Beware the "Two Wisdom Tooth Tale..."

The thought of having a baby is so exciting! I have been looking forward to this for months! Sometimes it feels like it won't come fast enough...but now that I have 25 days until my due date and baby could come whenever from here til then....the thought is a little bit terrifying! Still exciting of course, but me? Have a baby! One minute it's inside of you safe and sound, and the next a nurse is handing you this tiny thing and telling you to take it home! Life as I know it is about to change FOREVER. Crazy? Yes. More exciting than anything? Definitely. I remember being little and seeing women pregnant and hearing horror stories about labor and deliveries, and deciding in my mind that a woman in labor is possibly the worst thing. And now here I am! The stork knocking at my doorstep! And what's funny, is you grow up and still see women pregnant....and they still feel the need to tell all of their horror stories! Why is this? It's almost as if the moment they see your blossomed stomach, they congratulate you, smile, then instantly pull out a comment like, "Well, good luck....I had a really rough go.....". Of course you have to ask what they mean for courtesy purposes, but who has the gumption to look at an expecting mother and say, "Well, it was fine- I just was in labor for 30 hours, my placenta tore in half so they had to get the baby out fast, who was struggling for life because their lifeline had torn, and after the brutal beating my body had taken, the recovery time was dreadful....blood clots....second hospital visit....blah blah....but you'll be fine!!". If one of these stories comes up, look out. Because someone is about to beat that story with something worse. Is that even possible? Sadly, it always is. It reminds me of Brian Reagan and his bit on "The two wisdom tooth tale..."

There is always someone who will be willing to one up the old wisdom tooth (or pregnancy) story. Hilarious. But being so close to giving birth- I think for now, I will disregard those and be soooo excited to meet my little Carter!! Then maybe I can come up with something good to frighten all of the prego ladies and win the wisdom tooth tale contest!! We'll see :)

Meet "Danna"

After having moved to the big ole city of Salt Lake, Nate and I  spent a couple of sleepless nights unpacking and setting up. As we were doing so on our first evening here, we had a friendly knock on our door. It was the couple who live above us, Dan and Anna Seethaler. Commonly referred to as Danna, since dan and anna repeated a few times can be a bit of a tongue twister. Nate knew Anna a little from high school, and I knew her younger sister so conversation began very quickly. They came in and we talked and talked, and ever since- we have been pretty much bestos. We plan meals together, we drive to church together, we stay up to 1:00 am together, we play the kinect together :), and we do a million random things together. We always know where the others are, and Nate and Dan are pretty much ALWAYS wanting to hang out. Nate informed me just the other night, that aside from me, Dan was his new best friend. (Such a little boy like comment, but I adored it) There hasn't been anything we probably haven't talked about, but really nothing we wouldn't feel comfortable talking about. Long story short- we just love them. Anna is preggers like me, and due on August 4th with her first baby (a girl), and Dan is just beginning the business program at the U of U like nathan. Perfect? Yes. We do fun stuff. Here's a couple of favorite outings.
Outing 1: We both packed a little picnic and went to the park on a sunny afternoon, to enjoy the weather and the good company! Dan and Nate were kind enough to grace us with their modeling skills...for a minute :)

Nate and Dan under their favorite tree

Me and Anna on the blanket (really just moving as little as possible)

Dan is pretty tall like the tree, so is Anna. So the last name Seethaler (see-taller) is really appropriate)

Nathan and his dashingly good looks. Stop it hun...

Outing 2: Have you ever heard of a boil? I sure hadn't. But apparently this is a big fun thing back east where Anna and Dan served their missions. You basically boil a bunch of things together, and dump it on a table to eat with your hands. You line the outside of the table with different dipping sauces, and pretty much make a mess. Brilliant. Well, we decided to try and pull it off. Success!! We boiled little red potatoes, delicious sausage, and corn on the cob and dipped them in a few yummy sauces and played with our food like kids! We also had finger fruits, so needless to say- this meal is a definite must do. Take a look for yourself.

Begin by boiling your choice of foods, and don't forget to photograph! Thanks Anna for showing us how.

Be serious about using knives..they are dangerous.

Find a table cloth you don't care for (this is plastic) and carefully place your dipping sauces at each place.

Anna is a really great sauce placer. 

We used ketchup, barbecue sauce, and sour cream.

Dump your food in the center of the table! Yay! Only be careful of the steam...

This still couldn't look any better...

Bon Apettit! Enjoy making a mess of your hands! 

A boil!! Not the tastiest of names for dinner....but Funnest thing ever? Yes, it is. Dan and Anna are fantastic. These two outings have only scraped the surface of the good times we have together. And more are yet to be had! We love our new friends!!

Like Father Like Son?

Ever since Nate and I found out we were having a baby-and especially a boy, i have seen just about a bajillion pictures of Nathan when he was little. His mom is a super awesome major scrap-booker, so she has kept a collection of photos all the way through Nate's childhood and growing up...it really is such a shame that his life being well documented is suffering because of me haha. But alas, scrap-booking is not for the weary and I feel like I may not entirely be cut out for the rigorous task. We'll see. Thus far, my skills consist of taking pictures and putting them on the computer. But this is a tangent :) All of Nate's darling baby pictures started making me a little sad! Don't get me wrong, he is darling! But Carter is only half of Nate. The other half-me. And since I inherited my scrap booking nothingness from MY parents....I had not even seen many pictures of me when I was little! It didn't bother me until I turned page after page of Nate's scrapbooks and kept wondering.. "now what did i look like at this age again?" I know baby Carter will have plenty of Daddy's qualities, but he'll have some of mine too....and I couldn't really imagine what they'd be like!
Well, just recently my pops was going through a bunch of old slides that they had. He digitized them, and low and behold!! There was my missing childhood! I was thrilled! Now that I knew what Nate looked like, I could finally put Carter's other half possibilities together! This is what I came up with...

Juice Lips...

Crazy Eyed...

Prone to Wear High Rise Pants....?

Confused/Concerned...

So....maybe Daddy's qualitites will be a bit more preferable...but we'll see. That is for another post!!

My How We Kinect!

When Nate gets something on his mind, it's there for keeps. Which can be a good and a bad thing. Lately the one thing on his mind has been the xbox Kinect. I got him an xbox for christmas and my boy was never happier! Until he realized I hadn't gotten the special kinect piece (to reduce the price of course), and now it's been the only thing he googles or ksl's or looks at online. With his big puppy brown eyes. It's the worst when he'd make comments like "Wow! This one on KSL is a really really good deal!" then he'd look over at me when I held back any response...then continue searching the ads. Or when he'd say, "Hun! Look at all of the cool things that it can do. You'd probably even play with me! It's really neat....." followed occasionally with a sigh. How is a girl like me who is smitten by this guys every glance suppose to cope with this!? We are soon to be parents! We are still considered fairly newly weds! We need things like diapers, wipes, and bottles! But alas...my tender heart cracked under pressure. I got on KSL myself when I was alone, and found a truly amazing steal on a brand new, and never used kinect. Then without letting Nate know, I bought the darn thing.
The thing is awesome, it really is. It scans the room, knows how much playing space you've got, and copies your every single move!! No controller involved, you do everything with your hands, feet, and full boday, and it very impressive. It also takes pictures of you while you play so you can see just how goofy you really look. I figured Nate deserved this toy. He works so hard every day at work and he deserves a fun surprise now and again I think. And surprised he was. His smile was priceless, I got quite a few extra kisses that day, and I've had a little extra help with dishes and laundry lately too :) Win-Win. What a sweet heart. He and his buddy Dan spent a couple hours trying it out after I brought it home, and they were laughing and sweating and jumping and bouncing around, and I'll admit-as an onlooker, it was VERY entertaining. Isn't it great that 23 year olds can get so worked up over an electronic or a little game? I guess the moral of this post is that sometimes...you make unecessary purchases for fun. And they are worth it. Thank you kinect for teaching Nate quicker reflexes, giving him a daily workout, and the most little-boy like smile every time he plays! And thank you for making sure the housework is always caught up too ;)

Two Cookies in One!!

Lately I have had such a great time trying out new recipes and making my cute husband the guinea pig at testing all of them. The other day I made those yummy rolo stuffed cookies to take to a party, and they were delightful. I recently made homemade creme puffs for my friends, and Nate is bound to come home to something different and exciting every day. I have this cook book called "The Gathering of Friends" which I am a huge fan of, and have yet to make all of the recipes its beautiful pages hold! And this book-is only volume one! I have begun a quest. Well, this obsession with new recipes and fun things to make is not only limited to my cookbook, but I do plenty of online looking as well. One day in my blog browsing, what should I come across? Ho-ho!! A recipe for Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Sounds dangerous right? I thought so. Which is why I wanted to try them. Be risky! Walk the edge! Make something bold and overwhelming that most people would expect to be a failure or more than they could handle! And I did. I made them, and pictured above is what they looked like. But what they tasted like, Nathan and I find hard to describe other than "a new favorite from something that would have never been favorite before". They were fantastic!! I found them on the blog called "Picky Palate", a darling blog that a cute gal uses to post all sorts of fun recipes she creates or finds! This being one of them. So frankly, I cannot take the credit. I highly recommend googling her blog however, and looking at all of the fun things she has made! They are quick, easy, creative, pleasing to the eye, and definitely worth the while! These were DIVINE. And that is saying it simply. I feel like I should dedicate my making these cookies to my sister Stephanie. When I visited her in Michigan, we ate atleast a few double stuffed oreos every night before bed with a glass of milk and a spoon in case the cookies sunk to the bottom of the glass and we needed to rescue it from a soggy and sad ending. I think that she would TRULY appreciate what I did tonight. Steph....I'm just sayin'... I am feeling VERY pleased with the way things have turned out. In fact, we are SO confident that we've invited friends over to enjoy them with us! So that is all for now! 

Baby Carter's Crib!

One of the first things I have been doing in a new apartment is setting up the baby's nursery. It is soooo much fun!! And when Nathan first set up the crib, my eyes were a little fogged :) (I'm a pregnant bundle of hormones). Anyways, here is where our little pride and joy will sleep!! So darling. Now all I need is the baby to ease his way out from the inside of me, make his big debut, and let me kiss his face and pinch his little cheeks!!! (both pair :) I love him already sooooo much!!!!

The crib sat in this box for a few weeks before I could take it out, and you can imagine my distress!! It was tough not tearing it from its captive box and setting it up just so i could see....Of course, it was much easier to move it to salt lake this way, and Nate did let me open the top and stroke the frame.... But look. Carter loves it already! He's practically kissing it through my bulging belly!!

TA-DAAA!!!! What a beauty. I spend many a minute sitting it baby's room staring at this Wal-Mart original. It's pretty much really fun. We just can't wait!! More decorating is still to be done, but it will all come together before he gets here! I've got 6 weeks, PLENTY of time... :)

And Then We Moved...

Last Friday Nathan and I packed our bags (and boxes, and garbage sacks, and suitcases, and well...everything) and we moved to Salt Lake City! Pretty exciting. We are only 45 minutes from what we call home where both our parents reside, but still. This 45 minutes makes a huge difference! We feel like we are in a completely different place. Alpine is beautiful, mountainous, lots of trees, and pretty houses- and everyone it seems most everyone, is LDS. But in Salt Lake, it is all city! Homeless people on every corner that Nathan has had to stop me (more than once) from giving our monies too, crazy people on the UTA Trax (whom I don't mind meeting as they can be more than humorous), there's busy streets, the smell of smoke, bars on every corner, and folks- this is still UTAH! How naive I am....My other sisters Karlie and Stephanie are living in DC and Houston, so I'm sure that little old Salt Lake is a laugh to them, but I tell you, it's all new to me. We went to our ward for the first time on Sunday, and found our church easily since it stuck out like a sore thumb. It was the first LDS chapel built in salt lake and it looks like a big cathedral. Stain glass windows, a massive painting in the chapel behind the podium of DaVinci's "The Last Supper", and it is truly a piece of work. It was fantastic.

On Sunday after we got home from church, Nate and I made dinner-a fabulous meal of fajitas, but had no where to sit, since we are still looking for a kitchen table. So we used our foot resty thing in stead.

What a Spread! It really was fun :) And deeeeeeeeeelicious of course. But most things are on a fast sunday :)

After dinner, Nate and I went for a walk and took some pictures of our area (which I am never allowed to walk at night), and here are a few things we live around.

                                          

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Across the street from our Apartment building there is a lovely park!! And just down the street is the Salt Lake Spring Mobile Ball Park (aka the Bees Stadium). Nate loves that we live so close and we will surely go to a couple of games.

Monkey Bars are hard when your feet touch the ground...but Nate is wicked good at it anyways.

This is our apartment complex, the Jefferson School Apartments. Thus far we have loved it!

There's plenty of fun things to do in Salt Lake so I am sure that we will keep ourselves plenty busy with all sorts of fun and adventure!