Sunday, December 16, 2007

Part One: The Outside!

Well, here are the pictures of the new place we bought. They're not actually of OUR place because I haven't taken any pictures yet. I need a wide angle lens to actually get shots of the bedrooms that aren't just the corner of the walls. Anyway, here they are:


First off, here's the exterior of one of the units. Ignore the green grass- it's snowing here. I don't want you to feel misled; it's actually quite cold and I don't care for it.

Next up:the floor plan. Once again, this is ALMOST what our place looks like. You need to flip it to get the full idea.

Here's a porch. This isn't our porch, but it's close. OUR porch has a little wall so it feels more enclosed. I like it better, but didn't take a picture of it yet. This picture was online, and online is better than standing outside in the cold taking a picture of a door and a concrete slab.

The BIG, Exciting News!

So I thought it was probably time to let everyone know what Chris meant when he said "Man... life is busy at the moment. I won't go into details just yet cause I don't want to jinx anything. I'll just say that the absence of posts is for a good reason and leave it at that." I thought that was kinda mean. I would have been so curious. So, here's the story.

The weekend right before Thanksgiving we started talking about owning a place to live. We've been renting for two years and plan on living in Utah for at least 2-3 more years. Though we have casually talked about how nice it would be to own a place before, this was the first time we felt strongly that it was a good idea to start seriously looking, actually prepare to buy our own place, and act sometime within the next 6 months or so, no hurry.

That was Sunday. Monday we talked to my boss to get some advice about the market and homes vs. town homes, etc. The following day, he told me he found an amazing deal on some condos and that we needed to check them out. So we did. At first I was so shocked at how quickly this was happening; I wasn't sure if this was the place for us. The only problem was because it was such a good deal, they were selling fast and there were only a few left. So, we looked at them again the next day, and the next day after that.

Thursday night we received a strong confirmation that this was a good thing and we needed to move forward with it. We started the process Saturday, November 17th and closed Dec. 6th and moved in Friday, Dec. 7th.

So, the big news is that we finally have a place of our own!!

Our last place was around 800 sqft or so, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom. Needless to say, we had grown out of it about 3 times over. Poor Chris (who works from home) had to have his office set up in the dining room/kitchen. Our new place is the perfect size for us: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1340 sq ft. and an actual laundry room, not just a closet off the kitchen. Anyway, we are so excited and love our new place. It took us a while to get used to the fact that we don't have to ask anyone for permission to paint or do anything.

I found some pictures of it online. Chris will put them up on a different post so this one doesn't get tooo long. We are almost completely finished moving in, which is nice since I have surgery this Thursday and will be out of commission for 2 weeks. We still need to decorate for Christmas though...

Friday, December 14, 2007

The History of Chris & Cindy, according to Cindy

Thank you Ginger for this cute little questionnaire

1. Where did you meet your husband?

We met after sacrament meeting in the BYU 136th ward. It was on mother's day because I gave a talk that Sunday, and I had a nasty black eye. I'm amazed he talked to me. :)

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?

I don't remember, probably thank you, or nice to meet you. He either said he loved my talk, or someone introduced us.

3. Where was your first date?

Well, we saw a movie together, a big group of us, but it wasn't really a date setting so I don't know if that would be considered our first date (we saw League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), or if it would be when we got horchata's late one night and hung out at the park.

4. Where was your first kiss?

It was in the back yard of this really cool house for sale, overlooking Provo. This was the first time I had ever initiated a first kiss. Poor Chris had to wait for me to get over post mission shell shock. Thank you for being patient honey.

5. Did you have a long or short engagement/courtship?

It was pretty short. We were engaged in May, married in August, but we had met 2 years before. I left on my mission a few months after we became friends and we wrote while I was gone.

6. Where did you get engaged?

We got engaged in Portland (or was it Vancouver), anyway, it was on top of a hill that looked out over the city. It was beautiful, but freezing. I didn't know he was going to propose, I thought we were just hanging out, freezing for fun, so I kept saying how I was ready to go. Poor Chris.

7. Where did you get married?

Mt. Timpanogos Temple in American Fork Utah.

8. How did your reception go?

Perfect! It was in such a beautiful garden, with amazing food, and we had so many friends and family there to enjoy it with.

9. The Honeymoon!

That's a funny story. We went on a cruise to Alaska, and on our fourth day, (it was our stop in Skagway) we missed the boat. Yes, that's right. We watched as our ship sailed away, so we had a wonderful excursion as we made our way back to the boat. We flew on a tiny little plane, slept in an airport, flew on another plane, tried to get into Canada without our passports, got on a ferry and hung out in Victoria. It was actually really fun. I think that little trial was such a great experience for us and a funny story to tell our kids.

Who's turn is it next? YOURS!! I would like to know how all my friends met the love of their life.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Busy Busy Busy

Man... life is busy at the moment. I won't go into details just yet cause I don't want to jinx anything. I'll just say that the absence of posts is for a good reason and leave it at that.

In the meantime- here's more Carter pictures:


Trick or Treat?

It's Halloween in December! Well, that's what happens when your computer fails and you're just plain lazy when it comes to posting outdated pictures.

BUT- Carter had his first Halloween. And, boy oh boy, it was a blast! He was sick, Cindy was sick and I wasn't. So, these pictures, though definitely show Carter in his super-cute Halloween costumes (yes, plural), are actually "recreated" photos a week or so after the fact. Don't be disappointed though. This just gave us a better chance for him to accept wearing costumes and actually seem happy about it.

First off: Pumpkin Time!

And... the crème de la crème: Carter- the turtle.

(he didn't like the hood. At all.)

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A little post

Still getting the Halloween pictures in order- so until then, here are a few pictures of Carter standing. By "standing" I mean he has weight on his legs and he's wedged between the couch cushions so I could snap a few pictures. He's a happy boy though; anything that involves being on his feet pretty much makes his day.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Nuked it...


Thanks to a freak of nature occurrence, I was fixing our computer and nuked it. What does "nuking" entail? Well, without turning this into too much of a geeky-blog, I rebuilt windows so things would work better. In the process, my computer decided to be stupid and went around eliminating things it had no business touching. This includes all of our personal information and backups. This was 7 days ago.

The result? A heart attack at first which quickly turned into a full-on panic attack. I don't care about losing programs and my computer not working; money and time can fix those things. I was concerned that I lost all of my pictures and backups of pictures. Can't really recreate Carter at the hospital or our wedding- well, not convincingly, at least.

In the end, I've dedicated the last week to fixing this mess. It took much longer then I thought, but I am a lucky, lucky person and managed to recover my lost files. This means we have our pictures back. I've also gone from "anal" about protecting personal info, to "ridiculously OCD-anal" which I'm not getting into here. Needless to say, there is almost no chance of this happening again. If you'd like the boring details about any of this, you can call cause I'm not wasting more words on such a frustrating experience.

So, if you were wondering why there weren't blogs or comments or pictures of Carter, now you know.

I'm still putting the final touches on our computer before we're officially back in business, but there are some Halloween pictures, baby blessing pictures and other cute-Carter pictures forthcoming.

Scott Wolf


So, how many of you remember Party of Five? I used to like that show, but for one reason really...Scott Wolf. He is the actor that played the Bailey. I used to think he was so cute. Well, Chris, Carter and I flew out to Vancouver to visit Chris' family, and guess who we saw on the plane? That's right Scott Wolf. Weird. He's still cute, but he's really short. Chris just laughed at me the whole time while I kept trying to sneak another peak at Scott like a little 13 year old girl. It was fun!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Pictures and a quick update

It's been a while, so I thought I'm taking a moment to toss up some pictures and give the quick update.

First, Carter is 10 weeks old tomorrow- and the last two months have blinked by. He smiles when he sees me or Cindy now, and now most of his wakeful times are spent with me doing whatever it takes to get him to smile again; it's like a drug but the fix only lasts 2 seconds.

We had family in town over the weekend for Carter's blessing. I woke up Friday morning and have been going non-stop since about 11 this morning. My mom flew home today and Cindy's parents left also, so things have calmed down enough for me to try to get back into somewhat of a routine again.

So, with that lame attempt to update the last month in 100 words or less, I'm just going to skip to the pictures of Carter (it's the good part of this blog anyway). Feel free to click on an image to get an unnecessarily large version of the picture.

Carter's just barely 4 weeks in this one:

Here he is at 7 weeks...

Carter at 9 weeks... finally got him smiling - only took 50 pictures

Here's Cindy with Carter (his eyes look unnaturally blue here)

and finally, just Carter



Cannon Family Reunion?

With the baby blessing this last weekend, it marks the first time that all of Cindy's immediate family was in town together. The last time was our wedding, 2 years ago. We spent most of the weekend with them and good times were had by all. Cindy's family is definitely larger than mine, with 3 older brothers, all married, 6 nieces and nephews, and who knows how many cousins, it definitely trumped the brother, sister and spouses that make up my immediate family. I'm lucky I don't have "crazy horrible" in-laws or anything close to it so doing stuff with family is always fun, regardless of which side I'm referring to.

To mark the occasion of the unofficial reunion, we had family pictures. Anybody that knows me understands my utter disdain for having my photo taken and this was no exception. I did my part to not ruin the pictures and only time will tell if I managed to pull that off. I did, however, get a chance to take pictures this weekend. The practice is paying off- now I only feel slightly lost using my new camera and not totally lost like I used to. So... in honor of the weekend, here are some shots of my nieces and nephews and one, of course, of little Carter who handled all the extra attention this weekend fabulously. As always, feel free to click for the big version.















































Thursday, September 20, 2007

Back on the computer again

I don't know what it is about me and computers but I just don't have a desire to use them. (Come to think of it, I have a similar issue with phones, but that's another blog.) Don't get me wrong, I think the Internet and all the updated computer programs are wonderful, and I enjoy using them. I'm on the computer a lot at work which is great, but when I come home I don't have any desire to communicate with the outside world or get on the computer for any reason. Which is why Chris has become our families designated blogger. I am very grateful for that, and I'm sure our friends and family are as well. Chris has also recently become very interested in taking pictures and editing them, and doing genealogy. Again, I am so grateful to him for these new hobbies! I am very lucky to have such a great husband, and Carter is lucky to have such a wonderful dad.

I started work back up this week after my 6 week maternity leave. I wasn't sure how it would be going back, but fortunately I am starting back part time for two weeks to get back into the swing of things. That has helped a lot. It has been nice being back. Everyone has been great, but I still miss being around Carter all day. I do get to have him with me part of the day though. My bosses have been very accommodating and are letting me bring Carter to work. Chris and I decided to split our time with him during the day to work around school and work which is seeming to work out great for all of us.

Carter is getting big so fast. He just turned 6 weeks old this week and he weighs about 11 lbs. He is such a sweet little boy and started smiling at us at about 4 1/2 weeks old. Chris and I love when he smiles his big toothless grin at us. There is nothing more fulfilling. He loves eating, taking baths, getting tickled by his dad and cuddling (which I love also especially since I know it won't last forever.)

Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of Cater smiling yet, but this was the closest I could get.

Now that it has almost been 6 weeks from Carters due date, we will soon start trying to get Carter on a schedule. We received many recommendations of the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, have enjoyed reading it, and now we can't wait to start putting it into practice.

So I've been seeing lots of doctors lately to try and put me back together. One doctors appointment I had recently was long overdue. I saw an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor regarding my recurring ear aches, sinus infections and swollen tonsils. I was hoping he would be able to give me some kind of answers. He did. I have to have surgery on my nose and my tonsils are getting removed. This is kind of a catch 22 considering I'm not looking forward to surgery. Everyone tells me how horrible it is. Yet he has promised me that this is the solution to recurring illness. Temporary pain is worth it if I can look forward to being healthy the rest of my life. So, that's what I'll be doing for Christmas this year.

I think that's about it for now. Trisha, we are so excited you guys are coming up for Carter's blessing. We can't wait to see you.

Also, to the many newly pregnant women, Congratulations! To all the new fetuses out there, we look forward to welcoming you to the world.

Chris said I need to add pictures, so I added a picture of Carter (which is always fun), the book, and a picture of my unhealthy tonsils (which is just disgusting which is why I added it to the bottom so those of you with weak stomachs may want to stop now). Enjoy!!








Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Labor day weekend came and went without much hooplah, which is just fine by me. Yesterday was also the first time since Carter was born that we didn't have somebody over at our place in one capacity or another. Cindy's parents were here and her mom stayed with us for the first bit and my parents were here with my mom staying with us until Sunday. Having them around was a HUGE help and without them, I can honestly say that I would be totally sleep deprived by now and have less of a clue on how to raise a child. The only downside was that we didn't have much time to ourselves. In the end, the trade-off was definitely worth it, but knowing yesterday that the house was ours again was a great feeling; even if it was spent doing very, very little.

Here's today's cute Carter picture(s):


There's a catch to the photos which is obvious to me but other people, including my family, didn't notice- which I find kinda odd. I suppose I could make this some interactive game where I don't tell you what I'm referring to for a few days and you could all post fun comments trying to guess.

I'm not going to cause the suspense would be unbearable for some. Instead, I'll just say that the picture on the left is Carter and the picture on the right isn't Carter. It's me when I was a few months old. I can kinda see the resemblance but I don't think it's fair to curse my son to look like me just yet- so maybe I'm in denial.

And lastly, Cindy is an amazing mother. I still don't understand how she had an 8 pound baby a month ago, pretty much gave up sleep since then, but still looks so amazing and is so wonderful to be around. I'm a lucky guy and here's a picture to prove it.



I'm bugging her to get on here and post something and I think she may actually get to it this week... but don't quote me on it.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

This is what we do... all the time.

Carter eats, sleeps, poops, and repeats. This routine cycles itself every 2-4 hours and has been doing so for almost 3 weeks. I'm tired and Cindy's more tired, but even with Carter being largely responsible for most of this exhaustion, our waking time is still spent staring at him.

That picture is right after bath-time with Carter. This was his first time without the "hospital recommended" sponge bath to protect his umbilical cord stump. we were told to expect 2-3 weeks for it to fall off. He waited 4 days. So- we bathed him and stared at him the whole time. Didn't even bother to look towards the camera either- all eyes were/are on him. I've tried figuring out what I'm looking at when I stare at him, but I really can't describe it. Carter's focusing more so now it feels like he's actually looking back at me but it wouldn't matter either way.

I thought it was just a Mom/Dad thing... but after going through pictures tonight, I've notice a bit of a trend:

So Carter is either irresistible, or newborn babies are just meant to be stared at. Either way, being a dad is great; sleep or no sleep.

Monday, August 13, 2007

More Carter!

Well... I wish there were more hours in the day- it might help me catch up on sleep. So far, Carter is doing really well, but he hasn't caught on to my pleading for him to sleep through the night. He does fall asleep quickly though and his quiet awake times are the highlight of my days


so feel free to enjoy more Carter-goodness.

Once things settle down a bit more, we'll have time to actually blog AND put multiple photos on here.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

He's Here!

Well... the wait is over, and our baby boy has arrived!


Carter Louis Burkman
was born at 7:34pm on August 7th.
He weighed in at 8 pounds, 3 ounces
and measured in at 20.5 inches.

His apgar tests were high (8 and 9 for those who know what that means... I only kind of do.) and he's as healthy as can be. Cindy is doing well and was absolutely amazing during labor. We got into the hospital at around 12pm because her water broke. She started with contractions around 12:30 and Carter was here 7 hours later!

I never understood what people meant when they talked about how special it is to see your baby for the first time - I don't think I'll ever be the same, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Here's a link to more pictures of little Carter.


I'll throw captions on em later and add to the collections when we're all back from the hospital.



Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Done Waiting...

***UPDATED*** I threw in one more picture from Cindy at 37 weeks.


The last few weeks have been dedicated to getting things together for when the baby comes which helps me justify my lack of activity on here. Books talk about some "nesting" instinct that kicks in. That might be it, but more likely is just a plain old need to have a space for the baby to live. I love our 850 sq ft place, but it became quite apparent a few months ago that we have a TON of crap and it's taking up a TON of space. So, 5 or 6 boxes worth of donations and heaps of trash bags later, we've uncluttered.

Now that our crap is gone, we've been busy replacing it with new, baby crap (not literally). Car seat arrived in the mail today as will most of the other major items we need to keep our son alive and somewhat entertained. With all this purchasing, gift receiving, and general preparing, I really feel like our boy needs to be here... now. He's not yet (or I wouldn't be writing this). In fact, he's not due for another 3 weeks. The problem is that I am not a patient person by nature. I've done a good job at waiting 8 months, but these last 3 weeks just might kill me.

Today marks 37 weeks and doctor says that if Cindy goes into labor at this point, they won't try to stop it. So, I spend my free time encouraging the baby to not disappoint us by waiting till the 14th of August to come. I'm also trying the "stern father" approach, telling him he HAS to come early and he doesn't want to start life out by disobeying his parents. Is this actually working? I'd like to think so; then I can write a million dollar bestseller about getting your child to obey you from the womb. But until you see my book on the shelves, you can just chalk it up to wishful thinking.

Cindy's doing well, but I can understand why the ninth month is the hardest for pregnant women. Aside from having dealt with being pregnant for almost a year, I really don't think Cindy has much space left in her belly if that baby keeps growing. People have requested pictures and all that, so here's a cutesy little slideshow that'll show Cindy from the start of it all till now (well... start of when we started taking pictures.) Hover over a picture to see how far along she is and make sure to leave lots of encouraging comments cause I had to twist her arm to post these. :)

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Hair!

So I just have to say that my super-great sister-in-law Cassie, did a wonderful job on my hair. She has been going to school at Paul Mitchell in Provo and since she has started has been able to dye my hair the perfect dark brown color and recently lightened it again, achieving almost the exact shade as my natural hair color. That isn't easy! Also, she has continued to keep it cute by cutting it and styling it.

Here's my hair when it was dark:

And here it is now, light again:

Thank you Cassie! You're amazing!!

An Update

Okay, so Chris told me today that I have to write a new post. I don't really know what to say, so we'll see what happens.

These last few weeks I have been feeling very pregnant and ready for our son to arrive. A few things have happened since our last blog so let me give you a brief update. We finally found a crib and dresser for the baby which was very exciting. It was a great deal! Everyone has their opinions about buying used cribs, but after countless hours of research, we decided to at least see what we could find. We really lucked out. A couple in Layton was selling a very high quality set (we found out all we could on that too), for less then half what we would have had to spend on the brand new set.

Chris set it up and we started getting the room ready for our new arrival (I put all the clothes and fun things away). That was when it became even more real that our lives would soon be changing. The room still isn't completely ready (I'm trying to decorate still), but things are a lot closer. Hopefully we'll have a new addition in a month. It's safe for him to come after the 24th of July, but he isn't due until the 14th of August. We're hoping for sometime the end of July, but will be fine with whenever.



Last week was the last of our four week birthing classes at the hospital. They taught the basics of pregnancy and birth, and we were able to tour the hospital, which was nice. It seemed like a lot of people in our class really didn't know much about anything really, and continually asked what we thought were self explanatory questions. So Chris kept me entertained by making fun of everyone and their stupid questions. I was excited for our last class which was about breast feeding. I thought that this class would teach us a lot of very useful things. I was wrong. Rather than just teaching us clearly and giving us lots of useful knowledge, she was confusing, not focused, mumbled, and spent most of the time telling us why it was so important to breast feed rather then how to be successful at breastfeeding. She gave us list of reasons people say they can't breastfeed, then said they weren't good reasons, and, if you ever have problems, get help from someone. She went on for most of the two hours explaining how it is recommended to breastfeed your child for at least 2 years, and that Michael Jordan was breastfed for 3 1/2 years. She even went so far as to say, "if you want to do the right thing, the ethical thing for your baby, you will breastfeed." It was really weird. We left feeling kind of frustrated. We both understand that breastfeeding is important, and we were never against it, but we ended up feeling annoyed by the way it was pushed on everyone as a moral issue, rather than just teaching us the basics. Oh well. So that's over.

Our doctor appointments are weekly now and we are excited about that! We're 35 weeks along this week. I can't believe how fast time has gone by. My body always hurts now; I feel like the baby has completely taken over my body (I feel him in my ribs, my lower back, on my bladder- pretty much everywhere all the time). Working has become more and more difficult and the heat is getting to me a lot more. I was really surprised when, for the first time ever, I was hot, and Chris was cold. That was weird.


My mom got into town the other night which was fun. We love it when she visits, and especially that she made it here for the 4th of July. I love the 4th of July, mostly because when we were younger, that was when we came to Utah and spent time with our extended family. Even though not all of our family was there, it was great being able to spend the day with a lot of loved ones. It was a busy day. We started off going to the parade in Provo, then it was back to my aunts house for lunch where we stayed and hung out and visited for a few hours. Then Matt and Steph and their cute kids came over (it was great seeing them) and we lit a few fun fireworks for the kids (tanks, snakes, smoke bombs, flowers and parachutes). The kids were loving it. Then we all headed out to the MTC Field by the temple to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. Again, the kids just loved it. I was exhausted and thoroughly sore by then, but it was so fun just having us all together.
Hopefully we'll post something again a lot sooner then a month.

Also, I'm trying to update everyones information, so please email us addresses, phone numbers, birth dates etc. Our email is burkmans at gmail dot com.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Registering for your Baby??

Aside from a really bizarre stretch of weather, this week has passed by without much ado. It was 90 or so Tuesday morning, and after a bunch of wind, dropped to below 50, dumping snow on the mountains again. Kind of a cool thing to see; not cool to experience as it left me with bad headaches and I ended up sick Thursday and Friday.

Cindy had a "ward" baby shower with friends from our ward getting together to hang out and share in the joy of all things baby. "Share" really means "give us stuff"- something I will never complain about. It still seems odd that there are gift-giving parties that aren't birthday related, but I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth (odd saying, isn't it? Turns out it actually means something. Go Figure.). I've come to realize already that we have some pretty nice friends as they were quite generous in helping us get started with baby-life.

A handful of people have asked us if we registered. At first, I thought they meant wedding registry, but that doesn't make too much sense and I hoped our friends were smarter than that. They were. Turns out you can register for baby gifts. We have a Babies"R"Us up the road from us and that's the "place" to register around here. Personally, I feel odd registering for baby stuff. It kinda feels like we're begging. I mean, it makes sense if people want to be generous and celebrate this with us, but setting up a want list still seems odd. I may be alone on this one, but oh well.

We did end up registering. I got to use a scanning gun again- always a good time. I found, however, that registering for baby things was not at all like registering when were engaged. For one, there are thousands of things we needed before we got married. With the baby coming, there are things we need, but there aren't as many categories to fill this time around. Clothes. Definitely need clothes. The more baby clothes we receive, the happier Cindy gets (something about girls and little baby-clothes; don't quite understand it), so there's no reason to skimp there. After that, we have bottles and diapers and burp-cloths. Pacifiers, more diapers, more burp-cloths. Once we take care of that, there's some toys and maybe first-aid stuff. But that about covers the basics.

Oh, except the BIG stuff. That's the other struggle with registering. If people really want to know what we need/want, it's the expensive stuff. We need a crib. We'll also need a car seat, a stroller, high chair, changing table, glider, breast pump, etc. I don't think any of those are under 75 bucks. So, do I feel comfortable telling people they can drop a bunch of cash on us? Can't say I do. I mean, it's definitely welcome, but I'm not expecting anything more than a congrats and maybe some little baby socks to make Cindy happy. When all was said and done it was fun to see all the junk out there for babies... makes it seem a little more real that there's actually a baby headed our way in a few months.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

30 Weeks!

Well... today marks the start of the "two-hand" countdown before we start sleep-deprivation-- 10 weeks until the baby's born. Now, we're sure that the baby will come EXACTLY on the due date because that's what the doctor said and science is NEVER wrong. On the off chance that the baby doesn't understand science, doctors, or technology and decides to come earlier or later, we'll make due; but for now it's still officially August 14th.

Cindy's looking and feeling pregnant. I mean that in the nicest, greatest way possible because there's no way I could ever handle what she does. Besides working full-time to help keep me in school, she spends the day off-balance, sore, and getting kicked and prodded by our little bundle-of-joy as her organs and the baby compete for space. She looks great though. I even have her permission to post pictures of her online, which is a miracle in itself. We took these over the weekend, so that makes her just about 30 weeks along.



Like I said, she looks great. I'm a lucky, lucky husband. The picture quality itself leaves something to be desired, which is why I'm still looking at upgrading our camera before the baby comes. Just need to head out to our money-tree and we'll be all set. (yes, that was sarcastic). Oh, here's one more of her, too.



Aside from baby news, life is fairly routine. I'm taking one class this spring term: Calculus. It's two hours a day, 5 days a week with a good 3 hours of homework a night. I don't mind math, but 5 hours a day is more than I'd want to spend on the subject. The nice part is that, while the course is hard, it's only 8 weeks long. This means the semester's almost done and I'll be finished in a few weeks. I was planning on Calculus II for the Summer term, but I'm not a glutton for punishment so I'm forgoing the math class until fall.

The biggest reason for this change is because the baby will come exactly August 14th, right before the supposed math final. As I said earlier, if our son doesn't get the memo to come on the 14th, he may just come during finals. That's a lot of pressure for a newborn, so I'll just spare him the stress and not take the math class, leaving him free to come into the world when he's ready. And by ready, I mean August 14th. This will give me some extra time during the next couple months to finish up projects around the house and make sure we're as ready as possible for our lives to change.

On the social scene, we're still semi-retarded and don't get out much. We do things with Sam and Jessie (Cindy's brother and sister-in-law) from time to time as well as with Cassie and Kent (my sister and brother-in-law). In the past, we'd also include Sam and Lori (my brother and sister-in-law) into our social scheming, but they decided to play grown-up for the summer in Houston on an internship with Exxon. I know we could actually call friends and be active but for some reason, I'm allergic to the phone, and I think Cindy may have caught my disease, too. It's really just too easy to say we're tired (which we usually are) and don't want to do anything. From there, we've settled into a habit of being "too tired" all the time. I'm hoping we can change that a bit over the next 10 weeks, because from what I hear, we don't have any concept of what being "too tired" really means. So.. if you read this and you get a phone call from us trying to be socially active, please don't think that something wrong or that we're going to die- we're just trying to better ourselves a bit and think you're just the people to help out.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

An actual update?

Well, no. Not really. An actual update would include pictures, newsworthy events, funny stories, etc. This is just to let people know that we acknowledge our blogging weaknesses and decided to join forces and put our blogs together.

Why? Because two people blogging means twice the chance of an actual blog occurring. With that in mind, there'll be three authors to this wonderful blog-page:

  1. Chris
  2. Cindy
  3. Both of Us
Check out the author of the post underneath the title and you can figure out who's writing and, if it's Chris, you'll know you can just skip right over it.

This may be overkill for the time being, but once the baby shows up and we get picture crazy and want to show him off to the world, it'll be easier to do it from one place instead of two. As always, we wish you all lived closer to us and, if you do live closer, we wish we were more social. Hopefully this'll make up for that a bit.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Behind on the update (Cindy wrote this)

Well, things are going well for us. We've recently painted our condo and re-carpeted so things are slowly coming together as we prepare for our new arrival. My brother Sam is making us some book shelves that will make a huge difference in helping us have a livable home. Now it's time to start doing research on baby cribs and stuff like that, then shopping for it all. If anyone has anything they recommend or absolutely hated, or didn't need, please let me know any info you have. There are just so many options for everything. Anything you have learned during or after pregnancy, labor, whatever it is, I wouldn't mind hearing it.

Anyway, as far as baby updates, I'm way behind on that. We had our big ultrasound april 4th and it was so cool! What an exciting experience for both of us. It was great for Chris especially since he hadn't been able to feel the baby move yet or anything like that. Chris has the ultrasound on his blog so you can check that out if you would like. We had been debating since day one whether or not we wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl, but the further along we got, the more and more I wanted to know, especially since I was already having such a hard time thinking of names. Good thing we found out too, 'cause it's a boy and I was really struggling with boy names. If we hadn't found out I probably would have just had my girls names chosen, and been awfully surprised when I needed to name a boy. We would have had a "Boy named Sue" incident on our hands.

So, yay for babies, and for us, baby boys. We're very excited, but now it seems like such a long time to have to wait for him.

So Chris has been able to feel the baby kicking a lot now which he loves and I am so excited about. I love that he is able to be a part of it. Our baby is moving a lot more now and is getting stronger everyday. Sometimes he really catches me off guard with his strength.
Sleeping isn't as easy anymore. Chris has learned not to touch me at all once I'm asleep 'cause I tend to be not nice while I'm sleeping. I think now he just does it for fun to see what I'll say, and how much he can get away with before I completely wake up. Then he likes telling me about it all in the morning.

Other than just feeling more and more pregnant everyday, things are going well. I just got a raise at work and Chris is almost done with this semester.

Don't forget to give me any advice at all!!!!

Thursday, March 22, 2007

I think it moved! (Cindy wrote this)

So, I'm 19 weeks pregnant now, and I have maybe 2 pair of pants that fit. Only a couple more weeks before the big ultra sound. I'm so excited. I can't wait to see what our baby looks like now. Chris and I are slowly trying to make our condo a little more livable and roomy. We have to maneuver things around a bit to make it all work but right now we're hopeful.
So I know people start feeling the baby move before 19 weeks, but I just assumed I wouldn't even be able to tell so I didn't even think about it. On Sunday, one of my friends had asked me if I felt it yet and then gave me a better description then I had heard of what to expect. It's like a muscle twitch, only you will feel it a couple of times in the same spot. She also mentioned it's more noticeable when you are lying down.
That night I decided to actually take the time to focus on what I was feeling while I was lying in bed, and I felt it. I couldn't believe it. At first I thought, I think that's it, but I doubt it, there's no way I'm really feeling the baby. There's so many things going on with my body right now, how do I know that's really it. But it was such a different distinct feeling. A mixture of muscle spasms and butterflies in your stomach. Anyway, now I recognize it more. It's so exciting.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Full Time Job Opening (Cindy wrote this)

I work for a great construction development company in Orem Utah. We are currently growing very fast and need to hire someone else as full time office administrator. 8 to 5 hours, 5 days a week, starting around 9 to 11 dollars an hour. No benefits at this time. Hoping to find someone who is looking to stay for at least a year, is familiar with basic Microsoft office and with a friendly personality. I love working there I just am too busy with other job responsibilities and we really need someone else, so please, if you know of anyone who might be interested, have them call me to set up an appointment at 226-2777 or fax their resume to 226-2888. We hope to hire someone asap!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

It's the little things (Cindy wrote this)

It's the little things that make a difference. Whether it's a smile, a wave, or an angry face and an angry hand motion, just one little thing, from a friend or a stranger can change everything. I'm always amazed at the impact someone can make on other people, without even realizing it sometimes. I have so many different examples of this, but don't feel like going into each one, so I am just going to encourage each of you to stop, and notice the little things while you're out and about, and while you're at home. Thank you to each of you who have ever done a little thing to make someone else feel special, or happy that they know you. Life is a blessing and i'm so grateful i've been blessed with each of you in my life!

Thursday, February 1, 2007

2nd Doctors Appointment (Cindy wrote this)

Today we went to our second prenatal appointment. At the first one we saw the baby, saw it's little flicker of a heart beat, and found out how far along we were. That was very fun and cool. I wasn't sure what they were going to do today, and didn't except anything even close to as cool as the first one. However, today, we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat, loud and clear. What an amazing experience. I still can't believe it sometimes. Anyway, we're excited and are looking forward to the day we get to meet it. Our doctor mentioned pregnancy always seems longest with the first baby. I can see that. I feel like I've been pregnant now for a long time. It's only been 12 weeks. Yikes!

Also, I just want to say, thanks to everyone who are so inspirational to me as bloggers. It helps me a lot being able to read everyones new blogs, and everyones comments. Probably seems like a weird statement, but it's true. You guys keep me going. Thanks!

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Jewelry, and other Endorsements! (Cindy wrote this)

Well hello again. First of all, baby updates, I'm just a few days shy of 12 weeks so that's exciting. We have our 2nd doctors appointment in a week, yay! For now, it seems like it will take forever before we get to meet our little baby. That's frustrating. We still haven't decided if we are going to find out if it's a boy or girl, but we still have a little while for that.
Okay, so as most of you know, I worked for a pearl company started by a stay at home mom here in Utah. I worked there for a little over a year, but now I am with a company that builds custom homes. I have enjoyed the change. Anyway, one of the reasons I left was because of the way business was being done, the way people were being treated, and mostly, 'cause I needed to move on. Anyway, one of my friends that also left the previous company started her own company and I'm so excited for her. She has some really cool stuff. You should check it out. Threefoldgifts.com. Anyway, I am trying to help come up with different ideas of jewelry and products, so please feel free to write and tell me of styles of jewelry you like. Whether its simple, or you like chunky, be as vague or as specific as you like.
Also, while I'm sharing my opinion of products, for anyone who likes candles, over a year and a half ago, Chris and I found the most amazing candles ever. They are made of soy, they smell amazing, and burn clean. You won't really appreciate what I'm saying until you own one. We are addicted. I hate all other candles now. And, if you spill the hot wax, it wipes up with soap and water. Check them out, mymiabella.com. Our favorite is the Orange chili pepper. Last product I love, arbonne. They have great skin products. I really like them. We have an account with them which helps 'cause, it's kinda spending, but we get pretty good deals this way. Nice thing is it lasts, and it's high quality. Anyway, that's about it for my endorsements.
Oh, also, anyone have pregnancy workout tips or favorites?

Monday, January 15, 2007

This one's for Sarah (Cindy wrote this)

Okay so, Chris and I don't take pictures often. We have maybe five from our pre-marriage days (not counting our engagement pictures), a few from our wedding with again, maybe five that actually turned out, and maybe two since we've been married. Needless to say, we aren't the best at taking pictures. We do take pictures of our cats sometimes, but that's about it. Well, while we were visiting my parents during Christmas, my mom took a picture of us hanging out at Moonstone beach, in the rain, naturally. Chris is wearing my dad's bright yellow raincoat and cowboy hat so you should be able to pick him out pretty easily. I'm the one next to him.



Sarah, you asked me for pictures, so there you go! This one's for you!!

Saturday, January 13, 2007

It's Really There!!! (Cindy wrote this)

So last Friday was our first doctors appointment. What an exciting and weird experience. First of all, not knowing exactly when we were due, and not having any "proof" (other than the 5 positive pregnancy tests of course), I kept thinking I was going to be told, we weren't really pregnant. We met our doctor and explained a little of our problem (not having any idea of when we were due), then quickly proceeded to our first sonogram!! Yay! I was excited to finally find out whether there really was something in there, growing or not. But I was also so worried that he wouldn't find anything and say something like, yeah, I don't know why they came up positive. Sorry.

Needless to say, when I not only saw a little lima bean looking thing on the screen, but when he showed us the heartbeat and said, oh, and there's junior, what a feeling. I couldn't believe it. There really is something growing inside me. Freaky. It's soo cool! That's when it finally felt real. Now, whenever I think it's all a dream, I take a look at our baby's picture on the fridge. Let me just say, I feel so blessed to be able to have this amazing opportunity to be a mom and bring a life into this world. I am so excited, and yet also a little nervous. Oh, the due date!! August 14th 2007. We're so excited! It's hard to be patient. I just want to meet it already. I think I'm getting more used to feeling nauseaus all the time so it doesn't seem as bad anymore, although I am looking forward to not feeling like throwing up all the time, or wanting to sleep all day. That's been kinda hard. Only a couple more weeks!!