Still pregnant!

My due date was yesterday, but she's still not out yet!

Garden yumminess!

The baby is still inside my belly! I have a feeling she might be a late one... Ugh. Things are getting harder to do and I'm just getting bigger and bigger. Everyone send some thoughts of going into labor and maybe it'll start! :)

In the meantime here are some pictures of the best garden I've ever had in the last 5 years that I've been gardening.

Had to throw in a before picture... a lot of sweat and labor went into building those raised beds... (note Cooper chilling between them)

And now they are growing into one another!

Green peppers...

Little tomato buds... still waiting for the FIVE tomato plants to give us some yummy bright red tomato's!
Zucchini...
Beans...

Broccoli...

Corn...

Lettuce...

And so much more!

Fun family time

Going through old photos doing some organizing. This picture was taken in May by Jaleana. I look kinda sleepy, Brandon is adorable and Cooper is my little angel. ;)

Arcade fun!

I have a little sister through Big Brother Big Sister, Jaleana, and her birthday was Friday July 12th, she turned 16. I've been matched with her since she was 12, I'm seeing her grow up a lot! We took her and her boyfriend Tay out to the nickel arcade and had some fun. Thought I'd share a few of the pictures even though the quality wasn't that great on them.

Jaleana and Tay playing Dance Dance Revolution while Brandon was watching. Tay didn't really get how to do it though. I had some fun on a motorbike, it's amazing I was able to stay on it. :) Brandon geeked out on a Star Wars game.

Brandon's birthday last week 7-07-08

Brandon turned 27 last week and we had a little gathering at our house for it. We got cool new outside lounge chairs from Mark and Teri, here is Brandon relaxing in one.

He also got some Big Daddy beer from them.

We sang him Happy Birthday!

A picture of Woody lounging after our bbq cooking. Note my garden in the background, it's looking fabulous!

Mark chilling out in the shade.

The pool

The pool was a really great idea! We've been in it a bunch lately once the water finally warmed up. We love it! I got a lounger so I can float around and work on my tan (well, more like a burn at this point, but it'll tan out soon enough)

We've had a lot of fun just playing around and jumping on the tube.

Brandon takes a head dive here.

We got some dive dudes that Brandon loves going diving for.

Not sure if it was the best idea to have the camera in the pool with us taking silly pictures on the lounger, but it worked here. :) Note our styling goggles.

And surprisingly the dogs just chill out in the yard and don't even come and bother us at the pool. Clyde loves to keep to the shade in this hot weather.

House is sold!

How could I forget to mention the big news of my old house in Portland selling last week!! I signed paper work last week and the new owners got the keys on Monday June 30th. We ended up spending a lot more money on repairs (the most expensive being a new sewer line for $7k) than anticipated but we still got a bit of money back to pay off some of my credit card debt. :)

Yay!

Our Wedding Vows

We've been married for a month as of tomorrow. It was an amazing day getting married to the woman I love and want to spend the rest of my life with. Crystal and I figured we would share some of the magic this year and post our vows. So here they are. Disclaimer these are extremly cheesy as wedding vows should be and may cause vomiting.


The vows I wrote:


"Crystal, this has been the best year of my life. Knowing within two weeks of dating you that you were the one that I would marry. Being more content and happier then I have ever been. The new direction our lives are going and starting a family with you. I love you for your independence, your sense of humor, your smile and the way it makes my soul sing, and your drive to make what you want a reality. This is why I want you as my wife, for the good in you and the good you bring out in me. In sickness and in health, in poverty or in wealth, till death do us part."


The vows Crystal wrote:


"Brandon, you're the one I've been looking for my whole life. When we first started dating I knew we fit together and we both knew we'd spend the rest of our lives with one another. My love for you is felt in every piece of me. I am the happiest I've ever been in my life. I love every part of you, your sensitivity, your love for your family, your sense of humor, your patience, your generosity, your spirituality, your smile, just everything. Thank you for loving me. I can't wait for the future happinesss we have ahead of us together"


Alright now dry those eyes people : )

We plan on doing our own vows again next year, hopefully we do as well.

Family Baby Shower - 6-22-08

This post is a little late, sorry!

The family baby shower was at the Quonset Hut, Mark's office on June 22nd. Teri went above and beyond getting the place setup all pretty. Thanks Teri!! And thanks to Mark and Brandon for helping get the place ready too.

The decorations were fabulous!

The diaper cake was fabulous!

Ruby, Teri's mom, helped with some stuff too, thanks Ruby! Here she is enjoying some food and laughs. :)
Here is Travis, Brandon's cousin.

Mark was watching me play some Asteroids Deluxe and totally losing.

Which was ok since I had a Margarita to comfort me. Don't worry, it is a Virgin Margarita. :)

My friends David (long-time coworker) and Elise (our realtor) brought their two kids Audrey and Rowan. Audrey is adorable! (note the yummy food behind her head:)

Brandon and I had fun spending some one on one chat time with Rowan.

Here we are opening presents. Thanks to all the family (and friends!) for being so generous!!

Brandon's nephew Nate wanted to take some of the stuff home with him...

But his Dad put a stop to that, what a party pooper! (just kidding Jason!)

Thanks again to everyone for the amazing gifts!! We are so thankful for having such great people and support around us!

Baby update

As you can tell we got a bit behind on the blog posts and we're catching up today before we head to Portland to each get our full body massages. :) We both have five days off this weekend so we're pampering ourselves for our birthdays and just spending time at home getting odds and ends done. I turned 30 on July 3rd and Brandon turns 27 on the 7th.

We had an appt with our midwife yesterday and everything is looking good. Hunter is starting to move down lower, she hasn't totally settled, but Lauren our midwife said she's heading in the right direction. Her head is pointing down, which is good. Her heartbeat is great and Lauren guesses her weight at about 5 lbs now and should be about 7 lbs when born. And I am ecstatic to say I've only gained 23 lbs myself so far in the pregnancy. :)

It's a crazy reality that she can come at any time now, I personally can't wait! While I've had a easy pregnancy, this last month has been tough with back aches and just not being able to get comfortable at all. And Brandon just can't wait to see his little girl.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th of July weekend!!

Pool time!!

I got a pool!

We've been talking about it for awhile and even spent a good amount of time at the store staring at them with my Dad having to suffer through our Pro's and Con's of getting one. We finally we decided it was an unneccessary purchase and we didn't really need it. But Brandon ended up getting me one for my birthday! It's 15 feet in diameter and 3 1/2 feet deep. We had some fun setting it up last night and it's still filling up with water today.

Brandon was slaving away pumping up the top ring of the pool with a bike pump.

Then he had a brilliant idea of using the pump we have for a blow up air mattress. That made it go a lot faster.

I had a fun time trying to figure out the filtration system. Hey, at least I read directions... kinda.

Spreading out the wrinkles was a job for Brandon, and I think he did a fabulous job.

It'll be a few days before we can use it because the water needs to heat up a bit, but we'll be putting up pictures of us lounging in it. My belly and aching back can't wait!

Another wonderful birthday surprise

My friend Tiff and her husband Dave sent me beautiful flowers for my birthday yesterday!

She is going to be coming out in September to visit from Texas, yay!!

Suprise visit

I got a call from my Dad on Monday to say he was going to be here this week. He was in Salt Lake City for work and had a few days of down time so he rented a car and drove out here to visit for a day and a half. He lives in Janesville, Wisconsin (where I'm from) but his work gets him out of the midwest occassionally. It was SO FUN to have him out here, it definitely made my birthday week. :)

He got to meet Mark and Teri and see our house and check out the area. I had to work part of the day on Wednesday so Brandon and him went for a quick drive out to the beach. It was just really fun getting to spend time with him and for him to meet my amazing husband and his super fantastic family. :)

Thanks for making the drive over here Dad! Love ya!

Baby Brandon

Here is Brandon and Mark (love the haircut!) at his 3rd bday party in 1984.

Hunter's Room

We've almost officially finished with Hunter's room. There have been many changes. At first we were just going to go with a carpeted room for her, so initially when re-doing the rest of the house we left her room as is. Then after Crystal read about allergens that can reside in carpet and really looking at the state of the carpet in Hunter's room, we came to two options. One was to have the carpet replaced and the other was to re-do the hardwood floors in there too. I of course just wanted to replace the carpet. But Crystal was insistent on having me slave away and re-do hardwood floors once again. Something about the hard work making me more docile and compliant

After pulling up the padding the carpet, the brand new trim I had put up a few months prior and the tack strips, it was go time. We went and rented the industrial sander again. Took us a long weekend and we finished it up the following week. The stain turned out a little darker than the rest of the house, but I think the floors look pretty good.

After finishing with the floors, we moved the furniture back into the room, painted it a light green color. Our choice of colors was crazy considering Crystal's taste in colors. Here we are putting the first coat of paint on it.

Of course during this re-model of the room, we couldn't help but have some fun. Crystal's so photogenic.

And here almost is the finished product. I still have a little more trim to put up and we both have some organizing to do(which Crystal has taken the initiative on)

Please take note of the beautiful floors : ) The craftsmanship is superb if I do say so myself.