Fat Lady Photos

I must admit as excited as we are to be taking this next step in our lives, watching the scale go up each week is not getting easier. But I guess that goes with the territory. Due to popular demand, I have posted some pictures of my growing body. I am confident my butt has grown more than my belly (refer to my hind end at 6 weeks compared to 20 weeks...those are the same pants).  She better be a cute little viking. Even if she is neon white.

I really had good intentions to take a weekly picture in the same clothes, but I have pretty much sucked at that. And I don't think that t-shirt even fits anymore.

6 weeks

This is the morning we found out. See, I started with good intentions.

7 weeks

8 weeks

This is when I started getting sick.

10 weeks

12 weeks

14 weeks

The end of this week is when I stopped being sick. Funny, this is also when I started to gain weight. Coincidence?

18 weeks

I swear I took a picture at 16 weeks, but I can't find it. 

Maybe when I started getting fatter it was easier to ignore the camera.

18 weeks is also when I first felt her...I think.

20 weeks

This is when I am CERTAIN I could feel her.

21 weeks

This is when I first experienced heartburn. Awesome stuff.

22 weeks. Definitely getting harder to hide.

23 weeks. I just took this one today. 

The dress (and the awesome glare) makes it hard to really see anything.

Looking back,  I feel stupid for feeling fat at 12 and 14 weeks. I am sure that in another month, I will feel stupid for feeling so fat at 23 weeks.

In other notes I'd like to remember, my skin, hair and nails look good. Mostly my nails. So I guess that partially offsets the additional 12 lbs I am packing. My lower back hurts when I sit or stand for too long and I sleep like a rock from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. I am sure that will change eventually, but I am really enjoying for now. 

I have read a lot that it isn't good to sleep on your back, but I wake up on my back all the time. Each time I do, I wake up Logan and he gets chewed out for not checking on me. Now, he nudges me several times a night to remind me to get off my back and move to my side:)

That's all for now. Stay tuned for next week!

Back At It and Happy As Ever!

So, it has officially been a year since I last blogged and what a year it has been! We are sooo happy and things are wonderful. I left the blog on kind of a sour note but am glad to say our lives are as good as they have ever been and we are both anxiously waiting to see what our life has in store for us.

I have documented (with my camera) a lot of the fun things that we have seen, places we have went and things we have done over the last year, but unfortunately I don't have the time or ambition to play catch up in much detail, so a few crappy pictures from my phone will have to work. My last blog post was about the one and only real vacation we had had together. I admit I was pretty bitter that we had waited until that point in our lives to try and take a timeout. I think that if we have learned anything about marriage it is that spending time together and enjoying life is far more important than work or jobs, luckily we have both been enjoying our jobs as well.

While none of the things we have done this year have been impressive or earth-shattering, they are examples of how we are living life more fully, appreciating each other more and spending time doing things that matter to both of us -- rather than focusing on how much time we are apart or things we don't have or don't have time for. They are all things that we didn't do a lot in the first couple of years we were married. We have a long list of goals -- things we want to do and accomplish, but the things that have been keeping us busy this year are definitely a good start towards being the people we want to be.

In the past year we have:

Worked a lot.
We have set a goal to travel more together and we have spent a lot of time together in the company car.

Went fishing!
Logan got out his new fishing pole for the first time in three years and has used it several times! He went fishing in West Yellowstone when he was in Idaho visiting family; in Huntington Canyon when we were visiting family in Utah; in Hat Creek in Northern California; and on the East Fork Carson River near Reno.

Taught Sunday School.
Stevie is teaching the 16 and 17 year olds...they are tons of fun! (and, at times, a challenge).

Went golfing!
Logan got a new set of golf clubs for his birthday...and used them immediately!

Bought some cows
Horses and arena are next, we just have to find some more money and somewhere to put them...baby steps I guess.

Worked on our home.
We got new carpet in our house; a new bedroom set, painted and decorated the last spare bedroom; and are adding upgrades to the other spare bedroom as we speak. We also got a new bedroom set and love it!

Spare bedroom before...

Spare bedroom after...

It still needs some color. Maybe some red or turquoise accessories, but I haven't decided yet.

Celebrated the national passtime!
We frequented AT&T Park quite a few times. We are huge fans of the San Francisco Giants! We even had front row seats once.

We didn't match on purpose, but we sure were cute!

Got rewarded.
Stevie got a new boss, a job title change and a well-deserved raise! Woot Woot!

Picnicked!
Logan discovered a little lake in the Sierra Nevadas and we took a whole day to hang out, have a picnic and scope out fishing spots along the for Logan to visit.

Made a baby!!!!
Our little (or big) white viking will be here around the first of March and we can hardly wait!

There was some confusion at first.

This is after we found out that she was a girl. 

But I think I knew all along. Just kidding, I had no idea. I was just hopeful:)

We also have some other top secret news that we can't talk about yet, but stay tuned! I promise it will be exciting...

Home Sweet Home

Well, we (Stevie and Reno) are home from our quick vacation to Mexico. We were actually gone for more than a week, but only on the cruise for four days. Reno spent the week with a colleague of mine, and seemed sad to leave her this morning.

Logan and I started the week with a bull sale in San Luis Obispo on Sunday, then drove to Ventura Beach, where we stayed at the Crown Plaza on the beach. Too bad it was a little foggy.

This picture is of us after dinner the night before the cruise after dinner in Ventura Beach.

This is an early morning shot of the beach off our hotel room balcony.

Monday morning we drove to the port of Long Beach to the cruise terminal, where we boarded the ship and got a massage (thanks Debi). The masseuse told me she had never felt deltoids with such severe knots...which explained why my back hurt for the remainder of the trip. Thank goodness for hot tubs. Despite the deltoid pain, the massage was very relaxing and Logan love love loved his massage. He will now be requesting a massage gift card for every holiday, in case any of you ever want to get him a gift.

Tuesday morning we arrived on Catalina Island.

the ship from the island

 us riding the boat from the cruise ship to the island.

the island

more of the island

While on the island, we did some sight seeing and some window shopping. We also decided to go parasailing. It was kind of cloudy, but was still fairly warm.

Up

Up

Up and away. It was sooo much fun.

We also did some sight seeing, shopped and had lunch while on Catalina.

more of us

Logan enjoying his cheeseburger and pepsi

Wednesday we went to Ensenada...which is a little less than desirable as far as clean and safe cities go. Luckily, we found a tour bus to take us to the shopping district on the other side of the peninsula, where there is also a blowhole in a cave near the ocean. When the tide comes in, it fills the cave with water, then the next wave pushes the water up through the hole.

This is the blow hole doing its thing.

Us hanging out near the blow hole.

The city of Ensenada from the tour bus.

Thursday was our "fun day at sea" as the ship headed back to Long Beach. We lounged around by the pool, went to the comedy show that night and just took it easy (Logan even shut his phone off)

Us at sunset on the last night of the cruise

For those of you who have been on a Carnival cruise, you know they put a towel animal in your stateroom each night. I didn't think to get pictures of them, until the last night, but the last night was my favorite anyway.

All in all, it was a good trip. I really appreciated Logan taking some time off to go away for a few days. We both really needed it. We hit a couple of cow sales on the way home and got back late Sunday, Logan took just enough time to switch out his suitcase for a freshly packed one and he was back on the road within about 15 minutes. He will be gone on and off through Thanksgiving. Hopefully he will be home for a day here and there. Fortunately, I have more than enough to keep my hands full. A week off from work has me pretty swamped.

 

Wake Me Up When September Ends

So, I have been MIA for a couple of weeks. It has been kind of a whirlwind. But I am glad I have been busy; otherwise, I would just be sitting home with Reno waiting for Logan to come home. When I say September is a busy month for him, it is an extreme understatement. He is on the road nearly every day, but luckily he is usually within a couple of hours. This is what he has kept him so busy:

These pictures are from a few years ago at a bull sale, but you get the idea. 

He is really great at his job and he loves working sales, but I think even he is ready for a break. He has been running a ton to keep himself sane. He looks AMAZING. We are thinking of running in the Run to Feed the Hungry, a 10K race, in downtown Sac on Thanksgiving -- which means I need to get busy.

As for me, I have been running around like crazy as well. My busiest time of the year is from July through November, so I have been on a magazine roller coaster but have also kept busy with photography, bridal showers, baking and weddings, weddings and weddings. All of the events were so much fun and were so beautiful, but it can't help but make one lovesick for their significant other. I am definitely there anyways.

I didn't get to take many pictures of my sister Ashlee's wedding because I was busy, but I got a few of the beforehand behind-the-scenes and the cakes. It was a really great day with a fabulous venue, beautiful weather, tons of friends and family, great food and one really cute set of newlyweds. They were both so relaxed. I don't know many brides that are like, "eh, whatever you think" about everything. It made everything go by so smoothly. Here are a few pictures that I did take:

We wanted to do lots of different cakes with different flavors, so we did a lot of baking! Ignore the diet coke in the picture. 

These are from inside the barn when we were still setting up.

It was a good thing we had more chairs, because we had to set up twice this many. They had so many people come to share their day.

These are from her bridal shoot at the wedding venue that we did a couple weeks before the wedding. It is amazing that my mom's wedding dress fit perfectly and suited her so well, nearly 30 years after my grandma made it for my mom.

Taylon was such a good sport.

My personal favorite. Two of my favorite people. Yes, Smokey qualifies as a person. If you know him, you understand why.

He is such a sweetheart. Ashlee and I both showed Smokey and even though he has only been ours for a few years, I told her if there was one thing I regretted about my wedding, it was not getting some bridal pictures with him. Granted, I got married in December and it would have been very cold and very difficult, but I wish I had done it all the same. 

After such a CRAZY month. I am sooooo ready to go here next week:

Catalina Island

and here:

Baja, Mexico

and here:

Ensenada, Mexico

Even though Logan vows to he will have to work on our vacation because it is still his busy season and even though we aren't going very far for very long and even though I had to twist his arm to leave for a few days, I am really looking forward to getting back to here:

before all this chaos began.