Loving the Fall

    Fall in Nashville has been so great so far! The weather has gotten cooler for perfect sweater and sweatshirt weather. I can wear my cute scarves and have fun hiding my long socks under my pants at work!

    Jared and I have had so much fun this fall getting ready for Halloween and just the fun spirit in the air! A few weeks ago we looked up a pumpkin farm in a nearby city and decided to get some pumpkins. Boy oh boy did we get pumpkins!

 Jared in the pumpkin thing

 My head in the pumpkin

    I only have pictures of the tiny pumpkins the old lady let us color with markers. I'll put up our other 3 pumpkins when we carve them Sunday or Monday.

 Jared coloring his tiny pumpkin with a scary face

 Mine was just silly and still needed some eyes :)

 Our cute pumpkins!!

    And 3 Halloweens ago, our first date was seeing a comedy show and decorating snicker doodles. It's a family tradition for Jared and it was SUCH A GREAT DATE!!

    So we made some and they taste so yummy! When the snicker doodles are still warm and usually fresh out of the oven, you can decorate them with tootsie rolls, caramel, candy corn, whatever! We used tootsie rolls and candy corn.

 Our dough and cinnamon

    To make the mouths, we just roll the tootsie rolls in our hands until the are soft (we washed our hands several times that night) and easy to manage.

 Some examples of faces :)

Me rolling the dough in the cinnamon and getting ready to prepare my tootsie roll faces

    We got a little creative and had a fun time making silly faces. I made a cat face and Jared made a face with an eye glass and mustache. It looks awesome!

 And then we just got silly and made our own faces :)

    There is also talk about going to a Haunted House this year with a couple in the ward. We'll see if that happens, but it would be fun! Another date Jared and I had was going to a Haunted House in Salt Lake. Not to be a party-pooper or anything, but Haunted Houses are sometimes pretty expensive. Sometimes I'd much rather watch a scary movie on my couch and get the same scared effect :)

    Anyhow, we just can't get enough of the candy corn and pumpkins. I haven't had cravings yet in the pregnancy, so I just say I'm craving chocolate :) Is it bad that I'm crossing my fingers not many trick-or-treaters come by? I might be terrible, but I wonder if kids trick-or-treat in apartment complexes...mostly I've seen kids stroll around neighborhoods...

    Maybe I can put a gnome outside our door holding a sign saying "Knock for Candy!" so that way they know we have some. Jared would appreciate one less gnome in our apartment :) He loves me and tolerates them...for now

Starting the Polls

    I had another Dr visit today. It's SO fun hearing my little alien's heartbeat. And I'll only refer to it as an alien for another month! 

    We scheduled our anatomy ultrasound for right before Thanksgiving Day. Then we can pray and be specifically thankful for our baby girl or boy. 

    Because we are finding out, everyone should start thinking of what their guesses will be. I think it'd be fun to do the whole thing, just to see who is closest and who is way off. I don't have any prizes, but it just seems like a great way to get even more excited!

    So guess the gender, weight, length and what day it will come. My due date is technically April 11th, so ya'll can guess anywhere in that ball park.

    But the alien is doing well. Good strong heartbeat. I feel a few little butterflies every now and then, which they say can be the alien. I felt one with the heartbeat was going, so that was super cool. I'll know in a few weeks if it's for sure the alien and not just my stomach acting funny when it's hungry!!

Enjoying My Days Again

    I've hit the second trimester and things are good so far! My nausea has cut down considerably, I have a little bit more energy, and there are some fun pictures on the fridge of the little person growing in me. 

    There have also been a lot of lessons learned over the past few months and I've finally figured a few things out. For example: I shouldn't eat right before bed, or I'll wake up in the middle of the night hungry!

    Other things I've learned: 

    Drinking lots of water helps with nausea

    Some things start to taste and smell differently, so be careful

    Smells stick around, even after brushing teeth and changing clothes...sorry Jared

    Sometimes my hungry feeling isn't really hunger. If I can sit it out, the hunger and nausea will go away

    Snacks are the way to go. I eat multiple times a day, but it's always small snacks. A few crackers, handful of goldfish, a fruit cup, handful of grapes and things like that. 

    Work is going well, I have a chair most of the time, so I can sit and relax. Every now and then I get up to walk around when things are slow (gotta get some exercise!).

    Poor Jared gets me every night when I'm tired and agitated from work, but he still loves me and puts up with my sickness days. 

    Waking up in the middle of the night has gotten better lately, but it still happens sometimes. There have been some days where I'm exhausted, but I can usually survive. Most of the time it's just waking up a few hours earlier than I want to eat something! :)


    And it is so much nicer having people know I'm expecting! I can make fun little comments and I don't need to try and hide the fact I've gained some weight (even if it's just been a little bit and only I can tell). 

    Jared has been really great this whole time, wanting to take care of me and help whenever and where ever he can. Sometimes there isn't a whole lot he can do, but the thought counts to me.

    I'm so excited to figure more things out. I can't wait for the nausea to go away some more. And I love Jared and can finally enjoy more time with him, rather than feeling sick all the time and feeling like I constantly complain...

Finally!!

    Jared and I had such a great Tuesday morning and and are so excited! And now that we know the alien is real and that things are going well, we don't have to keep it super secret anymore! Hooray alien! This means there may be a few posts every now and then about the funny things that are going on.

    Jared was super cute and thought of a clever way to tell his siblings. He gave them each a letter that could be found on same page in the middle of some random word in the middle of a sentence. Anyhow, it was cool and they all got to figure out the clues together in their separate homes and states! :)

   They pretty much figured it out right away...His mom would have the family do that when she was telling them they would have a new sibling in a few months. 

    I was a little less clever and just texted my brothers a picture of the alien and had them call me when they had free time.

    We called grandparents and they are all very excited.

    I put it up on our family's website so now the extended family on my side know. We're hoping the information will spread on Jared's side without us having to tell everyone :) There is just too many people to call!

    Anyways, it's just exciting! Keeping it from our parents was hard enough the first little bit, but once they knew, things got better :) And we only told them after I nearly passed out one afternoon while kneeling too long on a half empty stomach!

    We went to Cracker Barrel afterwards and had a great breakfast! We love that place and we love their breakfast foods!

    We feel so blessed and are so excited for the things to come! It is the right thing for us at this time and we couldn't be happier!