How To Make 2017 Great!

I like to start these posts by recapping the previous goals to see how I did. For 2016 I had:

• Stay healthy
• Cross off items on our bucket list
• Exercise more
• Keep busy (make more non-vacation memories)

How I did:

• I think I did well on the stay healthy and exercise more (they can be lumped together)...for the most part. We didn't do as many hikes as I would have liked, but that seems to be the norm lately. Once I got pregnant all bets were off. For one, I wasn't even feeling remotely good enough to work out. Second, I was put on pelvic rest, which they made sound much scarier than it is. And third, I could only eat certain (unfortunately, very processed) foods for the first couple/few months. I tried sticking to my healthier options, but my stomach was not having any of it. Once I felt better I got back into eating fruits and adding veggies to dinners again.
• For items on our bucket list...that's a good one. I'm not going to lie, I got discouraged mid-year about if we'd even have kids so I took the page off the blog (it's still typed up, just not published anymore). We got to the point that we thought it wasn't going to happen so I took any signs that we were going to have kids off the blog and we just moved on with our lives (that sounds much more depressing than it was. I really was content, at the time, with that decision). So no, we didn't do any more with that particular bucket list.
• As for keeping busy...I didn't think I accomplished this one, but seeing all the new things we did in my review post (St. George, cliff diving, ghost tours, plays, Slide The Cities, floating the river, keeping busy with a new house, etc. ) I think I actually did really great with this one! Enough so that I might want to make it a regular goal each year. We may not have done vacations, but we sure had a blast last year.

So for my goals this year (call them resolutions if you'd like, but I like goals better):

• Stick with eating healthier still. I get hungry all the time now, but I'm doing my best to snack on fruits instead of candy. I was going to try and do a no sugar thing all year (I really believe I could do it, I just need to know saying NO is okay), but then Larry bought the world's biggest supply of candy so that goal is out the window. I may try and limit it to once a week though. I don't need BB getting diabetes before she's even a day old! I also can't wait to get back into working out once she's out. I'm sure I could start stuff now, but since I'm going on 20+ weeks without working out I can't really push myself now like I'd like to.
• Keep Busy. Like I said, I really liked this goal. We may not get very many vacations this year. I had planned a whole bunch for us, but a baby sure can change those in a second haha. I'm hoping we'll get a couple in again and then figure out some great ones for next year (I'm a traveling junkie, I can't NOT take a vacation of some sort, so I'll do what I can to hold me over, but I'm making up for it!)
• Be better at blogging. I got everything typed up like I wanted, but I didn't post them until months later. I'd like to try and find one day a month to get them put on the blog so that I'm not scrambling so much later to get it done. Fingers crossed on this one!
• I'd like to find a stranger to compliment as often as possible. This one sounds strange, I'm sure, but this one came about because one day I saw a girl with purple hair. I'm not always a fan of the different colors in hair, but this one just fit this girl's face so well I wanted to tell her. I didn't really have a chance for multiple (boring) reasons and I wished I had later. I want to find a way to cheer someone up as often as possible if I can (plus I think hearing something looks good from a stranger means a bit more than a close friend or relative that you feel HAS to give you the compliment).
• I would also like to get more organized. I take a million pictures and keep them all. Even if they have a blur in them or I took a second, much better shot. I still hold onto the bad ones. I think it's okay to get rid of those now. I also want to get my emails and computer more organized since both are a mess right now. I can keep planners and do a daily to-do, but I need to go deeper on this one.
• My biggest goal of the year is to get the house put together. We knew once we sold the condo we wanted to use our savings for new home stuff and now that the first part is done we are slowly, but surely, working on the second part. I'd love to get the guest room and nursery put together, get us an adult bedroom set (we have a nice mattress, but my dresser and night stand are from when I was a teenager...time for an upgrade). I'm thisclose to getting my Christmas Tree/Craft room put together (I've got all the elements, just need to actually do something about them), and our living, dining room, kitchen need some added touches to them. I'd also like to get our bathrooms more coordinated and get some decorations hung up. Eventually I'd love to get our gaming/reading room put together, but that one is going to take a lot of work so it's further down the list...kind of closer to finishing the basement. We also have to get a fence up and put a backyard together this year...but I'm sure we'll start with the fence and then slowly work on the yard part as time goes on. My goal is to get as much of this done before May (when BB will be here) so that we don't have to worry about too much of it after...I'm sure we'll be plenty of busy at that point.

Other than that, lets enjoy the moments we have, try not to get too far ahead of ourselves with future planning (a VERY hard one for me), and just enjoy what we have. I hope everyone gets what they wished for this year (as long as it's reasonable and doesn't hurt anyone else...you gotta have those disclaimers haha)!

That Time We Celebrated {Another} New Year

Hello World!

I'm always so excited for a new year. I'm sure I've written that on here before. I love a clean slate, a fresh start, a new beginning. I simply cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for this Bradsby family! Here is a (bit long) recap of how we spent our night/morning:

As is tradition in our home, we played many games while watching the ball drop in our pj's (or comfy clothes). This year we had an added bonus of Andy and Rachel joining us. It's great because we don't really see them together a lot (they only get date nights on Saturdays and who wants to spend their date night with their pregnant sister in pj's at home? I mean I am cool, but that's just not how you'd do it I suppose). It was so much fun because we have a few games that are only 4 players and so Larry and I haven't gotten the chance to play them so we did those ones first.

We started with Ratuki. It was a lot of fun (enough so that I forgot to get ANY pictures of that), but was pretty intense for a first game so we only played one round. Turns out I accidentally cheated...but still lost somehow? We then switched to Taboo, which we ended up playing for longer than we expected. By the time we decided to stop and see who was in the lead the scores were tied so we played an intense couple tie-breaker rounds haha (Andy and Rachel ended up winning). I forgot to take action shots of that game...whoops! We then played Wits and Wagers. This one was a new one for all of us so we had to learn as we went...turns out we all don't know a whole lot on subjects we thought we'd know. We played one round of that game and then went onto a new one (I actually got pictures of that one a little bit).

The best games of the night were the last (of course!). We played Mad Gab, where I could NOT stop laughing at my brother trying to figure out the cards. He had never played before and kept saying his brain didn't work that way to make the cards make sense. Larry helped him with a few practice cards during each set up and he eventually caught on. I'd like to point out I'm a MASTER at Mad Gab! Larry and I play that one often so we were pretty awesome at it. I felt bad because all the laughing I did must have woken up BB (I normally am in bed much earlier so she was peacefully asleep and then I shook her up so she gave me some nice jabs to remind me she was still there haha). Then to ring in the new year we played a game of Aggravation. Larry won, Andy was second, so it was Rachel and I dueling out the final parts. Lets just say that part started with me having 2 in home and 2 on the board and her having 1 in home, 2 on her start, and one in play...and somehow we ended up with both of us having 3 in home and just waiting to roll the number we needed to get the last one in Home haha. I ended up coming in 3rd, but it was REALLY funny (at least it was to me). The ball dropped during that game so we all got our New Years kisses in and wishes of a great year ahead.

After all that excitement we had to call it a night. It had been fun, but I'm definitely not used to being up that late.

I had decided that this morning we're going to have a waffle bar for breakfast. Since Rachel was staying the night and we had an awesome new waffle maker (one of those flip ones they have in hotels..thanks Santa!) I wanted to do something fun to start it off. We went and got some fruit, waffle makings, and other miscellaneous items (Pam spray, syrup, etc.) yesterday and got it all made this morning. It turned out so great! Better than I expected (you just never know when trying new things sometimes). We all got stuffed silly and felt pretty good about ourselves haha.

So to everyone out there who reads this blog, thank you for being a part of our year. I can honestly say it was a great one and makes me excited to think how we can make this new one even better! Happy 2017 (resolutions and such on the next post since this one got a little bit longer than I realized)

Looking Back at 2016

It's my favorite post of the year - the review post. Here's how our 2016 went:

January

January went better than I expected. We finally got to go see the Midway Ice Castles and we went to our first ball (a Harry Potter themed one at that!). I didn't expect to have as much fun as a did right off the bat for the year, but those were GREAT ways to start this year. I made a resolution to stay busy to make memories this year and while I feel we didn't get out as much as I would have liked I can say I didn't hate the way the year went :)

February 

February brought our first big new home item: The Design Center! We got to pick EVERYTHING for our house out in one night. It was crazy hectic with how many options there were, but in the end I was happy with all our choices (although now the only thing I'd change is our exterior colors...maybe that shouldn't have been the last thing we picked haha)

We also spent a very fun Valentine's/President's Day Weekend making our first cheesecake and watching a scary movie haha. It was so much fun baking together and I'm glad we found a way to celebrate that was perfect for us

March

March had us going to our first play of the year. One of my favorite memories of the year, especially when it was completely random (I didn't realize that play would be coming, I just stumbled upon the ad for it). We also got to put our down payment on the house and take a little walk to our lot one night. We wanted to make it a weekly walk, but we didn't end up doing that. It was still fun.

I also got introduced to the bald eagles at D.C. Which I watched until the very end of the streaming and can't wait to see them again in 2017!

April

I started April off by dragging family and friends around to different places while I let Larry be the home body he is haha. This even included going to the gardens with family from afar. And also a road trip to visit other family (and a baby!).

As for house stuff, we finally had our foundation laid!! It was an exciting month for us (much more than previous years where almost nothing happens in April haha)

May

One of the most exciting things to happen in May was Larry's graduation! I don't know that I've eve been more proud of him up to this point! He did such an amazing job with schooling and all the trips I wanted to take. He's so brilliant and I'm still so happy for him!

We did another birthday celebration with Andy, one that was pretty successful as far as happy days and showing off the house. It was a great one!

Memorial Weekend was spent visiting family, riding roller coasters, and seeing an old friend and her new baby. It was probably one of my favorite 3 day weekends this year (or the funnest I've spent Memorial Day Weekend in...ever!)

 

June

In June we took our first weekend trip down to St. George. This was a first for us and it did not disappoint. It was probably one of my favorite trips we did this year (all were road trips). The weather was warm, the water felt nice, and we got to see our second play of the year (Tarzan). It was a GREAT trip!

We did our first (and probably last) Parade of Homes this year, followed by a fun group on our first (and definitely not last) Ghost Tour. The Parade of Homes was so cool to see, but I didn't get out of it what I was expecting so it didn't seem worth the ticket price. The Ghost Tour wasn't what I was expecting either, but we had such a fun group that we knew we'd be going again!

We were introduced to our neighborhood this month and had a great time at the pot luck they held for everyone! It was such a good way to get to know people we'd be living next to.

We also locked in our rate and got everything ready for our home. I also found my new love of the heat and finally bought some shorts after 15 years of never wearing them. It was a GREAT beginning of the summer.

Lastly, we went to the air show with Marie and Jim again. It was much better, for me, this time since it was very sunny and I finally had proper ear protection. I'm not sure when/if we'll go there again, but it was nice getting it in this year!

 

July

July had to be our most eventful month this year! Not because anything that happened this month was bigger than other months, but just SO much happened! For starters, we began this month with Larry's awesome birthday celebration! It was brilliant to think of us just choosing what we want to do for our birthdays and the other pays for it (with a spending limit in mind, of course!). It's so hard to think of gifts ALL the time so at least this way the birthday person gets to have what they want without feeling obligated to be oohing and aahing over things they don't care about.

We also had a very busy Fourth of July Weekend. Complete with Fireworks, baseball, a museum trip, showing off the house to more family members, a hike, and saying goodbye to a GREAT friend! Many laughs, tears, and smiles for this weekend!

We celebrated the almost closing and last walk-by of our house and picking our last vacation spot of the year (the weirdest part about this is is I wasn't pregnant when we picked the vacation spot, but I was pregnant when we went, I just didn't know it!)

We tried to distract ourselves from closing issues by going to my work party and winning a Crate & Barrel gift card. Looking back now I feel bad I let a silly issue bring our party attitude down, but what can you do now? We did make up for it that weekend by going appliance shopping and starting our packing! That was REALLY fun!

We finally did close on our house and got all moved in way ahead of schedule (like 3 hours earlier than I expected).

We celebrated an amazing first week in our new home. Sounds silly, but it was a REALLY good, productive week! We also spent two of those days getting the condo ready to sell...that was probably not as much fun though haha.

We ended the month with our first Slide the City event! I have to say I think I did really good with finding things to do to keep us busy and create memories this year :)

August

We got to visit the Tracy Aviary thanks to Larry's schooling hosting Alumni Nights. It was very interesting as we had never been there before and we weren't sure what to expect. For being a free event I really liked it.

We also got to see my favorite comedian ever in person! John Mulaney (and his opener) were HILARIOUS! I remember being in tears this night because the jokes were just THAT great! I am VERY happy I got to do this this year!

We spent another weekend in Park City AND doing Ghost Tour #2. (Side Note: Technically I was pregnant this weekend, I had no idea though. It's just funny to think what I did without realizing it). Even though it was a packed day, it was a lot of fun!

We had our first house guests (Ariel, Nathan, and Baby Rachel) and it was so much fun! I was nervous having guests over when the house was still new to us, but I really enjoyed having them over. I feel bad because I didn't realize till MUCH later that they are allergic to animals and we just let the kitties go all over around them. Ariel, if you're reading this, I promise we'll be better about that if you choose to stay with us again :)

Lastly, we celebrated our first month in the new house. Which seems silly, but it was a GREAT first month and we had a lot of fun getting lawn care stuff (among other things). We had a neighborhood party within that first month and got to put rooms together (a little bit). Such a great month for us!

September

We started September (literally) with our last vacation of the year in South Dakota. While the drive through Wyoming was AWFUL the rest of the trip was pretty awesome! It definitely didn't have a vacation feel (for me), but we got to try a lot of new things and Larry finally got to see Mount Rushmore

After our trip we got to finally float the Provo River with Marie and Jim. I've always wanted to do that and so I was glad when we got that invite. I hope it's a thing we can do another summer.

Shortly after all that we found out I was pregnant (again). This was so scary, but so exciting as it wasn't fully planned like last time. But it was the best surprise I could have gotten! The first few weeks I was very anxious, but seeing BB and hearing that heartbeat was the best sight and sound ever! Everything before this moment feels like nothing compared to this adventure. Unfortunately I ended up being SO sick the rest of this month that we didn't do much after that other than doctor visits and my weekly updates...whoops!

October

We celebrated 12 years together in October. I didn't do a post about this since I wasn't up for doing much that day. We basically got new phones, went out to eat, and then came back home so I could sleep haha. About mid month we did end up having our first live-in house guest: my brother. I was so happy to help him get out of the house he was living in and having an extra helper around has been great!

Because I was sick most of this month it wasn't spent doing a lot. We did go shopping for Halloween decorations, but other than pumpkins we didn't put any out or up. We made up costumes based on what we already had, but we did end up having a ton of Trick-or-Treaters so that made up for the rest of the month of laziness (but I can't be blamed, being on pelvic rest while being SUPER sick you really don't care to do anything else). The greatest part was finally hearing on Halloween that the hemorrhage was pretty much healed up and we just got to enjoy the pregnancy at that point!

November

November we celebrated with a visit from my mom and Will. I look forward to those visits each year and this year was more special with BB in the picture! I started to feel better this month so getting out with them was great! We got to spill the beans to family as well as social media this month, which was so crazy scary exciting!

We had a great Thanksgiving with lot of family (at least around the day) and ate lot of food, which was the greatest part to me haha.

December

This December has been such a great one! We bought our first fish tank and fish, we celebrated 20 weeks of being pregnant (a GREAT milestone), we had one of the best Christmas days ever (spent being indoors, opening gifts, playing games, and cooking a delicious turkey dinner). We also found out we'll be having a baby girl, a complete shock to me!

Now we get to celebrate the end of 2016 and the start of 2017. It's so awesome knowing we're going into the year our baby will be born. I know I've posted a TON about the whole baby thing, but I could literally not be more excited. I was so nervous seeing the positive on the test when I took it, but now that I'm at where I'm at things are just getting more exciting.

I hope everyone out there is having a great year and is looking forward to the next one we get! Happy New Year!!!

21 Weeks

How far along? 21 Weeks (Cantaloupe)

Maternity  Clothes? Still putting it off as long as possible!

Sleep? Like usual at this point, Christmas morning I was up at 5, which is sleeping in for me for Christmas, but still so so so early! One morning the butt cramps started at midnight instead of 3 AM so that was a LONG night :\

Best moment of the week: Finding out we're having a girl :) I still can't believe it, but I've definitely adjusted and it makes me feel more connected to her. But maybe that's just because I know. We also picked out a nursery theme since that was one of the first requests once we knew gender...that was a bit overwhelming for sure! Oh and Larry feeling movement finally (see the movement section for those details)

Miss Anything? I guess if I had to pick something it would be all the boogers I now have. I have to blow my nose all the time. I keep forgetting about that part.

Movement: Yeah, and Larry officially got to feel it! It was Monday night (the 26th) and we were watching Blended. I was leaning back on him and felt her wiggle and kick. I told him to put his hand on my belly to feel it, but not to push. At first he said it felt like a heart beat so I told him to keep his hand there and sure enough she wiggled and kicked him again. I could tell he was really excited to finally feel it. Every time I'd put my hand on my belly he'd ask if she was moving and would want to feel again. It's really the best feeling ever!

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing new.

Gender: We have a little lady swimming around :)

Labor Signs: Nope, feeling great!

Symptoms: As usual - peeing, hunger, back pains. That's about it.

Moods: I'm still a bit emotional. See my Baby Shopping post about how emotional I get just shopping for a girl.Trying to think of girl stuff all of a sudden was scary and new. But once I got used to it and we picked things we liked I started feeling much better and now I'm REALLY excited.

Looking forward to: Meeting our little lady. I also can't wait for the next ultrasound so we can actually watch them find gender and just see how she looks then...but we still have a few weeks.

Baby Girl Shopping

So today was supposed to be the day we spent doing my birthday activities and what I wanted to do was go shopping for BB (also now referred to as Little Lady since w already have a Baby Girl in the home). We started with some house stuff shopping, because that's one of my favorite parts of our days off now haha. We then went out to lunch at Leatherby's (a birthday tradition in our home) and then to Buy Buy Baby.

Wow! Let me say how I did not prepare myself for a girl at all! I mean I'm so very excited, but seeing the clothes I started freaking out about her growing up way too fast, becoming a teenager, and suddenly hating me haha. It's so silly, but I was really freaking out. I started crying because I'm such an emotional wreck lately and Larry comforted me letting me know I was being silly and we'd be okay. We then went to look at nursery bedding ideas because we needed to come up with a color scheme (so many people had kept asking for it so I knew it was a #1 priority for this stop), but I had such a hard time finding one I just absolutely loved and felt so overwhelmed I started crying again. Luckily Larry's been amazing about how emotional I've become so he just stood there with me waiting for me to compose myself.

I decided I liked the more yellow, green, and brown color scheme, but Larry found a bed set with animals on it. I knew I wanted to think of a color scheme and then just add animals to it (the biggest thing is we want our kid to love animals and traveling). I liked the idea of an animals bedding, but the one he picked seemed so busy. Then the next part just melted me:

Larry: but if we had this we could teach her about animals. When putting her to bed I could show her each one. "Do you like the giraffe?", "Do you like the elephant?", "Do you like the monkey?"

I mean picturing that in my head how could you NOT just fall in love with that idea? I immediately loved the idea of having an animal bedding, but I wanted one a bit more feminine so I found one that had a bit more pink to it (pink isn't my absolute favorite, but I had to have a little bit of pink or purple). We also found some transitional cribs we liked. We only left with a cute little love bug outfit and a blanket that went with the bedding just as a start.

After that we went to Barnes & Noble (I had a gift card to spend there) and found some books we wanted. We also looked at all the areas so of course kid stuff came up and we found some fun books, brain quizzes, and hobby kits we can't wait to try out with BB. Now that we've found things we like and I'm getting more ideas for the nursery I'm in Little Lady Baby heaven! Life could not be greater at this point. I'm so excited to meet this girl and kiss her all over!

Now to get ready for the New Years! I'm still in Christmas mode, but I can't wait for the fresh start and the beginning of award season :) It really is the most wonderful time of the year!