Easter, Maternity leave and Randomness...

Jill & Ryan came up to visit us for Easter with their kids and we had so much fun! We took the kids swimming,shopping (which was clearly more for our enjoyment than theirs) to the park behind our house, and did an easter egg hunt for them on Sunday between conference sessions. Us adults also got to enjoy a nice Friday night out. One of my laurels babysat, and we ate at Montanas and saw the movie 'the Bounty Hunter'. It was pretty funny - though I'm sad I never got any pictures of us that night. I don't think that Jill and I have even gotten a picture with just the two of us in MONTHS! We always seem to forget!

Levi was trying to be such a big boy and carry the floaty - it was so cute.

I think I'm going to have a hard time with the task of getting my children to look
at the camera when I want them to. Levi and Dani are my perfect example.

Nick and Ryan just being silly - I think they were just excited to finally be eating
the nachos they'd been talking about for 2 days straight!

This is Levi's 'morning smile'. He would always scrunch up his face
and give us the cutest cheesiest grin. I love it.

Dani and Jill looking for easter eggs at the park

Dani and I made easter nests with no bake cookies and mini eggs.
She LOVED it! (Thanks for the idea Dawna)

I am now officially finished work and have started maternity leave. Getting paid for being at home. Whoo Hoo!!! A couple days after I finished, I went back in to work for a little going away party luncheon. Kathy made some delicious crock pot sloppy joes, we had some other yummy sides and Tobi's brownies for dessert. I am going to miss those home cooked lunches! It also turned into a mini baby shower as everyone gave me some fabulous gifts :) A few books, a couple adorable outfits, and my boss (more like Kathy....) got us a Bumbo chair & tray, and an awesome bouncey chair. I really appreciate their generosity and I am going to miss everyone so much! It has been a fabulous 3 years.

The girls from work L-R: Kathy, Linda, Tobi, me and Megan

Helen and her cute little girl Olivia came in to work for my goodbye party

This is actually Olivia smiling so big she looks like she's scowling. haha

And last, but certainly not least, Nick and I have been busy as we continue to get our house ready for the baby. The nursery is finally all set up (though I'm still working on getting pictures and decorations up)! And the rest of the house is getting cleaned and organized bit by bit.

I was so excited for our crib and dresser to FINALLY get here after 10 weeks of
waiting !(I will post nursery pics after it's all finished...sorry)

I have been DYING to organize our hall closet, and was so annoyed with Nick just
throwing his work stuff in there on top of all my cleaning supplies. Ugh!

Amazing what some shelving from Home Depot can do 'huh!
It's such a small change, but it makes such a big difference to me.
My heart just feels happy when I look at this picture :)

Trip to C - town!

...Cardston that is. I can't believe it had been over 4 months since I was home! At Christmas we went straight to B.C. to meet up with my family, and so far this year we just hadn't made it down there - so I was really looking forward to our trip down. And let me tell you, it did not disappoint! On Friday night we met up at the Keg with Tom & Ashley and Jeremy & Paige to celebrate Nick and Ashley's birthdays. Y-U-M! The best part for me was the fact that Nick and I had a gift card, so we could order whatever we wanted and not have to worry about 'breaking the bank'. So awesome :) It was fun to finally be able to meet (and snuggle) baby Gray and also to see Paige prego. Our babies are due less than a week apart so it is fun to have someone that's going through the same thing as me at the same time.

The boys: Tom, Nick & Jer

The girls: Paige, me & Ashley

Saturday afternoon we had quite the shindig at my Mom's house as she and Jill threw me an awesome baby shower. We had a fabulous turnout, and it was great to have SO many aunts and cousins there, as well as a bunch of really good friends. Thanks for coming everybody - it was so fun to see you!

My cute niece Dani

Isn't my Mom adorable? I just love her!

Vinnie just happened to be in town for her Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary, so I lucked out in getting to see her and have her come to my baby shower. It was so good to see you Vin, it had been WAY too long!

Megan, Andy, Shaunie and Aunt Lorraine (all of whom I don't get to see near enough - so I'm really excited for the Hull reunion this summer!)

Abbey & Grayden

Just showin off some of the goods...

My Mom/Jill and Sheila Hall (Mom #2) made these two adorable 'diaper cakes'.
So fun and so cute!

A pic with the rest of the Hull ladies that came: L-R : Tisha, Aunt Glenys, Dani, Jill, me, and Eryn. (with Mom and Grandma Hull sitting in front - Oh and I guess I should mention that the two adorable little boys are Eryn's twins Josh & Zach)

Our weekend capped off with some Schow/Bennett family time on Sunday as we all got together for Grayden's blessing. Cindy and Ashley hosted an AMAZING ham dinner afterwards, and I can honestly say that it 'takes the cake' as far as any sort of family get-togethers go. Seriously. Ham with a delicious ginger sauce on top, stuffed baked potatoes, yummy salads, homeade rolls and a fabulous cheesecake for dessert. More please! Maybe I can hire them to do a dinner for me???

Ash & I at the family dinner

The new and improved Bennett family:
Porter, Ashley, Grayden & Tom

And last (but certainly not least...) Grandma Betty, me & baby Gray

What's new with us...

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Since I've been basically getting death threats... (ahem.... Vinnie!) I guess it's time to post another prego pic. I took a picture a week and a half ago, but since I procrastinated putting it up here I took another one after church this week so it would be more recent. (And yes...my hair and clothes were exactly the same two weeks in a row.) I know, I know, I'm awesome. Do you notice a difference between the two weeks?

29+ weeks

30+ weeks

We had another busy weekend and got more done around the house. We painted the fireplace brick white, and it looks great! Though Nick did want to give up about a million times since it was a major PAIN to do. (Thanks honey... I really appreciate all your hard work.) The bricks themselves have little ridges in them, so it was super hard to get paint into all the little cracks and crannies, and probably took Nick 6 or 7 hours to do. I've decided that with the light tan color on the walls and the white and brown curtains, I'm going to stain the mantle dark brown to make it 'pop' more. I think it will look really good, and hopefully it'll get done in the next few days so i can update with a picture of the finished product. Now I just need to start figuring out what I'm going to put ON the mantle, and what to hang above it!

I also finally got Nick to help me hang a few pictures and I bought a few frames that I'm going to hang in the nursery. Yay!

Nick's Grandpa's birthday was this past week, and since Nick's is on Monday we did a joint birthday dinner at our house on Sunday. It was actually really fun to host it and since most of his extended family hadn't been over to see our new house yet, it was fun to show them around.

Happy Birthday!

And just for fun I figured I'd include a picture of Nick after we watched team Canada win the Olympic Gold in hockey a few weeks ago!
Such a good game to watch!

A Little Redecorating

I have a few goals for our house that I want to get done before the baby comes. They really aren't that pressing... but I just don't want to have any projects to do once there is a baby here to take care of. Okay it's that, and the fact that I hate procrastinating! It's already been killing me that we've lived here for 7 months and everything I want done hasn't been completed yet. (Don't get me wrong, Nick has been quite a big help so far and we have already finished quite a few odds 'n ends things that I wanted done.) These are the last few items of business...

#1 Repaint basement bedroom and move spare bedroom furniture from upstairs, downstairs. This project is almost finished! We got everything cleaned, painted, moved and somewhat decorated last weekend. All I need to do is find a curtain and hang it up!

#2 Turn upstairs spare bedroom into nursery. (It's already painted a nice tan color, so I'm just going to bring some "baby" color into the room with the decorations and bedding.(Lime greens, chocolate brown and a bit of baby blue.) Since we're still waiting for our crib, dresser and glider to arrive, this project has yet to happen. But I have aquired the crib bedding and quilt, and I have a few ideas for decor.

#3 Finish living room fireplace. Nick isn't working this week, so hopefully we can get it done in the next few days (or atleast make some substantial headway).

#4 Hang a few more pictures around the house that I've been meaning to get done for awhile now. Why does this seem to keep getting post-poned....? It is SOO easy to do! Ugh.

Here's the proof of our labors

Downstairs spare bedroom before (In general, I love the color red, but this was just TOO dark for such a small room, and there were too many knicks in the paint!)

closet before

Nick's Dad came to help paint and was muchly appreciated!

Spare bedroom after (I love this color of green we picked out.
It's so relaxing to me.)

Please don't focus on the fact that the bed is not centered on the wall/under the pictures and wall sconces....I am well aware :( Unfortunately if I center it properly, the door hits the bedframe. (And just now, I realized that my series of Italy pictures on the wall are out of proper order. Oops. haha I'm an idiot!)

Spare bedroom closet after

Living room curtains - I'm really loving them tied this way
(sorry the lighting is crappy)

Living room fireplace before (I can't wait to post after pictures!)

All we've done so far is added part of the new mantle, and I'm already so excited. I'm 99% sure I want to paint the brick and the mantle white, what do you think? (It's either that, or white brick with blackish brown mantle)

Life Lately...

Well the past few weeks we haven't been up to much, but I promised a few of you I'd post some recent prego pics of myself, so here goes. Now you can see for yourself that I have indeed "popped"! I'm 27 weeks along (over 6 months), with less than 11 weeks to go! I'm not really feeling nervous yet, but I do feel like I have a million things to get done between now and when the baby comes.

Kay and I got together with one of our old roomates, Amanda, for breakfast last week and had SO much fun! I hadn't seen her in almost 5 years so it was great to chat and catch up. (ps don't mind that I look like a GIANT in my big black coat! Kay and Amanda on the otherhand look fabulous!)

Thanks for all the birthday wishes everybody! I felt really spoiled this year.

The birthday celebrating continued this past weekend as we had a joint birthday dinner for Nick's aunt and myself at Nick's Grandma's house. His cousin made these really cute (and yummy) cakes for us!

Chillaxin after dinner with Alysha and her boyfriend Tyler (Nick wasn't in the greatest mood as Team Canada was in a losing hockey battle against the USA.)