The Wrights

No baby...yet!

2012-02-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

Our due date has come and gone! I had actually predicted to Dustin that I would have the baby February 2nd so it could still happen, the day is young, but until she decides to make her debut I am going to get some stuff done I think! I woke up with some energy which is hopefully nesting for me, but I am not going to get my hopes up! Luckily I did some of the heavy cleaning a few weeks ago but there are definitely a few things that still need to get done.

So... Today's plan...

Do all the laundry- including bedding
Organize each room- namely the bedrooms, the other rooms are fine
Clean out the fridge- I think there are a few things that need throwing away in there
Meeting with the nutritionist today and coming up with some meal ideas that are quick and easy for when the baby's here
Tidy up the van and maybe install the carseat.
Do a quick deep clean of the bathrooms
Bathe Melody
Mop the kitchen

Alright, so that is the plan! I haven't been super motivated to clean this week, as I haven't been sleeping very well, but today is a different story. I am super crossing my fingers for a baby sometime this weekend. We are eating away into my maternity leave and the thought of less than 4 weeks with Baby B is terrifying right now. Plus on Monday I have an appointment where they test her fluid levels, non-stress test, and ultrasound and I really don't want there to be any cause to worry- so baby girl, if you want to come out before I will give you a treat or something :)

I had packed some preemie clothes in the hospital bag for Miss B but now that we are full term and moving forward I am thinking they may or may not fit her. I will leave them just in case though, maybe just take a few more newborn sizes.

I CAN'T WAIT!! And I am not very good at being patient but I am trying!! :)

Baby #2 to be here soon!

2012-01-25T13:30:00.000-08:00

>>Warning: text heavy with no pictures- I will post some soon promise :)<<

So I thought it would be a good time to write an update on our lives. Melody is down for a nap right now and in my nesting fury I've gotten the majority of everything done and really just awaiting Brooklyn's arrival now.

It has been crazy crazy in the Wright home. Christmas and Thanksgiving were low key, spent with family. This was a blessing, since the end of December brought us news that our baby girl Melody is hard of hearing. Hearing tests revealed moderate hearing loss, and a lot of built of fluid. Our first plan of action was to remove the fluid via placing ear tubes for her and also remove her adenoids. So in January we had that surgery completed and it was rough for poor baby girl. She was traumatized for a couple of days and didn't seem to understand who to trust. She fought off the nurses and doctor who put her under for the surgery and kicked one square in the face :-O. But it has been a week and a half since the surgery and I am finally beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel- she is sleeping better now and seems to generally be FEELING better which is so important. I have noticed an immediate change in her balance and gradual changes in her hearing. She has been a bit more vocal in the last week, but we will not test her hearing again for another couple of weeks. Today she was upset that I was teasing her and I told her "Say no mama!" and she surprised me by saying, "No mama!" :) I don't know if it was a coincidence as it sometimes is for her but it got me to chuckle quite a bit.

As far as little Miss Brooklyn, my pregnancy has been worlds different from my pregnancy with Melody. With Melody I gained no weight and with this one...yeah. Granted I had no appetite with Melody and with this one I gain 5 lbs looking at pinterest but that's another story. I have had many contractions with this one, but as my cervix of steel has been quite apparent I have not gone into labor quite yet. At 32 weeks this baby measured around 4 lbs, which is about what Melody weighed at her birth at 37 weeks. In my last trimester I have measured ahead so we are expecting a larger child this time, though who can say for sure? I have been much more uncomfortable and generally looking and feeling like a big ox. I am certainly grateful though that this baby is low risk unlike Melody. I have only been to L&D once with this one, thinking maybe my water was leaking. (Nope. No more story there. Haha..)

Also with Melody we had plans for me to be a stay at home mom when she was born. Financially that didn't work out and so when Mel was 10 weeks old I started my current job (part time) and have been there since. I get 6 weeks of maternity leave and so I had to decide if I would work up until or start at a certain time. I really weighed this out in my mind because I knew if I were to go overdue or anything and take time off earlier it would cut in to the time I had with my little Brooklyn, but in light of the surgery and all that which has recently happened I decided I would start my leave at 39 weeks and have a little break before having 2 little girls- the oldest is still very much a baby in many ways. As I am ending my first week of leave I wonder if I made the right choice but I just have to be confident that everything will be okay. Whether or not I have the baby before her due date, my contractions are always at night around 5 pmish and that's when I would be at work so for that reason I am glad I decided to wait.

(*Warning: next paragraph talks about birth, skip if you don't want to hear details)

My hope for this birth is to have a very different experience from my experience with Melody. I don't have regrets because Melody is healthy and was fine at birth but I felt like I missed out on the kind of birth I wanted to experience. With Melody I was induced early for IUGR (looking back, I am not sure this was the best choice but I won't go into that) at 37 weeks. With this one, I told the dr straight up, "No pitocin for me this time!! I don't want to be induced. I am okay if I go over...by the way, how many weeks will you let me go over before you have to induce me?" (Answer: 42, most women don't make it that far though). I honestly hated my pitocin induction. I knew going in to the whole thing that my body wasn't ready, so even though the blessed staff at St. Lukes let me try Cervadil and walking, nothing but pitocin was going to do the trick for me and even with pitocin my body fought and fought (highest drip for 19 hours) it took 15 hours for me to even move past a 1 and that was possibly because they knocked me out with my epidural. I had secretly been hoping to go without the epidural and the odds were stacked against me last time. Like I said, I don't regret my choice. In honesty the epidural probably allowed me to have a vaginal birth last time. I don't know if I would have progressed without being able to completely let go of the tension I had at the time without it. However I vowed that if I were low risk this time, I would not get induced. So here I wait at 39 weeks for little Brooklyn to arrive. Each day I am anxiously awaiting some signs but I really have no idea to what to look for either. I think I will know though when it happens :)

Dustin and I will be starting a blog as soon as this baby is born related to our combined journey to lose weight this year! Let's just say we have a great support team this time and some professionals to help and I am VERY excited to let you all in on our journey!! :) We are making it a number one priority for our lives and though we are making some sacrifices I know it will be worth it!

More to come soon...hopefully the birth story of Brooklyn Sandra Wright!!

Dad Posting

2011-10-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

So I thought that is was about time I (Dustin) did a post on this blog. It has been a while since I had even checked it myself, and come to find out Lyndsey has been posting. I was happy to find that out, but at the same time saddened that we haven't done more posts this year.

We have had an exciting year this year. At the beginning of 2011 I decided to take on a second job to help supplement our income a little. This was only a temporary thing as we needed to pay off some things so we could feel more financially comfortable. I had only planned on taking a part time job so as not to overload myself, but turns out thejob I got required around 68 hrs a week on average. That was in addition to the normal 40 hours I was working with my normal job. : ( My schedule was Monday Tuesday and Wednesday I would work Summit (My normal job) from 5:30am-2:30pm. Then on Wednesday night at 5pm I would go to work at my second job (Working with adults with developmental disabilities) from 5:00pm-9:00am the next morning. Then I would go straight from work to my Summit job and work from 9:15am-4:50pm and head straight back to my other job to work 5pm-9am. This continued on into the weekend and I would then work the weekend until Sunday morning when I could go home @ 9am. As you can probably imagine this limited my time away from my Family and caused stress.

I would usually get to spend Sunday day with my Family then start work again Monday morning. I only had Monday night and Tuesday night to spend the evenings with them and accomplish what we needed to before having to work again on Wednesday and not see my Family again until Sunday morning. whew!!!

October of this year came around and Lyndsey and I decided that it was a good time to drop the second job and be able to spend more time with the Family. We were able to pay off what we needed to and felt comfortable with our decision to go back to our ordinary lives! : ) October 20th is my last day at job #2 and we couldn't be any more excited than we are. It was a very large sacrifice that we had to make, but it was worth it to us in the end. I am so thankful for such a wonderful wife who worked so hard during these past 9 months (while working a part time job I might add) to make sure that our little Melody was cared for and healthy during my time away. I know that it was hard for her to feel like a single mother, but she did an amazing job and I am so grateful to her for that.

Fall is Lyndsey and I's favorite time of year and we have been enjoying the cooler weather and beautiful changing colors that occur during these months. Melody has her costume all picked out for Halloween and Lyndsey and I have yet to decide. Dressing up for Halloween is something that we both also love. There have been many Halloweens that we have spent over a $100 just on our costumes. : ) This year we vowed to make our dressing up a little less costly, but just as much fun.

We are planning a little trip come this November to visit my sister Kassie and her Family in Idaho Falls and then drive down to Utah to visit my sister Jenny and her family. While we are in Utah we plan to get new Family pictures taken from the same Family friend Whitney Robertson that we did last year. She was so much fun to work with and she does such a nice job we thought it would be worth taking a trip to visit my sister and get pictures done by her again. We are excited for this little trip as it will be our first Family vacation this year. I am going to post just a couple pictures...they do not represent anything in particular, they are just going to be some fun pictures to look at. Thanks to all those who follow our blogs, we love and appreciate you.

ANNOUNCING...

2011-08-23T19:05:00.000-07:00

So I am not even sure if we announced we are pregnant on here, lol! The time has gone by so quickly. We are definitely pregnant though, and we are having another little girl!!!!!!!

I found out I was pregnant early this time, as I had this gut feeling. We bought dollar store tests but we were way before the missed period so we didn't expect much. I tested early anyway because I get really anxious and impatient! I saw a very faint line but wasn't sure if it was legit so we went out and purchased First Response and later that evening after our little Melody was asleep took the test. Dustin was out in the backyard talking to the neighbor (which I didn't know) when the line came up and ran out screaming, "You're going to be a daddy again!!!" It was a little awkward haha but Dustin ran promptly in and inspected and sure enough we celebrated! We told family and friends right away. We took Melody to a family BBQ which a 'Big Sister' shirt and the rest we told over the phone!! :-D

This pregnancy has been MUCH different than Melody's. From the getgo I was so very tired. I wasn't used to that as I usually have enough energy throughout the day, but I was just pooped!! When Melody would wake up in the mornings, we'd eat bananas and saltines in bed and watch cartoons until I could get up and function. I was sick until around 15 weeks this time but I managed to do all but a week without my beloved Zolfran. I tried, but in the end it got to me! Luckily I only needed it a week! Unlike Melody on most days it wasn't all day sickness but when it came on it came on stronger and I did a lot more forceful puking. (And simultaneous peeing- tmi but this is reality people).

Melody was small and had a 2 vessel cord. This baby shares neither trait. I have also felt movement this time much earlier, beginning at 16 weeks and let me tell you, she is a mover!! :) We decided to cheat and go to Fetal Fotos to find out the gender.

But I have felt for a while that this baby was a girl. I was once again resolved to believe that with 13 nephews, Melody being a girl was a fluke and for sure this one would be a boy! But we had to have 2 ultrasounds, one at 11 weeks and then an NT scan and ultrasound at 12. Well at 11 weeks it appeared that there was a little something there but by 12 weeks it had vanished. It was at that appointment that I became convinced it was a girl :) Dustin knew deep down too I think but he played the devil's advocate and guessed boy!

I have to say that Melody having the chance to have a sister is such a blessing for me. I was really hoping I could at least have one more girl, as my sister was very important to me growing up and i loved having a little sister. I was definitely thrilled when we had our ultrasound today and our little lady showed the goods!

I have been saying I was done at 2 but I think we might give it one more go. It's hard to imagine this being our last now!

I feel like this pregnancy is so surreal sometimes but it is all setting in now! I am going to be a mom to 2 beautiful little girls who no doubt will probably be polar opposites- but I am so happy! So happy to be the mother of the bride twice, to get 2 girls ready for prom, to see my girls doing each other's hair and playing dress up together, and dressing them in matching Sunday dresses! Haha :) I can't wait to pretend this one has hair like I did with Melody and completely go all out on the bows again! Yes, double trouble :)

We are so thrilled to be parents again and feel so blessed. We love our daughters so much and can't wait to meet our little sweetie!!

-Dustin, Lyndsey, Melody, and little girl #2 :)

Update- sorry it's been such a long while!

2011-04-19T19:31:00.001-07:00

Alright, so I figured I needed to do some updates so here we go. No pictures this time, but I promise I will get them going soon.

First off, Dustin recently took on a second full-time job and has been gone more often then not, but he is such a strong and wonderful man to take care of our family the way he does and we are so proud. He works with adults who have disabilities, and cares for them in their homes allowing them to have independent lives. He works so well with them and I couldn't be more proud. It has taken some sacrifices but we are just grateful for the blessings it has provided.

I am still working at Wings and have been here for a year now and am loving it!! Next year, Melody will be able to come with me to work and enjoy the benefits of socializing and also getting an hour of play at Planet Kid a day! It's an amazing job and I am super lucky.

Speaking of Melody, she has now started to walk and we are so excited to see her take off! She is in developmental therapy and is thriving. She says the following words now:

Mama

Dada

Ace (Nana and Papa's dog)

This

That

Hat

Yay

Hi Dad

Ouch

Baba

That is pretty awesome considering that just a month and a half ago she was not saying a single word- pretty cool!

She smacks her lips when she wants something- anything- and loves to clap at anyone willing to say 'Yay!' She is an amazing sleeper and clocks in 11-12 hours a night plus a 2-3 hour nap. In a few short months she got a full set of teeth and has enjoyed testing the new set on mom and dad (never been out of anger- she thinks it's funny but still bad) and twice it's happened when another child stuck their finger in her mouth. (Yikes!) She is in nursery now and loving it. She does really well considering she is a bit behind the other kids, and gets along really well with the only other girl in her class, a 22 month old little girl. Her hair is coming in now, and I am having to regularly trim the back until it all grows in fully (I don't want it to grow in to a mullet) and the top I'm able to put in to pigtails and other cute styles.

I got a calling in church as the librarian and I am actually pretty excited about it. It came in the nick of time since Melody can go to nursery now!

We are doing super well and are happy and overall healthy. If you are reading this, I appreciate you still checking our blog :)

Smiles,

Lynds

Randomness :)

2011-01-26T19:30:00.001-08:00

These are some random pics of Melody, without a real reason for some, just a few cute ones :) Have a great day! Most are her playing at Planet Kid where I work :)

I have to explain the one above. Melody has gotten her top teeth in (as Dustin lovingly calls them, rat teeth) and has been chewing on the furniture like some type of animal...HAHAHA :)

She loves to sneak in to the office and try and play the child sized acoustic guitar :)

Chocolate Costco muffin :)

She started cruising the furniture!! :)

No Hair, No Cares

2010-12-29T11:02:00.001-08:00

So I have been wanting to do this for a while but I decided it was high time to do a bit of a hair blog. I work at a day care and one of my major pet peeves is to see little girls whose moms are fixed up to the T and their daughters come in looking like they havent had a bath or a comb through in days. This to me is sad. My mom always did my hair when I was little and though sometimes I fought her I was always happy to look 'cute' and she made it so that we enjoyed having our hair done. So when I found out I was having a girl, I vowed then and there to make sure she always looked girly and as though her mom took care of her. I don't really buy it when people say they can't do their kids hair for this reason or that. You can at least comb it out or curl it, you don't have to put it in a ponytail if they won't keep it in. Sure we all have our days where we don't have much time but I've made it a goal to always make the time, because I think it's important.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post some things I have done with Melody's notoriously thin, barely there blonde baby hair to show you that it can be done!

The Karo Bow

When Melody was born she had a surprising (well to me, I was bald at birth) amount of baby fine white hair. It was literally platinum blonde. It was so cute but as a newborn you dont want to try anything, that would be a sin. Plus it all fell out in her first month of life. So for a long time we did the 'Karo bow'. It's simple. Get some ribbon, make a bow the size you like, and secure it on the head (middle, either side, near the front) with a dab of Karo syrup. We had a very small tupperware which we used and also a q-tip to apply. You don't want too much. Luckily this stuff is water-soluable so when you want it removed you just wash it out. It doesn't take much water.

Variations:

Karo bow with a fawk.

This works perfect for babies with a little peach fuzz on top. Same as Karo but use styling gel or even water and gently bring the centers together.

Karo with side slick

Same as karo bow, but this time put the bow to one side of the head and with gel, slick all the hair on the top of the head toward the side of the bow. Looks really cute and put together.

HEADBANDS

To me headbands are also another cute way to girlify your baby. The tricky part is if they can pull it off, which becomes a safety issue. At that point, just stick to the karo bow.
There are several types of headbands we used..

Pantyhose headbands- these are made of a pantyhose material and either come with a bow on (my sis in law Jenny made this one and a few others for me) They are stretchy but only to a certain point. If they leave any indent it's time to get rid of it.

Crocheted headbands- Probably the best for versatility and comfort. Easiest for them to pull it off, but you can't beat them for the other reasons. I got like 30 different colors off of ebay. Truth though, I haven't used them all. You can get really creative though. I made this attached clip for the dress she wore. That's easy too, message me if you are curious :)

These elastic ones appeared after I had Melody and I discovered them after she grew out of headbands. But I think they are adorable and very chic. You can get them on etsy. They come with flowers already on them. I imagine they'd be easy to make too. If I have another girl I will look in to this, or when Melody is old enough to not want to rip her headband out.

These premade ones work only on SMALL heads. I think Melody was maybe 4 months old in this picture. You don't want to put it on a bigger head because it cuts off circulation. They are not very versatile either because they come, for the most part, in pastels.

This beaded headband I got at Fred Meyer in a pack. They are super comfy and you can slide an alligator clip in to it so it makes it versatile. I could almost always match her outfits.

So those are really the options for NO hair at all besides, obviously, hats if you like them. But it will start growing, and soon! Once it does you can graduate to Level 2 hairstyles. I was lucky in that Melody grew hair in the center top. If you baby grows only on the sides, you can adjust (do a pony in the back and karo on the top perhaps?) or cut it until it grows out evenly.

LEVEL 2

Clip with Slicked Down Hair

This is good for if they have some on the top. It doesnt take a lot of hair to go in to an alligator clip and it does stick pretty well. Grease down the hair on top in to point then slick it down and stick the clip in.
The Sprout

One of my favorites but it will take practice to do it quickly, and pain-free. You will need little elastics (Walmart has good ones). You gather the hair first, position your hand on the top of the head and KEEP your hand there to steady the rubber band. Like I said it takes some tries but soon it's second nature. You can do the sprout alone or attach a clip (alligator) to the hair directly in front of the ponytail that's been pulled taut. It stays better this way. You can attach it to the sprout if it's full enough (doesnt take a lot of hair to be full enough)
Piggytail sprouts!

Make one sprout and divide in half. If you can, use hair from either side of the head secure the ponies as far from each other as you can. Add bows! :)
For whatever hair style you hair, gelling the back is cute too if your baby has hair or curls back there. Melody's hair is a funky texture and doesnt always stay curled.
Single sprout without added clip
Ponytails with flower clips and bangs slicked down
One more of ponytails.

I will let you all know when we reach level 3. She is getting more and more hair every day. Hopefully this gave some good tips!

Long time, no blog!

2010-12-22T20:37:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, I am sorry I haven't blogged in so long. I want to get back in to it. This is one of our family pictures that we were able to do in our photoshoot in Utah! We had a wonderful tim, and the pictures turned out great!

Melody is now one year old and doing so great! She is crawling (army crawling) now and starting to pull up on things. She does well on her feet but since she has been slower in her physical development I think it will be a while before she walks. She has been 3-5 months behind on both large and small motor skills. We have been told she will catch up fine though so that is encouraging. She also just learned to feed herself which was so nice!!

As far as mental/emotional development she is right on track. She waves bye bye, claps, and mimmicks certain things we do. She can say mama, dada, baba, yay, boobah (the name of her lovey), 'inky' for binky, and does kissing sounds. She also SINGS! Yes, it is too cute and must be seen to be understand. I say "Melody can you sing?" and she begins to, well, sing. I am trying to get a video of it but so far she is elusive. She is a joy to have around and though she has been sick as of late and teething (the two top are coming in) she never ceases to make us smile!

I am on Dustin's laptop but I will get pictures up soon, especially when we do Christmas. I have gotten it all ready and we are excited because she knows how to tear the wrapping paper off the gifts now so at the very least she'll love that part!

I got her a new fischer price dragon toy that encourages walking. I am excited to see her use it!!

Happy Holidays to everyone! Will post more soon!

Father's Day and Nana's Camp

2010-07-05T09:36:00.000-07:00

So this is going to be a very pic-heavy post, but the last couple of weeks we had Father's Day and we just got back from a weekend at "Nana's Camp" where Dustin's mom has all the grandkids come stay at the cabin for week of fun, crafts, games, etc. We were only able to stay a day and a half because of work schedules but we had a great time!

Father's Day was fun for Melody and I. Daddy got some much-needed presents. New undies, shirts, and socks! I know, not the coolest gifts but like I said much needed!!! He also got a few treats :)

Here is Melody with daddy's gifts! She liked to help him open them. I am excited to see how she opens the gifts on her first birthay...it's only 4 months away :-S My baby is growing up too fast!

Daddy opening his first gift!

Then, as said before, we had Nana's Camp this past weekend. It's annual so we are excited for Melody to go next year when she can be a little more involved. Some of the activities while we were there were tug of war, which was so funny to watch. Of the 13 grandkids, 11 are boys and they all had fun trying to win!

Everyone tie dyed shirts (well, the kids) and parents did the tie dying for the kids who were too young. They turned out really cute!

There was a water fight which was very funny to watch and all the kids were drenched by the end!

Then, on Sunday, we had a little 'cabin church' meeting and sang some patriotic songs. Melody waved her flag while we sang the star spangled banner! I wanted to upload the video but it was too long!

It was so nice to enjoy the beauty of the cabin on the 4th. I hate to post pictures of me because I was under the weather and looked and felt crappy but it's for memories sake :) Melody was so cute waving her little flag around!

Melody was able to see and play with some of her cousins that we haven't seen in a while! She is closest in age to Greyson, and they sat and batted at each other's faces a lot haha :) Greyson would probably have been more interested if she could crawl around and play but she just sat there smiling or staring at him :)

Landon was so cute with her. He kept saying "Hi baby!" in his cute little voice and trying to give her his toys. All her cousins are so cute with her!

All smiles after eating some mango and pears

She loved the mirror in the bathroom!

I love those chubby cheeks :)

The weekend held a few firsts!

First time feeding herself with the bottle!

First sink bath---she loved it

First time getting and staying in the crawling position

This wasn't a first but I thought it was hillarious. This is the dreaded "captain's chair" position but her little thighs are so strong she sat in this position for a few minutes! It was so funny!

Family pictures with Nana! She's wearing the tie dye shirt she made!

I love this one! Melody and Nana

An upclose picture of Nana with the kids. Melody kept grabbing at Carley's hair

Nana's Camp 2010: Success!

All the grandkids!!

On the way home, there was an accident in the mountains. They had life flight and everything so we ended up waiting an hour on the road, but Melody had some good quality play time with mom and dad!

It was a great weekend!!

Happy Birthday to me ;)

2010-06-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I just wanted to have a blog shoutout to my wonderful family who put together an amazing birthday for me. I didn't expect anything and I got more than I ever could have dreamed! I felt so special and loved. My sister gave me a pedicure, my husband gave me a new phone, new pjs, new shoes and more, my mom gave me a cute reusable grocery bag (I've been major in to recycling and the environment lately) and some fun dairy-free goodies (I've been eating dairy and meat very sparingly in the last month or so), my brother got me some new earrings, my dad got me some gift certificates, and my boss got me an adorable basket of goodies and one of the nicest cards I've ever gotten (she is the BEST boss in the whole world). I got to go out to dinner and a movie on my birthday day and got to swim every day! It was a wonderful weekend!

I am 24!

It's weird to think I will be 25 next year but I am excited!

Thanks to everyone for making my bday wonderful!!

June and more!

2010-06-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Wow, how time is flying by! Our little girl is 8 months old now and growing up too quickly for me! No, she doesn't crawl yet...not even army crawl. In fact, usually on her tummy there is quite a protest!! I am not sure what to do about it except make her do it and then she still understands how to flip over to her back when she's 'had enough'. On the positive note she sits up really well, and can stand up when standing with her back against something. So maybe she will be one of the ones who just skips the crawling phase?? Or she is just a late bloomer...we still love our little chunky monkey :)

This was no 'professional photo shoot' but it was fun to get another picture of her in her tutu. She loves it more and more as time goes on and looks cuter and cuter in it.

In the 'almost crawling position'

Her 4th of the July 'kini

We took her swimming for the first time and she loved it! It was no surprise since I've been bathing with her since she was a month old and filling the water high enough to where she can (with assistance) 'swim' around. So the pool was just a big bath tub to her. The only problem was that she likes to dip her head down and try and lap up the water like a puppy. She does this in the bath too, I'm not sure why. It might be because I started 'cup training' her in the bath because there was no mess involved :) So now she realizes the water in the cup is like the water surrounding her and she wants a drink!

The cousins came in to town and her and Greyson look much closer to the same age now!! They were both so distracted this was the only pic we got of them looking in the same direction :)

In front of the penguins at her first trip to the zoo!! It was so fun and she did so well!

It's Father's Day so I thought I would include some recent pictures of Melody with her daddy, who she loves and frequently calls out for. When he's not in the room she'll look around and yell "DAAADDAAA!!"

Kisses!!

At the zoo! I love this picture :)

I had to show off her finally growing hair. I love her little 'faux hawk'. It's proof she has hair!!!

We have a busy month ahead...literally every weekend we are busy doing something. We have nana's camp, 4th of july, family reunions, and more :-S Craziness!!

And I am turning 24 next weekend...weird :)

May was great!

2010-06-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Alright, so it's time for another blog post! I'm not getting lazy, just busy as of late! The eating clean is still going well. I've dropped 8 lbs so far which is unfortunately just a dent in the 25 (yes, I said it) I gained after HAVING the baby. No one tells you that you are going to gain weight after the baby. Because for most people it doesn't happen. I can't help feeling like I deserve it for not gaining any pregnancy weight. I even breastfed and still didn't lose weight. But then again I had the appetite of a large buffalo (and now sadly look like one...lol)

But hopefully this eating clean thing will help! I am trying to limit dairy and meat until my birthday to see if that helps too.

So this past month we had a wonderful time! May was indeed a good month!

We took a few cute family pictures. I am trying not to repost our facebook ones!

We were all smiling in this one but Melody's red eyes are scary!! lol

I thought I'd share a unique idea for the brave...if you want some decoration books, use old journals! I think they are cute and I journaled through 4 books my senior year of high school. Just make sure you don't make it a public statement as I am doing so that other sneak a peek at your journals!! lol I need to get back in to it...I did so well back then!

I've had this mirror since Mel was 3 months but she is just starting to really enjoy it. Ah, the days when you really had no clue who was staring back at you ;)

Another favorite toy for her is her baby piano (crossing my fingers!!). It's always good to have some toys available for tummy time since she isn't a huge fan :( Hopefully SOME DAY she will crawl. But I am not that sad that she isn't...I can set her in one place and she usually stays within a couple inches of that spot :) Happiness..

We did the deal on krazy coupon lady for the dining out coupons. This one was to Donnie Mac's trailer park cuisine!! Haha. I only wish we could have sat in the car. The food was decent, nothing to be completely blown away by. I got a black bean burger with all the fixings.

this is us in our booth (that rolled). For a more romantic dinner, I like to sit side by side and cuddle :)

Jelly bean upon waking. We've fought the swaddle battle now for a while and now we've won. She will be swaddled and sleep longer for naps! Hooray for 3 1.5-2 hour naps a day AND sleeping 11 hours a night. Life is good! :)

Trying to get her to practice picking up crackers and feeding herself. I tried whole wheat but since she can't do it anyway these will work for now! :) Plus I have yet to master a melt-in-your-mouth cracker suitable for babies...Looking for recipes...

We got our high chair from a consignment store here in Meridian. Love shopping consignment!! The only way to go!

Last but not least a picture of the Sugarland concert. I loved it and now have been trying to play some country on the guitar. The problem is that I don't have a country style voice so it sounds a bit different. Oh well :)

Have a wonderful week!

Dinner this week, and a little baby cuteness :)

2010-05-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

I wanted my sister to capture how cute Melody is while eating and she did. I love the way she looks up at me, and I love those cute chubby cheeks. :) Sorry, hair is nasty---this was before my bath lol :)

I just love this little peanut :)

That scratch is from her attempt to leap from daddy's arms...on the concrete :( lol. She didn't get very hurt but when I came home from work that day she had a big bandaid across her forehead and it was so funny to see :) Her new favorite snack is either her thumb or two fingers. But she isn't sucking on them, she's chewing, so I'm not too concerned.

This is totally off-centered but it's hard to get a baby to smile and take a picture!! :)

Now on to some food blogging to give everyone an idea of some clean meals :)

Black bean burgers and buns (okay, I DID make homemade buns but they turned out how like hockey pucks so I'm gonna have to try again. Whole wheat is hard to work with! So we just went out and grabbed the most healthy whole wheat ones from the store lol) But the black bean burgers I made up and they turned out very tasty!! Topped with avacado, tomato, cheese :) We had sweet potato fries tossed in olive oil on the side!

(Black bean burgers included pureed black beans, grated cheese, frozen hashbrown potatoes, chopped mushroom and onion, whole wheat breadcrumbs, egg, and seasonings)

Chicken marinated in garlic (minced), olive oil, and lemon. It was fabulous. Dustin had filet mignon instead. I'm not a red meat kind of person. Baked potatoes and snow peas on the side.

Last night, roasted asparagus, cajun seasoned mahi mahi, rice (can't justify the switch to brown...yet), and sauteed onions. YUMMY!!

(2 fillets of mahi mahi, 1/8 c of PURE maple syrup, 1 TB cajun seasoning, 2 tsps garlic powder... Saute with onions and olive oil, pour the sauce over the mahi mahi after its fully cooked. Voila!)

We don't claim to be perfect at all. Right now we're just focusing on eating cleaner. No diets, just simplifying our eating. I feel a lot better already and got over my cold on Sunday extremely fast. I've found that I am craving processed things but I remind myself I can have them, I am just trying to eat to better fuel my body. It's a learning process but well worth it.

A New Philosophy

2010-05-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

Hello friends and family :) I wanted to introduce you to my new passion and the new philosophy we have adopted in to our home. It's called eating clean. The premise is that I have been making all of our food (all that can be made) from scratch and we are eating unprocessed, whole foods. That means homemade breads, crackers, pastas, etc, and fruits and veggies and meats, cheese, and milk. I am still learning but I wanted to share with you my new joy! I discussed it a bit in a previous post but I finally decided it was time for major change this past weekend, and we did our shopping and I cleaned out the fridge and pantry. I went to the farmer's market and Costco and got us all started. On Sunday I made bread and crackers and prepped for the following week. Last week we got a start on it and I made all our dinners from scratch too, but I am going above and beyond now and really making everything homemade :) I'm really excited about it. I don't want to diet anymore. I don't want to get in to the fads. I just want to eat food that will help my body function at its best and I want us to get healthier now. I want Melody to have a good example of how to eat and remember mom making healthy, wonderful food every day!

Some pictures from the Wright kitchen...

Delicious, beautiful salad with homemade croutons! (They haven't been put on there yet lol)

A homemade puree of cantaloupe, strawberry, and raspberry for Melody. At the bottom is spinach! (Lovin my babycook from my sis)

Duzzy's lunch ready to go: cheese, veggies, fruit, hummus, eggs, and more!

Homemade crackers...first try, kinda shaky but good with the hummus!! :)

Hopefully we will start feeling better soon! I am really pumped and even more excited that we're spending less on food than ever but also eating better than ever! Yesterday was the first day in my whole life that I had a meal that didn't include refined sugar. Strange huh?

Well, that's all for now! Have a great healthy day!

6 months old!

2010-04-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

6 months ago, I was giving birth to my daughter after several scares and complications from the pregnancy. But after a long labor and quick delivery, Melody Rose was born in to the world on October 27, 2009 at 7:01 in the morning. The first thing I remember is seeing them place her on my chest and being completely blown away at how small she was. At 4 lbs, 9 oz, and 17 inches long, she was tinier than any baby I had ever seen in real life. I held her close to me immediately and was shocked at how calm I felt. I didn't cry as I expected but just felt overwhelmed with peaceful joy. I had wanted to be a mother my entire life and having a daughter was a dream come true for me.

We were blessed that Melody was perfectly healthy and though small was able to leave the hospital after only 2 days with no NICU time. The first night she was home, Dustin and I (who are both hot-bodied people) cranked the heat on and sweated it out, constantly checking on our little bundle who was swaddled and had a hat on in the bassinet next to me. Throughout the night I woke up to an alarm every 3 hours and pumped milk, then fed her, then changed her diaper, then went back to sleep. And repeated the cycle until the morning. She was an angel and let me sleep between the feedings. Before she was born I suffered insomnia which went away as soon as she was born. I was tired that nothing could stop me from getting sleep!! The first couple of days, friends and family stopped by to visit. Many people had never seen a baby out of the hospital as small as her and many were afraid to hold her. But she was a content baby and didn't cry very much.

As time went on, we found her personality to be very go-with-the-flow, but at the same time once she really wanted something, you'd better hurry!! :) She is sassy and sweet at the same time. She is the type to watch you walk around and study her environment. She doesn't give her smiles as freely as some babies, unless you are her mama or dad--then she gives them all the time! I have learned to really understand that she is not simply an extension of me, but her own person and with her own particular needs.

Being a mother has taught me sacrifice, selflessness, and love in a way I didn't know was possible. I am forever grateful that I have been blessed to be a mother.

6 months are gone but not forgotten. The next she will be growing much more and moving about more. She will be interacting more. Gone are the days of having such a tiny little girl, but those days will never be forgotten. I love my little Melody.

I love you sweetie and can't wait to see what the future holds! You are so dear to me and I never knew what people talked about when they expressed their love for their children until I had you. Now everything touches me quickly and I cry at the simplest things, because I relate them to you and to being a mom! :) You bless your daddy's life and my life so much.

HAPPY 6 MONTHS!!

-Marshmelody

-Chinchilla

-Mel Mel

-Little mama

-Mel O die

-Baby girl

-"B"

- Etc, etc

Crazy weird...

2010-04-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

And so, without further adieu, I present to you the phenomenon which we call the 'weed grass'. This is not lush grass that we had laid down in our yard as it would seem...it is a lush bed of WEEDS...

We purchased our home new and without a back yard, but I was pregnant so we procrastinated. Within a few short weeks of spring, the weed grass grew. Oddly enough, as you will see in pictures, it goes right on our property line only. It is a very strange and creepy thing to witness and will no doubt be horrible to remove.

SOMEBODY SAVE ME

Easter!!

2010-04-06T07:46:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter Everyone!! We had a wonderful time this year. I think it's been my favorite holiday so far with the baby. She's old enough to start enjoying the holidays more and dressing her in her multiple easter dresses was admittedly really fun :)

I am excited to celebrate the holidays to come as a family. I never remember Easter being my favorite holiday, but I also think that giving is what made it so fun, and in the past I only received. Making the Easter baskets and setting out the jelly bean trail, just as had been done for me as a kid, was so reminiscent of growing up, but this time seeing it from my parent's perspective!

A tradition I took from my own family was the trail of jelly beans from Melody's room to the baskets! Yes, she is too young to understand it but I wanted to practice and still really get in to the holidays. To be fair, I set her by the trail...she just wanted to grab the jelly beans :) (No one would want to eat those, they were 'spice' jellies)

The reason that we have 4 baskets is because the Easter bunny decided to leave my sister, Chelsey, one too! :) From the left is Melody (complete with springtime binkies, grape juice, a book, and some other fun treats), Lyndsey (a Disney DVD, a cute spring time decoration for the door and some treats), Dustin (A few 'romantic' gifts, a magazine, treats), and Chels (funny samples, gum, treats)... That sneaky Easter bunny set them on the piano in the living room ;)

Dustin was so nice to take the baby in the morning because I was up sick all night, and thought it would be funny to put one of his Peruvian hats on her! I thought it was too funny, so I had to post. "What's up mon?"

He was also so cute and went and got me some beautiful flowers with vibrant colors for Easter time!! :) He is the best husband ever!

For Easter dinner, we were invited to Nana and Papas again. There were a lot of people there so it was fun to visit with everyone. We saw a video that Dustin and Sharina made a very long time ago called "The Stolen Ring" (or something like that!!) and it definitely made us all laugh.

Speaking of laughter, I had to share a picture that Jenny tagged Dustin in... this Easter bunny is super creepy!

HAHAHAHA....

We can't end the blog post on that; it's too freaky! So I will leave you with a cute picture of Melody. For the whole Easter photo shoot, you can go to my facebook or Dustin's. Happy Easter and welcome, spring! We are so excited for the following this spring and summer (stole this idea from Tiffany Crandall, thank you!!!)

Tyson's wedding in August (in St. George)
Oliver's wedding in April (here in Boise)
Mother's and Father's Days (our first official ones!)
My 24th birthday! (I'm getting old!)
Family reunions in Bear Lake
More that I'm sure I'm forgetting...oh well! :) :)

Have a great day and remember to smile!!! :-)

Healthy and Wealthy and Wise

2010-04-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

So going to the Farmer's market has inspired me to set off on a new 'healthy eating' quest. Not a weight loss quest, but a stride toward wellness. I want to have more energy and improve my health by my 24th birthday, which is in June.

YES, I most definitely need to lose weight. But I am hoping that if I eat right for the right reasons instead of focusing on weight loss and a number on the scale, I might do better. I feel SO down on myself lately, and I know I need to get my butt in gear. So I have decided that starting today (Monday) I am going to take a journey toward better health.

Every day I fear that my little Melody might follow in my very imperfect footsteps, and I know that she already has a genetic disposition for being overweight, and I need to be her example, as her mother. It's a powerful motivation.

So, here are some thoughts about what I want to do...

* Focus on eating when HUNGRY, eating the right portions, eating slowly, and eating the right foods.

* Foods should be the least processed possible. There is a time and place for these foods, but not on a daily basis. Think of food as fuel...would you put crap in to your gas tank of your car? No. So don't put crap in your body! :)

* Keep it simple!! A piece of fish cooked in lemon and some veggies roasted in a tiny bit of olive oil is a nice, simple meal that is easier to digest. Have you seen what is in some of the commercial fast foods?! BLLEECCHH

* Work at first on being more active. I am not in shape by any means but jumping in to an exercise program would likely not work for me, but working on being more active (walks with Melody, dance with Melody, walks with my husband) would be good for our relationships and for our health!

* Drink enough water!!!

DON'T READ THE NEXT ONE IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH BREASTFEEDING!

* (Personal mommy goal) Relactation... I lost my milk supply a month ago, and I want to build it up again, but it will be difficult when I work. It's also been hard since Melody never wanted to latch on. But hopefully I could at least partially relactate for her sake, and eating all this healthy food will help my breastmilk be as full of nutrients for her as possible!

Okay, so those are some goals for myself. If anyone wants to join me starting now I welcome you!! I will keep you posted on how it goes!!

Got Milk? (And other stuff?)

2010-04-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

So, today after we went on a date, Dustin and I went to the farmer's market for fun! We'd never been to one, and I noticed that the prices were really good (plus I had heard that before) so I knew it would be good to go! We got a GREAT DEAL! Fresh farm eggs and milk, local apples, avacados, bananas, potatoes, strawberries...all for 20 bucks! That's a really good deal for us, usually produce is what gets us in groceries. And these all looked so appetizing...

Instead of grocery bags, there is the recyclable cardboard box! We have really upped our recycling efforts so I am totally for this!

This is the wonderful CloverLeaf creamery milk...Mmm...I've never had milk from a local farm but Dustin says it reminds him of his Grandpa Peterson's milk from his farm!

GOT MILK??

Milk does a body good ;)

I will have Easter pics up hopefully tomorrow!!!

Easter Egg Hunt at Nana and Papa's House!

2010-03-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today we were able to spend some quality time with family at Dustin's parents (Nana and Papa) and we were able to participate in a little Easter party for the grandchildren. Melody isn't old enough yet but it's a constant reminder to me knowing that last year I was pregnant and how fast it goes by...this time next year she will be searching for Easter eggs along with everyone else! This is pic-heavy but I hope you enjoy all the cute pictures we got!

Melody loves her Nana! I paid $1 for this Gymboree outfit at Kid-to-Kid, a consignment store in Boise. She looked like a little sailor girl but it was cute!

Dustin, Sandy (Nana) and I hid eggs...Dustin chose some great places...(Nice one Duzzy)

Nana explaining the rules to the boys

Another great place to hide an egg, LOL...Dustin, you crack me up

Landon, bringing his egg back

Vincent trying to steal Mimi's eggs!

My camera isn't great quality but I love this in-motion pic of Gavin running with an egg!

Dominic was decidedly bored and wanted to climb the tree instead---I guess we didn't challenge him enough with our egg placement!

Carson, looking very "Abercrombie" model in this one!

The ugly disaster which became the infamous "Bunny Cake"...it shall forever haunt my dreams

I love the colors of Easter!

Carson found an egg! :)

Riley helping Vincent, whose pants were almost fallen off!

Good find Landon!

Can't wait for Easter, YAY! I am hoping to get some Easter pictures of Melody this week. And I need to get Dustin's easter basket together... So much to do! Love the holidays!

5 months old!!!

2010-03-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Sitting on her own!

Melody will be 5 months old on Saturday!! :) I don't know why but for some reason 5 months is starting to feel like she's getting older in a way that 4 months didn't. Here are some pictures of the past month! She is doing well and hitting all of her milestones!

As much as we do tummy time, she always prefers to be on her back. When she is on her tummy, she'll often roll back to her back. I think she just likes to look up and see the world. She is VERY observant!

Let me first clarify that that is NOT my drool, it is her spit up! lol! She doesn't sleep with me but Dustin lets me sleep in on Saturdays and this day he brought her in to wake me up (which is why I have an ear plug in, lol) She was being really cute!

I've decided that if I have another girl, we are doing her room in purple. I love pink, but I think that purple looks so cute on baby girls!

Daddy kissing baby :)

This was on our road trip to Bear Lake, before she realized she was being confined to the car seat all day!! lol :) Really though, she did very well.

Erica gave us this toy for our baby shower and she loves it! Luckily she is starting to take an interest in toys now!

These are both pictures taken she she stretches...she has the most hillarious face when she stretches. She arches her back and body, puts her fists up, and makes these funny pouty lips and her face gets all red...lol!!

Streeeeetttcccchhh

Deer in the headlights look

She has the most insane leg strength. Her daddy walked at 7 months, so maybe that is why. She can already pull from laying down to standing, and prefers to stand over anything else. Baby girl, don't grow up so fast!!!

The funny face she makes when losing her balance, lol!!!

It really is crazy how fast the 5 months went by! I really can't believe it. A year ago I was just beginning to get morning sickness with her...a LOT happened for us in the last year but all the tears and heartache were worth it! We love life so much!

Thank you Chels!

2010-03-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

My sister made a new cute layout for our blog!! I love it! Thanks Chels, love you too!

And now the randomness...

I'm up way too late again. I would stop, but it's the only time I get to myself that I know won't be interrupted. It makes me perpetually tired but I'd go crazy without time to myself. I'm one of those type of people who really recharges not with people but being alone. It's a blessing and a curse sometimes.

Life is good here in Boise. Dustin and I are finally going on more dates which I think is important for us. A lot of times we focus so much on being parents that we put ourselves last, which I think is common. But now just laying in bed and talking after the baby goes to bed means the world. I really am blessed to have married Dustin. He brings out the best sides of me. We can laugh about anything together and maintain our sense of humor when things get rough. I dated a few guys before Dustin but I believe he has been my first and only love. Now that we have Melody, I find that our love grows and grows. It is strengthened in parenthood. We work as a team, and we are the strongest we've ever been. I want to be like Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife were someday when we are old. Where we have shared the deepest and most beautiful moments of our life together and have no regrets. I KNOW I married the right person, and I am grateful for that. I made a wonderful choice :)

Alright, end of randomness...

My Sweet Little Melody

2010-03-14T21:36:00.001-07:00

Our sweet baby girl is going to be 5 months old next weekend! It's crazy how time flies. My sister Chelsey took this beautiful pictures of Melody and I had to share! She's getting so big and so much fun! Just be sure to catch her at the right time ;). We love our little one...

Cute babies and more!! :)

2010-02-27T19:17:00.000-08:00

These are just a select few from a very long photo shoot done for our babies! Joelle and I had Dallin and Melody only 2 weeks apart, so they are destined to be the best of friends, ofcourse :) If you want to see more of the pictures, you can see the whole thing on my facebook album. It was so fun getting them together. Dallin is so cute and has so much hair, I am jealous! Melody is definitely the more serious of the two, but she is still such a sweetie! She has always been a bit on the serious side but she is getting more playful! She has always from the get-go been stubborn but gentle and sweet. Not outgoing by ANY means, I think she is destined to be a shy child as I was! She does remind me a whole lot of myself, and she looks like me too so I guess she is my mini-me :)

Hope you liked those!

I work at Wings Center now in Boise for 3 hours a day and it works out because Dustin is home so we don't really need any additional childcare but I get a chance to help bring in the dough. Plus, I always love to work with kids!!!! It is really a joy for me, not a job.

But anyway, we were at Planet kid with the kids and I saw the cutest girl wearing this adorable dress, kind of like this one...

...with her hair done very cute and curled and matching bows to boot... So I've decided I need to learn to sew since these dresses are so expensive on etsy! And I need to learn to make my own hair bows too, which I am only sort of okay at, but pretty bad. lol.

Another cute thing...

Love this little apron/smock! I really want Melody to learn to enjoy art! I can see her painting in this... :)

I could share a million things I love but it would take too much time, and the baby is crying so I've gots go to!! Have a great day!

Have a Great Valentine's Day :)

2010-02-07T08:29:00.000-08:00

Have a great Valentine's Day this coming week! This obviously is just a little picture of something I love very much :)

We Love Sunday :)

2010-01-24T16:13:00.000-08:00

Sundays are a great day. We always try and make Sunday a day of relaxation for us, so it's a day we look forward to every week. It usually starts with a big breakfast and lots of cuddling, a little napping...

Some sitting around...

And our favorite thing to do with Melody...go on walks!! It's now getting a little bit sunnier so we felt okay about finally taking Melody on her first walk!

She didn't know what to expect, just realized that we had her all bundled up :)

Melody and Daddy

Binkie kiss...the best!

We love this bunting outfit from Aunt Rosie...it makes it look like she always wants a hug ;)

We walked around the neighborhood and admired the new homes...the deals are hot right now!! We love our neighborhood..it's so family friendly. Any way, just posting some current pictures! Remember it's Sunday...the day of rest! So REST!! :)

My Girl

2010-01-19T11:46:00.000-08:00

There are too many reasons I love my little girl. She brings me light even at 3 am...she makes me smile even when I am in the worst mood possible, and she brings out the best in me every day. I love being a mom, and she is such a good and happy baby. Today she is 12 weeks old and I can't believe how fast time has flown! She is smiling, giggling (a new development) and trying to push off everything with those little legs. She sleeps through the night now which is a major blessing for us.

These are some home-taken pictures that Dustin and I had a lot of fun with!

So here is a little ode to my girl :) Love you, Melody!

Thanksgiving and Fun with Cousins!

2009-12-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

So, for Thanksgiving this year we decided to head down to Bear Lake! It was Melody's first trip away from Boise, and we had a nice couple of relaxing days staying at Aunt Debbie's beach house with some of the family!

Aunt Debbie had the baby fever and was such a cute grandma! She wanted to feed and hold the 3 babies that came all of the time :)

We had such a nice time relaxing!

Melody and Greyson are 6 weeks apart, so we posed them together! They are such cute cousins!

I think it's cute that they have the same look on their faces here!

Melody got tuckered out from all the noise and fell asleep on her cousin's shoulder! We didn't pose this!! :)

All the cousins that were there!

Melody is 6 weeks old now and growing like crazy! I will post pictures of her soon! She grew from 4 lbs 9 oz (lost 2 oz in the hospital) to 7 lbs 8 oz in 1 month!! The doctor was blown away but we are happy with our little girl's growth! :) She is so sweet!

Got the camera and internet going so hopefully I will be able to post more soon!

Getting Christmas-y, and Melody fun videos!

2009-11-23T17:20:00.000-08:00

So I thought it was time for a little blog update! I have some pics and videos but they are all from cell phones. lol. I need to upload some real pics, no? We decided this past weekend to decorate for Christmas!!! I was so excited; last year we did nothing :( I know, lame. So first we went to Fred Meyer and got a tree. The above picture is Dustin, quite obviously, with said tree. Below is what happens when we decorate! YAY! All those decorations came from our wedding, which was in December 2 years ago. Bonus for having a wedding in December. Dustin says it needs more color. I say it matches our living room. We'll have to get some color to appease my husband, lol.

There is NOTHING like setting up the tree to get you ready for the holidays. But since we have the house this year, Dustin went another step forward and got lights. My brother Joe came over and helped!

Dustin up on the roof with my Brother Joseph!

When it was done, it looked so cute!! I will have to get a picture of the finished product. We just did the outline I guess you could say, but for now it's all we can do :) Next year we will keep adding on more lights until we have one of the best looking houses in the neighborhood!! lol!

Then there is the matter of the 'princess' who is one month old. We have both been shocked at how much she is growing. She is chunking out. She is around 6 1/2 lbs at one month.

She is SUCH an amazing, calm baby. So frickin cute. She looks just like both of us, too. We brought out my baby pics and were shocked that she indeed looks like me...A LOT. But she also looks like Dustin as a baby, so we'll see!!

I love this picture of her, it's so cute!

So in this video I caught her hillarious quirk---she growls after every sneezing fit, and I am telling you it is sooo funny... I love her little quirks. Here it is, in living color!!

Here is my baby, smiling at her grandpa Jetsel. She did her first little laugh/chortle shortly after this. It was so cute to see her smiling so much for him. I don't always get her to do it, but for certain people she is all smiles; my dad is one of them!

Bath time!

2009-11-17T11:02:00.000-08:00

So, first the funny story about Melody's umbilical cord...I was doing an emergency breastfeeding at Dustin's office (lol, awkward). I knew the cord was almost off, but I didn't expect when it would fall off...I had to take Melody's onesie off so she would wake up and finish eating. After she was done I noticed her cord was off! But where was it? We looked everywhere until it finally showed up...in my bra! Nasty!! But we were so happy to give our baby her first real bath!

The order of these is really wrong but enjoy!

In her red towel from Aunt Verna!

She surprisingly loved the bath. We take one now every night as part of our nightly routine to get her ready for bed! Just like mom, loves the bath!

Dad is always so helpful when it comes to washing her. He lifted her up so I could get her back clean :)

Just relaxing in the bath!!

I love that cute white hair, it's so sweet :)

Life with Melody/some cute videos!

2009-11-09T15:12:00.000-08:00

I am so blessed and lucky to have such a sweet girl! Melody is a wonderful baby and very calm. She almost never cries and I am getting very good at figuring out her different cries when she does cry. She lets us sleep all night between feedings and is getting more and more alert. Here are some videos from the last couple days. Melody grew from 4 9 at birth (then lost 2 oz in the hospital) to 4 15! Almost 5 lbs now! We couldn't be more in love :)

Daddy burping the baby! Shows a bit of how tiny she is :)

She is starting to open those cute little eyes a little more! I love it when she does; she is so sweet when she looks up at me! She is such an angel!

Daddy doing the baby rap :) No babies were hurt in the making of this film! She is so cute, she lets dad play with her like this and doesn't seem to mind in the least! She is so fun to play with, but mommy likes to be gentle when playing with her!

Melody's 2 day old pics

2009-11-09T14:59:00.001-08:00

These were taken while we were still in the hospital. She has grown to about 5 lbs since! We love her so much!

Welcome Melody!!! Birth posts/more pics to come!!

2009-11-02T17:10:00.000-08:00

Most of you already know...we had our little girl last Tuesday morning (the 27th) at 7:01 pm after being in the hospital for 25 hours :-S!! I did get the epidural after 18 hours so that's good enough for me! My mom has all of the labor and delivery pics so I need to get in touch with her and then I will post a nice long blog for you all with the story!!! :) For now here is a couple of pics of our baby girl who came in to the world weighing 4 lbs 9 oz and was 17 inches long!!!

A cell phone pic of daddy holding Melody. You really can't get a feel for how small she is until you see her in person!

Our first family photo. Talk about immense happiness...:)

She is such an angel, mommy could not be more in love!

One of our hospital pic proofs! She's started to open those cute eyes a lot wider now and she's getting more alert!

My favorite picture taken during the photo shoot. She is on Dustin's arm and looks so happy!

Tomorrow...Tomorrow...

2009-10-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

So it's officially Sunday!! lol...I am not able to sleep, already so excited! But tomorrow, Monday, I am having Melody. My doctor said, "Well, you could even have her Tuesday if your labor is long enough"...I just looked at her and smiled...if I have anything to say about it, there is no way I want to be in labor for 18 hours, no thanks!!! :) But it happens to some, hopefully not me!

Any way...:) I am DEFINITELY not opposed to the epidural if I need it, but I want to go as long as I can first. I'm really not certain how I will be, I don't consider myself to have a very high pain tolerance but I've surprised myself before too. So I'll let you all know how it goes! The next time you hear a blog post from us, it will be with pictures and the story of the birth of our baby girl!

So...the countdown of hours begins!!!!!!!!!!

I guess third time will be a charm :)

2009-10-20T06:51:00.000-07:00

Once again, I write this with reluctance to say that these pictures do not lead up to having our little Melody. After last week, we were told that in a week we would come back, repeat the amnio and repeat the ultrasound and that most likely be having our baby. So, steps one and 2 were repeated. I had another amnio, though I hate to say that this one was definitely worse than before. The reason being that during the amnio I had my first big contraction. I've had light contractions now and lots of Braxton Hicks but this was my first major one, and it happened while they were extracting fluid. In response, the needle wouldn't take anymore fluid and the baby actually got in the way of the needle which scared us, but I don't think she touched it. So when they told me that they weren't sure if they got enough fluid and needed to do it again, I was not very happy :) Happily they didn't have to, but my poor Dustin's hand hurt from me squeezing it so bad during the contraction, I think he was worse off than me!! :)

This is me thinking we were on the way to have the baby. You are required after the amnio to have a non-stress test done on the baby, and we waited one hour for the results of her amnio.
It's kind of my thing now to drink apple juice in Labor and Delivery, it drives Melody crazy! I don't personally love apple juice but she seems to :) This is me looking all scary with my non-stress test gadgets on :).

So one hour later, they gave us the result. Her lungs were not ready by 4 points :(. And we were sent home once again. I was really sad about it, since I was looking forward to taking home a baby this time.

Luckily, my lovely nurse Danielle called with good news. If I don't go in to labor this week, then for SURE next Monday at 6 am I am getting induced!!! :) :) I will be 37 weeks so she won't be premature which will be wonderful. So for the next week I can get done what I wasn't able to, namely laundry, and focus on resting before the big day!!! You should see a post soon with pictures of the REAL event and our little girl!!

I also will hopefully be getting some pics so you can see my WONDERFUL baby shower that my sisters in law threw for me :) It was so fun and I was so grateful to have such wonderful family and friends to support me. Thank you so much ladies!!!

Maybe baby

2009-10-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Not what it seems...:) Not yet!!

At our last appointment, in a flurry of craziness we were told that Melody was not growing well. We expected this news but we did not expect that they would tell us that if her lungs were ready, they would induce me that night! I had only just started feeling a slight bit better after getting a nasty case of the flu and was shocked. I kept asking if they could wait until I felt better or more rested but I was getting looked at like I was crazy, lol.

But we had an amnio done to test Melody's lungs and waited in Labor and Delivery for the results while they monitored her heart beat and movement. She did a great job and the amnio showed that her lungs were not yet mature enough. So this means that there will be no baby this week. While we were in there though, we were pretty flustered and thought she might come so I had Dustin take a picture of me in the gown just in case and wrote him a list of things to get to pack the hospital bag.

But we have an appointment next week and we will find out then if her lungs are ready and if they are, we will get induced at that point. I am writing this to put everyone's minds at ease and let you know that she is healthy, just not thriving in the womb :) They don't know why but it's better not to take any risks, so it's better for her to come in to the world a little sooner!! We are not worried, and have felt at peace with everything. We have a lot of support and a lot of friends and family to help us out!

So we could be posting pictures of our little girl soon!!! We shall see! :) If not next Monday I am not sure when or if they will wait another week or what. But I will let y'all know!

A star is born

2009-10-02T15:32:00.001-07:00

So now that we are moved in to our house, Dustin and I had been seeing these cute stars on people's homes in the neighborhood and decided we'd like one of our own! I was at the craft store and they were having a 50% off sale on only one item, so I grabbed the star and got it for half what I normally would! Our neighbor Caleb helped us by letting us use the bed of his truck for a ladder and putting it up!

We love our neighbors, everyone is so nice! We especially have become close to one set of neighbors. We have mowed each other's lawns, put cookies on each other's doorsteps and gone over to borrow things. It's awesome!! We love it! More to come :)

2009-09-22T16:11:00.000-07:00

So my sister Chels was kind enough to take some maternity pictures for me. These are a few of them, the rest are on my facebook! We are 8 months now, just a few short weeks left to go. The words I have by the pictures are lyrics to a song that my mom used to sing for us as children. I am not sure who sings it, or the title of the song, but I always remember the words. I now dedicate it to my sweet Melody :)

This is a story love, a story that's true.

This is the story about you..

Of how we hoped to have you,

and how we prayed you'd come

in to our lives little one.

All of the love you could ever need is here in my heart.

No matter what, you can always count on me.

I'll never be far with all the love you could ever need.

This is a story love of the place you came from,

And of your Heavenly Father's love.

And how he must have held you before he let you go,

hoping that somehow you'd know...

All of the love you could ever need is there in His arms.

No matter what, you can always count on Him.

He'll never be far with all the love you could ever need.

-------------------

And I just felt like writing a little something to my sweet girl...

Melody, we are so excited to meet you in just a little while. I have dreamed of you since I was a little girl, and thought about what you would look like and sound like and smell like and whose personality and quirks you would carry. I love to feel you roll and kick and move in my belly and I love to talk and sing to you. It's hard for me to imagine not being this close to you physically forever, but I know that we will always be close in our hearts. There is a special bond that we have, that you are a part of me and I am a part of you, that no one can ever replace. No matter what happens with time, I treasure this time now with you and try to never complain about being pregnant because lately the scares we've had about you coming too soon or the idea that something could be wrong have made me appreciate the moments where everything is right and perfect more than ever before. This is the only time in our lives where I can always hold you close and keep you safe, and I am grateful for it. I hope I am a good mother to you, and I promise I will do my best and try my hardest to teach you about life and love and when to fight and when to let go. I feel like I still have a lot to learn, and with you being our oldest I know I will learn many of those lessons with you but I want you to know I am always trying my best for you and for our family. I love your dad very much and hope we can show you the way a loving relationship should be, full of laughter but also of sacrifice and honesty. I hope we never take for granted the small joys in life. You are already so loved and wanted and needed in our lives. I am so excited to meet you!!! Until then, I love you!

Love, Mom

A Mini Tour of our House :)

2009-08-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

So first off, our camera isn't really working so I had to take some cell phone videos instead!! The bedrooms are still a work in progress, but we are going to be done with them SOON!! And then I will post videos and pictures of them. I will get the camera back here soon so you can see some pictures!

I mightve said before, but our house is 3 beds, 2 baths, it's not super big but it's our first home and we are very proud of it!!

Here is walking in from the front door!

This is going in to the living/family room

Here is another view when you are IN the family room

This is one view of the kitchen!

This is a view of the kitchen from the dining room!

One last view...the hallway to the bedrooms and bathroom :)

More to come soon!!!!

Lately

2009-08-13T18:01:00.001-07:00

So I thought I would write a quick blog about all we are up to lately! First things first..

We are 27 weeks pregnant with Melody and everything is going well! I am little frightened at how big I will end up being, seeing as I still have like 13 weeks left, but I will be wearing the belly proudly :) Unfortunately, all the maternity shirts have me in despair, as my already big and growing knockers won't fit any of them :( Well, not any I have tried YET. If you know of any good brands let me know! I feel like I am still in the 'is she just fatter or pregnant' phase so hopefully in the next couple weeks it's gonna start being more obvious. I hope! I get asked a lot if I am feeling good, the answer is YES! I feel I have little to complain about. At 27 weeks I am 3 lbs below my start weight of being pregnant so I have not had swelling or much back pain. I DO have heartburn but it's cureable with a few TUMS. And I am sleeping better now that we are in the new house. I do pregnancy yoga daily and it is helping tremendously. I HIGHLY recommend it!!!
We have our new house and we are all moved in! Organization, however, is a different story. Because of our circumstances we've had to live in 2 homes. Dustin's parents (to take care of it and their dogs) and ours. I have been sleeping in our new house and Dustin at his parents'. It is challenging and I often call him in tears because I want him with ME :) but it is worth it. I plan on finishing all my decorating and organizing this weekend and then we should have pictures up for you all to see.
Life is great, we love it! We have great new neighbors at our new house, and it's been fun to sit on the front lawn and talk to our whole street as they come by. Our new ward is full of kids, which we are excited about!! Lots of new families just like us. My job is going very well, I have been able to take on 5 8's instead of 4 10's which has been very nice for me for right now. Dustin is doing so well at his job, and loves it.

Overall we are doing awesome! I will try and be more consistent with everything and posting. The problem is, we are not big picture takers, so we don't update as much as we should.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Hello Fellow Blog Stalkers! :)

2009-08-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well I know that this is not the kinds of pictures everyone wants to see, but while we are in the moving process I thought that this would be appropriate to post showing that we finally got our house and these were the pictures that we took by our "SOLD" sign.

More pictures to come!!!! Promise. Once things look good enough for Lyndsey to want to take pictures, and we find our camera, pictures will be up!

Saturday Smiles :)

2009-06-27T20:59:00.000-07:00

First off, had a great birthday! Dustin and I spent the night at the Anniversary Inn, went to tablerock to watch the sunset, and had dinner at my favorite resturaunt, Asiago's (a local Italian place, soooooo good). The next day I had some quality time with my mom and when I got home Dustin had this cake for me:

It said, Happy Birthday Mom, love Dad and Melody :) It was my favorite, Brownie batter ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, mmmm :)

Today we had a great day, spent a lot of wonderful time together.

Duzzy played some hymns from the Children's songbook for us while Melody and I listened. We also sang for her and I pressed my belly against the piano so she could feel the vibrations of the instrument as well as hear the sounds. (She's been able to hear us for the last week or so!)

And the dogs just sat and enjoyed the music with us :) We hope Melody will have a love of music just like Dustin and I do, and we hope to begin her love of it early by singing for her and playing songs for her often!

Hope everyone's having a great week!

23 :)

2009-06-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

So, tomorrow I am going to be 23. It seems weird now to have birthdays when I am an adult. The year of being 22 was fabulous and one of the best of my life! I loved every minute! Now, being 23 will present a whole new life. It seems like a good age to be, a good age to have my first child, a good age to have my first home. I am happy. Though in other areas of my life, I have faced quite a bit of trials in the last year, I have still been extremely happy.

Tonight we are headed to the Anniversary Inn!!! I love this place soo much! :) We are going to be staying in Sleeping Beauty's Castle room, which is one of the nicest rooms they have and is a two story room which is pretty awesome! If you've never been, I highly recommend this place!

www.anniversaryinn.com

You really get the royal treatment when you go, and every room we've stayed in is great! They have these hotels in Idaho and Utah, definitely go!!!

On another note, in 2 days I will be 20 weeks pregnant, half way done! My little girl is now as long as a banana, 10 inches from head to feet! She is not the most active (at least that I am able to feel yet) and usually requires a bit of prodding to get moving, but I can feel her little kicks now and Dustin too was able to feel her which was very cool! :) In her ultrasound Dustin said she kicks like a soccer player, I think he is having visions of his little girl being a soccer player like he is :)

We will post pics soon! Found the camera, now just gotta charge it :)

My girly side coming out :)

2009-06-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so let me just say as a precursor that having a girl really has started to bring out the girly-ness in me :) I have made her bracelets from a little kit I bought about a year ago (you know, just in case) and my newest addiction, making headbands. The tricky cool part of these is that I will demonstrate how versatile they are!

//Warning: These are all bad-quality cell phone pics!!! Sorry!!//

First, I bought a lot of silk flowers and took the tops off. I also purchased ribbon and got a crash course on making bows (you can see one or two below), which cost mucho mucho at the store or to buy already made but making them yourself is cheap! :) I also purchased alligator clips (you can get these from Sally's or even Walmart and they are also cheap). You can hot glue the flowers or bows you have made to these clips.

Next, you can either make or buy lots of cute crochet headbands in various colors. I got mine off Ebay and got 20 of different colors for like 15 bucks. Not too shabby, but if you are good at crocheting I'm sure you can find out how to make them. I'm not good at crochet so I didn't tackle it. Also I want to add that these fit newborn to adult! They stretch but also bounce back to their original shape. So you can use them for a long time.

Last, you can do hundreds of combinations of flower or bow plus headband (insert alligator clip in holes of headband) to match tons of different outfits. I have not yet had an outfit I couldn't match. Plus, you can save the flower clips and bows for when your little one has hair or for yourself. (I have been wearing the flower clips lately in my hair) I demonstrated the matching versatility with some outfits we received on Saturday..

Trickiest because of the gold emblem but I went with a white headband and pink flower

One of the bows I made (you can't tell but it matches some of the green threading in the shirt) and a pink headband to also compliment the colors in the shirt

This one worked really well, you just can't tell in the picture :)

And who doesn't love purple with a cute white daisy?

Any way, so that's me on my soapbox for the day :) This girl is gonna be lookin' cute if I have anything to say about it!

Home Sweet Home

2009-06-14T10:25:00.001-07:00

So I thought I'd post something exciting! We put an offer on our first home! We low-balled it so we expect a counter, but it's a buyer's market so you never know! So here's the scoop!

* 3 beds, 2 baths

* 1600 sq feet

* Cute front porch

* RIGHT across from community park and children's playground

* In Southwest Boise, off Lake Hazel

* BRAND NEW!! Never lived in! :)

So we are really excited!! We should know in the next couple weeks after all of our offering and counter-offering is complete, but we're really pulling for it because we love it and it's a great neighborhood, very family oriented. Oh, and the elementary school is just a couple blocks away through another neighborhood!! So yeah, exciting stuff!! :) We've already determined Melody's room, the guest room, and ofcourse our master is awesome with an oval tub and a walk in closet!! I never thought I'd live in a brand new home, but I am stoked!

IT'S A...

2009-06-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, there is so much to tell right now, it's crazy! :) First off, let me say that I was not expecting a girl in the least! I was sure it was a boy :) The girls that I work with all guessed that it would be a girl because I was very sick for the first 15 weeks or so, and they said that they have not seen somebody who got that sick have a boy! So I suppose all that sickness was worth it!

I woke up bright and early, I took a nice long bath and pampered myself a bit, then Dustin and I had to do things to keep our minds occupied because we were just so excited!! He had to watch TV and I looked over and saw his legs shaking!! :-D

We made a bet going in and put stipulations on it...

we get prizes if we win :) Well I got unlucky because I guessed boy and he guessed girl, so he is our winner this time!! :)

We went in to Fetal Fotos (we love this place) and I thought I had to drink 32 oz of water. Well when I got there they told me I DIDN'T have to so the first thing I did was pee...and pee and pee... then we went in for the ultrasound!!

The first 40 minutes or so were spent trying to get our stubborn little girl to open those legs and show her goods! She was moving so much that it was hard to get a good shot! We got to see her little body and her legs and arms move, we saw her open her mouth, and then finally we zeroed in and saw that she was, indeed, a little girl!!!!! I was shocked and was totally speechless at first, then they rolled me on my side and I started crying tears of joy!! I was so mesmerized, I loved her instantly.

It was one of THE GREATEST moments of my entire life so far!

And right away, I have settled with the name we discussed that I loved. Dustin and I have both been so in to music since we met, it is a big part of our lives, so we have decided to name our little one Melody!! It is very fitting if you know us. Not sure on her middle name!

I was so happy that the rest of the ultrasound was kind of a blur. Dustin was just BEAMING and has not stopped shouting for joy that he will have a little girl!! He wants to get pink everything, I am trying to make sure we get gender neutral of that which we can reuse :) ;) !!

Oh, and in the ultrasound they flipped over to 3D and we got to see our little Melody's adorable little profile. Almost immediately after they flipped in to 3D, she put her left hand up to her mouth and started sucking her thumb!!! :-D We've got a thumb sucker, taking after her nana, Grandma Wright :) Or so they say :)

It was so cute to see my little princess move and suck her thumb and kick me which I do occasionally feel now!!!! :-D

I still can't believe it's a girl, but I am so in love with her. I dream of the pink, the bows, the future dance (and soccer) classes, having to teach her about boys and makeup and dating, having her daddy waiting at the door with a shot gun when the prom date arrives, holding her in my arms when she cries (which if she is like mommy she certainly will!!!).

Today was such a beautiful day for me and I get teary eyed when I think of my little one. I am so excited to be a mommy to my beautiful Melody. And I can't wait to see how she tugs on Dustin's heart strings

This is turning out to be a long post but I am just soooo excited!!! I can't even explain!!!!!! My heart is just so full right now... We announced to my parents by bringing a bouquet of pink balloons in and some pink krispy kreme donuts!! :) They were sooo excited and totally surprised since they all thought it was a boy!! :-D

We are sooo excited and will post more pics soon!!

2009-06-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

Just last weekend I was complaining that I will never show, I will just look big forever, not pregnant. Somebody was listening. I still am a big girl so obviously it's not immediately noticeable even yet, but I would say this is progress in 2 weeks, wouldn't you? Yes, 2 weeks *blush* For losing 10 lbs though since getting pregnant, it looks like it's not affecting the little one. Just another point to mention, the first picture is closer up than the second, I couldn't get them exactly the same proportion for size. Any way :) I told Dustin if this is my belly at 17 weeks then I am going to be a huge oompa loompa when this is all over, lol! :)

2009-05-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy...yes, it is a wonderful thing, and I am so grateful to be pregnant! But is definitely not all glamour and glow! :) That glow you hear of, that's probably the excess oil which creates the extra zits that Dustin so lovingly calls my 'braille' on my forehead, lol! I have found that I am sleeping a LOT more. I can easily clock in 12 hour sleeping shifts. I could do that before once in a while too but now it seems a more frequent thing. I told Dustin I felt like all I did this past weekend at the cabin was sleep, it was kind of true :) But sometimes sleeping is the only thing that cures the nausea, and my justification is that after the baby I won't get to sleep like this so I am livin' it up right now!! :)

It's crazy how attached I have become to the baby in the last few weeks. I talk to it and beg for it to move so I can feel, lol. I know it's still early, and I am sure my little rascal is moving all the time, just can't yet feel it!! :) :) In 14 days we find out! Yes, my friends, this is a countdown and I am starting it now! Only 2 weeks!!!! YAY!

We couldn't find our camera for our super fun cabin trip, but sufficeth to say I am sure I can squander a few pics from other friends. We had a great time. We roasted smores, played games, sang, and so much more. It was my first trip to the cabin and I loved it! We had a few issues arise with everything but we managed to stay alive :) :). Thank you friends for spending a great weekend with us!

Will write more later! I am trying to update you guys more! :)

A little obsessed am I...

2009-05-25T20:13:00.000-07:00

So, I have been scouting 'etsy', which I have only recently discovered. Really I've been looking for cute and unique baby items, and I found these hats, which I am totally buying for my little one. The maker calls them Mini Monkeys! Since our little one is coming in the winter time, they seem about right...babies need hats, okay?! :-D You can get them with little bows on them for girls too, haha.

Apparently, Dustin thinks these are the ugliest things he has ever seen...I guess I am going to have to try and convince him, lol.

Etsy user name: Citefuzz

Link: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=87711

The price tag is a little hefty but I think they are just too cute :)

Next funny one, this lady makes these little terry cloth 'monsters' on onesies...they are too cute! I'm thinking more for a little boy, but yeah...username nissalisa

Okay, 15 weeks and more to share :)

2009-05-22T10:04:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I was a bit embarrassed but I figured I would catalog my 'belly' pics so someday I could look back and see them :) I have lost 8 lbs since becoming pregnant, more or less not because I'm eating less but because even still a bit of it comes right back up after it's been eaten. Yes, the bane of my existence right now is that I still have morning sickness! :( But it's alright! I look at it as a blessing that the hormones causing this are helping my little one to grow!

SO here is the fun part...

We get to find out if we are having a little boy or girl on June 10th. That means you are free to take a gander at it, because the results will be posted in 2 and a half weeks! If you believe the old wives tales, I kind of have mixed results. The baby's heart rate was 171 at the last checkup, I don't know if I am carrying high or low (I don't think I look pregnant yet), The chinese gender chart and my basic intuition says boy. But we will see what is right on June 10th!! :) So please, feel free to guess just for the fun of it and we will post results soon!!

In the meanwhile, what we are up to...

We are both enjoying the changing weather of Boise, it is looking more and more beautiful every day. The only downside is yard work but this is a blessing that we have a beautiful yard in which to tend to! I am busy getting ready to greet a new bunch of 3 year olds as this is the time at work when we lose those turning 4 and gain a new class! It's always a bittersweet thing, as I become quite attached, almost a second mom, to some of those little ones, but I guess it's time for them to spread their wings and fly! :) Dustin is just being his usual busy self but promises that he will post Peru pics SOON!!!!

So...the question of the week my friends is...

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

Dustin's mom, Sandy :)

My mom, Wendy :)

So I thought I'd take a moment and write a little homage to my mommies :) on this Mother's Day! This is the first Mother's Day where I too can technically consider myself a mother, though my little pumpkin is only like 4 inches long, lol!

I am so grateful, first, to my own mother who taught me good morals and taught me compassion for others and how to serve. I hope I can be half the mother she was :)

I am grateful, second, to my wonderful mother-in-law who raised such a wonderful son who is so good to me and takes good care of me and our family.

To mothers everywhere, you are the heroines of the world :)

I can't wait to stay at home with my little ones and make being a mother my career too!

I have the best husband ever :)

2009-05-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to pay tribute to my wonderful hubby, who has been so good to me for my pregnancy! My nausea is THANK HEAVENS (!!!!!!) going away now a little bit at a time, but a lot of days it's particularly hard to bear in the evening around dinner time, so a lot of times Dustin will drive and get me something to eat and let me relax on the couch!

WELL, the other day I was feeling particularly sick and felt that the only thing I could tolerate was a baked potato. Also, I had been mentioning to him some of my biggest cravings, the biggest lately (and I had been mentioning it quite a bit) was...

Well, he was gone awhile and I wasn't sure why, but when he got to the house he not only had the potato but also a whole bag of dried cherries and blueberries for me!! :-D AND he had gotten me a chocolate covered berry tart from Fred Meyers too (which is sinfully good)!

THANK YOU BABY for putting up with me and being sooo good to me!

CLICK PICS TO SEE THE WHOLE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

CLICK PICS TO SEE THE WHOLE THING!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry the pictures are so big! The top is me doing my 'belly shot'. As you can see, not much yet to fuss over, but we took one at 5 weeks and there is a bit of a difference! I have lost 5 lbs so I know it couldn't be extra weight :) We went in for our appointment today and it was so cute to see the baby, who was facing us. You can see the face in some of the pictures pretty well, it's kind of freaky! Looks like an alien still, but we were able to see a lot! :) Everything looks good, we are still set to be due November 14th!

Intelligender???

2009-04-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Alright, so Dustin is in Peru and I was in Walgreens looking for Seabands for nausea. Today was my first day off of Zofran and I wasn't very sick, just a bit nauseated, so I decided to not refill my prescription and try something more natural. So far, so good! But the wicked part of the story is this...

I saw a test near the medication that said, "Pink or Blue"? I grabbed it and looked, it turns out they have a pee test (probably not at all accurate but we'll see) to see if you're having a boy or girl and it can be taken after you are 10 weeks pregnant. Well I hit that mark a few days ago so I thought, what the heck :) (Dustin is going to kill me)

I followed the instructions and waited 10 long minutes, then came back and got my result...

In case you can't see it very well, it says "BOY!" :) (it's a mirror image so says it backward) We'll see if it's right! (Honestly, I do believe I am having a boy, always have thought that, so we shall see if Intelligender and mommy's intuition are right!)

Gender determination methods also tried...

- Ring over belly (boy)

-Old wives tales (mixed, mostly girl)

-Chinese gender chart (boy)

-Statistics (70% girl, 30% boy)

???????

Our first ultrasound :)

2009-04-12T09:03:00.001-07:00

So first off, I have to apologize about the pic quality, we don't have a working scanner so this is a cell phone picture of a picture :) But this is our little jelly bean at 8 weeks, 6 days! We were measuring just one day behind the due date, which is perfectly fine :) My parents came with us to Fetal Fotos and we went in to the ultrasound room! I was really nervous but excited! She put that goop on and it seemed the minute she put the little ultrasound wand thingy on my tummy, there was a baby on there! She was a pro and found it right away, lol!! :) It was then that we saw our little bean wiggle and move its little butt around, and we saw the heart beating. She zoomed in on it and turned the sound on, and we heard its heart beat at 172 bpm! Dustin and I were both amazed to hear it, it was such an amazing thing!! We absolutely loved it!

Our next ultrasound is in a couple weeks after Dustin gets back from Peru! We can't wait!

We are Pregnant! :)

2009-03-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

So Dustin and I decided that we would wait until our first appointment to tell everyone, but I have been so excited to announce it! :) :) A couple of weeks ago, I noticed my period was late. I decided to just wait it out, because I was sure I wasn't pregnant. Then, at a class field trip to the Oscar Meyer bus, all the teachers were given free hot dogs. I ate mine, and a couple minutes later puked it up in front of the entire class (eww!!!)! That's when I had some suspicions! A day or two later, I told Dustin I wanted to test! He is always the one that holds me back and lets me wait for my period to come! But this time my period was late and he was still hesitant! (Because trust me, I've thought I was pregnant before and turned out not to be!!! lol)

Anyway, we purchased a dollar store test...why waste money

right? Within a couple minutes I was screaming, "IT's POSITIVE!!!" He was still skeptical even after seeing it, and we ran to Walgreens to buy a more 'reliable' test! And this was our result:

After this test he said, "I am gonna be a daddy!" It was so touching to see him so excited!

We told a couple of people right away but decided to wait until the first appointment to tell everyone! So here I am, happy as can be, tape on my arm from getting my blood drawn at my first appointment! We are really happy and excited to meet our baby who is due November 14th! So I am about 7 1/2 weeks right now but I've been rounding up to 8 :)

So far, I have been quite sick, but my sickness only started about a week and a half ago! Before that I was bragging that I hadn't gotten morning sickness yet, HAHA. Now I am regretting saying anything because it hit like a mack truck! :) :)

We are soooo excited to meet you in November, little one!!

(P.s. I think it's a boy! So if mother's intuition is right...)

Our Dinner with the Lindstroms

2009-03-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

Dustin's mission friend, Justin Curnutt, came in to town with his wife and 3 month old baby Dominic and stayed with us so we decided to all get together with the Lindstroms (Dustin's mission president and his wife) and have dinner! We went to Red Robin and had a great time talking about the mission, our life now, and more! :) It was my first time meeting the Lindstroms, though when Dustin was on his mission I had brief correspondence with President Lindstrom to ask permission to send a surprise to Dustin. I also got to meet Justin and Ashley, and it was wonderful to get to meet them. We had a lot of fun! Sunday morning we had crepes and watched movies while Ashley went to her class. It was a great weekend!!!

Dustin's Turn

2009-03-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

My Nephews' Banquet

So Katie my sister called me and asked me if I could be a substitute father for Dominic and Riley this week and help them decorate cakes for their scout dinner banquet. So Dominic wanted to do a cake with the Superman logo on it. I have had some experince decorating cakes so I thought that with a little coloring and the two of us together we could do it. :) It was a lot more work than I thought it was going to be. I was sweating, (not too unusual if you know me) trying to get all the colors mixed, and trying to keep Riley away from the frosting. After we finished Dominic's cake we thought that it looked pretty good, not too bad for free hand. Up close you couldn't tell that it was an "S" for superman, but farther away it looked good.Riley's cake was a little more interesting. We were pushed for time to get the cake out of the oven in time to make it to the banquet on time with the cake decorated. Riley wanted to do something a little more unique, so we looked up on the internet what the letter "R" was in the Egyptian alphabet. When it came time to decorate the cake, (pulling out of the freezer hoping that it had cooled enough) we couldn't get Riley to stop eating all the frosting and licking all the spoons and things. :) He said that he wanted the cake cut into the shape of the Egyptian letter, so we did. It looked like a football, so that made it a little easier. Needless to say we made it with both cakes decorated to the banquet. Dominic got the most "Super" cake and Riley got the most "Unique" cake awards. All in all it was fun experience hanging out with them and decorating cakes. :) My Sister Katie has some funny pictures and videos that I am sure she is going to put up on her blog very soon. Also we hope to be getting some more pictures up of Lynds and I here soon!

Updates in our lives :)

2009-02-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a while since I posted any updates! I have misplaced my camera but when I find it I assure you there will be pictures! We have been busy bees in the Wright household!

Dustin has been able to travel for work a little in the last month which he enjoys. He's become quite technically savvy which is cool, and he is faster at typing than me now! :) He's gained a lot of good job skills while working with the computer company. It's awesome to see him grow!

We both are still 'in progress' with our health. We joined the same gym and find it's easier to go with the other's motivation. I love that we can take on that challenge together instead of having to go it alone. My weight loss has stalled for the time being, but I am hoping it will pick up again soon. I seem to be sitting comfortably within the same 5 lbs or so, but it's high time for me to get back in to gear! I have vowed I will not go off for the holidays again as this has been the main cause of the stalling!! :)

I am taking a class right now toward my childcare licensing, it's called "Tearless Discipline". It makes my work days long (15 hours) but it is good to have under my belt and it's worth it to know more about the right ways to raise a family, etc! I love my job and I'm happy to have a job I enjoy that has some awesome benefits! :)

We are also excited to think about purchasing a home toward the end of the year. Dustin still likes to car shop even though he knows he won't be getting one anytime soon. lol!

In the last month we were able to see Jenae's wedding down in Utah. It was great, though short unfortunately. We got to see our niece and nephews who have all grown so much! It's great to be able to love on nieces and nephews when we don't have children of our own yet :)

Anyway, I will be posting pics soon! Love you all!

Vincente :)

2009-01-03T09:30:00.000-08:00

We watched Katie's beautiful baby, Vincent, the other day and it was so fun :) He is such a doll!

Christmas!

2009-01-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

We were excited to celebrate Christmas this year. It was our second Christmas as a married couple, but considerably better than last Christmas! We each bought each other presents, and then went to the dollar store and got 10 things each for our stockings! We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, then headed over to my parent's house for celebrations.

I got an IPOD Nano (YAY!!), A spa gift certificate!!, and more! Duzzy got some of the movies he wanted, cologne, a watch, and more :) We also put a bunch of silly gifts in our stockings which were fun to open :) At my parent's house we had an authentic Mexican meal with my parent's friends and on Christmas day we had an american meal.

It was all very fun and relaxing! We look forward next year to celebrating the holidays in our new house, woo hoo :) We wish everyone a very happy New Year and hope 2009 brings you a lot of joy and that you accomplish the things you hope to! Dustin and I want to double our efforts and work on our health this year :) We also want to work on getting everything in order to buy house and we are saving $$ so we can return to Peru around the fall of 2010 ! :)

Merry late Christmas everyone :)

Thanksgiving!

2009-01-01T14:27:00.000-08:00

Sorry this has taken so long!! We have been busy busy.

So for Thanksgiving we made Sandy's famous rolls, well, DUSTIN made her famous rolls. They were delicious!!! He was a perfectionist about it, it was so cute :)

This is us on Thanksgiving day, it was a wonderful day! Those are tests in my hand, you guys all know that story. Anyway, we had a wonderful, relaxing day. It wasn't as we had originally planned but it was wonderful nonetheless!

Dustin had a great time picking up the pies with my dad from Marie Callendars (Mmmmm) and helping out in general. We all mingled, drank sparkling cider, and played Scrabble. It was so fun. This is my dad and Dustin!

My mom and I had a great time chatting and enjoying our Thanksgiving in their brand new house! It's gorgeous!

My brother Jared was there too, which was a wonderful blessing. My mom had a fun time joking around and french braiding his long 'do'.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Happy Anniversary to us!

2008-12-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

Dustin and I have been married now for one year officially! Here's a synopsis of our first, wonderful year together! :) :)

December 07: We were married in the Boise Idaho Temple!! It was a wonderful day and we were so excited to finally be husband and wife! We stayed in the anniversary Inn for the first night then hopped on a plane to Acapulco!! :) We still talk about how we miss Acapulco and how fun it was for us! We both moved in to Dustin's apartment and kicked Devan out :)

January 08: We traded my Honda CRV in for our first car together! A little Saturn Ion, was very fun! We saw our nephew Vincent be born (well Dustin did!)
We also got our first and last pet together. He was a baby ferret named Cubby. Sadly, he was already sick when we got him, and when his condition worsened, we took him to the vet and decided the most humane thing to do was to put him down. It was really sad and caused me some heartache, but we decided after that that we won't ever own a pet again!

February 08: We celebrated Valentine's Day together :)

March 08: Dustin home for one year from Peru! Woo hoo! We went on our first road trip as a married couple, to Utah. We visited Jenny and had some fun :).

April 08: We went on a special date together and celebrated our first Easter as a couple!

May 08: Devan and Mom and Dad Wright went on their missions! Dustin and I moved in to their home to take care of it for them! Dustin got a new job!

June 08: We went to Cancun Mexico on a wonderful church history trip and had a ton of fun! Lyndsey turned 22! Woo hoo :)

July 08: We celebrated 4th of July relaxing and making a gourmet meal!

August 08: We took several trips in this month! Bear Lake for family reunions and more!

September 08: Lyndsey started Weight Watchers :) We had a lot of visitors from out of town stay with us!

October 08: Dustin turned 23! We had a great Halloween and Lyndsey also hit the one year mark working for Kidlink! Lots of fun!!

November 08: We celebrated Thanksgiving with Lyndsey's family and found out we were pregnant, shortly after losing it :( We will probably hold off before trying again due to some things we want to accomplish beforehand now! We celebrated 5 years together!

December 08: We've hit one year! Yay! Christmas, here we come! Lyndsey's still on weight watchers, working through a plateau ;)

So that's a quick synopsis of our year together. The details haven't been filled in but there you have it!!!!! :-D

We hope that 2009 brings all of you joy and that you can fulfill your dreams!

Our 'Children'

2008-12-07T17:56:00.000-08:00

So I went on to this site by accident almost, it's a site that combines your facial features in pictures and makes your 'child'. Hahahahaha. :) Here are a few results, enjoy ;)

Well, she's a sweet spirit, ok?

Our 'daughter' haha

This one looks a lot like Dustin when he was a kid, crazy!

I think the little boy might just be the cutest! :)

For those that knew...

2008-11-28T08:39:00.001-08:00

...That we were pregnant, we just found out it's not a viable pregnancy and we will be miscarrying. I am sad, but here's hope for the future. Love you all.

I feel good, nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh...I knew that I would...

2008-11-26T19:20:00.001-08:00

25 lbs gone, 100 to go! Woo hoo!

Dogs on Camera

2008-11-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

After laughing our butts off in an attempt to take pictures of the dogs, we thought we'd share some of them. It was a lame attempt to get pictures of them, and they were fighting it the whole time. Dustin had to resort to the 'venus fly trap hold' and I had to offer up treats. But we got some...haha :)

Update on our Lives!!

2008-11-22T12:57:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update you all on what Dustin and I have been up to and such!

Right now Dustin is out of town at a wedding in Idaho Falls. I had to work so I couldn't go, sadly. This holiday season we are planning on more or less relaxing and enjoying it with mostly my side of the family since Dustin's parents aren't in town, and so for Thanksgiving we will be going to their new house out in Kuna and celebrating there. I am going to make my mother in law's famous rolls to contribute :) I will also have a nice long weekend away from work which will be oh so nice! For those still wondering I am still on Weight Watchers and I have lost 25 lbs! I achieved my first 10% goal which was just amazing for me and I am super excited about it. It's slow and steady weight loss but I really like it and I am enjoying learning to eat right!

Dustin is doing well, busy as ever. He is so wonderful to me! Our first anniversary is coming up December 13th, so we will have been married a year!! Wow :) We plan on staying at the Anniversary Inn and going to Melting Pot for dinner. It should be an awesome weekend! :) We stayed there for the first night of our honeymoon last year and I highly recommend it! It was wonderful!

Hope you are all doing well!

Husband Tag

2008-11-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

5 THINGS HE LOVES
* Me :) Haha (hope so!!!!)
* Music, in all forms!
* Peru, anything related to Peru!
* His family, he is such a family man
* Food and cooking!! He is a great cook!

5 THINGS ON HIS TO DO LIST
* Get a new car someday.. (He wants one so bad!! I have to say no ;)!!)
* Go back to Peru
* Figure out what he wants to do for schooling
* Be a dad someday ;)
* Buy a house (also someday!) We love looking!

5 FOODS HE ENJOYS
* Roast! He loves roast and fancies himself in how well he makes it!
* Jack in the Box hamburgers!
* The quesadillas I make for him :)
* Spam! eww!
* All of the meals his mom used to make ;)

5 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT HIM
* He was asked to be a model!! :) He is really good with posing, etc
* He's a major pack rat!!! I love you, babe but it's true! Anything and everything, he'll save it. Old grocery lists, old broken watches, random photos that he doesn't know of what...etc. He has boxes and boxes of this stuff!
* He won the award for being in the most choirs during high school at Borah
* He was the student body president in Junior High and is very charismatic and good with speeches, etc
* When we were first dating, he was talking to me on the phone about how he was reserving the words "I Love you" for the girl he would marry. At the end of the conversation he accidently said, "Ok, love ya, bye!" I was confused! Haha But I was the only girl he ever said those words to! Later on, ofcourse :)

5 PLACES HE HAS LIVED
* Boise, Idaho
* Bear Lake (Montpelier) Idaho
* Peru
* Rexburg, Idaho
* Umm...in heaven? lol

5 QUIRKY THINGS
* He only likes one brand and kind of tennis shoe. He wears one pair out and then buys the same pair again new
* His favorite color used to be purple until he realized this was a girl color and now just secretly loves it
* He has an uncanny ability to recognize the voices of certain actors and actresses!
* He doesn't like to eat the same food twice a day. For instance, if he has italian food for lunch, he doesnt' want it for dinner! :)
* He can sit comfortably through a chic flick :)

Love you honey :)

Happy Halloween!!

2008-10-27T13:49:00.000-07:00

We've had a splendid time with the spooky holiday so far!! We were originally gonna be the ogre couple from Shrek but we couldn't find the costumes and it was sad! That would have been cute, just didn't work out! :)

I was an angel, haha, so far from the truth ;) But I have been an angel on my new eating plan, I've lost 20 lbs :) We both just went out and bought our costumes, but it was fun to try and deliberate on what we would be.

Dustin was the prince of darkness himself! Kinda creepy isn't it?! We spent a long time trying to paint his face, starting with many failed attempts on my part which made him look like a creepy raccoon before my sister stepped in and helped!!

So we thought it was kind of cute, and plus Dustin just loved the fact that he was the devil, he just had the best time being Satan, haha. At the Halloween party we went to, he just the life of the party, had devil jokes here and there, it was really funny!

Ofcourse, I had to be careful, being the angel and all...you never know when the devil might turn on you!! :-D

At the party we went to at my best pal Say Jay's house, we had a lot of fun doing matrix and everyone fighting off the devil, haha. I won't post any of mine, as I never have been athletic and most of mine looked more like a chicken flapping around than a cool matrix fight!! :)

Everyone couldn't believe how good of facial expressions Dustin made during this little act! He was hilarious, and everyone was laughing hysterically! My friend Say Jay was Pippy Longstocking! Cute huh? Well actually she looks dead here but her costume was extremely cute!!

He was quite the lady killer ;) hahaha Pun intended, I crack myself up. Okay, not really :)

So I hope you enjoyed our disturbing Halloween pictures, I LOVE Halloween and I am always so excited to dress up. I start thinking about Halloween in June or July!! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!! Have a very spooky week and weekend ;)

OUR TRIP TO SUN VALLEY!!! More pics to come, slow computer :)

2008-10-19T16:31:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our trip this past weekend to Sun Valley!! We had a great time! By the way, I've lost 15 lbs now on Weight Watchers. Any way, so here are the pictures and we are so happy we went, it was a blast!!!

The first picture we took when we got there to our little motel! We stay in one at Hailey called the Hitchrack and it's so fun!

This is from our breakfast, which we had at the Rustic Moose, it was delicious!!

MORE TO COME!

Twin Falls (from August!)

2008-10-19T14:33:00.001-07:00

So this was our trip was back in August, and here are the pictures!!! Oh, and this was before I started losing weight too, hehe :) We decided to randomly just go to get away for the weekend. It was so much fun, and we did so much more than is in these pictures, but here's a piece!! :)

Dustin in front of our hotel, it was soo nice!!

Me standing in front of Ameritel, where I worked for a year! My first time staying in one!

I loved the beds! Didn't want to get out of them!!

And Dustin...well, he loved the TV!! :) A little too much! haha, jk

We were so happy to have such a nice room, we were just giddy :)

The next day we took a stroll around the new Twin Falls Temple, it was beautiful.

We visited Malad Gorge but before hand we just *had* to take pictures of the signs, haha :)

The gorge was beautiful and it was a gorgeous day! We also got to see about 5 people cliff dive, it about scared us to death!!

We thought it would be fun to check out the town fair, so we did!!

We took a picture with a turtle, haha!

No Pictures this time but updates :)

2008-10-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry we haven't updated recently! We've been busy!

First off, we are doing very well!! Dustin right now is in Utah at his mission reunion. I couldn't go because of work. He is doing very well and will be turning 23 on the 7th! 3 days, WOW! For those who knew I was on Weight Watchers you would be proud to know I'm still on it, have been for a month! I have lost 10 lbs thus far, yay :) That's just a little about what we are up to!
Also, we get to go to Sun Valley this year for Dustin's birthday, it's going to be awesome! :)
Hope everyone is doing well. Pictures coming soon!

I have bangs now :)

2008-08-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

I got a new hairstyle from Jenny!! She did an amazing job. I get compliments on the color and my new bangs all the time :) I didn't want to cut it yet, as putting it in a pony and going is just too tempting but I wanted an updated look and I got it! Bangs are becoming more and more popular so I feel a bit more trendy now! :-P Hope you like my tan too, haha. It's a natural tan from being out in the sun and playing with kids! Now just to lose weight ;)

Our Fun Little Scrapbook

2008-08-23T22:25:00.000-07:00

All...By...Myself!

2008-08-23T14:37:00.000-07:00

So, because Ace (the dog) is sick and I had a few errands to run, I opted to stay home for the family reunion. So Dustin is representing the family and I am being a little housewife.

I just wanted to share with my ladies this site in case you didn't know it....www.scrapblog.com It's totally fun to do and super easy!

Hope you like the new look of our blog! I keep getting better and better at changing it, yay :)

Just a few memories!

2008-08-21T12:43:00.001-07:00

I was going through some old pictures that I had and found some of these fun missionary pictures that I had, so I thought it would be fun to show everyone what I looked like before and during the mission.

Here I was with Mom and Dad getting ready to go to the Olive Garden just before entering the MTC

Hard to believe that thelittle guy that Jenny is holding is Bodie, but it was a long time ago! : )

This was us at Olive Garden having a little bite to eat before I entered the MTC. (I don't remember eating anything I was so nervous.) : )

Here we are at the MTC where you get the name tags.

Mom doing the honors.

Devan and I getting ready with all my bags to enter in.

This was right after I had just finished going through the Boise Idaho Temple. What a great experience that was.

Me and my buddie Chris Hayes waiting for our food to come in a restaurant in Peru.

Our Zone had just finished a service project together and thought we'd take a picture of ourselves. We liked making shirts for our zones, and this one said "The Best Two Years!" And was it ever.

I look really skinny here, but this is me and my companion Carlos Casupa with President Lindstrom and his wife! Great people.

This was so much fun to do and to look at. I hope that you enjoy it too!!!!!!!

We're Busy Busy Busy!

2008-08-14T06:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! So my cute hubby has been making so many posts lately, I thought I'd update real quick on what we are doing, so you can see I have an honest reason to be a bit behind on posting our recent Bear Lake trip pictures :)

Last weekend, we went to Bear Lake for the Peterson reunion. It was a lot of fun and we swam in the ocean, buried people in the sand (yes I got buried), and got to spend the night at Aunt Debbie's beach house! I told Dustin I wish I lived there, it's so beautiful, but he just laughed, saying I would get bored very quickly. I guess I MIGHT miss shopping, maybe that's it ;)

This weekend, we are having Kassie and Jenny and their kids in town! It will be fun! We are going to watch the kids (all 4 of them, yay) while the girls attend a wedding. Also, this Friday I am going with my class to the petting zoo at the fair. Try watching 20 3 year olds :) Yeah fun! :)

NEXT weekend, we are headed back to Bear Lake for the Wright reunion. We are staying at Grandma Doman's house. We will be there just for the weekend. I am hoping we will swim in the lake again, it was a lot of fun.

Ok, then flash forward a few more weekends and we have the Wright kids reunion!! We are staying in a big 8000 sq ft house with all the Wright kids and their kids! We are the only couple without kids (yet)! Insane! :)

So that's what we're up to lately. After this stretch of trips, we're gonna be pinching pennies for a while. That's okay though, we're happy to have the opportunity to travel so much!

We will post our Bear Lake pics soon, but if you want to see some of the hillarious ones of Dustin, check out Katie and Juan's blog...hahaha....:)

Our New Calling!

2008-08-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

We have a new nursery class! This is Lyndsey blowing bubbles with the kiddos!
"Did YOU eat my bubbles?!"
This little guy wouldn't let Dustin go!
We're special

Who's tough now!

2008-08-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Andrew and I decided that it would be fun to go shooting. We got as many guns as we could, ammo, and some snacks that Lyndsey packed for us. We thought it would be best to beat the heat and go a little earlier in the morning. Lyndsey made us egg sandwiches that were really tasty, and a bag of apricots to keep our energy up! : ) Then off we went.
Andrew driving to our destination, what a smile.
Do you feel lucky punk? Well.......do ya? : )
We got a little hot, so we steadied our shot by sitting in the back of Andrew's 4Runner

We were trying so hard to get a good picture............I cant get passed the fact that I am balding! : )
Nothin like a silencer........barely makes a sound. We didnt have much to shoot at, just a for sale sign and some shinny metal!

Me trying to be tough
Andrew loading his guns
As we were leaving to go home we passed a bunch of army tanks and some soldiers marching. It made us feel so cool to see that. Proud to be Americans

My Mission President's Homecoming

2008-08-07T17:03:00.001-07:00

Well I guess they say there is a first time for everything....thus my first time posting something on "our" blog! : ) About a month ago my Mission President and his family returned home from their mission. I was put in charge of getting a little group together to sing for their homecoming. I spread the word to a few guys and got a great response. We ended up having close to 50 ex missionaries come to attend their homecoming, needless to say they were very touched! We had a great time, and most of the people stayed at Dad and Mom's house....it was crazy!
These are such great People. I am lucky to live so close to them in Boise Idaho.

Quick Update, Pics coming soon!

2008-07-29T18:11:00.001-07:00

So I thought i'd give you all a very quick update!!

Dustin and I got our first 'couple calling'...we are nursery leaders....hahah :) So far everything's great, the kids are 18 months to 2 years and pretty darn cute!

Also, Dustin had a mission reunion type deal because his mission prez and his wife came home. We had about 40 guys staying at our house :) There will be pictures to come!! Hope everyone's doing well!

Cancun Part 3,Dustin's Underwater Stuff!

2008-07-12T11:57:00.001-07:00

These are just a few pictures from my mom's underwater camera. I was taking a nap when they took these but I think they are funny! They are swimming at the Mayaland Resort in a beautiful pool that was once a sanote.

This is Dustin holding my grandma, hahaha :) He is so funny

Dustin and Josh, Jazz hands!

Ahhh!!! Heeeellllppp!

Cancun Part 2!

2008-07-11T18:15:00.000-07:00

Kiss Kiss!! I think I might have some competition ;)
Holding hands with a dolphin!!
I think this is really funny!!
Dustin and I both look pretty beat up here! But anyway, the last place we stayed (Chitchen Itza) was beautiful and we had a very serene and lovely hotel room.
We got to hold monkeys! haha Sorry these are very out of order but I am still learning with this thing.

On our trip to the jungle, Dustin was brave and rode the zipline over the pond of crocodiles! I would have gone but at the time was let's just say I was having some.. problems. :) I'll leave it at that!

More to come!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends! We had a great 4th of July, serving up a great meal in the kitchen! We made Mini chicken meatballs with pasta (from Food Network), Venetian rolled pizza, strawberry creme drinks, and cherry pie with ice cream! Mmm! We then sat and watched TV with the 'boys'

More Cancun pictures to come...a video to make you laugh :)

2008-07-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

This video is funny because Dustin was posing for his picture but I accidently shot a movie. I laugh whenever I watch this! :)

I have more pictures of Cancun to add but haven't had time in the past 24 hours to do so, I promise I will have them posted soon!

Cancun!!! Part One!!!

2008-07-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well, we are HOME! Finally! We are so happy for the wonderful experience we had! We'll let a few of our words and the pictures do the talking. We took hundreds of photos but thought we'd compile it for you !!

We arrived first in Salt Lake City where we spent the night (all 8 of us!) in one bedroom near the airport! The next morning we had to be up by 4:30 so we were all exhausted!!

<--- Can you tell!?

We flew from SLC to Denver then to Cancun, but both of us don't remember the trip much as we had the help of Dramamine!!

We were very tired but super excited to embark on this trip!

We got to spend some time in Denver (whoo hoo) and then we were on to the Cancun airport!

We took about 2 hours to get out of customs and then...we walked out in to Cancun!! It was very hot and humid. 95 degrees but with 100% humidity felt like 105! Dustin was already sweating buckets by the time we reached the bus to take us to the resort!

<--- Happy but tired!

From the airport, we drove 2 hours to the Wyndham Mayan resort!

<-- Blue steel

This particular resort was all-inclusive and located beachside. The moment we got there, we were all forgetting about our tiredness and excited to see the beach, so we took a nice evening walk in the sand!

Experiencing the ocean at night was just magical. Already when we got there, a lightning storm was happening so we got to see the lightning crash on the beach (an amazing site) and feel the cool ocean breeze on our faces.

<-- Walking barefoot in the waves at night is just a treat! (see the sandy sandals?)

Having 7 other people on the trip and rooming with us left us very little (okay no) alone time so sometimes instead of being romantic we had to be a bit silly (as Dustin always is!!)

<-- I'm pretty sure if there WERE sharks by the shore, they swam far away after seeing such an intimidating look!! :) :)

All around the resort there were lots of trees and leaves, of which to hide from the jaguars in (just kidding)

<-- shhhhhh!!!

The next day we thought the weather was going to get better so we set off to explore and find cool stuff. Dustin was intrigued with the wild coconuts...Hmm...weird...haha :) I like to make fun of him. I took a picture just like this but his was funnier!

<-- I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts, diddly diddly, there they are a standing in a row....

We got some time to relax in the hammocks!

<-- Enjoying the tropical breeze!

Our meals were all provided so we got to try some good (and yucky) food! We also got to enjoy the beautiful views and the greenery.

<-- Two love birds in Cancun

We also got to enjoy complimentary drinks anytime we wanted. Our drink of choice (of which I had about 8) were the pinadas, or a virgin pina colada. One of our pasttimes was to enjoy a pinada on the beach while watching the waves crash!!

However, as we were getting our first pinadas, a mini hurricane hit and wiped out some of the bar. We all had to huddle inside the tiki hut to get protection. It rained almost every day of our trip.

After the rain hit, we decided to make a run for it in the rain. To give you an idea of how much it was raining (and this is AFTER it calmed down), we included these pictures!

We were soaked from head to toe!!

<-- Macho macho man

We trudged through so much water (from flooding) that my flipflops broke in the process!

Luckily they were only dollar ones so they could be put back together. Gotta love TARGET flipflops!!

<-- A battle cry!! We did it!

Dustin is very proud of himself for conquering the rain! The sky you see here was typical for several days of our trip!! It was the rainy season though and it was still way fun and beautiful!

<-- Raise the roof!

We saw a lot of cool animals at this resort, one of which we never did figure out the name. It was like a rat but huge and had hooves like a deer! Totally crazy!

There were also a lot of cool plants and some we used to joke around with!

Dustin used these leaves as sweat rags (ewww) and fans on the trip!

<-- Oh, and loin cloths :)

We finally did get some nice weather at the beach. This is not touched up or fake or anything..

Isn't it beautiful???!!

Dustin liked his faux hawk for part of the time, I think he looks cute :)

MORE TO COME!!! :)

Current Events!

2008-06-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are end of June!

Dustin and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary June 13th! It was neat and we made a big deal of it but most people kind of looked at us weird when we told them we were celebrating 6 months! Haha. Well it's half a year, that's special!!!

We are absolutely LOVING our large, spacious Wright home, courtesy of mom and dad Wright. Big screen TV, nice king sized bed, HUGE tub (my favorite part), and 2 wonderfully fun and loving pups too. It's life in the lap of luxury for sure. The only downside is upkeep but we seem to be doing well.

We attended our new ward for the first time. Apparently they're already working on callings for us!!! :-0

The end of this month (the 26th) is my 22nd birthday. But we will be (drumroll) in CANCUN!! For 10 days!! It's going to be heaven. It's an all-expense paid trip with the Jetsel family. I can't wait! We're going to have a blast, and I'm going to improve upon my already pretty great tan! Eek!

We're doing well, here's to 6 more months of blissful married life! :)

All Moved In!!

2008-06-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

So, Dustin and I got all moved in last week and weekend! We got to visit the family in Utah and say goodbye to Mom and Dad Wright...it was very fun but also emotional to say goodbye! Well, I am always the outwardly emotional one and so as soon as we started driving home I started crying and Dustin was just silent for about an hour and then was able to talk :) So we were sad to say goodbye but also excited for them and to be able to care for their home. The minute we stepped in the door we both shouted for joy, we were so excited! And I have really loved sleeping in such a nice room in a big bed, it's really fun. We're already acting differently about the way we treat the home, with our apartment we didn't care as much but we're taking extra special care of this beautiful house. It was also way fun to see the Temple and Capell family while we were there! :) I got to play and love on my adorable niece and nephews as well as hang out with Kassie and Jenny so I was content :) Am I doing too many smileys? Any way, I am really happy and so is Dustin. We are excited for the future!!
Until next time!

Update on the Wrights :)

2008-05-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, summer is quickly approaching and a lot has gone on at our house!

Devan left on his mission the middle of this month to Canada and we also got the news that Mom and Dad Wright were going to Honolulu, Hawaii!! They leave June 2 but we have already now moved in to their house and will be taking it over for them!

Dustin is now working at a software company for my dad and is enjoying it a lot! We have been quite busy lately!

In June I turn 22 and we are also going on a trip to Cancun! We have a trip to Utah planned as well for this weekend to drop off mom and dad.

My brother Jared is graduating and we are going to that today actually. This summer we plan on some trips to the cabin, lots of time with family, and enjoying the nice big house we have responsibility for the next 18 months! It's crazy to think that when mom and dad get home it will be Christmas 2009! Our plan is to save all the money we can right now and use it for a down payment for 'our' house to move in to. Then we'll likely start a family :)

So everything is going great here!!

4 month anniversary

2008-04-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

So I wanted to write a quick note because today is our 4 month anniversay being married :-) It's not a huge stepping stone or anything but it's kind of fun to recall all of our happy memories so far.

Dustin and I dated for 4 years prior to getting married so we thought we knew everything there was to know about one another. Boy were we wrong! When you join in marriage, you learn so much about yourself, your spouse, and your life. You learn even more how to give of yourself.

I appreciate Dustin's patience with me, as I can be a bit emotional at times! I am so grateful for him and for everything he does for me!

Well, we should be finding out where Mom and Dad Wright will be going on their mission this week. It will also let us know when we will be moving in to their home to take care of it for them.

We got to stay there this weekend and housesit and watch over Kassie whose baby is coming any day now! It was a fun practice run and made me feel more 'at home'.

40 things about us!

2008-03-31T11:57:00.000-07:00

So, here are 40 things about Dustin and I that you maybe didn't know! Idea taken from a friend :)

1. We are both stubborn, we are debating on who is more stubborn!
2. I love sweets, Dustin loves savory foods
3. We both like these names for our kids...Carter, Bradley, Dillan, Kailee (now we just need more girl names)
4. We both love opera
5. Dustin and I were both in barbershop quartets in high school!
6. We both know sign language
7. My favorite flower is a lily, Dustin's is a tulip
8. Our favorite fast food is Jack in the Box
9. Dustin loves cars, Lyndsey is trying to be more in to them :)
10. Dustin and I love to go house shopping together even though we're not really looking *yet*
11. We used to want 10 kids! Now we want 4-6!!
12. We both like to go grocery shopping, though he says I get 'weird food'!
13. Our favorite number and lucky number as a couple is 13, which is why we got married on the 13th!!
14. We are both naturally dirty blonde :)
15. Our voices (singing voices) sound really good together!
16. I swam in the ocean for the first time with Dustin
17. We sing together in the car, turn the radio off and just sing
18. Dustin always brings home weird movies from Redbox and we laugh and laugh about them!
19. Both of us LOVE to cook! I love to bake :)
20. Dustin sews better than I do
21. We are pretty traditional in the way we divvy out responsibility, except when it comes to dishes, that's all his (haha jk)
22. We both have green/hazel eyes
23. We both got out of long relationships before meeting each other
24. Dustin is more outgoing than I am!
25. But I am more creative than him :)
26. We always say "I love you" "I love you more" and carry on like that. Pathetic huh ? ;)
27. We wrote the entire mission! We still have all of our letters :)
28. Dustin loves to tell jokes, I am so bad at telling jokes
29. We both love food but have very different tastes! He likes spicy and I like comfort foods!
30. He takes only showers. I take only baths. Except once in a while I shower with him....TMI?!
31. We both played in the orchestra in jr. high. He played cello and I played violin!
32. We have more inside jokes than you could imagine!
33. I am a faster typer than Dustin :)
34. But he is more responsible!
35. I am very girly but low maintenance, he is low maintenance too but probably does better and looking nice most of the time!!
36. We both love kids, but I just might have more patience!
37. We were both in jazz and choral choirs!
38. We also were both in drama in jr high
39. We are best friends, but we also each have other people we confide in, which I think makes our relationship strong
40. We both love it to be cold when we go to sleep!