...and they came two by two. I think I'm obsessed!

Many of you may know I was so generously given my nursery theme: Noah's Ark. I say given because Mike's cousin was so nice to give me an almost entire nursery room set! Everything including bedding, decorations and accessories. That was probably a good thing because I can never choose, but since I have it, I'm going with it! She gave me this cute wagon and said that the first person who had it had put two of beanie babies in it to make it Noah's Ark themed even more. I liked that idea and went for it. Chelsy and I went shopping at DI to get started and I've been looking for doubles ever since. I just had to show off my collection so far!

This is what we have so far (spread out so you can see) with buffaloes, blue jays, black bears (yes, Chelsy, I got another black bear so we weren't mixing breeds with the polar bear!) rabbits, pelicans, cows, foxes, ducks, moose, squirrels, lobsters, crabs, and kangaroos! I still have a lonely black lab, white tiger, polar bear, rhino and flamingo. Aren't they so cute!?!

PS- If anyone knows a really good way to clean/disinfect a beanie baby-let me know. Some of these need a little help :)

And I couldn't leave out the bargain I got today at yard sales (that included some of the above mentioned beanie babies!)
A Fisher Price Noah's Ark! How much better can it get?? :)

Open view:

Egg Drop Ramen?

I don't know if you know, but I don't really "follow" recipes. I mostly just look at a bunch, decide what sounds good and put it together at will. Well, my "will" tonight was to have ramen so after searching Google for "ramen recipes" and reading a bunch I decided that veggies, ramen and egg sounded good together. Egg sounds gross you say? Not if you do it egg-drop soup style! :) Well I had to research (on Google of course!) how to properly "egg-drop" and found it was quite complicated, but About.com gave me answers. After sauteing my frozen veggies (I like them to look cooked), adding water and cooking my ramen with oriental sauce, I took out all the solids from my soup and performed what I would have to say was a magnificent job of "egg-dropping". One minute of rapid stirring and then returning all my solids gave me a delicious ramen meal! So much fun! :) so random...

Chopping my hair :)

Before the chop:

After the chop (and some styling from Jessica of course!):

Prego belly!

Jessica's photo abilities: Photo Shoot! :)
I'm so fancy!

24 weeks!

I really feel like this baby has been sticking out just the same amount for the past month, but everyone tells me I'm showing a lot more so I decided it was picture time again!

Here I am at 22 weeks (about 5.5 months) I think he's just looking pointy!

Wow, ok. so if you take a picture of it, I guess I really do look different!
Here I am at 24 weeks (6 months??)
And my new haircut! Jessica is still sending me the "before and afters- I'll post them when she sends :)

I'll tell you what, nothing fits anymore. And by nothing, I mean I've pretty much depleted my pant drawer of pants that fit me, even with the fly completely undone! (thank you Tummy Sleeve!) And I've even retired one pair of maternity pants already (the jeans I'm wearing the the first picture).

Happy Birthday to Alex! :)

Yes, I know my birthday was a little while ago, but I just got around to posting pictures!


Mike and me going out to eat at the Olive Garden. Mike just had me open all my presents a day early since we had so much going on the 8th. So we celebrated the 7th! Mike got me that shirt I'm wearing (can you see- I really am pregnant! ) and he got me a body pillow, sudoku book, jewelery and such. Happy Birthday to me!!

This is mom and me at the play "Fantasticks"
(mom loves this picture :)

Hale family celebrating my birthday with dinner!
Homemade pizzas!

and Chocolate Cream Cheese Dessert!

The Collett family celebrating my birthday- and Braiden's, Austin's, Ellie's, and Amberly's birthdays! :) I don't have a picture with me in it because it's a lot more for the younger kids than for the adults :) Here is Braiden opening all of his presents!

It's a BOY!!!

His leg. Hmm... reminds me of my "other kids" ( the frogs!)

Can you see? It's a boy! :)

Maybe it's an alien? This is his face!

His arm. Cute little arm. I"m pretty sure he just moved it in front of his face, so that round thing to the left is his belly.

The news is in- it's official! He's a boy! And there is only one :) Everything looked good in the ultrasound. Except he wouldn't move the right way to give us the typical ultrasound picture. Oh well, he's ours and these are the pictures we got!

Finally a bump! and kicks! :)

I know you have all been waiting for this moment (though, anyone who might have been waiting and actually watching the blog is probably already in Utah or on their way to visit for the 24th! Yeah!) but I can now post pictures of my belly, because I actually have one! Ok, most of you still are telling me I don't, but I won't have any of it. And now I've taken some every few weeks because I seem to change every day!

As far as kicking-- the first kicks I felt were on Mom's birthday when Dad and I were driving to Provo to get her present. This little guy has been quite a kicker since then! It is the most amazing and unusual sensation to experience! But so much fun too! :)

1 month
(ha ha, like anything would show!--except a little gas maybe! )

4 months
(Chelsy said I had to take one, even though I just look chubby!)
4.5 months
these pictures are hard to take since you are supposed to 'relax' to show your belly, but my relaxed stance locks my knees back! ??

4.75 months.
You can't even tell me that's not a stomach! :) he he he