a little closer to 30...

so i've been really bad at taking pictures lately...i barely got these... and as you can see... we all look a little homeless. haha. but i had to document my birthday!! because it was a good one. i felt so loved this year as i turned the whopping 27!! ... can't believe i'm in my "late 20's" now.. the closer i get to 30 the more weird i feel about it. haha.

but this year was simple and fabulous. so my husband thinks that i celebrate "birthday week" which...i kind of do... but i need to clarify... "birthday week" is more something i can call when i don't want to do something, or if i DO want to do something. say....i don't want to do the dishes so i say... norman can you do the dishes, it's my birthday....week. :) haha. anyway..norman always jokes about this now so he did a cute little post every day of my birthday week on instagram expressing a reason why he loves me each day. i looked forward to them every day. 

my actual birthday was on saturday, but friday night we went to pocatello and had cake and ice cream with my in-laws and my sisters family. it was great!! then on saturday we came back home, norman gave me money for shopping and i got to go out ALL BY MYSELF while my kids stayed home with norman. it was heaven. then i came back, we got some dinner at red robin as a family (pictures above are from the lobby waiting to be seated) :) then we came home, put kids to bed, and norman and i pulled out some popcorn, milk duds, and peanut butter m'n'm's and we watched Jason Bourne cause we hadn't seen it yet. it really was the perfect day. i felt so loved all week...norman really hit up all my love languages. 

THEN on monday my mother in law came to IF and took me to get lunch and a pedicure with my sister-in-laws while my father in law watched my kids. it was FABULOUS. i felt so spoiled.

anyway!!!! ....i can feel that 27 is going to be a good year.

also, while we are here and for my own sake i wanted to document quickly what we did for v-day...norm was in charge this year...we went out to puerto vallarta ... which was delicious and then got some hot chocolate and drove around asking get to know ya questions and seeing how many we could guess correctly about the other person. it was really nice. 

ps....the movie norman could watch the rest of his life and never watch any other movie again.... any guesses????? almost heroes. hahah that's why i love him :)

38 1/2 weeks! eek! and a birthday.....oh and valentines day, too

so i didn't manage to take any pictures for valentines day OR my birthday but i wanted to document on here what we did anyway before we get to this baby business. (and lets be honest....when you have a baby due in a few weeks....valentine's and birthdays aren't #1 on the mind).

so it was my year to be in charge of valentine's day. i was brainstorming with my sisters what to do for v-day, and we all decided we were going to do 14 days of valentines. for those who don't know...you give a little gift to your spouse every day up until valentines day. i kept it pretty simple this year and did cheap little things that i knew were his favorites and had little sayings to go with them. it was a lot of fun hiding them every day for him to find and he loved it! you know, valentine's day isn't JUST for the ladies....ladies. it's for the guys, too. and i know norman really appreciated the extra and thoughtful effort. since v-day was on a sunday, we went on our date the following day. dinner and a movie. kind of lame, i know, but i'm about to pop out a human, here and we had gift cards to the theater, and restaurant. so...free it is. (by the way...we went to zoolander 2....and it was "meh"...in case you're wondering).

then came my BIRTHDAY!! or birth week, as i like to celebrate all week long. :) my day of birth was on thursday (the 18th). my parents came up on the 17th to idaho falls cause my dad had a doc appointment, as did i. my mom made me one of my favorite home cooked meals and BTS cake. we ate at my gpas and played cards and enjoyed the day together!

then on my actual birthday, norman set up a scavenger hunt for me to find all my presents while he was at school! it was way fun and clever and it ended with me meeting him up on campus. i picked him up and we went out to lunch as a family. it was the perfect day!!

THEEEEEEEN (see.....how we celebrate all week??? i'm not mad about it) my mother-in-law and 2 sisters-in-law and i all met in idaho falls on saturday and we went and got a pedicure and then went out for lunch!! it was kind of the best ever because when you're about to have a baby, being pampered is like number one......

ok. whew.....this post has the potential to be the longest ever, but i will try to be brief. 

on the other hand...this is my blog...and the things that i want documented soooooooo, screw brief. i do what i want. :)

so i am 38 1/2 weeks people!!!! i'm getting EXTREMELY anxious over here, but trying not to. the other night i was reading my old posts from when i was pregnant with grant and my last pregnancy post that i wrote was at 38 1/2 weeks!!! so i'm hoping there's a pattern and you don't see me back here writing some 40 week pregnant post (please, no).

 i went to the doctor 2 appointments ago (so around 36 1/2 weeks??) and he checked me and i was dilated to a 2 1/2! i was excited! IT WAS BEGINNING!! so then i went in last week and i was at a solid 3. i asked if i was effaced at all and he said "you're still pretty thick, but that's normal" (tmi???). i didn't get excited because this exact thing happened with grant. I was dilated to a 3 at 37 weeks and nothing happened really. i still only had him 3 days before my due date. and then as i was about to leave last week my doctor says "well, i'll see you next week! but i wouldn't be surprised if i saw you sooner." 

pfft.....doc...you don't fool me. you said the SAME thing with grant....and it didn't happen....you had to strip my membranes TWICE for me to finally go into labor even though i was dilated to a 5 and almost all the way effaced soooooo....i didn't let him trick my emotions this time.

and look at us now...a week later for my next appointment and no baby yet, so .... looks like i was right to not get my hopes up. i honestly don't expect much, if any, progress at tomorrow's appointment. i haven't felt ANY contractions. and i just don't see it happening. i'm secretly hoping maybe he will strip my membranes tomorrow though and get something going....i wouldn't be mad about that at all. but again, i learn not to get my hopes too high or i'll go CRAZY. these last few weeks of pregnancy .... lots of things can make you crazy. so lets not add to the problem with false hopes of early labor. 

so i guess that's really all the news in the baby department. other than no, we still don't have a CLUE what we are naming her and it's starting to stress me out. but i DID pack what i could of our hospital bags yesterday, which got me a little excited. and i think i have purchased everything that i felt like i needed to before she came. so....we are ready for you little one!!!! hope to see you soon!

the day of love

guys...i had a pretty big week last week. because it was not only valentine's week, but my birthday week! yes...we i celebrate birthday weeks. my husband doesn't believe in them...but he usually obliges. :) 

we had a long weekend over valentines day. norman's classes were cancelled thursday and friday because of a career fair in utah that his teachers were attending and then monday was president's day! norman had a big plan for the 14th to include my birthday and valentine's day celebrations. (usually i don't let him do what we call "two-fers", or "two for one"s because i like to keep my birthday and v-day as separate celebrations...but this year i made an exception because we are so busy!). his plan was we would go to pocatello on saturday, leave grant with the grandparents and go skiing!!! that sounded like so much fun to me. i tried the whole snowboarding thing growing up...hated it. hate hate hate. i'm awful and never got better. so i told norman a while back that i would like to learn to ski, see if i'm any better at that! so he planned a day for us! however, this awful weather (well....awful if you want to go skiing) dried up all our snow! so we didn't get to go....

on to plan B...

which he whipped up over night. and i absolutely LOVED every minute.

we left G with the grandparents and began our date. he planned a little "walk/drive" down memory lane. we went to a handful of different spots in pocatello that had some sort of special meaning to us. including our old apartments, where we met up the night he got home from his mission, and where he proposed! (we hadn't been back to where he proposed since the real deal...so that was kinda fun). i love to reminisce so this was a great date! 

now...on to the good part. the gift....

i had told norman not to get me anything because i had ordered this swimming suit from piper and scoot (soooooo cute) that was pretty pricey and i just wanted that for my birthday and valentine's day. so i wasn't expecting anything. but...we pulled up to our last destination on our little adventure and sit down to start talking and he pulls out my phone to show me "my gift". i figured he had ordered something that hadn't come yet and wanted to show me what it was...even though i told him not to.

guys...it was so much better. but there's a back story...

so around our first or second year of marriage i somehow found out that norman had been writing a song for me. i was sooooo excited to hear it!! well...years went by and busy schedule's got in the way and the song was never finished. norm is a bit of a perfectionist and didn't want me to hear it until it was ready. so i teased him at every holiday that the only thing i wanted was to hear that dang song!!! and it was always a no go....

well, a couple semesters ago up at byui, norman had to do a little project for one of his general classes. he decided that he was going to use my song lyrics for his project since he had them already done. so he went to a group of strangers essentially....and read them MY SONG!!!! can you believe that??? and he still wouldn't let me hear it. OR read it.

so i relentlessly teased again every holiday, "so do i get to hear my song yet since a group of random byui kids now know it and are now wandering around the world with MY lyrics?"

no. nothing.

well....back to present day....we are sitting on a little bench in a park and he gets my phone out and starts to explain that even though he didn't have all the chords for the song done, he felt like he wanted to share with my the lyrics anyway. guys.....i was sooooo excited i could cry. in fact, i kind of did. so he read me the lyrics and they were probably the sweetest darn thing i have ever heard. they could win a grammy or a tony or an oscar or some big prestigious award. and i cried through the whole thing. it was the best present i could have ever gotten. 

i know you couples with kids know that sometimes it's hard to find time to reconnect after children come along. yeah, maybe we find time to go out to dinner together, or watch a movie kid free...but sometimes it still leaves you longing for the connection you had with just the two of you.... well, after this date...i could feel it. we had reconnected and it was the best feeling in the world! the three little crowns blog just did a post on this and i thought it was so real and brilliant. go read it.

anyway! after our date, we went home and freshened up for dinner with my sister and her boyfriend! the food was good, service was slow...but all was well hanging with some people i love most! 

i hope all of you had a fabulous love day! whether it was celebrating a significant other, a parent, a child, a friend, or yourself! i hope you found something to love and celebrated it! 

Vday and Bday

i enjoy february. i know a lot of people dread the month, but when you have love day AND and a birthday in february, it's not too shabby. despite the weather and yearning for spring.

our valentine's day wasn't super exciting this year. when you're poor, and a student, and about to have a baby....valentine's day stays real simple. which is fine with me. it was nice to just have a date with my husband without him having to worry about homework. he came home from school/work and surprised me with some flowers and my all time favorite chocolates. then he had to hit the books for an hour or so before we headed out for the night. we were staying in pocatello again that weekend because norman had a bachelor party for a friend on saturday. so we packed and went to a chinese restaurant because i have been cravin me some lo mein lately {it still didn't hit the spot...i think panda express is the only one that's cuttin it these days concerning lo mein}. then we went to my parents house and drug them all out of bed {it was only like 9 o clock....} and played a game. it was nice to be with my husband and family on love day...all those i love most. :)

then yesterday was my birthday. the big 2-4. i'm starting to feel too young to be these ages that are sneaking up on me. norman has been confused because normally i make a real big deal out of my birthday. i count down and i make excuses to do things because it's "my birthday week/month" but this year i didn't. my birthday kind of sneaked up on me because i've been so consumed with this little baby growing inside me. when there's a more important birthday coming up real soon, you seem to forget about your own. but none-the-less it was still a great day. 

norman went to work, my parents had to bring my niece up for a doctors appointment in town so they came and picked me up as well as my grandpa and we went to lunch {pizza pie cafe...i could eat there errr day these days}. we also ran some errands, i needed to grab some stuff at target for baby. then we headed back to my grandpas house to play our normal game of russian rummy. i got creeeeaamed the first game. i told my grandpa he could at least let me win on my birthday, but of course, he's ruthless {this is where our family gets our competitive side i think....}. so i made them all play another round and i won on the very last hand. it felt so great. :) {my grandpa and i have created a rivalry between us in this game..it's pretty humourous}. 

norman finally joined us after he got off work and we had cake and ice cream. 

^^^thinkin real hard about a wish.^^^

everyone but london and my mom were wearing plaid flannel....pretty cute, right? we looked like genuine hillbilly's :)

once norman and i got home i was surprised with my gift from him. he bought me a back massager...the good ones that sit in the chairs and knead your back....oh my heck i am in heaven. i don't know how productive i'll be with that sittin in the next room. he told me there was a condition along with it....i couldn't ask him for massages anymore...only tickles. haha. poor guy..i have definitely exhausted him on the massages. 

it was a great birthday and thank you to all of you who wished me well! i love you all!

oh....by the way...quick story....

when my parents came to pick me up they had also just returned from the dentist. well, my mom was telling me how they were telling her she needs to floss more, etc. etc. and i said yeah..i'm really bad at flossing, i need to do that, too. well i was finishing getting ready while we were talking about this and thought...hey..i'll floss since i'm thinkin about it....

bad idea.

i have a tooth that i had filled years ago but the cavity was so bad that they kind of had to reshape part of my molar. well as i flossed between this tooth and another one, a huge chunk came flying out......part of my fake tooth. ugh! and then when i went to rinse with cold water i about DIED from the pain. so i had to call the dentist {who is my cousin} and he is now squeezing me in on his lunch hour tomorrow to fix it for me. oh my heck...really? break a tooth on my birthday??? not cool.

but other than that. it was a fabulous day!! happy birthday to me! and here's to year 24 years of living! :) 

me and my valentine

our valentine's day was simple and wonderful.

norman was in charge of the plans and it started with him coming to my school for a haircut as my last appointment for the day.

he showed up with some of these:

and let me tell ya...they were absolutely delicious.

he knows the way to my heart....it's not flowers...it's food. :)

flowers always kind of remind me of funerals. and i don't love how expensive they are and how they shortly die.

they're alright every once in a while. but let me tell ya...i sure enjoyed these chocolate covered strawberries a lot better.

{like i ate them all on the drive home}

we then came home and did presents.

i got norman some of his favorite candy and some fishing flies.

and he gave me the sweetest gift ever!

there was a poem that was read in our sealing when we got married that we both loved. norman found the poem and got a picture made up of us at the temple {where we got married} on canvas and had the poem printed on the side of the picture on the canvas as well. it was so sweet. he's a good boy :)

then we drove to blackfoot to go to rupe's for dinner. :) so yum.

then we came home and just hung out, watched the office, fell asleep quite early...woke back up...chatted and snuggled. it was perfect and simple.

i love my valentine. :)

thanks for the perfect day.

Valentimes.....

Norman and I had an absolutely WONDERFUL ValentiMes day. :) 

Yes I was always one of those haters on Valentines day when I was single....but it's only cause I was jealous. Cause having a Valentine FOREVER is so much fun.

First of all...

Us Pocatello kids got a little bit of snow the other day {don't worry, it's gone now} And i walked out of my apartment and i thought it looked SO beautiful. So i had to pause and take a picture before i scuffled off to school.

So Norman and i started partying the weekend before Valentine's Day.

We went to dinner to Texas Roadhouse with some friends, Tyeson Mitton and his new girlfriend, Jade. This was the first time {for me} meeting her and i thought she was fabulous! 
 

Then after a filling dinner, as Texas always is, we went to THE VOW! it was so great. Norman and i approved. Even if it was terrible i probably would've liked it anyway just because Rachel McAdams is one of my favorite actresses. She didn't let me down.

LOVED the film. 

So norm and i alternate who plans what events each year. So the year that he plans what we do on our anniversary, i plan Valentine's day. So this v-day was mine...

We decided to keep it simple, since we're poor college students. But here's what we did:

Before he got home, I set up our living room with candles and a little dinner setting on our coffee table.

  

I got Geraldine's sandwiches, Sparkling Cider, Sun Chips, and a TWIX bar for my boo....all of his favorites.

I also got him a zip up hoodie and set it next to his sandwich :) 

After dinner we made a fort in our living room.

haven't made one in years and it was about time to bust out all our billions of blankets we got from our wedding and what not and put them to good use. 
{for some reason i remember them being a lot harder to build when i was younger}

 Then we set up a little bed and the laptop inside and we popped some KETTLE CORN and i let norm pick out what we were going to watch.

So of course: an episode of Chuck. :)

It was fabulous evening and we had a lot of fun together, like we always do. 

We had a bit of a struggle with the gift norman got me, but 2 days later...i did receive it.

and what was it you ask???:

a back massager! YAY!

Norm and i have always kinda joked about getting one cause i ask him for massages CONSTANTLY {i can't help it, he's so good at them} so i finally got one...i'll have to let you know how it works.

Now, i REALLY like February, because not only do i get to celebrate valentine's day with my favorite person in the whole entire world! BUT...4 days later...it's my birfday. :)

22 here i come!