Christmas back home

This year we spent Christmas with my parents in "sunny" CA. The day we flew in was the last day of a huge rain storm in Southern CA. Luckily, the weather cleared the next day and it was beautiful for the rest of the Christmas week.
Christmas was great, as always. I love being home around this time of the year, not only because it's like 40 degrees warmer but b/c my mom's house always looks amazing and she makes the world's best caramel corn! Christmas has always been kind of a big deal to me. I know everyone say's they love Christmas, but I REALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS! I don't know what it is, it must be the great food, the baking, the reflecting of our Savior, the lights, the weather, the family, the decorations, the movies, the music...this list could go on and on but I think you get the point. We had a lot of fun spending time with the family.
Hubby is back in cold, cold Utah but lucky me, I still get an extra week here while I wait for my sister and her family to fly in for their anniversary. I'm so excited to see her, but I think I'm more excited to see her kids...sorry Bree :) Just kidding. I love seeing my sister because I don't get to see her all that often. Maybe once a year, twice if I'm lucky. Even though I'll only see them for 2 days, it's better than nothing. But I do miss husband already and it's only been one day! I feel so pathetic that I miss him so much in such a short period of time but what can I say, I'm attached :)
I tried to take pictures of our Christmas festivities but I may have failed horribly in that department. I'm still really bad at taking pictures but my goal is to take more, especially when the baby gets here. So here goes...
I was able to meet up with my closest girlfriends and have a great lunch at the always delicious, Don Cuco

One of my best friends Kelli is pregnant as well, she's exactly 4 weeks ahead of me with a baby boy as well.

Next comes my mom's beautiful display that I loved and her tree.


We also had this brilliant idea of making gingerbread houses with my nieces, well needless to say, it was a disaster. But a very cute disaster.



For Christmas this year I made a ribbon dancer, fairy/princess wand thing for my niece. I had so much fun making it and may even start selling them if anyone is interested. I don't mean to brag or anything, but it turned out incredibly cute :)


Here's the little princess frolicking on the field with it.


And to finish off the picture update, an updated belly pic. Please excuse the picture quality, my phone camera sucks.
27 weeks and growing by the second!

Turkey Day

Keeping it short and sweet. Thanksgiving was great. Mom and dad were able to come up and we spent the week with them at grandma and grandpa's. It was great. I'm kind of lame and didn't get any pictures, minus the ones of the me and the hubby.



And an updated baby bump...21 1/2 weeks

I think this picture makes it look a little bigger than it actually is but that's okay, because I guess sooner or later I'm going to be HUGE!!!!

Happy 1st of November

Just a little update. We went to the Drs. today for our 18 week ultrasound and they confirmed that our little one is definitely a boy. He's measuring a little bit bigger than 18 weeks though. From what I could see from their little notes on the u/s screen was that he is closer to 19 weeks +a few days, but they haven't officially changed my due date yet. But Baby looks good and healthy, which is a big relief!
I haven't felt much baby movement yet. I think I feel him occasionally but it doesn't feel like "flutters" at all. More like bubbles? Or tapping? But I hardly ever feel anything b/c he is facing towards my back, so when he kicks I have a harder time feeling him. At least for now...
As far as my baby bump goes, I don't feel like it's quite a bump yet but it's definitely getting bigger! And I caved in and finally got some maternity jeans and I'm so mad at myself for not doing it earlier. They are seriously the most comfortable things I have ever worn. It's like wearing leggings/sweats all day. I would highly recommend them to any pregnant woman. Heck, I may even wear them after I have the baby as my "going out to dinner" pants.
Here is me at 18 weeks. (Figured I should document this kind of stuff)


Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. Ours was extremely low key. I spent the night baking cookies and cupcakes. But hey, I'm not complaining. It was sooooo worth it.
Here's what my little creations looked like at the end.


And for those of you who don't know this yet... These tiny, beautiful, magical, drops of heaven are now available.

Cadbury Christmas eggs!! Time to stock up!

It's a BOY!

We are excited to announce that our little baby is a boy!
We went for an early scan (16 +5 weeks) b/c my Dr. wouldn't see me for a gender scan until I'm at least 18 weeks and my mom was in town and wanted to be there for it. It was probably one of the most exciting days I've ever had. I'd have to say the best part of it was seeing our baby move around...all over the place! She had a hard time seeing between his legs because he would not stop moving. but after a few minutes he was still just long enough for the tech to get a quick picture and determine that he is definitely alllll boy! And after his first shot of between the legs, he was not shy! It was really cool to see him b/c the last time we saw our baby for an u/s was when I was only 6 weeks and he was just a little white dot.
It was so amazing to see him move his arms, fingers, and legs. And we saw him yawn, and stretch, and gosh... every little thing he did was so wonderful and amazing to watch. It was crazy to see him moving that much, because I can't feel any of it. I think I've felt him move around a few times but it's not very consistent. It was funny b/c while we were watching him he gave me a big kick right to my side but I didn't feel a thing.
I'm just so in love with him already it's ridiculous! I crave to see him again. And luckily, I have my 18-20 week appointment next Monday with the doc so I get to see him again in just one week! And we'll get to bring a DVD to record the ultrasound. And I'll probably be watching that 30 times a day, everyday until he's born.
Here are the pictures that we were able to take home with us.
This is his cute side profile. I love that nose of his!

Here is the front view (kind of looks a little alien-like)

And here's his little boy parts :)

And here is his cute little hand as he was turning over

And lastly, his cute, little, tiny foot! I never thought I'd be so obsessed with a foot! But his is definitely obsession worthy.

Happy baby days!!

A cheery update

So cheer has taken over my life!! It's like I'm back in high school all over again, except instead of having to do all the work, I get to tell everyone else what to do. But I love it! It's been really interesting to see the difference of how they (Payson) cheer and we (Hart) cheered. It's completely different! Hart cheer was more about the stunting and competition, where as Payson cheer is all about dancing with some tumbling and some stunting. Like their routines are 99% dancing and that 1% is split between tumbling and stunting. It's kind of an adjustment getting used to that but I actually love that they haven't done much with stunting b/c that leaves more room for me to help out. I've been able to teach them a lot and they're improving everyday. I can't wait to see where they are next year.
This last week they did their halftime routine at the football game and it looked awesome. Just thought I would share it b/c they worked so hard and I want them to get worldwide recognition :)

Oh and this last week has been awesome with injuries! We had a girl get a minor concussion and another girl got her eyebrow split open and had a small fracture in her nose. Go us...
In baby news, we had a 14 week check up today and doc said baby sounds good. Her/his heartbeat was between 150-160 and sounded very active. We could here baby moving around, it was the coolest thing. I can't wait until our next ultrasound. I haven't seen our baby since I was only 6 weeks! I'm dying to see what baby looks like now :)

Things that bother me

"Bothering me," is putting it nicely. What I really want to say is "Things that absolutely annoy me to the point I want to kick you." I feel the best way to release some of the tension is to "blog it out." Now, I hate to sound negative, but I have to get this off my chest or I might just explode!
Aly's list of things that are really bothering her:
1. People telling me what to eat when I'm not asking for the advice. Only if I ask you, do I seek your thoughts.
2. People touching my belly. It's not like I have a huge baby bump yet! It's just bloating and fat, so please stay away from it.
3. People judging for those who choose an epidural. Not saying I'm not pro-natural, or pro-drugs. I just haven't decided. Both are great in my book.
4. People asking me what names we've thought about and then giving me weird looks b/c they're not "creative" enough. I didn't ask for your input. And sorry I don't want my child to be made fun of for their whole entire life b/c their parent's wanted them to have some bizarre name to be "different" from everybody else. Who cares.
5. People telling me that my pregnancy is soooo easy b/c I haven't thrown up. I know I've been blessed with a fairly nice pregnancy, but feeling nauseous 24/7 ain't no walk in the park.
6. Wearing anything but my sweats. Any kind of pressure on my lower abs makes me so sick.
7. Sitting for longer than 30 minutes. Same as above, it makes me feel sick if I sit for too long. I guess I have somewhat of a legit reason to lay in bed all day :)
And I think that covers my list. Thanks for listening!

And Baby makes 3!

Yes, that's right. Our family will be growing from 2 to 3. We are so excited for our little one to join us. As of today I am 10 weeks and 3 days in. Our expected due date is April 4, 2011! I found out I was pregnant around the end of July! I must have only been about 2-3 weeks along though. I thought I was further until I went to the Dr.s and he said I was only 6 weeks instead of 8. That was kind of a bummer but I can't complain, I'm just happy our little guy is sticking in there. So far it's been fairly easy...and by easy I mean, I haven't thrown up once. Although I am tired, nauseous, hungry, emotional, hungry and hungry. I never thought I would say this, but I am so sick eating! I need to eat about every 3 hours and it's just become a hassle. But other than those symptoms, life is good.
Is it gross to show the actual pregnancy test? If so, sorry!

And here is our little one at 6 weeks. You have to look really hard to see it!

That tiny white "dot" at the bottom right is our baby!
We just had our 10 week appt a few days ago and was hoping I would get another ultra sound but no such luck. But we were able to hear it's tiny heartbeat on the doppler. It was the greatest feeling in the world to hear that. It's crazy to think that something so tiny already has blood pumping through it and it has a heartbeat. I think I'm addicted to hearing it beat away. Oh and Doc said heartbeat was at 160 and baby sounded healthy :)Happy day! Anyways, that's it for the update.
Oh P.S, one of my best friends is pregnant too! She is 4 weeks ahead of me (lucky) But I'm just so excited that we get to have our babies around the same time! It's been something that we've always talked about, since we were in like 7th grade, and now it's really happening! Congrats to Kelli and Kirk Lindahl.