Christmas in Island Park, Idaho

I know I'm seriously delayed in posting these pictures, but at first I was busy and then I was lazy. So I'm finally making time. And no more excuses.

This was our beautiful tree (everyone kept calling it a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, but with decorations you could barely tell there were spaces in the branches). We also raised it on a platform so we could fit the presents better - we had a lot of people...

Apparently in the few days we were there, Island Park got way more snow than it has in a long time. I think we got over 3 feet, maybe close to 4 feet of snow. Good thing we didn't have anywhere we HAD to be! I thoroughly enjoyed having an excuse to not leave. :)

This is what we looked out on basically every day. Lots of white.

Here's Connor, enjoying the snow. Nearly everyone went out for a little while on Christmas day. I think I was out there for about 7 minutes. The boys played football in the snow. I wished I'd gotten some pictures - they had a blast - I'm amazed they didn't lose the football in all that snow!

We'd like to thank Glenn for teaching Nate and me how to play Mexican Train over Thanksgiving, so we would have something to keep everyone busy for HOURS and HOURS. :) I think these guys played for 5 hours straight at one point. Nate was sure glad to get those dominoes for a Christmas present!
Another activity that took up PLENTY of time was this puzzle. It looks easy you say? Go jump in a lake. It was 2,000 pieces and took FOREVER. We stayed up super late the last night we were there trying to finish it. Those dolphins were the killer part. Whew.
Kippy got to lay the final piece since we're pretty sure she spent more time on it than anyone. Someday, I will have that kind of patience.

Until then...

This is how I felt when it was finally completed. I think this face is similar to the one I made when we spent like 5 hours trying to find the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen. NOT worth it.
But everyone else was pretty thrilled we completed it!

And I had to throw one of Lindsey in there since A. she didn't get to be there when it was completed, B. because she also spent a TON of time on it and C. She's cute and pregnant, so why not!?
I think I've only made one or two gingerbread houses in my life, so I was pretty excited when Kippy told me we were having a Gingerbread House contest! These Frakes don't joke around with Gingerbread houses. The one above is mine and Nate's. We cut gumdrops in half and made bricks for the whole house. That was pretty awesome.
You may have noticed our Happy Little Joker. Totally Nate's idea of course.

Connor and Lindsey's house. They seemed more concerned with eating the candy, I think. :) Con had a good idea with the skier and the snowboarder on the roof though.
Here's a closeup of the skier and snowboarder.
Dan and Kippy's traditional gingerbread house. I thought it was perfect. The roof was pretty insane. You'd get quite the sugar high from lickin' that thing.
Jordan and Paige's psychadelic (sp?) Gingerbread house, complete with....
Rock climbers and a rock climing wall on the back (notice the climbers have harnesses and a rope...)

I didnt' get any pictures of Trav and Rachel's because they took FOREVER to finish it. :) They made a little jail on the front and a miniature Jack McCoy (from Law and Order) to go with it. Lots of work, for sure!

Speaking of Law and Order, I don't have pictures,but I'm pretty sure we watched about 20 episodes AT LEAST of that show. Frakes family favorite. If you haven't seen it you should. It's been on for 18 seasons, after all. It MUST be good!

Preface to the following pictures: We were supposed to leave Tuesday morning and Monday afternoon the wind started blowing like crazy, to the point that the roads were quickly becoming covered with snow. We quickly packed up most of our stuff, put it in the cars, and the boys drove them down to the main road. What we thought might take a couple of house, took more like SIX hours to do. They kept getting stuck and the snow kept piling up.
Here they are one of the times they were stuck (this is like 200 yards from the cabin - great start, wouldn't you say?). They were there for over 45 minutes, stuck in that one spot.
Here are the snowplows trying to get them out. Even with those two and later another couple of backhoes and tractors, it STILL took forever to get in. They ended up leaving Dan's car at the VERY helpful neighbors and they all came back on snowmobiles until the wind stopped and the snowplows could get the roads cleared.
This is what they all looked like when they came back inside. Trav may have been slightly redder than the rest, since he got knocked off the snowmobile. Pretty funny and sad at the same time. We girls spent the whole time watching out the windows and praying for them. We sure love those boys of ours!

So that was our holiday. We had a blast, for sure. It was fun to be with family and be lazy.

And since no post is complete without my tummy (and certain mothers and sisters of mine would be upset), here are a couple of the belly. This is about 21 1/2 weeks.
Nate insisted this shirt did not show the true size of my belly and I said it was fine, so we took one with this shirt...
And this one. You can be the judge of which one makes me look bigger.

And which ever one you say will probably not be worn again. :D I'm obviously showing more now since a woman at work two days ago said "Well, when did you start showing?" Apparently it's noticeable now.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice...

People like me should not be allowed to have live plants.

This was a full and very beautiful poinsettia a couple of weeks ago.

Can I tell you how much I love This Amazing Woman's Blog? She can make me laugh and cry and want to eat Greek food (which I hate) all in one post. Someday, I hope to be able to write like her.

Someday.

Top 5 reasons I KNOW I'm not making up this pregnancy thing:

5. Bathroom breaks are WAY more often than any normal human being. Let's just say I have a preferred stall in the bathroom at work because I know them all so well...

4. My belly button used to be at least twice as deep as it is now. And I should know. I love my belly button - and it's disappearing!

3. Leg cramps in the middle of the night. Awesome.

2. That breakdown I had before dinner. Long story, but let's just say Nate just looked at me like "why the HECK is this crazy woman in my wife's body crying (no, BAWLING) over Spaghetti?" (To his credit, he was very good about it - he just hugged me until I calmed down - while trying really hard not to laugh).

And #1 reason this is for real:

1. The 'lil poke, poke every now and then (I can just imagine that little guy/gal -- "Uh, mom? Could you please not lean forward like that?" Poke, poke.)

*Disclaimer: These are, by far, not the only fun, new things I'm experiencing. The others, however, most of you (or maybe all of you) would prefer NOT to hear about.

Promised update:

For Thanksgiving, we went to Chicago (technically Naperville, since we never actually went into Chicago - more on that) for the holiday to see my sister Shan and her family, as well as my sister AJ and her family who came down for the weekend. We had a BLAST! Granted, we probably didn't get as much sleep as normal (there were 4 kids ages 2 and under), but I got some good practice for the future! It was definitely worth the lack of sleep since we hadn't seen two of the nephews at all and it had been the longest since we'd seen these two families. While we would have preferred to have the WHOLE family together, I think we're all learning that when the family is as spread out as our's, we'll just have to see bits and pieces at a time.

While there, we spent most of the time just hangin' out at their apartment. We considered going downtown, but with 4 kids who need nourishment every 2+ hours and naps often, it would have been crazy. Honestly, I wasn't disappointed at all. I went to be with family and we had so much fun just being together, playing games, watching movies, laughing at silly two-year-olds, etc. etc. Here are some fun pictures/videos from the weekend.

This was a pretty common scene. Glenn, Josh, Nate and AJ played Mexican Train (with Dominoes), Monopoly and several other games. Shan joined in a few of the times as well, but I was content to hold babies and play with/deal with toddlers.
Here's one of AJ being a good mommy (as always). She always got interruped during games to take care of her little guy.

Here's Shan also being a good mommy (:D) and multitasking (taking pictures of the other munchkins).
I was sort of amazed that Xander looked at me since he was watching a movie. :) He really loves the Shrek movies and I think that's what was on at the time.
Also Stella watching a movie. I love this picture because she's SO focused (and in such an awkward movie watching pose).

I have a few videos of an absolutely silly 2 year old dancing queen, but my computer isn't letting me post it, so I'll have to do that separately. Stay tuned for that!


Usually, I like to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving, but as I didn't get home until the following Monday, I had to wait a few days. I love putting up the Christmas tree (and hate taking it down - it's too bad I was thinking about how I would have to take it down as I put it up)! Here it is:

And finally, I keep getting requests for belly pictures (I guess that's what I get for dishing it out, huh?)

So here is one at 12 weeks:
One at 16 weeks:
And one at 17 weeks: (I think this one looks like I'm sticking my stomach out, but I promise, I was even trying to hold it in a little bit...)
So there you go! We had a great Thanksgiving and are looking forward to a fun Christmas!

The Doghouse

Beware of the Doghouse

SO FUNNY!

I've either got a boxer or a soccer player residing inside me.

I'm a little worried about what the next 23 weeks hold for me if he's/she's already kicking/punching me with such vigor! I only started to feel any movement about a week ago and now this morning it almost hasn't stopped.

Maybe he/she is just making sure I know this is real.

As if I could forget.

I promise there are pictures coming of Thanksgiving (if I can figure out what the heck is wrong with my camera card) and a Twilight update and Christmas stuff, but until I get that done (and while I'm sitting here at work), I'm going to post another of those silly tags/surveys/whatever. (Let me just say right here, how awesome blogs are. Instead of getting forwards with these things in them and feeling bad for forwarding basically SPAM to family and friends, you can post it on your blog and people can read it if they want! Or not! Whatever!).

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? A glass of each! I actually drink hot chocolate all year long, so that's not really a representation of Christmas for me. But Egg Nog - oh yeah. You'd think I'd hate it since I had it forced down my throat when I was 10 and wasn't eating anything because of my surgery, but I still love it. However, I think Nate doesn't love it, so I probably don't drink it as much as I could (which is probably a good thing huh?).

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Actually, family puts wrapped presents under the tree. Santa puts presents by our stockings, which have been placed on couches and chair around the room.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White with colored ornaments! We always had colored lights growing up, but I think I like white for my tree. Oh, but I like colored lights for the house.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. Don't need mistletoe to kiss my sweetie. :D

5. When do you put up your decorations? The day after Thanksgiving (or the soonest I'm home after Thanksgiving).

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Um...that's a good question. I don't think I have a "favorite" holiday dish. Oranges are SO Christmas to me though. Can I count that?

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Having my oldest sister Emily come wake us up at 5:00 AM to go look at our presents. Then running into my parents room to tell them EVERYTHING I got and wondering why they were always so tired. :)

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? You mean the truth that Santa's a busy guy, so he needs moms and dads to be his helpers? Or the truth that he's a representation of the Spirit of Giving? Oh, sometime in the last few years.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Nate's family opens one present (usually pajamas), but my family never did (except at the Cox Family Christmas Party).

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? White lights, colored Christmas balls, and our old ornaments (there's this really cute one of Nate as a snowman when he was like 5. I'll have to take a picture and post it), and candy canes.

12. Can you ice skate? Huh. Sort of. I end up in pain after (either from falling or the muscle strain of trying to keep from falling).

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I don't think I have a FAVORITE gift. I have MEMORABLE gifts, like the year I asked EVERY Santa I saw and wrote about 5 letters to Santa to ask for "Giggles and Go," the doll in a stroller who giggles when she hits into a wall in her stroller (she also giggles when you throw her at a wall or the ceiling, which Ben so kindly found out for me).

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? FAMILY! Also, being super lazy - just ask my poor in-laws who thought there was something wrong with me when I slept practically three days of the holiday 2 years ago.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Candy from my stocking.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It used to be when we would drive from Roosevelt to Salt Lake for the Cox Family Christmas party, then drive back late on Christmas Eve and I'd watch for Santa's sleigh the whole drive. Now, it's probably the fact that we basically don't eat a meal on Christmas. We just kind of snack all day. Maybe eventually something will be made, but if not, that's okay!

17. What tops your tree? A big red bow.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? A little of both. I love seeing people's expressions when I got them something they wanted. On the other hand, who doesn't like getting new stuff! :)

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? The Christmas Song (does that sound boring or what?)

20. Candy Canes? I like the fruit flavored ones to eat. Peppermint ones are only good to eat in hot chocolate.

21. Do you feel Christmas is too commercialized? I hate the fact that Christmas decorations start going up in stores on or even before Halloween. I hate that it gets away from the real reason we celebrate CHRISTmas. (There's actually a senator here in Utah trying to pass something for stores to start using "Merry Christmas" more instead of just "Happy Holidays" since we are a predominantly Christian nation. I thought that was kind of cool - let's get it back to the reason for the season!).

So I put a poll on the side of my blog about what I'm having - I'm giving clear until the day we find out what we're having for you to vote!

After you vote, I would LOVE it if you would comment and tell me what you think I'm having! I love knowing what people think (and why, if you have a reason).

I'm voting for boy, mostly because of a couple of dreams I've had (see Baby Mama post for one of the dreams). Don't base your vote on me though! I could definitely be wrong (plus, Nate thinks we're having a girl, so who really knows!).

Details...

Well, I've made my happy announcement and I can FINALLY tell everyone what I haven't been able to talk about for a few months! Some of it may seem a little like complaining, but I'm definitely not - I'm just sharing what I've gone through with pregnancy these last few weeks, so some of you can relate and some of you can look forward to such fun-ness.

I think I got pretty lucky as far as morning sickness goes. From about week 6 to week 12 (and even occasionally now) I did/do feel nauseous. I haven't thrown up at all (for which I am VERY grateful), but I felt nauseous all the time. It was kind of like being car sick all day every day. Not very fun, but at least I kept everything down. I did lose a lot of weight because nothing sounded/tasted good. I ate Ramen a lot because for awhile that and Buffalo wings were the only things that sounded good.

Now that the nausea is mostly gone, I've started getting lots of headaches. Trade one for the other I guess.

Nate doesn't think I really was that much more tired than normal in my first trimester (at least he doesn't think I SLEPT more than normal), but I was definitely exhausted. There were about 3 or 4 weeks where I showered at night and just threw my hair in a frizzy, awful ponytail every morning because I was too tired to fix it. I straightened my hair a few days ago, so I must be doing better now. I am definitely less exhausted than I was for a few weeks. I must say, I'm glad that's over (though it was nice to always have an excuse to sleep A LOT).

I have no brain. My sister AJ used to talk about something called "Baby Brain" (I'm sure that's a real term). She also commonly said "Baby's eating my brain." I had NO IDEA how true that is! I can't remember anything! If I don't write something down, I will forget it in less than 5 minutes. In fact, when I went visiting teaching last month, I couldn't think of the words "Word of Wisdom." The poor girl I visit teach had to listen to me try to figure it out: "it's that thing in the Doctrine and Covenants that talks about what you should and shouldn't eat..." My sister-in-law Emilie says it never comes back either (that part of the brain my baby is eating). Oh joy.

Those have been the three biggest symptoms I've had. I really haven't been that moody (if anything I've been happier), except when I'm really tired or really hungry.

So there you go! I have my 18 week appointment early December and we find out what we're having December 22! When I scheduled the appointment the receptionist said a cute idea would be to bring a teddy bear to the ultrasound tech with a pink bow and a blue bow. Then when she finds out what the gender is, to tie that bow around the bear and put it in a box (without showing us), then wrap it and open it on Christmas! Cute idea, but I don't think I'll be able to wait. :)

Well, sorry if that was boring. My belly is starting to show in earnest (I can't button some of my pants very well anymore) so I'll have to take a picture in the next few days.

Tagged...

It seems like I only occasionally get tagged and usually just post whatever fun tagging things I see on other blogs because I feel like it. :) But I was actually tagged this time (sorry it took me so long Linds :D).

I'm sure most of you have seen this picture tag - the 4th picture from your 4th folder in your pictures folder. Since most of our pictures are still on Nate's laptop, I had him look and e-mail it to me.

The 4th folder on Nate's laptop is called "Alisa and Me" so any picture from that folder would have been of US. :) This was less than 2 weeks after we met - we went to play in the snow with a bunch of Nate's friends from Colorado and this is after we got back in the car. Cute huh?

Hmm...now I get to decide who to torture next...I TAG: AJ (when you get time), Shan, Em G. Em C., Alta and Mom (oh, I'm only supposed to tag 4? Oh well).

Still can't tell what I'm posting about? Hmm...I wonder about you. Here, maybe this will help.



A brief note on the following reaction: we really didn't think we would get pregnant when we did. I don't think he believed me at first. Just goes to show Heavenly Father does things in his own time, no matter how or what we plan.




I think I wanted him to jump up and down and start crying like I did. But it's probably better he didn't.

So this picture is for my mom (who has been begging for pictures of me pregnant)
This was me at 6 weeks - I'm actually 14 weeks now and due May 13th. Honestly, I don't look much different from that picture (I've actually lost 7 pounds from then til now). Baby's still hiding somewhere in there...

So I don't have pictures to post, but I'm bored at work (Fridays are usually pretty slow) so I thought I'd just post some SUPER randomness. I'll be amazed if anyone reads the whole thing. Oh, and I'm color coding each different thought.

I made the mistake of bringing Christmas music to work today. I had one of Amy Grant's Christmas songs stuck in my head this morning (don't ask me why), so I decided I wanted to listen to Christmas music.

Bad idea. Look, I'm one of those people who gets REALLY bugged by Christmas taking over HALLOWEEN and Thanksgiving. I'm okay with it slooowly coming in over the month of November, but I mean really slow. Not like, the second October starts, Christmas stuff starts filling the stores. That bugs. I like to be able to enjoy each holiday on it's own, so I want Thanksgiving to be it's own thing. But listening to Christmas music got me SO excited! It makes me want to put up my tree and drink egg nog (I think Nate might hate Egg Nog...sigh...).

Lots of you probably already know this about me, but I LOVE to clean. I know - you think I'm a weirdo. Lately, I've been busy with other stuff and haven't kept my house as clean as I'd like. In fact, I realized two weeks ago, I hadn't mopped my kitchen floor since like August.
That's disgusting. It felt SO GOOD to get that floor squeaky clean again! And I love those days when I get a TON accomplished - all the dishes washed and the kitchen clean, laundry done, clutter picked up, etc. Does anyone just LOVE the feeling of your hard work and the finally clean house?

I have a new favorite show.
I was blog surfing one day and saw someone talk about a show called Pushing Daisies. The way they described it made it sound SO funny! I decided to give it a try and now I love it. It's really clean (which is amazing for TV these days), super funny and a very creative idea. I've heard rumors that they're talking about canceling it (not enough sex for viewers apparently...grr). Watch the show so they don't cancel it! To learn more, go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pushing_Daisies

I've read a couple of books lately that were COMPLETELY opposite books, which was fun. I read a book called The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. At first, it kind of intrigued me - it was basically told in stream of consciousness I think. That's how it felt at least, but after awhile it just kind of bothered me that things would change really quickly. One sentence to the next would be totally different. Blah. While I'm glad I read the book, just for the sake of reading something new and different, I really didn't like the book in the end and HATED the ending. Also, apparently, it was made into a movie!

The other book I read was called Deception Point by Dan Brown (by the way, I Wikipedia'd Dan Brown - did you know he used to be a musician?).
If you've ever read a Dan Brown book, you know they are very grabbing; his books are very hard to put down. I really liked this one because I feel like I was better at solving what was going on than I was with Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code. I even guessed the bad guy WAY before he revealed it! Definitely action packed and totally unrealistic, so read it!


That's all. Thanks for reading my boredness. :)

Pumpkin carving fun-ness!

On Sunday, we went for a drive to look at the leaves (most of which were already dead/gone/only semi-colorful) then came home and carved pumpkins. Here are some pictures of the evening.
This is the only wildlife we saw on the drive - yeah...can't really see it (it's a dear). Seeing that was probably the most exciting part of the drive.

Here's a picture I took of me and Nate from the car. At first Nate refused to smile for the picture, but finally relented and then it was blurry...boo.

He absolutely refused to smile again. I told him I was going to post it anyway. That's what he gets for being a punk about pictures. :D he he
So then it was home to carve pumpkins. Here is Becki working diligently on her pumpkin while...
Her husband (and mine) worked very hard at...not carving pumpkins. They cut the lids off the tops...

Trav and Rachel had this gargantuan pumpkin so Rachel thought it would be fun to stick her head inside and... Become the Headless Horse-woman! (with pearls on...)
Here are mine and Becki's final pumpkins (mine is on the left - scary huh?) I didn't get a good picture of all 4 of them lit up - it was too hard to get them in the dark. And here is my FAVORITE part of carving pumpkins! The SEEDS! We made three huge pans of pumpkin seeds, which were SO tasty.


So, Nate and I work in the temple on Friday nights and neither of us are huge fans of trying to find costumes for Halloween anyway, so that worked out nicely. Sorry if you were hoping to see fun pictures of costumes later....Can't wait to see yours though! :D