tiny spoon at dinner.

we spent our anniversary evening up at log haven. neither of us had ever been before & let's just say we didn't realize how fancy & expensive it is.

we chose to go there because i really wanted to eat somewhere up the canyon & we were a little under-dressed & under-prepared for what the restaurant had to offer. the food was delicious, but we spent the majority of the dinner giggling at funny things our waitress said & did and feeling way too immature to be there. i was especially obsessed with that teensy tiny little spoon that came with a teensy tiny little bowl of sea salt! i simply couldn't resist pretending it was our soup spoon & taking pictures with it...why? because, i'm mature, that's why.

it was one of my favorite nights together, lover. an evening spent people-watching & laughing with you is an evening well-spent!

grow old with me, the best is yet to be.

four years ago today i made the best decision of my life when i married my sweet husband.

every single day since that beautiful day in the temple i have been grateful that we found each other and amazed by what a sweet, loving, kind and good man he is. over the years he has supported me, believed in me, comforted me, cheered me up, calmed me down, made me smile, made me laugh, made me mad, impressed me, taken care of me and loved me unconditionally. and throughout it all i have always thought the same thing; there is no one i would rather have by my side.

happy anniversary to my love, my best friend, my favorite person, my baby-daddy and my dear sweet husband. this is our last year celebrating as a duo and when i think back on the four years we've spent together i know i will remember them as some of the happiest years of my life. even better, i know the best is still to come.

i love you.

about a pup.

dear dog who attacked my dog,

thank you for making my pup even more attached to me than he already was...i really didn't think that was possible! i am loving the fact that now i literally can't do anything without my nervous little shadow by my side.

love,
j bubba's mother

ps. his neck is almost completely healed & he is still frequenting the dog park like a pro. we aren't going to let you ruin any of our fun, you stupid punk!

too legit to quit!

look what arrived in the mail the other day! i breathed a huge sigh of relief when i saw this sucker...i guess i really did graduate! i was half expecting to receive an email telling me that i missed something and had to go back to take another class or sell my soul to the dean or something. guess not! peace out U of U!

sick boy.

my love is home sick today (yesterday too & with the way things are looking, most likely tomorrow). i can't even remember the last time he took a sick day...probably 2 + years ago, so this is a big deal. we are watching movies and eating oatmeal and reading baby books all day long. and even though his throw-up smells AWFUL & the shows he wants to watch sometimes make me want to die i am loving having him home all day.

thanks influenza virus for the quality time!

bump watch.

I am officially half-way through my pregnancy! This post is mostly for my dear friends who have requested to see a picture of my growing belly, but I also thought I would record a little bit about the first half of my pregnancy for my sake. I have loved being pregnant and feel really lucky to say that I most days I don't feel pregnant at all. Here are some little tid bits about my pregnancy thus far...

• As of 20 weeks, I have gained about 5 lbs. (this is for Holls who claimed that I hadn't gained a pound. Yes, I have!)
• I seriously don't have any pregnancy cravings (not even pickles or ice cream ;) and very few aversions (I don't love meat, but I didn't love meat before either so I have a hard time saying this is really a pregnancy thing). In the first trimester I couldn't eat yogurt, but I have started eating it again with no problems.
• I hate taking my vitamins.
• My hair is getting thicker & thicker and I cannot keep up with my nail growth. Since I hate long nails, it drives me a bit crazy.
• I have a hard time sleeping already and spend a lot of time trying to sleep on my left side.
• I have been taking a picture of my belly and writing a letter to my baby girl every week. I notice my pregnancy hormones the most when I do this, because I cry every single time.
• I can feel her squirming and moving periodically throughout the day, but I am definitely not feeling every single kick yet. G has only felt her a few times and can't wait until he gets to feel everything I can.
• My biggest pregnancy discomforts are heartburn, round ligament pain, periodic dizziness and my crappy digestive system!
• When those things are bothering me, I don't feel pregnant at all.
• My favorite part about being pregnant is being pregnant with G's baby. He is so in love with her already it kills me.
• We have no idea what we will call her!

The first few months seemed to go very quickly but now I am feeling like life has paused. I have no idea how I will wait until February to meet this little one. It feels like an eternity!

get well soon.

Today was one of the scariest and worst days I have had in a long time. This afternoon the pups and I were playing in my parent's front yard with my Mom and her dog when the neighbor's dog was let out and immediately ran straight for my little Jacky. He bit into his neck and lifted him completely off of the ground. It took me, my Mom, the dog's owner and a good 2 minutes to pry the dogs jaws open. All the while I just had to watch my pup hanging helplessly from another dog's mouth, not knowing what kind of damage he was doing.

When we finally freed him we took him straight to the animal hospital where he was sedated and taken care of. We are lucky that he is okay and will try to keep him comfortable as his neck heals.

I am grateful that we were able to keep the dog relatively still (he was a 70 lb. dog & my dog weighs 13 lbs.) while he was biting Jack because I am certain if he had been able to shake him at all he would have broken his neck. I am also certain that if he had gotten a hold of Toby instead of Jack, little 7 lb. Toby wouldn't have survived it.

It's funny how you think you love your pets, but then when something like this happens you realize what they really mean to you. Jack has been my little shadow & sidekick for the past 3 years and I was completely hysterical watching this happen to him. I know he is just a dog to everyone else, but to me he is completely irreplaceable.

Get well soon my little bubba. I love you.

This pic doesn't really show the damage very well, but it hurt him too badly for me to try to touch it at all to get a good angle.

brotherly love.

these two punks melt my heart...especially when they don't smell like poop.

basically i ate smores.

the cabin in the summer is quite pretty, but i am still a bigger fan of the cabin in the winter for the following reasons:

1. besides shoveling snow the boys won't be able to spend all day outside building things and doing manual labor
2. and when i say "the boys" mostly i am talking about g (the other boys can do whatever they want :), because in the winter rather than building things he will be forced to stay inside and chill with his wife or take me for a ride on the snowmobile.
3. no weeds to pull or thorns to get out of the pups paws.
4. garage will be built (please refer to numbers 1 & 2)
5. hot chocolate will be made on a daily basis.
6. twinkle lights will be turned on at night.
7. fire will be lit!
8. i can take "baby rides" up and down the hill on the snowmobile (as soon as this child is out you better believe i will be taking "real rides" again).
9. smart wool socks.
10. please refer to numbers 1-9

i have enjoyed the cabin in the summer, however, for the following reasons:

1. smores
2. reading on the deck
3. starry nights by the fire eating smores
4. talking a walk while thinking about smores
5. no sweaters or coats on the pups
6. smores made with gigantic marshmallows
7. wildflowers in the yard
8. g making bonfires & doing fire dances
9. roasting/burning marshmallows over the fire
10. and turning them into
11. smores

slingin' it.

i bought a baby sling this weekend at swiss days (hooray!). when i brought it home to show g he was a little confused as to how it works & what we would use it for. i tried just explaining it, but quickly realized i needed a prop. the lady i bought it from used a baby doll, but since we were fresh out of those i grabbed the next best thing, little 7 pound toblerone.

he was quite happy chilling out in the sling. he may or may not have stayed in there long after the demonstration was over. don't judge him.

what now?

the time is quickly approaching when i will no longer be able to fit into most of my jeans. even though i can technically still button them up i have a feeling that won't last much longer. and since they are no longer comfortable in any way, shape or form, this week has been spent wearing only leggings and my one pair of bdg legging jeans.

the other day i gave in and ordered a few pairs of maternity leggings from forever21 and my first pair of legit pregnant jeans, but i kind of have no idea what i am doing as far as maternity garb is concerned. if any of you have any suggestions as to where to shop & what to buy, please do share!

goodbye summer.

the summer sunset's we've been having lately are spectacular & leave me feeling all nostalgic inside. i love where we live. i love the sights that surround us. something about city lights twinkling off in the distance just gets me. and when you combine city lights and a sunset, well then i'm sold.

our favorite place to walk the dogs is a little park/soccer field overlooking salt lake cemetary. i put in my headphones and walk the track while the puppies run in the distance and my ipod serenades me. i like going best right as the sun is setting...downtown lights twinkle in the distance and you can see every temple in the salt lake valley glowing brightly. it makes me feel grateful. grateful to live where i do, with the man i love by my side. grateful to be where i am. grateful for life and growth and the little things (like sunsets and twinkle lights) that make me so happy along the way.

this summer has been so good to us. it's brought many unexpected blessings and left me about as happy as i have ever been. i'll always remember these past few months and this time which has been so sweet. i can't wait for everything that's around the corner. my favorite time of year is quickly approaching and soon we will all be picking pumpkins and raking leaves and making hot chocolate before bed every night. i can't wait! i love the way the seasons change exactly when we need them to, exactly when we are ready to move on. the temperatures drop and the leaves fall and we get a chance to say goodbye to where we have been and hello to where we are going.