babies

Summer is great for:

By Nanette On September 1st, 2010

outdoor yoga

wildflowers

hiking

backpacking

vegetable gardens (even if they stubbornly will not grow)

cool weather

vacations

yard work

lake powell:

and much, much more…… (to come)

Invasion of the body snatcher

By Nanette On August 25th, 2010

Although it’s been really hard watching my body change so rapidly, I’ve been pretty good about documenting the change. It’s crazy to look back just a few months, and see how much smaller I was! So, here are my first 31 weeks of change. In my opinion, the most exciting change is from week 30 to 31; the painted nursery! I know these pictures are small, but if you click on them, they get bigger.  **In google reader, this collage looks pretty retarded, and there are no captions.**

Proof that I am incapable of making a decision:

By Nanette On August 21st, 2010

This wall represents about 10 trips to Home Depot, $15 in paint samples, and 100 hours spent trying to find the perfect “gray blue” color for the nursery. I felt much better after the paint guy at Home Depot told me that he had helped a lady earlier that day who was on paint sample # 30 in her search for the perfect color.

Finding a color has been hard; choosing a name is proving impossible!

Yep, it was a great anniversary

By Nanette On August 21st, 2010

Jared had the genius idea to park at the top of Guardsman’s pass and bike down into park city. That way we had alot of fun downhill, and virtually no uphill biking. (I’m getting rather slow.)

I am looking very pregnant at 30 weeks:

We at lunch at El Chubasco’s in Park City, and then Jared’s dad drove us back up Guardsman’s to our car. Side note:  it is dumbfounding (and heartbreaking) to see the amount, and scale of development in that area that Deer Valley has done.

We had big plans for a fancy dinner, but had eaten such a big lunch that neither of us were hungry by dinnertime. I was really just craving a super rich chocolate cake, so we headed to Cafe Normandie for a light dinner and really good dessert. Neither of us had been there, but I figured that it sounded french, so they’d have to have good desserts.  It turned out to be pretty unremarkable; the food was alright, and the service horrible. The molten cake afterward was pretty good though! Despite a dissappointing dinner, it was still an awesome day!

Oh, I finally satisfied my craving for a super rich cake by making this recipe yesterday. Holy Cow.  Even I think it’s rich!

Five years already?!?

By Nanette On August 11th, 2010

Five years ago we both (barely) ate lunch at “The Garden,” got married at 3:40 pm,  and then had one hour to get back to my parents house, take pictures, and do last minute stuff before the reception began:

Four years ago, I blindfolded Jared at 5am, drove to the airport, and we flew to California for a surprise anniversary trip. We BARELY make our flight, since it was the night before that the guy tried to blow up an airplane with stuff in a waterbottle, and that stupid 3oz liquid rule was began. We dumped our liquids (minus some sunscreen that I was able to sneak on,) ran to the international terminal where we heard the lines weren’t as long, and barely made the flight:

(The waves were really small)

Two years ago we kept it low-key. We headed up Little Cottonwood with some takeout Thai food, and went to a movie.

(For some reason this is the only picture I took)

Last year we headed back to California. We stayed in a $5 hotel in Las Vegas on the way down, and spent a few days surfing and relaxing.

We discovered Trestles, the most AMAZING surf spot on the planet:

Jared bought me “Al,” the most AMAZING surf board on the planet. (and who I really, really miss.):

And we had some super high-class anniversary cake on the drive home:

This year we wanted to do something really exciting for our 5 year anniversary, especially since it will be our last without a kid. But, plane tickets to California were to expensive, and I didn’t have enough time off for us to drive. Nothing else seemed worth the money or the effort, so we decided to stay at home, but still be on “vacation.” No housework, yardwork, and we’re doing some of the things we’ve always wanted, but have always been too cheap or busy to do. Yesterday we went mountain biking, I got a massage, and we had some amazing sushi for dinner. Today we’re headed up to Park City for another bike ride, and then to find a fancy dinner somewhere tonight.  It’s been so relaxing and fun, and is so nice to be home, but not feel obligated to “get stuff done.”

So, Happy Anniversary to us! It is SO crazy that we’ve been already been married for five years. They have seriously been the most fun, exciting years of my life. Jared is so perfect for me. He’s made marriage so much fun, and (mostly) really easy.  He has made life so fun.  I can’t wait to see him become a father. Our lucky girl has one awesome dad!!

Amethyst Lake

By Nanette On July 18th, 2010

To escape the insane heat this weekend, Jared and I headed up to Amethyst Lake in the Uintas to go backpacking. Unfortunately, it was insanely hot up there too, so we escaped from the 100 degree weather into the 90 degree weather. Still, it was a great adventure. I had big plans for our weekend, and came home from work on Wednesday with 3 different hikes in mind. All were around 20 miles round trip, and involved driving on dirt roads for about 40 miles. Luckily Jared is a little more realistic than I am, and convinced me to find a hike that was shorter and closer. He thought that “in my condition” a 20 mile hike would be insane.  In my mind, 10 miles each way didn’t seem like that big of a deal. But, to appease Jared, I found the hike we took up to Amethyst, which was 12 miles round trip. I’m so glad I listened to Jared! By the time we got to the meadow where we camped, I was finished! In all my planning, I hadn’t really considered the fact that we’d be carrying packs (Jared’s much heavier than mine,) and my feet were KILLING! If I’d have had to go another 4 miles, I think I would’ve died.

We found an awesome spot in a beautiful meadow to stay for the night. Other than the 8 billion mosquitoes, it was perfect. We enjoyed a gourmet dinner of dehydrated food, counted mosquito bites, and went to bed. The next morning we hiked up to what we hope was Amethyst Lake, and then back down to the car. By the time we reached the car, my feet were dead again. Honestly, I don’t know how the pioneers did it. It was an awesome weekend, and the perfect way to celebrate the last week of my second trimester. Crazy!!!!!

Waking from the dead

By Nanette On July 6th, 2010

I had the most AMAZING 4th of July. I celebrated this year by working midnight shifts. Ugggghhhh. I’ve seriously been a zombie for the past few days while my body tries to figure out what is going on, but today I woke up feeling decent. (And ecstatic that I slept for 6 hours straight.) So, since I felt like somewhat of a human being, we decided to enjoy the perfect weather and go hiking. We drove up Big Cottonwood to a trailhead where I always see skiers parked in the winter, and started hiking, not really knowing what the trail was. It ended up being Butler Fork up to Dog Lake, and was a beautiful, fun hike. I discovered that hiking is perfect pregnancy exercise; it’s challenging but pretty easy on my body, and maybe slightly safer than mountain biking. So, if anybody wants a super slow hiking buddy, let me know!
At the top, we found a guy to take our picture. We handed him our camera, and he squatted down not more than 2 feet away from us and took our picture from the most unflattering angle ever. From the way the camera was pointing, I though he was taking a picture of our knees! Luckily we made it in the picture, but my, uh, “curves” are a little exaggerated:

and another awkward belly pic, this one at 24 weeks. (don’t mind the dirty mirror. )

Give me some space!

By Nanette On June 18th, 2010

Anybody that knows Jared well knows that he has foot issues. Specifically, toe issues. As in, his toes don’t bend. It is the funniest thing in the world, and I love to tease him about it. (hence, this opening paragraph) :) A side effect of his “condition” is that he hates having anything touching his feet. He sleeps at night on his stomach with his feet hanging off the bottom of the bed so that nothing will bug his feet. He can’t stand feeling cramped or confined.

Well, I think our little girl (still nameless) has inherited this from him. Just last week I started to feel her kick. At first I thought I was having some crazy muscle spasms, but then I realized what it was, and was so excited. Ever since then, the kicks have been getting stronger, and I’ve begun to notice a pattern. Sometimes when I’m hungry or have just eaten, she’ll start kicking, but not every time. However every single time I wait to go pee, and my bladder gets full, she’ll kick and kick until I go to the bathroom. I can just imagine her in there cramped and annoyed that my bladder is taking up extra space. It’s the funniest thing ever. Let’s just hope she hasn’t inherited Jared’s toes…….  :)

Little Red Riding Hood 2010

By Nanette On June 13th, 2010

Last weekend Jared and I headed up to Logan with both of our families for the “Little Red Riding Hood,” an all womens’ bike ride to benefit breast cancer. It was a great experience, and I learned a lot. What, you may be wondering can you learn from an all-day bike ride?

  1. Wear sunscreen on a 7 hour bike ride
  2. Never let your mom talk you into riding 100 miles

Honestly. My mom is an animal. And my sister! I ended up doing most of the ride with those two, although we did meet up with some of Jared’s sisters for the middle part of the ride.  We had all planned on riding as a big group, but didn’t find each other until just before lunch, and then got separated shortly thereafter. So, my mom, sister, and I were a group of three for most of the ride. We each took turns leading our short three-person pace line, and whenever my mom was in front, we’d have to yell at her to slow down. She would get in front and just take off! I was definitely out of my league with my mom and my sister, with Jenna in training for a half-ironman, and my mom who goes to the gym for an hour every morning (although I’d consider 4am the middle of the night), and bikes in the afternoon. However, they were nice enough to go slow for me. I had meant all spring to train for this ride, but every opportunity I had to go for a long road ride, I’d find some way to justify a mountain bike ride.

Although I had signed up for the 100 mile ride, I planned on doing the 80 mile option instead, since I hadn’t really trained. And, that would’ve happened, except that I caught up to my mom right before the 80 mile turnoff. She talked me into the 100 mile ride, because really, what’s 20 more miles? Seriously; what mom talks her pregnant daughter into biking 100 miles? :) It ended up not being so bad, and it was fun to be able to finish the ride with my mom and my sister, who we found a few miles later, and an awesome friend that my mom made along the way. It was a great day, and despite getting some funky sunburn lines, I had a really good time. Jared was so supportive, and was so nice to spend the day in Logan waiting for me to finish.

Rolling to the finish:

Us three, plus my mom’s new friend: (don’t worry that my sister looks like a supermodel after biking 100 miles)

Enjoying a victory drink!

and the VERY best part of the ride? The chocolate fountain at the end. It made the whole thing worth it:

except, I think I ate too much chocolate, because I woke up the next morning with a huge belly:

(21 weeks)

It’s a……….

By Nanette On May 26th, 2010

BLOB!!!!!!!!! :

And we almost had to wait a whole extra DAY (31 hours to be exact) to find that out! And trust me, for me, that is a long, long time.  For some reason I’d been thinking all along that my appointment today was at 9:30 am. At 9:00, just as I was getting to leave work, I checked my calendar, and saw that I had entered the appt as being at 8:30 am. I frantically called the ultrasound place, and sure enough, I had missed it, and their next opening wasn’t until tomorrow at 3pm. I was SO dissappointed!! I am NOT a very patient person, and an extra day felt like eternity. I called my midwife who gave me the name of another place I could try to schedule an appt, and luckily they were able to get me in this afternoon at 1:00.

Before an ultrasound, you’re supposed to drink 4 cups of water an hour before the appointment, and then not go to the bathroom. So, at 8:30 am I dutifully drank my nalgene full of water, preparing for my 9:30 am appt. So, then at 11:30 am, I drank my second four cups of water. But then I realized that the ultrasound probably wouldn’t really be until like 1:15 pm, so I went to the bathroom, and then drank ANOTHER 4 cups of water at 12:15 pm. Then on the way to the appt I bought a thing of orange juice, since a coworker told me that it would make the baby more active. So, I show up at the place, and by this time I’ve had 14 cups of liquid, and only gone to the bathroom twice. By the time the ultrasound started, I really thought I was going to explode. And honestly, in the images my bladder was bigger than my uterus! Luckily I only needed to have a full bladder for the first few things they check, and so the ultrasound tech lady gave me a bathroom break.

ANYWAYS, the tech checked all of the stuff they check to make sure the baby is doing okay, and thankfully everything looked good. Then, she did a 4D ultrasound, which is 3D, but in real time. And for some reason, I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen. The baby was breech, with it’s butt pointing down, and it’s feet by it’s ears, and was doing all sorts of crazy things with it’s hands and feet. I honestly had a laugh attack watching it. My laughing made it look like an earthquake on the screen, which made me laugh even harder, so the 4D thing didn’t really work for me. It was just too funny. Luckily the tech was able to get a few good pictures. Throughout the whole ultrasound, the tech kept saying “he,” so I thought that she’d seen that the baby was a boy, and just hadn’t said anything yet. I was excited, but not really surprised, since I SORTA had thought that it was a boy. Jared felt the same way too. In fact, he’s said all along that he’s so manly, he’s probably not capable of producing a girl.

So, when at the end of the ultrasound, the tech showed us it was a girl, I was SO excited! I just can’t wait for hair bows and dresses! Just kidding, but I am really excited. She’s going to be totally awesome!
Here are some more pictures from the ultrasound. I think she already has Jared’s retarded toes:

a better 3D pic:

I think our quick weekend trip to Berkeley really affected her. It looks like that’s the peace sign she’s waving: