Spring Fever

End of my first trimester soon....spring fever....finally feel like I have some energy....finally being sick of my dirty house????

For any and all of the above reasons, I cleaned my apartment today. Deep cleaned. Cleaned like it has not been cleaned since at least before I started getting sick from being preggo in December. So it's been at least six weeks, if not more.

I also had some extra initiative because my sister Kami is coming down for the big Rasmussen January birthday dinner tonight (we have something like 7 birthdays in January) and her kids are being babysat at our apartment. Hence, all of the stacks and stacks of paperwork that I had out for medicaid, WIC, taxes, etc. had to be gone through so that no little kids could get into them tonight and mess up the somewhat organized piles I had them in...which led to further babyproofing of the apartment, because really, we leave a lot of important stuff at really low levels because we don't have to have our apartment baby proofed. Yet.

Which led to an entire house deep cleaning. Now I'm taking a break. It took me two hours to go through all of our insurance papers and the above mentioned paper stacks, and sort them and make new file folders and get all of that filed and put away. Then another couple hours on the kitchen and dishes. Another hour on the bathroom. An hour putting clean laundry away and moving items out of our second bedroom (like Sterling's stereo that was on the floor, and a big box of laundry detergent...which made me cringe because my niece Olivia pulled that onto herself when she was a baby and had to go to the hospital--wasn't she life-flighted to Primary Childrens???) and into the closet that we usually have all that stuff in, it just slowly gets pulled out and never put back.

All I have left is ironing and vacuuming. But I got distracted trying to find something yummier than bread to eat some Nutella on. No luck yet. Maybe just a spoon? But it feels really good to finally have a clean house, and not just a tidied house. And I also feel exhausted and ready to take a nap.

I have a new pile of things in our bedroom: a bassinet, a laundry basket full of clean maternity clothes from my sisters, the solar system mobile Sterling wants to have above our crib, and the bag of pregnancy things they gave us at our first visit. For now, I think it might be in that pile for awhile. At least until we're ready to give up our futon(sp?) and tv in the second bedroom.

AHHH....I LOVE the feeling of a clean house. It makes me feel like all the Saturday's growing up, where the whole house got cleaned before you could go to a friends house or do anything. I guess it always feels good to go back to your traditions.

This Is My Blog

This is my blog, so none of my family members can mock me for posting a picture of our first ultrasound. It is not publicly displayed on facebook, or even on our family website, so it is your own personal choice to look at this picture. And isn't it SO CUTE? (I can see my mom mocking that, "how can a black and white blob be cute?") but...its my baby, and I think s/he's cute!!!!!!! Sterling came to the entire appointment with me, and was SO excited to hear the heartbeat and see the ultrasound! He also got light-headed when they drew my blood, haahaa!

The dr. said "There's definitely a baby in there!" And only one, so everyone can stop teasing me about twins, and I can heave a big sigh of relief. Also, a big sigh of relief because we are out of the miscarriage high-risk weeks. We set an appointment for February 28th and we'll HOPEFULLY find out the gender! I can't wait! February is going to be forever long!

Also, I haven't gained any weight at all. They said as long as I start gaining weight by next month they aren't going to be worried. I'm starting to fill out my pants a little bit more, so I think we're on the upside of that. And this....is the Haws baby! You can see the head, and spine, and the little knees and legs! SO CRAZY!

Grumpy Post

Instead of trying to solve some of my many problems that have arisen in the last few hours of being awake this morning...I'm going to sit here and whine and eat an entire package of Trolli Peach Rings. Healthy, I know. But they taste good. And thats pretty much all that matters.

Why am I grumpy?

• Our house is a mess. Whose fault is that? Mine. Do I really want that pointed out? No. (Although on a happy note about our house, we have a bassinet in our bedroom-my sister gave it to us for free since her baby has grown out of it-it makes the idea that we're having a baby MUCH MORE real) Sterling thought he was helping this morning by putting all the dirty dishes in one sink. Now I just have to move them all out again so I can fill the sink with dishwater to wash them. Thanks for the thought babe.
• I went to get my car registered for this year and we have to have a safety and emissions test. Now all of you may laugh at me, but this is the first year the car has been registered under my name, and not my dad's---and he only told me I needed my last years registration. I had no idea I needed the safety and emissions test. To make it all the more annoying, this is the only Monday (thats not a holiday) that I have had off this month to get this taken care of. Now I have to try and get it all done...and my dad won't answer his phone. And no, I won't take my car anywhere but Cliff's Chevron without his permission. I'm a baby like that.
• I hate it when people talk to you in government buildings like you know nothing. Okay, so maybe I don't...but you don't have to talk to me like that. It's really, really rude, and I don't like you when you do that.
• I went to the store to buy milk and fruit and other things we are currently out of. They must of just started up the bakery or something, but I spent the entire shopping trip trying not to puke. I hate being nauseous. If I am sick longer than my first trimester I am going to be very, very sad.
• It's one of those days where I didn't put any effort into my hair because it looked half-ways decent from yesterday. And now I've spent the entire morning trying to convince myself that I don't really want to go chop it all off right now.
• Sterling put cologne on this morning and then was sulky because I wouldn't kiss him. Really, I've been extra nauseous to that smell for the last two weeks...if he wanted me to kiss him in the morning, he shouldn't have sprayed the smelly stuff (not that I don't normally love it...I think I even originally picked it out, but pregnancy makes you dislike weird things).

Okay, thats all I have to whine about. Now I am almost done my peachy rings, and dad called and helped me so I can get everything done this morning, and life will be better, so I will stop whining, and this afternoon I'll post as SOON as I get back from our first ultrasound...so you won't have to look at this post for very long. And maybe I'll do the dishes so I feel a LITTLE better about the state of things around here.

Our Snowman

Thursday nights we go to Married's Committee at the institute where (usually we have a meeting first because we are over activities) we have a lesson and then afterwards snacks/dinner. It ends around 9:30. Our good friends Eric and Britney, that live in our apartment complex, also have to come to all the meetings and are there every week. This week, we drove into our parking lot at the same time...and I challenged Eric to a snowman building contest. No idea where my energy came from. I have had no energy for the last month and am just waiting and hoping it returns in two weeks when I end my first trimester. But the snow was falling and it was so beautiful, and everyone was in such a good mood....and it was a FUN NIGHT! We also ended up knocking on our other neighbors door, Justin and Lindsey Calder (she's a week ahead of me in her pregnancy) and they came out in the end and joined the fun!

My handsome hubby...no idea what that face means.
Our snowman. It had hershey kisses for eyes, a baby carrot for a nose, and a broken candy cane mouth.
Eric and Britney by our masterpiece.
Justin and Lindsey...its a terrible picture. I don't know why but all the sudden my camera decided to add fog into the pictures I took at the end.And one with the four of us. We did take one of the six of us...Eric balanced their camera on the handle of a shovel that was stuck in the snow, and put it on delay, and it actually turned out!

Afterwards, we all went to Eric and Brittney's and had hot chocolate and told stories about throwing up in public and good things like that...until about midnight. Good thing I didn't work this Friday because I was exhausted!

Bubble Baths

I am a bathing kind of a girl. Showers are great in their own right, and I love the feeling of a warm shower especially when you get up to a chilly winter morning...but lets just say the college year I lived in houses with ONLY a shower were very, very sad. I had to go home on weekends just to get a lovely bath in. I also remember feeling really guilty late one night when I was living with a couple right before I got married (they housed me for four weeks because it was the beginning of the semester and I didn't want to pay for an apartment for a month) because I took a bath, and it felt delicious....but it was REALLY REALLY REALLY late, and I kept worrying that I'd wake someone up. I also love BUBBLES in my bath. Lots of them. My favorite part of our honeymoon was the jet tub in our room. The bubbles they had there were awesome.

I have found lately, that pregnancy makes me EXHAUSTED! Yes, me, who used to run 800 miles an hour, be participating in 8000 things on campus, and studying late and going to the gym early every SINGLE day. Lately, one 8-hour shift kills me. By 8pm I am sagging and if I happen to lay my head down, I'm out. I get tired just thinking about work in the morning. So, I've started bathing a lot, you know, to keep up morale and all. And then I ran out of bubble bath. I tried taking a bath a couple days ago without the bubbles. It was definitely not as cozy. So tonight, after working an 8 hour shift and then telling my boss that I basically can't work for him till March (he already knew I couldn't work January) because of my new job (YES I GOT THE JOB!) and the maternity leaves I'm covering....and after eating a delicious meal that Sterling took me to because I thought if I didn't eat the SECOND I got off work I'd be puking, and it would ruin the whole night....I scoured the entire house for bubble bath.

AMAZINGLY, I found a teeny, tiny, travel size bottle in a little corner of our medicine/cabinet/rubbermaid container. I also found some travel hand sanitizer and a couple of other useful things. I was SO EXCITED to have bubbles!!!!!!!! Let me just tell you, I had a marvelous bath. I also finished reading almost all of the Ensign, which is a big accomplishment for me, because usually I pick and choose between what I think looks appealing to read or not. I think I might make it a new year resolution to read the Ensign all the way through every month.

Now I'm looking at the dishes and the clean laundry (why is it always clean laundry that I can't seem to put away????) and wishing I was back in my warm bath with bubbles, and that the dishes were miles away. Maybe I'll just go to bed. It's after 8pm after all!

Chaucer

The tank.The fish.The decorated tank.And the fish in its new home.We named him Chaucer. Sterling calls him Geoff.

Christmas Break Fun

One day after Christmas we went to the Fun Park in Logan with all the Rasmussen's. We had a LOT of kids there, this is us eating pizza with Megan and Devaney.This is us roller blading. It was a lot of fun but there were a lot of kids who didn't know how to skate, so we spent most of our time helping them. Until my niece Miriam took me out once...and then I let them try themselves. Haahaa.
Christmas Eve nativity.
The outfit my little brother was wearing that we all mocked him for all night.
Christmas Eve Pajamas.
My sister Amy forgot her camera, so I focused on taking pictures of her kids all through Christmas...and afterwards realized that I did not take one single picture of me or Sterling on Christmas. Kinda sad. Oh well. We still had a marvelous time!

Photo Review of 2010

This year has probably been the BIGGEST year of my life. So big, that I had to go back to a 2009 picture to wrap up it all up. This is in September of 09 when Sterling and I spent a weekend at an Institute Retreat and people started realizing we were dating!
This is from the very 1st of 2010, my sister threw me a FABULOUS wedding shower, and I had so much fun and I'm still using the garbage bags my oldest sister gave me, and we still have another box of them, actually.
This is how my family welcomed Sterling into the family....by dropping a gallon of milk on his head. Wyatt was trying to do a juggling act over Andrea's head to make us laugh/scare Andrea. Well, it resulted in milk all over Sterling and all over Andrea, and I'm pretty sure it was one of the first times he was at my parents house after we got engaged. Lucky him!This is also from 09, but I couldn't help putting up such a cute engagement pic that my sister Kayli took. Then she moved to Switzerland so we were left high and dry for our wedding.
And we got married in 2010!
I graduated in 2010 with a bachelors of dental hygiene!
We went to Zions National Park for a week with our good friends Adam and Aleesha!
We hiked Ben Lomond! (we hiked a lot!)I saw Old Faithful erupt for the very first time! ( the picture is of us waiting)

Also:

• my first job as a dental hygienist, LOTS of subbing, and luckily 2011 brought a much better job than my first one, and I'll have a more regular schedule!
• Sterling's A in Inorganic Chemistry (wish him luck this semester in Organic Chemistry)!!!
• Our first Christmas together....our first Christmas tree, our first christmas candy making, etc.
• we found out we're PREGNANT!
• and lots and lots of other firsts because it seems like it was a crazy, busy, happy year! But we sure are excited for 2011 and our beautiful little baby!