O The Tree...

It just wouldn't be right during this Christmas season if I didn't do a post dedicated to our tree, Sho'ty. We picked that name because, as you can see, he is as tall as me! Not saying that I'm short by any means, because I'm not, but in Christmas tree world, I'm pretty sure that 5'8" is considered short. We always go for the Charlie Brown-ish trees. They seem more endearing. So here he is naked...woowoo!

"We are the same height...that is neat!" (shout out to my T)

...And here he is clothed in his ghetto fabulousness! Gotta love the tinsel star.

Here are a few of our favorite ornaments...I heart my sock monkey

We will own a real one of these some day. We will name him Nibbles.

Drum set (for Trey obviously)

And this little beauty is our ornament for Christmas '08. We like to get a new ornament every year and write the year on it. We found this at Somebody's Attic (local thrift store) for $.25! It was worth every penny! It's totally homemade and a perfect addition to our collection of random ornaments.

And here is Trey playing his brother's Wii that we are tending for awhile. Don't mind our messy house. :)

Waiting...

Yep, here we are, it is December and we are waiting to hear back from med schools. It kind of feels like deja vu :). Back in October, Trey interviewed at the U of Iowa. He also interviewed there last year. He felt really good about it this year. It's a great school, we love the town, and my bro and his fam live out there (huge factor for me, I would LOVE to live by them). The interviewer told Trey they would let him know if he was accepted between then and January and if he didn't hear back from them by then, that means he has been moved into a different pool of applicants and won't hear back until March. Ugh! I wish they could just tell us so we're not waiting for so long. I know I know, I just need to be more patient. It's kind of a weird feeling not knowing where you're going to be 8 months from now, especially now with a baby on the way. I like to know these things so I can start planning, ya know?
Trey also recently interviewed at the University of Vermont. He loved the way they have their curriculum set up and I'm pretty sure he fell in love with the town of Burlington. I wanted to find out what was so dang cool about the place and here are a few things I found out about it...

• Healthiest City in the USA - The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that Burlington, Vermont, ranks highest in exercise and lowest in indicators of ill health...that's pretty cool right?
• Burlington’s famed pedestrian mall has won a national award! The Church Street Marketplace, located in the heart of downtown Burlington and a unique blend of shops, boutiques, restaurants, and performers, has been named one of the 10 Greatest Places in America by the American Planning Association.

This is Church Street. Quite charming.

• The City of Burlington and the surrounding areas have generated international publicity as one of America's most desirable places to live and visit.
• The Burlington, Vermont region offers outdoor activities from lake-based kayaking, fishing and sailing to mountain-based hiking, cycling and skiing- and everything in between.

And it's only an hour away from the Canadian border! Good old Canada...we'll have to renew our passports! Anyway, it sounds like a nice place to live, far away, but nice. It definitely is outdoor friendly so I'm sure there is a plethora of tree-huggers up there, which is nothing different from Logan. It would make me feel right at home actually. They told Trey they would let him know if he is accepted in January. Thank you for being specific U of V, on behalf of anxious wives everywhere! None of this "wait until March if you don't hear from us in January" nonsense... :) Trey has one more interview set up for the middle of January, the University of Toledo, which is in Ohio. I'll have to read up on this school and town because I've never heard anything about them. We'll let you know how it goes and if we receive good news back from U of I or U of V in the near future. In the meantime, we'll continue to play the waiting game...gotta love it.

Whoa Nelly

So I haven't posted in a while and I feel a bit guilty. I've had ample time to do so, but have been getting into a few books and Zelda on the Wii. Anyway, in our attempt to really embrace the reason for the season Michelle and I joined our friends the Stokes, Morbys, Edvarchuks, Granges, and Brincks for a lovely evening with the First Presidency. Kim E was able to score a several tickets to the Christmas Devotional and we were lucky enough to be available. It was honestly amazing. It gets me so excited for service and looking for someone I can help out. The messages were uplifting and--as always--comical. Afterwards, we, the Morbys, Edvarchuks, and Brincks strolled around temple square to check out the lightage.

Here is a shot of the temple...such a beaute

meesh and I having a fun sexy time in front of the aptly dubbed flaming bush. The lights were an awesome orangish red, but the flash kinda drowned it out.

The pond in front of the temple. This pic turned out amazing, but it is better at a larger res.

A lovely candid of the Brincks. Cory may get mad at me for this, but I will let you in on a funny thing he said while standing in awe of the temple. He thought the pyramids below the spires (refer to above pic of temple) were curtains. He just barely realized Sunday night that they were stone. True story...he's still my hero.

Callie Morby giving Zach the business.

The Edvarchuks, Brincks, and mi esposa

Group photo...thanks to the stone ledge for supporting my camera to allow a 1 second exposure.

It was a fun night of spiritual messages, friendship, and cookies (thanks Kim). We finished the evening by driving home to the sound of Brian Regan...those who recognize the name need no explanation. Happy Holidays and rock steady.

Our little peanut...

I think most of you guessed it, we're going to have a baby! Here is the basic info...

Due date: May 25th

Weeks along: 15

Boy or girl: We'll find out on Jan. 6th (my birthday!)

Here is a picture of our little fetus...this ultrasound was done at 10 weeks so it's hard to make out anything. It just looks like a little peanut. It was so fun when we got the ultrasound. At first the little thing was just chillin' in my womb and my doctor wanted to get it to move a little bit for us so she pushed on it a little and it started wiggling like crazy and the hand waved at us! Peanut totally knew it was on camera!

Something I thought was interesting about my first dr. appt.: The goo they put on your tummy when they do an ultrasound is hot, not cold! I was pleasantly surprised! Also, I think they are smart to not send parents home with a detailed picture at only 10 weeks because it might freak them out! They are still alien baby-looking at that point so I am very grateful for the blurry blob picture where you can make out the basic parts.

Now it's about the size of an apple(4 inches long)...it's funny how in my pregnancy book they keep comparing the size of the baby every week to fruit. Since we don't know the sex, we've been calling the baby the fruit that it is the size of that week. It started off as Blueberry, then went to Raspberry, Kumquat, etc. This week it is Apple.

I'm happy that I'm now in my 2nd tri. The first was a little rough, not too bad though. I'm glad to be past the barfing/nausea stuff, although it does flare up every now and then. And can I tell you another thing I'm happy about...no more secrets!!! I can't tell you how hard it was to keep this a secret, especially the past few weeks because my baby bump has become more visible! And it's just such exciting news! We told my family 3 weeks ago and just told Trey's family on Thanksgiving.

We told my fam by showing them this...

...yeah it's a pregnancy test cake, one of my fun cake creations.

We told Trey's fam by giving his dad an ultrasound picture (shown above) in his birthday card (his birthday was on Thanksgiving this year). We thought another grandchild was a pretty good birthday surprise.

It's been fun telling people, everyone's reactions have been great! Almost all of the sister-in-laws guessed that I was pregnant before we told them, they must have a crazy 6th sense or something. This will be grandchild #5 on Trey's family's side and grandchild #20 on my family's side. Crazy!!!

Puzzled?

I have a little puzzle for you...let's see if you get it...

+

+

=

????

Deep thoughts...by Meesh

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed how bananas have a 1-day window of being absolutely delicious but then after that time period has passed they just taste blah? It's funny how different they can taste if you're just a day off. I was just thinking about this phenomenon as I was nibbling on my banana this morning.

I tend to go for the green bananas at the store so they have a few days to ripen up. I actually prefer my bananas slightly green when I eat them. There really is an art behind finding a banana in it's near-perfect state. It can't be in it's perfect state at the exact moment you find it, unless you plan on eating it right then. You've got to look at it and ask, "What will you look like tomorrow?" And then you have the problem of them being in bunches! All of the bananas in the bunch are at the same stage of ripeness so they are all in the "delicious" state on the same day! That simply does not work! I don't think any of us eat all our bananas in one day, unless you are a crazy half-monkey person who can't get enough of them. I've tried the method of picking the best bananas from the bunches but I usually get some dirty looks from the old ladies around me. I guess that qualifies as bad grocery store etiquette. Who knew!
A whole post devoted just to bananas, I bet that doesn't happen too often. It makes me think of this really strange music video my friend Mel showed me. I don't know if it's real or not, you be the judge. The title is "My Hands Are Bananas". Talk about random! It's totally ridiculous but you have to watch the whole thing. Parts of this song still randomly pop up in my head.

Thanksgiving laughs...

I received this little goodie in an email today, it made me giggle...