Baby on Board!

Im not sure if its possible to be in a state of continuous shock for months, but I think that is what I am in.
It started on Monday, November 7th. We had dinner plans with some friends that evening but had to run a few errands first. Colby had to convince me to buy the pregnancy test. I guess I was in denial! we headed home with a few minutes to spare before dinner to take the test. We were shocked by the almost instant positive sign! After a few tears of joy and shock and a questioning how (baby is definitely a surprise!), we headed to dinner! We feel so blessed for this opportunity to have a baby!
Im not sure how we kept it secret until Christmas! It was very hard after being in NC and finding out about my other sister in law and seeing my mom and family a handful of times!

So here the details!

Due Date: July 13th 2012

How far along am I? 12 weeks today!

Most exciting part so far? We heart the heartbeat on December 20th!

How have I been feeling? So far not too bad. Other than being extremely tired and even more picky with food than usual, oh and the occasional mood swing (sorry Colby)! Ive been lucky enough to only lose my meal 2x! Lets hope that number stays the same!

Weight Gain: +0 (not easy during the holidays!) I have been trying to do light excercises during the week and my weekly walks will resume back in January!

Food Cravings/Aversions? Ive really wanted salad, the good kind from restaurants or a salad buffet! I think I could eat it all day long!!! So if anyone wants to bring me a salad, especially a cafe rio one, Im down!!! :)No strong aversions, just different foods that dont sound good day to day!

Showing yet? By the end of the day I feel like my stomach is huge, its not really but it is definitely bigger than it was in the morning! Weekly photos will begin this week!

Christmas with a surprise!

Christmas came way too fast this year, and now its already past!
We decorated with as soon as Thanksgiving was over, but it was still hard to get in the Christmas spirit. Something about palm trees and 70 degree weather just doesnt feel like Christmas!

We drove up to Vegas on the Friday before Christmas to celebrate! We had a great time and it actually started to feel like Christmas! The freezing temperature might have helped! :)
My parents house was decorated beautifully! We went to "Christmas Dinner" at the Boulder Station buffet for lunch on Saturday because mama had to work and we had to leave in the early afternoon on Christmas to get back for Colby to go to work on Monday.
We went to church early Sunday morning, and had the shortest Sacrament meeting ever. 45 minutes! We sang 5 songs and then headed back to the house to open our gifts!
We were spoiled with gifts! Colby stepped up into the digital world and we got an Ipod Touch! and my mom got be an external flash and diffuser for my camera! Colby and I were amazed at the difference it makes in inside flash pictures!
We of course saved the best presents for last! I went and got them out of our room while my brother and sister were opening their last presents. I set them on the ground in front of me while everyone was just talking. Karli spotted them and said, "why are mour presents by you?" I just played it off like it was an accident... I told them to go ahead and open them. Kenny opened his first, blank stare. What is this? He showed it around and everyone was kind of confused for a minute. Then it clicked! My mama was the first to shout it out, Does that mean you are pregnant?? Yes, Yes it does. I told Karli to open hers as well.

No one suspected it!
We were able to tell Colbys family the previous Thursday night when they were opening all of their gifts. Mike and Dalene received a family tree from all of the kids and we had Brittany put an ultrasound pic by us. They were a little bit confused and thought the pictures was in the wrong place, since my other sis in law Christal is also expecting, but they eventually got it with some prodding from Brittany! They were all very surprised since we were out there only a couple weeks before!
So it was a very merry Christmas! Im am so bleesed to have a wonderful family and to have married into an equally wonderful one!

Recently

Well we have been busy most of December too! Colbys parents came to visit the first weekend in December, of course, it was the coldest weekedn we have had so far!
We took them to the Mesa Temple Christmas lights and to a Christmas festival in Peoria!

Yes we are both wearing our winter coats, thats how cold it was!!
It seems like we constantly have something going on, but everything has been poorly undocumented!!
We had a fire in the backyard the other day because the weather was so nice! We trimmed all of our trees and bushes and have enough wood to last us a while!!

One thing AZ does not lack of is beautiful sunsets! They always amaze me!!
Another thing that I love is all the fruit trees! Every where you go you will see trees filled with oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruits! They are so pretty!

Dont they look delicious!
Oh and for good measue and because they havent been on the blog in a while,
Krone - and his new sweater and really bad bed head!

Kazzi looking innocent as usual

We are so excited for Christmas! We are heading up to Vegas to celebrate! It will be nice to spend it with family!

November

November was a crazy month for us! Crazy in a good way of course! We started off the month slow and then went out of town for 10 days back to North Carolina!
Colby had a 3 day fishing trip with one of his brothers and his dad planned , they had a blast! Of course no one took any pictures of their fantastic catches but it sounds like they caught a lot... They were even kind enough to bring a couple back to eat for dinner!
While he played I stayed back in Greensboro and worked and had some lunch dates! It was so much fun to be able to catch up with friends!
I am glad that we were able to take a trip back and spend time with everyone! We even got to see Brooke and Kent and most importantly Case for a full 24 hours! That beats the last time we saw them for 2 hours!
Here is one of our family pictures from our pre thanksgiving celebration -

Sadly these were the only pictures I took!! OOps! Then to top it off I left my camera in NC so I didnt take any pictures except for phone ones the rest of the month!

We got back just a few days before Thanksgiving, which we were hosting so we got everything ready for the big celebration!

It was so fun having my whole family here! 

We baked up a storm, and did equally as much shopping!

One of the 2 big pumpkin  cheesecakes Karli and I made!

We attempted at taking family pictures right before we ate dinner, but everyone was starving and ready to eat!

Well that pretty much sums up November! It was a crazy and busy month! I cant believe December is almost gone and over with now! 2011 Really flew by!

Hot Chocolate and Giant 'Mallows..

Fall has finally arrived! I am so excited to be able to sweatshirts, boots and cardigans without sweating to death!
We took it easy this weekend! November is going to be a busy month so we decided to relax while we still can!
Friday night we enjoyed some delicious hot chocolate with one giant marshmallow!

We bought those GIGANTIC smores marshmallows for our camping trips and it was wonderful in the hot chocolate!!
Yumm!
Saturday I had a newborn photo session with Claire & Tyler! She is a doll! When I got home we went to enjoy the outdoors at the 41st annual Litchfield Park Festival of the Arts! There was so many neat crafts, arts, and miscellaneous things! We enjoyed some Native American music (pan flute & violin!) and walked around smelling all the delicious food!
Sunday we went to church, if I havent mentioned it before we were called to be nursery helpers. We enjoy playing with the kids for two hours and eating cheerios and other snacks! They are always doing something that makes us laugh!
After church we watched movies and cuddled under blankets for the rest of the day!
It was quite the relaxing weekend, now on to a busy week!!!

Quick Trip to California!

This past weekend we headed to Anaheim to go to Disneyland with my family! We had never been during Halloween and thought it would be fun to experience it!
Colby and I drove down after he got off work on Friday and made it in in just 5 hours!
We had a blast at Disneyland and California adventure! The parks were packed, but we were able to ride all the rides we wanted to, some more than once!

We braved one of the most terrifying rides there.... The Ferris Wheel At California Adventure!
Here is Karli and Kennys Scared faces, these were not posed by the way...

before we started to slide.

 and during...

haahah!

Colby and I looking normal during this!

 Colby enjoying a HUGE turkey leg!

 bugs life ride!

 Waiting in line for tower of terror!

 My parents fell asleep on the bench while we were waiting in line!

Colby and Kenny playing around!

On Sunday morning we decided to head to the beach before the drive home!

There were so many surfers out! I guess its the popular thing to do on a Sunday morning!

We had a great trip! We love my family and are grateful we are so close to them now!

Haunted!

Halloween is almost here! It doesnt seem like we have lived here for 5 months, and I really cant believe that October is nearly over! Our heat wave definitely came back after one week of 80's it went back into the upper 90s and even low 100's! I am ready for fall food (yummy pumpkin) and fall weather but it just doesnt seem right since we can still go swimming!
There is a pretty big farm just around the corner from us and they set up a pumpkin patch, petting zoo, and corn mazes (one being haunted)! It was a blast! Its the weirdest thing being surrounded by fields in middle of a big city, especially in the desert!
This was my first haunted corn maze, and COlby & I's first haunted experience together! We went with some of our new friends Nathan and Kira (it was Kiras first time in a haunted anything!) and we all had a blast! There were several times that we just ran through it because we were so scared, which made it even more fun because then more people would just pop out of no where!
Obviously I couldnt take pictures of the corn maze, but here is us at the petting zoo! We found out Colby is the horse whisperer and that it really tickles when ducks try to eat from your hand (especially when you dont have any food in it!)

right after we had all been terrorized!

 Cute litte kids!

No idea why its so fuzzy!

Weekend Fun

We decided to head up to Vegas for the weekend to hang out with the family.
Even though there is a lack of pictures we did lots of fun stuff, although we really missed Karli and her constant entertainment:

Jenifer - got my hair done, had a photo session, went to the mall, drove around henderson, and hung out with my  mom and brother.

Colby - went ot the swapmeet, went to Pawn Stars shop, tried to tour Ricks Restoration unsuccessfully, went to check out a cool Dune buggy, and hung out with my dad.

We - went on a double date with my brother to the CSI:Experience at the MGM (got free entertainment by watching all of the JOURNEY concert goers) and dinner at Buca de Peppa, ending the night at Coldstone!
I only got two pictures of the entire weekend... I really need to work on that!

We got to wear these cool official CSI vests during the experience!

Its so nice to be able to hang out with my family on a whim like that! We are looking forward to hanging out with them in a couple weeks (sister included) in SoCal!

We love the great outdoors!

Well this past weekend was pretty much the last weekend before all the mountains here start to get snow, so we decided to take advantage and go on one last camping trip! We headed up to Chevelon Canyon Lake on the Mogollon Rim. It is what is called a primitive campsite, meaning no water, showers, bathrooms, and you have to hike down 3/4 a steep, very steep hill to get to the lake. We enjoyed watching the stars and eating our tinfoil dinners and went to bed early so we could head to the lake early the next morning.

We bought these awesome kayaks a couple weeks ago that turn into backpacks, which is cool because we can take them anywhere and Colby can fish from them, etc. The only negative is you are carrying 40lbs of extra weight on your back. We spent about four hours out on the lake and then we had to head back up to pack our things and get home before it started to rain.
I thought , knew i was going to die! I felt like we were climbing straight up and that we were never going to get back to the campsite...Poor Colby, there wasnt much he could do (obviously he couldnt carry both kayaks!) except watch me huff and puff and wheeze all the way up this mountain, in my defense it was 7000+ feet and the air is a lot thinner than it is in Phoenix. We eventually made it...somehow! and I survived with only sore legs!
Anyways, other than the awful hike, it was a wonderful little camping trip!! Colby caught 10 fish, but didnt keep any.

 The closest to fall I will see around here!