The moment you've all been waiting for!

THE UNVEILING OF THE NURSERY!

This is my sitting area. My sister made the baby this GORGEOUS quilt that I loved way too much to let the baby get yucky so I made it into wall art instead!

 This is the bedding my mamma and I made! I love how it turned out!  

We did a CUTE grey striping along the walls that you can't really see very well in the pictures. 

(it looks kinda brownish for some reason?)

This is a (REALLY rough cut) panoramic of what the room looks like.

Sorry I didn't spend much time on it but you get the picture :)

We had TONS of fun putting it together!

Thank you Ikea and Do-It-Yourself-Projects from D.I!

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BABY SHOWER!

I wanted to do an individual post for the nursery and the baby shower but I have WAY too much to blog about and with this baby on it's way any minute I want to get it all done.

My mom and all of her friends threw me the CUTEST baby shower up in SLC!

 lots of friends and family came and this baby got SPOILED!

Such a fun day! 

Thanks to all those who came and supported!

xo

Meg

2 Degrees down, 1 to go!

After 5 long years in Undergrad Brandon and I have FINALLY Graduated from 

Southern Utah University!

We graduated clear back in May but my dad took all the pictures and I just got them from him.

To start out here is the announcement I made for us

disclaimer: I'm 6 months pregnant in this pic so thats why I look a little chubbers lol

As the announcement says I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography and digital design.

I walked with Brandon at the main ceremony but the next morning we walked with both of our individual colleges as well. 

For those of you who have ever graduated, if you think YOU look stupid in a Graduation  Cap & Gown

Try being 8 months pregnant in one!
I LITERALLY looked like a blimp. 

I only put that top left pic up there so you all couldn't be like 

"oh stop! I'm sure you looked DARLING!?"

...nope...

there is the evidence. I looked like the hosting grounds for the Russian Circus

I kept my robe unzipped for as much of the day that I could. 

Brandon Graduated with TWO Bachelor Degrees!

 He received a BA in Biology/ Zoology 

&

BA in Business Management

WITH 

a Minor in Chemistry!

(what a man!)

I'm so proud of  him.

These are a few of my best Art Major friends

There is no WAY I could have made it through college with out Jacki (with me on the left)

She's a fellow photo major that I met our freshman year and ever since then we've made our schedules almost identical every semester. Life in college was a LOT harder when she wasn't around. 

We are SO glad to be done with school!

Brandon is currently applying to Medical School to go next August.

I have my own photography studio that I really enjoy but am currently on "maternity leave" from.

We decided to take a nice year off before Medical School to save up money and relax.

We are expecting our first baby yesterday (yes, yesterday) and can't wait to get her here!

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Okay so LOTS of you have been asking me so I'll just  blog it and hope that it at least gets to the 3 people who actually read this blog lol

Yesterday was my due date! 

It was originally June 24th but got bumped down to the 21st because she's pretty tall already

( I say "tall" and not "big" for a specific reason)

Well yesterday we went to the Dr.s office and I'm not even dilated to a 1 yet!

SHEESH!

She told me to come in Monday and we'll check it out again and see if i've made any progress. 

We might go ahead and strip my membranes to see if that will help the process start...

(can we PLEASE call that something besides "stripping your membranes"!? That sounds like some kind of torture method that was banned by the U.S after the gulf war!) 

If all that doesn't work then I have an appointment to get induced on the Wednesday the 29th 

hopefully she'll come long before that though. 

My ENTIRE family is coming to St. George today and staying at a condo for 10 days!

Since Nat and Joe only had a few days with us this summer and the baby coming we decided that this will be our family vacation this year.

We've got the week planned with Grease at The Tuachan Ampatheatre, Golfing, Boating, BBQ's, sitting by the pool and hopefully having a baby!

Lots of blog updates to come so stay posted!

37 weeks

Alrighty! This MAY BE my last update!

-My feet have finally started swelling! not huge but enough for my feet to overflow out of my shoes. 

gross

It usually happens during sacrament meeting (which for our ward comes last) so Brandon and I have fun making shapes and words in my ankles lol

-I have to COMPLETELY cut off my air supply if I need to bend my abdomen at ALL! 

(think about how often you bend during the day!) 

Adjusting pillows behind you

 getting in or out of the car

picking up anything

sitting on a chair

putting your shoes on

getting in bed

getting out of bed

going to the bathroom (a million times)

pet the dog

dishes

getting anything out of the oven

I can keep going!!

-The other night I laid of the floor with my feet on the sofa and stretched my back for a few minutes and my butt has been sore for the last 3 days because of it! I feel like I just did squats for a mile!

- People have always said "oh 9 months is THE WORST!" and at 8 months I was still feeling pretty good so I thought 9 months would be perfectly bearable too...

...nope...

It is like day-and-night difference from 8 to 9 months!

The other night I was sitting upright in bed with 4 pillows behind me

I had 3 pillows propping my swollen achy feet in the air 

the area fan sitting RIGHT by my hip 

and a huge frown on my face

ha ha ha ha

Brandon came in and asked

"whats wrong? what can I do to help you feel better?"

...poor guy...

my reply was something like this...

"NOTHING! my feet hurt because I've been standing too long, but if I sit down then they'll swell more and my back will just hurt worse! I can't LAY down because I get heart burn and I feel like i'm SUFFOCATING! I have a headache! I'm ALWAYS hot! I have NO SLEEP and I am TIRED of wearing the SAME 4 OUTFITS OVER AND OVER AND OVER!!!!!!" 

Needless to say I just needed some sleep ha ha ha

No worries though.

When I apologized to Brandon the next day for my snarky comment he made me feel better by reenacting my "episode" with a series of very loud dinosaur RAWS 
accompanied by a pair of very convincing philoser raptor claws up by his chest ha ha ha

- I've never been referred to as "about to pop" by so many strangers in my life?...

this old lady at the D.I told me yesterday that I better not get too far from the hospital!

-I have a gross "outy" belly button now!

bleh!

I'm not sure what it is with me but every time we move to a new place the first new friend I make is gay?

Yesterday I went outside with charley (wearing my exercise clothes) 

and my 2 new friends were out by the pool 

I walked up to say hi and they screamed

"OMG! YOUR LITTLE BELLY BUTTON IS STICKING OUT HOW CUTE!!!!"

ha ha ha thanks guys...

- I get tired and out of breath when I talk and eat at the same time!

Its quiet funny actually

- We've started to play this game where I'll stand my Chapstick up on my stomach and she'll feel it and kick it over. It's pretty fun.

- I love having a stomach table RIGHT by face! It makes eating cereal on the couch SO much easier!

-We went to the Dr. the other day

she's in the 98 percentile for size...

(thanks a lot 6 foot 3 husband)

I'm not dilated at all yet

and everything else looks good!

Probably won't have any problems during labor...

besides of course being IN labor...

- Still no name yet. BRANDON actually thought of a new name that we both LOVE so thats in the running now! I'm not going to tell you any names though sorry. 

I'm being stingy with the name telling.

I used to ALWAYS tell people our name ideas and people would tell me if they liked them or hated them!?

What the heck people!?

I thought the rule was you always say "OH WHAT A CUTE NAME!" no matter how ridiculous or stupid the name was!?

I guess not!?

I started doubting the names I loved because I'd have someone say they liked one but not the other!

So after having at least one person say they didn't like every name I had I felt like I was back at square one!

After telling Brandon that everyone hates our names he made me realize that It's OUR baby! 

We're gonna name her what WE like best.

we don't LIKE your kids names either but we don't tell you that?

ha ha ha

So name announcement will come at time of birth :)

thanks for your patience

and remember when we tell you what her name is your line is just: 

"oh what a cute name!" 

so it'll go like this..

Me: everyone, this is Usher Raymond Kardashian Valantine!

You: OH WHAT A CUTE NAME!!

Me: oh thank you so much! I'm SO GLAD you like it!"

see! so easy!

practice in front of the mirror so you can REALLY sell it when the time comes :)

Thanks everyone

xo

Meg

Beat The Heat

Charley and I have been OVERHEATING since we moved to St. George!

(being 9 months pregnant isn't helping either)

The last few days I've been hanging out in the yard getting some sun while charley digs holes in the shade and sits in them ha haha

(I had no idea dogs did that?)

and if we aren't outside we're inside sitting RIGHT in front of the fan!

We've about frozen Brandon to a solid every night with 2 fans and the air conditioning down to 65!

It's SO hot outside i've started putting ICE into charleys water dish when we come back inside!!

The other day we came inside and charley just flopped right in front of the fan for a few hours...

Can't WAIT for July!

May 7th

So I made this collage a few weeks ago with the intention of posting it on March 7th and when that day finally rolled around I completely forgot about it! 

So lets all humor me and pretend it's May 7th 2011 so I can do my post 

:)

2 years ago today I was in St. George Brandon.

He woke me up at 5 a.m and asked if i'd like to go on a date that started in 10 minutes.

semi-annoyed I said yes and crawled out of bed...

Brandon took me to a park where he surprised me with an item to check off my bucket list!

A hot air balloon ride!

(This was one item on my bucket list I honestly never thought I'd do)

At the time I was expecting a proposal because I hadn't picked out a ring yet...

I had one that I LOVED but it was a bit out of the budget so the search remained :(

Brandon kept asking me if i'd say "yes" if he proposed with a "ring from a cracker jack box"

and I always told him I would...

so thats exactly what he did! 

Once we were up in the air he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!

He held out a ring box and when he popped it open it was the most HIDEOUSLY fabulous Cracker Jack ring I've ever seen!

I loved it!

Since steering a hot air balloon isn't really possible so we landed in the middle of a neighborhood and instantly drew a crowd!

Brandons dad and sisters showed up and he got down on his knee again?

I said "what are you doing? we already did this remember?"

and he said "yeah but I figure you only propose once so you better do it right with the right ring"

then he popped open a 2nd ring box and inside was the ring I've been dying for! 

...He loves to tease and torment me...

2 years later, he still surprises me everyday with how much I can love him!

He might make me crazy sometimes 

(who's spouse doesn't?)

but he's perfect for me in every way and i'm so grateful to have him.

Love you B!

Kat-Kong

So Charley doesn't understand the difference between cats and dogs...

she LOVES to play with other dogs and therefor assumes cats feel the same way about the rough housing game...

The first time she saw a cat I let her run right up to it and get clawed on the nose so she'd learn that cats aren't friendly!
{good parenting skills i know}

Well, even after getting 4 razors sharp claws to the snout she is STILL convinced cats want to play!
 but that all changed when we moved to this new house...

There is this cat that is just as big

(if not bigger)

than charley is! 

I wish I could have gotten a pic of it standing up because seriously I thought it was a bobcat!

This cat sits in the road by our house and charley just stands completely frozen at the end of the yard, too scared to move in any direction and all she can manage to do is squeak out a little whine every once in a while.

ha ha ha 

It is so sad how BADLY Charley wants to befriend this cat and so funny how scared she is of moving toward it!

I'm glad she's a wuse about it though otherwise i'd be planning a dog funeral

Sneak Peak...

We got the crib all set up

the walls painted

and the crib liner, curtains and blankets sewed!

Now for the wall art and finishing touches and our nursery is ready for its big debut!!