31 weeks and almost done!

I can't believe how fast time has gone by with this pregnancy! All of the holidays have definitely helped speed things along. I pretty much have everything done in the baby's room. Just a few finishing touches and I'll be finished. I couldn't find any baby bedding that I liked for a boy (and I looked all over!) so I made it. I realized that there's a lot about sewing that I still don't know. Luckily my Mom is a great seamstress and she was able to help me when I needed it. So I made the bumper pads and the dust ruffle. I was prepared to make sheets if I needed to, but I was able to find some that match (hooray!). Of course today, as I was looking online for a glider, I found some super cute boy bedding that I would have totally bought if I hadn't made this. Where was it a couple weeks ago? Oh well, I like that I was able to make something special for my boy that he'll enjoy every day.

The Dog House

Check out this great video that Keith showed me when he got home from work today. It is so funny and clever. Be prepared to laugh. One of the funny things is that I would actually love to get a new vacuum as a gift from Keith.

Thanksgiving Day

My sister, Amber, and her husband, Michael came here from Laramie, WY for Thanksgiving. Here she is before the 10K Turkey Trot that Michael ran in on Thanksgiving morning.

Michael and a guy from NAU.

Michael won the race! Hooray! Here he is with the 2nd place guy from NAU (who doesn't look as happy as Michael).

Meanwhile, Keith's sister, Jenny, came across the finish line. Way to go Jenny! Let's not forget to mention that she was in a triathlon a few weeks earlier. You're amazing!

Michael with his 1st place turkey! Okay, let's go eat!

Here's the turkey that I sculpted on top of my apple pie.

Fun with Family

Keith's sister, Wendy, and her family came down from Utah last week. It was great to see them and to find out that they are expecting baby #5 in March. They sure are good secret keepers. That's just a month after I'm due and they're expecting a boy too. It'll be fun for our boys to have a cousin the same age. And Jill is expecting in June! So here's a picture of the pregnant sisters. (And now I know that when I'm in my tall shoes, I really am a giant!)
This is all of Keith's family. It's amazing to think that next year there will be 3 more kids!

Thanks Wendy for the pictures. We just found our camera last night.

Props to the Photographer!

This is one of my favorites! Keith looks hot! My best friend Shari's dad is a pro photographer and so she's been around it her whole life and has been taking classes from him, so she knows what she's doing.

If you want family pictures for Christmas (or anytime) I totally recommend her, and she's affordable. Here's her blog. She has more pictures of us on her blog too (not that you need to see more of us), but the cutest pictures on there are of her two girls having a tea party!

Halloween

Happy Halloween! I surprised Keith by having almost 50 bats flying out of our fireplace. Oooo....scary!

Here's the view from the fireplace.

Inspector Gadget and a Spider.

Our silly jackolantern.

Ten Years

We went to Keith's 10 year High School Reunion on Saturday night.

It was fun to watch Keith see a bunch of his old friends.

Unfortunately we didn't bring a camera with us, but I thought that I'd share a couple then & now pictures.

This is then: Keith pitching for Mesa High.This is now: he still knows how to get his game on!

This is then: after healing from getting hit between the eyes by another player's iron.

This is now: loving to play golf more than ever.

Like a Bird

So along with being totally excited to welcome our baby in February, these are just a few things we've been working on at home.


Setting up the crib. It's early, I know, but we couldn't wait. It's a good thing we got it early though because it still smells like paint, so hopefully the smell will be gone by the time we need to use it.

The changing table. I feel so lucky to be able to have one of these. I know that diapers can be changed pretty much anywhere, but I love that I can organize everything on this and it should help my back from having to change the diapers on the floor or somewhere like that. Plus, it looks really cool!

New furniture arrangement by Keith. I guess he's nesting too! He did this when he decided to vacuum under the couches.

Fun shiny beady things hanging from our dinning room light for fall. This doesn't really prepare us for our baby, but it's fun to look at.

We waited for the weather to cool and then we loaded our little garden with flowers and a few edible things.
Lettuce, Tomato, and Strawberry plants.

Parsley, Cilantro, and Mint.

Finally, now that it has cooled off here, I planted these beautiful petunias and a fern in my hanging baskets on the back porch. I can never get things to live in them during the blasting hot summer!

Everything that was stuffed in odd places in the extra bedroom (now baby room) had to find a home. Now it's all organized in the office closet. I love it! I was scared to attack this task, but it was easier than I thought and Keith helped me put the cool baker's rack thing together.

Baby Update

What have I been up to?

Well, not too much blogging, obviously! I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Sorry!

Most of all I can't believe that I'm past my first trimester! Now the sickies only come if I over-do myself or get hungry (like during the last hour of church, when I feel like I could eat my centerpiece!)

The point of this post though? CHICKEN! I have finally gotten the courage to bottle chicken! My mom helped me the first time around and I did it all by myself the second time
(well...Keith added the salt and put the lids on).

Since we had a wonderful monsoon storm two nights ago, as well as last night, the weather has been great! After going on a leisurely bike ride yesterday, we decided to open up one of these scary looking bottles (science project anyone?) and made BBQ chicken sandwiches. I was amazed! This chicken is sooooooooo good!

Announcing...

It's a bird! It's a plane! NO, IT'S A BABY! (And it's ours!)

Introducing our little swimmer

Can already wave hello, kick, and make mommy sick

Due Valentines Day 2009

We are so excited to be expecting our first baby! After a long wait (so it seemed to us) we have been blessed with this miracle in our lives. Thank you to all of you who kept us in your prayers!

Parades and Pirates

So I know that I've been SO BAD at updating our blog. Here's a little of what we've been up to lately. Last week we went up to Show Low and Snowflake so that Keith could play in the Pioneer Day Golf Tournament with our Bro-in-law Jason, and his cousin-in-law Mike. They had fun and came home with LOTS of tomatoes (since the tomato place up there was sponsoring the event). We enjoyed hanging out in the cool weather with Jason's family. It's so nice to be able to go outside and sit in the grass and enjoy a BBQ in the evening without dieing of the heat!

This is one of the coolest things that we saw in Snowflake's Pioneer Day parade. It really is cool! When we came back we had a pirate party for my parents birthday. They were born on the same day of the same year. How weird is that? So we surprised my Dad with a pirate theme. It was fun. He even had to follow a treasure map to get the treasure chest. Being back in the sweltering heat, we were glad to jump in the pool after dinner. NOTE: yes, my mom is wearing a pirate wig below.
This is the fun pirate hat cake my Mom made out of chocolate zucchini cake.

Bates Family Reunion

We had a fun 5 days in Utah last week. We went up there for Keith's Mom's family reunion. All of Keith's immediate family stayed at his sister's house. We had lots of fun swimming, shopping, and playing during the days before the reunion. We went to the Bees Minor League Baseball game for the 4th of July with the whole Bates family. The fireworks after the game were great! On Saturday morning we got to go to Hannah's (our niece) baptism. It was wonderful. That afternoon we met at a big park next to a church building with all the Bates and had fun on a giant slip 'n slide, and enjoyed crafts, food, games, and visiting.

My sister, Amber, and her husband, Michael, were up in the Salt Lake area for the 4th of July also. They live in Wyoming so we were very excited to be able to pick them up on Sunday night and drive down a little ways to Cedar Hills to visit my Uncle Mark's family. His daughter, Katherine, is getting married this weekend and so we brought them wedding presents and had a fun little visit.

San Diego

We had a great trip to San Diego last weekend. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and went to 3 different appointments for Keith for his work. The last appointment landed us in Newport where we met with Augie in his beautiful home on the beach. That was a neat visit. He has ALS, but is still so busy and active in life. He's raised over 14 million dollars for ALS. We were also able to see the temple there in Newport. It's a new favorite for me now.

We were able to go to the US Golf Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course on Thursday. It's the same golf course that we played on our honeymoon, and for our 1st anniversary. It was very busy, but we were able to follow Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson for their last half of that day. This was a dream come true for Keith. He kept telling me all throughout the day that it was the perfect day and he couldn't have asked for anything more (except a better view of the 18th green!).

On Friday we were able to go to Sea World. It was fun to see all the different shows. We went on the Rage'n Rapids ride and got totally soaked! It was cold and windy that day and we were freezing! We quickly ate lunch and went out to change and then came back to enjoy the rest of the day. It was soooooooooooo nice to be dry!

Saturday morning we went to the beach at Mission Bay before driving home. It was a such a great trip. It was so nice to get away from the Arizona heat and enjoy time together. We should have brought a pedometer; it would have been interesting to see how far we walked.

Birthday Weekend

For my birthday, Keith took me to one of my favorite restaurants, My Florist, in Phoenix. I love this place. They have the best food, and the best entertainment. We had a great time together and we ate A LOT of food! They even brought back our favorite dessert.

We rolled home after that one. My parents threw a fun birthday swim & BBQ party for my cousin Michael and me on Saturday night. Phil did a great job grilling the kabobs and Mom did a great job making everything else!
Kylie really enjoyed her icecream dessert!I got to hang out with my sister on my birthday day after going out to breakfast with a couple friends from our ward. (Thank you ladies!) We worked out and went swimming. It was so nice and relaxing. Then my friend Shari and her two girls came over to wish me a happy birthday. It was a great day!

WE'VE GOT TALENT!!!!

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Northern AZ

This past weekend we enjoyed being in northern Arizona. We couldn't believe that it's almost June and we were driving through a snow storm on the way there! Keith was invited to play on our brother-in-law's (Kevin) softball team in the Show Low tournament. He had a few really good hits, and mostly had a blast being able to play with such a great team.

This bridge into Pinedale is so cool! It reminds me of a bridge back east near Liberty Bell.


We stayed at Mom & Dad Jackson's cabin in Heber. They came with us to lunch on Sunday at the White's cabin (more like a beautiful house!). The White's work with Keith as ward missionaries in our ward. We enjoyed a yummy BBQ with them.


Isn't this chair so cool? Keith saw it and pulled over right away. It's just off the road in Pinetop.

On Monday we went to watch our brother-in-law, Skyler, play in one of his softball games in Pinetop. The fields were in such a beautiful area. There was this great lake that we walked around.

Check out this cool bird! I don't know what kind it is, but it is so amazingly beautiful!

CAST YOUR VOTES!

This is for all you American Idol fans.

I think we all knew that Syesha was going home yesterday. She handled herself very well. She is a good singer and I think she'll do great in the future, whether on Broadway or in the recording studio. She's got talent for sure.

It's David vs David now...Popularity vs Great Talent. Who didn't see this coming? I almost wished they would have called Syesha as safe last night just to shake things up. But it will still be interesting to see if the fact that David A. has millions of young girls (that all got cell phones for Christmas*) voting for him will carry him through. Don't get me wrong, I think he's an excellent singer, but Cook has got it down better. Cook has better stage presense, he has a distinctive genre, and he's more experienced. I can totally see myself listening to his CD over David A.'s.

So for the sake of my little poll on the right side of my blog, PLEASE VOTE. I'm curious to see what others of you think. Also, if you do vote for David A. I would like an explanation from you posted in the comments.

Thank you all, and have a fabulous day!

*I know this because I teach the 14&15 year old young women in church, and they really did almost all get cell phones for Christmas! Wow, I couldn't have even fathomed that idea when I was their age, and really it wasn't THAT long ago. I could go on about that, but I won't. I'll just say it's WIERD, but as long as they don't have them out during class or at activities, then that's okay.

IT WAS JUST STICKS!

My parent's next door neighbors are in a rose society. They have beautiful rose bushes that are covered with amazing blooms. They let my mom borrow a video showing how to prune and take care of rose bushes. I watched it too and couldn't wait for the right time to get to work. So a few months ago the time came. I stripped off all the leaves from the previous year, and cut the canes at the right spots and did everything the video showed. Keith didn't quite get what I was doing, and thought that our rose bush looked sickly. I just told him to wait. I should have taken pictures of what it looked like at the previous stages. Sure enough, beautiful, healthy foliage started growing and then we had dozens of buds getting ready to open, and now it's covered with roses! Ta-da! It worked! How satisfying; I love gardening!

IT'S GETTING HOT!

Now as the temperatures are rising here in the valley of the sun I'm starting to get that reminder of why I like to travel away from here during the summer. Am I too young to be a snowbird? I've got a few of the qualifications: I golf, my neighborhood looks like an old folks community,....well that's all I can come up with. Still I think that it would be lovely to go settle into a small town in Colorado for the summer and come back here when it's nice again. The problems that turn me off from pursuing the snowbird life style are that I'd probably start driving really slow, I'd fill up all the doctors offices and the hospitals, I'd have to make it to the restaurants for the early bird special, I'd eat less (but I could pay less!), I'd have to start complaining at the bank and the grocery store, and I'd have to learn to drive an RV. Hey, I'll just stay here for the summer to get a vacation from all the snowbirds! Good bye snowbirds! Don't let the high gas prices keep you from driving those RVs home!!!

(No snowbirds were hurt in the making of this post. If you are a nice snowbird, then don't include yourself in the blame for the general snowbird population.)