The Month of Love

Well, February has come and gone. I have been horrible at keeping up with the blog, for the 3 of you who read it... but better late than never! February is the month of love for the world, but it is our official month of love b/c we get more celebration than most people. We get to celebrate Valentines, AND our anniversary.

I can't believe it's been a year since we got married. What a year it has been too! We've done lots of fun things, gone through lots of not so fun things, and learned to live with each other and love each other through it all :) This year for our anniversary the 3 of us (us and the little baby inside me), spent the weekend in downtown SL. We went out to dinner at Rumbi Grill, stayed at the Anniversary Inn in the Country Garden room, went to the SL temple and did sealings, and then went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory! All of these things were things we did on our honeymoon, or wedding day. So it was great!

Us at the SL Temple. We wanted to do sealings in the Draper Temple since that's where we got married, but it was closed for cleaning. SL was the next best since that's where I received my endowment.

Valentine's Day was pretty low key and relaxing for us this year. We decided that as poor, expecting, college students, we would save our money for our Anniversary weekend and do something cheaper for Valentines Day. I was in charge of dinner. And here's what the finished product looked like. A picnic in the living room (idea adopted from sister, Erin). We ate Subway, red potato salad, chips, and of course, sparkling cider.

And this was my gift to Rob. A candy bouquet. Once again, trying to go on the cheaper side. He loved it, so it was a success! And easy.
It was a great February for us! Lots of love going around, and lots of celebration :) Next year will be a little different seeing as how we'll have a little one with us, but it'll be fun to start some of our own family traditions, and we can't wait!

25 weeks

Well, I'm 26 weeks pregnant now, but these pictures were taken at 25 weeks :)

Which one of us has the bigger belly? Rob tends to get these "food baby's" after he eats too much, but I am glad to say that at 25 weeks my belly is bigger than his. Things are going great, and the pregnancy is still going smoothly! Only three more months to go til we meet the little one and we are so excited!

Minnesota Makings

I am one of the luckiest girls in the world. You're expecting me to say it's b/c of my husband, right? Well, even though that's true, that's not it. I'm one of the luckiest girls in the world b/c I have the best sisters in the world!

This past week I was, by a miracle, able to go visit my sister, Erin, and her family in Minnesota. They've lived there for way too long, and we aren't able to get together near enough! It was so much fun to be able to escape life and join someone else's. She has the cutest kids that keep her busy, but they are so fun! Even amidst the busyness of her kids we were able to do some fun things! Erin is very crafty, and has made some extremely cute things for her little girl, and that's what I wanted to do while I was there. I was completely happy with staying home and making fun things for Brynlee who will be a part of our family in May!

These are homemade baby leggings! We did three different finishings on the bottom- ruffle, cuff, and whip stitch. They are super easy too! And made out of women's knee high socks. My favorite is the ruffle finish.

I'm so excited to put flowers, headbands, and bows in Brynlee's hair! These are the flowers we made.
This was the most time consuming project, but my favorite! A baby tutu, and a flower for her headband. I'm going to borrow Erin's idea, and Brynlee is going to take a few of her newborn pictures in her cute new tutu :) Britta's, Erin's little girl, pictures turned out sooo cute, that I wanted to make one too!
So as you can see, we were busy. Not only did she send me home with these fun things, she sent me home with a whole duffle bag of baby clothes and other baby necessities! I sure got spoiled while I was there.

We also whipped up some yummy food! Pizza puffs, strawberry and chocolate nachos on cinnamon and sugar tortilla chips, and homemade salsa. Mmm Mmm :)

I wish I had pictures of MN, but I forgot my camera. Even more than that, I wish I took pictures of her kids! They grow up a lot in between visits. Thanks so much Erin for such a WONDERFUL visit!

Catching up and Wrapping up 2011

A new year comes to a close once again, and what a year it has been! We have reached 2 great milestones in our lives this past year.

We got married in the Draper Temple on February 17, 2011 :) What a great day it was!

How does that song go? "First comes love, then comes marriage..." Oh yes! "...Then comes a baby in the baby carriage!" Yes, we also got pregnant in 2011. We are expecting a girl on May 17, 2012. And according to her ultrasound pictures, we are expecting her to arrive with a cute button nose :)

We were a little worried at first that she was going to be a fiesty one, and perhaps a rebel due to the fact that we can only see "the finger" in this picture. But as we looked closer, she is holding up two of her fingers, but the angle darkens out the other. Phew!

We are so excited to meet her! And also excited to be parents even though we have moments of panic. I think that's normal...

Well, our holiday season has been a busy one! I finished my internship at a retirement and assisted living home the beginning of December, and now I am officially a BYU graduate! Woo Woo! It feels so good to be done and look back on all the hard work it took to get here. I LOVED BYU, and I'm glad to be moving on to be a Mom. Rob just finished his first year at the Y and is loving it. He's currently studying exercise science, but is getting ready to change to the athletic training program to prepare him for med school, PA school, or possibly teaching seminary. He works so hard for us through school, work, and helping around the house that words can't say how grateful I am for him! Our first year of marriage has been one full of love, genuine happiness, learning new things, stressful moments, communication, and new adventures!

Here are some holiday pictures from our first Christmas as a family :)

I am proud to say I made these stockings for our first Christmas this year! I was going to make a third for our baby for next year, but wasn't 100% sure what name to put on it. We have found a few names we really like, but I keep coming back to the name I have loved since we got married... I'm feeling more and more sure she's going to be Brynlee because I try to like other names just as much but can't, but I don't want to commit to one name quite yet! Anyway, she'll have a matching stocking to go with ours next year.

Christmas morning in our quiet, little apartment. I'm glad we slept at home and had our own morning. Afterwards we got ready and headed up to be with family for the rest of the weekend.

We've decided to try the pj tradition. So these are our Christmas Eve pj's. We'll see if this becomes a tradition over the years or not. We enjoyed it this year!

The St. George Temple Christmas lights. They don't compare to SL, but they were very very impressive, and colorful! We had fun visiting "warmer" St. George in December.

A close up view of our tree. Lent to us by my Aunt Mary (who's basement we live in).

This year has been a great year full of new experiences and lessons learned! We've gained a lot of new family and started one of our own. We're looking forward to this next year's events including:

1. Baby Girl Draper due May 17

2. Our one year anniversary on Feb. 17

3. A trip out to MN to visit Erin and Jared (sister)

4. Sister Lindsey Draper coming home from the Oklahoma City mission in September

5. Turning one year older and wiser too

6. Experiencing our firsts of everything with a new baby, and learning how to be parents!

Hope you had a great holiday, and have a great New Year!

Halloween

We are still getting use to this whole "Building Family Traditions" thing since we've been married. Halloween is really the first big holiday, other than Easter, that we've had as a married couple. With being pregnant, our activities are very unpredictable, and thus played a role in the things we did for Halloween. But we still had fun!

Sorry we don't have any pictures to share... we are horrible at documenting events by photo. But we did the following things:

1. 2 Halloween parties with old people at my internship- which is always full of surprises and fun!

2. Costume party with some EFY friends that included Halloween Bingo, games, and yummy caramel apples!

3. Decorating sugar cookies

4. Annual Halloween party with old roommates and their husbands

5. Rob dressed as a nerd and I dressed in a pregnant Halloween shirt. Next year we're going to do a family theme. Can't wait to be able to have a little baby to dress up!

All in all, we had a great holiday!

The Autumn Mood Swings

Being pregnant is a whole new life to me. Though I haven't been too sick, thank goodness, I have been having so many conflicting emotions and they change so rapidly! Fall is my absolute most favorite season of them all :) I love the changing colors of the leaves, being able to look at the colorful mountains every day, the occasional rainy days, wearing sweats after work, snuggling up in a blanket and reading a good book, the Autumn smells, cooking soups, making pumpkin chocolate chip anything... you get my point.

Unfortunately I feel like I can't fully enjoy my favorite time of year due to these emotional swings I've been having. On days it's rainy I wish it was sunny. On days it's sunny and warm I want it to rain! I never want to cook anything like those yummy soups and pumpkin treats, but when I do get the energy and desire to do it, I realize I'm missing one or two ingredients! I borrow a new book to read, but then I just feel like sitting in front of the T.V. The leaves start turning colors and it snows in the mountains covering half of them up. Complaint after complaint. This is no way to live! I'm going to ruin the best season of all :(

So on the upside, these are a few things that I have been able to enjoy so far regardless of mood swings, and other circumstances:

1. We got to go up the canyon and play games on Sunday and be surrounded by all the beautiful Fall colors

2. I have finished two books in under two weeks regardless of times of laziness and fatigue

3. Anytime I'm not feeling good, or I'm feeling like being a bum on the couch, I get to snuggle in that warm, fuzzy blanket I enjoy so much

4. I was given some cute decorations from Mom, and made some myself. We have a Halloween and Autumn decorated apartment to help keep me in the mood for Fall.

5. I have a wonderful husband who will make me a treat I want if I'm not in the mood to make it myself.

6. Halloween is coming up quickly, and I am getting a pregnant halloween shirt to wear :)

So it hasn't turned out horrible yet. I just wish I could push the pregnancy hormones aside and enjoy every single minute of Fall and Halloween that I usually do! On the other hand... I love being pregnant. I haven't felt movement inside me, or gotten fatter yet, but I am beginning to understand the love a Mother has for her child, even when they are giving her a headache and stomach ache ;) I love my little embryo! And I love Autumn time :)

I'm Gonna Be a Mommy!

I know there aren't very many people who read my blog, but I guess I do it as kind of another type of journal for myself and Rob... and our new family of 3! Yes, that's right... I'm gonna be a Mommy :) Am I ready? No. Did I expect it to happen soon, or even plan on it happening soon? No. Am I nervous beyond all reason? Yes. Am I thrilled and excited? Yes!!!

We went to our first official Doctor visit this week and I'm 8 1/2 weeks along. Just one more month and the morning sickness will be gone... or so I hope. We're due May 18, 2012. It seems like so far away, but I can't wait. I've had days of sickness, fear, excitement and when it all comes down to it I can't wait for that day to come.

So we're excited and getting use to the idea of it all :)