Thursday, December 23, 2010

Christmas Tree

So I finally got around to taking pictures of my Christmas tree. They're not the best pictures, but they'll have to do.

It's pretty bare, but that's okay. I wasn't much in the mood for decorating it so I put as little on as possible. With everything I added I keept thinking, in a couple of weeks I'm just gonna have to take this back off. With that attitude it was easy to only use 1 box of the same ornament instead of 2 and so on until I had used a little of everything.

Isn't it sad that the biggest present under the tree is for Wedge?!? Santa's already been to our house and left that great big box for my little puppy. I have no idea what's in it and Nick won't tell me. He says I just have to wait and find out with Wedge on Christmas night.

One thing that I love about my tree is something I've never done before. I bought little pictures of Christ and stuck ornament hooks in them and hung them on the tree. There are 12 pictures total. I was a little worried it would be weird to have pictures of Christ hanging on the tree since the Christmas tree part of Christmas seems to be really commercialized, but I think it's made the tree more special.

It's helped me get more in the Christmas spirit when the Scrooge in me has been so close to the surface. What I love the most is that it's helped me remember the true meaning of Christmas. Every time I look at my tree I can't help but think about Christ and all he's done for me. I love my Savior and I especially love remembering Him during this time of year.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Crafting

I just spent the better part of my night reading a craft blog and for the first time in MONTHS I'm dying to work on some projects. If only I already have the supplies here and ready to go. Oh who a I kidding?! Even if I did I wouldn't work on any projects. My house is in need of some TLC and I've spent a good chunk of the day with my head over the toilet. Not having the supplies I need to make these cute crafts is the better excuse though so we'll go with that!

If you want to check out the craft blog it's: www.deliacreates.blogspot.com. But be sure you have a lot of time before you go there. You'll stay for a while. Delia (the creater of the blog) is the cutest mom and has the cutest ideas. She has a LOT of kids craft ideas and cute traditions to do with your kids. There's especially a lot of holiday ideas posted that I just couldn't get enough of. She makes me excited to be a mom!

Baby Update

I had another Doctor's appointment today. Baby has a strong heartbeat which is a relief. My biggest fear at this point has been that at some point the heart stopped beating. We're finally at a 1% chance of miscarriage which is as good as it gets. I weigh the exact same as I did 5 weeks ago at my last appointment. Probably not the best that I haven't gained any weight, but I haven't lost anymore so that's a good thing. On January 24th we'll get to find out what we're having. Any guesses?!?

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Nick's Gingerbread House

The board was originally cut to fit the mansion he was making so there's a lot of extra space that didn't get filled.

View of the front.

Stained glass window. The picture doesn't do it justice.

The top.

The back.

Enough rootbeer barrels to last all winter.

Wood pile and Christmas tree.

Well and bucket.

Mailbox and lamp posts.

Snow fort stocked with snowballs.

Snowman complete with hat and scarf (courtesy of me)!

Pond with ducks (ducks also courtesy of me)!

Tractor.

And one more view of the whole thing.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Christmas Traditions

I've had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. Being sick has really taken it out of me. Before Thanksgiving I was way excited for Christmas because I knew there was still plenty of time to get ready for it. Christmas is now a week away and I still haven't finished shopping and I'm not sure I actually will. Wrapping the few presents I've picked up for Nick took forever. I didn't bother to put any lables on them either so hopefully there won't be any confusion Christmas night when we open them. Putting my tree up was a week long process and I put the bare minimum on it this year. Basically just enough to say it's been done.

But all bah humbugness aside, I really do love Christmas time. I love all the traditional things about Christmas and I love creating my own traditions (although pretty much every tradition Nick and I have done up to this point in our marriage didn't get done this year). One of my favorite traditions with Nick is picking three acts of service to do this time of year. We usually keep them pretty simple since we're always so busy with work and school. Most of the time it's picking a name off an angel christmas tree, buying a gift to put in a collection box for kids, and finding someone we know is in need of something and making sure they get a secret santa gift left on their doorstep. We pick three services to do every Christmas and call it our Three Wisemen Gifts.

We make gingerbread houses with Nick's family even though there are only 2 little kids to do them with. Nick always tries to do the most elaborate house EVER! This year he drew it out on graph paper first and the front side alone took three sheets of graph paper pieced together. It came out to be something like 14"x18". It was huge! Unfortunately assembling it didn't go so well and after several set backs he finally decided to scale it down when one of the sides dropped to the floor and broke. The sad thing about it was he had put a good 7 hours into building it just to start over and put together a much simpler, less impressive house. But he still used as much creativity as he could. He put a pond on the side of the house with little ducks made out of tootsie rolls, he made a stained glass window, a snow fort, a mailbox, a christmas tree, a water well with a bucket, and an ever so impressive tractor! I helped with some of the finishing touches, but other than that he did the whole thing himself. I would have helped more, but I wasn't feeling the greatest that day so I just let him do it.

Other traditions I love...! Seeing the temple lights. I especially love going to the Mesa Temple. Not only are their lights really impressive, but inside the visitors center they set up a room with different nativities from all around the world. It's really neat to see how different countries view the nativity and how it's altered to fit their customs. I don't know how many nativities they set up, but there are TONS to look at!

When I was little we used to drive around on Christmas eve to different neighborhoods to see christmas lights. I remember getting so excited to see houses that went all out with their decorations. It would make Christmas so much more magical!

One thing I really miss about being home during the holidays is my dad's collection of Christmas music. He LOVES christmas music and I remember my mom would get SO mad if he started playing it before December first... which happened pretty much every year! I never got tired of his selections and now I really miss not having his CD's to listen to. I found an online radio station that occassionally played some of the songs (from the same artists) that he would play and that would get me in the Christmas mood; at least it helped me get my tree decorated. It just isn't the same to hear classic Christmas songs that I know from the Carpenter's or Anne Murray, be sung by new age groups that jazz them up and change them.

It was a tradition for my dad to record us kids opening presents every year. He set up the camera every Christmas Eve and supposedly left it running all night to make sure none of us got up to sneak a peek. For a long time my parents didn't put any presents under the tree until we went to bed on Christmas Eve. We would wake up super early in the morning, go upstairs and holler over and over trying to wake my parents up so we could open presents. We weren't aloud to go past the family room because we would see the Christmas tree in the living room and of course my parents room was at the other end of the house! They would slowly drag themselves out of bed and my mom would come sit with us in the family room while my dad went into the living room to make sure everything was perfect before letting us come in. I really have no idea what he was doing in there, I just remember it taking FOREVER and we would get so impatient and complain that he was taking too long! But, my dad has a video from every Christmas since he married my mom of our excited faces on Christmas morning when we finally got to see all the presents under the tree. And with 5 kids, you can imagine there were a LOT of presents!

With that, I remember one year I slept in my brother's room with him when I was like 5 or 6 which made him 16 or 17, and heard a big thump upstairs and my brother told me to hurry and fall asleep because Santa just landed on the roof. It made me so excited, but the silly thing is all the kids bedrooms were downstairs and directly above my brother's room was my parents room so I couldn't possibly have heard Santa land on the roof. But who's that logical when you're a kid who still believes in Santa?!

As we got older my parents started putting the presents out long before Christmas Eve, but there was a catch. None of the gifts had our names on them. They had fun Christmas names on them like reindeer names, frosty, and the Grinch. It was fun for us because we were aloud to snoop and try to figure out who was who and on Christmas morning we would say our guesses and see if we were right. The first year she did it was probably the hardest because there were only three of us kids living at home and at least 7 different names under the tree. We weren't expecting our parents to have silly names and the gifts to the family to be named something else so we had a hard time figuring it out.

Our stockings were always draped across the front of the couch in the living room. My dad built the house I grew up in which meant he had issues about putting holes in the walls so we never hung our stockings. Santa always put the present from him on the couch underneath our stockings. For a long time he either brought us each a baby doll or a porcelain doll.

Every year for as long as I can remember my Grandma and Grandpa Norton have given us an ornament for the Christmas tree. They're always a different christmas picture cut out with our name and the year etched on them. We always got to put them wherever we wanted on the Christmas tree and it was special knowing that ornament was all mine! I'm not sure when that tradition started, but I'm the 5th youngest grandkid so I'm pretty sure I have one from every year since I was born. And my grandma still does them for us today. The only difference is now they say Hendricks on them instead of Sara.

I think my all time most favorite tradition growing up was setting up the "Rogers' Village". It was pretty much incredible. For a long time my mom would set it up under the christmas tree. She would raise the tree up to sit on cinder blocks and then cover the blocks and floor with batting. It would stretch the full length of the room which is probably 10 feet or so. It had your traditional village scenes with houses, carolers, carriage rides, and an ice skating rink, but there were always fun things to look for. Since the cinder blocks created a hill thats where the ski slope would be complete with a ski lift and some random skier stuck in a tree! The shopping center/strip mall always had a car being towed from the parking lot. And there was usually someone trying to catch fish out of the ice skating rink. But the village wouldn't be complete without the tall, white picket fence that lit up and ran the length of of it with a gate in the middle to allow visitors to enter into the "Rogers' Village" (which was written across the top of the gate). Like I said, it was pretty much incredible and I wish I had a picture handy so you would believe me!

I think my Grandma Rogers is who got my mom started on having a Christmas village. My grandma's house was always decked out in Christmas stuff and she used to make a lot of her decorations. She made a lot of houses for her Christmas village and gave some to my mom. The first christmas after my grandma died my mom did a special city of just the houses my grandma made and dedicated it to her with a framed note talking about how much we love and missed her. That was a really special year and it brought my dad to tears when he saw it.

Every year for christmas I ask my mom to give me some of her Christmas village so I can start my own collection, but she never lets me have any. One of these years she's gonna give into me! She doesn't set it up anymore since it's just her and my dad at home and it's a lot of work, but she says she just isn't ready to part with it. I guess it's better that way since it would be hard to keep my puppy out of it right now.

Well, this post about traditions turned out to be more about what Christmas was like for me growing up. If nothing else, hopefully my family enjoyed going down memory lane with me!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Catching Up

For my 2 month stretch of feeling miserable there were a few things I didn't blog about. I guess it's time to get caught up.

First, 4 baby showers in two weekends! My younger sister Lacey. She had her baby on October 29th and named him Tucker Layton Bryce.

My olders sister Sally. She had her baby on October 23rd and named him Carter Joseph Patterson.

Okay, the first two showers are technically joint, but twice as many presents means it takes twice as long!

My sister in-law Kaleena. She had her baby on October 31st and named her Meili Anderson.

My co-worker Brandi. I can't remember the exact day she had her baby. Somewhere between October 17th and 21st! She named her Kambree Tinnin.

Another random place for a puppy to fall asleep.

The Colleges Against Cancer Club had a float in the Homecoming Parade. I'm in the club by default because I'm on the Relay For Life committee. I was asked to be in the parade, but I passed knowing the chances of me feeling well enough to walk main street were pretty slim.

Save Lives, Leave a Legacy. It's time to flush away cancer!

Wedge had his first Salt Water Taffy. He wasn't really sure what to do with it at first.

But he figured it out!

Wedge was a pumpkin for Halloween.

Pretty much the cutest pumpkin ever! His costume needed to be a size bigger, but when you wait until October 30th to buy something you don't get to be picky.

Love him!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Nick the Great!

Can I just say I have the best husband in the world. Nick is perfect for me! What are the odds that we would have found each other and actually ended up together? Like one in a million? Girl from Arizona; boy from Utah; boy and girl meet in Illinois. Really? Why did my parents open a Bed and Breakfast in Nauvoo? And why did the church decide to send Nick to Nauvoo that summer? All I can say is I'm so grateful to have a greater being looking out for me!

Nick has been so great during the first trimester. I didn't expect him to be so supportive considering I've wanted a baby far longer than he has. I half expected to hear "you wanted this" or "this was your idea" and get told to suck it up and stop whining. Thank heavens that hasn't been the case!

Not only has he been working full time and going to school full time he's also taken care of the cleaning and cooking for the last 6 weeks. He's done everything I've asked him to do and gotten me everything I've needed. He even made freezer meals so there would be something for me to throw in the oven while he was at work. And the best part is even though he's been stretched so thin, I haven't heard one single complaint out of him. I wouldn't have survived the first trimester without him, that's for sure!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Report on the First Trimester

So far pregnancy hasn't been quite what I expected. I knew it would be hard, but there was part of me that hoped I would be one of the lucky ones that wouldn't get sick! I don't get sick very often and especially not stomach flu sick so puking for the last 6 weeks or so has been quite a challenge. I haven't been puking a ton, on average 2-3 times a week, but before getting pregnant the last time I puked was probably 3 years ago, possibly 4, so as you can imagine it's taken a toll on me.

I lost 10 pounds in 5 weeks, possibly more but I didn't know my exact weight before getting pregnant. I was so nauseas it was hard to eat anything for fear it'd come right back up! My doctor gave me some medicine after my 10 week appointment, but it didn't really help much. Then a day came where I couldn't keep anything down, it didn't matter what it was. I called the doctor's office to see if they would give me a stronger drug and they told me I had to go to the ER to get rehydrated. I didn't think going to the ER was necessary, but Nick took me anyway and it turned out to be a really good thing. They gave me 2 bags of fluid and a shot of Zofran. The next day I had a splitting headache (a side effect from the Zofran), but I felt amazing! I'll take a headache over nausea any day of the week!

Since my little trip to the ER I've felt considerably better. I haven't puked for 2 weeks! Woot Woot! Don't get me wrong, I've felt crappy all day everyday still and a few times I've thought I'm going to throw up, but I've had an appetite (somewhat) and I'm drinking way more than I was before.

Overall, the first trimester has been anything but fun. It's made me wonder how anyone can do this more than once! But I'm really excited for the end result. I can't wait to find out what we're having. Your guess is as good as mine at this point. Sometimes I think we'll have a girl because I've said if we have a boy then I'm never getting pregnant again! And sometimes I think we'll have a boy because Nick and I can't agree on any boy names. Then I'm back to girl again because we have 5 nieces and no nephews in Nick's family. And then I'm back to boy because 2 of my sisters just had boys in October. I have no idea what we're having and although I think it'd be fun for Nick (and Wedge) to have a boy, I really go back and forth between what I'd prefer!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

You Don't Want to Miss This!

Wedge has something very important he'd like to say:








Baby due June 15th, 2011. Woot Woot!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Why I Relay:

Relay For Life is incredibly important to me and I'm not even sure I can explain why. I've never been a caregiver or a survivor and I pray I never will. My uncle was diagnosed with terminal cancer when I was 18. About three months after his diagnosis he lost his battle. Other members of mine and Nick's family have suffered with cancer and I guess it's my way of celebrating them through Relay for Life.

The American Cancer Society has become the official sponsor of birthdays. By being part of relay for life I can help celebrate with those who were given a chance to have another birthday. There may not be a cure for cancer yet, but I'm helping FUND a cure, and that's pretty cool! In breast cancer alone there are 11 different types of cancer styles. And with each person there are different aspects to the disease. With that it means there can't only be one cure for cancer. Each person needs their own cure which means lots of money and research.

The first time I was touched by the importance of relay for life was in an assembly in my high school. We were all told to stand and as three questions were asked if we were able to answer yes to any of them to take a seat.

1. Do you know anyone who has died from cancer?
2. Has anyone in your family suffered from cancer?
3. Do you know anyone who has had cancer?

Out of 2,400 students, not a single one remained standing. Cancer literally effects everybody in some way and that's when I decided to fight for the cause.

I relay so when someone hears the words "you have cancer" it doesn't mean it's a death sentence.
I relay so my family won't be afraid of fighting cancer.
I relay so one day cancer can be as easy as getting rid of the stomach flu.
I relay so if the time comes for me or someone I'm close with to fight cancer, there will be a cure.

At 211 degrees water is hot. 212 degrees water boils. With boiling water comes steam. And steam can power a locomotive. One extra degree makes all the difference. Belief fuels enthusiasm, and enthusiasm explodes into passion. It fires our soul and lifts our spirit. I believe that there will one day be a cure for cancer. I don't want the water to just be hot; so close to finding a cure, but short by one degree. I want to be part of the degree that makes the water boil; the degree that changes HOPE to CURE.

Vegas Trip!!!

I had a seminar/training meeting/retreat in Las Vegas this past weekend for Relay For Life. I was gone friday through sunday and had to leave Nick and Wedge behind, so before I went I left Nick a little surprise.

Each sticky note had a different reason why I love him written on it. Let me tell you, it took a REALLY LONG TIME to do this! Writing the reasons took maybe an hour, but trying to put them on the wall took FOREVER!!! I thought the sticky notes would just stick to the wall, but they didn't so I had to roll individual pieces of tape for each one which wasn't a quick process. And then trying to get the shape of the heart with square pieces of paper wasn't easy. And trying to make all of it look proportioned was kind of hard. All in all I think it turned out pretty well. By the time I got to filling the heart in with post-its I was pretty much done dealing with this project so I just started slapping them up there! Patterns and organization no longer mattered at that point.

Here's a picture of the whole room to kind of see how big it is. The picture really doesn't do it justice. I lost count inside the heart, but there's close to 200 post-it notes.

As for the trip to Vegas it was really good. I took another girl from my committee with me whom I had never met before so I was a little nervous about that, but my fears of how our 8 hour drive would end up turned out to be really silly. We hit it off right from the beginning and I'm pretty sure we never stopped talking the entire way there!!! And it turned out that we were roommates for our two night stay which worked out nicely because we were both a little nervous who we'd be roomed with.

We were in meetings all day saturday. Our day started at 8:00am and was non-stop until 5:00pm. We learned SO much about how to make our Relay For Life event successful and the overall goal of holding relays. There were several different schools there including USU, UofU, Reno, and UNLV. It was really helpful to learn what other schools have done with their relays.

This is my third year being on the committee for Relay For Life at USU and my fifth year overall. The past two years at USU I was the Sponsorship Committee chair, but this year I really wanted to try something new. I might be in over my head, but this year I am the Team Development Chair which is going to be a lot of work, but I'm really excited. The girl that carpooled with me (I don't want to mention her name because I haven't asked for her permission to be on my public blog) is the co-chair with me. I think we're going to make an awesome team working together and I'm confident we're going to have a successful Relay this year. I'm definitely not saying the last two years haven't been successful because the absolutely have, but this year is going to ROCK!!!!

Happy Birthday Wedge!

Wedge's first birthday was September 7th (the same day as my niece, Camryn who turned 12)! We had a birthday party for him on Labor Day with all of Nick's family. They get together every Labor Day for a picnic so we just threw in a birthday party too. I realize that it sounds a little silly to have a birthday party for a puppy, but if we didn't then I wouldn't have anything to blog about so I'm glad we did! Plus, nobody will ever really understand how much Nick and I love our puppy. His little personality is so perfect for us and we want to share him with everyone!

I made a confetti cake for the occasion, but it was hard to get a decent picture of it.

He got lots of fun presents for his birthday. Thank you to everyone that gave him a gift. I didn't expect him to get anything other than what Nick and I got him so we really appreciated it. And I don't think Wedge coul have been happier to get so many treats. He LOVES them and thinks he should be able to eat as many as he wants!



The party hat was my favorite part! He definitely didn't like it and as soon as we put it on he would get it off.


But eventually he gave up and at least let us get some cute pictures with him wearing it! Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?!

Happy Birthday sweet little Wedgie! I must say, I'm sure glad you're finally one and hopefully that stage of being a terror is finally behind you!!! :)

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Nick and I went to a free Red Jumpsuit Apparatus street concert last weekend. Niether one of us are huge fans of the band, but I really wanted to go since I didn't get to go to the Dashboard Confessional concert a few months back. I guess it was my way of making up for missing out on a band that I love!

We both felt a little out of place being there because it was packed with high school kids and single college students looking for an excuse to drink and party. I definitely hate moments that make me feel old! The band played song after song that Nick and I niether one knew or even recognized. It wasn't until the 4th to the last song that they sang "Your Guardian Angel" and following that song they played "Face Down" which completely satisfied my hunger to be there! After those two songs Nick and I left in an attempt to beat the crowd out of there, but apparently everyone else had the same idea. I felt kind of bad that so many people were leaving before the show was actually over, but not bad enough to stay until the end!

Here are some pictures from the night. I took a LOT of pictures in hopes to get some good ones, but it was pretty much impossible, so I'll just post a few of the semi good ones! The first one is us waiting for the show to start. We were there WAY too early!



He wore sunglasses for most of the show which I thought was silly since it was outside and at night, but whatever!