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

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

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

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

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

Getting Lentil's Room Ready!

The finished changing table

Nathan putting the finishing touches on

the changing table

The cribs done! Complete with extra firm mattress

to make it extra safe

Nathan putting the crib together

Peeling off labels/stickers on the changing tables

(sweet outfit yes I know!)

Putting the changing table together

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

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

the Target employees had all evening!

Up and Down, Up and Down

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

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

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

Our little Girl

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

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

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

I'll keep this short...

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

Bonjour-Hi from Montreal

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

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

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

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

Never a dull moment!

Nathan rocking his pink tie for breast cancer awareness month

The much sought after belly pic with awesome elastic pants!

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