Pumpkins and Cupcakes

We don't really get in to Halloween around here, it makes me a little sad because I used to love getting all dressed up and answering the door for the cute little trick-or-treaters. We didn't even have candy this year, I felt really bad about that. Maybe next year things will be a little different.
Even though we don't do much, we did do our annual pumpkin carving at Jer's parent's house last week, which is always a good time.This is my ugly bird-witch. It didn't turn out the way I wanted it to, mostly because I was planning on carving the whole thing, but the warty pumpkins have THE WORST rind to cut through, it was almost impossible to just cut around the stem as it was.This is Jer's awesome tribute to one of his favorite bands, 311. I think it looks really cool, he did a good job with it.
It's always funny to watch the kids being crazy and creative with their own pumpkins, this annual activity might be one of our favorites.

Tonight for family dinner I'm in charge of dessert, and decided to make some Halloweenish themed cupcakes. I've been wanting cupcakes all week, but didn't have a reason to make any, until today. I think they turned out cute. They're lemon flavored with vanilla icing. On some I put toasted coconut, and on others I added, with some melted chocolate chips, ghost faces. (sorry the pic isn't so great, but you get the idea, right?)I've taste-tested them, they're good. Hopefully everyone else will think they're as tasty and cute as I do, although I'm nowhere near as talented as my friend Emily-the cupcake making queen!

We hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!

Anniversary

This past week we had our 4 year anniversary. It's hard to believe that it's been that long, but sometimes it's hard to believe it hasn't been longer.
I'm so lucky I ended up with Jer, I can't imagine having gone through all the stuff we went through these last 3 years with anyone else who would have been as understanding as him. I'm surprised sometimes to remember back to what I was like when I was on some of my pre-surgery hormone pills and how horrible I was, and he still loves me, even after that. I'm a lucky girl.
Our actual anniversary was Tuesday, so I went up to his new job and we went to lunch at a little deli called Pazzo Vita. It was good food, but it was even better to see him in the middle of the day, and finally see where he's working now. He's really starting to enjoy his new job, I'm so proud of him. We had our actual anniversary date last night. He came home from work and had flowers for me! I thought he just picked them up at the grocery store, but he actually ordered them special. Purple ones for my favorite color, and pink and blue ones for the baby! I thought that was so sweet!
After I got all fancied up (meaning I made my hair curly) we went to The 5 Alls. Jer told me about this place a couple years ago, but we still hadn't been there. I told him this year that I wanted to go, so he made reservations and we headed up. It's a cool little restaurant that's sort of medieval and they serve you 5 courses. It was really good food, and A LOT of it. Jer got the steak and shrimp and I got the chicken (possibly the best chicken I've ever had at a restaurant). It was expensive, but definitely worth it. We brought back 3 boxes of food, mine, his, and the bread they put out. I'm sure we'll go back, but who knows when.

As for baby news, I'm 17 weeks along and had another check up this past week. Everything's going good. I'm gaining weight (although I think I'm still in the 'is she getting fat or is she pregnant' phase) and the baby's heart was sounding great. I think I've started to feel it moving around here and there, but not on a regular basis yet. It's kind of cool. We'll find out what it is November 12. I'm surprised I'm not more anxious about it, but I think it's mostly that I don't care what we have as long as it's healthy; finding out what it is will just be a bonus. I personally have NO idea what it is, but I've had a lot of people tell me they think it's a boy. Recently I've started to hear more people thinking it's a girl, so it's about even. It'll be interesting to find out for sure so we can settle on a name and I can call it by it's name instead of calling it 'it' all the time.

Thanks for all the prayers, love and support!

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While I was waiting for work I made this,
hope you enjoyed it!

Growth

I went to the Dr. today and heard the baby's heart beat for the first time, it was crazy! I also got to see just how much the baby has changed in a month, so much it's amazing to me. It's so weird that this little miracle is happening, and you can't really even tell until you get to see inside yourself! The lady who did the sonogram said the baby was moving quite a bit, though I couldn't feel it yet.
Here are 2 of the 3 ultrasounds I've had. The 1st one was just a little dot-the heart. Exciting for us, but maybe not so much for the rest of you, and sort of hard to see anyway.
This one is from 8 1/2 weeks, it looks like a little blob:And here is the one from today, 12 1/2 weeks, I love how you can see the fingertips above it's face!You can see the cute little profile in there too, as well as a foot and part of a leg if you look closely. It's amazing how tiny it still is though! If you want to see the ultrasounds better, just click on the picture, and it should blow up for you.
We'll keep you posted! Thanks for all the comments on the last post, I don't think we've ever gotten THAT MANY before!

Watch out world...

Watch out world, a miniature Jer or me will be joining us at the end of March. That's right, we're pregnant! I'm now a little over 12 weeks along, and so far things are looking good. I've already had 2 ultrasounds, and I'll have my next on Wednesday. I can't wait to see how much the baby's grown since my last appointment. We are planning on finding out the gender, but we'll have to wait until November for that. We'll scan the ultrasound pictures in eventually for your viewing pleasure, but for now...no pics yet.
We're both thrilled, but still a little nervous. Every day starts getting a little more surreal for me, especially since we've started announcing it.
Thank you for all the hope, support and prayers, they've meant a lot to us, but we definitely still need them!

Ice Cream Cake

I made my very first ice cream cake last week and figured I should do a post on it.
The story behind making it in the first place is that one of the young women (Maria) in our ward is always talking about wanting one, and that started making me want one, and curious of how to make them. I wasn't about to go buy one (they're so stinkin expensive), especially since we have this handy-dandy internet thing that has all sorts of free info on it. So I finally gave in and set a day to make the ice cream cake, with Maria.
I baked the cake in 2 rounds the night before so I could put them in the freezer/fridge to chill over night. 30 minutes before Maria came over, I got the ice cream out to soften a little. I was going to have her fill the empty cake round (lined with plastic wrap) with it so it could set up in the same shape as the cakes, but she came late (what else do you expect from a teenager?) so I did that job too. I put it in the freezer and let it start setting up, which is when Maria got to my house (nice timing, huh?). Since we needed the ice cream to set up for awhile (I didn't know how long), we put "The Skeleton Key" on. Maria loves scary movies. I'm not a big fan (I used to be, but hate them now), but since I've seen it before I was alright with it. I kept getting up to check the ice cream, and probably half-way through the movie, I figured it was ok to put the cake together. We paused the movie, and got all the stuff out. The cake ended up looking like a big ice cream sandwich, but that's ok. I hurried and frosted it with and 8 oz container of Cool Whip, then popped it back in the freezer before the ice cream could melt too much.

This is what it looked like before we cut into it:
And this is how it looked on the inside:
Yellow cake with Rocky Road ice cream. It was very good and I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, especially for my first time!

Pioneer Day Party

Just about every year, Jer's parents have a party for the 24th. Food, fun, friends, family, swimming....all that good stuff. If any of you have seen any of the pictures from when we got engaged, my arm is wrapped in an ace bandage because of the 'fun' we were having at the 24th of July party in 2005.

This year we invited some friends (one of Jer's old friends and his wife and one of his younger brothers) and we had a good time. The guys did a Scottish pole toss, and everyone joined in the gunny-sack races. We tried a 3-legged race, but Jer and I lost horribly. I'm pretty sure I've never gunny-sack raced before, I'm sure I looked ridiculous trying! Mike and Ashley were pretty good at it though, maybe they should go pro? The boys had so much fun they had to race twice, so I was able to get some video of that:

After some swimming we enjoyed us some burgers and salads, and you can't forget the dessert. All in all it was a good day, even if I had to work and Jer got to have the day off.
Thank you Pioneers for giving us another GREAT reason to party in the summer!