Cabo cabo cabo

There were several excuses for this....

we needed a babymoon...

it is our last trip before we become strapped...

it was inlieu of Presidents Club for Nate (it falls right when baby's due)...

It was our Christmas...

and

WE'RE SPOILED

I think the last, which isn't an excuse, is the most proper reason

BUT

Dreams Los Cabos was AMAZING!!!

Pretty much four days of laying on one of those lawn chairs being waited on hand and foot :)

The beach; very beautiful but a little treacherous for swimming

We golfed too!!

well Nate golfed... I rode

This was one of his best shots for our round
It went fromt here...

to here!
AND he made the put!
We had a wonderful time on our little vaca.

It was relaxing, beautiful, 3 hours away from home, and took the Christmas spirit right out of us.

Luckily, said spirit returned shortly after on our 12 hour drive through frigid weather to make it to Utah for Christmas :)

A little taste of Christmas

I am currently driving across Nevada on my way home for Christmas and I know if I don't post this now it just won't happen this year.

So... here is from a few weeks back

The Nutcracker

From the looks of me and my current profession you would never know that as a little girl I was a ballerina and thought I would be Clara / the Sugar Plum Fairy one day (even though I was designated to all the "core" rolls when Brooke and I played).

It all comes from Robyn's devotion to Utah Regional Ballet and Brooke and I following in suit as little minions. But from as long as I can remember the Nutcracker has been a Christmas tradition EVERY year. The tradition when we were little entailed Nutcracker sweats and several viewings of the performance to see out older sister. And for two years I was lucky enough to be a 'mademoiselle' (and still remember the choreography)

Anyway... it is just Christmas to me and I was dying last year to attend the birth place and orginal Nutcracker but it didn't happen. This year bet you bottom dollar....

We met up with some friends and watched the fabulous performance at War Memorial Opera House. The founder of SF ballet and orginal choreogrpaher of the American version, William Christensen, also founded Ballet West and brought the Nutcracker to Utah. I actually remember him attending one of my own performances as a mademoiselle :)

Anyway, it was fabulous. A real production and though similar to what I grew up with, different in a good way. For instance, it is set in turn-of-the-century SF!

Nate even enjoyed it (they kept it strictly to 2 hours) It put us in the Christmas spirit AND I bought my first nutcracker :)

Out First Competition!!

Our First competition this year was on the 12/5 in SF

I can't tell you how nervous and excited I was for my girls

It was my first judgement as a coach and I was really anxious to see what the judges had to say about our performance.

Overall the day was a success and my teams did really well and made me proud :)

It was one of those days where I kept thinking in my mind "wow, I can't believe we're really here" The owners (not pictured) started this gym from scratch and we started these teams from scratch with over half of them never having cheered in their lives.

It was such an accomplishment for Valley Cheer and Dance to be at that competition and to be competitive!

Way to go US!

If you wanna see their performance watch the videos below :)

YouTube - Valley Cheer and Dance - JAMZ Slam City Cheer Competition

See.....

See.... I told you it was amazing.

Just wait and see the finished product!

*sigh*

I really can't wait for little mans arrival

And it's just around the corner!

I am ALMOST to two week visit with Dr O!

well... stay tuned for a 24 week ripe photo...

Turkey Trip

Now I must post because it is very important....

but my life is seemingly the same over and over again. Really not a bad thing at all... but a little boring to document.

This same image occurred 2 years ago only with 2 extra drinks (jays and jules)

Thanksgiving at the Clark's

relaxing, small, and delicious

We stayed in bed till 11 watching the Macy's parade and football

Emerged for JUMBO shrimp around 12

Finished preparations and feasted at 2:30

Napped after feasting

and closed the evening with a visit to Cliff and the Jazz game

Nate carved Mr. Turkey for us using the technique they were teaching on the parade channel

He was really proud :)

And our dinner was fabulous. Coleen pulls off the whole feast and makes it look like she's doing nothing more than pouring cereal.

Oh, did I mention it was only a party of four this year?

I guess when Nate was in high school his prayers would go as follows "bless this two parent one kid family" so for this Thanksgiving we gave thanks and blessed our "two parent two and half kid family" :)

And Nate's dreams come true

Boo ya for a win!

AND

these lovely ladies were able to get together :)

(L-R Jobi, Cassie, Jodi, Me, Morgan E., Mandy, Courtney, Whitney, Amanda, Becca, Tory)

Do you remember them?

I almost didn't.

My cheer friends! I haven't seen any of them in almost two years. Thanks to Mandy we all got together.

It was so funny because the first 20 min were a little awkward playing catch up then after that it was like it has always been and made me think "I really like all these girls" and then quickly think "Obviously... there WAS a reason we were all friends 3 years ago"

My friendship with all these girls marks such a fun time in my life and I will always think of all of them in that light.

Anyway... smooches to all of them and I hope to be better about keeping in touch this time.

Lastly, I did indeed make it down to my parents but I ALWAYS fail to take pictures. Life is in fast forward whenever I am at my parents and that is my excuse this time. BUT stay tuned because amazing Nannie has committed to make baby B's bedding and we got some SERIOUSLY amazing fabric for the project.

AND of course we were in poo town for the horrible Utah performance but ALAS, do I not have 100 different pictures of us at BYU-Utah games? Next year baby B will join the rivalry though and we'll DEFINITELY photograph that for him.

Hopefully Max Hall won't hate him too....

Thanksgiving: three things I now know

We are always at one of our parents homes for the holidays, which I really like but...

I never have cooked one of those holiday meals. Nor do I have the correct equipment to do so.

I really wanted to this year so yesterday I attempted the feat... although there were a few set backs in the morning with Nate accidentally leaving me stranded for work... it WAS accomplished

Voile!

I really am proud of myself

AND it all fit on my smallish table

AND it was absolutely delicious :)

Now for the three things I now know:

1. Timing is everything

2. If we didn't go home, Thanksgiving would still happen

3. I love me a little turkey

As I am gearing up for departure this week I am reflective on how much I have to be grateful for. I have never been a big fan of Thanksgiving but it is such a unique holiday and it is really a time to give thanks.

This year I am oh so thankful to know and love so many sweet, kind, wonderful people.

20 Weeks 5 Days...

This is how I now refer to time in my life.

And since this is kind of the only interest in my life

Meet my newly grown belly

Really she grew over night... check my moms blog for proof

18 weeks not much there... 19 weeks rolls around and poof

Now for more exciting things!

Baby has one of those... which I'm pretty sure makes him a boy :)

I am so very excited and my first instinct was right

However... it all seems so much more real now. 

Baby is no longer just baby, he his baby boy!

And he is going to come out in another 20 ish weeks (please 17) and I will be taking care of him. I hope he likes me and I hope I know how to take care of him. I mean a girl seems up my ally (tea parties, princesses, pink etc.) 

But what is crazy is how much I already love him and how many of my thoughts he occupies.

So grow on baby boy just please don't be 10"4

I promise I look normal sometimes I do still got to work everyday and have to be presentable. I just don't look so hot when I get home.

But alas, it is a bump!

And it began....

Ready or Not my house is... or has been I guess... ready for football

I really only tune in for Utah but Natey's tuned in pretty much all 48 hours of our weekend

Alas, it's a concession we make and I want him to bathe in football this fall for our situation will be a little different next fall.

About 2 months ago Nate came to me with our fall mapped out.... with football.

The second Utah game happened to be played at San Jose! Very convenient for us and Nate wanted to bring papa Clark out for some bonding time.

This 'football bond' in the Clark family is a little foreign for me, all I know is that it was the highlight of Nate's childhood and no one else but family was invited on this outing.

The quick overnighter with JayDee was so nice though... just perfect!

We took Jayden with us and he was definitely a welcome addition!

Game 3 took us to Oregon...

This comprised a weekend road trip and sleep over with Jon and Cass

Overall it was pretty fun but turns out baby Huey at 13 weeks had an opinion about road trips and I pretty much felt car sick the whole 9 hours THEN it decided to 'mist' during the game. Now this 'mist' the Oregonites talk of is nothing short of the most annoying rain. It made for a rather uncomfortable game and it didn't help that our Utes looked like trash and it was actually quite a boring game.

Jon checking out the Ute's warm-ups

Nate and Cass sitting in the 'mist' waiting for the game to begin

Enjoyable......(hesitant) yes.

What made the trip for me?

The lovely Marcia Lynn McClure book Robyn finally sent me....

Crimson Frost 

(a new addition on Paige's guilty pleasure's list)

:)

Meet our baby....

Okay okay... 

I'M PREGNANT!!!

Thrilled to the bone, 13 weeks along, and due March 24th

Se here is a short photo history of my baby's life...

The stick I peed on July 27th confirming baby's existence...

My little bean at 8 weeks when we first SAW the heart beat...

cutest heartbeat in the world I can assure you and I couldn't stop crying.

And this is little one's profile, tongue out and all at 12 weeks

:)

Same ultrasound at 12 weeks, just a little zoomed out, it looks like baby is sucking his thumb 

The gut instinct here is boy, and if it's a boy from the 5 minute ultrasound we had of our baby, baby has dad's personality :)

Only part that baffles me is the little nose?

It's probably going to change in the next 27 weeks... but where is that coming from?

You should all know the nose is a big deal for me, early on in our marriage I had nightmares of our baby being born with Nate's full size nose as an infant.... 

And here's me at 13 weeks (i got ready for the picture)

Am I showing? Depends on who you ask... many people tell me I am but since I really haven't gained any weight I just feel like I look fat. And that little tummy? Pretty sure it was there before :)

AND I'm going to say this is an awkward stage in pregnancy looks wise. I don't really look pregnant but right at 12 weeks I started REALLY feeling pregnant.

I haven't really had any problems and have been able to work the same.

BUT I am TERRIBLY homesick now that we have a baby on the way and am growing more and more averse to California living. In my dream of dreams we would make it back to Utah in a lovely little house by the end of January with a very good job for my very qualified husband.

But I probably will have to settle for a bigger apartment in a forever sunny, fall will never come, California.

But, if those are the biggest of my worries, I should be just fine

Oh, and did I mention how flippin excited I am?

Well I am!!!

3 Years....

3 Years ago (August 24th) I definitely made the biggest jump of my young little life...

I married someone I was head over heels for and wouldn't take no for an answer from him :)

And what do we have to show for 3 years?

A lot of trips

A lot of movies

A lot of growing

We're the same people but were not

I still love my man like crazy but I love him so different today then I did 3 years ago

I'm sure every year I will think this but it still is nice to reflect on

My darling whisked me off to this lovely 'boutique hotel' for an over nighter in Carmel

We love Carmel and so do our dogs (yes they were invited)

The smell, the architecture, the ocean, the food, our adorable hotel. 

I loved every bit of our 24 hours

We just roamed for dinner and we found this little restaurant called Casanova

Best food we have had in California

it was a delicious French restaurant and REALLY just plain romantic.

(really, we ate next to a candle lit tree)

So though I failed to take one photo of the people or canines involved (possibly due to my aversion to my platinum hair) in our weekend it was spectacular.

Cheers to 3 years and 1 bun in the oven :)

The end of summer

As Nate so excitedly posted.... Football begins next week

What does that mean to our house?

The end of summer....

Isn't it so strange how you can be so ready for the next season? 

You think you want summer forever, then soups, and pumpkins cookies, and CHRISTMAS start sounding fantastic and I'm making Chili in August?

Needless to say... the summer flew past and is just about over (102 today?)

I successfully took pictures of 3 summer events of ours and I MUST post them

So they go as follows:

The Alameda County Fair

It's a big deal. Carni's from all over come for this.

What it meant for us and Jon and Cass was a fantasy of delicious food.

We considered paying the $20 entrance fee the next night just for the corn dogs and snowcones.

We had a blast, Jon won Redford a $200 teddy bear :) , Nate and I sampled every food item we could get our hands on, we met our dream dog (great dane), and we viewed THE ride from Michael Jackson's 'Wonderland Ranch'.

Enough said.

2nd Event: Concerts

Strangely, Nate and I have only been to one concert together?

I love music. Nate loves music. We don't much like the same music.

But we decided Coldplay was mutually enjoyed and made a last minute, 4 hour drive, 'visit', to that show.

The next week we did Kenny Chesney. It was a much more enjoyable event. 

Really. I really like that guy. 

ADDITIONALLY  it was one of the most fun times I have ever had with my man.

A really cheesy/nice/crazy lady who gets her hair blowdryed twice a week at my salon would call it 'a day dipped in gold' 

but it was, I enjoyed everything about the event, particularly each my company :)

We also went back to Utah the first week in August but I failed to take any one photo.

So goodbye summer....

I just remember you being longer, more fun, and ending with school clothes

Maybe someday you'll come back for real.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

you know? young again....

YAY for 22!

22 feeeeels just right for me

not to young not to old

My day was wonderfully selfish and i indulged in everything i could think of

(beach, petit fors, picnic, movie, sleep, and pizza!)

cheers to 22!