day of mushy gooshy lovers

homemade pizza, delicious homemade cheesecake and some bubbly!

I LOVE YOU, BRAD!
Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

38 almost, 39 weeks looks like this.

i love our baby.
in fact she's kicking around in my belly RIGHT NOW. I have a feeling she's not coming too soon... sigh.. but she's inevitably coming in the next 2 weeks so...
wootwoot!! :)

husband poll:

does YOUR husband sing whitney houston "i wanna dance with somebody" at the top of his lungs at 10:45 at night while you get ready for bed?
mine does.

i can never say i didn't marry someone entertaining :)

My Husband, The Baker

Brad loves sourdough bread. Loves.
So this week he tried his hand at his FIRST loaf of homemade bread (not in a bread machine.) We followed the directions from Follow the Sourdough. I failed to take a picture of his starter sitting in a pickle jar on our counter for 5 days, but here is "the sponge":Kneeding.
In his NEW Oakland A's apron his wife got him for Christmas :)THE LOAF!!! It does look pretty doesn't it??
The moment of truth:
Yay for bread!!
It is hard to make perfect sourdough your first try- this one came out okay- not TOO terribly sour tasting and had more of a consistency and density of regular bread, not fluffy like we would prefer, but despite its imperfections, it is DELICIOUS.

Zucchini

What goes perfect with Italian chicken & pasta?

Zucchini of course!
So I pulled one out of the fridge, cut it, and cooked it up.
THEN I realized (when it wasn't really cooking normally) that it was...
a cucumber.
Dang it!
I tried to eat it.. but um... it wasn't good.
We had a good laugh over it and a vegetable-free dinner. :)

poor cucumber... you look delicious, but alas! you are not.

33 weeks

i am feeling cuter and more comfortable since the crazy traveling has ceased. seriously- the more hours i spend in a car, the more inches i SWELL up. :)
work is crazy and busy, but good! keeps me occupied and the time flying! everytime i turn around- another MONTH has flown by.
i can mostly sleep good at night. mostly. when brad isn't snoring with a cold or some little girl isn't awake doing kickboxing at 12 AM :) she moves like CRAZYface all the time. we love sitting and watching my belly bouce around in every direction.
it's crazy to think we are having a baby. this. year. SO SOON.
we are excited!!my hair & head look strange. but my belly really IS that cute in real life :) i hope!

big three princess party!

after christmas we went to Vegas for a couple days. it worked out perfectly bc we got to see all lindsey's family at the twin's 3-year old birthday party.
i love my nieces and nephews. they are all so cute and hilarious.
the only thing i think i really missed was rachel walking on wood floor with her little plastic princess shoes. i think i would've broken my ankle, but she's got skillz.
one little princess decided princesses wear pretty shoes, pretty necklaces, and a tiara... but no other clothes are necessary- haha ;)
HOW COME THEY ARE ALL SO CUTE??? sheesh.
nice happy family ending to our christmas break!

christmas came to the barttels home!

#1. having the underbelly of your tree filled with presents for people you love makes me so happy!#2. brad hasn't stopped wearing his new hiking boots yet.#3. i got books for christmas. i love books!
we spent christmas eve and christmas with brad's family. all the barttels, hansens, judds and extra girlfriends in one place. good times.

oh, and...

Merry (almost) Christmas!!

Love, Team Barttels

do you need a laugh? just look at me!

in my defense it was a long long day. and this angle does nothing for me.
also, i look like santa claus.
and brad laughed really kind of TOO hard. as are you, i'm sure. :)

Family Karaoke

Whilst enjoying the wintry wonderland of Brian Head for Thanksgiving... the Andersons did family Karaoke one night. It was hilarious and fun.
Highlights for me being my nephew Matthew "singing" (reading?) the Phantom of the Opera. It was PRICELESS. Also I loved watching Brad try to sing Wicked. And Jes and Kevin doing "Tradition!!!" from Fiddler on the Roof. Good times had by all :)

Can you tell who LIKE to sing and dance around in our family???Kevin and Lindsey like to rock the Beatles.

Such intensity and teenage love angst, sisterface. She even has the rocker stance.

TRADITION!!! Tradition!
Little Russian dancing, P.A. Smith?

Cute & Smiley Kellie.
No wonder she's so popular...

And Brad really did great. It was, after all, his first time...You can't see it, but his other arm is crossed in front of his chest. Textbook body language for discomfort, right? :) We'll work on loosening ya up for next year, B.

"The.Phantom. of the Opera. is there. inside. My mind!"

Saturday is a Special Day...

it's the day we sleep in.
our husband makes us breakfast. high in protein, low in carbs and sugar.
enjoy a pajama morning movie with breakfast. gerard butler makes a stupid bounty hunter. note to self:when sister says movie is stupid, she is correct.
we wrap all our christmas presents and are excited again about them all.
we deep clean the whole house. we remember again why cleanliness is next to Godliness.
we shower and clean ourselves. now everything in house is clean, hooray!
discover we can't live without cheese. we go to the grocery store.
prepare, eat, and clean up a healthy delicious dinner. satisfaction.
we go to a great movie. i appreciate good clean movies based on wonderful literature.
we play 2 games of yahtzee. zero yahtzees all around this time.
and then our husband goes and visits a friend in town while i blog and relax.

and THAT is why Saturdays are awesome, especially today! :)

oh, to be the favorite uncle!

lets not pretend for a second, that brad doesn't LOVE that all my neices are in love with him.

at thanksgiving, upon his entrance into the house, one of the twins came screaming across the room falling into his arms all dramatic-like. when i am on the phone my sister says "want to talk to aunt lindsey?" and all three little girls answer with, "brad??"
he also has won the love of the oldest, kayleigh. when they come to visit she and brad are the early risers and they make breakfast, play games and have one on one play time while everyone else sleeps in. she drew this today at school.

b is for brad.

thanksgibing... gobble gobble

This year all the Anderson's headed to Brian Head, UT to a cabin we rented in the snow. T'was lovely. We were all very cold, very cheery, and very fat by the end!!
Hooray for Thanksgiving!

my best friend

and i got married 1 year ago today. best year of my life.

i love you, brad.

ingenius!

i walked downstairs this morning, only to realize my little plumeria (which was sitting on the railing of our porch) had fallen off and the pot broken in the violent winds we've been having. poor plant. it looked so sad lying on the ground.

so i called up to brad & asked him to come pick it up- as i was running to work.
he did. he's so great.

and i came home to find my plant happily installed in a new pot:BAhahahhaha! if you can't tell... its in my old soup pot. awesome. :)

Baby Bump Barttels

14 weeks.
you can see SOMETHING!!

still in my regular jeans. very sick still & blacking out, but sleeping through the night.:)18 weeks.

not sick and nauseous anymore(although i look it in this picture)! not able to wear any normal pants. acne breakout, what?? kissed sleeping through the night good bye. hello 3 AM.

BUT the acne was worth it bc we found out it's a GIRLIE!! woot. :)20 weeks.
bless baby GAP maternity pants. how do we love thee?
feeling GOOD. moving furniture, grocery shopping & nice skin has returned!
24 weeks.
FAT. seriously.
undeniably pregnant looking.
(part of it could be this blouse (thanks julie!) bc it's nice & comfy & cute, but really halloween candy did a number on me. LOL)

this is a better picture

Father

Elder Boyd K Packer, an apostle in our church, once said,

"It should have great meaning that of all the titles of respect and honor and admiration that could be given Him, God Himself, He who is the highest of all, chose to be addressed simply as Father."

You should know by now I am in completely in love with my husband.

He is kind, unselfish and genuine. He also loves me a lot, which is convenient in marraige.

When I was in my first trimester and had HORRIBLE heartburn- no really, it was horrible- and woke up crying in the middle of the night, he would jump up and get a drink, crackers, or just talk to me and hold me til I could fall asleep again.

He cleaned our house, made his own dinner and watched tv by himself while I slept like 12 hours a day. When I almost blacked out (like everyday. that was fun times.) he would hold me up and walk me to wherever I was trying to get. Usually from couch to bed.

I can't wait for this little girl to come to our home. She has a daddy that is already COMPLETELY in love with her. He just LOVES her.

He smiled triumphantly when the ultrasound showed "GIRL."

He is already wrapped around her little teeny finger, I can tell.

When we were going through all his kid stuff, we found something from like 3rd grade that said what he wanted to be when he grows up.

I guessed baseball player, doctor?

Nope. Even at 8 his dream job was "dad".

He has been waiting for a little person to call his own for a long time. He is going to be a FANTASTIC father.

Little Girl Barttels is a lucky girl. Actually, we are two lucky girls.

hilarious brad, hilarious.

i found this gem the other day in brad's box of kid stuff.
he knew at age 10 what kind of wife he would end up with!! when i found this i almost died with laughter. it's awesome. especially the picture of the person sleeping. bahahahahahah

"Lazy Lindsey"

Lazy Lindsey sleeps all day she doesn't {move} an inch.

the only thing that can move her is a great a big PINCH!