Christmas Time and Still No Baby

Well it's the most magical time of the year and I am currently three days overdue. Not unusual, I suppose. I finally gave up hope that "today is the day". She'll come when she wants to. We may have a stubborn one our hands. Anyway, in the mean time I have been documenting a little of our holiday season here in Provo and thought I would share. First off, being 9 months pregnant has in no way inhibited my desire to party. I am super lucky to have no aches and pains, sleep soundly and have enough energy to do lots of things while being a whale-like size. To pass the time the last few days Morgan and I have done the following:

- Went to the new Hobbit movie (very good, by the way, much better than the first one)
- Went to Catching Fire (also very good and better than the first)
- Had dinner and went shopping at the mall
- Went to dinner with some friends at Goodwood BBQ (fantastic restaurant that I would highly recommend)
- 'Finished' our Christmas cards (they won't be truly finished until baby arrives so we can get a picture of her)

On top of that, I have been continuing to work full time. I'm hoping (cross your fingers) that I won't need to go in Monday, but seeing as I have had zero contractions for the last 24 hours I find it highly probable that I will be working tomorrow as well. :(  Anyway, I am super glad that at least I don't feel terrible. I have been super blessed this entire pregnancy (with the exception of morning sickness). I'm very grateful that sleep isn't a problem because of aches or pains or largeness in general. However, we are anxious to meet our little girl. She can't stay in there forever, so someday soon we will flood the world with pictures…stay tuned.

This year (since we are staying around for Christmas) is the first time I have decorated our apartment. I found a steal of a deal on our tree (lights, ornaments, tree skirt and tree for $35) and we finally settled on some temporary stockings for the year. The house feels very homey with all the Christmas decorations.

Our tree looks somewhat scarce in ornaments because we are planning on only having colored bulbs and then an ornament for each year of our marriage. That makes the different ornaments this year a whopping two (one for our wedding last year and one for the baby this year).

I also made this gingerbread house. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it, but I'm glad I at least finished it.

We sure our excited for Christmas this year and can't wait to celebrate with family. Hopefully our new little family member will decide she wants in on all the fun. We'll keep you posted!

Date Night

I really like themed dates. This past Friday I decided to throw together an "American Art Date". I know, sounds fancy. For dinner we visited this new restaurant on Provo Center Street called Station 22.  Their cuisine is All-American. I got fried chicken and Morgan got pulled pork. It tasted….ok. We weren't super impressed actually, but the one thing I will forever love because of this restaurant is spiced apple cider/beer. It tastes like carbonated apple pie and is super delicious. If you find some, get it! After dinner we headed to the Museum of Art. Every first Friday of the month they do an event and have live music and refreshments. The music was a lovely trio of a violin, cello, and an oboe. It was beautiful and they had pumpkin cake and hot apple cider and hot chocolate. We walked around all the exhibits and then headed home. At home we became our artists and finger painted portraits of each other. Morgan's looked great and actually resembled me and mine looked nothing like him. We finished off the night by watching all of the scary episodes of Psych. It really was so fun to just do something different for date night! Here are some pictures, enjoy!

I just had to...

Ok, so my husband is ridiculously handsome (as many of you know). Anyway, he also was a ridiculously adorable child. I LOVE looking at his younger pictures because of how darn cute he is! So, I just have to show the world how potentially attractive our offspring will be by showing pictures of him while growing up. These pictures our courtesy of our wedding video....

And for my absolute favorite of all time...

SOOOO cute, right?

This is Halloween

Fall here in Provo is beautiful this year. We have enjoyed seeing the leaves change colors and have really been soaking up the last few days of warmth before winter sets in. Because i'm not in school for the first fall ever in Provo, I have been planning tons of activities for us to enjoy. So far we have been to Thriller by the Odyssey Dance Company, went through a corn maze and rode on a hayride at Cornbelly's, participated in a chili cook-off and took first for the spiciest chili, carved pumpkins, took a drive up Provo canyon to look at leaves, made carmel apples, went to witches night out (with Abi) and went to two Halloween parties. For Halloween, Morgan is dressing up as the National Debt Ceiling and I am Ursula from the Little Mermaid (I figured I had the perfect figure these days). I spent quite a bit of time making and putting up our fall/Halloween decorations. This is what I came up with this year.

I also managed to make the 'perfect' chocolate chip cookie (according to Morgan). I tried to make a couple of versions earlier in the fall but they failed miserably. This recipe is the tried and true Lyons family recipe.

And lastly for this month, I am now 32 weeks and I feel like a balloon. Only 8 more weeks (hopefully) to go! We are excited to meet our wiggly munchkin. I keep having dreams that she is born and I wake up confused that I'm still pregnant. So, far I have still been feeling great! So, no complaints here. My only wish is that she comes before Christmas for her sake. We shall see. Here is how the "balloon" me looks these days.

Oh, and Morgan carved an awesome pumpkin for Halloween. Here it is:

Happy Halloween!

Baby Gymnastics

The coolest thing about being pregnant has been feeling this little peanut wiggle and wiggle. At my 20 week check up, the ultra sound technician even had a hard time getting her to hold still for long enough to get a good picture. After that appointment, I texted Morgan and told him that our baby was wiggly and stubborn (because she wouldn't move her hands out of her face). His reply was that she sounded like her mother! :) Since said wiggling experience, her wiggling characteristic have continued to become more and more prevalent. Morgan got to feel her move for the first time last week. She isn't very predictable as far as when she moves, unless she is feeling constricted. When constricted she kicks directly at the object/thing cramping her space. So, I laid on my side with the right side squished against the mattress. I then had Morgan put his hand under that side of my stomach. Per usual, after a couple minutes she kicked his hand (and the mattress). 

Now the reason I bring up all this wiggling is to say that every afternoon at work this baby has a dance party in my stomach. She just kicks away for a good hour or so and then is done for the rest of the day. It is the craziest thing. The other day I felt her wiggle all the way from one side of my stomach to the other and today she seems to be fond of kicking my organs instead of kicking out. I can't believe how much I can feel her and she is only 9 inches long! What's it going to be like in a few months when she is double that size! 

I think all this wiggling is the cause of some crazy dreams. Last night I had a dream that this baby kicked a hole through my stomach and was 'born' that way instead of waiting to be born traditionally. She was still adorable though, right down to having my husbands beautiful eyes. 

Crazy dreams, wiggles and all, we are still super excited that she is growing strong and healthy and we are getting more and more excited to meet her in December!

It's a.....

So, Morgan's work decided they wanted to have a gender reveal during one of their staff meetings. So we made these beauties.

The tops were decorated so that everyone could pick a gender for their guess. We were experimenting with the lip and mustache thing, but eventually I settled on ties and bows. The insides were then filled with pudding dyed the correct color for the gender. That way when they bit into them....

Viola! 

It's a GIRL!!!!

We couldn't be more excited about having a girl! It was secretly what Morgan and I wanted for our first child...so lucky us! It also allows her to be a first on both sides of our family. A first grandchild for Morgan's family and a first girl grandchild for my side. I have already been searching for cute little girl outfits. Oh! It's going to be so fun!

Big News and Happenings in the last few months...

A lot has happened since I last blogged. Here is a little catch up.

I finally graduated from BYU on April 26th. It feels awesome being done!



I also managed to get a full time job before graduating so that is really nice. We certainly are grateful. I'm now working for a surgical center in Payson.

(This is actually our Provo location...but it was the only picture I could find...)

The drive is long, but I love the office I work for and I actually really enjoy being a secretary. I had a lady the other day say that I was very kind and helpful unlike other doctors office receptionists she has talked to. I really appreciated that because it's nice to know that I make a difference.


Right after graduation, my sweet sister-in-law Aleisha got married to her love James. We attended the wedding in the Salt Lake Temple and then celebrated with them afterwards.

They are an awesome couple! We secretly hope that James and Morgan will both end up going to school in Boston so Aleisha and I can be neighbors....well I guess so all of us can be neighbors, but that way while our men are studying we can have a friend to hang out with...good plan right? How awesome would THAT be?!! Anyway, their wedding day was really special and we are so happy for them. Aleisha let me do her hair and I think it actually turned out ok.




Next big news.....I'm pregnant!! Yep, it's true, I haven't just lost my self control and gained exorbitant amounts of weight....there is a reason behind my ballooning size. We found out the Tuesday before I graduated, actually. I am now 14 weeks today and still coping with morning sickness....yay.... :)

(There's a little bump...)

I also went out and bought my first maternity clothes yesterday. It has been SO hot this Provo summer and none of my shorts fit anymore except for gym shorts, so I cracked and got some really cute maternity ones. They are comfy and look great!

(Sorry, this picture is very poor quality)

We are looking forward to being parents. I am excited to know if it is a boy or a girl! We find out in about four weeks!