Reaping the Rewards

Richard finally has a little bit of extra time and so I got the dinner he promised me when I won our bet about the gender of the baby. And he did a GREAT job. This was my favorite part:

In case I ever forgot that I was right, he made a cute sign to remind me. Richard had the table set with our nice plates and glasses and had music going in the background and he made me a very tasty meal of steak, mashed potatoes, corn, salad, and rolls. I love when Richard cooks any time but this probably tasted even better because I knew I got it from being right :) I highly recommend this for any bet you might be making in the future!

S.O.S.

PLEASE tell me that every soon-to-be mom has days when they say, "what am I thinking? I can't be a mom!?!" You know, those days when you realize that you can't even decide what color to make the crib sheets, so how could you possibly make decisions that will affect the life of an otherwise helpless human being? Please tell me everyone thinks that, because I just had a day like that. A really bad day like that. My wonderful mom and sisters came down to Provo to take me baby shopping. And I freaked out. Walking up and down those aisles with SO many things staring back at me that I alone will be responsible for knowing how they work, why they are necessary, and when to use them was just a little too much for me I think. I didn't even know what fun things to register for, let alone which things the baby will actually need. And I'm not going to lie, I was more interested in looking at all the fun toys than remembering which car seats had the highest safety rating....does that make me a bad mom already? I'm sure tomorrow will be a better day and I will realize that nobody knows everything they are supposed to be doing before the baby actually comes and I will calm down. In the meantime I think I'll go watch a movie and try to ignore the butterflies in my tummy that come when I realize that I am just over 3 months away from this little one coming whether I am ready or not!

More than 400 hours,

7000 pages, 21 Spanish books, and 16 weeks later here we are (not including about 300 pages of articles he had to read on top of all these books!). And yes, those are the actual books he read this semester. Can I just say my husband is amazing?! One semester down, 5 1/2 years left to go. Can we survive it? We will see...

Tuki Tuki Tuki Tuki

Last night I went to support Richard and his students in a singing competition. Not a serious singing competition where the best singer actually wins, but a competition between all of the Spanish classes. All of the professors had to pick a Spanish Christmas song and teach it to their students and then on the last day of class they all came together to sing them for each other. Richard's song was "El Burrito Sabanero" which has a really catchy tune and tends to get stuck in your head ALL the time. Richard was the only teacher who taught his students a little dance to go along with the song and because of that he won a prize! He got a certificate for the most original song and then he also won for being 1 of the top 3 favorite songs that the judges picked. I was actually really surprised, I thought all the students were going to be embarassed to be up there and only singing half-heartedly because they have to be there, but they all got really into it and it was super fun to watch. I also got a couple of good blackmail videos of Richard dancing. Here's one of them for your enjoyment as well as mine :)

Enemy #1

I have a new enemy. No, it's not an angry Christmas shopper or someone stuck in traffic. It's the squeaky floorboards above my bed. I wake up every morning about 6:00 am to the guy who lives above us walking around upstairs. And I kid you not, we have the squeakiest house in the whole world. Not only can you NOT tune that out but by the time he leaves, there's not even enough time for me to get back to sleep before my own alarm goes off. Last night was the last straw for me. This time he was up until 3:00 am doing who knows what, rocking back and forth on that same squeaky board. I swear he must be doing it on purpose because he instinctively knows that I'm lying awake being annoyed by it. He finally went to bed at 3:00 but was up again at 6:00 doing that same who knows what on that same squeaky floorboard. Next time, I seriously think I'm going to have to go at it with my hammer. Hopefully Richard will be able to keep me from going completely insane.

Getting Excited

Who is more excited than I am?!

Think Pink

And the winner is.... ME! Of course! Was there ever any doubt? :) Actually Richard pretty much thought it was a girl too but had to be opposite of me so that we could have a fun bet. So yes, we are having a little girl! It seems slightly more real now, but is still pretty unbelieveable. The ultrasound was really cool. Iwas scared that I was going to be disappointed with it like I was with hearing the heartbeat for the first time (I just had super high expectations I guess), but it was SO fun to actually see our little one. She had her hands up, crossed over her face the whole time. I told Richard it was because she was annoyed with us and wanted us to stop poking her. That's not good news if we're already driving her nuts :) We've actually started thinking about names now too. We got a fairly big list of names and narrowed it down to 5. Richard thought it would be a good idea for both of us to list those 5 in order of what we liked best. Unfortunately, our lists were almost exactly opposite of each other! And so the "fun" of trying to decide on a name begins. We still might add others to the list but right now we like Starlee, Bella, Amberlee, Bailey, and Adalyn. What do you think?

In other news...

My belly also popped pretty good while we were in AZ. I swear I doubled in size overnight! So I guess I officially look pregnant now. Or at least I'm assuming that's what it means when every single female in the family comes up to me, pats my belly, and goes OOHHHHHHH!!!! And tomorrow we'll find out if the baby is healthy, if my due date is right, and what gender the baby is! Richard and I have a bet going so I'll keep you updated on who wins :)

AZ Trip

You'd think by looking at my pictures that all I did was stare at this cute little boy the whole time:

And you'd pretty much be right! He was the reason most of the family was able to drive down and spend some fun time together in AZ (well, Holly and Chase were a pretty good reason too...).
On Saturday morning, Emery was sealed to his parents for time and all eternity. It was VERY special to watch. Chase's grandpa did the sealing and got all of us crying as he talked about what a special gift Emery was and as he thanked the birth grandparents for allowing us to have Emery sealed in our family.

Isn't he the cutest little chub-a-dub you've ever seen?!

It was SO fun to see Holly, Chase, and Emery and to be with the rest of the family on vacation- thanks Hol for giving us a good excuse to come visit again! However, I don't think I will be spending time apart from Richard again any time soon. I had to hold back tears quite a few times on our trip thinking about him being lonely back in Provo and how much I wanted him to be with me. And all I could do when I got back to Provo was give him the biggest hug ever and tell him never to leave me. Who knew it was so hard to be away from your spouse for even that little of time?! Maybe that's just another thing I'll blame on the pregnancy hormones... ;)

It's a-me, Mario!

With my cute wife Princess Peach.

What do you think?

For our FHE Activity....

We were going to put together our Halloween costumes. Maybe make a quick trip to the DI, cut and glue a few things here and there and, if we had time, even have a pumpkin carving contest with the 2 pumpkins we bought weeks ago. But instead, we decided it would be a much more fun activity to lock ourselves out of the apt with no cell phones and with nothing more on than a long-sleeved shirt. If the guys upstairs are home, it's no problem to lock ourselves out because we can get to our basement apt through theirs. But of course, none of them were home. Thank goodness Richard had his wallet so we could walk down and get some food in the meantime. Currently, we're on campus staying warm while we wait for the guys upstairs to return home. I can't think of a time when I've had more fun at FHE....

Dear BYU,

I understand that my husband has a lot of skills and talents you can use. And I also know that he has a lot he can learn from you as well. But he spends so much time with you, it's hard to remember if he's married to me or you.... And frankly I'm tired of being a widow. I promise to continue being a BYU football fan and I'll start going to Ed Week every year if I could just see him a little more often. So if you could please send him back to me, that would be wonderful. Thanks again for understanding.

Sincerely,

The Widow Henricksen

Wanted: Creative Ideas

Usually our Halloween costumes are thrown together the night before with whatever we have lying around the house. This year, I want go have a good idea in mind so that when I throw my costume together at the last minute, at least I have an idea to go off of :) I have always wanted to do something really clever for Halloween with a huge pregnant belly. Don't ask me why. Maybe I was somewhat inspired by a couple in our ward last year who dressed the husband up as a bowling pin and his very pregnant wife was the bowling ball- so cute! Even though I won't have a big belly at Halloween, I still will have a little bump and I still want to do something very cute, creative, and yes, even cheesy. Since I am lacking a little in the creative department, I want to get YOUR ideas. Anyone have any good ideas for pregnant Halloween costumes?

Park City

What is better than staying in Park City for a night? Staying in Park City for FREE! We won a free night stay at the Marriott and were thrilled to be able to use it last weekend. We mostly just used the time to relax but had a great time too. We headed up on Friday night and went out to dinner and then went down to the pool to play for a little while. Then I was so tired that we ended up just watching a movie in the hotel room- poor Richard has to be so patient with me!! The bed was HUGE, especially compared to our double at home. But we decided that we can't sleep on nice beds with big fluffy pillows because neither one of us slept. I guess we're too used to our small pillows and lumpy mattress :) The next morning we went down and were trying to decide what to do about breakfast. I always have to get something to eat FAST when I wake up, but the prices at the hotel restaurant were very expensive. We were debating about whether or not to just go ahead and spend a little more than we normally would when this man walked up to us and handed us a coupon for 2 free breakfast buffets at the hotel restaurant, telling us that he had an extra one. It was such an amazing unexpected blessing for us! We saw him a little bit later and thanked him for his generous gift and all he said was, I have a 50% off coupon for dinner tonight if you want that too! Wow- sometimes it amazes me how nice people can be. After a delicious and filling breakfast, we went to Main St and just walked around looking at all the shops and bought some yummy treats from the Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory.

Making a new friend

We ended our "vacation" by going to the outlet stores and getting new coats, a new purse for me, and a new shirt for Richard. All in all it was a great trip, and you can't beat a free stay in a nice hotel!!

Birthday Wishes

Richard's bday was last Friday which means for the last couple weeks I have been STRESSED. I never feel like I can plan well enough or think of activities that are fun enough or get a present that is good enough. So I stress and fret beforehand about what to do and then worry after that it wasn't the best birthday ever. This birthday I was trying to think of something REALLY fun to do since this will be his last bday without kids. But then I watched him stress like crazy over school and decided that more than anything, he just needed to relax for his bday. First, I got up early and made him breakfast and gave him his present. He warned me not to get him a present since we technically got our bikes as the present for both of our bdays. But I cheated and bought him just a little present- one he has been waiting for for a long time. His own copy of Don Quijote! (All in Spanish of course). I think opening that was definitely the best part of his day. Then, during lunch, I snuck home and decorated the house with some balloons and signs and bought him his favorite treat instead of getting a cake this year. (Funny side note, Richard walked in and didn't notice ANY of the decorations even though they were right in front of him! He first saw a note that I had written him on the table and it said something about the decorations and he was like, what is she talking about?) That night, we went to Goodwood for some delicious BBQ (not that I could eat much of it.... but Richard told me it was delicious!) Then we headed over to Trafalga to play some mini golf. We must have worn each other out because we came home and took a nap... not what some would call a good bday activity but I think we both really needed it! And then we went over to the movie theater to watch Transformers 2. If nothing else, I at least put the effort in to make it as enjoyable as possible and most importantly- we were together!

Serious mini golfer

Can you tell he likes his present from his big cheeser?!?

Blowing out the candles on his treat. 2 candles on one side and 6 on the other :)

Switcharoo

We've been VERY lucky in that since we have been married, we've only had to buy one piece of furniture. And that was just a movie case that was pretty cheap and isn't really necessary to apt living. Everything else has been given to us for free in one way or another. But we finally felt like it was time to move on from our first free couch. This is what the "beauty" looked like:

Although it has been a good couch, especially considering it was free, it hurts my back when I sit on it for a long time. And since I've been spending a lot of time on the couch as I've been sick and I know I will spend a lot of time on it after the baby is born, we decided it was time to make our first real furniture purchase. Can I just say I HATE spending lots of money?! But it was worth it and here is what our new couch looks like. It kind of blends in with our carpet.... but hey- we didn't buy it to match this apt, right? Come visit anytime so you can try it out :)

Little Parasite

So if anyone doesn't know by now, we are expecting a little one! I'm due April 3rd so I'm not super far along but I'm sure it will go fast. This picture is how we told my family- and I think it's pretty funny :) I was really nervous to go to our first doctor's appointment but it went well and the doctor was awesome! Since I haven't been eating much (because I'm so sick all the time) I was a little worried about getting enough nutrition for the baby (and for myself). But the doctor made me feel better by saying that the baby was a good little parasite and it would take what it needs from my body. I hope he's right because the baby's going to have to get a lot of nutrients out of fruit, crackers, and macaroni and cheese :) Wish me luck with all the new craziness that will be happening, both in the next 9 months and for the rest of my life after that!

A Little Behind....

Lately I've been getting a lot of comments about how long it's been since I've blogged. I kept thinking "I just blogged last week I swear!" when I finally looked at the date of my last post and realized it's been over 2 weeks. So to those who have been checking and have actually been disappointed with my lack of posts, I apologize. Here's a little of what we have been up to:

We babysat all of the crazy Awerkamp kids while Julie and Todd celebrated their 10 year anniversary! (Congrats again you guys!) We went to the park, played games, made dinner and Rice Krispie treats together, and watched a movie. We love being around those kids!

We went to $2 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point and saw the Dino Museum with Richard's brother and his family. The kids were a little too young to really like it... but we had fun! We had a swimming party for an end of the summer bash with my family. Todd's parents were nice enough to let us come over and use their pool and firepit so that we could swim and cook hot dogs and marshmallows. Then Richard took the boys to the Monster Truck Rally at the Real Salt Lake Stadium and had a blast doing some male bonding while I hung out with Kristi.
It was a great way to end the summer! And now it's on to school for Richard- poor guy :) On the other hand, I can't wait for fall (even though it means winter is coming...) and am excited for slightly cooler weather and the chance to wear long-sleeved shirts and cuddle up in blankets again with some hot chocolate. We've had an amazing summer and got to do a lot of fun things this year. Now we just have to wait and see what the school year will bring us!

Camping Trip

Richard has been wanting to go camping for the last 2 summers and we just never really got around to it! So we finally had some time and decided to go overnight to Nebo Creek. Our camera was almost dead so we didn't take a ton of pictures but we had a lot of fun. Richard was so nice to do all of the packing so it was pretty effortless for me! We didn't get there until 6:30 so we just hurried and set up camp and got the fire going for our tinfoil dinners. Then we just stayed around the campfire all night and talked and roasted marshmallows. The next morning we went shooting right by our camp which was the best part of the whole trip (except the being with Richard part) :) Once Richard taught me how to shoot, I actually wasn't too bad. Here is a video of me busting open a full soda can.


I had a blast just being out in the woods with Richard, even if it was just overnight. We were lucky to even get one night in this summer with how busy we've been!

I Love Yard Sales

Why? Because they are all over the place in Provo. Because we always show up late to them and end up getting stuff for free because they are just trying to get rid of it. And because over the last 2 weeks I have taken home a cute heart shelf, a snowman decoration, 6 cute home-made cards, 8 plates, 4 bowls, 3 massagers, and 2 brand new Sunday shirts for Richard all for $9!!! I dare you to find a steal as good as that...

Makeup-less

As you all know, I HATE going anywhere without makeup. Because I don't think I look good without makeup, I become paranoid that everybody else thinks the same thing and so I get it into my head that when people see me, they think "eww gross, why doesn't she put on some makeup?" Ha ha. But yesterday I did something really daring. We went swimming with Richard's family yesterday (which was a BLAST) and then needed to go grocery shopping. I wanted to throw on some makeup before we went but Richard wouldn't let me since I would just be washing it off in the shower as soon as we got back. So I took a deep breath and walked out into the sunlight with no makeup! The whole time at the store I was walking with my head down and kept saying to Richard, "I feel like everyone is staring at me because I'm so ugly!" I suppose it was a good experience for me but I promise it won't be happening again any time soon :)

Richard's Philosophy on Life

Need I say more?

New Project

I have been wanting to do this for a while and finally got around to it. This is the souvenior we bought on our honeymoon and all of the pictures around it are pictures we took on our honeymoon. What do you think?

Surprise, Surprise. Pretty Surprise!

Yes that is a quote from Cinderella. And no, this post has absolutely nothing to do with Cinderella. But I did get a pretty surprise from some very sweet boys. Jason and Dan took an amazing month long trip around Europe and before they left, they asked Richard if he wanted them to bring anything back for him. Being the WONDERFUL husband he is, he said "Not for me but if you find something good for Kelli let me know" (or something like that). So our awesome friends kept their eye out and found me these gorgeous pair of earrings-

Ignore my big thumb in the picture- it was either that or a super blurry pic :) These are from Murano, Italy where they make this incredible (super expensive) hand-blown glass. Thanks Jason, Dan, and Richard for my earrings- I love them!!!!

Introducing....

the newest member of the 8th ward Bishopric!!!
That's right- much to our surprise, Richard was called to be the 2nd counselor of a BYU singles ward! He will do an AMAZING job and I am so so proud of him. We'll both be going to that ward so it will be weird to be back with all the fun, energy, and craziness that goes along with being in a singles ward. They're also having me teach either temple prep or marriage prep (I haven't heard which one yet) so I am about as scared as Richard of our new callings. Wish us luck!!!

Trip to Cali

Our trip to Cali was...well, less than ideal. But we went to support Richard's brother who was getting married in Palmdale, so that's all that matters, right? We stopped on the way down to go hiking in St George and had a blast hiking around for about 2 hours. But on the way back, I stepped a little too close to a ledge that had about a 5 foot drop and the wall crumbled underneath me. Luckily, after I landed on a sharp rock and rolled down the hill a ways, Richard's brother caught me before I got seriously hurt. We did think I broke my thumb and spent 2 hours in the emergency room getting it checked out. But other than that I was just scraped up. I scared Richard pretty bad though, sorry sweetie!

The next day we went to the beach and it was FREEZING! I was so disappointed- don't you go to Cali to enjoy the sun?! But I had fun taking pictures of everyone and burying Richard in the sand.

Saturday was the wedding. We went swimming in the morning and finally saw a little bit of sun but it was very very windy. But the wedding still went well and now we have a new sister-in-law. She is the last in-law to join our family on either side!

Sunday we just headed back to Utah. It was an incredibly short, uneventful trip but at least we got a few days off of work :)

Second Birthday

Here is a fact that you might need to learn about me, one that Richard has already had to learn many times. You can't surprise me! I'm way too curious for my own good and somehow I always ruin surprises without even realizing what I am doing. I even ruined Richard's proposal because I knew he was going to do it and 10 seconds after he had proposed I couldn't keep it in any longer and I blurted out, "I knew you were going to propose today!" and totally popped his secret romantic bubble, as Richard puts it!

So anyway, Richard tried once again to be a sweet thoughtful husband and surprise me with a second birthday, since the first one didn't work out as well as he wanted it to. I have had scones for breakfast on my birthday for a very long time and I was disappointed that I didn't have them this year (Richard goes to work at 7 and I'm not even up by then so it wouldn't have worked). But Richard doesn't work on Fridays and since yesterday was the 5th, exactly a month after my bday, he decided he was going to make me scones and give me a 2nd bday. Unfortunately, he had to get them the night before but we were at his brother's until late and he had to take me with him to the store. He said, let me just run in and grab something. I kept asking him about it, wondering what he could be getting that I shouldn't know about until finally he said something like, Kelli please stop asking or you'll ruin the surprise.

Just like my mind usually does, it immediately went a million miles a minute trying to figure out what he could be getting at the grocery store that would be a good surprise for me and I thought it might be scones. But I made the mistake of saying, Ok fine I'll stay in the car while you go get them..... Richard knew right then that I knew what was going on and that I had guessed yet another surprise. I felt bad....but was very excited to get my scones!

He woke up very early and made me a delicious breakfast. Then he made a great dinner and had candles burning and music playing when I got home from work. Then we went and saw a play at BYU, which I also guessed we were going to, and had a blast there. Then we came home and watched a movie and had root beer floats. It was an AMAZING 2nd birthday and I'm so glad I have a sweet husband who went to all that work for me! Even if I always ruin it :)

Eating my delicious dinner!

Big cheesy smile with our yummy root beer floats

Near Death Experience...or so I thought

Richard had such a fun night planned for us last Friday. For part of it, he wanted to take me up to this "castle" in Provo (it's really just a tiny little fort, what do you expect in Utah?) to hike around and look at the beautiful view. When we got there we were sad to see that there was a wedding reception going on so we couldn't explore as much as we wanted to. Instead of following the main road up to the castle, where the reception was, we decided to walk straight up the back hill. Both of us were in shorts and flip flops and were just laughing and talking when all of the sudden I looked down and saw a snake's head RIGHT by my foot!!! (yes this is the actual snake that nearly killed me!) :)

I SCREAMED and ran all the way back down the hill. Richard, not knowing what I was doing, ran down the hill after me, also screaming a little bit (although he won't admit that part!) It was just a tiny little snake and I felt so ridiculous afterwards, but I was seriously terrified looking down and seeing that little snake's head right by my bare toes! That's about as "near death" as I would like to be for a while :) After that I would not walk in the grass but we still had a nice time walking around this little castle and around the lake behind it. We'll have to go back in hiking boots and pants and then I'll be able to relax and enjoy it a little bit more!

**In Richard's defense, he really wasn't screaming, he just looked down and also saw the snake right by him and then got scared because he thought maybe it had bitten me. And then he was brave and went back up the hill to take the picture :)

One of THOSE Days

Do you ever have one of those days? When, no matter how hard you try, everything just seems to go wrong? Yesterday was one of those days for me. But luckily, I ran into this beautiful girl:

And then this beautiful girl:

And Richard took me out for some ice cream:

And suddenly the world was a better place! Thanks guys, you're the best :)

Saturday in the Park

Since Julie was in AZ helping Holly this past week (you can check out this post if you want more info on her visit!), Richard and I decided that we would go help my brother-in-law for a few hours and take the kids to the park and give him a break! We had SO much fun- I can't remember the last time I had that much fun with my nieces and nephews. We played kick ball, climbed a tree, raced down a humongous hill, played on the playground, and let them wear out their favorite aunt and uncle :) Thanks for letting us take the kids for a couple of hours Todd!

All the little monkeys up in the tree

All the kids minus Kimberly, who was back home sleeping!

Color Me Mine

Last Saturday Richard took me to what was supposed to be the activity for my birthday (one of those things that didn't work out)- Color Me Mine. This place has all different kinds of pottery and you can paint them and then they'll fire them up and make it look pretty! Ok, so I don't know the technical terms, but you get the idea. The plan was for us to both make our own thing and then make an anniversary plate together. I had the ENTIRE plate done and had just finished drying the paint. I turned around to take it up to the front and OOPS- it slipped out of my hands and SHATTERED. I was SOOOO sad and the only thing I thought was, don't cry, please don't cry in front of all of these people! Of course I didn't drop the other two meaningless projects we were working on, I had to drop the plate that was going to mean more and that we would use every year on our anniversary. ~sigh~ I'm going to have to let someone teach me how to not be so clumsy because I do stuff like that all the time! Other than that it was SO much fun and we will probably be back soon. Here are our fun creations that I DIDN'T drop:

Painting my vase

Intensely working on his big fat frog bank

The finished products!

Catching Up

It hasn't been that long since I've written but a LOT has been going on. But here are the highlights of the two best things that happened in the last week:

Cinco de Mayo Birthday

Birthday celebrations actually started the week before with my old roommates surprising me by taking me out to lunch and then to the mall to force me to buy some new clothes, since it takes a lot to get me to the mall. Then on my birthday, Richard tried so hard to make it good day but I guess fate was against him because nothing worked out the way it should have! He did surprise me at work with a bouquet of flowers but that was really the only thing that went right. I felt really bad for him but it was still a good birthday. He got me what I have been wanting for a while now- a brand new bike!!! I was so excited. And the best part of the present is that he got two bikes so now he has to go with me when I want to go :)

Putting together our bikes!

1ST ANNIVERSARY

Yesterday was officially our one year anniversary!!! It's hard to believe that it's only been a year but at the same time it feel like it's been way longer than a year! Last week we stayed at a little bed and breakfast and got to relax and enjoy our time away from Provo. Never mind that the place was pretty ghetto...it was nice to get away anyway :) Then we went to the park where we had our first date and where Richard proposed. On our anniversary Richard made me a delicious breakfast in the morning and then that night we looked at our wedding pictures, watched our wedding video, tried some of our wedding cake (notice I didn't say EAT, it was pretty gross so we just took a picture and then threw it away!), and danced to our song. It was a fantastic anniversary and I'm so lucky to have spent the last year with the most amazing man I know. He's even better of a man now that he's had to put up with me for a whole year!

I LOVE YOU!!