'Tis the Season

Growing up Nate's family often decorated gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve with his cousins. Our first Christmas together we thought decorating homemade gingerbread houses would be a fun tradition to continue.  Unfortunately, we missed last year. On Sunday night we got together with some friends to decorate! While baking the gingerbread and listening to Christmas music it finally started to feel like Christmastime.

Decorating (I think I look huge in this picture.)

The finished houses. Our friends decided to add a second story. I think it looks so cool.

Unfortunately, the lower level wasn't quite strong enough to hold the upper level. Maybe if the walls were thicker and had been cooked a little longer?!? Something to experiment with next year.

Over two years later

...and I am FINALLY done with the quilt I started in October 2007. When we first moved to California and I was searching for a job, I needed a hobby to fill my extra time. I started this quilt and shortly after my life got extra busy with early morning seminary and work. Just this week I finished the quilt!

Sewing the border back in June 2009

The finished quilt - I love the vibrant colors!

A close up of the quilting

Thanksgiving 2009

Since we're tied to our home for the Holidays this year, Nate's family decided to come to us for Thanksgiving. We were so thankful for all they did and enjoyed having them around. Nate's mom took care of all the cooking, which was wonderful! Nate's dad and brother helped put up shelves in our garage while his Mom, sister and I went to New Moon. We also saw Blind Side on Thanksgiving Day. What an awesome, feel good movie! We have so much to be grateful for and realize we have many blessings in our life!

Nate doing the honors of carving the Turkey

Doing the dishes

The shelves in our garage- Nate is very proud of these!

Big Changes

Over the past few weeks we have undergone a number of big changes:

1) Nate and I officially moved out of our first apartment that we lived in together. We moved to California
just a few weeks after we were married, and I was a little sad to be leaving our one bedroom apartment that was perfect for us for our first two years of marriage.

We had a number of people come to help us pack up our U-Haul, which we were so grateful for. In fact, we had so many people moving our items that all items were downstairs and in the U-Haul before anyone had a chance to put the big items in first or pack it well. As a result, all our items were pulled back out of the U-Haul, put on the sidewalk, and repacked. All in all it only took us 45 minutes total to move out thanks to all the help.

2) We moved into our new place. We had a number of people from our new ward come to help move us in. We're still working on getting settled so we'll have pictures soon, but we are loving some of the amenitites such as a garbage disposal and dishwasher.

3) My employment at Williams-Sonoma officially came to an end on Oct. 30th. During my last week of work I was surprised when my director and VP gave me a beautiful floral arrangement to adorn my desk for the final week. In addition, my director orchestrated a joint baby shower for my co-worker, who is due a week after me, and me. I wish I had pictures of the event because the decor was amazing. It was Christmas themed in honor of our December babies. The decorations included a faux tree, garland, lights, ornaments, red tablecloths, etc.  I felt really honored that they would take the time and effort to put on a baby shower and that so many people were involved in decorating and pulling everything together. The VP and Sr. VP, who are extremely busy, even cleared their schedules to be there for the entire event. Though work was fast-paced, stressful and ALWAYS busy, I will really miss it. In fact, I already do.

4) Nate and I finally purchased a grill for our balcony. Yipee! Saturday was a busy day but we were determined to grill for our Sunday dinner. We finally made the trek to Lowes around 8:30pm only to find out the grill didn't fit in our car. We convinced the workers to let us walk the 150lbs. grill box home using one of their flat bed carts. Good thing Lowe's is practically across the street. I really regret that I don't have a picture of Nate pushing the grill home. We then proceeded to put the grill together, which according to the directions should have taken only 2 hours. I think if we weren't trying to put it together in the dark, on a cold night, and I wasn't helplessly prgenant -  it would have gone a lot more quickly. But, we got it done by 11:30pm and were able to grill on Sunday.

Time Does Fly

We've had a really busy month - or so - since our last post. It seems like just yesterday when we updated our blog and then we realized a full four weeks has passed.

Last week we had the opportunity to make a quick weekend trip to Utah - which will probably be our last flight before the baby comes. Nate's grandma kindly offered to throw a baby shower in Utah for us. It was great to see so many friends and family. My mom and sister even drove out from Idaho to attend the event.

As promised to so many people (especially you, Becca) below you'll see some pregnancy pictures. :)

With my mom and little sister

The diaper cake Nate's mom made for the shower

Over the past few weeks we also found out our offer on a condo in Dublin was accepted and we closed on the property within 3 weeks. We are now officially homeowners. What a weird feeling! This past weekend Nate's parents came out to help us paint our new place and move a few things. I think they got more than they bargained for and left totally tired, exhausted and physically sore. We sure do appreciate all their help. Having never painted before I didn't realize how much prep work and time it really does take to tape off baseboards, door frames, and other things you don't want to get paint on. What a learning experience!

Nate giving the thumbs up at the start of our painting

Taping off baseboards - I wasn't allowd to paint so my jobs included taping, running errands and quality control

Towards the end of the night on Friday. The entryway has really tall ceilings - close to 18ft. Trying to paint that area was a balancing act in itself.  Here you see Nate's dad working in that area.

First Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago I dragged Nate to the fabric store to pick out some fabric so I could make a raggedy quilt for our new little one. After browsing up and down the isles for way too long -thanks for being patient Nate -I finally settled on some fabric I thought was "just okay". The pattern called for nine fabrics and trying to find that many that looked good together was really hard.

Last week I finally finished the quilt and still thought it was just okay - but then after we washed it and the edges started to fray and get the raggedy look I decided it may not be so bad - in fact, I kind of like it!

Labor Day Weekend

Each year over Labor Day Weekend Millbrae celebrates the annual "Millbrae Art and Wine Festival". (I swear, just about every weekend in the bay area there is some sort of festival going on.) The great thing about this festival is that it was literally right outside our front door; although for two days it caused quite the parking issue for us. Overall, the constant serenade we received from the street performer outside our window made it fun.

We even spent some time walking around and trying some of the food. We were overly impressed with two spray paint artists who in a matter of minutes could change a canvas into a beautiful masterpiece. It was impressive to see how much blending and control they could have over simple cans of spray paint. They always had a large crowd enamored by their work.

Planes, trains, and automobiles made out of used pop cans - pretty cool!

Spray painter at work

Artwork done by spray paint

The Giants piece was a huge hit