Bulbs vs. Cloves

Dear readers,

Nothing new is really going on in our lives right now. Just enjoying life and preparing for Lydia, but I wanted to post something just so everyone knows we are alive. So I will share with you a valuable lesson that Robert and I learned recently.
These are bulbs of garlic. This is how you buy garlic from the store. Until this past Sunday, neither Robert or myself had ever made a recipe that used actual garlic. We've used garlic powder and garlic salt a plenty, but never actual garlic. Anyway, we were attempting to make a salsa recipe that called for 2 cloves of garlic. I thought that what you bought from the store, as pictured above, were cloves of garlic. But alas...

The little sections of this bulb you see here are cloves of garlic. Depending on the size of a bulb, in one bulb of garlic there can be anywhere from 8 to 20 cloves. And on top of us putting way too much in, we also didn't peel the cloves individually, so they went into the salsa, skins and all. Luckily, when we were looking at the 2 bulbs we thought that it looked like way too much garlic, so we only put 1 in. So we only smelled like and everything tasted like garlic for almost 3 days, as opposed to a whole week.

Moral of the story #1: Never assume you know anything about ingredients you are using for the first time.

Moral of the story #2: There is such a thing as too much garlic!!

The End

Back in the Saddle Again...

Well now we are back in Provo and getting back to life. We got a new Primary class. There are only 4 in the class, 2 girls and 2 boys. The girls are both terrified of men, even Robert ;) One of the boys is an only child that either gets his way or cries a very LOUD cry. His thing right now is that every time we say choose the right (which is A LOT at the beginning of the year in young Primary classes), he says, "NO!!! I choose the LEFT!!!!" And if we try to explain that we aren't talking about right and left, but right and wrong, he bursts into tears. He also has Harry Potter glasses that he brings to class, and when he wears them he will not respond to us unless we call him Harry Potter. The other boy is more mature than all the others, therefore he hates coming to our class and dealing with the other kids. He would rather go to one of the older ones. So, fun challenges ahead, but we are ready to face them.

Robert finally got his third Actuarial Exam scores back that he took back in November. This one was a 2 part test. He got 10 out of 10 on one part and 8 out of 10 on the other. Just as a reminder, these exams are a big deal. So AMAZING!!!! My husband is AMAZING!!! He's started into his last semester at BYU with full speed ahead. I can't believe Robert is going to be a college graduate in 3 and a half months. They grow up so fast!! *tear*

Our baby girl is doing great. I can feel her all of the time now. Robert has even felt her a couple of times too which makes him light up every time. We had an ultrasound with our doctor's office today (the last one was with Robert's uncle) and we finally got to keep some pictures of our sweet little Lydia. We're more than halfway there now. Here's a few of the pictures for you all to admire :)

Look at her cute little nose!!

She's still a girl :) We kept joking around about how funny it would be if this nurse was positive it was a boy when Robert's uncle was positive it was a girl. We know people that have been through a similar situation ;)

She's waving hi in this one :)

And last but not least, the foot. I love little baby feet!!! I can't wait til I can smooch her toes all day long :)

With this ultrasound they did push her due date back a little bit to May 19th. I'm actually crossing my fingers that she'll come a couple weeks early so I can make it down to Arizona for my sister's graduation. But we'll see.

And now you are officially updated on our lives. I hope you enjoyed it :)

Christmas time is... was here

Christmas was PERFECT!!!! As always, only a couple of pictures. I used to take pictures all of the time. I am sure once I have a cute little baby girl with me, I won't be able to stop taking pictures :) Anyway, Robert and I got a TON of stuff. Everyone was way too generous! We were barely able to pack it all in our car to bring it home. We loved all of our presents. We got all sorts of games and baby things. Some of our favorites were the new "Favorite Songs For LDS Children" and smelly good stuff from my parents, a Wii and new digital camera from Robert's parents, and a homemade wooden cradle from Terrel and Jenn. But my ULTIMATE favorite present is the present Robert got me. A Glider/Rocker and Ottoman - The perfect Mommy-to-be present. Here is a picture of it once we got it put together in our apartment. It's BEAUTIFUL and so comfy.

Other than the presents we spent a ton of time with our families. I can't wait until we can spend time with them any time we want to. They are just so much fun! Here's a picture of me Christmas morning at my parents' house for Christmas breakfast with my nieces, Cami and Anna, and my brand new nephew, Case.

Aside from my not put together face and hair, I love this picture. All of my nieces and nephews are so cute!! And they are all growing into beautiful young women and handsome young men. And look at how sweet and small Case is!!! He's only about 2 weeks old in this picture. While I was holding him, my little Lydia was jumping all over the place inside of me. It was so cute.

Our Christmas day was busy but great. We opened presents at my parents' house, then at Robert's parents' house, ate breakfast at Robert's parents' house, then at my parents' house, stayed at my parents' for a bit, then went to visit Robert's grandpa, then back to my parents' house, then that night we went to Robert's parents', then to our friends' house for hot chocolate, and then back to my parents' house. It was a GREAT day!! The highlight however was talking to my brother Preston who called from his LDS mission in Washington Kinnewick Mission. It was so great to talk to him. We've always been so close. It was really hard to limit my time, but the time that I did have was wonderful. He is doing great.

The day after Christmas is when Robert's dad's side of the family celebrates Christmas. So that morning we did a session at the temple, and then we went to Robert's grandparents' house for all of those festivities. This is a picture of my sister Jamie, well sister-in-law but only by title, she's my sister... so there. The little girl is our cousin Ashlynn. She is so sweet.

It's taken a bit of getting used to having cousins that are all younger than me. In both my mom and dad's families the closest 1st cousins in age to me are at least 3 years older than me, and they're boys, and all of the rest of the cousins are older. But on Robert dad's side, the closest cousin is 5 years younger than me and the rest are younger, and there are 31 cousins with 4 more on the way. It's fun that I am pregnant with 3 of my aunts (one is pregnant with twins) :). Anyway, I love it, and all of the kids are so much fun.

After the party at Grandma and Grandpa's we left with Robert's family to their cabin in Christopher Creek for the weekend. It was so much fun to relax and play games with Robert's family. And the whole week it was especially fun getting to know Terrel's new wife, Jenn, better. She's awesome.

(I just realized how long this post is getting so I am going to do a quick vacation sum up)

The rest of the vacation was awesome too :)

Christmas Decorations

We decided a while ago that we wouldn't buy much as far as decorations go this year. Instead, we would just get a couple little things, make the rest, then buy the bigger things for next year after Christmas this year when it was all on clearance. So here's what we ended up with.

First, our 2 foot pre-lit Christmas tree that we got at Wal-mart for $8. Decorated with tinsel stuff that we got for $1, and homemade snowflakes and stars. We bought it down in Arizona when we were there for Thanksgiving. Somewhere between there and here the stand broke. So I made one out of K-Nex. My brother, Preston, would be so proud :)

Second, our window decorations. Lights that we got for $2 and homemade snowflakes once again. If you are wondering what the lights are being held up with, it's yellow duct tape. If you know me, this doesn't surprise you.

Third, a paper chain to brighten up the room :)

And last but not least, the Christmas tree calendar that my Grandma Hall makes for all of the grandkids once they are married.

I think that everything looked great :) And it was fun making everything together.

Thanksgiving

I need to do some major catching up on this blog, so prepare yourself for a plethora, or maybe just a few posts :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Arizona. It had been a while since we had seen a lot of the family, so it was fun to visit with everyone. Robert especially enjoyed finally getting Scott and Becky's twins (our nephews) to really warm up to him. Every time they would see him they would start smiling and saying "Rob-ee-uht! Rob-ee-uht!" There was one day that we were watching them and Robert was playing with them for a solid hour or two on the trampoline. After they were done, they came in and crashed on the couch. It's the only picture I took the whole trip and I took it with my cell phone, but it's a priceless one :)


It reminds me of someone else I know...


This was taken of me when I was babysitting about 3 or 4 years ago. Are we going to be the greatest parents or what?!? ;)

Anyway, it was a great trip. We were there for almost a week, and we were constantly going back and forth between our families which is so fun. It's so awesome that our families live so close to each other and that we love spending time with both of them. We also get 2 Thanksgiving dinners. Can life get better!?!