My Superman

I post a lot about the things I do or the things we do as a family, but I'm not as good about posting the things Matt is up to... so this post is all about Matt!

With Matt's work schedule, he and his co-workers like to do crazy things... like going on a midnight run!  I was fast asleep when Matt left to join the others on a run and a late night dinner.

In true Matt fashion, he takes this next picture as well... at a gunpowder golf outing with his buddies from work.  They basically had a golf ball shooting competition.

A few weeks ago, Matt joined his dad, his brother-in-law Gavin, and a couple others on a trip to Colorado to hike Longs Peak.  With the summit at over 14,000 feet, and snow still on the mountain, it was a pretty long, strenuous hike.  But of course Matt loved it.  He didn't stop talking about the trip for days.  Pretty sure it was the highlight of his year!

And one last picture for this post.  Matt is an awesome dad.  He loves spending time with Kylee.  He makes her laugh and feel so special.

I really do feel like one lucky girl to be married to this man.  He is my best friend and my superman.

Prayer at Freezeout Hill Memorial

Sunday evening instead of going for a family walk, we decided to take a drive to Emmett, where we hung out at Freezeout Hill Memorial.  It was a gorgeous evening, overlooking the beautiful valley, and Kylee had lots of fun climbing around the rocks and walking down the trail nearby.

After playing around for a while, Kylee noticed there were names on the bricks around the flag, and a plaque at the base of the flag.  She asked me what the plaque said... After I read it, Matt and I explained to Kylee that there are men and women who have fought to protect us and our country, and that some of them have died while trying to protect us.  A minute or two later, I looked over and saw Kylee kneeling on a rock in prayer.

When she got up, she asked us, "Did you see me praying?"  When we told her yes, she went on, "I was saying a prayer for the people that protect us, that they will be safe."

Matt and I were such proud parents at that moment, having been taught once again by our sweet four-year-old daughter.  We are so blessed to have Kylee in our lives and thank our Father for her daily.  We are also grateful for those men and women who serve and have served in the armed forces - we are thankful for their service and sacrifice.

Pregnancy Update {24.5 Weeks}

The biggest excitement since the last update I posted is that Matt felt the baby kick last Monday night!  I think I was more excited than Matt that he was able to feel the kick :-)  It was around 2:15 in the morning and I had just gotten up to go to the bathroom, and when I laid back down on my left side, I got kicked over and over again.  It was harder than it usually is.  I think I was squishing his little legs.  Anyway, I called Matt into the room (darn night schedule!) and placed his hand under my side and he felt our baby kick a couple times.  Hooray!  I still don't feel a lot of movement on any given day, but I am grateful for the little moments when our little one says hello with a kick or jab because it helps me feel like he is doing okay in there.

In other news, I bought a diaper bag!  I know I had said I was done shopping for now, but when Brandee told me about a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag that was on sale half price at Nordstrom, I couldn't pass it up.  It came in the mail on Friday and I love it!  Of course, it's empty for now, but from what I've read, people love the bag and I'm sure I will too!  I like that it looks like a purse, but it can also convert to a backpack if that's easier.

One last baby update - I'm starting to think a little more about the nursery!  I decided to have a friend reupholster the cushions on my rocking chair to match my nursery color scheme instead of buying a new chair for that room. I went with a bold/busy print because I figured it was a smaller surface and would be a fun "pop".

And I'm thinking about ordering this rug:

That seems like a lot of patterns, but I think if everything else is pretty solid (curtains, sheets, dresser, etc), it will all come together.  At least I hope so.  Either way, I'm going to wait to order the rug until I can get the crib set up in the room to see what it might look like.

I also just refinished the oak night stand that we had in the guest bedroom... just sanded it down and painted it white.  I'm also planning on refinishing the lamp that I had in there... stay tuned for some pictures! Matt says I'm nesting.  I think it's just planning and being excited to put a nursery together.  I haven't had any big urges to clean or anything like that :-)

Family Game Day

Yesterday was a great, much anticipated day... our first day as a family at a Boise State football game! About a year ago when the announcement came out that Boise State would be playing Washington in the season opener, we started planning a family vacation to Seattle.  We told Kylee she would get to watch her first Boise State football game and we would get her a new Boise State t-shirt.  We were all excited!  Then, when Jen set her wedding date for the same day as the season opener, we knew we needed to change plans, and quickly decided Kylee would come with us to the home opener on the blue turf instead.  When I bought Kylee's ticket a couple weeks ago, she was so excited!  She wanted to hold her ticket and started cheering for the Broncos.

Kylee loved seeing everyone in their blue and orange at the game, and she melted my heart with her clapping and cheering as our boys stomped all over Tennessee-Martin.  She did awesome!  She also loved her corndog and the mini donuts she got for a snack.  At half time, I think she was ready to go home, but she had fun playing the iPad while we stayed a little longer, finally leaving towards the end of the 3rd quarter.

By the way, doesn't Kylee look stinkin' cute in her cheerleader outfit!?!  She wants to be a Boise State cheerleader for Halloween, and I was excited she could wear her cheerleader outfit more than just October 31st!

Being a Mom

I sure love being a mom. I know I have said this many times, but I feel so lucky that Kylee is my daughter. I got to spend some extra time with Kylee these last few days, as I had a four day weekend, and we had Kylee extra for the holiday.  It was such a treat.  I wanted to take advantage of every minute with her.

We got our nails done before Jen's wedding.

 Kylee and Matt got much needed haircuts.  Thanks Grandma!

We went to Build-a-Bear and Kylee got Twilight Sparkle.  She used $20 of her own money that she has been saving up.  Funny story... Before we went to Build-a-Bear, Kylee would get excited telling us she was going to "waste" her money on a Build-a-Bear :-)  She doesn't quite know the difference between "waste" and "spend".  Twilight Sparkle hasn't left Kylee's side since we left the store.

We did a craft project in preparation for Kylee's little brother.  We made some cute closet organizers, inspired by this post.

We also went to lunch with my family for my mom's birthday, went shopping, went on several walks, played at the park, had dinner with Matt's family with Michelle in town, and more.

One of my highlights from the weekend was that Kylee gave a talk in church.  She did such a great job!  Her talk was about how Heavenly Father hears and answers her prayers.  We worked on writing the talk together, and after just a few times of practicing (and some cheesy picture hints) she was able to say the entire thing almost all by herself!  After church, Kylee said that she was a little scared to give her talk, but then she felt Heavenly Father's arms around her and she was okay.  I was definitely a proud mama.

One more sweet moment from church... The music leader asked all the kids to close their eyes and think of a place that feels like heaven.  Then she asked the kids to open their eyes and share what place they thought of.  Kylee's answer was the temple.  We had just been to the temple the day before for Jen's wedding, so I'm sure the temple was on her mind, but hearing this made me so happy that she recognized Heavenly Father's spirit.

Bright Spot

This last week was an interesting one, to say the least.  On Monday, I received a message on my phone from my doctor indicating that she wanted to go over the results of our ultrasound with me.  I knew that couldn't be good, as I have an appointment this next week with her.  If everything looked normal, wouldn't she just wait to review everything with me?  I anxiously waited as we played a bit of phone tag, and took a deep breath as she told me that the baby was measuring right along with a January 1st due date, but she wanted me to go in for another, more detailed ultrasound as they had noticed a "bright spot" on the baby's heart. She said that a bright spot is fairly common and was most likely nothing, and said I would be getting a call from Maternal Fetal Medicine to set up an appointment.

Of course as soon as I was off the phone with her, I googled "bright spot on baby's heart" to see what that could mean.  Google confirmed what my doctor said... that they find a bright spot on the baby's heart in 3-5% of pregnancies, and that 99 times out of 100, that spot is a calcium deposit that will go away as the baby grows.  But that 1% is what made me anxious - it could be a soft indicator for Down's Syndrome.  I tried to look at the bright side - basically my baby would either have a calcium deposit that would go away, or he could have Down's Syndrome, either of which I could live with (although one would be easier to accept than the other!).  But the bright spot didn't mean that there was an irreparable hole in the heart or something like that.  Needless to say, Monday was a bit of a rough day, and I knew all I could do was wait.

My follow-up ultrasound was Wednesday morning.  I had a hard time even being excited to see pictures of our baby again, because I was so anxious for the results.  The ultrasound tech did detailed measurements, including the distance between the eyes, the length of the nasal bone, etc.  Once she was done, a doctor came in and confirmed that yes, there was a bright spot on the baby's heart (I didn't find this super helpful!). Finally they had me meet with a genetic counselor, who after explaining what the bright spot could be (nothing I hadn't read on google), told me that everything on our baby was measuring normally, and that if I had had my original ultrasound with them, they wouldn't have even mentioned anything to me, as they would have considered the bright spot inconsequential.  At this point, I was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, there could still be some sort of genetic or chromosomal abnormality, but from everything they saw, our baby seems to be normal and healthy... and still on track to join our family four months from today!

I still marvel at the miracle of pregnancy and birth.  Some days it's hard to believe there is a tiny little baby boy that I am helping to bring into this world (he weighed in at 15 ounces on Wednesday by the way).  I am so thankful to my Father in Heaven for giving us this little blessing, and pray that the pregnancy will continue to go well so that we can welcome a healthy baby boy into our family.

Idaho GOP Night at the Hawks

Our friend Trevor was recently promoted to the Executive Director of the Idaho Republican Party... cool, huh!?  It is the perfect job for him (in my opinion).  Plus, the promotion got his family to stay here in Boise instead of moving across the country for grad school, so that made us happy!

This last week, Trevor invited us to join them at the Idaho GOP Night at the Hawks.  It has been years since the last time I saw the Hawks, and Matt and I hadn't seen Trevor and Lindsey in a few months, so we jumped at the opportunity.  We got a table right next to the field and enjoyed some dinner, some baseball, and catching up with some of our favorite people from our old ward.  Thanks for the invite!  We look forward to getting together again soon :-)

Congratulations Mrs. Ellsworth!

Yesterday was one special day... Jen was married to her sweetheart Vaughn in the Boise temple!  I am so incredibly happy for her and wish her the best as she embarks on this new adventure.  I was happy that my family and I could share in this exciting day with her.

Not only was the ceremony beautiful, but we had a lot of fun at the reception that evening... complete with a roasted pig and an ice cream machine :-)

Also, I wanted to post a quick picture from the bachelorette party last weekend.  Andrea did a great job planning it, and we had fun riding around town in style!