Family Pictures...

It snowed all day last Saturday and it was really pretty outside so we went to my friend Sarah's, who does photography and she took these pics for us.

At 24 weeks....

Well, I'm actually 25 weeks now, but I procrastinated to get these pics up...they're at 24 weeks. I went to the doctor today, drank the disgusting glucose drink (blahh!) and my sugar levels and iron levels are good! So, that's good. I do get a lot of back pain though and many of the other fantastic pregnancy symptoms that I'd probably rather not mention.... :-) The baby is moving around like crazy. The doc had a hard time getting his heartbeat today b/c he was all over the place. I was taking a bath a couple of weeks ago and saw my belly go sideways for the first time...does anyone know what I'm talking about? It's so alienistic! I was also trying to squeeze in a nap during Taylor's the other day and on the verge of falling asleep I felt a huge kick on my bladder that woke my right up....Well, that's what's going on in my pregnant life these days! Tonight once Taylor is asleep Tom and I are watching Pirates III. We'll see if I stay awake until the end...


Tom told me to stick my belly out as much as I could....Goodness, it's huge!
my little cutie...

little disclaimer...

So, for the post below where I discribed the bad date out with the guy and his ex. (You may need to read below to catch on) I just wanted to say that "Mormons" (that is really just a nickname for members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints) DO NOT practice polygamy...it's just a highly talked about misconception and that's why I said it was ironic. Just want to make sure that's clear and doesn't confuse any of my non-Mormon friends...

By the way....

Well, I know most of you already know this....but we are pregnant. Tom and I are pretty big secret keepers and we've kept this quiet for quite a while b/c we thought it would be fun to tell his family when we saw them at Thanksgiving. It was fun and nice to be able to tell most people in person. Anyway, we went to the doctor two days before leaving for Utah (November 15th) for the big ultrasound and found out that my due date would be changed to March 27th (10 whole days sooner!! I'll take it!) so I'm 23 weeks and we found out we are having a BOY! We are excited although I was totally hoping for another girl...I even picked out a name for her...Cambria. But, it will be so much fun to have a little boy and girl. I hope he is just like his Dad! He may very well be named after Tom (Thomas Maxwell) ...but we'll wait until later to name him for sure.

Here is a video of us telling the last brother/sister in law about being pregnant and having a boy. We'd been around them for a few hours by this time, but b/c Taylor was sick we didn't get a chance to tell them until later in the evening. We were trying to do it in a sly way by me showing my other sister in laws green and teal flannel I had picked out to make a blanket for him. They totally didn't get it at first, but finally caught on. I was being pretty quiet at the time b/c this was when Taylor was feeling sick...you can see her cuddling on my lap.

I've been tagged again!

My friend Wendy tagged me, but I'm not going to follow the rules exactly b/c it seems like almost all the people I blog with have already been tagged at least twice...but if I do tag you at the end of this list 6 things about yourself....

So about me:

1) I love to read about health and nutrition and lately have loved reading the YOU books by Dr. Oz and Dr. Morohmat (sp?). They are really good and really interesting reads so check them out!

2) I've met President Clinton at the White House (in 1998) and heard/saw President Bush speak in person in Springfield, MO in the fall of 1999 while he was campaigning.

3) I spent two summers living and working at the Missouri State Fair- the second summer I was a superintendent for the FFA building. I also spent a semester interning for radio station reporting the farm news.

4) I've been on a fair share of strange/awkward/bad dates. Two of the worst were once in high school I went out on a date with this big guy named Tyson...we drove to Springfield, Missouri to Christmas shop and he cut off this guy with his family in a minivan. The guy got mad at Tyson and was pulling up next to him (on an exit ramp) making faces and saying stuff to him. Tyson didn't like that so he pulled out a pistol from under his seat and started waving it at the guy!!! I was in the passenger seat in between Tyson and the guy in the minivan yelling at Tyson to put his stupid, illegal, concealed gun away. That was the only date with that guy...

5) The next bad date was right after my mission with a guy that I was interested in dating (I'll refer to him as B). He invited me to an OSU basketball game and said we would be meeting up with some other friends at the game. Well, right before leaving for the game we met up with his ex girlfriend (whom I was good friends with and who still had strong feelings for B). I was totally perplexed by this and during the game was placed in between this girl and B...my date (or should I say "our" date). After the game we went out to eat with two other couples (yes, his ex girlfriend was still with us riding in the car with us--he opened the door for both of us) and at the restaurant to other two couples sat in a booth and then this girl and I sat in one side of a booth adjacent from them and directly across from B. He paid for both of our meals and I never wanted to go out with this guy again but I also thought it was ironic that I was Mormon going on a date with a guy out with two girls at the same time!!! Never again!!!

6) I drink tons of ice water and wake up craving it and I love to eat Kellog's raisin bran and I even like it soggy.

Okay, there you go...now I tag Kristen, Mar, and Nancy.

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been a while since I've posted. We went to northern Utah to visit Tom's family for Thanksgiving. We had a great trip and it was great seeing everyone but Taylor got really sick in the middle of our visit with some sort of flu virus. It stinks being away from home and being sick. Well, it just stinks having her sick anywhere...she did a lot of throwing up and it went on for almost a week so it was sad...but she's doing better now and hasn't thrown up since Sunday night. Here are some pictures and videos from a couple of weeks ago just before leaving on our trip: Tom and Taylor in front of the chapel at the Air Force Academy
Taylor was so tired and ready for bed she just layed in her Dad's arms on this pillow
Taylor loved carrying around my purses...
Taylor with her cousin Isaac in Logan...

I'm not sure if the 1st video is going to work...we'll see. Be sure to double click ob play

Our favorite fall recipe...

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

I made these this morning (it's not the first time this fall ;-) and I thought I'd share them with you. They are easy and are so good!

1 1/2 cups flour (whole wheat works great too)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp salt
" baking powder
" baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves (or I subsitute pumpkin pie spice)

*mix all above dry ingrediants together then add:

8 ounces or 1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter...or you can add 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup applesauce (it's healthier and takes just as good)

*mix it all together and then add about 1/2 bag of chocolate chips or 3/4 a cup....sorry Kristen! I know you can't eat chocolate, but they taste really good without the choc. chips too!

Topping (optional for more gourmet looking and more calories):

mix 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup flour and a tsp. of butter with a fork until crumbly.

Put muffin mixture into muffin pan and sprinkle topping on each one then bake at 350 degrees for 20-22 minutes. I hope you enjoy!

Our weekend with Tom's parents...and little brother Mike

Last weekend Tom's mom and dad and brother came from Utah to visit. We had a lot of fun with them. They got here on Friday evening and we had pizza and visited and then on Saturday we drove to Manitou Springs for the annual Emma Crawford Coffin race. It was really amusing! There were several different teams of people all dressed up, usually in a theme like the "fat Elvi", the beverly hillbillies (who won 1st), Gilligan's island, etc., etc. They also created a coffin to match their theme and then two by two raced down the main strip in Monitou Springs pushing their coffin. We think it would be fun to enter next year. Maybe we could make a boy scout themed coffin....Tom's only concern is that some of the guys he works with may not be able to run more then 10 yards... :-) We spent a little while walking around downtown Monitou Springs looking at some of the fun shops and art galleries and then drove to Garden of the Gods (it's right next door from where we were) and went on a little hike. Then that night we went to our church's halloween party (a chili cookoff and trunk or treat) which was a lot of fun. Taylor dressed up as a pink teddy bear. After that we watched a nancy drew movie from the 1930's that Tom and I think is really funny.

On Sunday after church we all went to the dog park with Maddie and then took his parents by Tom's work place so they could see where he worked. Monday, all of us except Tom who had to work did a little book and Christmas shopping and then that evening we played some games and hung out. And then his parents left early Tuesday morning. It was so nice for them to come and see us and we really enjoyed the time together. Here are some pictures that we took on Saturday.

Taylor and Grandma This was right before the race begun. In this picture you can see two of the coffins. There had to be someone riding in the coffin...it was usually a small, light female and they all had to wear helmets.
This team was pretty funny, especially the guy with the white headband and huge mustache. He was acting the part of a gym buff from the seventies really well. I wish you could've seen him.
Taylor loves to walk this way with Tom and I.
Taylor with her dad and Grandpa. She was having lots of fun getting swung.

Pics from our trip...LOTS of them!

Well, these are VERY out of order. I could've taken the time to figure out how to upload them so they'd be in order....oh well. I'll just try to add captions. These first pics are the Sunday morning after we got back. The next two are at the Old Timer Days in Benton, Arkansas...the town my parents live in.
Taylor found a dog that reminded her of Maddie....on our way home we swung by our friends' home and picked Maddie up, took her right inside to the bathtub and gave her a really thorough bath (she'd been outside for almost 3 weeks straight) and then once she was able to roam around Taylor kept giving her hug after hug....it was so funny, but she was so excited to be with Maddie again.
Taylor playing the piano with Grandpa at my parents house.
This was at a rest stop on our way home....Tom likes changing Taylor in the grass....hey, just as long as he does it! :-)
like I said they're way out of order....sorry! This was the Sunday morning after we got home. It was supposed to be a cold day and it snowed about 2-3 inches...it was gone within 24 hours. That's the kind of snow I like! :-) Pretty and it melts quickly!

this was at the Texas State Fair.
Texas State Fair...Taylor and Tom watching a fun parade.
Taylor trying her first funnel cake. She liked it!
This was right after Tom surprised us by arriving to my parents early. Taylor was so excited to see her Daddy, she just layed in his arms for a long time and let him cuddle her.
At the park near my parents house.

This was day 3 on our trip. Misti and I took our girls to the mall and this was Taylor riding her first carousel....getting a little dizzy! :-)
Taylor and Misti's son Carter and daughter Keeton in the backseat. Carter looks thrilled to be in between two little girls!
At Bruce and Misti's...Keeton had this little stroller and Taylor pushed it around all day, everyday so I went to Toys R Us and got her her own and now she pushes it around our house, pushing 3 jars of peanut butter (she has her own cabinet full of peanut butter) all the other cabinets our mine) :-)
bathtime...
back at the Texas State Fair...hope you enjoyed the pictures! I hope you have a great weekend too!

Our 4th anniversary...

The day before we left for our trip (Sept. 27th) was our four year anniversary. Tom had been talking about wanting to get a piano for a really long time and I had started contemplating the idea of surprising him with one and having it sitting in our home when he got back from work. So, while my mom was here we went to a piano store that was having a huge closing sale and I found this older piano for a lot less than I was planning on spending. I arranged to have it delivered the morning of our anniversary while he was at work and it was so fun to get it all ready for him to come home and find it.

Tom's anniversary surprise...

I set up our video camera to capture Tom's expression when he came home from work to find a piano. He was really shocked and excited, but it's a little hard to tell on this video. It was fun gift to surprise him with and it is so great getting to hear him play it.

The rest of our trip (part one)...

Well, we had a great trip but it was so long! Two weeks and 5 days and we spent 5 days traveling. We had a lot of fun though. The second weekend we got to spend together in Dallas. On the Friday night (Oct. 5th) Tom's training group was taken to the Texas State Fair and his trainer invited Taylor and I to come along. So we drove to Tom's hotel that afternoon and we got on a big charter bus with all of Tom's fellow trainees and some of the other trainers and their families. It was fun to meet all the people he had been working with all week. They were all so nice. His main trainer Eric passed out tickets and coupons (they use coupons at this fair for rides and to buy food with) and he gave Tom an extra ticket for me and gave us 40 or 50 dollars in coupons. I like the Boy Scouts! Anyway, we had so much fun and it was great to be with Tom again after being apart for almost a week. That weekend we stayed at a hotel close to Tom's training and enjoyed having a relaxing weekend being together. Then on Sunday we drove a couple hours north of Dallas to meet my mom and Taylor and I rode back with her to Benton, Arkansas and Tom went back to his training.

It was nice to spend time at my parents. They (my parents and little sister) all adored Taylor and gave her tons of attention which she loved. Taylor and I went on lots of walks and my mom and I spent a lot of time together. I got to do some shopping without Taylor (which is nice to be able to focus a little better) and I got my hair done. It's a little shorter and darker. And my mom and I went fabric shopping to get material to make Taylor some curtains. (Tom just put them up tonight and they look great mom! We'll have to see how well they work to keep the sun out!) Then on Friday Tom's training got out at 3:00 which I thought was crazy b/c traffic gets bad in Dallas around 3:30 and is even worse on a Friday, but around 3:30 Tom was calling to tell me he had just met our friend Bruce to give him back all the clothes he had to borrow from him (refer to bottom post--thanks again Bruce!) While we were talking I put the phone close to Taylor and Tom started saying "Taylor can you hear me?" and the second time he said it I heard his voice in real life not through the phone and looked all around the room we were in and there was Tom standing at the back window! I was so excited!!! I was hoping he'd gotten to leave early, but he'd said he didn't get to so I thought we wouldn't see him until around 9:00 that night. It was the best surprise! It was great to spend the rest of the day together and we let my parents babysit and went out to dinner that night. Okay, this is getting long so I'll finish it tomorrow and add some pictures...well, hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow!

little update...

We left for our trip last Friday afternoon and drove 6 hours to Amarillo, TX on one tank of gas! We love our little 4 cylinder car! We stayed the night in Amarillo and then drove another 6 hours the next day to my friends here in McKinney, TX. It was a great drive. We listened to 1/2 (we have 1/2 left for our way home) of a John Grisham suspense novel...I can't wait to find out who the murderer is! Is was fun b/c the story takes place in a small town in Oklahoma and we spent all of our trip driving through small towns. We stopped midway through and found a great little authentic BBQ restaurant and had BBQ beef, ribs, potato salad and baked beans. I loved the whole "small town" experience. Taylor was really great on the trip. She probably slept for about 4 of the 12 hours we drove, but the last couple hours she was content b/c I let her eat nerds (the candy...if anyone needs clarification :-) that I put in her cupholder. She loved it and was great!

We came straight to my friends Bruce and Misti and stayed here with them that night and went to church with them and then Tom got ready for his training...Oh yeah, we did run into a minor inconvenience...On Friday night around midnight Tom realized he had forgotten all of his clothes for his training like his suit, dress shirts, boy scout uniform and they had to bring this special "dress uniform" which consisted of gray slacks, white shirt and a navy blazer. He had everything all ready to go but we both forgot it! So, thankfully Bruce and Tom wear the same pant size and Bruce is a scout leader so he and Misti stepped in and saved the day and let Tom borrow a ton of much needed clothes!

So, I've been staying here with Bruce and Misti ( hendrens.blogspot.com ) and their two cute kids and it's been so great to see them and hang out with Misti so much. They've been so kind and hospitable to Taylor and I. We are here until tomorrow afternoon and then Taylor and I are going to Tom's hotel to meet up with him and spend the weekend together. On Sunday we are going to meet my mom about a couple hours away and Taylor and I will go with her back to little Rock while Tom finishes his training. Well, that's that! Taylor just woke up so I better go. Have a great day!

Here Dad....

My dad checks this site everyday to see if there are any new pictures....and as you all know I am pathetic at blogging regularly so there never are...but here are some we took just recently while my mom has been here visiting.... We tried to get a good family shot at the park and Taylor was not too keen on the idea...
This one was one of our better besides my eyes look weird and it's pretty fuzzy b/c our camera isn't the greatest. Oh and Tom thinks he looks pretty weird too.
Maddie was barking at us while we were taking our family pics b/c I'm sure she was feeling left out. We were going to try to take a couple with her but Taylor was to fussy so we didn't ever bother. This was right after we took her to the dog park...
These pics are out of order...sorry. This is Taylor taking a snooze yesterday on our way to the airport to drop off my mom.

Taylor was caught redhanded going through everything in my purse...Actually, Tom was sitting on the couch watching her the whole time but was too tired to do anything about it b/c it was at the crack of dawn one morning last week...
Taylor and Tom at the dog park...
us again trying to get our picture...
Ahhh...one happy little family (Taylor just happens to be screaming her head off at the moment) :-)

Our water drinking, little trendsetter. You just wait and you'll be seeing all the celebrities wearing dog collars for belts!
And if we every lose her our cell phone numbers are conveniently listed on the tag! It was so funny b/c she would try to put it around her waist and we finally put in on for her and she wanted to wear it for hours!
I don't know if this trend will ever take off though...a bowl for a hat? good try Taylor!
So, we've really enjoyed having my mom here for a few days and our next adventure is leaving on Friday for Dallas. We're driving there for Tom's 12 day training. We are all staying with my friends on Saturday and then Tom's training starts Sunday evening. Taylor and I aren't sure what we'll do quite yet while he's at it but eventually we'll head up to Little Rock to stay with my parents. Then when Tom's training is over he'll drive up there and we'll all spend a few days before heading back here. Whew! We'll be gone for almost 3 weeks! Our fourth anniversary is on Thursday....I love our anniversaries. Unfortunately though Tom has a meeting Thursday evening so we'll probably go out to lunch or something and then celebrate it more officially while we're in Arkansas so we can leave Taylor with the grandparents and spend the night in Hot Springs or something. Well, other than that we've just been trying to get our new home organized, keeping up with Taylor (did I ever say that she walks now?) And she's fast! (see video below. hopefully it'll work and it is a little boring but my dad will appreciate it.) She's been at it for about 4 weeks now. It's pretty darn cute but she's into everything!!! I hope you're doing well and I'll try to be a little better at this blog but I won't promise anything while we're traveling! Have a great day!!!