Catch up.

Its been too long, I know.

Lately my days and nights have been consumed with one thing.

Work.

Yes, work.

I know, my days and nights should be consumed with baby thoughts and plans... but sadly there hasn't been a whole lot of extra room inside my crazy brain. Working 12 hour days has strangely taken over. Something about people needing their w-2's by the end of the month.

Whatever.

Anyways, I have now begun to go into panic mode. Our baby is due in 6 weeks and I still haven't got the necessities done.

Her room... a car seat... diapers...

Nothing.

I know, I'm horrible.

I keep reminding her that she needs to stay put for a while longer. No deciding to come early or anything. Sorry sweetie... you just can't.

My biggest baby dilemma, thus far...

Crib bedding.

Colors and patterns.

Make it or buy it.

Settle or splurge.

The whole situation has made a mess of me. Just ask Kurtis. I am sure he would love the chance to tell you about my emotional breakdown inside Chic-fil-a today.

Trust me, it wasn't pretty.

Anyway, I think I have finally (well, almost) come to a decision... buying the material I want, and paying somebody to make it for me. Brilliant, I know. Now if I can just find the time to make it to the fabric store and the brain capacity to actually make a decision. It may take a miracle, but hopefully I'll make it through.

I can't wait for my little bundle of joy to get here (on or after February 28th that is.) Time has gone by so fast. My pregnancy has flown by. I feel so lucky for how good it has been so far. I really can not complain about anything.

Okay I lied. My wedding ring no longer fits, my back is constantly aching and I don't sleep at night. I cry at the drop of a hat, can't breath and desperately have to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes (literally.)

But honestly, I feel blessed for how healthy I have been and for how smooth everything has gone thus far. I really do feel lucky.

I keep praying that my blessings and good luck will continue as I head into these last few weeks.

Good thing I'll be working from home full time from now on... mysteriously none of my shoes fit my fat feet anymore.

Weird.

trimmings.

I love that Christmas is right around the corner.

I love the smell of fresh pine and crisp air. I love the Christmas lights and decorations. I love the treats (mint m&m's) and the festivities. I love the family parties and getting together with friends. I love watching it snow and wrapping gifts. I love sipping hot chocolate and snuggling on the couch.

I love what Christmas truly means and doing all I can to remember.

Could there be a better time of year?

growing.

Remember this?

Well it turned into this...

And as of today, it looks like this.

Holy moley. Really? How does it get any bigger? Seriously?

hitched in vegas.

Meet Austin and Sarah, the newlyweds. These two love birds were married a few weekends back and we couldn't be happier for them. Kurtis and Austin are best buddies and have been since they served together on their missions. We are happy we got to go down to Vegas (where Sarah and Austin are both from) and celebrate with them.

A group of us went to dinner the night before the big day. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings - which happens to be Kurt's FAVORITE place. Austin and Sarah are on the right - Tanner and Andrea on the left with their cute little boy, Maddex. Tanner also served with Kurtis and Austin on their missions... can you imagine the reminiscing that takes place when these three boys get together?? Trust me, it can get pretty crazy.

The guys posing with the pre wedding gift Kurt and I gave. I will not be disclosing what that gift was, but I'm sure by looking at the smiles on these boys faces, one could take a pretty good guess.

The Bride and Groom with the three handsome Best Men.

Me giving Sarah a last minute touch up. A special thanks to the wedding photographer for taking such a great picture of the back of my head. These days, that's my best angle.

Kurt and I are so happy for Sarah and Austin. Their sealing at the Las Vegas temple was so neat, and we are so happy we got to be there.

Congratulations Sarah and Austin, we love you both.

Just a thought...

In-laws. Some people secretly hate them. Hate dealing with them and dread spending time with them. I feel lucky. I have great in-laws. No, I take that back, I have AMAZING in-laws. They do so much for us and I am sooo grateful for them.

That’s all.

thankful for...

the miracle growing inside my belly.
a husband that makes me laugh on a daily basis.
a job that is letting me work from home after I have the baby.
all my lifelong friends that I will never loose touch with.
my sweet mom, who slips me “shopping money” every once in a while.
the chance to live across the street from the Temple.
my sister being back in Utah.

just to name a few…

happy thanksgiving.

dream vacation.

I've been a complete slacker for not blogging about the cruise my sister and I went on back in September. Probably because the thought of uploading a million and one pictures seemed daunting... or maybe because remembering paradise was too hard -- wishing I was still there... either way, here it is... me and my sister's dream vacation.

On our way to the airport -- believe it or not we were actually excited for our red eye flight to Puerto Rico!

Our first stop was St. Thomas. After arriving we decided to explore the island a bit further and we ended up taking a ferry to another island call St. John. We were glad we did. We found ourselves on this amazing beach -- which come to find out was the beach Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger were married on... interesting, right?

My sister catching some proof to send back home to Kurtis. One of his strict instructions to me, before leaving, was to drink lots of water so me and the baby didn't get dehydrated. I obeyed.

Our dinner table. We were lucky. If you have ever been on a cruise you know that you share dinner tables with other people... well we ended up being by ourselves, which we loved. We laughed our heads off every night. Notice the wet spot in the middle of the table? That would be from me dropping my water all over my sister and her dinner, mid drink. I think I fell asleep... that was my "pregnant and can fall asleep at any given moment" phase. At least that's my story.

Oh, and this would be my "I'm pregnant and can indulge this cheesecake with no guilt" phase. And please try not to be jealous of my fashion forward black bracelet... aka... The Sea Band to help fight sea sickness. Worked like a charm.

Next stop... Dominica. This Island was different than all the others. No great beaches to write home about and a city so small and deserted it was almost creepy... but the snorkeling we found was amazing. With it being my sisters first time snorkeling (and her fear of water) we had an interesting time. Her flip flops breaking mid-hike to the ocean front (on sharp rocks) was interesting as well... fortunately we still had fun and saw some of the most amazing fish and coral.

This gives you an idea of what I spent a good majority of time doing... ahhh, it felt soooo good. Notice the bag of candy at my side... definitely on vacation.

Day three was Barbados. This was another Paradise Island (also the home town of Rhianna -- trust me, I didn't know that, my sister is the "pop culture" queen, not me.) Here we spent a day full of reading, sleeping, and sun bathing. Rough day, I know.

We found this palm tree that hung out over the water... it looked like a cut out from the Corona commercial, so we snuck in a photo op.

Here I am indulging... again... chocolate molten cake this time.

Day four was St. Lucia. Although complaining about being at the beach seems absurd, we did have some small mishaps here. Not only was the beach way too crowed with drunk people, but
crazy islanders pulling out all the stops to get us to buy their "handmade gifts" was quite the episode. I felt like we were in Mexico, but worse. Yes, WORSE! I was woken up from a deep sleep and asked to purchase an animal made out of fig leaves. Um... HELLO... I'M SLEEPING HERE! They obviously didn't care. $5 soda's, the cover charge to use the bathroom, a crazy man asking me to marry him, and a profanity stricken tourist (angry at the hagglers) was definitely not the relaxing day at the beach we expected. We did get some good laughs out of it though, so it wasn't a total loss.

Me and Sis posing in front of our dining room sign. Finding our way each night to the dining room was always an adventure... we got lost every single night!

Here we are in Antigua. We took a sail boat out for a day of snorkeling. It didn't last too long though. Being sting ray season I decided to stay on board. There were millions of them. Everywhere. The boat captain said -- oh don't worry, they will sting you, but it will only hurt for a minute. Um, no thanks. I probably would have gone, had I not been pregnant, but I didn't dare take the chance. So I watched instead.

We then docked at this amazing beach where I got to touch one of the sting rays -- this seemed a bit more safe than swimming around with them.

I also found this star fish - just hangin out on the ocean floor. How awesome is that?

Here we are under the picture perfect tiki hut... I could have spent all day here but our sail boat captain didn't cooperate too well with that idea.

And some random pic's to throw in as well....

Me having a "pregnant moment" or at least pretending to. I was pushing my belly out, trying to look pregnant all night... too bad these days I don't have to pretend anymore!

Formal night. We weren't the most formal there, but at least we made it there in dresses.

My cute sis and her dance moves. Inside joke.

Posing by the Casino -- that we didn't even utilize... seeing how we were both in bed by 9:00pm every night. Vacations will do that to you.

We had an AMAZING time. I have a feeling it will be one of my last "relaxing" vacations for quite some time. The only bad part to report on was missing Kurtis... which I did a lot of. Luckily he was there to pick us up from the airport, waiting with open arms for the biggest hug and kiss he has ever received.

Thanks a million more times to my great sister for treating me to this much needed vacay. It was truly 6 days and 7 nights of pure heaven.

beautiful.

This would be the view out our backyard.

Takes my breath away.

I love fall.

party at our house.

Homemade chili and rolls, orange and black treats, and a pumpkin carving contest... a Halloween party indeed.

The Host's:

The Attendee's:

*Eric and Laci had to leave early, so no pic of them.

The Fun:

The Ending Result:

And some more fun pic's that couldn't be forgotten:

Cute little London - loving Kurtis all night long.

Tai, Me, and Nicole cheesing it up for the camera. Don't be jealous of the old school Lucky hoodie I'm rockin' to keep warm.

Proud pumpkin carvers and a hooded crazy man in the back.

The grand prize winner, Joe, and his pumpkin princess pose. Makes me laugh every time.

And finally the end of the night came... Dang we must throw a good party -- we wiped them out before they could even make it home!

pumpkin picking.

Let the pumpkin pickin' begin.

Cute Joe and Tai.

Kurt and Joe being dirty... as if this is surprising.

Me and my 'oh so big' self.

And enough pumpkins to... well... just a whole lot of pumpkins.