A place for all things I love...

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

California Love

This last week we made good use of our part time schedule & spent a great week in CA. We stayed at our good friends the Perry's in San Juan Capistrano. It is so nice to hang out with them as they are also expecting a little girl just a month before we are due! Friday Rachelle had the day off work so we headed over to Burke Williams for a pregnancy spa day! It really felt so nice to be pampered. Since we couldn't use the sauna or get in the hot tub they gave us our own private room for a maternity bath which was so relaxing. 
We also got facials! This is only my 2nd facial I have ever had, but I love how refreshing my skin feels afterwards & wish I could get them more often.
After the spa Rachelle & I headed over to Babies R Us to try & get a handle on all the things we will need before our babies get here. It was overwhelming to say the least with a million different bottles, diapers & pacifiers to choose between! Hopefully I will start to get a handle on these things within the next couple months..
On one of the days we were in CA I met up with my sister in law Amy to look at furniture in LA which is always awesome! It was so much fun even if we spent half the time at the gap spending our budgets :) 
After a couple days of relaxing, eating Jeremy's favorite breakfast burritos every morning & hanging out we headed down to San Diego to stay with the Tate's for a couple days. Jeremy mainly golfed, but when it was a rainy morning we happily headed to the San Diego Zoo for the afternoon! Thanks Meg for the free entrance passes :) We took a bus around the zoo so we wouldn't have to walk so much & decide which animals we wanted to go back around & see up close. I know that sounds super lazy but the San Diego zoo is huge!! It takes all day to walk around that whole place! These were actually the only pictures I took all week.
Monkey's are always so entertaining!
buddies :)
This guy came right up to us and smiled, so sweet!
Seeing the animals up close is just so fascinating. I was so sad I didn't get to see the Koala's since they were reinventing their housing, but I have to say seeing the ginormous hippos was probably the highlight of our day.
It is so nice to have friends & family in California they we can hang out with when we need a break from Mexico.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Coming Along

It seems crazy that the day has finally come that in a couple short months I will have a baby! I do not feel old enough or maybe grown up enough to have a child under my care!
As my mom can concur I have always looked forward to being pregnant. I used to stick out my belly pretending & it would make her really mad for some reason..
( I guess it's not really lady like) 
Well no more pretending my belly is really starting to stick out as I am halfway done at 20 weeks!
I was worried there for a while when it seemed I still wasn't making any progress & just looked a little pudgy instead of expecting. Well right before and after Christmas my stomach grew a ton very quickly. It was really exciting to start feeling the little one move & kick. Makes the whole thing seem a little more real when you can see & feel the proof that there is indeed a baby in there.

Now to answer some of your questions.. 
Morning sickness? I have been super lucky in the sickness department. I have only thrown up twice! Once when I ate sushi (I know I shouldn't have so I got what I deserved) & the other time doesn't even really count since I had the flu! Don't get me wrong there were days where I felt blah or incredibly tired but for the most part it has been a breeze. I personally think I use all my alloted sick days & more throughout the year so there were none left to use during pregnancy :)
Eating habits & cravings? Honestly my appetite has not changed much. If anything I eat a little less than I did before I was pregnant & have to remind myself to snack during the day. I just don't feel all that hungry? I do feel like my taste buds are heightened as I avoid foods I dislike a lot more. The one thing I can say I do crave is Salt & Vinegar chips. So buy me a bag of those & I will be your new best friend!
Weird dreams? Yep I have 2-3 a night. What a strange symptom of pregnancy. I sometimes wonder if it is just because you are not in a deep sleep since you are waking up so often to use the bathroom.
Delivery? NO I will not be delivering my child in Mexico! I will be delivering in Utah with Dr. Farley (who also used to be my old bishop) :)
and last but not least..
Boy or Girl? Yes we know the sex of the baby. We are very excited to be having a little..


Well there you have it. Now for the most important part. I really need your advice & suggestions!! Really anything would be helpful from where to find cute baby boy clothes to your favorite brand of diapers. Things you can't live without & things you wasted your money on. I would love any info you have for a first time mom!
 xoxo
Cassie

Monday, January 9, 2012

Christmas & such

I have to admit blogging as well as keeping up on my photography has been a struggle lately. I just never seem to be in the mood. Hopefully the drive will come back, but for now I will just have to push through & do it anyway. I already feel sad for the lack of pictures I have from Christmas :( 
Anyways Christmas was a whirl wind of a day! The night before (christmas eve), we went to Sherlock Holmes with Earl & Sandy, and funny enough my family came and sat on the same row. So I guess we saw the movie with both families :) Afterwards we headed to Teppanyaki for a delicious meal with the Kemps, minus Chris, Amy, Truman & Teddy who ended up staying in CA for Christmas. Later we read some Christmas stories & played a game with my family. That night we came up with an awesome idea.. Since Jaxon was so worried/disappointed about the amount of presents he was receiving we decided to round up as many random gifts as we could. He had almost 15 wrapped gifts when we were done! :)

Jeremy woke me up early Christmas morning & we headed over to the Kemps to open presents. Jeremy & Earl sporting rudolf noses.
 Jeremy received new golf clubs.. again. I swear that's what he gets every year, but it does make him extremely happy so I guess it's a good thing. I received some new mac make up that I desperately needed, a new pair of jeans, & some earrings. Sandy received a nook to read on and we gave Earl this family picture that he wanted.
Jeremy really surprised me by getting me a new jeep! Which will really come in handy since I don't have a vehicle. It worked perfectly because he put the car seat we bought to tell our families we are pregnant in the back seat for Earl & Sandy to see. They were very surprised and excited :) 
Around 10:30 we headed over to my parents for more gift opening. Jeremy got from me some new golf shoes, and lots of clothes. Jeremy also got me this furry coat I had been obsessing over :) 
The most entertaining part was watching Jaxon open his many gifts. He seemed sort of confused but mostly happy about his random gifts. Many of them items he already owned but had forgotten about. haha
One of his "special" presents below. He was disappointed since it was heavy he figured it was something good. That kid cracks me up!
 We gave my dad some new work shoes, & my mom running shoes, a top, and jewelry. You can also see my cute chevron wrapping paper in the background.
 It took nearly 5 min to get these two close enough to snap this picture.
 My family was equally surprised when they opened the car seat telling them grandchild # 3 was on the way!
We then headed to Kemp's church for a little Christmas spirit. Afterwards we enjoyed Sandy's famous Christmas lunch which includes: ham, funeral potatoes, peas, rolls and layered jello. It is so delicious & something we look forward to every year! 

We then headed back over to my parents house (as you can see we went back & forth a lot, we are lucky they live so close!) for dinner & our usual Christmas eve festivities which we couldn't get everyone together for until Christmas night. My sweet grandparents came and gave us all a monetary gift. They are always so generous. 
Since my family is so large we draw names each year & exchange them all together. Jeremy got some golf balls from Prezley & I got a really cool ombre button up shirt from Meghan.
That night was a blast as we played two fun games, that are becoming my favorite of Christmas traditions. The first is a white elephant with gift cards that I always love using after xmas. Jeremy ended up with one to Sports Authority & mine was for CPK. Others got Barnes & Noble, Target, Boondocks, & Forever 21. The second game everyone was given 15 pennies and about 30 seconds to look at a large loot of items. Then the auction begins as you bid against others for items you want. It is really funny to see what everyone uses their $$ on. Jeremy & I ended up with fuzzy socks, a pack of martinelli's, peanut M&M's, bath salts, a head lamp, and some clothes. I think the most popular items ended up being a case of slim fast, & a j crew tie.
These are the only pictures I got that night of Hawkes & Atlas playing in the tent my mom had given Hawkes for Christmas :)
It is so fun to be all together with family. We did plenty of other fun things together but since I don't have pictures I have sort of forgotten. All I know is Jeremy played a lot of Donkey Kong & we all got the flu one day :( The only thing that could have made Christmas any better is if it snowed.. I was really sad not to see any white stuff the whole time I was in Utah!

While in town we also celebrated New Years eve. We went with friends to Market Street grill for a delicious dinner & then over to the Ossmen's for a fun night with treats & a hilarious game. I wish I took some photos but alas I never even took my camera out of the bag :(
I did at least snap a photo in my sparkly gold dress. I'm sure you are as disappointed as I was Jeremy didn't pack something more festive than this.

On New Years day I convinced my mom to go back to an old tradition & have crab for dinner. It was really something to look forward to, Jeremy especially couldn't wait. He did seem a little less excited when he found out I offered to purchase the crab.. but said it was totally worth it in the end! We found the best giant crab at Costco.
Enjoying our delicious New Years dinner :)
On our way back from Utah we stopped by Chris & Amy's for a little holiday get together since we missed them over Christmas. We took Truman out shopping for a new toy which was so awesome since he is at such a fun age! Chris & Amy spoiled us, getting Jeremy a really nice new golf bag & me a bunch of the cloth bound penguin classic books! I am so excited to have half the collection & need to get the rest to decorate our place.

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, seems sad that we have to wait a whole year to celebrate again! 
Stay tuned as we have plenty of other exciting news an announcements we need to share!