Elder Ryan Anderson

RYAN HAS RETURNED TO THE MISSION FIELD!

 We took Ryan to the MTC yesterday morning to return to the Cambodia mission

which means i'm back in charge of his missionary blog!

So here is the grand reopening!! (click the pic)

Ryan can use all the love and support he can get from friends and family right now. 

(any of you who have had missionaries out know this) 

I know that support from his family and friends will help him through any trials he will face on his mission and I hope by keeping up with this blog it'll make it easier for you all to get letters or thoughts to him.

Thanks for your prayers and support and be sure to add Ryans blog to your blog list!

Diaper Bags...

WHO KNEW THERE WERE SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!?!

I've had a few of my girlfriends give me the advice- 

"DON'T wait to start looking for a diaper bag! you'll be surprised at how long you'll take to pick one!'

Do I get one thats more like a purse?

Should I just get a big purse and call it good?

Do I get one with a shoulder sling?

Will I like the laminated kind in St. George or will it get hot and sticky?

Do I get fun colors because I LOVE fun colors or do I get one that will go with everything?

should I get a neutral gender one or will it even last me till my next baby?

SO MANY FACTORS!!

and these suckers are EXPENSIVE!

Unless they have Whinnie the Pooh or Tinkerbell on them they are WELL over $40!

I need some diaper bag advice from anybody who has some to give...

WHAT DO I GET?!

p.s isn't that black and red one in the middle ADORABLE!!? No worries that one is only $120.00...

...*sigh*...

Spring Break

 Last thursday I was sitting at home waiting for Brandon to come home and I was thinking about what I was gonna do for the next 3 days 

(Fri, Sat, Sun) 

I don't have class Friday so my weekends start Thursday afternoon 

(I only have one class on thursdays too)

 as I was sitting there I was missing my mom so I text her and said 

"mom I miss you :(" 

To which she replied 

"COME UP I NEED SOME GIRL TIME!!" 

So 2 hours later I was on the road! 

My mom and I had a BLAST! 

We spent the ENTIRE weekend on the babies nursery! We hit tons of sales and got everything at discount or with serious mark downs! We bought enough fabric for the crib liner, sheets, 2 baby blankets, pillows, a baby sling, and  the car seat cover for 30% off! Our little fabric store was having a huge sale so we went the night before and picked out all the bolts we wanted then we went and waited in line at 9:30 in the morning. 

We had to run old ladies out of the way but we got all the fabric we needed! ;)

While I was up there I took Ryans new mission pictures and threw in some of Jared too.

I kept telling the boys "sit down"

"stand up"

"squat"

"no like a half squat"

"sit on that rail" 

so they started making fun of me by saying they needed to start out with some light stretching ha ha ha

I love those boys so much. They are such a fun pair! I'm gonna miss Ryjoo when he leaves again.

I came home from SLC Monday morning just in time to kick off SPRING BREAK! I picked up Brandon in Cedar, stopped in St. George and jumped in with his family and headed to 

VEGAS!

We went shopping Tuesday morning. I finally caved and bought baby clothes :) I didn't want to start buying baby clothes till the last POSSIBLE moment because I knew buying ONE thing would start an avalanche and i'd never be able to stop. 

Here are the goods :) i LOOOOVE that teal one!

After shopping we got cleaned up and went to

PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!!

My FIRST Vegas show and it was amazing! I loved it! I had been dreaming in and singing Phantom songs for the entire previous week so I could barely wait to go!

The next day was our pool day. It was windy and a little overcast but warm weather was appreciated on ANY level. 

We spent that night in the old part of vegas (honestly I can't remember the name of it right now lol) We kinda just wandered around for a while and then went back to the Condo for some Ice Cream.

Wednesday we went back to St. George for Danis Softball Tournament

When we got back to St. George  Brandon & I had a wedding gift waiting for us in the mail! 

(yes we've been married for over a year and a half)

SWEET!

So we opened it and it was a $50 gift card to Bed Bath and Beyond!! Needless to say we headed to BB&B and bought us some "must haves"

..... okay...

 maybe not MUST haves...
We've been needing some closet organization help so we started there.

My shoes are so abused! I love LOVE shoes and I have tons but they all sit in a 2 foot deep pile on my floor and get bruised and dented and beaten up so Brandon and I got me this GLORIOUS shoe rack!!

I am in love.

After I got it up I just stood there and smiled at it for 15 minutes ha ha ha

anyways- that was our spring break! We had a blast and I loved having so much time with my husband but now it's back to school. 

We woke up to a blizzard this morning just to help with the transition back to real life.
Thanks Cedar...

24 Weeks

By request of my sister I'm going to try to be better at putting up preggo photos because I know those are everyones favorite :) 

so here is my 24 week photo!

and an update for you all who always ask

- I can still fit in a FEW pairs of my jeans! Skinny jeans are out of the questions but the jeans that I used to hate because they'd stretch out and start falling off me by noon I am LOVING! Maternity jeans are comfy but their "extra longs" are for 5'8" women and therefore are ALL floods on me. 

- My back pain is still off the charts but MUCH better since I got that heavenly pillow :) It's weird because my back pain is by FAR the worst after I eat? I snack all day long on little things like oranges and teddy grahams but after I eat a real meal you can't get me off the floor!

- Still not sick (yahoo!)

- I've started to smack my stomach on walls and stuff

... (sorry baby)....

 I turn corners too sharp or I accidentally knock Brandon over because i'm not used to being so wide!! 

- All of my shirts now have stains on them now because if I spill or drop anything it
-WILL-
 land on my shirt no matter what measures I take to get out of its way before impact. 

- I am always out of breath!
I'll get to class and people are like 

"hey there preggers are ya out of breath?!" 

and i'll say something like 

"oh ha ha yeah I just walked all the way from the parking lot...
 but I did lundges the whole way so...
just trying to stay trim....
you know?...."

- We're putting this kid on the track team as SOON as she gets here! She WILL NOT STOP MOVING!!! My doctor said that from now on I need to make sure that she moves 10 times in 1 hour at least once a day... I can count 10 kicks in less than 3 minutes at ANY given time of the day!! The worst is when i'm just sitting thinking and she kicks me RIGHT in the bladder! It goes something like this...

"okay so, today I need to run to wal-mart, and the post office and... OMG I HAVE TO PEE!" 

and then there is the surprised jump / "urpy" noise that comes out of my mouth along with it thats REALLY a crowd pleaser....

- I'm now a friend magnet to all the 40+ year old women who got bored with their husbands and came back to college... They think we have something in common now that I "have kids" and all they do is give me the 

"oh just you wait" talks

... yikes... 

-Brandon and I have officially given up on baby names and have decided to name her 

Usher Raymond Kardashian Valantine :)

Butter...

So Brandons family NEVER puts the butter in the fridge. At first I thought it was weird because in my family butter belongs where it's cold but they leave it out by the toaster so that it's always soft for bread and toast. Now there are 2 things I've been trying to train Brandon to do since we got married....

1- don't put ANY food in the sink when you put your dishes in there and

2- put the FLIPPIN' butter back in the fridge!!!

Last semester I watched a movie in my health class about food born illnesses that scared me SO BAD I never wanted to go into my kitchen again!!! Now i've long since given up on enforcing those 2 rules because "old habits die hard" but now that I'm pregnant and still having nightmares about food born illnesses I'm trying a new approach to the butter by the sink problem...

now every time he takes the lid off the butter and leaves it open by the dirty sink he can just know that he's passing more and more food born illnesses on to me and the baby every second that it sits there :)

 ha ha ha

we'll see how it goes...

Spring Specials

Hey everyone! since life as a portrait photographer is rather slow during winters gross transition to spring i'm offering a special on spring Mommy & Me sessions! I read an article in a photo magazine about how moms LOVE these sessions and I while reading it I thought "wow, I feel like i'm never in photos and I don't even HAVE kids yet!!" I'm never documented on any trips or vacations because i'm BEHIND the camera! I'm jealous of all those dads that have a million cute photos with they're kids because YOUR the one taking all the pictures with the camera your husband can't figure out! Well I'm here to help!
Book a fun spring session with me and your kiddos! Spring gets filled up with Senior Photos and weddings really quickly so hurry and grab a slot!
thanks guys!