Nursery Update

I am so excited to get this nursery put together, and so far it is turning out great! Unfortunately the crib and the shelf wood don't exactly match, but they don't look too bad together either. We've still got a long way to go, but here is a sneak peak:


Josh and my dad seemed to enjoy putting the crib together. Toby, of course, had to approve as well:

We picked up this adorable light switch cover to match the set:

And this valance. We still need to pry the blinds off of the window and shorten the curtains:

And here is a peak of the room so far:

So far I am loving it. It is such a tiny room that we are trying to arrange things the best way possible for the space. Of course there is some more decorating to come. I really can't wait to see the final outcome!

At The Request of Friends...

...I reluctantly posted this on Facebook as well, at the request of some of my friends, so I guess I will do the same here. Here is my 20 week bump picture:

It is a very poor quality cell phone picture that my mom took. Sorry about that! Thus far I've managed to avoid real cameras. I'm now 24 weeks and little man in there is steadily getting bigger. I'll admit I enjoy the baby bump - it's the other weight gain that I wish I could do without! :)

The Sweet Taste of Freedom

From work, that is. Well, not entirely. I still have to work, but now I work for me. Van Drimmelen & Associates is a thing of the past, and I nearly have my own business set up. Things there progressively got worse. Sick leave policy changed every single time I had to take a sick day (of course, to make it more difficult). What was the final straw? Suddenly I was only eligible to be compensated for a sick day, up to the average number of hours I worked during the pay period, rather than being able to take 8 hours. With doctors appointments and such, my average could get pretty low. At the time of this particular change, my average was "7.2" hours, so that's what they compensated me for. Yet what was on my pay stub? 8 hours of sick time used. Really? You're going to pay me for 7.2 and charge me for 8?

Well we finally decided the time had come. After much prayer, argument, discussion and more prayer, we realized it was the right thing. Terrifying, of course, with a baby on the way and my job providing the bulk of our income. Josh is on the verge of being laid off because the Distribution Center is merging with Deseret book. But we knew it was possible for me to make enough money with my freelance writing, even if things are tighter. It's better to learn to live on the new budget now, a few months before baby's arrival, anyway.

Well things are tighter, but so much better. I enjoy being home. The work is much harder than it ever was at my job, but I don't mind that at all. Money doesn't seem so bad either, and I'm at the very least breaking even with what I earned before. The best part? I actually earn that much and even more in 2-3 hours less per day. My bad habit right now is stopping at that point. If I worked a full 8 hour day I could earn much more. The best part is that I will be able to be home with the baby.

It's all still a scary thought, and I know that our finances might be much less stable for awhile, especially until Josh is out of school. But we are making it work, and are both so much happier now! (Bye bye depression for me!) On top of it all, baby Emmett is moving around so much now that I think he must really be an octopus. We can't wait to get his nursery all set up and are starting to get very excited for his arrival. Life is changing very rapidly. It's an adventure, but we feel very blessed!

I Have to Entertain Myself Somehow

While my husband is off at Priesthood meeting. We got a start on the nursery last weekend with this bookcase:

So while I was home by myself this evening I decided I would get started on a little wall decor. I knew I wanted to put his name on the wall somewhere, so I went to Ben Franklins to see what sort of supplies I could find. This is what I came up with:

Not bad for my first attempt at such a craft! I really can't wait to get the nursery all put together!

What a stubborn little baby...boy!

This was the morning of the anatomy scan, the big ultrasound where we would finally get to find out if our little one is a boy or a girl. I was a *ahem* great mother and tried to hop the baby up on sugar before we went in - just a glass of orange juice (and a chocolate egg). Do you think it worked? Of course not! The little turkey was sound asleep and folded completely in half. 

The ultrasound tech did manage to wake him up (boy was he mad), but it wasn't for about another ten minutes that he showed us his little manhood. Yep, no doubt about it, we're having a baby boy! We're very excited, and since this is our first we were happy with the thought of either one! He's growing perfectly, weighing in at just under a pound so far, with five fingers and five toes. Here are some snap shots of our little Emmett Bradley:

Here's his profile. What a cute little chin!

And he even smacked his lips and yawned for us!

Here's a little hand, blocking his face. He's camera shy!

And my favorite, a teeny tiny baby foot!

Drama City

Drama? In Kaysville? Not usually, but we sure did have some last night. After dinner Josh and I decided to make a trip to the grocery store for some milk and some potatoes for our Sunday dinner. On the way to the store, we passed the motel that is about three blocks from our house. We noticed a fire truck, ambulance, and several police cars, all lights flashing, in the parking lot. We thought that was an odd number of police cars for a regular health emergency 911 call, and wondered if something was going on.

On our way home from the store, we saw that the number of police cars had actually grown, and there were now cars stationed at several points on the surrounding streets as well. We had two on the street adjoining ours. On these streets, the police were out of their cars and wandering up and down the sidewalks. It seemed as if they were looking for someone. I mentioned it to my parents, but after that we didn't think anything of it. There was nothing on the news, so we had no idea what had happened. An hour or two later, I noticed that I heard a helicopter, and realized that I had been hearing it for quite some time. I listened a bit longer and realized it was circling. I mentioned it to Josh, and we decided it had to be connected to the problem at the motel earlier.

We looked on the news again, to see if anything had come up. This time it had. A man was shot and killed at th hotel, and the police, along with SWAT and that helicopter, were looking for the suspect. SWAT was knocking on doors, warning people that someone armed and dangerous was in the area. Josh and I locked the doors and took the dogs upstairs for the evening. A little after midnight the helicopter seemed to get more distant. We got news this morning that, after searching most of the night, the suspect was caught, though they still haven't found the murder weapon.

What a sad event, and a bit scary for the neighborhood! We're glad the guy was caught though. Way to go SWAT!

Tasty New Discovery

I guess we we were feeling adventurous last night, because we decided it was time to try a new recipe that I found online.

Crockpot Salsa Chicken:

Pour a layer of salsa in bottom of crockpot.

Add frozen chicken breasts

Pour remaining salsa to cover chicken.

Add 1 can black beans (drained) and 1 can corn (drained)

Cook on low 4-6 hours

Serve over rice (we used brown) and top with shredded cheese.

It was SO good and filling! The chicken just fell apart with a fork, so we both ended up just shredding our pieces and mixing it in with the rice, beans, corn, and salsa. No pictures available. Sorry! It got devoured too quickly.