A Merry Little Christmas!

We enjoyed our first married Christmas, but it was very hard not to be looking forward to next year when we have our daughter to enjoy it with! Kelly and I went to my parent's house on Christmas Eve afternoon for dinner and gift opening. I got some maternity shirts, Kelly got a sweater and we got a digital frame from my parents. I don't have any pictures of the gift opening, though. It was pretty low-key without any kids around. On Christmas morning, my parents drove 4 hours down to Ogden to celebrate Christmas with my sister, Natalie, her husband, Adam and her son, Joey, then on Tuesday, they drove 12 more hours to Phoenix to visit my other sister, Alicia and her daughter, Emma, so they had three Christmases with three daughters this year! Hopefully next year we can all celebrate together!

After leaving my parents' house, we drove back to Meridian to Kelly's uncle's house for Christmas Eve. We ate more dinner there (Sloppy Joe's - haha!) and played some games, and watched Kelly's cousins' little boy dance. Cooper is a good dancer! Look at those cute PJ's - perfect for Christmas Eve!

We slept in on Christmas morning (probably the last time we ever will, so we took advantage! lol) and then went a took advantage of a free Indian food buffet. LOL One of the Indian buffets we eat at, Madhuban, always has a free buffet on Christmas, and Kelly and his brother, Dan have gone for a couple years, but this is the first year I could join them (since I wasn't working this year! Yay!). It's pretty popular, and you have to get there early and wait in line outside in the cold. I waited in the car, though. Hehe. We ate some pretty good food, though, my favorite is always the Makhani Chicken over some rice with some Naan bread. =)

The line was really long, Kelly and Dan are behind the green SUV (a RAV? I can't quite tell), and was even longer by the time we got to the front. (Well, when I joined them from the car to go inside...lol)

After lunch at Madhuban, we went to Kelly's Mom's house to bake some brownies (So glad I found a box in my pantry! I had no idea what I was going to bring to the Christmas party at Kelly's Uncles house, and hadn't bought any ingredients!), and we opened some gifts there, too. Kelly's mom is very generous and got Dan a new vacuum (it was needed - our other one stopped working! lol), Kelly a toaster oven, and I got some more maternity shirts, which I promptly changed into, since I was having a "I have nothing to wear, nothing looks good, and I already wore a different color of the sweater I want to wear" type day. LOL

 Dan opening his vacuum, which he put together while we were there. Needless to say, our house got vacuumed on Christmas night! Yay!



 My handsome husband and I in front of Kelly's mom's tree. =)

 I had to take a bump picture in front of that beautiful tree, I hit 26 weeks pregnant that day!

After spending some time at Kelly's mom's house, we caravaned over to Kelly's uncle's house again for a Christmas dinner of ham and turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a lot of other food! Kelly's mom made this delicious fruit salad that I couldn't get enough of, and everyone else thought it was good, too, you had to make sure you got enough the first time or you may not have gotten any more. LOL

Here's me getting ready to take and eat one of my brownies. Did I tell you we got a new camera as our present to each other? We have been having fun playing with it, hence this silly picture of me.

And because there aren't any pictures of our Puggie babies, here they are in the car getting ready to go look at Christmas lights. They were so good in the car that night, I think because it was dark, so they knew we weren't going to Pug Meet. Haha =)

I still need to write about my birthday back in October and the last month or so. I don't think I have any pictures from Thanksgiving. I ended up staying here and n going to Utah for only the second time in  my life, but I needed to work and save up vacation hours for the big event coming in a few months! So, I worked and went to Thanksgiving at Kelly's mom's house. We had a good time, but I can't find any pictures!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and has an awesome New Year! =)

Sugar and Spice!

We are having a girl!!!

(I know everyone knows this by now, but I still want to blog about it. hehe!) We had our big ultrasound on my birthday! It just happened to time itself right, I was 18 weeks then, so I made sure I got to find out the gender on my birthday. It was a week earlier than they usually do it, but since it was my  birthday, they said it was fine. =) What was also kind of cool about it, was I was born at 11:27am, and at that time, we were looking at our little girl on the ultrasound. It was the best birthday present!

I honestly thought it was going to be a boy, LOL. Kelly said he knew it was a girl the whole time, but he would never tell me when I asked him what he thought. I always told him I was 51% wanting a girl, and 49% wanting a boy. A couple weeks before the ultrasound, I started getting nervous and leaning towards maybe wanting a boy more. Kelly said he was doing the same thing! Haha!

But now, we are so excited to be having a daughter! I start thinking a lot about how blessed we are to be having a baby, and then I think about how blessed we are that it's a girl. I just think that's the right fit for us right now.

 Here is her profile. See her making the I Love You sign with her hand? It's perfect because Kelly and I do this all the time!

Her perfect feet with ten perfect toes!

Five perfect little fingers!

I am now 23 weeks pregnant and feeling pretty good! Other than the general aches and pains that come with growing a baby, I'm gaining the 15lbs that I lost during morning sickness back, and I am able to enjoy this pregnancy! I have my glucose test on Dec 13th to test for gestastional diabetes, so hopefully I pass! We don't have a name completely picked out for her - that's a lot harder than I thought! I had always had a name kind of picked out, but it's almost like it's just not her name, so we are going through a lot of different names, and we have one that we call her occasionally, but we still aren't 100% on it.

She is very active, and I have been feeling her kick since I was about 16 weeks. It so cool to feel her moving around in there! I love being able to tell how much she is growing by her movements, and the different places I can feel her. By 23 weeks, they say that her face is fully developed, minus the baby fat, and that she can hear things outside the womb, so I have started to play her some good music! Just tonight, she let me know that she liked Frank Sinatra. =)

I have taken a belly bump picture every two weeks, which has been a lot of fun to see the changes. I might start taking them every week once I hit 30 weeks or something, but for now, I think every two weeks is good. Here is the one we took on Sunday for 23 weeks.

Let's Try This...

My goodness! I started this post 6 weeks ago, and I'm finally getting back to it! (I only know that because I had to delete the part I had written here saying how I'll be 17 weeks in a couple days! I'm now 23 weeks along in my pregnancy and I'm feeling pretty good!)

 

 

~*~End of July~*~

 

At the end of July, we went to the Boise Music Festival. It's a huge free concert in the park with acts that aren't very popular anymore, but fun to see anyway. Last year was BackStreet Boys and Brett Michaels (Remember my Pictures of Trees post?) We didn't have tons of fun last year, but figured we'd go this year because Sugar Ray and MC Hammer were performing. Who wouldn't want to see them?! (Apparently no one... It was possibly more packed than last year!) I think they had the stage in a different position this year, and we came in from a different entrance, so we were actually able to see the stage! We saw Sugar Ray, and had fun with that (top picture, I think that's them, it's hard to tell... )

Then, MC Hammer came on and started performing and it was fun, but it was starting to get really crowded at that point and I almost got knocked off the chair I was standing on a couple times, and there was almost a fight with me in the middle. That was about the time we decided it wasn't really fun anymore, so we left. But, before all of that, MC Hammer was performing and came off the stage, walked through everyone, and got up on the sound stage we were right next to! So we got some decent pictures and video of him, so that was pretty cool!

 

~*~August~*~

 We celebrated Kelly's mom's birthday on August 2nd. Kelly and I made her a coconut cake. It wasn't a very easy recipe, but we made it and it actually turned out! We had just found out we were pregnant earlier that week, so we got her a bib that said "I Love Grandma" on it and wrapped it up for her. I think she enjoyed that birthday gift. hehe!

 Maggie got into the birthday spirit, too. =)

Clyde just wanted some cake, and jumped up onto the table to see if he could taste some... Poor guy - he didn't get any.

Later that month, I travelled down to Utah with my parents to my cousin, Joshs' wedding. I had just started experiencing morning sickness, which at that point was mostly just no appetite, so that made for an interesting trip. (It wasn't the only thing that made the trip one to remember, though!) It was great to see some of that family, though! It's a side that I don't see very often, so I wanted to make sure I was able to go.

We got to the luncheon and visited with family. We had some time between the luncheon and the reception, and were kind of wondering what we were going to do.

 We were standing talking with family, and all of a sudden Joey (my 3 yr old nephew) fell back, and hit his head on a pillar! (Sorry - TMI - that affected me so much that I was bawling, almost passed out and then got sick! I was about 7 weeks pregnant then.) We ended up having to take him to the hospital to get three stitches in the back of his head! Poor guy!

 This is a picture of his head after he got the stitches put in, and the picture below is of him dancing at the reception. You would have never guessed what he had been through that day! (Well, I'm sure the painkillers were helping, too!)

 Of course, no trip to Utah would be complete without seeing my Grandma! I love this lady so much! One of my favorite people!



At the end of August, we went to the Western Idaho Fair. I was in full blown morning sickness, but still wanted to go, so we went, twice. LOL I realized snow cones were great treats for a pregnant lady! Look at these bad boys!

 We saw a cute sea lion show!

We also got to walk through a fun butterfly exhibit. =)

Sometime in August or September, I was able to get Maggie and Clyde matching harnesses. I'm still pretty excited about these. =)

Kelly had won a Roaring Springs ticket at my work BBQ earlier this summer, so we made sure to take advantage of it before summer ended. Of course, I was pregnant by then, and in full blown morning sickness mode, so I just hung out in the lazy river, the un-crazy part of the wave pool, and took pictures of Kelly and his brother, Dan going down the slides. I was totally fine with this since I wasn't feeling so well. lol

~*~September~*~

Y'know, looking through the pictures I have to add to this blog, I can't find any of something we did in September. LOL We were going to go a big vacation to Florida, with trips to all the theme parks, but hadn't taken into account me getting pregnant. When we realized this, we were going to put off trying for another month so we could go, but Baby Girl decided it was time for her instead! But we are so excited for her to join us, and although we are putting the trip off for a few years, we plan on making it a family vacation!

~*~October~*~

October 8th was the Boise Diamond Dash. This is a scavenger hunt through downtown Boise for a $10,000 diamond ring! You would get clues on your phone through texts, and have to run to a place in  downtown Boise, find the answer (it was usually a trivia question), answer back through text, and when you got it right (or wring three times) they would send you to the next area to answer another question. The people who won were the ones who got the most answers right in the two hour period. It was pretty fun and we plan on participating next year. I wont be pregnant, so we might be able to run a little faster! lol

 We started on the steps of the Capital building. I can't remember how many couples participated, but it was A LOT!

We went to a wine festival out in Kuna at the Indian Creek Winery. (Even though we don't drink wine, and I'm pregnant anyway...lol) It was cold and rainy that day, but Kelly was still game to smash some grapes! (I didn't want to have to take my boots and socks off!)

My handsome hubby in the bucket.

 After he had smashed the grapes.

There was a super cute lab puppy there who was very interested in drinking the grape juice!

Well, that's it for the pictures I have uploaded since I uploaded the pictures 6 weeks ago! Hopefully I can blog a little more about a couple other things, and then get current on here! It WILL happen, I  WILL get back into it! Congrats for reading all of this. Sorry, I promise it won't happen again. =)

Yeah... Sorry about the lack of posts...

I haven't really been feeling very well lately, and I'm sure most of you that are my friends on Facebook know why. I'm Pregnant! I'm almost 12 weeks along (On Sunday) and I feel like I might be starting to come out of the morning sickness (I hope, I hope). I know it can be a lot worse than it was, but I've pretty much been nauseas without an appetite for 6 weeks, and I've lost 11lbs. I haven't been able to find any relief and I've tried almost everything I heard of. The only thing I didn't try was Zofran, which is a perscription to help with the nausea. I have my 12 week appointment next Wednesday, but I really think (hope) that I won't need to ask about the perscription. Anyway, you don't want to know about the icky-ness I've been feeling...

We are due on April 1st, 2012, which is perfect because of how my Dad put it. "Well, you were born on Halloween, you might as well have an April Fool's baby." LOL I would love this baby to come sometime at the end of March, though. March doesn't have anything in it, and April has our Anniversary, my nephew's birthday and (most of the time?) Easter. All this baby is doing is making my holiday season start even earlier though. right now, starting in April, I have our Anniversary (4/16), Joey's birthday, (4/24), Kelly's birthday (5/10), my Mom's birthday (5/17), my Dad's Birthday (5/23), my sister, Alicia's birthday (6/21) and my other sister, Natalie's birthday (6/27). Whew!

I took a baby bump picture last Sunday when I hit 11 weeks, and I plan on doing it every week until the birth.  (I pulled it off of Facebook, so I'm not sure how the quality is)

I pretty much felt like I started showing around 6-7 weeks. I was out of town with my parents that weekend and my Mom agreed. She said that she started showing that early with my oldest sister, too.

We got an ultrasound at my 8 week appointment, and hopefully we'll get another one at the 12 week appointment. =) It's just a little blurry, but I'll show it to you anyway. hehe

It's amazing how we can already love something so much without even knowing it! =)

Hopefully I can get better at blogging once I start to feel better (I sure hope that's what's happening now, but I've been tricked before!). I'm going to have to do a whole "Our Summer" post. LOL

Puppy Pool Party!

On hot days we like to fill up the pool and throw the dogs in. They don't usually stay in, so we throw cookies in, and Maggie will go into the water and get them, but Clyde still isn't so sure...

Maggie is pretty brave (Or not very bright...lol) she will do anything to get a cookie!  Even put her whole face under the water. Haha!

 We take a lot of water proof toys and put them in the water in attempts to get them to jump in. The only thing that can really get them in the water (besides cookies) is the little tennis ball pictured below. They love that one.

 Maggie's the brave one.

 Since Clyde won't get in the pool very easily, Kelly usually decides he needs to get wet one way or another, so he sprays him with the hose.

Then he gets all upset and I have to hold him because of his daddy being "mean".

Yes, his chin is covered in pimples. It's getting better now, but we are wiping his chin after he eats and putting acne medicine on it. lol

We've done a few things this summer, but nothing totally blog worthy. We are planning a vacation for the 3rd week in September, so that will be a lot of fun! Once I have more pictures uploaded to Picasa, I'll blog some more about the summer.  =)

Sigh...No Pictures...

I apparently can't blog from my work computer anymore. I used to upload all of my pictures to Picasa from home and then blog with those pictures. I wasn't downloading anything to my work computer, but I think the new blogger layout (Man, I don't particularly like change...lol) is doing something to the security features on this computer. I was going to get so good at getting back into blogging, too! Does anyone know if we can go back to the old blogger?

Well, today is Maggie's 6th birthday! We are broke, but hopefully we can get her a special treat like last year. It doesn't have to be anything big, right? I absolutely love that little girl! I'm so glad she came into my life and then was able to bring Clyde into our lives. I had cats growing up because my Mom got bit by a German Shepard on her cheek when she was 6 and has to have thirteen stiches! So, no dogs for us. She will tolerate Maggie and Clyde when my parents come over, but she doesn't love it. LOL Anyway, with cats, I loved them, I remember having a kitten for a couple weeks, but then we had to sadly put him down because of an ulcer on his eye and I was so upset, but I didn't love those cats like I love my dogs. Maggie and Clyde are like our children. It's hard to believe I got Maggie almost 6 years ago! I actually got Maggie around the time Kelly and I had been dating for a year. I had my own apartment and I wasn't home a whole lot with full time school and work, so Maggie ended up just living at Kelly's house. I would take Maggie home when I was going to be home for a while, but she lived with Kelly for the most part, and I think that was a great setup because she got to play with Kelly and Brodie (Our Boston Terrier at the time) and didn't have to be alone.

I remember Kelly convinced me to get a dog instead of a cat and I was trying to decide what kind of dog to get and it was between a Yorkie and a Pug. I decided on a Pug because Kelly and his Mom run a dog grooming business and I didn't want to have to deal with all that. LOL I'm so glad I decided on a Pug! Who knew I would find such a Pug community?! We have a huge Pug Meetup.com group here in Boise (something like 400 members! Not that we see all 400 members, there's probably about 30 families that show up regularly.) and there is a huge Pug community online! I love reading through all the blogs! I'm sure you can find that for other breeds, but there's something about Pugs!

Happy 6th Birthday, Maggie!!!

A Couple of Pug Meets (Photo Dump)

I've been really bad with blogging recently... oops... Summer is about halfway over and we've done enough to be blogged about, so I'm going to try and churn out two or three blogs in the next few days.

They moved our Pug meets from 12pm at a park only a few minutes from our house to 9am at a park that's about 20 minutes from our house. They have to do that during the summer because the other park isn't available because of soccer and then they move it to 9am so that it's not too hot for the Puggies. It is usually only for June - August, though. I know the city is getting all jerky about how and when we hold our Pug meets, so I really hope we can continue to keep them going just as we always do!

I got this picture from our Meetup.com site, this was our last Pug meet - Pug O' July!

 Maggie likes to get on the picnic table so she can be with us. =)

 Clyde runs around and gangs up on other Pugs... he never starts the trouble, but he seems to find it! (But he's not a bad guy, he just likes to play with the other energetic Pugs! =)  )

 Clyde's Daddy, Royce checking his son out. This was a Pug meet right before Father's Day and we were joking about how Royce needed a Father's day present. lol

 Here's FeiFei, our friends, Simon and Yangs' Pug. They have a Boston Terrier, Toro, too. (Pictured later)

In these next few pictures, you can see Royce, (on the leash) and Rebel, a foster Pug playing. Rebel kept wanting to play with Royce and then he would surrender and get on his back, it was quite funny. As you can see, Clyde (In the red H style harness) is involved, but not totally in the "fight". He's a good kid. =)

 We found a toy in the treasure chest we thought we would like to have at home, so we let Maggie chew on it for a little bit and Toro wanted to play with it.

 Clyde wanted to play with it, too.

 (We are in the process of trying to get Clyde a matching harness to Maggie's but in blue. We had a step in argyle harness on for him, but it was choking him, so we returned it, and now we're trying to get him one that perfectly matches Maggie's. The Amazon store we got Maggie's from doesn't have his size in stock, so we are going to try and get it from directly from the distributor! (The great thing about Kelly and his Mom owning a dog grooming business!) )

Those were some pictures from a Pug meet last month, and these are from Pug O' July this past weekend.

 FeiFei is resting on her mama's foot.

 Dan petting Clara Bow. Clara is very cute - she has a lot of skin around her neck! This isn't a very good picture to see it, but it certainly makes for a cute girl!

 Here's the picture promised of Toro. This little guy is the best behaved Boston Terrier around!

Olive was at Pug O' July!!!

 Olive still likes to wiggle, so it's hard to get a good picture of her, but I'm so glad we can see her occasionally!

And one last picture of Clyde. Can you see how much bottom lip this guy has? He is good at tucking it in, so it's not always visible, but sometimes he lets it hang out. It's so stinkin' cute!



So this is a photo dump blog post. Yeah, I just wanted to post a lot of pictures I had taken. None of them are spectacular, but I just wanted to post them anyway. =)