What we have been up to

The nesting is in full swing. Well...maybe not "full", because I haven't yet had the urge to deep clean every inch of my house, but I am suddenly in panic mode where I have to finish all of my projects, even the ones that were only ideas in my head. I knew I would be ready to start on the nursery once we returned from Michigan, partly because I needed a pick-me-up, and also because it's officially 2012 and only 3 months until BABY. What I didn't know was how addicting painting can be, therefore, we went on to paint almost every other room in the house. Okay not really, but a couple, and for the most part I have finally finished decorating around here. It has been a very slow work in progress and since I didn't have Jillian that whole week after Christmas, it was devoted to all of my unfinished projects and rooms. I'm going to wait and post nursery pictures once that's a little more finished. It has been the most fun project of all.

This is the front room when you first walk in. I fell in love with this pillow for the bench Amber and Andy made me, and she had the idea to paint the wall to match. So we (Kyle) did. For those that don't know me, I'm super indecisive and super matchy-matchy. That makes for decorating a house more difficult than it should be. (And I'm pretty sure it drives Kyle nuts!) The wreath thing is made out of old book pages, it took only a couple hours to make. I'm still not sure about the picture frames on the shelf. I want to find a vase or something to add as well. DI has been on my agenda every Monday.

And THIS was my Christmas surprise. When we arrived home from Michigan it was sitting next to our tree. We'd been looking for a Boston temple picture ever since we got married 2 years ago and I eventually gave up. Kyle found a small version of this at Bed Bath and Beyond and had it special ordered. You can't tell in the picture, but it's REALLY big. I was soooo excited. Like everything else these days, it made me cry.

I've been searching for curtains for our sliding doors in our kitchen/dining area/living room, and have been waiting until I found some so I could get couch pillows to coordinate. Since it has been almost 4 months and still no curtains, I finally decided to pick my pillows first, and then get curtains to match. I ordered solid burgundy ones from JcPenney, only to find out weeks later they are on back order. Not cool.

Next was the wall. I didn't know what to do with the living room wall until I had the curtains and pillows down. I kept it pretty simple, but I'm still not sure I like it. Since I picked pillows with teal in them, I had to add teal to the wall. So, I painted the shelf. Are you getting the picture? I might be just a little bit crazy....

I have been talking about doing our bedroom in gray and yellow ever since we moved in, but it is last on my list of things to do. Then Kyle surprised me a couple weeks ago by asking if I wanted him to go ahead and paint it since we had all the stuff and were already on a roll. I drove to the paint store right away before he changed his mind, picked one of the first colors I found, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I didn't know my husband was such a painter, but he has done a really good job. Someday I will add some yellow to the walls, get a new comforter, and cute wall decor. But for now, I'm happy! (I was too lazy to clean my room before I took this picture, hence the corner shot. But you can see how nice it looks against the white doors :))

This last one was a pinterest project that I started when we first moved in, and didn't finish until I received towels for them as a Christmas gift.

25 weeks

This was taken over a week ago. I am 26 weeks today!

Monster Truck Show

Our nephew Peyton is obsessed with construction and monster trucks. Every time we're with him he is either playing with trucks, looking at books about them, or watching videos on You Tube. So for his 4th birthday Kyle had the idea to take him to the Monster Truck Show in Salt Lake last weekend. When he suggested the idea to Amber, she said her and Andy had thought of taking him also, so we decided to all go together. They brought their kids, and we brought our nephew Aiden as well. According to the price of tickets, and because we had heard it was supposed to be a really cool show, we had high expectations. We had fun, but unfortunately it was quite disappointing. One of the best parts was supposed to be motorcycle stunts, but the guy had gotten hurt really bad practicing the day before and ended up in the ICU (way sad) so that part was taken out completely. The rest of the show was extremely repetitive. Just monster trucks driving and jumping over old cars......over and over and over. Not to mention 3 of the 5 trucks broke down or had complications at some point during the show. What was supposed to be a 15 minute intermission turned into 40 for that reason.

The look on Stockton's face says it all.

Abby and I were more focused on feeling the baby kick. She had her hand on my belly the whole second half, hoping she would feel her, and I kept assuring her that when the truck went by us she probably would. She didn't. :(

On the way home we asked Aiden if he liked it. His response was, "Yeah.....but it was kinda boring."

Oh well. It was a good idea, right? And at least we got popcorn.

Christmas

I never finished posting about Michigan. It was great to spend so much time with family. They tried hard keeping Kyle busy, knowing he isn't used to having so much free time. He went hunting with my dad one day. (I won't tell about how Kyle missed a deer.) We went to a varsity basketball game with my dad. We also went to East Lansing one night and went to BWW's and the MSU basketball game with Steph, Mitch, and my dad. We definitely didn't have the best seats in the house, but it was fun!

One of the highlights, of course, was our baby shower. It was so great to see so many friends and family We celebrated Christmas with the Hinton clan the Sunday before Christmas so that everyone could be there. Since we flew back to Utah on Christmas day (due to much cheaper flights) and Steph had to work that day, we opened presents with my immediate family Christmas Eve morning, and then spent the afternoon and evening at my Grandma Vibber's, which has always been our tradition.

I can't bring myself to post the one and only picture I took with my parents because I look awful. But it's saved on my computer for when I may appreciate it in the future. :) I took the picture of Gracie pointing to herself when I asked her who loves Aunt Kiki. Precious. I was especially emotional this Christmas. It seemed like almost every gift opened brought tears to my eyes! Like the webcam for our parents from baby Haskell, the recordable book for baby Haskell from my parents (my parents took turns reading each page), the book "A Home for a Bunny" for Baby Haskell from my mom (my favorite growing up) and the porcelain doll for Skyler from my Grandma V (she used to get my sister and I those). I have been lucky to have been able to make it home several times this year, so it was especially sad for me to leave this time because we won't be coming back again until the summer. On a brighter note, my parents and sister are planning on coming here in April when the baby comes. Can't WAIT.

Other than making my brother-in-law wake up before the crack of dawn to shuttle us to the airport Christmas morning, the timing worked out well because we arrived back in Utah in time for Christmas brunch with the Haskell's. We spent the rest of the day and evening just chatting with family. It was perfect.