Week 23 Baby Bump

My baby is still growing! Yeah!! 23 weeks pregnant today!! (Dang...I really need to clean that mirror.)

Wednesday Belly (before I went into the snow storm)

Thursday Morning (23 weeks!)

My mom also wanted to see a picture of me to prove that I didn't gain 50 lbs over night since I posted this picture on Facebook:

Hahaha!  Not the most flattering photo of my body!  There is a play mirror at the preschool that makes things look...stretched out.   I thought that my boobs looked CRAZY in this picture.  But yeah...it freaked out my mom.

Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful

We have been getting so much snow around here that it is starting to get ridiculous. We haven't seen the ground in over a month because it is covered in at least a foot of snow everywhere we look.

And yesterday morning we woke up to even more.  This is the bus stop outside of work.

This is me next to a pile of snow almost as tall as I am.  Please enjoy the face that I'm making in this picture.

The trees though....oh the trees look so beautiful when they are covered in fresh fallen snow.  Every single tree looks like its own individual work of art.  I couldn't get over it.  Finally I whipped out the camera that I had on hand.

Pine Trees in the Morning

Pine Trees When the Sun Came Out in the Afternoon

Institute Tree in the Morning

Institute Tree After the Sun Came Out in the Afternoon

It's been awhile since I've showed you a picture of the outside of the house.  The flat head shovel was for the ice from the ice storm and the red shovel was for...you know...all that snow.

For the sake of comparison, this is the house in the summer time...I guess that this picture is also for the sake of my sanity.  I have to remember that this is what the house looks like in happier days.

When I got home...this was in the way of me getting to the door.

Yup...everything was looking pretty icy. And this one icicle had decided to grow long enough to get in the way of heads going to the door.  Rude.

This is me with my intense icicle.  Luckily I'm short enough that I didn't have to worry about stabbing my eye out.

Length wasn't the only "cool" thing about this icicle!  Look at the weird shape that it is in!!  I don't know what would cause that...except a lot of precise environmental circumstances.  But I thought it was the most awesome icicle. 

  
All Tuesday I was marveling at the beauty of the fresh fallen snow.  Then I was marveling at how blue the sky is after a snow storm.

This morning when I woke up and saw that it was snowing....I was in a foul mood.

My bus was 22 minutes late getting to me...so I stood in the snow storm for 30 minutes waiting for it.  Then I had to take a different second bus because the buses weren't going to campus because of the big hill....because it was physically impossible to get the buses UP the hill.  Fair enough.

This was the group of people that I got off of the bus with...to make our way to campus.  Can you see it in the distance?

This is a picture of me by a really beautiful tree while the storm was clearing up.

When I got home that day, more intense icicles!

In conclusion....it is cold here.  And I'm excited for Spring.  I'm guessing that it is going to be a longer winter though so I need to try and endure to the end.

Gifts From Children And Back at Work

I love working with kids.  I end up with some "interesting" presents. 

This is a dessert cheeseball that a girl in our Primary made for Aaron and I!  It was so sweet of her to think of us!  Her mom warned us that the graham crackers might be a little soggy but that her daughter insisted that it would be great for the presentation.

I love it.

Next up, some original noodle art.  This is just what I've always wanted.  This kid also wrote his own name at the top.  10 points if you can tell what it is.

I'm so glad to be back a work!  I didn't realize how awful I was feeling last semester until I got to come back.  I was so sick and tired that I wasn't able to enjoy the children and play.  Boo!  Now I'm back and feeling great and having so much fun again.

The kids were "teaching"  me how to be a mom.  You have to hold the baby and rock it when it cries.

When the baby is sleepy, you have to put it in a crib and be very quiet.  Oh...and apparently feeding the baby is important also...so I've been told.

It's a good thing that I have all of these baby experts helping me out.  I don't know what I would do if they hadn't reminded me that I need to feed the baby!

I'm so glad that my morning sickness ended so that I can enjoy my job again.  I absolutely adore working with the kids and teaching them how to be kind to friends and talking about their feelings.  I'm so happy when I see them interested in learning about the world around them and help guide them to discovering things like the alphabet or names of colors or even the changing seasons.  

I love kids.  And I think being a mom will be a great transition job.

Gandolf, the White Blizzard....Wizard

(There is a good amount of reading but then you get to the pictures)

I never knew that they named winter storms but I guess people named this one Gandolf, which I find HILARIOUS.

Thursday night was a little crazy for us.  At 3pm, snow started coming down hard and just kept coming.  Aaron called me at 5:20pm and told me that traffic outside his building was crazy and that he was going to stay on base working on stuff till it got a little better.  That sounded fine to me.  I would just hold off awhile on cooking dinner.

At 5:40pm, he texted me and told me that he was on Harrison.  It is normally a 10-15 minute drive once he is on Harrison and so I figured with the weather, he would be about 25-30 minutes.  That meant that I needed to start dinner, but first, I thought I would shovel the 5-6 inches of snow out of the driveway so that he would have a place to park the car....and see where the driveway was.

It's amazing how warm you can stay when you are constantly moving and working.

Feeling like a warrior woman, I went inside and finished up making dinner...but then I finished making dinner....and there was no sign of Aaron.  Another inch of snow had fallen and started covering up my hard work outside (Shoveling in a blizzard...I must be training for children).

At 6:40pm, Aaron called me to tell me that he was stuck about a mile from the house behind an accident and he didn't know when he would be home.

It was about 5 minutes to 7pm when he finally made it to the house and so we had to hurry out of the house to get to a Cub Scout planning meeting.

The night was crazy...getting back from the meeting was another adventure since we couldn't get back up this hill to get home.  We almost made it to the top but the car just couldn't do it so we had to drive in reverse down the hill...in the dark...with the back window covered in ice and snow.  Luckily no one was on the road.

Good times.

We went to sleep with the storm still coming down outside.

At 5:55am, I got text messages from the Universities Emergency Contacting System and then a phone call telling me that school/the preschool was going to be closed all day.

But...since I was up, I got up and went outside to help Aaron unburied so that he could get to work.  He had been driving the Saturn to save on gas but he knew that to get to work, he was going to need the SUV.

We both had our jobs.  Aaron was had to shovel out the drive way up to the SUV so that we could switch the cars.  He wouldn't let me shovel because apparently I was 5 1/2 months pregnant or some nonsense like that.  It didn't stop me the night before.

But he got to work on the driveway and the sidewalk.

My special job was to find the SUV.  We knew that we had parked it somewhere along the driveway.  But with 6+ inches of snow on it, it was a little hard to find.

I used a special tool that all the great SUV finders from around the world use.  You might call it a "broom" but I like think of it now as a "Industrial Snow Brush".

I found it!!!  You can't see from this angle, but I couldn't brush off any of the left side, until Aaron backed it out.  So, he backed it out to the sidewalk and I brushed the left side off then...you know...so he could see before he backed into on coming traffic.

This is a shot to show you how long our driveway is.  This isn't even all of it but in the winter we park closer and closer to the end of the driveway.

Pregnant or not, I'm happy that Aaron did all that work because I don't think that I could have done nearly that much shoveling.

Heading back into the house, you might notice that the path we made to leave the house, was already getting a good amount of snow on it.

Another one of my jobs before finding the SUV, was to throw down some road salt.  Can you tell what I salted and what I didn't?

Once inside, Aaron went to warm up with a shower and get ready for work, and for the first time in our marriage, I was awake to make him breakfast before he went to work.  I had some hot cocoa while Aaron sat down to some French toast.  All in all...a pleasant morning for me.

The dogs?

They had a tougher morning...mostly Pippen.

Bambi just goes into the snow and does her "business", no worries.

Pippen....he has to go "Number Two" in a certain spot....in the back of the yard.

Follow the path with your eyes.  You might not be able to see him...but he is out there.

Once he finished, he started heading back...taking a different route.  He was moving so slowly through the snow...it looked painful.  I started yelling to him, "GO BACK THE WAY YOU CAME!  USE THE PATH!"

But he is a dog...and doesn't understand what I'm saying.

Going in circles....it's kind of a metaphor for all the shoveling we do during a snow storm.  Hamsters on the wheel at this point.

I "Popped"

At 21 weeks, people are starting to notice that I look pregnant.  I guess that I've finally "popped".

I hope I "popped" or else I'm just looking like I've got some awkward weight gain problem.

Guess What? More Snow.

More snow today....guess who is not pleased?  Mostly Bambi today.

First: Look at Pippen digging his face into the snow.  Also, when Pippen comes inside, I just take off the sweater and he is ready to fun around the house.

Bambi, on the other hand, has to sit in the kitchen and get all the snow off before she can go anywhere.

She suffers for her beauty.

Primary: Meet the Teachers

Yesterday we had a Primary activity for all the kids.  The Presidency thought that it would be a good idea to introduce the teachers to their students, before the first Sunday.  That way the children would learn who their  teachers were and where their classroom would be and the teachers got to see what they were in for.

We had a theme of "Lead Me, Guide Me, Walk Beside Me."  We talked about the Lehi's journey in the wilderness and getting the Liahona from God at the beginning with the kids.  We told them how our teachers are going to be like the Liahona this year.  They are going to be leading the children through the "wilderness of life" and if they choose the right, they will be happy.

Then they went on a scavenger hunt to find their classrooms.  We separated them out into age groups, put them with a parent to help read clues and they had a ton of fun hunting around the building for their classrooms and new teachers.

Then they got to play some getting to know you games in their classrooms.

I like to think that it made things a little easier for them today.

First Wedding of the New Year

2012 was a HUGE year for weddings....at least, for Aaron and I.

2013 didn't start out any different.

On January 3rd, my best friend, from the 1st grade, got married in the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.

Aaron couldn't make it to the ceremony since it was in the morning on a Thursday.  Markus and I decided to go together.  We woke up early to get ready and drive down...and didn't take into account the fact that the second car Aaron and I own, was still buried under the snow.  It took us 30 minutes to dig our way in and we were SHOCKED to find that there was ever frost on the inside of the windshield.

I was super nervous that we weren't going to make it.  It was 9:15am and the ceremony started at 10am. The temple was still an hour away.  We raced down there and arrived at 10:03am.  I was so sad that we had almost made it on time.

I decided to ask the people at the front desk anyway...just in case they could sneak me in.

"Hi.  I know that I'm late for a wedding.  The Poulson wedding.  At 10am.  I was wondering..."

"ARE YOU AMIE MOREY!?"

"No....but I'm going to the same wedding as she is.  I know her."

"Is she really on her way?"

"I doubt that she would miss this.  Yes, she is coming."

"Okay, come with us.  They are holding the sealing for Amie Morey."

About 2 minutes later, Amie arrived.  If she hadn't of forgotten her temple recommend in Draper, I never would have made it in.  TENDER MERCIES!!

The ceremony was beautiful and I've never seen Natalya look so happy or so radiant.  I'm so grateful that I've been able to live close enough to all of these people that I grew up with and that I've been able to see so many of them get married.

Natalya and Sean coming out of the temple!  Look how eager he is to show her off!

Sean is seriously all eyes on his beautiful bride!  As it should be!

Natalya and her sister, Majken!  Happy day for sisters!

Taking care of his sweetheart all ready.

Later that night, there was a giant Bangkok reunion, of course.  It was so good to see these people again and some that I don't get to see that often.  There was a great turn out of people and plenty of people to talk to and enjoy all night.

Here I am with some of those awesome people (and I'm 19 weeks pregnant).

Weddings are one of the best ways to celebrate the New Year!  I hope that Natalya and Sean are happy with each other every day for the rest of forever!!  And I hope 2013 is another great year for love!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot...Sharp

The outside is starting to look a bit dangerous.  The icicles are getting long...

My Very Merry Christmas Home Upgrade

Well, I'm officially an adult.  My Christmas present this year was a brand new Over the Range Microwave!  YEAHHHH!!!

Luckily, I had two buff men in the house to install it for me, free of charge!  I love saving some money!

First, I made Aaron finish painting that wall of the kitchen.  Since we had to move the stove away from the wall, it was a perfect time for me to get in there and sweep and mop things that have fallen down there over the passed couple years.  Surprisingly, it wasn't that nasty.  A few sticky spots but not much else.  But now it is ultra clean!

We started painting the kitchen....maybe a year and a half ago?  We got two walls done...and then...decided to finish the rest of it.....later.

After Aaron finished painting, it got installed!  Queue the buff man action!  This is Markus holding the microwave up with his back like Atlas.

This is what is looks like installed...hot action!  Isn't it beautiful?  I love it so much.  The kitchen hasn't been my favorite room in the house.  It has always felt cluttered to me and this microwave up here, is the first step to a more clutter free kitchen.  This microwave looks like it always belonged up there.

But, Aaron did need to make a new outlet to plug it into...you know...so that I could use it.

It involved Aaron being in the attic and using a hook to pull some wires from an old outlet, up to Markus who grabbed them and pulled them out of the hole.  Some pretty nice team work there.

And now I have a beautiful, working, Over the Range Microwave!  THANK YOU SANTA!!