a few pics

Well hello again!

It's been almost a month now since I last posted, so I thought I should give a brief update of the happenings in our lives in January. With some pictures. :)

1-I used the little crock pot we got at our wedding (over a year ago) for the first time!! I made this thing called...Chicken enchilada...something. Anyway we had it with chips and a "Mexican cheese," and it was pretty good. (I'd say really good but my stomach or the baby was being picky that day and didn't like the enchilada sauce. Lame.)

Evidence:

Second, I started flipping out (unnecessarily) about how much the baby was going to cost, including preparations for the baby. The most immediate seemed to be maternity clothes. Now I used to really love shopping and probably still do, but clothing is so expensive!!! I could buy so many treats with what it costs to buy a dress!

So. I got on ksl.com, and looked in the maternity wear section and low and behold, a petite lady like myself was selling these TEN items for 50 bucks. 50! That's 5 bucks a piece! Steal of a deal. :) I'm rather proud of my find.
Next, Sam had been looking on KSL since August for an entertainment center. Our good friends James and Jenna were nice enough to give us their old TV, but we didn't have anything really to put it on other than this honking...I still am not sure what it is, actually. Table cabinet thing. So Sam had been on KSL for ever, keeping an eye out...and found this!
A really nice, cherry wood entertainment center that our TV would fit in perfectly for...well. Super cheap-I'll keep it at that.


Joy! :)

Those are our main spending stories: besides those, we've been busy enough. Sam's taking 6 credits (that's a half-time student) and working right now, and he also goes snowboarding every chance he gets. These are some pictures of Sundance he took for me, where he has a pass. Beautiful.

I really don't have that much to report, other than I think I may be done with school for a while when the baby comes. Some amazing ladies are able to go to school as well as having babies to take care of, but I'm so tired of it anyway...I think a break will be quite welcome. That might help me figure out what it is I'd like to do career-wise, anyway. But we'll see-I change my mind pretty easily.

I've been working for the Provo School District still, but not as supervisor any longer and have LOVED the change. I still get to watch and play with the kids, but without quite as much stress. I don't feel like the responsibility of discipline lies solely on my shoulders anymore, so that has been really nice.

Still, because that's only 8-9 hours each week my mom has been very generous and has let me come and work for her doing cleaning and organizing in my parents' home. I sure do love to organize, so I was only too happy when she offered.

All of us kids and our spouses also gave my mom the gift for her birthday of some money for photo albums, and our time to help her fill the albums with all the photos that were in boxes. I reminded my mom of this gift in late December, so she went out and bought a ton of albums and I've spent a good deal of time filling those, too. I've filled up 9 1/2 of the ten, with lots more photos still left but it still feels good to have done this much so far.

Changing the subject completely: I got a double-yoker for the first time ever a week ago! So I took a picture so I could prove it:

Look! It's the two that are much smaller and connected than the other. Awesome!! :)

And that picture I took today, evidence of my growing mid-section. I hadn't realized how much it's grown in the past five weeks until I looked at the pictures I took from before-sheesh! I'm kind of dreading stretch marks, but perhaps they're inevitable. Ah well-it's all worth it!

Oh! Duh! I should have said this earlier: February 25th we'll have the second ultrasound, and probably find out if it's a boy or a girl. I say probably because I'm not sure if I want to know or not, but I'm pretty sure I'll break down and have to know when we're actually in that room and my belly's all gelled up.

Oh, and last night I had some old friends over for a 'girls night' while my husband went skiing with a couple buds. (He skiied for the first time Monday, and the second time yesterday and loved it!) I'm so grateful for good friends-they certainly bring light to my life.

That's it for now. Toodles -Ariel Hatch