Happy Birthday To Me!!!

This year I was kind of dreading my birthday because I am no longer in my youthful twenties. I was born on Dec. 21, 1978. Since it is now Dec. 21, 2008 if you do the math, I guess that makes me 30? It really wasn't so bad turning the big 3-0. I am so grateful because I really have everything I ever wanted. I have a wonderful husband and we are starting our family with a baby girl soon! I am so happy :)

Anyway, I got lots of pampering and lots of comfy clothes. Just what a pregnant lady needs. It was just the hubby and I celebrating my bday. I opened my presents throughout the day, and just got a day off to relax, which was fantastic! The day started with a yummy pancake breakfast, a trip to church, a lunch out, a nap, homemade dinner, a nice long massage, and of course the unwrapping of gifts.


This was my new comfy outfit that Jesse gave me. As you can see, there is a lovely matching ensemble for the infant. I also got super soft slippers, socks, pajama pants, and a shirt that actually fits! It was a wonderful day. Thank you Jesse! You're pretty fun to grow old with :)
Happy Birthday to me!!

Kids say the Darndest Things

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I work with a pair of 3 year old autistic kids and I just love them... Well, when I went to see them on Tuesday this week, one of them was trying to get me to crawl through this play tunnel. I told him that I couldn't fit because of the baby in my tummy. He was immediately so intrigued and asked, "you have a baby in your tummy?" I replied, yes, right here (pointing to my baby bump). He then said, "I don't see it!" He grabbed my shirt and tried to look down it for a baby. It was so funny. He then asked me if he had a baby in his tummy. :) I told him no, just me!

Then, yesterday when I went to visit my twins the same twin asked me if I still had a baby in my tummy. I replied that yes, the baby is still in my tummy. Then, the other twin chimed in with the "but I don't see it!" comment. He then asked if the baby was hiding. I replied that yes, the baby is hiding. He then declared, "oh, the baby is playing hide and seek!!!"

It was soooo cute. I had to write about it so I wouldn't forget the cute things they say.

Thank you, Mom!

We had a gift-bearing visitor drive up all the way from nope, not the North Pole, but Irvine, CA with Christmas treats for all! We were so happy that mom (Carme) could come spend our Sunday with us.


Isn't this the most adorable little Minnie dress you've ever seen? I think we have Halloween for next year all taken care of now.

We wanted to take some pictures for Xmas cards this year so we had mom take a few of Rudolph and Mrs. Clause. We couldn't find a red nose for Rudolph so we got a little mini tennis ball (intended to be a dog toy) and slit a Jesse-nose-sized hole in it and it turned out perfect! The only problem was that all the nose-pinching changed Jesse's voice making it quite entertaining to hear him talk.

And here we all are, the photographer (mom) and the hot models.

Baby Update

Haha, I just saw this cartoon and it was just so funny I had to post it. Jesse can certainly relate to this. He hasn't seen it yet so I can't wait to see his reaction when he reads this post. It is so dead on (at least in my case). Jesse gets a good laugh out of the things I cry at. He monitors what shows we watch because he's worried I might cry, even on the happy endings. I think I cried on an episode of Gossip Girls. Yes, I watch that show since I had the flu for a week and needed a TV series to get in to. XOXO, u know u love me :)

Anyway, pregnancy news is nothing too new and exciting. We are just counting down the days now. Its only a couple months now, I can't believe it! The baby kicks a lot more now throughout the day and I can often watch my stomach suddenly expand out of nowhere. I started having very painful contractions in my lower abdomen but they are sporadic and the doc says not to worry unless I have more than 6 or so in an hour, so I'm not gonna worry.

Also, I finally had my dreaded glucose test where you get to drink the very concentrated Pepsi-tasting drink and you only have 5 minutes to get it down. That was harder for me than the drawing of the blood. It didn't taste THAT bad I guess, it just was a lot to swallow and made my head all spinny. I just got the results back and there was good news and bad. The good news was that I do not have have gestational diabetes so I don't have to go back for the 3 hour blood test. The bad news is that I do have a severe iron-deficiency so I am officially anemic. I have all the symptoms and have suspected anemia for months now (especially after my fainting spells) but the nurse told me I tested normal last time and everything I'm experiencing is normal during pregnancy. I told her that I really think I'm anemic and she insisted that I'm fine. Anyway, the point of that story was that I was RIGHT! Ah, so satisfying. I just have to take iron supplements so the baby doesn't keep stealing all my blood and all my iron stores. She must be like a little baby Iron-girl. That's ok, I'd give up all my metallic substances for her :)

In Memory of our First

Today was the official due date of when our first baby was to be born. It is weird to think I would've been all done with the pregnancy by now. We feel very blessed that we were able to become pregnant again so quickly after the first. I just wanted to post something in memory of our first little one.
This was the poem I found on my bed, from my amazing husband, after we found out the news that I was pregnant the first time...

...and here is a poem from us now, dedicated to our first:

To the baby that I carried
But never saw your eyes
Or told you how much I loved you
Or ever heard your cries.
You will never be forgotten
The excitement we had for your coming
When I realized I'd never hold you,
The feeling I had was numbing.
My angel baby is who you are.
My angel baby you'll always be.
Your loving memory will live in my heart
So you will always be right here with me.

Thanksgiving in Montana

As long as Jesse and I have known each other, he's been talking about visiting his family in Montana. Finally we found the time to make it up there, and I'm so glad we did! It was so nice to get to meet all the cousins, aunts, and uncles. We had a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving dinner, and felt so welcomed and loved. I can see why Jesse likes them so much :)
The plane trip from Burbank to Billings was incredibly pricey so we opted for the part fly/ part drive option. We flew in to Salt Lake City, quickly visited family in Logan, then took off for the 8 hour drive with Shelby. Shelby was kind enough to let us use his car for the trip. Luckily, the weather was beautiful with no storms so we arrived safely.
On Thanksgiving day Jesse and Shelby got up and played football in the annual Turkey Bowl. I am going to brag a little and say that my husband made 3 of the 4 touchdowns. But alas, they lost to the old guys somehow. I wish my camera had been working to get some action pics :(
Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of everyone. My camera battery only likes to last for a few shots so here's what we got:


At Aunt Suze and Uncle Dick's place. We got to stay in their beautiful home :)

Jesse with his cousin Annie. They were sooooo happy to see each other...

Shelby and his Grandma

Shelby stole my camera and took some pictures with it. Here he is with his cousin Annie....

...and here with his Aunt Star.


Aunt Star took us shopping at the Hobby Lobby and the Cracker Barrel where we looked for some great after Thanksgiving sales. I bought some letters to paint and hang on the wall in our little girl's nursery and some scrapbooking supplies. Jesse took a pic of me being a goof ball.

We got all packed and ready to drive back to Utah and as we started to drive off we noticed there was a major problem. The tire was completely flat. Here is my handy husband putting the spare on. Turns out the tire needed replacing. We went to a lovely church service with the family, picked up a tire on the way home, and off we went on our road trip back.


Back in Logan the next day... we had to fly out that night so we crammed all kinds of errands in to one day. While dining with grandma and grandpa Parkinson at the Sizzler, Ina stopped by with quite the surprise! Look at all the cute little girl clothes! Thank you Ina :), and much thanks from our little one too, I'm sure she'll love wearing these.

Since we can't make it back up to Utah for my birthday and Christmas this December, we celebrated early and fit a mini birthday party in to our jam-packed day. My mom made this yummy pineapple cake for me with 3 candles.... I think its for 23, maybe? :)

Happy Birthday Jesse!

For my birthday this year, I was taken out of my bed at five in the morning on the 8th of November. I was driven to the nearby airport and had no clue where we were going. My sneaky wife checked in our bags while I parked the car. However, I found out where we were going when the bag checking lady said "So these two go to Minnesota, correct?" Alicia was pretty shocked that the secret she had kept so well was revealed and still tried to tell me that we were going to Arizona (where our connecting flight was). However, it was to no avail. I put two and two together and since she had gotten me a Minnesota Vikings gym bag, I knew we were going to a Vikings game!

Adrian Peterson.... TOUCHDOWN! Awesome game, even Alicia liked it!

My ridiculously good-looking wife after an insanely close football game.

I'm pretty sure we won't make the next home game for the Vikings, but it's against the bears as you can see. If you look really closely towards the bottom of the picture you can faintly make out the final score-- Vikings 28, Packers 27.

I think at the point this picture was taken the Vikings must have been losing. You can tell by the guy who is in the top right-hand corner's face.

This game was the 111th straight sell-out game at the metradome for the Vikings.

She may look sweet and innocent but she was telling off the Packer's fans who dared to come to the game. In fact she verbally abused one guy so badly that after the Packer's missed what would have been the game-winning field goal, he was no where to be found... I had to tell her to calm down like 50 times.

Here are those people you get at every game who refuse to sit down even though they paid good money for their seats. It didn't matter whether there was a timeout (as the picture indicates), halftime or any other stoppage of play. I think these people deserve their own seatless section.

My wife and I and one of the Packer faithful that Alicia verbally routed.

This is before the game just outside the Metradome. I think it was right at 32 degrees, a day of tropic proportion for Minnesota natives. Unfortunately, the only included one of us.

This is also just outside the Metradome.

I got this shirt as a birthday present the night before the game. I faithfully wore it under my sweatshirt.

These are more birthday presents. Apparently the baby is going to like her daddy :-)

Really really like her daddy

And of course she will be a Vikings fan, decked out in Vikings gear.

This is what I like to think of as my Antonio Banderas impression with a Twins cape/fuzzy blanket.

More of the blanket.

This is just the roller coaster inside that one mall we went to located in the heart of Minnesota

And this is Lego Land, Minnesota!

We got these ice creams for free for agreeing to post the video below on YouTube! Pretty sweet huh?

This guy had some mad skills with his ice cream. He thought it was so cool that people from California were going to post him and his unique talent on YouTube.

Another video of the ice cream tossing team in the Mall of America.