Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas (eve) Everyone!! We're in Michigan this year for the season, and surprised there really isn't that much snow! I've heard we should get some tonight though... the same stuff we went through in Utah on Tuesday, amazing. Seth & I hope you are all healthy, warm, and truly happy this Christmas. Here is our Christmas Letter:

Merry Christmas! 2009 has come to an end and it is the wonderful Christmas

season again. We are healthy, happy, and grateful for a wonderful year. Lots of

new things happened, just to fill you in …

Perhaps the most exciting highlights of 2009 for our family are the additions. In February we welcomed “Raja”, the ninja cat. She is the sweetest, feisty, absolute coolest cat one could ever desire. She’s a part of the family and she knows it. Third time IS a charm – On Christmas day Megan will be 30wks along with Baby Girl Burke. A name will be hopefully decided once we see her around March 4, 2010! After the first few pregnancy adventures, we’re very grateful to be blessed with this active and healthy girl.

We moved twice! We left BYU Housing in June for a basement apartment in Orem. We were there for about 6 months before needing to move again due to zoning laws. We are still settling into our new home of just a few days in an Orem condo. With this condo’s heated floors, baby friendly layout, and jetted tub we’re thinking it wasn’t that bad to leave our “perfect” set up with a garage, fireplace, and amazing covered side porch.

We escaped Utah to go to Iowa two times this summer for family events including a sibling High School graduation, nephew baby blessing, and a Nauvoo cousin wedding. Those vacations are always welcome to break up the routine of everyday life. Megan doesn’t even mind the drive! Can’t say the same for Seth though. (Seth says that’s because the past four times she hasn’t driven any of the 18 hr trip).

We celebrated our last childless wedding anniversary in November. We took a weekend getaway… getaway from Raja? … to Park City. We also saw The Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert. It’s difficult to put the first three years of our marriage into words that explain how awesome, amazing, and wonderful it’s been. But I guess you could say we’ve become the best of friends and much more.

Megan was offered a new job at a medical billing office in July. It seemed to be a risky switch from her stable job at wonderful BYU, but turned out to be the best decision. She absolutely loves her new job and responsibilities. She enjoys filling up her extra time with reading, trying out new craft skills, and preparing for the baby.

Seth graduated with his Bachelors of Science degree in Psychology, from BYU this month!! With just a few weeks break, he’ll start school back up the end of January at University of Phoenix to get a masters degree in “Mental Health Counseling”. Because his employment from the last 3 ½ years is a BYU student job, he has been laid off. We’re looking hard to find him a new job, but as many of us have been affected, the job market is just not a progressing one at the moment. We feel confident it will all work out though.

Our lives have been abundantly blessed this 2009! Our faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ has increased and we’ve felt the great love of our Father in Heaven individually and as a couple throughout our wonderful and difficult moments. Merry Christmas! We hope you’re all well and happy!

Much Love,

Seth & Megan Burke

from 30,000 feet in the air...

Everynight this last week I've told myself I need to blog before we get to Michigan... because if I don't there won't be a post before the new year begins....

Well, we're currently flying over Iowa (I'm sure?) to go to Seth's home - Michigan for Christmas. We got a free wireless pass from a nice lady when we boarded!! Baby girl has thoroughly been enjoying the flight, she makes me laugh.

It took two hours of waiting on the plane before we got up in the air.... blasted cater truck driver rammed the side of the plane and scratched it so they had to do some maintenance checks and paperwork before we could even get in line for the de-icer. Then we had to wait in line for the runway - since they shut down all but one, took a bit. We'll be in Michigan soon enough though...

While we were waiting for take off and about 45 min into this flight we read a whole book together! The Christmas Box, by Richard Paul Evans. I bought it back in October, waiting to read it all Christmas season. I knew it would be one that I wouldn't be able to put down, so I've waited weeks and weeks to begin reading it. I recommend it! Or let me know if you'd like to borrow it... I love his books. The end did make me cry... okay sob actually. I'm sure the dozens of strangers around me couldn't hear b/c of the air vents blowing, and ears still 'foggy' from the altitude. . . I hope they couldn't hear me at least. oh well. Good book.

Um - lots has happened since I have blogged last though... You know... We moved, I've hit the 3rd trimester, had another ultrasound to check the babies heart that was of concern from the 20 wk u/s, Seth graduated from College ... big stuff like that. All in the last week and a half! I've really wanted to blog about it all b/c they're significant things. I sure hope I'll get around to posting pictures and details about those big things soon!! But until then... Merry Christmas!

"Salt Lake City Weekend" & The Blind Side

The days go so fast in December! Especially this one...

Friday night we went on a double date with old friend Ashley and her boy Ian. They introduced us to a new eating joint, "Moochies". Incredible philly cheese steaks, incredible. The place is kind of a dump, but the story is the family who owns it used the building as an art studio with a sandwich joint in the back. But when the sandwich joint became most popular they made the studio into a little restaurant. I've craved Moochies for dinner every night since... we must go back soon. Then we went to Savior of The World. It was good... honestly not as amazing as I remember it being... but it warmed my heart and brought in the Christmas spirit/ me closer to Christ so it was well worth it. We had amazing seats too, which was sweet. We grabbed dessert afterward at another local SLC joint, the Big H?? Not sure the official name of the place, but it was a very fun evening with great company, food, and entertainment.

Saturday I slept in until 11:00!!! It was just awesome. I wish I could do that everyday, really. Seth made me waffles for breakfast and we did a little bit of packing. Got Christmas shopping almost done and I wrapped presents all special to put under the Christmas tree. We visited Aub/Dav/P-dawg for a while... I got to play with Preston while Seth fixed their printer, or at least tried to fix it. Preston is a baldy full of smiles, FULL of smiles. It will be fun to have the little one around at Christmas time in Michigan this year. We were suppose to go to our ward Christmas dinner, but missed it. We headed up to dear friend Heidi Kuhn Wideman's wedding reception. Which was kind of out in the middle of no where, plus fresh snow... it was an adventure. I'm so glad Seth is awesome when it comes to driving. He's a little on the speedy/aggressive side, which I don't like, but grateful he is good at it?

Sunday was a great Sabbath day. We went to Salt Lake yet again, this time for the Christmas Devotional at the Conference center. We had pretty good seats... we went with the Cho brother's and their girls. I loved the devotional. It was so awesome to be there with the first presidency and hear their stories. The center was decorated very beautifully and the music, of course, was very touching/uplifting. I loved the time to just sit close to Seth and hold his hand. Cheesy, but very true. Afterward Seth and I visited the Norvelle family in Bountiful. They treated us to a second Thanksgiving Dinner and a solid hour of Mad Gab. It's been a while since we've played Mad Gab - SO much fun, good laughs. And then drove home in the snow... It took a little longer, but I didn't mind that extra driving time in the car with Seth.

We really should be packing up our apartment more... since we are moving in 4 days - yikes! Tonight I worked late until Seth was done with class just so he could come by to scrape my windows off so I could get safely home. . . we need to find our other scraper. We got home just in time to decide to go to a movie for FHE. I finally used up the free movie tickets I got for dressing up as a jack-o-lantern for Halloween at work. We saw The Blind Side, with Sandra Bullock. Amazing. Such a great movie!! I held back the sad and happy tears, I want to go see it again, we may even buy it. We definitely recommend it. Baby Girl woke up and was quite active for most of the second half... She kicked me the hardest when Seth was holding his hand on my belly to feel, take that dad! :) I love her.

It's a busy week... busy weekend... Last week of classes for Seth - and then he's got a few finals before finishing his undergraduate work!! WOO HOO! So proud of him... hopefully he can find a job (anything) b/c he will be losing his student job next week. It's scary, but I know we'll be taken care of. And that... was our weekend/FHE.

Hiccups and Glucose...

Baby update... she is getting big, I can just feel it. She kicks me a lot now but it's not uncomfortable at all - I love to feel her! I read a few nights ago about hiccups and was talking to a prego co-worker who is due in 7 weeks. . . she explained what to feel for if the baby has hiccups. And I was pretty sure I had felt what she was explaining before. Anyway... Last night Baby Girl totally had the hiccups! At first I wasn't sure, but I became positive that's what was going on. Then it just started to make me laugh... Those close to me know how much I cannot stand the hiccups!! But sometimes they just make me laugh when I have them - laugh uncontrollably. Yea... I did feel bad for her, but she gave me a good laugh too.

I had an appointment yesterday, it was the big 1 hour glucose test. Even though I took a 12 hr fasting glucose test this summer (when they were sifting out possible reasons for reoccuring miscarriages) and it came out very normal I was nervous about having gestational diabetes during pregnancy b/c family members have had it. I was nervous yesterday, but felt good all the same after I had drank the nasty flat orange-pop-like drink. Today at work I checked my lab results and Wah la! my number was 83! (If it's over 140 they sign you up for the fasting glucose test) I was very happy!! Very... happy.

Also, friend Lara edited Baby Girl's profile pic for me... now I'm just trying to decide which one should belong on our Christmas card, which one do you think? The last one makes me laugh...

A Tragedy

Some of you may have heard in the news, about the tragic accident that claimed John Jone's life in the nutty putty cave here in Utah last week. Seth and I were lucky enough to know John and more so his wife Emily. Emily lived just below me in our Singles ward just before we got married. We got married a few months after John and Emily did. Emily actually had her mission call to New Zealand when John proposed and chose to become his beautiful wife. Such an amazing couple, with the most contagious smiles and so in love.

My thoughts continuously are turned to Emily and the many variety of emotions she must be feeling at this time. John and Emily have a 14 month old girl Lizzie, and were announcing to their family over Thanksgiving that they're expecting their second child next June. I can't bare imagining what life would be like without Seth in my life. And as I am expecting our child how difficult it would be for him to not be with me to share this pregnancy and especially life with our child. I am so sad for Emily, and what she must be going through at this time with Lizzie and preparing for life without John physical there each day. It's heartbreaking to think of what his parents and siblings must be feeling as well. Here is their family's statement. I hope faith continues to prevail and their pain will be overcome with love and support from Heaven. That they will be constantly comforted and find peace through their faith and the blessings of temple covenants. This is Emily's blog and a post from a friend of hers who was able to attend the sweet funeral for John last Saturday. Emily's amazing faith and strength is so touching and powerful.

Stephanie over at a daily scoop is hosting an auction all this week to raise money to donate to the John and Emily Jones memorial fund.Head on over to check out the first auction and keep checking back this week to see lots more. If you don't see anything you would like to bid on and you would like to contribute to the fund, click here. You can also email Stephanie at stephaniewaite@gmail.com if you would like to contribute something to be auctioned. Hopefully we can raise a good amount of money for Emily and her little ones. what better gift can we give this Christmas season?

What a Week!!

Where to begin!? It's been a while.

A few months ago I bought a $50 3 day 2 night weekend getaway to Westgate Resort (A timeshare) in Park City for our Anniversary. So last Friday after work we headed to Park City and escaped life until Sunday afternoon. It was Fantastic!! I had my camera... but we didn't take any photos - totally lame, i know.

Friday night we ate at "The Eating Place" on historic Main St. in PC - a nice little place. And found some good movies on TV to just snuggle up to. Slept in (!!) had to do a little tour of the place- aka 90 min of the timeshare trying to convince us that buying a week ownership of one of their rooms is somehow the best thing we could do with our vacation time and $1,000s that are completely nonexistent. At least our tour guide was actually an Olympic skier who did tours on the side of practicing for the next winter Olympics.

We then got out and went shopping at the Outlet malls. I had been saving up my money I got from doing the EaGER study through the hospital... We SCORED new wardrobes from Old Navy for pretty much free w/ the money saved. Really, with $10 from our own pocket Seth got a very nice jacket, khakis, and 5 shirts. I got a very cute sweater (the green one in a picture below), 5 shirts, and a nice pull over. Unbelievable Sales!! All the clothes I got will hopefully fit me to the end of the pregnancy - pretty stretchy.

It was so nice to spend so much time with Seth without having access to the internet :) and with no other distractions. We saw Couples Retreat, went swimming for a while, I enjoyed the hot tub too much during the 7 or so minutes I was in there - it was SO nice. I hope we'll always be able to take a weekend getaway to ourselves. Seth got Cologne as an anniversary Gift and Seth surprised me with a professional belgian waffle maker from Costco. He said he was on his way to the flowers but found me something much better. :) So... we've had waffles everyday since this past Wed when he came home with it - hahaha.

WED Nov 25 - Our 3rd yr Wedding Anniversary.
Our actual Anniversary date is November 25th. We both worked during the day and our big treat for our special day was going to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in Concert in SLC. They were Unbelievable! It was at the Energy Solutions Arena - where the Jazz play ball. We were 3rd row in the balcony and they were fabulous seats. They did a Christmas program and then a showcase of their other songs. With the lights, lasers, colored fire, smoke, moving stages, etc it was the coolest/craziest show I've ever seen! It was pretty loud, it was more rock music than I am used to and that just means Baby Girl was having a grand ol' time. I couldn't believe how much she was kicking and moving... I was literally sore when the concert was over and had to walk a ways to the car. Which of course was fun, I'm not complaining - she got me laughing a few times with how much she was kicking. Seth got to feel her a bit too. I Love it all! A few snaps of us after the concert - I wish I had taken more.

Thanksgiving
I love this time of year! This year I especially have a lot to be so grateful for. My family, my health, Seth, Seth's health, our little girl, a job I enjoy and that treats me well. My testimony of the Gospel, prayer, and unconditional love from Heaven. I'm very grateful that Mom, Dad, Brian, and Kara drove all the way from Iowa to spend this holiday with family out here in Utah. They got into town Wed morning and headed back home late last night. We played a lot of games at grandma's, ate awesome food for our Thanksgiving dinner, watched movies, etc.

Sometimes there were just too many people and things going on and it just got too much for me! I'd like to pull the prego card please? Lots of obnoxious kids under the age of 12 + 3 hrs of sleep b/c we went black friday shopping + Trying to make the most out of the short time family from Iowa in town + 27 wks prego = Stressed Megan. I survived though, barely.

Black Friday - This was my 2nd year Black Friday shopping. I'm not a die hard like what you think of when it comes to lines/pushing/shoving black friday shopping. I look through the ads, look for things we've needed/wanted for a while and see if it's really a good deal, and go for it. I saved A LOT of money if I had bought these things on a normal day. At 4:30 we woke up (Kara, Seth, Me) met mom/Heather at Target which opened at 5. Then went to Jo-Ann fabrics (Seth went home to bed) and then to Seagull book/Michaels. We got - 1. A king sized down comforter for $30 (it's AMAZING!! Raja loves it too) 2. Queen size air mattress for camping $12 3. Annie, the original and the Dark Knight for $4 ea. At Jo-Ann's I bought Lots of fabric to make Baby Girl a quilt (it's going to be SO cute!) and 4 recieving blankets for $30 (I saved $60!) At Sea gull book I bought 3 Christmas presents for $15 - score. At Michael's I bought 1. A frame that is usually $40 for $15.00 - the frame has two 8x10 spots that I've been wanting to put a Japanese 'The Living Christ' and Spanish 'Proclamation on the Family' (our mission languages) to decorate. And a 12x12 paper storage box for $4. Oh, and I got Mod Bod shirts for $5, SO cheap! Anyway - totally a fan of black friday to get things we've wanted/needed for CHEAP!!

FUN TIMES - Friday; after shopping we met up with a lot of family at the movie theater... Half of us went and saw 2012 (Loved It!) and the other half saw the Mr. Fox movie - not sure what it's called. I then got a much needed 2 hour nap. And we all went to Laser Tag! There were 14 of us, My parents even came - that was the best! It was so much fun, definitely got us out and moving that turkey dinner around. Seth came in first place, so proud of him. My favorite part of it all... My mom laughing and talking on the phone during the time that we all knew where she was. She said toward the end she hadn't seen my Uncle Devry really anywhere, the entire time until the very end and she tried 'tagging' him. When we got all our results back Uncle Devry had hit mom a total of 33 times. hahaha.

I totally loved being with my family, the weekend went by so fast. Seth and I did have tickets for the BYU vs Utah game but decided to be with family instead of going. But actually we really didn't want to 'deal' with crazy game traffic and crazy fans for the most intense game of the season. So we sold our tickets and made a good profit to put in the baby fund. Definitely Worth It!! SO glad BYU won, it was a fun game to watch and not need to be there for all the competition/contention in the stands.

Well... I think that brings us up to date. Our Christmas Tree is already up... It's beautiful. I loved opening up the Christmas boxes and finding ornaments I bought at after Christmas sales that I had forgotten about that make our tree extremely beautiful. I will take a picture of it before it sadly needs to come down when we move in less than two weeks.

We have a lot of fun Christmas parties and events coming up. We have tickets for Savior of The World (shown at the conference center theater) that we're going to this Friday - Totally Excited for that!!! And also awesome seats for the First Presidency Christmas devotional next Sunday, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert the following Sunday. We are spoiled this Christmas Season! Happy Holidays Everyone! Thanks for reading our blog...

A Baby Shower

We will be in Michigan this year for Christmas, visiting Seth's family. As a joint effort of his family and his friend Lara there will be a baby shower for us while we're there. Lara has a blossoming photography business and put together this invite for the shower -I Love It!! Especially what she did to the picture I emailed her :) This was taken yesterday so everyone - here is your updated belly photo (27w 3d). I'm really excited for Christmas, and the holiday season... This fun event is just one more thing to add on to the parties. Thank You Lara!!

Ponderings about the Nursery...

Since I've been feeling baby girl move so much more recently this whole thing is becoming more real. I've enjoyed working on our registry on target's website. And since we know where we will be moving in a month, I have been thinking a lot about how this little girl's room is going to look.

I'd love to recreate this against a purple wall:
the only thing is.... 1. I'm not sure we can paint and 2. I don't want to pay $60 for this.

So! how do we do this guys!? I need suggestions!! I don't want it to look terrible or ghetto or even completely homemade, if that's possible. We might just end up paying for it... but lets see what we can come up with first.

In order to get the wall purple - I've heard of 'pasting' a bed sheet to the wall with water/starch (not sure if that's the right combo of stuff to create the 'glue'). But the vinyl wouldn't stick to it, right? or would it? Anyway... Thanks for your help! I really appreciate any suggestions you may have....

Okay Ladies....

I am So Proud of myself right now... I try to express this excitement to Seth, and he is trained well enough to nod his head and agree with whatever I'm saying - but he just doesn't get it!!

So in Sept I got a gift card from work for my birthday for $30 to the mall. I've been saving it for a great deal of some sort - what better time would that be other than the holiday shopping season!? I've wanted some new makeup... and asked a co-worker for suggestions - she told me about Nordstrom's Clinique Bonus Time!!

I didn't know, but I guess b/c Nordstrom is way up on the 'expensive store' list they get different bonus time gifts sets than any of the other places that do it (like Dillard's). And you have to spend $25 to get the gift set rather the usual $21.50, but they have TONS better gift sets. So I went tonight to use my Gift Card... I was in need of new foundation and eyeliner.

See this bonus time set!?! What else do you need besides a great foundation and eyeliner!?! Blush, eye shadow, mascara, brushes... yea - all of that in the bonus set - I got a whole new face tonight! The colors are all perfect for me. Seriously - can you tell that I'm more than ecstatic about my purchases this evening!? It also came with face wash and an eye cream that reduces puffiness ... the only thing I will not be using is the lipstick (it's up for grabs, just let me know). So I paid $7.67 for it all. It cannot get better than that - thanks to the gift card. It totally made my day!!

A new make up tip I learned tonight - For those of us who don't have a perfect 'sharp' jawline and want to try to hide the little double chin action going on, here is a trick. Brush bronzer from ear to ear under your chin/jaw. It gives a shadow look/more defined... you can also do that from the corner of your lips up to your ear for that cheek bone definition. Glorious!

Strangest phone conversation I've ever had...

Me - "Radiology Billing, this is Megan, how can I help you?"

150 yr old lady - " huh? Megan.... my name isn't megan!"

Me - excuse me?

150 yr old lady - "I said my name is not Megan!"

Me - "My name is Megan. May I help you?"

150 yr old lady - " Help!?! Why would I need help... I don't need your help. "

Me - "Didn't you just call me?"

150 yr old lady - "No, why would I call you? I don't need any help."

Me - "Alright, well Thanks. Bye."

150 yr old lady - "bye."

Like I seriously offended her or something.... sheesh!!










PS - WE FOUND A CONDO TONIGHT!!!! NO CONTRACT SIGNED YET, BUT IT'S A DONE DEAL AND WE LOVE IT!!!! IT'S PERFECT. IN OREM. FANTASTIC DEAL. LOVE IT! AND SOOOOO GRATEFUL TO HAVE THAT OFF THE STRESS LIST!

Mom's In Town!

My mom has come to visit!! She is actually here to be a perma babysitter for Olivia and Gage since their mom is going to DC for the week with her students. Totally excited we have her for the week though, and totally sad dad couldn't come along too. We ate at The Pie for dinner, on the way back from the airport. The Pie is in South Jordan - for sure the best pizza place ever, for sure recommend it to any and all!!! We try to find any excuse possible to go up North that way and eat.
Last night Seth and I had a fantastic date night. We went out to Sizzler for dinner, Amazing. I think I ate more than Seth, and that is quite the feat!!! :) And then we went to BYU's Dance ensemble, "Lifelines". It was a a great show. Seth had to go to some kind of art show/live performance for his Humanities class by Wednesday, so he gets to write a wonderful 3 page paper based off the performance. We stopped by an intramural frisbee game to see some friends - so cold. Didn't stay long and came home for some hot chocolate and a movie. It's been a great weekend so far!

UPDATE

Umm.... It's November. I think that is kind of crazy.

October was fun! We went to a Halloween party at Jessica's house (Seth TA's for her) - that was a blast. I'm from Iowa (GO HAWKEYES!!!) and just this year went to my first ever corn maze, wow - I know. We carved pumpkins with the Cho's... I carved a cat, Seth carved Jack from Nightmare before Christmas. Sister Amy came to visit us - we went Laser Tag (SOOOooo much fun!!!) and ate out at Tepanyaki for 50% (Happy Birthday Emily! Thanks for inviting us to your party). We (Seth, Amy, Aubrey, and I) played rockband and chatted for a while. Visited Great Aunt Marilyn and Great Uncle Wally at Gma's in PG and got to watch a bit of cousin Drake's playoff football game. Made Dinner in a pumpkin for the Jarvinen's, Hartleys, and ladies upstairs. Also made it for the work party - got movie tickets!!! b/c I dressed up at work. ( I was a jack-o-lantern for the 3rd time in a row - next year I'll try harder, promise. )

So this slideshow is from all of the activities listed above that I took, I need to take more photos.

Baby Girl... She usually keeps me company while I'm at work. I was nervous today b/c I hadn't felt her at all, and it was noon. I ate pop tarts and drank a root beer - She must have been taking a serious nap, I was going crazy with the sugar high myself. but a half an hour after it all, she let me know she was up and going. whew. I've only felt her once when I'm in bed, going to sleep... I sure hope that means she is sleeping while I am, and awake during the day. And that would be awesome if she stayed like that when she joins us out here in this crazy world.

Belly Pictures - after a few requests... here they are. I know, I know... I for sure need to be better at this and take more pictures. I have noticed a huge difference from morning pictures and night pictures. I never remember to snap a photo in the morning, but I'm working on it. GIRL NAME SUGGESTIONS VERY WELCOME.... please.

Another Ultrasound

Last Thursday we had our 20 week "big" ultrasound. The tech was somewhat new. And I got a call the Friday that the doc wanted a few more pictures/better views than what he had to look at.

Today we pretty much had the whole ultrasound all over again. The same tech was there, but another tech performed the whole exam again. baby lady burke was not very cooperative, just like last time. Though she wasn't breach! We saw a lot more of her face. She was bouncing off the walls. She's a complete spaz! The tech just stopped at one point, put the wand over my belly button and said "I'm not moving at all, that's all her... You need to enroll her in sychronized swimming or interpretive dance very young so she can put those talents to good use... I have never seen a baby move this much... (to the other tech) it wasn't you she didn't like, it's just how she is..." She was beginning to get a little frustrated at the end...

She gave us a peace sign, and even a thumbs up... What a darling she will be. She kept her hands up by her face, usually in fists so it looked like she was picking a fight, getting ready to box. She was so fun to visit with though... we'll take her, fiesty-ness and all.

This morning at work I was questioning if it was really the baby I was feeling. She was going crazy, it felt like she was doing a doggy paddle through the amniotic fluid. The ultrasound confirmed that it was the baby, and she really can move like that! She just has too much room in there for her own good... that will change soon enough. Here's a compilation of photos to enjoy from the two ultrasounds.
On a different note. You know how our other little girl, Raja has discovered the fireplace and is her new favorite? The other morning Seth was looking at her and realized she has singed half of her right whiskers off!! And what's left of the singed ones are curled at the ends. I think someone got a little too close to the fire... hahaha, we love her!

Now I know who is beating me up from the inside...

It's a Girl!!!!

Well, our ultrasound didn't really go as "expected", but we are not complaining AT ALL! I am 20 wks today, it's all down hill from here?

First of all, I was so excited and actually nervous for this ultrasound. I read up online what people do in order to assure their baby is awake for the ultrasound. I feel her all the time in the morning, but she's not as noticeable in the afternoons/evenings. I read some doctor offices offer the mom orange juice if their baby is asleep, so I was drinking OJ on the way to the ultrasound.

It was incredible to see the baby's heart chambers (yay for all 4 of them!), and the different parts of the brain. We checked up on her nose/lips for a cleft lip, ankle/feet for club feet. We're happy she's a healthy little girl, organs and all! She's measuring 21 weeks (a tad big, but the further along the more inaccurate the measurements are, as far as determining a good due date, so nothing will change there). She's also 15 oz.... almost a pound! (I've gained 2 lbs so far, since my appt last week... but I feel like I've gained 5 since then. I really don't want to gain hardly any, so we'll see...).

So why didn't it go as we exactly kind of had a hunch it would? .... We both didn't mind what the gender of the baby was. At first we thought it would be fun to have a girl, but would love a boy just the same. At 14 wks I took an intelligender test... and it said it was no doubt a boy. So I was kind of expecting it to be a boy. Seth just has sisters, he sure knows how girls work, so having a boy would be a very new experience completely. We were just taking the test for fun, to add another fun thing to the first half of the pregnancy. But today when the tech said it is a girl we were surprised in a fabulous way. ( I really prepared myself for the gender test to be correct, which is not scientifically proven yet... not sure how it works... now I don't really believe in it.)

I had her check the gender again, and again... at the very end another tech came in to look over the pictures and make sure our tech got everything she needed. She took a look at the little missus' and said it for sure looks like a girl to her as well. Then I was finally convinced.

Baby girl was kicking and punching me the entire time... it was difficult for the tech to get a good shot of the brain/spine, measurements of limbs because the little girl was dancing. (OJ does a body good?). I'm glad I didn't go with a caffeinated drink! She did full twists multiple times... we'd be looking at the right side of her and she'd flip to her left. Somehow she was able to keep her face buried toward my spine for the entire hour and a half. Fantastic. In order to get the one profile picture (above) the tech was jabbing in my hip bone or looking in from my ribs. She was curled up for the majority of it, and occasionally would show off her legs in a full stretched out position. She has mighty fine legs too, they must be her dad's...

I'm pretty sure our tech was almost brand new, but she was mostly on her own. She had a long list of pictures she needed, and the baby wouldn't let her go in any particular order... the tech just got whatever picture she could when the baby was in her random positions. The big 20 wk ultrasound usually takes a half hour, so I've heard. But we were looking at our girl for a good hour and 20 minutes, maybe hour and a half. So we were spoiled!!! But I'm grateful because we chose to do it at the hospital b/c they are to give you a live DVD of it. But their DVD machine was down :(. I also wanted to do it there b/c they have a 3D machine that is fun to use and take a peek with. But the tech said when the baby is less than 27 weeks it does not look cute or human or nice at all in 3D... she said "let me put it this way, the last time we looked with the 3D machine at a 20 week fetus, I didn't save any pictures." I wouldn't have wanted anything different though! I twas a very fun evening peeking at the little girl.

It was the best to call our family! We were all (almost all) convinced it was a boy because of the intelligender test. So it really made it fun to tell them it's a girl!! We're so glad she's healthy and all looks fantastic so far. I still have my worries... but this experience helped me calm those insecurities. She says hi by the way :) She's been punching/kicking... or waving/dancing this entire time I've been typing the post. (I guess she likes the chocolate devotion ice cream we got from cold stone to celebrate on the way home) ;)

Thanks for your love and support on our journey to start our family! So many blessings have been flowing in since our first few pregnancy adventures!

ps = Yay for Fluffy Bum tights that are coming back in style!!! Girls have lots of fun accessories!

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We find out this Thursday! yikes!

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OB Appointment

We had our routine OB appointment today. I'm so happy that Seth very willingly comes along to every appointment... even if it's just routine/quick stuff. He's a fantastic husband!! It's great too because he asks fantastic questions or gets more specific answers to my own that I wouldn't have thought of myself.

Pretty much I just asked the doc about my headaches and when to start looking into wonderful birthing classes. (suggestions welcome!!) Then we had a check on the heartbeat... of course my favorite part.

I've felt the kid move a lot more lately, it's a ton of fun!!!! When Dr. Jacob was looking for the heartbeat he says, "Well if your kid would just slow down for a second and stop moving everywhere we'll be able to hear it's beat.... at least we sure know it's alive!" hahahaha, I love it! "This stage is the worst, they have too much room in there", funny.

We heard the heartbeat for just a second and not clearly like it was last time... Dr. Jacob said everything sounds perfect though.


We love our little....baby. Yea - it's about time to be able to call 'it' a boy or girl. NEXT THURSDAY, the 15th is the big day!! We're pretty excited about that....

Lately...

First of all, our fireplace has been a hit lately... Raja hasn't paid too much attention to it. But we haven't been home in the last 24 hours and the landlady texted me this afternoon asking if she should check on the cat b/c she's been meowing nonstop since we've left. She had food and water, but I think it's because she was freezing. She didn't have a warm body to cuddle up with last night... So this is her new favorite spot:











I've never heard her purr so loud!


So what have we been up to lately? BYU football and my birthday was September 25th...

We got season tickets this year for BYU football, the last three weekends have been a lot of fun!! Well... the Florida State game wasn't exactly fun :) But we've been taking the football season in.
BYU vs ColoradoBYU vs Utah State
I wish I 've been taking more pictures... We went out with friends after the BYU/Utah state game to Appleby's. We had friends over for Rockband after the Colorado game. And Rockband/root beer floats with friends at our place after the Florida state game. It's a party house!

My Birthday! was the 25th... I got to sleep in a little bit, worked a shorter day, and my co-workers brought in balloons/treats/Birthday signs. It was pretty fun. Cousins Aubree, Eric, Chad met us for lunch, and Eric treated us to lunch at 5 Guys, a great burger joint. It was so nice of them! And lots of fun to catch up and visit a little bit.
We went out for dinner (we go out a lot) with friends (The Goodells, Cho's, John, Gma and Pa) to Texas Roadhouse in Lehi. I got on the saddle, though I was seriously dreading. They sang their restaurant happy birthday song to me as I took the baby on its first saddle ride. It was a fun time, also glad my grandparents joined us, even though it was so late in the evening by the time we actually ate.
Seth supposedly has never made a cake in his life... and I wasn't about to make my own birthday cake, so dear husband Seth got out the box and had an amazing first time life experience making a cake! He was amazed that it's just like brownies and you just add some water/eggs/oil . . . I loved that he spelled out my name with 27 candles :) Funfetti with real rainbow chip frosting... doesn't get better!

For my birthday I got 'The Undaunted', the new Gerald N Lund book I've been excited for. And a very nice hair straightner I've wanted! (first attempt of curling my hair with the straightner) And I got two belly bands from Target... and have a little more birthday money I just don't know what to do with yet :) It was a fantastic birthday!
ps if anyone wants to go to Thanksgiving Point's corn maze.... we're planning to get anyone and everyone together for a trip this Friday night.... come!

pps I FINALLY finished the rag quilt I made for Aubrey and Davin's addition, Preston, who came the end of July. It was just dumb I didn't do the last step (easiest step) until now... but it's done!!! And I like it.

Pretty Stoked...

1. That it's October, I hope fall stays a while before winter kicks in!

2. A Lazy General Conference weekend, and attending the Sunday Afternoon Session!

3. The fireplace works! And I plan to use it lots before we move out!

4. Seth's feeling better after staying home sick all day long, sleeping all day helped!

5. I love my Bellyband I bought from Target with my Birthday money from mom and dad burke!

6. Finally started a new book, The Undaunted, that I bought with Birthday $$ from mom and dad!

7. Co Co Dyno bites - my fav!

8. BYU football tomorrow night!

9. My 'to do' pile at work is almost gone, but that means I'm getting the crappy/brain tormenting tasks done last and they suck... makes my head hurt!

10. I feel the baby move sometimes, wish it was more! But... 18 weeks is treating me real good.

It's been 10 days...

I got my flu shot yesterday at work... I really don't mind shots at all, needles, blood, etc. I'm thinking this injector guy was not a trained professional though! He stuck me... then syringed it all in me, I felt the injection sight spasm a little and he pulled out the needle.

"ooh, you're a bleeder!" he grabbed me some cotton, stuck a band-aid on me and I was on my way.

It wasn't sore at all, then I woke up in the middle of the night to do a prego pee run and felt like my left shoulder/arm had been hit by 100 fast pitched baseballs. (haha, nice comparison right?). Everytime time I moved my muscles in the arm, even wiggling my fingers would bring on a wave of pain. All day, it's been crazy painful when I move my arm, the pain is primarily in my elbow - and it felt like a string of pain connected my elbow to pinky/ring finger. Anyway... blasted flu shot, must have hit a nerve.

Last weekend went by way to fast! We babysat nephew Preston while his parents went on their first date since his birth in July.... He was incredibly easy to watch over... and we got to go out to eat and he slept through the whole thing. Seth's great at bottle feeding/burping a baby... we need to babysit more to get the practice in.

Saturday I went up to SLC to meet a friend for lunch at Mimi's Cafe (mmmm). Gates , from the mission, is so kind and brought me flowers for my birthday (this Friday). I love that lunch date and not so much the traffic on the way back to Provo. It wasn't as bad as I expected though. Seth and I went with friends to the BYU/Florida state game. . . I don't want to talk about it. We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter... call us poor sports, or poor losers or whatever you'd like - but I did not want to sit there on my Saturday night and be humbled more. BYU did not play well at all that game. FSU definitely deserved that high scored game win based on BYU's performance, sickening.

I hope we do much better against Colorado this Saturday...

The kid is good... I'm trying to drink my water... we find out on October 15th if it's a little guy or girl. It's all really going fairly quickily (the pregnancy) I'm 17 wks in two days... but I feel like I've been 16 weeks for the last 3 weeks. I just need to keep focused on the Football season/beautiful fall, thanksgiving, Christmas... (moving) and then really getting ready for the kid to come! It'll fly by, right? :)

Wa Hoo!!

So... about the moving situation... Seth talked to the landlady yesterday over lunch. She said we could stay until the end of December! Which is great because Seth graduates in December, and will need to find a new job (he has a student job now). So we have some options. We'll have to stay in Orem/Provo area b/c my job has the benefits that cover the pregnancy.

But we have more time, and aren't rushed into just finding anything that works. Many wonderful friends have offered apartments they know of, we know we'll be taken care of. It'll be crappy to move in the middle of winter, and 7 months prego, but we have time and will have help.

Really glad we get to stay for 3 more months.

Also.... Go BYU! I started a post about BYU Football last week after our big win. Today's game was fantastic to watch, a slow start but it sure did pick up!! We're excited to have season's tickets this year, we haven't since '06. It's our last fall (most likely?) in Provo so we want to take advantage of it all. AND it seems like it will be a great season.

AND. . . . Our labor day weekend was fantastic!! Friday night we were in Payson for Onion Day fireworks with Ben/Melissa's fam. That night Catie and Todd (cousins that just got married in Nauvoo the last weekend of August) were passing through and stayed at our apartment. They actually enjoyed their stay so much they hung out with us all Saturday and stayed Saturday night too! WE loved their company.

Sunday night we went camping at Nunn's in Provo canyon. Seth and I had set up our stuff early and enjoyed 3 hours of peace/quiet . . . reading and visiting with no distractions. preparing/"cooking" tin foil dinners. Ali and Jed joined us later, it was a great time with the Goodell's. We stayed up late playing cards and chatting. We figured we roughed it camping the other two times this summer, So we brought our queen double tall air mattress. It took up our entire tent, but was a lot of fun. . . each time one of us moved the other's sleeping bag would slide to the middle. It was just an adventure. . . we ended up sunk in the middle in the morning. We even slept in until 8:30! It was a great campsite and the shade kept the morning sun from waking us up super early. I hope we go camping again before the end of the year!

Tonight friends james/gates (cari) are staying over. We'll party with them tomorrow- Japanese dinner!!! (Yakisoba, homemade sushi, kare pan). And they're staying until Monday, James flies out Tuesday. We've been having tons of fun! (Makes the pregnancy goes faster this way too!!)

WE HAVE TO MOVE

I'm devastated. I thought the landlady that lives upstairs in our house was kidding when she came down to us and told us we need to find a new place to live.

Yeah, she took the house off the market. But has decided she will move out (with her parents) and rent the house to two girls upstairs, and one downstairs. This will make the whole rental situation legal.

I bawled for a good hour. Have been searching over apartment ads for the last two hours. And can't stop thinking about how crappy it is I'll have to pack up this place in the next 4 weeks.

It's hard to find a place that will let us keep Raja. There's no way we'd give her up though.

I won't have my winter by the fireplace after all, that's what makes me cry the most. :(

There's no way we can find an apartment this big, with all utilities paid, with internet/cable included, with washer/dryer, garage spot, for how much we have been paying. No way.

And to now come up with a $500+ deposit!?!? (we didn't have to really pay one on this apartment) What a JOKE!!!!

I just need to sleep on this, it'll be better tomorrow, right? I was hoping this is all just a dream, but the fresh raja bites/scratches from playing with her a second ago tell me I am not dreaming. Wish us luck! And if you know of anything... let us know. We're thinking of going back to Provo, so it'll be easier to sell a contract if/when we move away from Utah next summer. SIGH... AND this is the latest I've kept myself up (besides camping last weekend) in Months!!! Headache... going to sleep.... good night.

Best News Ever!

Tonight we ate dinner at Seth's sister Aubrey, her hubby Davin, and their little guy Preston's place - Yummy Fajitas! We ate brownies/ice cream and played some skipbo. Then headed out and watched Davin's Softball game. Got home just a bit ago and the "For Sale Sign" from the front yard was taken down and the Realtor was there patching up the hole in the ground...

At first my heart dropped and I figured the house sold. Some people who came to look at it tonight must have loved it. . . BUT! The Realtor told us our awesome landlord (who lives upstairs with 2 other girls) decided to hold off on trying to sell it!! WA HOO!!!

We live in the basement of a house that has been on the market since earlier this year. We never really thought it would sell in this economic state - but it was still always a bummer to think it could and we'd have to move suddenly. I am So Happy we won't have to move anytime soon!! This apartment is the sweetest deal and pad we could ever ask for! AND my dream of a cozy winter in front of the fireplace and our Christmas tree up by the fire can come true! SO HAPPY!

Ultrasound SPOILED!!!!!

Because of the heterotopic pregnancy last summer, I am considered "high-risk" for ectopic pregnancies. Which is a blessing because we will get to have ultrasounds at the very beginning of my pregnancies to assure it is not another ectopic pregnancy!

At 5 weeks I had an ultrasound, since I was having some cramping. It was the normal cramping you expect during that early week time. . . but it's the same achy feelings I had when it was ectopic. First ultrasound - didn't see anything. The tech said it looks like it was just too early, maybe I wasn't exactly 5 weeks like I thought. We'd try again in a week...

6 weeks. Not only did we see our little bean, we saw it's heartbeat, AND we got to hear it!!!! A strong beat of 155! It was more than we had hoped for! And it looks like we were exactly 6 weeks, like I had thought. :)












6 1/2 weeks. The EAGER study I have been working with since last October offers a free ultrasound at 6 1/2 weeks. We welcomed the opportunity to see the bean again. Though it was 5 days after our 6 week ultrasound the bean measured exactly the same and the study people told us our due date was 4 days different than what my OB said. Also, the heartbeat was considerably lower, 129 bpm. But I tried hard to not let that worry me. I wasn't expecting all this anyway, and though I was excited for such success thus far - I didn't want to get my hopes up.












8 week doc appt - My doctor felt that my uterus was a very good and solid 8 week size, but decided it was necessary to have another ultrasound to make sure we got a solid due date. Because my LMP was the miscarriage, the ovulation peak was 5 wks after the miscarriage, and the two ultrasounds so far had very similar measurements - it was a good idea. At 10 wks along there would be a very good idea/picture to measure the baby and figure a solid due date.

10 wks: It Wiggles!!! It was SO fun to see! Right away we saw the hearbeat going, measured it and found I am actually a day earlier than the OB originally expected! And then... it wiggled! We laughed, I tried holding my breath waiting for it to wiggle again.... it was so neat. Wiggle. Wiggle. Wiggle!











13 1/2 weeks! Good Bye First Trimester! Seth and I have been open about the pregnancy if the topic comes up with friends/family. But as for officially announcing anything, we were definitely waiting until we were in the clear after the 1st trimester. With my new job, one of the clinics we do billing for is a vein center that offers free ultrasounds anytime for pregnant employees, SCORE. Because Seth and I were going out of town last weekend (for cousin Todd's wedding in Nauvoo) and the first trimester was up, we decided to get one just before leaving town. The tech was very nice, and it was just AMAZING to see how much our baby has grown in just 3 weeks. We could see individual fingers, toes, and it was sure moving! We were even able to take some videos of it moving. We spent a lot of time peeking in on the miracle occuring in my body. And left with many photos of our little one.
We were the road to Nauvoo within an hour of the ultrasound. I was pondering how amazing it is that we can see the baby with today's technology and the comfort it has been. I am beginning to allow myself to get attached to this very real thing happening. I told Seth "I think I'm going to get Emotio..." and I couldn't finish the word before I was sobbing, absolutely bawling. Hilarious, but it's embarassing too! Oooohhhh, the wonderful hormones during pregnancy. The other week we went and saw Start Trek in the dollar theater. We saw it when it first came out, I totally knew how the beginning goes and how terribly sad it is. But that didn't stop me from literally convulsing in sobs as I watched Captain George T Kirk say good-bye to his wife and sacrifice himself to Nero. I was out of control!!! I soaked seth' s shoulder and buried my face so the stranger lady next to me wouldn't notice and Seth says "Megan! Do I need to take you out right now?!" Ahh..... love it. Love Being Pregnant! We are very blessed!