no exceptions here.

for some reason when i learned i was pregnant, i thought i would be the exception to all the rules.

e.g.

i thought to myself:

i'll be the one who gets zero strech marks.

i'll be the one who looks and feels gorgeous all the time.

i'll be the one who gains like 10lbs total {ya know... 7lbs of baby... 3lbs of amniotic fluid & stuff}.

i'll be the one who looks exactly like i did pre-pregnancy the day after i give birth.

i'll be the one who faithfully exercises every day and keeps a clean house.

i'll be the one who never eats junk food and makes home-cooked meals every night {hahahahhahahahahahahhahhhhhhhh HA!}.

i'll be the one who can wear all of my pre-pregnancy jeans throughout the whole pregnancy {again... hahahahh!Hahahaha! HA!}.

let's all have a good laugh at naive little ariel :)

well, my friends, i am not the exception to the rules. the only thing i got to skip was the puking... but at least you pukers get to lose a little weight before the lbs start coming and coming and COMING!

i just have to keep reminding myself that in 51 days, our beautiful baby girl will be here... and we'll be so in love with her... and it will all have been worth it.

{and i can stop getting bigger and start getting smaller.}

my very own font.

so i found this great website where you can create a font in your own handwriting. it's pretty fun... even if my handwriting looks totally sloppy & childlike. the picture above is a sample of my font. looovely.

now i can type handwritten letters.

the robed hormone aka ariel.

My mom and I went baby shopping the other day and we started talking about the baby and the pregnancy. She asked me if Ariel has become emotional during pregnancy. I said probably just the normal stuff that girls go through. I then remembered a story and shared this with my mom. All I can say is that pregnancy is a fun adventure.

I have a hard time sleeping at night because my mind is always thinking. I have some of my best ideas in my bed. Sometimes I think so much that I stay wide awake until 3am or so in the morning. I found that by watching TV my mind will shut off and I can fall asleep. (Disney movies work the best!) Anyway, the other the night I started to fall asleep so I turned the TV off. Now, I know once the TV is off I can't turn it back on because it will wake Ariel up. So I have to be sure that I'm close to sleep. Of course 45 minutes go by and I realized that I was not close to falling asleep. I knew I would have to go downstairs and make myself comfortable on the couch. So I grabbed a blanket and pillow and proceeded downstairs for the night. I made my bed and went to use the restroom. As I came out of the restroom my eyes were trying to adjust the the darkness of our living room. It was black. All of a sudden I heard this whisper which I can only describe as the voice from Harry Potter when he talks like a snake but it was my name "Ssssseeeeeaaaannnnssssss" I looked up and saw a big bulky shadow of something. I yelled and fell backwards. It took me a little while to realize that it was Ariel wearing her huge red bathrobe. My heart was now racing and I yelled "Ariel, why would you do that?!" Now for those of you that have had a pregnant wife, you learn that raising your voice in any manner (or now thinking about it, doing anything) will give her reason to cry. She ran upstairs in tears. So as my emotions went from scared outside my mind to what in the world just happened, I realized that again I had to apologize even though I was the one laying on the floor. So for all those that are wondering I did not get a good night's sleep. Ariel forgave me. And I now know what I would do if an intruder were to enter our house and say my name like a snake.

the bump.

{32 weeks}

i've decided to document the last 10 weeks, now that i actually have a bump worth mentioning. so here i am at 32 weeks {last picture was 30 weeks}. i swear it looks smaller. but maybe it's just the outfit. i'll have to wear a super tight shirt like this one from now on. i hope you enjoy the bump vs. rump competition until may! :) i'm rooting for the bump, but as for right now, it's a close race!

disaster.

don't let these darling little muffins fool you. looks can be deceiving.

when i went to the kitchen this morning to find breakfast, i was reminded that we really need to go grocery shopping. so as a last resort, i pulled out the malt-o-meal {that's right, i like it}. i stared at the box for a minute or two, and noticed a recipe on the side for "magic muffins". muffins sounded so much better than mush, so i made them. i baked them, got out the jam, took a little picture thinking i might post them on my food blog {not realizing that the last post was about muffins...}, and then i bit into one. oh wow. it tasted like i substituted the 1/2 cup sugar for 1/2 cup baking powder. they were so bitter and disgusting. and i swear i followed the directions exactly.

magic muffins? more like april fools muffins. in fact, that's a great idea :)

evening at the pops.

i knew i would like the symphony, but i didn't expect to loooove it! my dad scored some free tickets from a neighbor, so i went last night to hear the utah symphony's evening at the pops with my mom & sissy heather. the music was beautiful, the soloists were amazing, and our seats were perfect. i need to get to the symphony more often.

nevers.

i said i would never:

dye my hair {do it all the time}
have a facebook/myspace account {have had both}
go weeks without doing laundry {doing this right now}
watch survivor {love it}
own a mini-van {want one}
get acrylic nails {do it on occasion}
wear the same outfit multiple times a week {i'm out of clothes that fit me, people}
nurse my babies {i'm going to give it a go}
be a breakfast person {must have it}
type a smiley face again {we all know how that went}

i really will never:

go blonde again.
wear leggings.
pierce my babies' ears.
read anything by richard paul evans.
go dancing.
watch that devil batman movie again.
deny my crush on duane "the rock" johnson.
go on a cruise with just my husband again. {he's not offended... we agree on this. a group would be more fun.}
have any kind of cosmetic surgery.
eat dominos pizza ever again.

two months.

til this little one makes her debut. we are dying to meet her!

a short trip.

i had a seminar for my work in santa clara last week, so sean joined me and after working for 2 days, we spend a few days relaxing in california. seriously we didn't do much besides visit sausalito and pier 39 in sf {briefly}. a few other things we did:

-slept in.
-ate at cheesecake factory twice. can you blame us? if you want to go to the one in utah, you have to wait 3 hours!
-played cards at the hotel. we learned a new game, and named it yahoo! because it's real name was lame and our hotel happened to be by a bunch of yahoo buildings.
-followed directions from the gps.
-witnessed a lot of bad/mean drivers. while in downtown sf, a car next to us decided to rear end the car in front of him on purpose and yell profanities out his window, all because the car in front didn't run a yellow light and let them both through the intersection. then when the light turned green, car in front apparently didn't go fast enough, so car behind continued to drive bumper to bumper for half a mile... all the while screaming profanities. we were frightened.
-tried to order dr pepper at every restaurant and were turned down every time. {for sean, not me!}
-took very few pictures.
-shopped {and bought 2 cute cute dresses for baby girl!}
-ate some delicious mini-donuts from a vendor on pier 39
-signed an agreement at our hotel that we would not have parties in our room. weird.

it was nice to get away, be lazy, and be together.

bananagrams.

i found this great game called bananagrams at this little store in sausalito.

you're supposed to make words out of all the little letter tiles, and form a cross-word puzzle kind of deal.

but mostly i just do this.

and this.

happy friday the 13th.

we spent the day in sausalito, which is very fun to say. it is also my new favorite place. who knew such a fun little town existed just on the other side of the golden gate bridge? {apparently a lot of people... as there were lots of tourists like ourselves.}

the belly.

{30 weeks}

i know, it's a lame picture... but i get way too self-conscious when i try to have sean take a picture. last time he told me i was "sticking it out" and i haven't asked him again since then :)

also... i have decided i would NEVER get maternity photos taken of myself. i am so not one of those women who feels beautiful during pregnacy!

it's here.

the uncomfortable stage.

this little girl is getting fat, and making her mommy very uncomfortable. i feel like i can't breathe or eat. i have to sit up straight or lean back all the time. it's hard to get into my car. i'm awake half the night trying to get comfortable. and i KNOW it's going to get much much worse before she finally comes!

i honestly thought that since i'm so tall and i feel like i've been carrying so low, she would never get high enough to be kicking me in the ribs. boy was i wrong. there is constant pressure under the right side of my rib cage. she has found a favorite position.

i'm sure all of you mommies are bored with my pregnancy observations. i'm know every woman goes through this with all of her babies. but hey, it's my first time. it's all new to me. so you get to read all about it!

finally.

all of my clocks that i never changed {in october} are back on the correct time. even our huge clock that is hanging above the fireplace in our living room never got changed. i blame my laziness on the pregnancy :)

now the two clocks that i DID change in october are wrong, and i'll have to get used to not looking at them for the correct time {or i could just change them}.

you really make things complicated, daylight savings.

100,000.

It finally happened. While driving I looked down at my mileage and noticed that I officially hit the 100,000 miles milestone!! It seems like just yesterday that I went and bought my very first car. It was an 03 Mazda 6 brand new. My first brand new car and my first car purchase. I felt like I was the biggest stud in the world. I have had a lot of fond memories in that car and i have 100,000 miles to prove it. Some of the greatest moments were:

-picking up Ariel for our first date
-driving to Denver so that Ariel could try out for American Idol (we were engaged when we made this trip)
-driving to St. George and Las Vegas for multiple trips
-driving through Tin Cup during a blizzard and Ariel being scared that we were going to die and me telling her we were fine, that I had driven in worse.....truthfully I was scared to death and never had driven through something like that.
-our many dates in that car
-my first kiss in that car.....which was Ariel! (Good thing, huh)
-creating my own Mazda cd when I was single so I could blast Ghetto Superstar and I wanna be a Cowboy with my Bose sound system. (I wonder where that cd is)
-never been in an accident in that car
-only one speeding ticket....on the drive to Denver!
-tires for LIFE!!!
-cleaning my car every weekend. (this happened when I was single, not so much now)
-driving to Bear Lake and parking it on the beach.
-when I take my car into Mazda to get a lube and oil everyone knows me by name.
-going to the drive in movies with Ariel every summer

mine is the best.

husband, that is.

he lets me cry about petty things {stretch marks} and tells me i'm beautiful.

he cuddles with me & baby every night.

he comes to every single doctor's appointment with me.

he watches american idol with me {and even voted for that nerdy white guy a couple of times}.

he doesn't get mad when i nudge {punch} him in the night so he'll flip over.

he's handsome.

he's funny.

and i love him.

have i mentioned i've been watching the bachelor this season?

all i can say is:

jason, you're an idiot.

melissa, i always thought you were the wrong choice for jason, but i felt really bad for you last night. you certainly didn't deserve that. and you handled it well. kudos.

molly, you're an idiot. you seriously took him back after he just broke up with his fiance 2 minutes ago on national tv????? i would be running for my life, not kissing & making up. gross.

jillian, consider yourself lucky you weren't in the final 2.

childbirth class.

well i must admit, i thoroughly enjoyed our childbirth class yesterday. i'm not sure i can say the same for sean. he did come, though, and actually watched both of the birth videos. here are some highlights of the day:

the older lady who had done a LOT of research about EVERYTHING and felt like she needed to let us {and the teacher} know all of her many insights. every class needs one of these, right?

my shock and horror when learning that i will more than likely have a catheter during this whole childbirth ordeal. i'm not sure why that freaks me out more than an iv or the epidural, but it does.

the cute baby! during the tour of the hospital, we got to go stand at the window of the nursery and "oooh" and "ahhh" over somebody's sweet little baby girl :) it made me so excited.

sean turning to me somewhere in the middle of the class {probably after the birth video} and saying, "you're my hero".

the life saver mint object lesson. she had us suck on a life saver mint to see how it "dilates" and "effaces". we'll never look at those mints the same way.

sean learning some massage techniques. i got a nice 10 minute massage. it was great.

our teacher totally selling me on the epidural {not like i wasn't sold already...}.

and last but not least, lunch at jason's deli. we had never been... and it was seriously good. sean looked and the menu and said "what is this? a health food place?" and then he ended up loving his sandwich :) ooh and they have soft serve ice cream for freeeee. yum.