Thanksgiving in Utah

Since I would be too far along to fly home for Christmas, we decided to fly home for Thanksgiving instead. We wish we could've spent more time out in Utah. The trip went by so quickly! Thanksgiving break is only a few days, but we are just so happy that it worked out for us to be able to go and visit for the holiday! It was so fun seeing everyone. We had a wonderful time!

Just arriving! This is in the car after being picked up from the airport with Mom and Dad Van and Karli 

The first night we went to the VW's and said hi to everyone and chatted for a while, then headed over to see my family and stay at my parents' house. At both houses however, we gifted our families with the Indiana famous Rise n' Roll donuts! Ryan and I are in LOVE with these things! We've been talking about them ever since we moved out to Indiana. We were excited to bring a box to each of our families!

The best donuts ever! 

The next day Ryan went skiing and I stayed home to be with my family. It was pretty funny because my dad ended up accidentally taking both sets of car keys to work with him so we ended up being stranded at the house. We had a great time though. My mom made a fancy lunch for us including candle light and sparkling cider in goblets :) fun times.

Of course we were watching cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies! Can't get enough of them.
I live for the cheesy lines at the end. We laugh so hard- they are SO cheesy.
This one's cheesy line ended with, "All I want for Christmas is YOU." ha!! 

Here are some pictures of Ryan's ski day at Snowbird! He had a great time with his Dad and Danny!

Utah is SO beautiful! 

After Ryan got back from skiing we went out to dinner at our favorite, Cafe Rio! Gosh we have missed that place!! Then we headed to Brian and Brendi's to hang out with Ryan's family and we "watched" Planes. The little boys sure love Cars and Planes. It was so fun seeing everyone!

My family threw me a baby shower! It was so fun to see my family and friends. And of course to open all of those adorable girly-gifts! It made me even more excited to have a baby girl :) I seriously cannot wait to get her here! Ryan and I are so grateful to everyone who came and for all of the support, gifts, and love! Thank you all!

Look how cute they decorated! So girly and pretty!

Roomie reunion! :) So fun seeing my old roomies again and
Brookie's baby boy Hatcher! I was in heaven holding that little guy!

LOVE my cousin Sarah!

My cousin Kelly was about 2 weeks from her due date here!

It was so fun to see each other in all of our pregnant glory :)

I spread out all of our gifts once we got home so I could remember all the beautiful gifts we received.
Look at all these adorable clothes and baby things! 

My mother in-law gave us an awesome 2 in one stroller/carseat combo! She accidentally shipped it to Utah which ended up being really fun because I got to open it at the shower! :) Then she had it re-shipped to Indiana since it was too big to take on the plane. It sure beats the one we found by the dumpster :) haha We are so grateful to her! It was such a nice gift! Also, Aunt Julie shipped us a diaper genie. So nice! A few other things I wanted to mention- note the beautiful blessing dress from my mom. So sweet! She won't be here for the blessing so it was really special to have her pick it out and give it to us. It has roses all over it in honor of our baby's middle name "Rose." We still haven't decided on the spelling of the first name though..

I also wanted to mention the sweet little newborn beanies that Ryan's Grandma Van knitted for us. I cried when I opened it. She is the sweetest woman! She is not in good health yet she spends so much of her time thinking of and giving to others. She is a tremendous role model. On the card she wrote that lots of love went into each stitch. I believe that. She's an angel. We will treasure those little hats forever. I wish I could go through every person and what they gave us but there's not enough space. I just felt so loved and so grateful for everyone's love and generosity! 

HUGE thank you to everyone!! **The naked little baby was my first dolly. My mom saved
it all these years and gifted it to me at my shower. Her name is "Chonna." haha quite the name.

While I had my  shower Ryan was off with the men hunting pheasants. He has missed hunting so bad and was so glad to go with the guys! They had a great time! He kept talking about how fun it was hunting with dogs too. We are in trouble now. We have both wanted a dog for a long time and now Ryan is itching for one even more than before! :) Hopefully we can get one in the next couple of years. I think we'll learn how to deal with a new baby before getting a puppy though :) 

Check out all of those pheasants!

Ryan and I were in LOVE with this little Izzy girl.  We hadn't seen her in a long time and she sure has grown!
She is seriously the cutest!! We cannot wait for our baby girl!

K this is a funny story- Ryan bought one of those old candy vending machines a long time ago and put one in his parent's basement. After like ?6? years Ryan finally emptied it and there was actually a lot of money in that thing! haha we were laughing at how "rich" we were all of a sudden. It was a TON of quarters. Each pile here is a dollar. 

I don't have any more pictures but we had a wonderful time having Thanksgiving dinner with Ryan's family. It was with his Van Wagoner side. The food was delicious and we had fun playing the traditional game of after-dinner Bingo. We got some fun prizes too :) I got a pack of play-dough and some lipstick and Ryan got a fly shooter and something else that he can't remember haha. We had so much fun spending time with both sides of our family. We had a few movie nights with my family, watching Maleficent and The Giver. We also went out with Ryan's fam and saw the new Hunger Games movie which was so good! We really loved it! Can't wait for the final movie.

We're so grateful for our wonderful families and the chance we had to go see everyone in Utah. Can't wait to be with them again and next time with our daughter! :) Lots to be grateful for this Thanksgiving!

Fall

Ry and I headed out to Shipshewanna--Amish country. I had been out there before, but it was Ryan's first time. It's always fun to see the horse and buggies and try the yummy Amish treats!

We went to Rise'n Roll the MOST amazing bakery ever!! 

We got cinnamon caramel donuts! They call them Amish Crack
These are our absolute favorites. I was a very happy pregnant girl!

Mmmmmmm

One thing we love about the fall here.. Fresh Michigan apples straight from the trees! :)

We got to go to the Chicago temple. The drive was 2 hours there and at LEAST 3 hours back. All in all it ends up being a minimum of an 8 hour commitment, maybe more. Makes us realize how lucky we were in Utah to have multiple temples all within 20 minutes. It was nice to be able to go though! I love going to the temple with my husband. It's so peaceful there.

27 Week Baby bump!

We made the BEST homemade ice cream!! This was only the second time we ever used our ice cream maker. This stuff was so delicious we couldn't believe we hadn't used our maker more often. We definitely want to! This stuff is so much better than store bought! Too bad it's not very healthy...

Homemade Vanilla!

K this was UNBELIEVABLE. This was a recipe from our friends the Benscotters.
It's called "Decadent Chocolate." So yummy!

Fall is SO pretty here! I absolutely love the fall in South Bend, Indiana. This place is just gorgeous in the fall. I wish it would last forever. Especially because Winters here are the worst!

ND Campus is so beautiful right now

On a walk around ND campus. The campus is so pretty this time of year! It's gorgeous!

The cemetery on campus. So much gold!

Sunday walk around the lake at Notre Dame. 

In my third trimester now :) Can't wait for our baby girl to arrive!

Ryan's Birthday!

My favorite holiday is Christmas. Can't beat Christmas. No matter what. But my second favorite is definitely Ryan's Birthday! I just love celebrating him all day and getting to spoil my man! :) Lots of fun! This year worked out so perfect because my boss texted me the night before and told me I didn't need to come in the next day. I was so excited to have Ry's b-day off! :)

I still had to teach early morning seminary and then I came home and decorated the house in b-day balloons, a sign and a note on the mirror and set all his presents up on the table. When I snuck back into our room, Ry was just waking up. His face was so surprised to see me! He wondered why I wasn't at work! It was so fun to surprise him and be able to spend the whole day together. He started the day with a nice facetime from his family and opening their gifts! They are so sweet and made sure his presents arrived in time for his bday. He got a TON of Haribo (his favorite candy), and a Fitbit. He has really enjoyed using that so far and tracking his activity.

Later, We went to see Guardians of the Galaxy which we ended up really enjoying. Super funny, it was way better than we expected! We also got Ryan an Iphone 6. He was so excited to upgrade after a few years. He's had a lot of fun with it so far and loves the applepay. It's pretty cool you can pay with your phone!

For dinner we went to our favorite place ever- Corndance. So good!! Seriously. Everything is so perfect. Everything is the tastiest thing ever. We left so stuffed that we couldn't eat the b-day cake I had made for Ryan ;) (Pumpkin Cheesecake). Oh well. More cake for later right? Then he got to open the rest of his presents. A few shirts (dressy casual he asked for for his new job) and a weight lifting bench he's been wanting for a while from me. He also got a book and a gift card from his sisters. Everyone was so sweet and thoughtful. It was a great day. 

OK here's our amazing food! The sword of John Adams (Ryan's fave), the pear ravioli (my fave!), and a yummy fruity salad with walnuts and goat cheese. We also got the spinach artichoke dip as an appetizer--AMAZING :) So much food! 

OK here's the sword of John Adams up a little closer. It was an 8 oz. steak, 2 chicken breasts,
a cheddar jalapeño sausage, and a bunch of peppers all skewered on a real sword!
Served with grilled veggies, house-made coleslaw and twice baked potatoes. YUM!  

Everytime we come here Ryan always wants to try out the sword of John Adams but
we never have. It was fun to finally try it out and have our food come out on a sword! 

They brought out a free b-day dessert. Yummy apple crisp and ice cream! :) 

Happy Birthday to my favorite person ever! I love you so much Ryan. Every day I am so grateful that I married you. I could never ask for a better husband. You make me the luckiest and happiest girl in all the world. I love you with my whole heart. Happy 29th!

Oh and here's a pic from the night before Ryan's birthday. We had the missionaries over and got to sing happy birthday to him.

Pregnancy Update

So I'm 26 weeks! Almost in my third trimester--can't wait! We are so excited for our baby girl to arrive. It feels like I've been pregnant forever! I am so anxious to meet our little girl :) I get giddy just thinking about having her here with us! Here's a few updates on my pregnancy so far. 

This is Josephine, one of my best friends! When I was in UT she confided in me that she was pregnant. I couldn't believe it! I had just found out a few days before that I was too! We discovered we were only 2 weeks apart! It has been so nice to have a close friend to talk to and go through all of these changes with. She's having a girl too! We're so excited for them to be friends!

My very first craving was a donut. Oh my gosh I wanted one SOOOO bad but I kept denying myself because I was trying to "be healthy" or whatever. I kept day dreaming about these Amish donuts back in Indiana. They call them "Amish crack."

If that is what crack is like, I totally understand why people get hooked. These donuts are unlike anything you've ever had. I couldn't stop thinking about them for like a month and a half! Soon enough every time I went to the store or watched a TV show there would be donuts everywhere calling out to me. Finally this baby and me couldn't take it anymore and I decided to try to MAKE them. This resulted in what was probably the biggest disappointment of my life. They were absolutely disgusting. We're talking burned on the outside and 100% dough on the inside. Of course I started crying (thank you pregnancy hormones) and when Ryan came home he insisted we go to Krispy Kreme. I didn't argue :) They aren't Amish but still. Krispy Kreme is yum.

Oh great. Now I want one. Where's Ryan? I think we need to run an errand...

The donut thing was kind of a one and done thing. Once I had one (ok actually three) I was satisfied and didn't crave them anymore. I was too sick to really want anything anyway. I pretty much lived off of crackers, soup, and otter pops for MONTHS. It was horrid. I felt so sick all summer long. I tried different brands of ginger-ale, ginger tea, Ematrol, preggie pops, some kind of nausea drops from Wholefoods, Sea Bands etc. Nothing seemed to help. I just had to deal with it and learned a valuable lesson (a little too late) to always carry a barf bag with me. It came and went so sometimes I got a good meal in but for the most part I just felt really sick. The throwing up eventually slowed down and stopped around 19 weeks. I've only barfed a few times since then which is great. I'm still nauseous everyday but I finally got some medicine at my appointment this week to help with that.

I had the donut craving. I really loved peaches for a while and fruit in general. And I have been craving caesar salads so bad! I always want caesar salad! Other than that I haven't had a ton of cravings. EXCEPT for sour candy. So weird. I don't get it. I've never been a sour candy girl. Guess our baby is! :)

This boy bringing me sour candy home :) Oh how I love him. 

K i found these at an Asian market. They're sooooo good and super sourly delicious :)

 Baby purchases so far...

This is our baby's first piece of clothing! :) Thank you to
Ryan's parents for this hilarious gift when they came out to visit!

Once we found out we were having a girl, I had to go shopping :) I found this swim suit for two bucks!
Had to get it. Never mind that she won't actually fit into it until she's two years old. It's just too cute to pass up! :)

We've gotten so lucky with getting free/cheap stuff! The minute we pulled into our parking lot in Indiana, we found these by the dumpster!!!

 

Um who throws that away? They were in pretty spanking good shape and easily could've been sold. All I had to do was get a good lysol scrubbing in to sanitize it all. Also, we got a pack-n-play for 20 bucks from a friend, and a simple little foldable stroller and carseat for free from another friend. Our ward is chock-full of young families so we have gotten so lucky to have inherited lots of hand-me-downs from sweet momma friends in the ward. It's so fun to see this baby stuff in our house! It makes everything feel so much more real and makes us so excited and anxious for our girl to arrive! 

Since we're moving a few months after our baby is born we won't buy a crib till we move into our new place. In the mean time we will use a bassinet. I found this one for 15 bucks! :)

K these are the cutest shoes in the universe am I right?

Now come the baby bump pictures! 

It's been interesting... in the last few weeks/month my bump has certainly done some growing! I've been amazed at how comfortable people are with commenting on my belly/size. Here are a few of my favorite comments so far...

"Wow! I can't believe how big you're getting already!"
"When are you due again? Oh wow! I would've thought you were further along based on your size."
"I don't think I even got as big as you my whole pregnancy."

Yes. These are a few real comments I've received. Some people have no fear to say what they're thinking...  I recently read an article that reminded me of some of these comments. Couldn't agree with it more! You can check out the article here.

Pregnancy has been so hard. I had no idea how hard it would be. I think it's one of the hardest things I've ever done. Being sick all the time is NOT fun. Not to mention all the other stuff on top of it like crying so easily and being more exhausted than I've ever been before. However, I am so so grateful to be pregnant. I'm so happy I get to have a baby with my amazing husband and I absolutely love feeling our baby girl move around inside of me. Pregnancy is just the craziest, most wonderful phenomenon.
Feeling our girl's kicks is my favorite thing everyday! I love it so much! She's getting a lot stronger and her kicks are becoming more frequent and a lot more noticeable. Ryan has loved being able to feel her kicks too, so fun :)

We've got an ultrasound coming up this week. It is so much fun to watch our baby on the screen. Gosh we love her so much already. I seriously cannot wait to hold her and have her here in our family.