If....

If Espen Love Hall pops and we discover she's really a he, we've agreed on a boy name. lol. Can you imagine the comotion in the delivery room? "What!? You're kidding right?" lol. That would be hilarious. Anyways, we've decided, JUST IN CASE.... that we'd name him Payson Christopher Hall. We're pretty darn sure it's a girl. But, it does happen occasionally. lol! I'd be sending Casey to the store to buy some boy stuff. I would not send my baby boy home from the hospital in girls clothes. lol!

Word

I can't believe Christmas is right around the corner! And a New Year! Holy SMOKES! Where did it go?

Casey and I put up our christmas tree! With a little help from my parents. We can't afford to get a tree so we borrowed one of their decorative trees and spruced it up with a bunch of decorations and lights and now our home is very festive! We got stockings hung up and a nativity set up. We even made gingerbread houses with the parents! I love homemade gingerbread. There is nothing so festive and mood setting than gingerbread. It's just so cozy. The only thing that would make this holiday even better was if Espen was here. *le sigh* but alas, she'll have her first Christmas next year. "You hear that Espen? This christmas would be too early for you!"

Yes, yes. I talk to my belly. Well, I talk to Espen. I usually tell her things like "Time to stop sitting on my bladder!" and "Stop hurting mommy!" Casey talks to her too. He usually tells her that he can't wait for her to come out and play with him. Then he'll blow a raspberry on my tummy and she'll do flips for him. She's starting to get big! She can't really twist and turn like she used to. Her turns are slower now, not so erratic and quick. I swear one day she was just doing summersaults over and over again! lol! Now it just seems like she's pushing on my stomach to make it bigger. lol! I'll tell you one thing, when she comes, I'll be very ready for her! No more heartburn and morning sickness! We're just moving on to the next phase! Complete and utter exhaustion! lol!

Thanksgiving was great!

Thanksgiving was so much fun! Everyone put in so much hard work for everything and it turned out so great! I am most thankful for my family! We care so much for each other! I love them very much!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy (not forward) this entire email and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you......Tis the Season to be NICE! HO HO HO

1. Wrapping Paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper. I love watching the paper go wild on christmas morning! Kids are so cute!
2. Real Tree or Artificial? Either one. We'll be lucky if we get a tree this year.
3. When do you put up the tree? ummm....When and if we get one!

4. When do you take the tree down? that depends
5. Do you like eggnog? love, love, love it!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Gosh, I dunno. Hummm.... I remember when I got a bike! I practiced riding it so much so I could take the training wheels off.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes I do!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Cards in the mail! It's more personal!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Lol, Christmas Story! the one with the red rider b-b-gun!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I know of. Pretty sure I kept and destroyed all the gifts I received as a kid.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge. I love homemade fudge and caramels!
16. Lights on the tree? Yep.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Uhhh...whatever happens happens!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen. (Only a real Christmas guru knows that it's Donder, not Donner.) <--that's from Alyson...? I don't know if it's true or not. But let's not forget RUDOLPH!!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Christmas day! I would never ruin Christmas by opening presents the day before!! Casey's family opens one on Christmas eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? busy stores/traffic

23. Favorite ornament theme and color? Traditional Christmas colors, red, green, gold and silver

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I love turkey on christmas day.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Ummm....Really, I want baby stuff! (we're registered at Target.com) If you insist on getting me something, I want Stephens hot chocolate in French Vanilla or those spiced apple cider packets made by alpine. Yep, that's what I want.

Christmas is a Season. Christmas is a feeling. Christmas is kindness and love. Christmas is the highlight of every year that I always look forward to!

Bored....out.....of.....my......brains.......

My brains are turning to mush....I need a new book to read. Does anybody have any suggestions?

I had something to say a few days ago but now I can't think of what it is...hummmm....

Well, Working in the lab at work has it's good side and it's bad side. The good thing is, I'm now doing something that I want to. I get to retouch pictures and design stuff. With my latest project done ( Banners for the South Towne Mall). I am just left with retouching pictures. I am working full time, more if I'd get paid for it, and working nearly with out a break. Seriously, my boss would have me there day and night if he could. I fell a little behind in my work but overall I'm staying on top of things. The bad side is I can't get a moment's peace to FINISH my work. There are like 3-4 things daily that pop up must be done NOW! When I worked the front desk, I very very very rarely made the lab do last minute projects. Now, I'm getting them frequently. What's the deal? Oh well, I guess it's just job security, right? I'm happy about it! :D

Espen is growing up a storm! I swear she was running a marathone earlier today and she was dancing this evening. I can hardly wait to meet her! Sure, I've been carrying her for 29 (almost 30) weeks now, but I still know nothing about her! Like, does she like hot chocolate as much as I do? Does she like our kitten? Is she allergic to them? How does she feel about our frogs eating our fish? Does she like my singing voice, or would she rather me put on a CD of lullaby's? Oh well, 10 1/2 weeks to go and I can start discovering those things. In the mean time, I'll do things I enjoy and hopefully, she'll love them too!

Being preggers is interesting. First of all, I never thought I'd get pregnant. (I was going to adopt...pht! just kidding...lol) My tummy is starting to get bigger, I can't even suck it in anymore. I cause traffic jams in the hallways at work! I'm hungry all the time, thirsty all the time and I'm getting regular heart burn (which I heard means she's going to have tons of hair!XD) Even though I'm nearing the finish line and I'm ready to turn this oven off, I'm still getting sick regularly. At least 2 times a week I need stay within close proximity to the bathroom in case I have to be sick. It's mostly interesting how my thoughts have changed. I've gone from wondering what movies are coming out to wondering if I really got what it takes to go into labor and have a baby. I keep thinking perhaps I can just ignore the fact that I'm growing large with baby and maybe she'll just suddenly appear one day in my arms without all the pushing and pain and episiotomies.... I also wish I had someone close to me pregnant as well. Like a sister-in-law or close friend. Nope, it's just me. I can talk about being pregnant all the time but, nobody is experiencing it with me. Casey comes close but, I work all day and he works late and Espen's usually quieted down when he gets home. He's lucky if he even gets to feel her move.

I'm really excited for Thanksgiving this year. It's going to be with my mom's side of the family so that means there's going to be a lot of people there. There is going to be tons of food! Kids! Games! We're holding an auction to raise money to buy a pig for a family in a 3rd world country! Casey and I have decided we're going to auction off his Albino Clawed Frogs. The only requirement is that they have an aquarium with an air pump. We're ready to change our tank from a frog tank to a fish tank! That and they keep eating the fish we buy for it! We've gone through 3 neon tetras and 2 mixed fruit fish! So, hopefully, somebody wants some frogs, some kid will beg their mom or dad to let them get the frog!!!

Last week we switched them to our bigger aquarium with out a lid. We went to the grandparents and came home to discover we had only 2 frogs! One of them had disappeared! We looked all over and decided it had jumped out and then got drug off by a cat. Later that evening Casey found it, Izzy had been playing with it. Poor, poor froggie. Sure, we wanted to get rid of them but that's not how! We'd rather them go the way of the earth but... meh. Sadness.

Anyways, I hope all is well with whoever reads this!

a month later...

lol. I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! Well, here's the updates: We're finally starting to get settled in! Our front room, kitchen and bathroom are now pretty much organized and clean! Whee!!! Espen's room is still our storage unit but it's slowly emptying and being turned into a nursery. We got Casey's hand-me-down lazy boy in there, for late night nursing and stuff. The compy is in there too, I hope to move it to the front room. ..it may stay here though.

Halloween was pretty easy going for us. Casey had to work and I went to Todd and Brooke's for a Halloween Party. He claimed it wasn't a birthday party, but we all sang and wished him happy birthday anyways. Casey spray painted a pumpking and put a face on it for his pumpkin painting contest at work. We call it Krylon, 'cause of the paint! We got another pumpkin from the community garden by my parents house and it was decorative until a couple nights ago. We cut it up, roasted the seed and steamed the pumpkin! Last night, I made a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin!!! I highly recommomend it!

I'm FINALLY starting to get a baby bump! It only took 27 weeks to get there. I'm quite proud of my bump. If Espen is kicking hard enough, you can see my tummy move too! Casey is finally able to feel her move too. He loves feeling her kick. It's like this thing that we've been told has been growing in me is ACTUALLY there!!! Most of the time I don't "feel" pregnant, aside from being sick. Although, it's getting harder to bend over and I'm eating like a horse! I guess I must be preggers! lol. Tomorrow I have to do the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. My blood sugar was too high after the one hour test, so now I have to do the three hour test. I'm not looking forward to it. I have to fast from midnight till the next morning. Normally, that's not a problem. This pregnancy, however, has made fasting impossible for me. I get really sick in the mornings if I don't have anything to eat right away. oh well, I'll do anything for this little wormie. I love her.

Work is progressing. I've moved from being the receptionist to the Graphic Artist/Retoucher. FINALLY! I was really getting weary of my job. But, the wait was worth it. I really do like retouching and designing stuff. I'm hoping to keep the job after Espen is born too. It'll be great!

The MOVE!

Yay! It's finally happening! We are moving into our own place tomorrow! We have been so busy getting things ready for the move. We've been packing, cleaning and shopping for supplies. Luckily, because we've both lived on our own, we have some necessities already. Yesterday was so busy! First, we went to the apartment, picked up some paperwork we needed to fill out. Called the Gas company and set that up to start tomorrow, then the electric company to set that up. We went to the city hall to pay the deposit on the electric. Then we registered to vote in our new city. Then we went to the bank and deposited a couple checks and went to deseret book outlet store and I bought the 3rd Leven Thumps book for just $1.99! (Sweet deal!) Then we went to Ikea, TWICE! We bought so much stuff for so little. Things like, dish towels, broom and dust pan, oven mits, and a mid beam for our bed and a few others. There were a few other errands stuffed in there somewhere....

I got a kitten! It's so cute! When we first got it, we thought it was a girl so I named it Isabella. Well, it turns out it's a boy! lol. So, I've changed it's name to Izzy. It's darling. He's a black and white cat and it's about 8-10 weeks old. Oh, so cute!!!

So yay! New place TOMORROW!!! WOOT!

Meet Espen Love

We've been married now for what...21 weeks? that's about 5 months? Wow! Time sure flies! What has happened, you ask? We got married, honeymooned in Vegas for 4 days, came home and made our selves comfy with my parents. 5 weeks after our marriage, I noticed that things weren't running on schedule with my body. So, I took a test and it came back positive. Yep, I was pregnant! HOLY SMOKES!!! I did a double take! The chances of getting a false positive are well...umpossible. Impossible to the 10th degree. We both want kids, so we'll accept it and have fun and learn a grown!

Today we found out we have an Espen Love. Thank goodness it's an Espen. We couldn't agree on any boy names. We've tossed a few out here and there but either I liked them and he didn't or He liked em and I didn't. I never thought naming a baby would be quite a challenge. But, a name means a lot. Or, in our case, it should. Casey loves sports, right? Well, he watches ESPN all the time....and well, they had a competition...or rather a bet to see if anyone would name the kid after the sports network. Well, people did and the name Espen was born. Well, I like the sound of it so we're using it. Espen was or will be born out of love but that's not the meaning behind her middle name. Love is a family name on Casey's mothers side. Tammy's (casey's mom) Father's name is Ernest Love, so we're using for our daughter. Espen Love Hall, has a good ring to it, doesn't it? Espen has been a blessing in our lives. Even though she is small and been around only a short time, she has impacted our lives. Our love has grown immeasurably. And we've learned the sacred art of compromise!

Daily updates: We're looking for an apartment and we think we found one! It's close to the freeway, my parents, my work, Casey's work. Just an all around good location! It's a newer place and they don't all ANY smoking! Chica Magenta is allowed there too! Casey's been working hard refinishing a table that was given to us by some of my brother's relatives. It's going to look nice when it's finished! I learned how to cook Casey's favorite dish: Chicken A La King. It's very simple and delicious, if you want the recipe just ask. My mom and I are working on getting a dress finished for our friend Eliza's wedding. We've had to alter the pattern, which has been a challenge but, hopefully, it will look good when we're finished. Casey's working on putting together an internet TV show. I hope it works for him because it will be a good outlet for a lot of pent up energy. I've been working on starting my own photography business. Right now I've been doing a lot of pictures for free to just build up a portfolio. I need recent work. The good news is, I haven't lost my photography eye! I can still take good pictures! Yay! Anyways, it's late and chica's whining to go to bed. (Not really, she's just whining.) Good night yall!