For My Friends...Finally!

32 weeks and counting!!

One More Sleep!

I can't belive tomorrow is Christmas Eve!! I love this time of year and always hate how fast it goes by. I am often guilty of rushing my way through the season by worrying about shopping, decorating, traveling, etc. It is way to easy to forget to think about what Christmas is all about. For me there are two main things that Christmas stands for...

1. Jesus Christ. When I take time to ponder and contemplate about the birth and life of our savior, I am in awe that he would come to this imperfect world to live and die for mankind.


2. The second thing that Christmas stands for is family. First of all, I am so grateful to be married to my best friend and to be expecting a son. Next, Berkeley and I have both been so richly blessed with families that love and support one another. We have parents that have done everything in their power to make us happy and to teach us the most important things in life. We both have siblings who are incredible people and constant examples to us. We love you guys so much.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

You Be the Judge

Do you think this guy is for real or was this a joke? Hmmm....either way, it's all in the name of Christmas so sing your heart out dude!

Work Party

Berkeley's work, Zimmer Rocky Mtn. threw a kick butt Christmas party this year! They hired Casino Parties of Utah to come and bring all their poker tables and chips. They had roulette, Black Jack, a Dice table, and Texas Hold-Em. At the beginning of the night, everyone received a voucher for 250 points (to represent 250 dollars) and then we were set free to play. It was cool because not many people really knew how to play many of the games, so the dealers took the time to explain everything as we went. Berkeley and I played Texas Hold-Em and Black Jack pretty much the whole night. We started with 500 points combined, lost it all, got bought in on charity from one of his coworkers and then ended the night with about 490 points. Yeah...we didn't do so well. Every 50 points you had at the end of the night bought a raffle ticket for some prizes. The biggest one was a 47" HDTV, but of course our 8 tickets didn't win us anything. A lot of people did MUCH better than we did. It was a ton of fun! Thanks Zimmer! Here are some pictures from the party. We didn't get very many. Everyone was encouraged to dress up a little bit as if they were high rollers or something.

13 Degrees!?!

It was 13 degrees outside this morning!! That is so very upsetting to me. It made me start to think about the warmest, most wonderful place on Earth...Hawaii. Let's take a trip back in time and reminisce about the sunny perfect weather.

Yes or No?

I have been debating for the last month about whether or not to do a 3D ultrasound. Everyone that I have seen do it comes home with the coolest pictures and keepsakes, and I want to see my baby!! The people at my doctor's office give me pictures that I can't even decipher...looks like black and white blurs... BUT, I am due in two months anyway and the 3D ultrasounds are dang expensive. I am asking your advice, is it worth it? Let me know what you think.

Adorable!!

My sister, Karen, runs a preschool from her home which her set of triplets attend. One day they had an assignment where they had to say one thing they were grateful for and draw a picture of that thing. My adorable 4 year old niece Aspen decided she was grateful for me (Ant Ane = Aunt Annie) and drew the following picture. Notice how she remembered to draw a baby in my stomach. Then she colored over it because the baby "is not out yet". I love kids.

Here is a picture of the triplets. From left to right: Brooke, Connor, Aspen

Let the Changes begin!

Pregnancy brings change. And early. Friday was my last day of work at Stewart's Pest Control. I have been there for three years with the same two girls, Holley and Brooke. My social life was mostly at work where I could talk about anything...and we did talk about ANYTHING...even with our male boss in the open office right next to our cubicles... I will miss talking about our favorite TV shows, especially One Tree Hill and The Office. Working at Stewarts was a great opportunity for me and I really appreciated the way the management was always so willing to work with my school schedule. Here are a few pictures of the Stewart's secretaries! The first one is of all of us at the Olive Garden on Friday for lunch. The second one is of Brooke, Holley, then me standing in front of the cubicles. Notice how we are all pregnant. We all found out within a week of each other and we are all having boys. It has been so fun going through the same stages of pregnancy with these guys! I will miss the fun times at Stewarts...but not the work...

Hooray for Jeff and Lexi!!

My best friend, Lexi, who happens to be married to Berkeley's cousin Jeff, just had her baby yesterday night!! We are so excited for them!! We went to see the new little guy last night just 20 or 30 minutes after he was born. We felt really blessed to be there with the Gentry family during that special time. Here are some pictures of the new little one (soon to be named) and the happy family. Congratulations Jeff and Lexi. We love you guys!!

Our Collection So Far

Nacho Libre in Sunday Best

The BYU Single Student Ward

For about 9 months now, Berkeley has been serving as the second counselor in a BYU single student ward. It has been interesting for both of us to go back to that world. It really does feel like a totally different realm than we are used to. The student's are awesome though and we have been able to grow in many ways thanks to this calling. Here is a picture of one of the FHE groups at our house.

Weekend Getaway

Over conference weekend (I know that was over a month ago, but I am catching up), Berkeley and I took a quick trip to Island Park to spend some time at a cabin built by Berkeley's cousins and uncle. It was a great weekend. We love spending time with Kathy and Jerry and their family. We always have the best time.

From Chubby to Pregnant

I am doing student teaching right now at Sharon Elementary School. Today a 2nd grader who is not in my clsss came up to me and asked me when I was going to have my baby. My thought reaction went like this: "Thank goodness I really am pregnant", then "Yes! I now look pregnant and not just chubby anymore." I am 26 weeks along. I'm tired of the chubby stage.

Word From the MTC

We got an e-mail from Douglas recently and we were so happy because he seems to have high spirits and a very positive outlook. Learning Spanish is a struggle, but he is enjoying it and is working hard. His current companion had 4 years of Spanish instruction prior to entering the MTC, so Doug is hoping that will also aid in his learning and comprehension of the language. We are so proud of Doug and of all the other missionaries out in the world. Keep them all in your prayers!

Work Costume Competition

At Zimmer Orthopedic (Berkeley's work), they had a costume competition for Halloween. The prize was a paid day off which is something that Berkeley really needs from time to time...so he went all out... Say hello to Worf, the Klingon...



Worf will soon be enjoying a day off from work to do whatever he wants and get paid for it. He won!

Thanks to Leslie Sandgren for the picture! I was at work already and did not actually get to see Berkeley myself.

"Hey you! Move!"

Last night Berkeley felt the baby move for the first time. For the last two nights I have been making him put his hand on my stomach, but nothing would happen. The minute he would put his hand on, the baby would stop moving and not start again. Last night this was happening again, so Berkeley leaned down close to my stomach and loudly said, "HEY YOU! MOVE!" Almost instantly, Asa gave him a real good kick right where his hand was. I am sure it was coincidental but it was so funny! Tomorrow we are going in for another ultrasound so they can get more pictures of the baby's face and heart. Hopefully all goes well!

Don't Stop Stalking!

I know my blog has been so lame lately. I have a reason! I lost the cord that connects my camera to the computer so I can't upload any pictures! I have a bunch of stuff just waiting to be blogged about, but first I have to find that cord. Don't give up on me. Keep blog-stalking. I won't continue to disappoint you.

Good Luck Douglas!!

My brother-in-law went to the MTC today to begin his mission! He is going to serve in Albuquerque, New Mexico and will be speaking Spanish. We love Doug and we are going to miss him so much!

This is Doug with Lacey Essig Here he is opening the mission call!
He will be a great missionary.
Over the weekend, the entire Ward family spent time together. On Staurday, we all went to the Farmington pumpkin patch to play. We took a few pictures. This picture is all of us with our serious faces. I didn't end up with the happy face picture for some reason, but we were all happy when this was taken!

Thanks!

Thanks to all who commented on my last post. I got a lot of great advice and think I know which way to go now! I never knew that so many of you had such strong opinions on diaper choice! I love it! Anyway, my blog has been somewhat of a bore latelywithout much updating, but I have plenty of pictures and recent activities to post about as soon as I get a few minutes of free time. Stay tuned and thanks again to everyone!

Generic or Name Brand?

To save on our bugdet after we have the baby, we are trying to stock up on items we know we will needs a lot of. Diapers are one of those items but I want to know what you guys think about buying generic diapers vs name brand diapers. Does it really make a big difference? I would like to spend less and buy the generic kinds, but is it really worth it to spend more for name brand diapers? You experienced parents, please let me know what you think.

Breaking News!!!

We are having...

Here is one of the Ultrasound pictures. This is a picture of Asa's cute little profile. The scanned version is not that great but you get the idea.

Tagged.

My sister Karen and my friend JoAnna tagged me on the same day with the exact same tag, so I guess that means I better do it.

Rules: Link the person that tagged you. Mention these rules on your blog. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yourself and tag 6 fellow bloggers

1.My favorite food for as long as I can remember is mashed potatoes, brown gravy and corn all piled on top of eachother. I want it right now actually.

2.When I am falling asleep, I always rub my feet together. It's just automatic. It is a comfort thing like having a blankey or something.

3.I never rememeber my dreams. Never. I know I dream every night because tiny tid-bits will linger for a second or two but no details and then even the tid-bits are gone before I get our of bed.

4.When I am sick, I refuse to be in my bed. It makes me feel like I am more sick than I am. I always spend sick days in the other bedroom or in the living room where I can watch TV and still feel like I am part of the activities.

5.I very very rarly take baths. I am a shower person. When I have to shave my legs, I adjust the shower spout to hit the wall while I sit down in the tub to shave.

6.One of my pet peaves is picture overload. When I go into a house that has walls chuck full of pictures, I feel claustrophobic.

I choose to tag Lexi Ward, Becca Ward, Natalie Wright, Jessica Anderson, Brooke Peterson, Holley Christensen.

Oh Wow.

I really really really want to like Sarah Palin but I can hardly stand to watch or listen to her. She seriously needs some lessons on how to handle an interview. She might also need some vocabulary lessons to increase her word base from "um","I don't know", and "Alaska".



What the heck did she just say?

Our Attempt at Camping

Last night, Berkeley and I tried to go camping with some of Berkeley's family. We went to American Fork Canyon, but there were no camping sites left. We decided to just find a fire pit and do dinner over the fire. It was tons of fun.

Real Men Clean...and Have Fun Doing It.

Today Berkeley kind of combined exercise with cleaning. He worked out and then immediately began mopping our living room floor.

And then he did the laundry...

Thanks for all your help today Berkeley. Sorry if this post totally embarrasses you.