20 Weeks Photo

So, yesterday we were at Michael and Kim's house for dinner and games, and we FINALLY managed to get prego pictures. Can you tell which is pregnant?

A) Michael


B) Me



C) Kenny


If you guessed B) ME - you are correct! I'm sure that was pretty difficult to figure out considering all the other "contestents" were men! I do think Kenneth pulled off the pregnancy "glow" very well though!

Afterwards we took 'sucking it in" pictures - these were pretty hilarious too:

A) Michael


B) Me

I definitely can't suck in very much anymore!! There is NO hiding this bump!

C) Kenneth


D) Kim

You will notice that Kim did not take part in our "pregnancy" photos - that's right she is NOT pregnant, and does not want people thinking this was some weird way of announcing she was...she is NOT prego!

And lastly, I had to take my turn at a "push out your belly" picture - this is totally crazy looking - but I guess I'll be there soon enough!

Just to clarify - this is NOT what I currently look like. Please refer to the 1st picture of me for an accurate 20 week representation of my belly!

(P.S. Kenneth hates that our blog is private - so, I am making it public again...)

This Rocks!!

So, yesterday we had some fantastics happenings!

First of all, the local radio station out here, X96 is doing this contest where they play a specific song at the top of the hour from 7 am to 5 pm. Just after 5pm you call in and for every song you get correct you get $96. Plus if you have their X96 card you get an additional $40 for a grand total of $1000. So, when Kenneth picked me up yesterday he was on the phone and he said he was trying to win us some money although he doubted it would work...THEN all of the sudden he said, "It's ringing!!" He totally got through and got ALL of the songs right!! WHOO HOO! Thank you for the random $1000 check that will be in our hands in 3 weeks!! We were so stoked!!

It was really funny because my friend at work in going to Jamaica for a week for only about $900 (flight, hotel, and 7 nights included). I have been so antsy for warm weather and more specifically, the BEACH! I want to go SO badly! I spoke with Kenneth during the day and told him that if we had $ that's what I would want to do before I got too big-in-the-belly. How hilarious is it that we just won enough money to do the trip!! Granted, we are WAY too practical and will just put the $ in savings for our funds for a) the baby or b) to add on to our house starting in May. Either way though we were SOO excited! Go Kenny!

Switching modes here, yesterday evening I was able to attend the Sterling Scholar Award ceremony for Kenneth's brother Steven. Steven is an absolute GENIUS! Let me tell you - he hasn't even graduated high school yet, and he is taking over a PhD program at BYU researching nano tubes and MEMs (I think that is what they are called). An EIGHTEEN year old is becoming the expert of the PhD program at BYU! WHOA! Anyway, the Sterling Scholar program looks at student who excel in school, service and extracurricular activities. They have to make a ridiculously complex portfolio and go through extensive and often intimidating interviews as well. Steven ended up being the runner up in the science category!! Go Steven!! It was hilarious because after the ceremony we were talking and he said, referring to the winner, "I beat him last year in the science fair!" - and today they are judging the science fair for 2009 - everyone kept saying, "Don't worry Steven - we'll see who REALLY wins tomorrow!" Was high school like this for anyone else? My high school SURE was different! Anyway, congrats Steven on being the brilliant, hard working kid we all know you to be!

Spring Break!

(Can you believe I ACTUALLY have pictures for once and the system isn't working?? I'll try adding those tomorrow)

This week Kenneth has Spring Break, so we decided to take a few days off of work to head somewhere warm! We had a great time in Vegas, St. George and Zions. Here's the run down:

On Friday, 3/13 Kenneth and I headed down to Vegas to meet up with our friends, Ben, Jenalyn & their ~3 year old daughter Camalla. Kenneth was climbing buddies with Ben & Jenalyn at Snow college, and they currently live in Flagstaff, AZ and will be moving to Alaska in the summer. We love getting together and enjoying the outdoors together! We camped at a place just outside of Las Vegas (literally minutes away) near Red Rocks. Saturday we did some hiking and rock climbing. The weather was AMAZING and we all got a lot of sun and exercise. It was lovely! That night we went into town and met up with Jenalyn's sister and brother in law for dinner at a buffet in the MGM Grand. It was amazing food! Thanks guys!

On Sunday Kenneth and I watched Ben & Jenalyn do some additional climbing before they headed out that night. It was fun acting as the baby-sitter and finding things to keep Camalla occupied without letting her fall off of rocks! It was fun. After they left to head back to Flagstaff, Kenneth and I ventured over to the Las Vegas temple grounds and read for a little while. I LOVE that temple! It is gorgeous!

Monday Kenneth and I did some additional climbing in Red Rocks and it was AMAZING! We were in this little slot canyon that was packed with climbs on either side! We did a ton of great climbs - seriously one of the highlights of the entire trip! Afterwards we headed towards St. George and did some shopping and picked out another place to camp.

Tuesday we headed to Zions National Park. I absolutely LOVE this park! It is gorgeous! We did a hike and then did a crack climb. Kenneth was very excited because he has now built 2 homemade CAMs and he placed his CAM while doing this climb. How exciting! (Don't worry - it has normal protection very close to it just in case). Placing his CAM was a goal for the trip. His other goal was to take a fall on it...but I wouldn't let him...sorry Kenny!

This Spring Break trip was just what we needed! Sun, exercise, good company and a break from the norm. Gotta love vacations!

Tech Titans

As many of you know (or may not know) Kenneth is going to school to become a Mechanical Engineer. He also has a profound love/obsession with rock climbing and his dream job is to one day work for Black Diamond designing climbing gear, or to open his own business. He is constantly dreaming of cams and carabiners for climbing (I'm not going to lie I think he dreams of climbing gear more than he dreams of me...).

Kenneth has several ideas he would like to try out but if he approaches a company then his ideas then belong to the company, but getting a patent is extremely expensive and you usually need to be sponsered by a company. At the U, however, they have a program called "Tech Titan" to help young inventors (and that's really all a mechanical engineer is) get their ideas patented. Kenneth applied and found out today that he is a finalist!! He has to present his idea more formally on March 28 and the grand prize is $5,000!!

Kenneth is going to start preparing for his presentation, so everyone cross their fingers and wish him luck! This is seriously the chance of a lifetime for him! Awesome job Kenny!

Happy Birthday to Me!

So, my birthday was last week (March 3rd) and we did lots of fun things to celebrate!

The Friday before my birthday we went to Tucano's for the first time. We had a free birthday entree, and we had a gift certificate so we ate out for free all around! The food was delicious!

On my actual birthday, Kenneth had to go to mutual (he works with the Young Men in our church) and they were going to "Classic Skate" for roller skating. I tagged along, and invited my brother Michael, and his wife Kim to come along. It was hilarious because the two boys who came opted for the bounce house, so the 4 of us just skated around as though we were alone anyway. It was great. I have to admite though - I am not as good on roller skates as I used to be! Granted, I can't even remember the last time I did classic skating - maybe next time I should stick with the roller blades...Afterwards we had birthday shakes which were DELICIOUS! Chocolate and oreos - MmMmMmMm!!

Yesterday we got together at Kenneth's parent's place for my birthday dinner. I told them I wanted lots of vegetables, so we had carrots, broccoli and asparagus. We also had mashed potatoes, rolls and roast. YUM YUM! Thanks Noyce's! I also got some wonderfully fun gifts including a book, a DVD, a maternity shirt, an MP3 player with speakers, movie tickets and a little cash for getting popcorn at the movie! It was great!

All in all, it's been another good year! I'm so excited about this "new" year - 23 is going to bring a lot of good things! Kenneth starting to work full time, baby, adding on to the house (hopefully) and any SUPRISES that may be thrown our way! I can't wait!

Baby Update

Last Tuesday, Kenneth and I had our 2nd baby appt. It was pretty low key overall. We just talked about my symptoms (I didn't get morning sickness until about 13 weeks, but have been lately - and I've been dizzy), checked the baby's heartbeat again, and had some blood work done. My Dr. thinks we're having a boy - perhaps based off of the wive's tales of when you get sick, the heartrate, etc. I'm not sure if any of these have any kind of foundation, but either way she has a 50% chance of getting it right! We find out in about 3 weeks whether we will be having a "Baby Emily" or a "Baby Danny." I'm so excited! I've been wanting to buy things, but not knowing whether it is a girl or a boy makes it kind of difficult!

On Thursday we found out that all the blood work came back well. Thank goodness! I wasn't nervous about it until my Dr. left me a message about it. So that is good. Now I just have to endure the endless headaches, dizziness, and tiredness until my next appt when we'll get some more good news!

P.S. and by the way - I'm thinking maybe I should wait to put up that Baby Countdown...the baby at this point doesn't look all that cute...