ode to maternity clothes

dear maternity clothes,
i do not like you. you tricky sons of b's. i remember my pre-pregnancy glee when i saw shadeclothing.com was going out of business, thus all the maternity wear was on clearance! i so happily bought your undershirts in a variety of colors. i was slightly bummed when you arrived and you looked so big. i tried you on, and indeed, i was swimming in you. i naively thought to myself, "i should have gotten maternity smalls! this medium is NEVER going to fit!". you can imagine my sadness as my old undershirts gradually stopped fitting...and now you, you "huge" maternity undershirt, you fit like a glove. i look at my old undershirts and wonder if i ever really fit into them or if i was simply wearing my clothes too tight all along. there are even a few that were "big"...my go to comfy undershirts, that i look at now and have doubt that i ever really fit into.

i remember going into maternity stores at 13 and 14 weeks, and happily buying maternity clothes. so excited over a cute shirt or cardigan that would look "so cute" once i have my belly. well, that is simply not the case. now that i have my belly, you are in fact NOT cute. so, i do not like all of you. every maternity shirt i ever bought and was excited to wear.

the other day i finally separated my closet into your side, maternity, and a non-maternity side. your side has a few non-maternity clothes that i can still squeeze into...but the numbers are dwindling. in fact, your whole side is so small and option-less. i look at the non-pregnancy side of my closet and think WOW! i had so many clothes! how did i not notice? when i fit back into those i will never need to shop again. now... we know that wont actually happen, but once i fit back into those little gems, i will appreciate them much more than before.

so yes, i hate you. and from here on out, i refuse to buy everything that has anything to do with you. if this means that at 9 months all thats left to wear are my stretchy pants and bjs t-shirts, so be it. i don't want you in large numbers or to stick around for too long. i am counting down the days until i can pack you away and not look at you again (at least for a year or two).

not appreciating your trickery,
katherine

ps. maternity pants, you are the exception. i love you and you can stay. i am not sure how i ever wore such confining pants. with your stretch and elasticity...the combination is just right. i may wear you forever.

utah trip

this weekend we went to utah to see these bjs brother and brenna get hitched .

the lovebirds:

everything was beautiful and we were happy to be with them on their big day

it was FREEZING outside. i am pretty sure i almost died.

only 1 minor emotional breakdown due to being freezing, starving, and momentarily not being able to find that little purple ribbon that is tied around my waist. these emotional "moments"are getting a little too frequent for my liking.

after the wedding festivities i was able to spend lots of time with these two

saturday night us girls made dinner for all of the boys. 2 of bjs very good friends/comps on the mission came too. it was so good to see aaron and meet greg for the first time. so all you single ladies, these two boys are STUDS and are not engaged yet. one of them may have a girlfriend but really, unless there is a ring, who cares. ha ha just kidding.

we played lots of games...and LOVED IT! we are not big game players but heather may have converted us. we stayed up until after 1am both nights...pretty much a record for me these days. it was all fun and games until the bully (heather) and a few others who shall remain nameless (mckell, nick f and bj) started getting all competitive. their game faces went on and heather quickly informed me that the weak and slow go down fast in the world of games. survival of the fittest. got it, heather, got it.

on the way to the airport on sunday we stopped by the temple to look at the pretty lights.

no lies though, i am pretty sure the arizona temple lights are just as pretty :-).

bffs with our husbands

the weekend was really fun and i am glad we were able to fit so much into a few days. i did forget how cold utah was and that unless you are snowboarding, anything active and outside is kinda out of the question. yet another reason why arizona is fabulous year round :-).

tomorrow we are off to colorado for christmas and the day we get back we find out what we are having...yay!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

hmmm...

life is good. a lot has happened since i last blogged but since my husband likes to steal my camera, i documented none of it. the weekend before thanksgiving my sister caroline and my mom had a layover here so we were able to hang out for a night and that was really fun. for thanksgiving my mom came in for a whole week and it was great to spend time with her. the day after thanksgiving bj caught the stomach flu. the next morning virg caught it, that afternoon i caught it and that evening my mom caught it. sorry to give you stomach flu on your way out, mom :-(.

i finished all of my finals this past week so now i can play for a month! woo! i also finished most of my christmas shopping this weekend. no christmas tree for us this year though. boo. its just hard to justify buying and decorating a tree when we dont have kids yet and we will be out of town for the holiday. next year though, we are FOR SURE getting into the christmas spirit. until today there was not a trace of christmas in our house. we have a few christmasy things in the closet but i wanted it to look complete, not just a few dinky decorations here and there. so naturally, instead of putting up what we do have, i just complained that to the hubs that he was a scrooge for wanting to stick to our budget instead of going all out :-). tonight though, he was in charge of cleaning downstairs and i was in charge of the upstairs. when he was done he called me down to look and sat there beaming while i looked around. not only had he cleaned the heck out of the house but he hung up our stockings on the railing, put out our santa candy bowl, laid a christmas book on the table and hung up this christmas quilt my step mom made me. he is really a rare breed. so cute. and i have to admit, some decorations do look better than none.

oh yea, pregnancy is going well now! right around week 13 i started feeling a lot better! i was still queasy for a few weeks, but nothing like it was. now, at a little over 16 weeks i am feeling like a million bucks and its great.

pregnancy info :

*i am still getting up to pee far too many times a night.

*i am finally starting to show a little

*cravings: hmmm. i am not sure i have any real ones. everything does seem to taste better pregnant. i have always gone on these kicks where i find a food i love and its all i want for a week and then i forget about it... so its hard to tell if its pregnancy related or not but these days i am loving celery with peanut butter or ranch. yum. there was a week where if i could have eaten cheese enchiladas for every meal i would have. luckily i have some self control and only them once. okay twice. ive been working out though, so back off. luckily the enchilada infatuation is over and now i am just trying to eat as healthy as i can around the holidays. oh actually something that IS pregnancy related is sweets. before i got pregnant i was totally a sweets person. if i craved something or wanted something calorie loaded, it was allllways sweets. right now, not so much. ill still eat it if its there but i don't want them the way i did before.

*i think i have felt the baby move. there are times, especially at night, when i feel this weird sensation in my stomach. its not like kicks but its definitely something. i have never been pregnant before so i cant be sure, but i think that's my little nugget moving around!

*we find out in 2 weeks and 3 days what we are having...cant. freaking. wait.

*now up 2 full cup sizes. and now i would be okay if they stop growing. seriously. enough is enough! bj would beg to differ though.

here are the bump pictures thus far:

2 months

3 months

4 months

yum

i saw this recipe on a cooking website i follow, justcookalready.com. i have been making it the past couple of days for lunch and YUM! it is really good.

so, for your eating pleasure:

tomato, cucumber and avocado salad

3 T fresh lime juice

2 T olive oil

1 T red wine vinegar

1 tsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 medium cucumbers, peeled and chopped

2 cups cherry tomatoes

1 large avocado, pitted and chopped

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. prepare dressing: whisk together lime juice, red wine vinegar, Olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper in small bowl. set aside

combine cucumbers, tomatoes and avocado in large bowl. toss with dressing and feta cheese.

chill until serving.

ps. yes, this does mean i am feeling better. much much much better. yay! more on that later.

loved

i am not feeling that great tonight but i wanted to write a quick post to remember how grateful i have been feeling lately. when someone needs help, you just help them. someone had a baby or surgery? sure ill bring them dinner. so simple. but it feels totally different when those people are helping YOU. for the past few weeks i have felt so down and sick, and so many people have rallied around me to make sure i am doing okay. how great is that? i know i'm more emotional right now, but it makes me feel overwhelmed with gratitude that the ones i love, cherish and would do anything for if they needed it, feel the exact same way about me. i have gotten countless calls and texts asking how i am, medicine in the mail, our good friends and neighbors alexis and bj have invited us to dinner so many times, old friends have dropped dinner by my house, my bff has "helped"/written a huge paper for me AND last wednesday i came home to a spotless house and ALL of my laundry done. seriously. that actually happened. my sister in law, marianne, took her morning "off" from being a mom to scrub my toilets and wash my dirty clothes. how lucky am i?!!!?

in addition to that, i cannot express enough how great bj has been. he has eaten quite a few hot pockets and ramon noodles for about 6 weeks now, which really...that cant be good for you. he gets up in the middle of the night for me to let the dog out or get me water, and listens to me whine and cry daily. and doesn't complain.

it makes me feel so good inside that all of these people sacrificed for little ol me. now more than ever, i am so grateful for my knowledge of this gospel and eternal families. i get to be with these people i love (plus the growing bebe) forever and that's pretty darn great.

well, that's all for now. goodnight.

p-p-p-p-pregnant

we're pregnant. yay!

i have been writing in my journal really often because i want to remember this time but i have not been very good about writing on here. but lets see ...we could not be more thrilled to be pregnant. so excited to have our own little family. i am constantly day dreaming about holding this little bebe (currently the size of a kumquat) and living life a family of 3. so aside from all of those obvious mushy feelings----pregnancy is hard. and i am only a quarter of the way through. ha! my mom was only sick with 1 out of her 5 kids, so i just assumed i wouldn't get sick. well ha ha ha ha because i did. throwing up and all. at about week 6 it hit me. i woke up feeling bad one day and i thought "oh this is because i didn't get enough sleep last night. or maybe i have the flu". wrong and wrong. it stayed and stayed and has continued to stay. for the first 2 weeks i cried everyday. seriously. every. single. day. probably 2 times a day. i could not imagine getting through a few more MONTHS of this all day sickness stage. and i would sit there hugging the toilet wondering very seriously why anyone has more than one child, what is wrong with these women! at one point i thought bj was going to bribe me to get pregnant again. now i may have to bribe him :-). and i may or may not have told anyone who would listen to never, ever get pregnant. or at least wait until you could quit life for 9 months. bc that happens so often. in one of the conversations with ashley, where i was warning her, i was telling her all about the little "treats" in this first trimester of pregnancy ..and she was laughing. and i was laughing. but while i was laughing, in my head i realized that someone, sometime had told me the same thing. they tried to warn me. but until you go through it, you just don't know the misery.

hahahha.

okay this post sounds so dramatic. wow. but its true. and maybe all you not pregnant at the moment women have forgotten. but don't worry, during your next pregnancy when this bliss comes rushing back to you, you can cry on my shoulder. i promise :-). anyway, i have some good days and some bad days. i am just sick and tired of being sick and tired. it will pass though and i look forward to the 2nd trimester.

other things about being pregnant:

- i love my long, strong nails!

- i love day dreaming all the time this little bebe

- i am up more than a full cup size. which is awesome.

- i am alwaayyyyys thirsty. always. right now i am on my 3rd liter of water and i feel like i could drink a whole pool.

-having to pee. allll the time.
-i love reading on baby center about the things my baby is going through that week. then going back almost everyday that week to read it again....in case i missed something or something new shows up.

-bj is a champ. he has comforted me while i cry, sat with me while i throw up in the middle of the night, and has gotten me anything i need/want. what a good boy i have.

well that about covers it for now. i love my sweet husband and our little growing baby. this is a sweet time in our lives and i am grateful we get to experience it.

ashley comes to visit

my bff ashley and her husband, lance, came down to visit this weekend. it was so nice to have them here!!!

the first morning they were here we went to visit virg at work. virg was leaving that afternoon to go on the trail for 4 days, so that was the only time we were going to see her all weekend. sad. i love these two a whooole lot.

after that we went and met bj for lunch at 5 guys. lance and bj went to shoot guns that afternoon while ashley and I went to the mall :-). that night the four of us made dinner and just hung out.

saturday morning ashley and lance made us delicious crepes. YUM. lance served his mission in france so they were pretty legit ;-). my favorite was the really thin ones with cream and fruit inside.

after stuffing ourselves with crepes we went to hike camelback mountain. its a pretty popular hike in the valley but for some reason i had never done it. the hike was really pretty but harder than i thought it would be. perhaps the 107 degree weather had something to do with it. we took toby with us and about halfway up he kept laying down, so we decided to turn around. when the weather cools off i want to go again and hike the whole thing. you'll be happy to come with me, right ash ;-)???

lance has a really good friend that lives here, so that night he went to see him while bj went to an asu football game with a friend. ashley and i went and saw 'you again'. it was a cute, lighthearted movie. afterward we got froyo and chatted it up.

this morning we were sad to see them go but hopefully we will see them again soon. love you guys!!!!!!