Just thought I'd let you all know...

And we are super excited! To tell the truth we have known the gender since our 13 wk ultrasound (pretty amazing, huh?). The tech at the time said she was 95% sure so we took her word for it. But I still didn't feel like making it 'official' and posting it on the blog until we had a second look. Some of you already know, as I've told those who have asked me, but for the rest of you...it's official now...Baby Girl Larson is doing well and still due to arrive in April! I'm feeling great at 19.3 wks now and with the holidays just around the corner life couldn't be better! I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels!

Sawyer & Jake in Utah

I figured the title of this post was appropriate because that's what you are about to get--a gazillion pictures of Sawyer and Jake in Utah :). Sawyer and I hitched a ride up to Utah with some friends about mid-October. We spent a week there and stayed with Kristie in their new apartment in Pleasant Grove. It was such a fun trip and we were glad to get away from the warmth and wear some long pants for a bit! We packed our days with plenty of adventures--somewhere in between naps, lunches, baths, and lots of ransacking the apartment (or at least Sawyer engaged in that last activity quite a bit). The boys got along great, as long as Sawyer wasn't mindlessly taking any of Jake's favorite toys. They are really starting to interact like little friends and it was so fun to watch! And as for me, I got a good fill of all my favorite 'Provo eats'. I'll go ahead and post all the pictures now and let them tell the details of our visit!

Sawyer thought Jake's 'big boy bed' was pretty cool...maybe that helped with his transition into a 'big boy bed' a few weeks later (which I'm happy to report has gone VERY well!)

Eating snacks in the pantry

We went to Macey's one day to grab some groceries. They had the cutest little pumpkin display out front and we thought it was the perfect picture opportunity!

Macey's is also a cool place for little boys to drive in a car shopping cart together! (nevermind that Sawyer already wanted out after about 3 minutes...that kid just can't sit still!)

We stopped by my old stomping grounds one afternoon for me to say hi and for Kristie to show Jake where his baby sister would be born in a couple months! I miss you Orem Community!

That same day we hit up Kneaders for some lunch. Sawyer pretty much got some chips and a chocolate chip cookie out of the deal. I got a scrumptious Turkey Artichoke Panini...mmmm mmm...

Kristie has this awesome place called the 'Kangaroo Zoo' about 5 minutes from her house. Super cheap and full of bouncy toys and slides for the kiddos...what a blast!

We also discovered a Sub-Zero Ice Cream in American Fork (not far from her house, either). It was a cute little 2-story brick building that looked like an old remodeled fire house. The upstairs had a mini-arcade, couches, love sac, and a TV. And it wasn't even packed with students on a Friday night! The boys seriously loved having the run of the place. And they were sporting their new Halloween jammies (thanks mom!). So cute.

Of course one night we went to Corn-Bellies and enjoyed all of the fall festivities that it has to offer. It was so much fun!! It made me miss Utah so much. Our good friends the Stott's met us down there with their daughter, Kaitlin, who is a few months older than Sawyer. The kids seriously loved it. And Syd and Mitch were able to join us too! Good memories...

Sydney was super busy with school that week but she managed to hang out with us quite a bit, still. Thanks for sacrificing your time, Syd! We love you! And Mitch is either working or going to school as well so it was awesome of him to join us that night! The boys love them.

Sawyer is often looking up and noticing airplanes in the sky, much like he is doing in this picture. That night he pointed up at an airplane excitedly and followed it with his head as it flew over...all the way back...until he fell over backwards. It was pretty cute. He's a funny kid.

So that's it. I think. I know I'm missing a couple pictures of Sawyer & Jake on the playground at Kristie's house. But I needed to get this post out of the way so that I wouldn't feel overwhelmed about it anymore :). We had such a great time in Utah and we can't wait to go back again! Hopefully that trip won't be too far away!

A Star Wars Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween this year! I didn't get around to throwing another Halloween party, much to Nathan's disappointment, because I was just too sick and tired in the early months of this pregnancy and had no desire whatsoever to go through all the effort. Maybe next year! But we were able to just relax and enjoy some of the festivities with our little Yoda. Nathan and Sawyer borrowed their costumes so I threw together a last-minute Princess Leia and we were good to go! I was actually surprised at how much Sawyer seemed to enjoy it all. Friday night we went to Nathan's school for a little trick-or-treating in the classrooms and some carnival type activities. Saturday we went to our ward's Halloween Party and Trunk-or-Treat. We had so much fun! Sawyer actually figured out how to put the candy into his bucket and he was more than mesmerized by all of the pumpkins and decorations. Nathan and I had the best time just guiding him around the parking lot to collect his candy. I will say that Halloween is so much more fun with kids! Plus you get to enjoy all the candy once again! :)

Sawyer with Jen & Isac's little boy, Tyler, at the school activity.

Jen and Sawyer

The Jedi Knight and Yoda battling it out

He LOVED the lightsabers! This was on Halloween Sunday after church...went straight for the lightsabers when we got home!

Dad's Visit

The day that my mom left after watching Sawyer while we went to Havasupai, my dad called and said that he had an unexpected business trip to Phoenix coming up! Hooray! We were so excited that we got to see both of them within the same 2 weeks! He was pretty busy the first couple days he was here, but made it up to our house on Thursday night for some pizza and a little hanging out. Then Friday night I had to work which sucked but he Nathan went and picked him up and they spent the evening together. Nate had a Young Men's activity or something on Saturday so my dad babysat while I slept that morning after working! He did a great job! He took Sawyer to Costco, bought him a sweet Buzz Lightyear car, fed him breakfast and lunch, put him down for a nap...pretty much did the whole thing!! I was very impressed.

And then we went to Desert Ridge shopping center and let Sawyer play in the splashpad while we drank smoothies. That evening we got a sitter and hit up a movie, just the three of us. It was a fun weekend and so great to be able to spend some time with him! Sawyer loved him so much... and he loved his I-Pad too! :) Haha. Thanks for coming, Daddy!

Of course we neglected to take pictures the whole time. I just had a few from that night when he came over for pizza.

Havasupai

As I mentioned in my previous post, Nathan's family had been planning a trip to Havasupai for the past year or so. Well it finally happened. In mid-September we ventured out (without kids!) and embarked on our Havasupai Journey! Everyone was able to make it besides Brooke and Mark (Brooke was already 5 months pregnant at the time). We missed them! But it was such a fun experience and I am SOO glad that I went! I will admit I hesitated a bit in the weeks before because I was in the early part of my pregnancy and feeling pretty crummy everyday. I just didn't want to go hiking/camping and feel like I was going to throw up the whole time. But I decided that it would be ok (whenever I exercise during pregnancy I don't notice the nausea...so I hoped it would be the same experience). The other concern was whether or not to carry my own day pack. Nate and I, along with my doctor, decided it would be better to send my pack in with a donkey and just carry a lighter-weight day pack. I think that was a good decision. So on Wednesday night Andrea, Paul, Nathan and I made the drive up to the Hilltop. We didn't get there until after midnight. Nate's parents, Ashley, Justin, Erin, and Kasey (who had driven down from Las Vegas) had arrived just before us. We pitched a tent outside our car in the parking lot to catch a few hours of shut-eye before we began the hike. We woke up about 5:30 am and finally got on our way around 7. A little later than we had planned on but it all worked out. Before we started the hike Nate asked everyone to gather together for a group picture (nobody knew we were pregnant, yet). He said, "1, 2, 3...say, Jessica's Pregnant!"...it was great to get the picture of everyone's reaction. Unfortunately I don't have that picture yet. We only had 2 cameras on the trip to avoid carrying too much weight. I've been trying to get a hold of all of these pictures for the last month but decided, in order to not delay my blog posting any longer, I'd just go ahead and post what I had. So this is another of the group shot before starting out...(Julianne was taking the picture...she flew into Havasupai on a helicopter and rode a horse out. It worked out well because I sent my pack with her on the way down.)

So the hike is about 10-11 miles each way. The first couple miles is just switchbacks straight down (and up) the canyon wall. After that the trail was fairly level. It was so much fun just talking and hiking that morning. We got to the campground (after meeting up with Julianne at the village a couple miles before) in the early afternoon and set up camp. We pretty much just hung out and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. The next day we spent hiking around and visiting 3 different waterfalls. It was amazing. The water was incredibly clear...And the red rock everywhere was really beautiful. Everyone was pretty crazy and jumped off of one of the waterfalls. (I lucked out of that one, thanks to the pregnancy :) ) We camped out again on Friday night and then hiked back up to the hilltop on Saturday morning. Here are a few more pictures to illustrate our adventures!

The water pump at the campsite

This is the waterfall that everyone jumped off of...even the girls! The water was pretty dang cold, I will admit...but after hiking in the heat all day it felt nice.

Another one of the falls where we washed our hair the second day!

This is actually one of us hiking back out on Saturday morning.

The whole group (minus Justin who wimped out when he saw the descent to this waterfall...:) You can't blame the guy...it was pretty freaky...and if you are at all scared of heights it's brutal._

See, that was the only way to get down to Mooney Falls...can you blame Justin for skipping out? The picture doesn't even do it justice.

This last picture is from the top of Mooney Falls.

I have to tell a quick story about Mooney Falls before I end this post. We visited this waterfall at the end of the day. We had been jumping off and swimming behind other falls all day. We were all standing around looking at it when someone said that they thought there was a secret room behind this fall. Nathan got curious and started swimming out to it. Before we knew it he was no where to be seen. Kasey, who was off to the side of the falls said he could see Nathan, trying to swim out. Nobody seemed to be that worried, but as the minutes went by I knew something was wrong. I walked around to the side of the falls to see if I could see Nathan. Sure enough, I could barely see him swimming as hard as he could to try and get out...and he was barely moving! I was freaking out. Luckily, that time that I watched him he was able to get out. I literally broke down in tears when he got to me. I could tell that he was pretty shaken up, as well. After hearing Nathan's side of the story we were really counting our blessings. He described how he had barely reached the outskirts of the waterfall when the current literally sucked him in and behind it. There was no place to sit or get out of the way...so he was hanging onto a rock behind the falls. He tried a couple times to swim out, but could not escape the current. And Nathan is a very strong swimmer. He said in his mind he was so scared. He had tried with all his might to swim out to no avail. He finally said a prayer and tried one more time. As he was swimming he lifted his head, thinking that he had maybe cleared the falls, only to find that he was right under neath it getting pounded! So he took another breath and kept swimming! Until finally he felt sand beneath one of his hands and was able to pull him self up to stand. That's when I saw him coming out. He says still that it was the closest he has ever felt to dying in his life and that he was truly scared. I think he seriously suffered some post-traumatic stress from the experience and had nightmares for a couple days afterwards. The worst feeling came when we looked up "Mooney Falls" when we got home and discovered that a 31 yr old man had died there only 2.5 months before! We are so grateful that our experience ended better than his. I am so grateful to still have Nathan with me!

So that was our Havasupai adventure. Mostly awesome...with a little scare...but overall it really was amazing! If I get a hold of any more pictures that are worth posting, I will be sure to do so. And if you read this far, thanks for reading!!! :)