun. Minus the sanding part. Not my favorite thing to do. Piece by piece it started coming together. It took us about 2 weeks because we could really only work on it when Amelia was napping or after she went to bed. It sure was fun working side by side. Hope you guys wanted to see photos because here they are:

So thats what Nathan and I have been up to, I know you probably want to know what's new with Amelia. Amelia is almost 11 months old and she keeps us on our toes! She's cruising along with her push along toy. And she's even had some sweets. GASP! we gave her a taste of my birthday cake, SHE LOVED IT (now we have high expectations for her smash cake), she had a mini oreo, and part of a cupcake (I had to share my love of Sweet Tooth Fairy, if you haven't been GO!). Nathan has also taught her how to go down the stairs and give high five's. I can't believe she's almost one.

Amelia loves to read books. Amelia loves to pull the books off the shelf. I pick up said books many times a day. (usually they are all on the floor unlike this pile)

Amelia really likes to play with wipes. She likes to wipe things. Carpet included. Pretty sure she picked this habit up from me. But I don't wipe the carpet.

After the mini Oreo.

Going down the stairs.

Having a taste of my birthday cake.

Amelia's Hand

2011-01-22T15:52:00.004-07:00

We have received many phone calls this past week asking how Amelia's hand is healing so we thought we should update our blog. On January 3rd, Amelia had her 9 month appointment in the morning and she was very well behaved. The pediatrician was slightly concerned because she had grown a lot length wise but due to the flu (which she had before christmas) she hasn't put on much weight. So cheese, yogurt and pasta were foods we had the okay to use to put some pounds on her. By the way, she LOVES yogurt now. Two hours after we arrived home we were back at the pediatricians office because I turned around for a moment and Amelia (who was on the other side of the room) crawled to the gas fireplace and touched it, burning her left hand. She had second degree burns, which created a massive blister on her palm and blisters on her fingertips. She was hysterical and I was hysterical. Thank goodness Nathan was calm and level headed.

Amelia was such a trooper, that first day was rough. They didn't want her crawling to pop the blisters so we had to practically hold her the whole day. She ended up popping the blister on her palm sometime during the night anyway. By day two she was crawling around like nothing had happened. She even left her band-aids alone, except she liked to suck on the sock that we put on her hand to protect the band-aids. Its almost been 3 weeks and her hand is almost completely healed.

After we got home from the pediatricians

A few days later, rocking out the sock look

A week later, her finger blisters were peeling

Just a few days ago, you can see how big the blister was on her palm but its getting better!

This morning, looking better each day.

Twilight to Midnight

2011-01-02T18:46:00.007-07:00

I was asked about a month ago if I would be part of a group of local artists that would do a sidewalk chalk art piece for St. George's New Years Eve celebration, Twilight to Midnight. First off, I'm really quite shy with my art work. So the fact that I said yes, knowing my piece would be viewed by many people was quite the shock. I have been in nervous anticipation for the past month, my eye has even been twitching, which just added to bucket of emotions. But low and behold on Friday, in the 25 degree weather, adorned in four layers of clothing I completed my piece. Everything went pretty well, except I forgot to bring something to kneel on so my knees are pretty bruised and sore. Kneeling on cold concrete for a few hours will do that. Here are some pics of my piece, and some of the other pieces. My piece is abstract so keep that in mind. It was really neat to see so many different styles of art and the artists behind the work.

Some of the finished pieces.

My piece is the bottom right.

Fellow artists at work.

My piece. Sorry its not a better photo.

Holiday Fun

2011-01-02T18:05:00.004-07:00

Amelia turned 9 months old

The tail end of Amelia's cheesy grin. She does it all the time. Its hilarious. AND you can see her two bottom teeth.

We had some INSANE weather. A full week of nonstop rain which caused some flooding and then snow. Never thought I would see white stuff living here.

Amelia loves playing with her little car/walker toy. This pic is especially for grandma and papa willy.

Met up with my best friend Joanna and her family and took the kids to the planetarium. It was beyond AWESOME to see her.

Amelia and Nathan at the planetarium.

For the Evans family: THE PURPLE BIRD IS BACK! (yes this is the original- consider the game BACK ON!) for everyone else, this fantastic tacky creature is a family christmas tradition, and it given to the unsuspecting recipient trojan horse style. I received it this year after many years of it being lost, it was in a christmas platter box. I should have known better. Who gives someone a christmas platter on christmas?!

Amelia LOVED climbing over the mountain of wrapping paper and boxes.

Nathan helped Amelia open her presents, she did a pretty good job unwrapping.

We took luminaries to my mothers grave christmas eve. It was the first year we have done it and apparently it is quite the christmas eve tradition. The cemetery looked beautiful with the snow and luminaries everywhere. There were tons of families there singing carols too.

Amelia in her christmas pj's. She was pretty excited to open a present.

Amelia and Nellie during the christmas eve party.

Amelia even learned to ride a bike. We start them young in this family. (Actually this bike was a present for a little girl in my grandparents ward, Amelia made sure it was in good working order)

Happy Holidays

2010-12-18T22:35:00.002-07:00

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Amelia and I (yep- I'm back to a coppery red head)

Amelia sitting by the christmas tree, notice how she's pulled off her bow and headband, she's pretty quick at that.

This is our christmas card photo this year- we thought it would be funny if we all wore winter hats and short sleeve shirts because of the weather down here. Of course Amelia is slightly blurry, trying to get a 8 month old to sit still for a minute is INSANE...

Candy cane from Santa, I gave it to her to play with and next thing I know she broke it in half and was sucking on it. She was not a happy camper when I took it away.

Amelia and Santa, I was so happy she didn't cry or yank on his beard. She just stared at him. By the way this Santa totally looked legit.

Fall Fun

2010-12-03T20:56:00.004-07:00

I had the chance to take Amelia to visit the school my mom worked at, Farnsworth was like a second family to us growing up. This is a photo of Amelia and I sitting on one of the two benches they have at the enterance of the school. The bench says "In Memory of Julie Felgar".

Amelia playing with her aunt Katie, she loves her aunt Katie.

Amelia and Nathan playing in the snow in Arizona.

Her new favorite thing- the stairs.

Amelia and Nana on Thanksgiving.

I know I've kinda turned into one of those bloggers who only updates every month, so I apologize. In my defense Amelia has become super mobile. Like mega lightening fast. She turned 8 months on monday and yesterday she crawled up 5 stairs! Today I wanted to show Nathan how great she was at climbing up the stairs and she crawled up all 16 of them. This morning I made the mistake of turning my back for a moment and where do I find her? she climbed up 3 stairs! She also left teeth marks on the coffee table when I went to get a drink. I can't leave her alone for a second.

Thanksgiving went really well, we drove to Nathan's parents home in Arizona and spent time with family. Amelia loved thanksgiving food, especially pumpkin pie, she would have ate the whole slice if I had let her. She also experienced snow for the first time and didn't know really how to react to it. She has also become quite the funny gal with food. If she can see someone eating something she really wants to eat it too. She's also loves to stand up and hold on to the furniture and walk, she is growing up so fast. (And she has two bottom teeth)

November was kinda a rough month, emotionally (for me), but thanks to the love and support from our family and friends, we made it through. The art museum is currently running a fabulous modern art exhibit which thrills me beyond belief. I was also asked to be a part of a group of local artists who design sidewalk art for the New Year's Eve celebration, which is nerve wracking and exciting.

Nathan is enjoying playing volleyball and works super hard. I asked him what I should add on his behalf and of course he replied nothing. So needless to say he is doing well and loves being a dad.

These are the days of our lives, or the past month of it!

2010-11-04T19:22:00.004-06:00

Here are some photos of Amelia because I know thats why you are really here to see our blog!

Amelia and daddy before trick or treating

Amelia rocking out with pots and bowls- she loves bowls on her head

This is the face of the innocent child who wreaks havoc at our house

Did I mention I love Halloween?

Amelia the moo cow who cannot moo but blows raspberries instead

Sorry to those individuals who actually read this blog- my absence from the blogging world was due to the fact that my child can CRAWL! Amelia has been crawling for the last month and these past few weeks she has become very fast. She's into everything, crawling everywhere, and getting into places she cannot get out of. She has also been pulling herself up to a standing position, making her quite the climber (she can even climb out of her bumbo!). She also likes to turn pages of books, play with anything electronic, and wave to people. 7 months is such a fun age!

Nathan is preparing to go on a business trip this weekend, and Amelia and I will not be coming along. We'll be visiting my family and friends instead. I'm not looking forward to being apart from Nathan, but it will be really fun to show everyone Amelia at such a fun stage of her life. Nathan is also playing volleyball on our wards co-ed team. He is really excited to be playing again. Nathan is also convinced that Amelia will be walking by Christmas- if he is right- we're in trouble!!!

I have been quite busy with the Educational Committee at the art museum. I put together a special event next Wednesday night for our docents and its been quite the experience. I'm also teaching an art class to 3rd graders next week on Marc Chagall, which should be fun. Amelia and Nathan also had colds last week, which made for an extremely tired me. I'm so grateful that they are doing much better now and we were still able to celebrate Halloween, my favorite holiday.

I love the fall but I've been really dreading November. I'm really missing my mom right now. As much as I love Amelia, she reminds me of what I lost. Thank goodness I have such a wonderful support system all around me, I am so blessed.

6 months already!

2010-10-02T14:33:00.006-06:00

Amelia is now 6 months old and as Nathan says "she's starting to be at the fun age". She talks and gabs constantly, I think she gets that from me! She also is on the move! She rolls places and then starts scooting backwards, when she figures out how to go forward we are really in for it. The baby proofing has begun.

Amelia at the ward swim party- she loves playing in the water

Wearing daddy's hat

Playing in a box

Chillin in her new highchair

Her new favorite thing is magazines- she can rip them apart in seconds!

Last weekend we went to Zion's National Park. It was the first time for Amelia and I and Nathan was really excited to take us. Entrance to the park was free and the shuttles were packed. We had a nice picnic lunch up there and went on a small hike after. Amelia LOVED it.

Amelia all tuckered out on the shuttle back to our car

Quick diaper change break

Riding on Nathan's back- Amelia loves shoulder rides so she was in heaven!

Loving the hike and being outdoors- how can you resist that smile?

Ode to Summer

2010-09-07T21:28:00.006-06:00

Amelia found her toes.

Fun at the California Science Center.

Ate oatmeal for the first time- Amelia hated it.

Nathan experienced a hurricane.

Went to a pirate dinner and show.

We took Amelia to the beach- she hated the sand.

Amelia made obscene hand gestures.

Amelia went swimming for the first time and liked it a lot more than the beach.

Amelia and Daddy found more things they have in common.

Amelia rockin' her red hair mohawk.

4 months old

2010-08-07T09:47:00.006-06:00

By Snow Canyon making a pit stop for Amelia on our way home from Pine Valley

Nathan and Amelia at the chapel in Pine Valley

Amelia's impressive shoe collection- she's almost grown out of most of them...sad sad sad...

Amelia being cute

On her way to her 4 month doctor's appointment, as you can see she's not too excited.

Daddy and Amelia reading stories

Amelia being cute again...

Pulling mommy's hair and drooling at the same time, she's a girl of many talents

Amelia wearing the dress that Joanna gave her- she LOVED it!

Amelia busting out her amazing Twister skills

Amelia is now 4 months old and Nathan thinks she's almost to the fun age. Not sure what the fun age is, I think she's pretty fun now. She puts EVERYTHING into her mouth and drools non stop. She also loves to practice standing, dancing, and sitting up. At her 4 month doctor appointment we found out her head is in the 99th percentile!! She also weighs 14. 7 lbs. I can't believe how much she's grown. She has been sleeping through the night like clockwork for the last 2 months. She's also been going to sleep by herself for the last 2 months as well. We are very lucky. I am very grateful that she is such an easy mellow baby. It almost makes me want more...almost.

Nathan passed is one year evaluation at work and is enjoying becoming the quality engineer for the company. He has a business trip to LA in a few weeks and Amelia and I are going to tag along. I can't wait to take Amelia and Nathan to the beach! We are really excited our pediatrician gave us the green light to take Amelia to go to LA, we were worried due to the whooping cough epidemic California is dealing with.

We took a trip up to Pine Valley because we've never been up there before. We were able to take a tour of the oldest chapel still in use which was pretty neat. The other neat thing was that it was 20 degrees cooler up there. Definitely a plus. We stopped and had some Hawaiian Ice on the drive back, which is easily 50 times better than just a regular snow cone. If you haven't had some you are seriously missing out on a delightful treat.

Best Friends and Aquariums

2010-07-10T10:30:00.005-06:00

While up north for our big 4th of July shindig we had the chance to meet up with my best friend and her family in Sandy. They drove down from Logan just to meet up with us. It was so good to see them. I really miss her! We went to the aquarium and then had lunch at Joe's Crab Shack (in honor of the fish). I just know Tia and Amelia will be great friends (once Amelia is a little older!). Can't wait until our next get together!!!!!

Nathan showing Amelia the stingrays. The stingray even popped out of the water and almost touched her feet (which means I almost punched the stingray for touching my kid!).

Joanna and I- oh how I miss this girl!

Joanna showing Tia the penguins, she loved them!

Amelia was fascinated with the fish tanks especially the bright colored fish and the bubbles

more fish tank fun!

Catch up time!

2010-07-10T09:38:00.006-06:00

Sorry its been so long since I've posted but things have been a little crazy here. We've celebrated Father's Day, met up with an old roommate and had a HUGE shindig over the 4th of July. Here are some photo's from our latest adventures.

Over the 4th of July weekend we had a baptism and two baby blessings!

Here is Mackenzie (second on the left) who was baptized. She was so excited to be baptized on the 4th of July!!!

Here is Amelia in her blessing dress with purple shoes! She just loves to practice standing

Nathan is such a proud papa- he even tried to feed Amelia a cookie (luckily he was caught!)

Amelia had way too much fun over the 4th of July weekend with all of her cousins! She even got to flaunt her style (with some help from her cousins).

We had a lot of fun at the Wheeler bbq; this was the first time baby Sarah and Amelia met. Sarah is only ten days older than Amelia and they were both blessed on the 4th of July.

We celebrated Nathan's first official Father's Day! Amelia even wore her "I love my daddy" onsie in honor of his special day. He received things he asked for and even a batch of burned cookies- boy he sure is loved!

We had the chance to meet up with my old roomie Lizzy and her family. It was fun to have our kids meet (and yes its completely surreal that we have kids now!) It was really good to see them briefly as they were passing through.

Smiling and Family Photos

2010-06-07T08:12:00.009-06:00

I thought I would try to post a photo of Amelia's smile because its so darn cute, the trouble is even though she is smiling all the time now (especially when people talk to her) she is also usually being very wiggly. Hence most of her smiling photos are blurry. I managed to take this one before she got too wiggly. She just loves to kick her legs and flail her arms about, even in her sleep she's wiggly. She just brightens our day!

About a month ago we had our first family photo shoot. Amelia did amazingly well she lasted about an hour and a half and was then done (which was good timing because Nathan was tired of getting his picture taken as well). We need to send some to the grandparents and get some prints for our home but I thought I would post some so everyone could see. I think they turned out great! Many thanks to my friend Rachael from Steele the Moment Photography.

We also ordered some birth announcements of Amelia and sent them to family but I thought I would post it so friends could see. They turned out really great!

2 Months Old!!!

2010-06-06T18:33:00.007-06:00

Amelia is two months old and we can hardly believe it! Here are her current stats: Weight 11.57 lbs (66%), Length 22.44 in (48%)- this one is hilarious because Nathan and I are so tall you'd figure our baby would be a giant! and head circumference 16.2 in (94%). Thats right our little girl has a huge head! Then again, all babies look like their heads are massive in comparison to their bodies.

Her hair is still very much strawberry blonde and looks very red in the sun- we love it! She has also discovered she can suck on her hands this past week and she sucks on them constantly- which makes a big slobbery mess that I'm always cleaning up. Also her latest trick is whining- I can't believe my two month old baby can whine but she sure can! We call it the "Aye Aye Aye's" she does it when she's not happy but before she goes into a full blown cry- its really makes us smile and laugh. I put a video of it at the end of this post so enjoy!

This is what happens when Daddy is left alone to play with Amelia.

Can you find her?

I had to post a photo of our pantry- we went to Target and they had Amelia's formula on sale (like REALLY on sale) so we stocked up. Then her pediatrician gave us 3 free cans!!!!

Amelia in her Bumbo- she only sits in it for a few minutes because she doesn't have full head control yet

Amelia's first shots

her two month photo

What better way to celebrate being two months? by having Aunt Diane and Uncle Paul stop by!

Last but not least- a video of Amelia's "aye aye aye"whine

(at 44 seconds is where you can hear it really good).

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-06T18:10:00.006-06:00

Over Memorial Day weekend we also took Amelia on her first road trip up north. She slept the whole way to my grandparents house in Spanish Fork! In fact- every time we went in the car she would fall asleep. This made traveling super easy; we are very grateful she was such a good traveler since we had a lot of people to see. We traveled up to Ogden to visit Nathan's grandma (whom Amelia's middle name is after), we went to Park City to see my friend Katie (who I've known since 3rd grade) get married, and utah county to visit more family!

Amelia Violet and great grandma Violet

Amelia meeting her Aunt Suzanne and cousin Mackenzie

Katie and I at her wedding in Park City

Amelia also had the chance to visit my mom's grave for the first time. Good thing my sister Katie was there!

Amelia's first time playing on the grass- as you can see all of my cousins had to come and play too

Fun with friends

2010-06-06T17:46:00.008-06:00

Wow we've been busy the last few weeks! Our friends Colby and Leslie came down from Logan to visit us and we had a blast with them at the Fiesta Fun Center- we introduced them to bumper boats and their lives will never be the same.

Amelia is having a blast- can't you tell?

bumper boats- before

bumper boats- after

Colby and Leslie mini golfing

Thanks for coming and staying with us on your way to Las Vegas! We had SO much fun!

The last few weeks-in photos!

2010-05-11T16:48:00.010-06:00

Things are going really well- Amelia is growing so much! she is almost into 0-3 month clothes (length wise they fit but everywhere else they are still baggy). She has mastered the artful skill of drooling and blowing spit bubbles to our delight. Mother's Day was wonderful, Nathan gave me a picture frame with three photos in it. The first photo was of him when he was two months, the middle photo was Amelia at a month and the last was a photo of me a month old. What a great creative idea- I loved it! Nathan also made a super yummy dinner- he is the best! Amelia is so lucky to have him for a dad.

Tummy time! (yes she is looking at a book with art- ha ha ha)

Nathan and Amelia watching Saturday morning cartoons- they are best buddies!

Amelia next to her toys- she's growing so fast! (her crib is full of her toys since she's not sleeping in it yet- once she is they'll be removed)

Nathan and Amelia having nap time

Amelia and I on Mother's Day

I snapped this quick photo of our family (you can tell I was fast because of Nathan's expression sorry Nathan!)

3 weeks old!

2010-04-21T10:45:00.006-06:00

I think I am obsessed with photographing little Amelia. I'm constantly taking pictures of everything- everyday. I wonder if there is a support group for that?! Anyway here are a few photo's of her.

Amelia's strawberry blond hair

Proof that her hands are always by her face- even when she eats!

My friend Micki came over to our house and took a few photos of Amelia (okay so we had a lot of fun and we have tons of photos to prove it but I'm only posting a few!) Here she is 3 weeks old!

Grandma Faye made this beautiful orange, yellow and white afghan for her- this photo makes me think of "I am like a star shining brightly- shining for the whole world to see!"

This is probably my favorite one of Miss Amelia with the blanket that my mom started and Grandma Helen finished.

she has my long fingers...

and Nathan's feet...

Miss Amelia (of course she is playing with her hands!)

Our life as zombies

2010-04-13T15:35:00.009-06:00

Amelia (2 weeks old)

Mommy and Amelia

She can pull the best faces!

Gassy smiles

Daddy daughter moment

Amelia getting ready to be swaddled

Amelia is three weeks old today and we can hardly believe how fast time has gone by. We are definitely experiencing the zombie-like status of parenthood. Amelia is such a mellow baby but we have had some reflux issues that we've been trying to figure out how to deal with. She has been gagging/choking when she spits up and it also comes out her nose. This can happen in the middle of the night, after feedings or pretty much anytime (in her bassinet, bouncy chair, swing...you get the point). Her pediatrician switched her formula and we've already seen some improvement- she's spit up a few times but is no longer choking on it. Now if we could just get it to come out of her bottles easier! Its a thicker formula so we widened the nipples from her bottles with sewing pins- its still is taking her forever to eat....work in progress I guess. So with her new formula and a new bassinet (its designed for babies with reflux issues-if anyone wants more details let me know-its gotten rave reviews!) we are crossing our fingers that the choking issues are behind us. So far things are looking promising.

Here are some fun little things we've learned about Amelia so far:

1. She loves to snuggle (one of her fav spots is lying on her tummy on your chest so she can snuggle into your neck).

2. She likes to be swaddled but only if you let her arms be free.

3. Her arms must be free so she can have them by her face (and she usually does at all times).

4. She snorts and grunts.... (more snorting then grunting).

5. She is ticklish on her feet and under her chin.

6. She HATES to have a wet diaper- even if its barely wet, she will cry until its changed.

7. She has a love/hate relationship with her paci depending on the day.

8. She currently does not like to wear a hat- this changes on a daily basis.

9. She loves to just be in her diaper and have some "naked time".

10. She gets the hiccups at least twice a day-sometimes more sometimes less.

I am so grateful for Nathan's help. The first few nights after he went back to work I was getting up with Amelia so that he wouldn't be so tired for work, but he decided that wasn't okay. Knowing that I try to sleep during the day when she does but I usually can't (momma who is a light sleeper + noisy sleeping baby = no sleep for momma) he offered to help out during the night so that I could snag a couple of hours of rest. BEST HUSBAND EVER! So Nathan currently takes the first half the night and I take the second which means we are both zombies- but loving every minute of it!

Amelia's First Easter

2010-04-04T18:25:00.005-06:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Amelia in her bunny hat

Miss Amelia

Amelia's Arrival

2010-04-04T17:35:00.007-06:00

Well many of you are eager to know miss Amelia's birth story so here are the details as promised. Last Sunday after church I started feeling like I was leaking some amniotic fluid so Nathan and I debated whether or not we should go to the hospital to get it checked out. The debate lasted all afternoon and we finally decided around 8 pm to go to the hospital, better to be safe then sorry. By that time I had convinced myself it was a false alarm, Nathan reassured me that everyone has false alarms and this could be our trial run giving us a chance to familiarize ourself with the hospital in preparation for Tuesday. He packed our hospital bag in the truck just in case though and on the way over he said "Wouldn't it be funny if they just decided to induce you just because you were already there?" to which I told him that they never do that and Tuesday is our day. Blast him for being right.

At the hospital upon arrival I was at 4 cm. The amniotic fluid test came back negative and I had a deep sigh of relief, I had mentally prepared myself for Tuesday and I was glad I still had time. Turns out my doctor was on call that evening and she said that if I had any progress that they would admit me. Apparently I was having contractions every 5-7 min and sometimes 3-5 min but I could only feel them in my back so I had no idea they were coming that close. After an hour of monitoring I had progressed to a 4.5 cm and I was told I was staying put and having a baby. Enter emotional breakdown here, Nathan and I were both in shock. I began to shake and I didn't stop shaking until mid morning on monday.

They admitted us around 11 pm and we moved into our room where I received the epidural. The plan was to begin pitocin to help my contractions, and getting the epidural before the pitocin contractions started seemed like the smartest way to go. However the epidural's side effect is shaking- adding to my already existing shakes made me shake even more. Labor went pretty smoothly after that, Nathan was able to get a few hours of sleep and I tried to rest but I mostly just stared at the machines in shock. Six hours later it was time to push and about ten minutes later Amelia joined our family. Pretty speedy for a first time delivery. Thank goodness she turned and was no longer sunny side up- I was afraid I'd be pushing for hours. Amelia has a two little stork bites, one on her nose and forehead, we call them her rug burns because she came out so fast. Recovery has been the hardest part of labor and due to some complications that arose we are formula feeding, she is a very good eater and sleeper and is a very mellow baby.

Even though it was a huge shock that the hospital kept us and we had our baby a day earlier then planned, we are glad that Amelia is here and healthy. We are enjoying getting to know her likes and dislikes and she is constantly making us laugh. We are truly blessed to have her in our family.

She's Here!!!

2010-03-29T13:19:00.010-06:00

Amelia Violet Wheeler finally came. She was born March 29th, 2010. She weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was only 19 inches long. The length was a bit surprising due to how tall her parents are. Both Mommy and Amelia are doing great. Here are some pictures that we have so far.

Some Visuals

2010-03-25T19:55:00.004-06:00

The last little while we haven't posted any pictures of the things that we have been doing. Seeing that pictures are worth a thousand words, this will fill in the details.

After we finished painting "Lentil's" and the guest room Nathan got to pick out a color for the loft. As you can see it's very bright which makes up for not having any lights set up in it. Depending on the natural light that comes in from the windows it's any where from a yellow to a solid orange. It really helps Nathan wake up when he goes and exercises in the morning.

After the loft was finished being painted Stephanie was really worried that the mood of the walls no longer goes with the furniture. That lead us to the first piece of art that we have bought together. Stephanie still doesn't think the room goes together but since its Nathan's "Man Cave" she is learning to deal with it.

This was the night that we started to pack our hospital bag because we thought Stephanie would go into labor at any moment. As you can see there is much love between this mother and daughter.

This is Stephanie at a whopping 40+ weeks. For about the last two months Stephanie has been wearing Nathan's T-shirts with her yoga paints. She feels like she's a lazy slob for not getting dressed up all the time, but at this point anything that she can do to get a little comfort is worth it.

This lets you see a little better at how big she is. Most people can't believe that she is more than 7 months but this is also coming from people that have never seen Stephanie before she got pregnant. Nathan thinks its just perfect.

Hopefully you all enjoyed a little view of what we've been up to.

Due date is here without Lentil

2010-03-23T21:40:00.004-06:00

Well Lentil's due date is passing us by, depending on who you ask (Nathan says its the 23rd and I say its the 24th) either way not much is happening. Who would have thought we'd go late? certainly not us, nor any of our family members, or even the doctor. So here we still sit and wait- patiently and sometimes not so patiently.

I can't believe how much our lives are about to change; most of the time when I really think about it, it really freaks me out. I'm so glad I have Nathan to go through these adventures with me, he keeps me sane.

P.S- Lentil is posterior (sunny side up) which explains all this awesome back pain I'm having (I have to say awesome to refrain from other words). Labor should be fun if she remains posterior, all I have to say is thank goodness for epidurals! This next week should be fun- we'll definitely join the parental ranks by next tuesday.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2010-03-17T15:54:00.003-06:00

Well today is St. Patrick's Day and I celebrated with a bowl of Lucky Charms this morning, and yes I ate all the oat cereal parts first saving the marshmallow's for last. I thought about making something Irish for dinner tonight for fun but all I could think of was corned beef and cabbage, and I really don't like corned beef. Maybe I'll just dye our food green...

Well I just get to the update that everyone wants to know about- no baby yet. I thought it would be really fun for her to come today, however, I sincerely doubt it. My doctor was out of town for half the week last week and she told me not to go into labor while she was away, at this week's appointment she told me she was shocked that I haven't had her yet. Talk about sending me mixed messages! So here we wait for contractions to become regular. I do have an induction scheduled for March 30th so she has until then to come on her own or she'll be evicted. I can't believe that we only have two weeks left (or less!).

No baby but orange walls!

2010-03-02T19:45:00.003-07:00

Well this past week or so Nathan's wish for an orange wall came true. He actually has two orange walls. We painted the loft over the weekend and it really brings some pizazz to our home. We are pretty spunky people so why not have our home reflect our personality? However, our downstairs looks really boring as all the walls are still a boring beige color. We'll eventually jazz them up too.

Nathan and I found a piece of art for the loft to tie in the other colors of the room (which is no easy task with the shade of orange he picked) but I'm debating if it will really work. So right now its just leaning up against the wall, my instinct tells me to find something else that is more funky. Anyone have any ideas on where to find a neat painting?

Lentil is doing well- still cooking. Nathan really wanted her to come today because then her birthday would have been 3-2-10 (blastoff!) but she had other plans to stay put. I am currently 37 weeks so I'm considered term today. I went to the doctors today and there hasn't been any change since last weeks progression, I'm still 2.5-3 cm dilated and 70% effaced. I think I'm going to be walking around like this for awhile- which is okay because we need all the time we can get to mentally prepare!

Nathan is really starting to enjoy his job, he's a team leader for one project and is working with teams on other projects. He is a super busy boy. He is also getting even more excited and impatient for Lentil to come join our family.

35 Weeks!

2010-02-17T15:46:00.002-07:00

This is just a quick little pregnancy update. I went to my doctor's appointment yesterday (which are now going to be on a weekly basis- I can't believe it!) and I am officially 35 weeks, which means 2 more weeks until I am term and 5 more weeks until I am full term! I was also shocked to find out that I am 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced, little Lentil is head down and already dropped as well. Nathan is REALLY excited about this progress, even though I explained to him that women can be dilated for weeks before labor starts. He is still super excited. I was a little more freaked out, especially when my doctor told me that if I went into labor now they wouldn't stop it- which makes everything seem very, VERY, REAL! Its not like I've been in denial about being pregnant (its kinda hard to ignore the basketball in front of you prevent you from doing everything!) however, its becoming very real that time is winding down. I think I will start putting a list together of things to pack for the hospital bag- I can't believe we are almost done!

What a whirlwind and its only THURSDAY!

2010-02-11T11:24:00.009-07:00

Sewing project: carseat canopy! this is the finished result

Here is the another view of the canopy and the contrasting fabric on the other side

Here is a close up of the fabrics

Freezer meals! our top drawer in our freezer is completely full (and organized nicely)

Pumpkin chocolate chip bread- yum yum!

Nathan getting the nursery ready to paint

Shelley painting around the baseboards

Starting to paint the nursery!

Lentil's room is painted! here is her crib with her bedding (we'll be changing out the bumpers to breathable kind when she moves into her crib)

A close up of the bedding, somewhat girly but still modern and funky!

Another view of her bedding and some of her stuffed animals

(just in the crib for fun for right now)

Changing table

Another view of the nursery with the glider rocker

Nathan taping off the guest room- this was his first time painting a room- he did AWESOME!

Nathan peeling the tape off

Me helping to paint- I did the middle of the walls, Nathan had to do up high and down low.

All done! Nathan picked the color and everyone loves it!

(I guess living with an artist is rubbing off)

This week has been super crazy busy for us! We've accomplished so much, which feels really good, but the sore muscles feel not so good. Nathan and I painted the guest room Saturday night and cranked out the whole room in 2 hours. My aunt Shelley and uncle Curt came down and had a "getaway" weekend, we had some fun date nights. Curt left on Sunday and Shelley stayed with us to help us with some projects (she just left this morning).

Monday we grocery shopped and cranked out 18 freezer meals. Tuesday we cranked out another 6 and painted the nursery and put the bedding in. Thats 24 meals in two days! (22 now since we ate two to try them out!) plus we froze cookie dough and loaves pumpkin chocolate bread for treats. These freezer meals will come in handy after the baby comes and I'm so grateful for Shelley's freezer meal knowledge- I learned so much!

Tuesday and Wednesday we also did a lot of shopping, picking up odds and ends for the nursery, painting, and getting stuff ready for the baby to come (it really helps having someone who has kids telling you helpful hints to make everything easier). Wednesday we also made a carseat cover for Lentil's carseat (ok so I did more watching and Shelley did the sewing). These past few days have been such a whirlwind filled with a lot of laughs and busy busy days! (my legs are so sore from all the running around!) THANKS so much for all your help Shelley!

Trimester

2010-02-09T21:59:00.002-07:00

From XKCD.COM

Family Baby Shower

2010-02-05T09:13:00.007-07:00

I had to find a photo of Loralie with her darling son Bruce (he was the star of the party), he is so CUTE!

Nathan's finger puppet that Aunt Diane and Uncle Paul gave us, this gift couldn't represent Nathan better! He loved it! (I loved how Aunt Diane had to show Nathan where to put his fingers)

Lentil's room after we arrived home- we are very blessed, thank you everyone!

Another view of the nursery

Lentil's first Madame Alexander doll- Nellie gave it to her (Nellie got one when she was little and wanted to start the tradition with Lentil- how sweet!)

Presents everywhere!

Lentil's crib bedding set from my dad- just incase you were wondering we are painting the walls the purple gray color (next week's project)

Nathan was so excited to get clothes that say "daddy" on them

Lentil's first "tree hugger shirt!" it says "little miss nature" on it

Aunt Diane and Uncle Paul know me too well- this is Lentil's tree hugger book- made from recycled materials and its about saving the environment!

Me pointing to my eyes as I'm crying- this blanket was started by my mom and found among her things after she passed away, my grandma Helen finished it for me (there wasn't a dry eye in the room)

Quilt made by my grandma Helen

Sitting by the gifts

Loralie, Me (of course being a dork and laughing) and Nellie

My sister Katie and my Aunt Shelly (party planners!)

Aunt Jill and Aunt Dee

Faye, Aunt Diane, Sharon, and Suzanne

Our fab buffet

Take home favors- Katie did an awesome job!

The family shower was a blast! Thank you to everyone who came! It was so much fun laughing and spending the afternoon with friends and family. The boys hung out downstairs and played the Wii and the gals enjoyed the party. Unfortunately, my grandma Helen woke up that morning with the flu and was unable to join us for the shower. It was sad that she couldn't come out of her room to join us but you can't control when you get sick, she is doing much better now. My family has been very excited for this new baby (I think Lentil will bring a lot of healing and joy to our family) so they went a little crazy buying gifts, I was opening presents for over an hour! However, we are very grateful for everyone's generosity! The gift that was the most special was a crocheted pink afghan that my mom was working on for someone when she passed away, my family found it, and my grandma finished it for me (thank goodness Lentil is a girl). Of course I was crying and so was everyone else- it is something that I will treasure forever. Thank you again to everyone!!!

Just a few things-

2010-01-27T20:57:00.005-07:00

This is an exciting week for us. Tuesday was Steph's birthday and we attended baby class which was on baby safety (cpr, heimlich maneuver, etc.), we also had our car seat checked by safety technicians to make sure it was installed correctly. On Friday, we will be driving north to spend time with family who are throwing us a family baby shower. Nathan is even taking a half day so we can go up early.

Nathan also rearranged "the man cave" aka the loft- I'm still trying to decide if I like the new arrangement, it works though. We also welcomed a new niece two weeks ago, and we are really excited for Steven and Kara!

Star Wars Man

2010-01-27T20:25:00.013-07:00

So we don't normally post links to stuff but we had to post this one! We came across a different link of this pianist (Jason Lyle Black) who showed up Jon

Schmidt during Schmidt's own concert (which rocked since we CAN'T stand

Jon Schmidt).

Anyway- check out this video of Jason Lyle Black's musical parodies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlsBGygj2xQ

29 weeks and counting!

2010-01-10T15:32:00.006-07:00

Baby bump at 29 weeks

Our new travel system!

The stroller!

The carseat!

For our combined birthday gifts we purchased a travel system for Lentil. Nathan was excited because it arrived on his birthday- so it truly was a birthday gift! We had been researching travel systems for weeks, checking out safety ratings and recalls. We found this Chicco travel system (Chicco has some of the highest safety ratings) for an INCREDIBLE deal- like such a smokin' hot deal we could not pass it up (think Graco prices and you'll know how sweet of a deal it was). We were so excited we put it together yesterday and we've already installed the base in our car!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2010-01-10T15:15:00.002-07:00

Nathan and I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo on his birthday

Nathan reading his birthday cards he received from family

Nathan's birthday cake- he wanted a spice cake with coconut pecan frosting (he always asks for this cake for his birthday)

Nathan making a wish and blowing out the candles!

Phew its January already!

2010-01-06T08:39:00.004-07:00

Nathan putting together the glider rocker- thanks Grandpa, Grandma and aunt Jill- its perfect!

Christmas oranges- mine's the chocolate one, since I'm allergic

The candy cane cookies we left for Santa- its Nathan's mom's recipe and its super yummy! I made them with Kenzie and Kholer (niece and nephew), which was no small task!

December flew by and we have now welcomed in the new year. For Christmas we stayed down south and just had it with the two of us, it was our last Christmas with our family consisting of two members- next year Lentil will be with us. We also went to the movies on Christmas day (which evidently is what every other family did, since the theaters were PACKED!) We saw Sherlock Holmes, Nathan had been wanting to read the books and since he got them for Christmas he was pretty excited. He has really developed an appetite to read since we've gotten married, and he has already planned on what books he wants to read to Lentil for bed time stories (Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings are at the top of the list, I was thinking Dr. Seuss, so I guess we'll be doing a little of both!)

I am now officially in my third trimester and boy do I feel it! Lentil moves around like crazy- I wonder if she'll have a hyper personality? I have been feeling somewhat off these past two weeks and at my dr's appointment on Monday they found my body has some kind of infection. They aren't sure what kind of infection, but I am now on some antibiotics- and hopefully I'll be back to 100% soon. I almost feel like I'm back in my first trimester with nausea and food aversions. I also took the Gestational Diabetes test on Monday and I'm happy to report NO baby diabetes here! The drink actually made me even more sick and I was INCREDIBLY grateful that my dr's office only does a finger prick- they don't draw blood for the test. Nathan is getting more and more excited as he is constantly telling me how many weeks we have left. He is going to be a great dad!

Happy December!

2009-12-17T10:12:00.009-07:00

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)

2009-12-05T21:00:00.003-07:00

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!

2009-11-20T09:32:00.006-07:00

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

2009-11-18T08:44:00.004-07:00

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

2009-11-08T15:26:00.004-07:00

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...

2009-11-06T16:46:00.001-07:00

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

Bonjour-Hi from Montreal

2009-10-27T06:53:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-10-16T20:13:00.004-06:00

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

2009-10-16T19:40:00.005-06:00

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!

2009-10-03T15:22:00.005-06:00

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

2009-09-30T08:39:00.002-06:00

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

2009-09-13T19:33:00.003-06:00

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!!!

2009-08-23T14:07:00.004-06:00

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!

2009-08-12T09:33:00.002-06:00

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'

2009-08-09T17:15:00.003-06:00

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

2009-06-13T14:38:00.005-06:00

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

2009-06-08T21:00:00.007-06:00

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

2009-06-08T20:52:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-05-31T20:06:00.004-06:00

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

2009-05-31T19:44:00.003-06:00

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!

2009-05-31T19:32:00.006-06:00

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!!

2009-05-31T19:30:00.002-06:00

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!

2009-04-23T18:36:00.003-06:00

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!

2009-03-12T21:55:00.000-06:00

Nathan and I had a wonderful time visiting Matt and Lori in Illonois. We wished we could have stayed a longer! Lori took us on a drive around a wonderful little park near their house and when Nathan and I saw this covered bridge we had to go check it out. Nathan feel in love with them on his mission so we decided to have Lori take a snapshot of us by one. It was the only one we saw on the trip and it was a special treat!

Sick of being sick

2009-02-15T22:15:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to quickly blog whats new- Nathan caught a cold about a week or so ago and is still feeling under the weather. I don't often see him sick (because it never happens!) so I've tried to be a good little wifey and take care of him. He seems to be improving slowly, he still has a brutal cough which leads to little coughing attacks. I know tis the season for influenza, its at a peak right now, so we think that's what it is. Hopefully he gets better quickly. This has been the first time since I've known him to even take cough drops, so you can tell he's REALLY not feeling well. So far I've been lucky and haven't caught it (yet.....)

Stephanie's new hair...

2009-02-08T10:30:00.003-07:00

SO....I decided that since I'm kinda going through the angry phase of grieving that I needed a drastic change....something edgy and artsy, Nathan was STRONGLY against my first choice of getting my nose pierced (which I must confess has always been a closet desire of mine, must be the artsy side). So that left a tattoo or changing the hair, since I REALLY don't like any pain of any kind, I opted for the haircut. Nathan loves long hair and I told him I would keep it kinda long, which meant of course it would end up shorter than I thought. I was going to go red but it fades really fast so I went a golden brown with red and blond highlights, I really love it! I now have 1/5 the hair I had, they thinned the crap out it! Which makes me love it more!!! I have normal hair!!!! Nathan thinks I'm rather silly, but he's really supportive, I lucked out with a great guy!

2009-02-08T10:29:00.002-07:00

Here is a side view of my new pony tail- it fits it one elastic! (never done that before!)

This is my rouge look, if I part my hair just right, all the highlights are on one side, for those days that I really feel angry at the world. Please ignore the just woke up look, I just woke up and took the pic.

Steph's birthday trip.

2009-02-08T10:14:00.002-07:00

On Jan. 24th Nathan took me to Hardware Ranch up Blacksmith Fork Canyon to go on a sleigh ride and see the wild elk. We bundled up and headed out even though it was raining, it was still really impressive to see these wild animals so close. This was a perfect birthday present because I have always wanted to go on a sleigh ride!

2009-02-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

Here's some more pictures from Hardware Ranch...

Injured again...

2009-02-08T09:58:00.002-07:00

On Feb. 3rd Nathan was at work and accidentally hit his head on a trailer hitch, giving himself a nice head wound that bled for a good three hours or so. He also had three goose eggs to go with it and a headache that lasted a few days. Being Nathan, he refused to go get stitches and insisted it would heal up just fine. I think he didn't want the stitches messing up his hair. He is doing much better now, and has a lovely scab, that he continues to try to pick off....much to my dismay.

Starting the year off right???

2009-01-06T20:34:00.002-07:00

This is a picture of the fun Nathan had with fireworks on New Years Eve. While at a party he lit a package of blackcats and underestimated how long the fuse was. Needless to say a few of his fingers received these burns. I missed all the excitement ( I was inside) but when I came out onto the porch to watch more fireworks a friend said "Nathan tried to kill himself with a firework!" After assessing the damage I just laughed, boys will always be boys!

2008-12-29T22:29:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favorite pictures of us...it is also my trial run at loading pics onto a blog. Nathan is a genius he figured out a way to bypass my problem! Gotta love my wonderful hubby!

Our Christmas Delight!

2008-12-27T18:11:00.004-07:00

Nathan and I had the wonderful opportunity of spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my grandparents and great aunts. Christmas Eve was spent playing the notorious Hand And Foot card game that my family is famous for, and some other fun card games. We munched on goodies that ward members had brought them and enjoyed some much needed laughter.

On Christmas morning my little sister Katie woke Nathan and I up around 7:30 am. It seemed like we had just barely gone to sleep. I don't sleep much anymore and my constant tossing and turning usually wakes Nathan up as well, needless to say we were still tired. My little sister was very insistent on opening the gifts right then, but since she had to wait for grandpa and aunt Dee we let her open her stocking gifts. This gave us the time for aunt Dee to arrive and grandpa to finish getting ready. My grandpa then delivered a brief devotional and family prayer, which included a moment of silence in honor of my mom. My grandma and I bawled.

Nathan got to play the "sorting santa" and he was very excited. It was the first time he'd held that position on christmas and he loved passing out the gifts to everyone. He surprised me with a camcorder! We are both graduating soon and starting new chapters of our life, now we can begin to document them on DVD's and not just in photos. This gift will come in handy I can already tell! My mom had actually gotten Nathan and I some christmas presents, she got Nathan a Wii accessories sports package, and me she got a waffle iron (there is an inside joke with that). I couldn't open it, it was too hard, so it is still half wrapped under our tree. Waiting for a day when I'm stronger.

Christmas afternoon Nathan and I went to Faye and Mikes place to watch the boys open their gifts. It was so cute to see Adam handing gifts to his brothers saying "this from me". Faye and Mike got their boys 72 hour kits, which was really cool. Mike made the comment that "this Christmas they were following the prophet". That really left an impression on me that I will not soon forget. Nathan was super excited to receive his bean bag that Faye made him. Good thing Brayden was there to help us get it into the car, it barely fit, taking up the WHOLE back seat! Betcha we looked pretty funny to the other drivers! ha ha ha :)

We had to drive home that evening because Nathan had to work the next morning. The roads were great, we had some rain but not too bad until we hit Willard. The rain turned to snow and the wind picked up creating near blackout conditions. The snow was coming down fast and hard, and sticking to the ground creating very slick roads. We made it to Brigham City by going 15 mph on i15. We tried going up the canyon but we only made it about 50 ft before we lost traction and decided to whether out the storm. We stayed in the first motel we could find, the fabulous kind where the bathroom doesn't have a doorknob.

We are SO thankful that Burger King was open, we were able to have a unique Christmas dinner there. We had to walk there because the roads were not drivable unless you had 4 wheel drive. As we left the next morning we got stuck trying to get out of the motel parking lot. Luckily some nice people helped us out and we were on our way. We made it back to Logan but realized that our street hadn't been plowed. With the fresh foot of new snow we knew we couldn't make it to our drive way. Nathan and I spent the next hour and a half digging out our driveway and shoveling our street, trying to make a pathway to drive up it. We still got stuck. Luckily a neighbor towed us up to our driveway. We laugh now but it was kinda frustrating. They didn't plow our street until late that evening.

Throughout this whole ordeal it gave Nathan and I a great opprotunity to serve others. We helped dig out our upstairs neighbors. Shoveling goes sooooo much faster when you have help. We are grateful for the moisture, but more grateful for the free set of snow tires Nathan was able to get at work today. I simply told him "That's because we pay our tithing!" Blessings do come when you obey the Lord, and I am grateful for the smallest of smallest ones :)

Empty and Numb

2008-11-23T09:57:00.003-07:00

This past week has been an emotional roller coaster and I HATE roller coasters! Last Saturday my mom went into cardiac arrest outside of her apartment building, she was found by a neighbor who called 911. They originally took her to Alta View Hospital but then life flighted her to Intermountain Medical Center. They placed her in a drug induced coma and on life support while conducting many many tests to determine how much damage occurred to her brain. Nathan and I drove as fast as we legally could down to Salt Lake to be with her and my family. We prayed as much as we could but she was not ment to be with us. Our family terminated life support on thursday because there was nothing else the doctors could do and she wasn't going to ever recover. She was only 48. She was my best friend and I miss her more than anything, these last few years we've become exceptionally close. I just can't picture her gone, the fact that she'll never call me again or send Nathan and I candy corn randomly throughout october with funny cards. This has been the hardest week of my life-I'm really struggling with the fact that she is gone, it happened so fast and so unexpectedly. Always hold close to your family, you never know when they will be taken from you. I do not wish this pain on anyone-

We all love ice cream....

2008-11-11T22:51:00.001-07:00

Nathan is ....

Stephanie is ....

What are you????

I am a free spirited tree hugger! I wonder which princess Nathan would be...hee hee

2008-10-07T22:53:00.002-06:00

You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Time flies

2008-09-28T17:25:00.004-06:00

These past few weeks since I last posted have gone by in a blur. Nathan spent 12 hours last Sunday at church, going to several meetings, a ward conference, and an additional ward. He is really enjoying his stake calling but I think that 12 hours was enough, even for him. I on the other hand recently found out I'm allergic to Nickle Sulfate, which is in such things as stainless steel appliances, green pool table felt and more! I did a allergy patch test last week,which consists of three big stickers placed on your back, with rows and columns of different chemicals that are in everyday products. Nickle Sulfate was my worst reaction. I personally laughed when my doctor told me about the green pool table felt, and when Nathan found out, he simply replied "I guess we'll have to just by the red ones!". School is going well for both of us, Nathan is doing awesome at starting his homework early so it doesn't build up, I tend to wait til the last minute. Its really scary to me to think that in May we'll be graduated, I think that's why I've lost my motivation for homework. Who knows what new adventures we'll begin after graduation! I am really grateful for all the friends we've met along the way, being in Logan has brought such joy to my life and blessed me in many ways.

5k attempt

2008-09-06T22:21:00.003-06:00

Nathan and I decided to go to the MSA (married student association) institute activity this morning which was a 5k. Due to our lack of sweet running skills, we thought it best to avoid injury and to walk it. We made it around one lap of the course when we decided that breakfast sounded better than lap 2, so we cheated. Breakfast was delicious. The rest of the day was spent chillin in our jammies, doing homework and being completely lazy. Its a recreational sport college students dominate.

Here is what we are currently working on: Nathans working on his final fantasy game and steph is avoiding finishing a portrait ( its of nathan when he was about 2)

Welcome one and all

2008-09-01T20:12:00.002-06:00

Everyone has been trying to get us to start a blog, so we finally caved. I hope none of you expect marvels because needless to say I'm not the most computer savvy individual. In fact, trying to set our blog up was quiet a frustrating ordeal for me. Nathan was somewhat helpful and ever so mellow about the whole ordeal. I hope all of you will be patient as we try to add a variety of things. For all those who know my art, you know that this will be a work in progress, and never perfect enough for my liking. We welcome you into our lives and hope you enjoy it as much as we do!