Christmas Time

This year for Christmas we were able to do some traveling.  Elijah and I drove up to Idaho the weekend before Christmas to spend some time with Grandma Great, Aunt Janiel and Heather.  We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Idaho just in time for dinner, excellent timing if I do say so myself!  We got a tour of their recently completed house and brought in all of our stuff.  Played a quick couple of games of Split then if was off to bed.  The next morning Janiel was up and making us breakfast.  Which was a real treat!  They were headed to the store to pick up food for Christmas Eve dinner and all kinds of desserts they were planing on making that day.  Elijah and I got up ate breakfast with Janiel and took showers.  (Janiel has an amazing shower that massages you with water while you shower, I didn't want to get out!!)  Elijah and I drove to Rexburg so ELijah could see the campus and town where he got his Associates degree.  He really misses being in school there, but still is enjoying BYU as well.

After the visit to BYU-I campus we stopped and got some lunch at Bambinos, and headed back to Janiels' house.  We got there right after Dan and Julie and their kids arrived.  So we spent the afternoon and rest of the evening getting to know their family and cooking.  We all stayed up way too late but that is the way with families.  The next morning Elijah and I got up and got ready for 9:00 church so we could get an early start getting back to Utah.  Janiel was amazing and made us breakfast again.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed to church.  Since it was the Sunday before Christmas there was singing and Christmas related topics it was an enjoyable sacrament meeting.  

After Sacrament we were headed to Ogden to spend a few days with Cammy and her family.  Elijah's Mom was there for the holiday as well so we got to see and spend time with her as well.  Savanna, Jayden and I made cupcakes while Eli and Nana went to sacrament in Ogden.  While we waited for the cupcakes to cool, we played Little Big Planet, and the kids were very patient with me while they were teaching me how to play.  When Nana and Eli came back home we made some frosting and the kids decorated their cupcakes and I started making dinner.  We were having homemade pizza!

After dinner Ray and Cammy took us to The Ogden Christmas Village and we got to see all the lights and different little houses and displayed that companies had put together.  It was so much fun to look at all of the displays and I think the best part was it wasn't too cold outside so we were able to enjoy it longer!

 The next morning was Christmas Eve and Cammy had to be to work really early so we got to spend the morning with Nana and the kids.  Elijah and I were leaving that afternoon so we wanted to be able to watch them open their presents from us.  I think their favorite gift from us was their wands!

  After presents it was time for breakfast and Nana made pancakes and sausage.  After breakfast we were getting ready to leave, the kids were going to spend the rest of the afternoon at their cousins house, and Elijah and I were headed home.  Nana took Elijah and I to lunch and then we were headed home via Veldon and Diane's house.

It is always fun to spend so much time with family around the holidays and this year we got to see more  family than usual.  Especially when we got to the Sorensen house.  Veldon and Diane were getting prizes of Grandma and Grandpa of the year.  All of their kids and grandkids were there spending Christmas in Salt Lake.  So Elijah got to meet all of them!

We drove home in a little bit of a snow flurry, and I am thankful that Elijah is such a good driver in all conditions.  We made it home safely, even though it took longer than we had planned.  It was good to be home.  We stayed up way too late just reveling in being in our own little home.  The next morning was Christmas!!  we slept in till about 10:00 and enjoyed our Christmas morning together, opening presents and Skyping with family.  

A Season to Give Thanks

I love this time of the year!  The leaves start changing color and begin to fall so they can be crunched underfoot.  One of my favorite things is going for a walk where there are lots of trees and a slight breeze, because then the leaves start falling like rain, and it is so beautiful to see.  But I think the best part is being able to spend time with family!

This Thanksgiving Elijah and I were able to spend time with both sides of our family.  We spent Thanksgiving day at my Aunts house with all of my cousins.  My grandparents were even there.  So there was plenty of food to go around and even more fun.  We played games and ate way too much all afternoon.

This is Alec's little one, 8-9 months old and already walking.

Me and my Grandpa

Me and my Grandma

My brother Nathan

My wonderful Husband, whom I love dearly

Setting up to play another game

Us and the grandparents, you can even see our little girl poking out there a bit.



After all kinds of games and way too much food, Elijah and I headed home to try to sleep it off.  The rest of the weekend we were able to spend in Ogden with Elijah's sister Cammy and her family.  Elijah's sister Beth and her husband were also in Ogden for the weekend so it was quite a reunion.  Even more games and food.

The kids playing a game with Uncle Eli

I'm not sure who won but it is a fun game!

That night it was Just Dance competition on the Wii

It is always so much fun to spend time with family.  Getting to talk and enjoy each others company and learning all sorts of new things about each other and our individual families.  I love spending time with our families!!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

That's what little girls are made of.  Monday we found out that is what we are having!  Elijah is getting a new princess and I am getting promoted to a Queen!

According the the ultrasound technician she is the right size in all the right places, so my due date is still February 9ish.  Her heart is beating really fast 146 bpm but apparently that is normal and good for babies.  She seems happy and healthy and now that we know she is a girl I can start planning her room!

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I am open to suggestions!

 This was the very first thing we saw when we got into the ultrasound.  I guess she was tired of me calling her a he.  She wanted us to be sure who and what she was!

 This one was kind of hard for me to see at first, but there is her nose and lips peeking out.

 And here is my tribute to early morning yoga, she must have been taking notes, 

legs over your head, and relax!

Still showing off that yoga technique. Knees to nose!

Halloween Take 1

This year for Halloween, we didn't have any solid plans and since I am pregnant my original idea from last year kinda didn't happen.  We were going to be Tristan and Yviane from Stardust and I was going to make these amazing costumes and yeah it was going to be spectacular.  As far as I got with the costumes all year was buying the patterns I thought would work the best.  As Halloween drew nearer I knew I needed to make something, but nothing was coming to mind.  My boss invited us to a Costume party at his house last weekend, so I had to come up with something.  I though maybe we could do Ariel and Prince Eric again.  Due to the "baby bump" I didn't think it was appropriate for me to go as a pregnant Disney Princess, that and the mermaid top did not fit anymore, which would be even more inappropriate!

So I got on-line to find something that would be easy and quick and still look like I tried!  So quick, easy, and things I had.  Juno!  One of the easiest costumes I have ever worn!  And Elijah was a great sport in his shorts and headband.  I don't know if we will have to have another costume this year but if so I might just go and get some red fabric and a little fake fur and we can go as little red riding hood and the wolf.  I guess we shall see!

22 Weeks and Counting

I am 22 weeks and a few random days into this pregnancy!  I am starting to show and feel like I am actually pregnant. 

 I guess that is a good thing.  This is kind of the halfway picture.  Hooray!

So this is a typical Trina picture so I figured it needed to be included!

I was going through my calendar and counting back from when we found out and looking through pictures to see what I looked like when I was pregnant and didn't know it.  So this picture was taken Father's day weekend (it is about the best picture of my profile.) and I was supposedly 6ish weeks pregnant.

6ish Weeks

This was a few weeks before I was pregnant.....Timeline is Crazy right?!  I hadn't really paid attention to when we actually conceived but counting back and looking at how much I did without knowing I was pregnant is really interesting!

Week or two Prior to being Pregnant

Those were about the only pictures I could find that had any kind of belly view and were in the "pregnancy timeline."  It was fun to look back and see what all we have done since I have been pregnant.

Now I have to try harder to take more pictures of this growing baby 

so I can keep track of that kind of stuff.

A Birthday to Remember

So this year my dear hubby is turning 25 and I decided to do a party for him. I first started thinking about his birthday in late August when I realized his birthday was coming up rather quickly. So being the wonderful woman I am, I figured a surprise party was in order. Nothing too big, just a gathering of his friends and some food. One day while browsing on Pinerest.com I found a tutorial for making wands. From that moment on this surprise party took on a whole new vector--direction and magnitude! It very quickly became a Harry Potter Party! (To completely understand why this was such an amazing plan you have to understand that Elijah is always "accio-ing," things to him around the house. It has yet to work but if it did ever happen the shock would not last very long for me!)

 So the Harry Potter Party Plotting began! I already had the materials needed to make the wands, so my apprenticeship to Mr. Ollivander began almost immediately. I also have some very good friends that I bounced ideas off of. Because of these friends we added winged keys, Snape's potion cabinet, horcruxes and costumes to this amazing party. As the weeks progressed and brought us closer and closer to the party I realized there was no way we were going to get my house decorated in one day especially if Elijah was here. Then inspiration struck!! We would move the party into our barn attic, it looked more Harry Potterish anyway. It would also give us time to decorate without Elijah being the wiser!

 All parties are in need of food, and since this was a Harry Potter party the food had to be from the books or movies somehow. Well lets just say my friends and I had a lot of fun picking out the menu! We had Ollivander's Original Wands (pretzel sticks), Hogs Head Cornish Balls (meat balls), Polyjuice Potion (creamy cheesy bacon dip), Potatoronium Roots (little smokies) Herbology Bites (sour patch kids) Chocolate Frogs (gummy frogs-didn't have time to make them chocolate), Pumpkin Pasties (Pumpkin muffins), Cockroach Clusters (no bake cookies) Lemon Drops, Moaning Myrtle's Friends (goldfish crackers) Moldy Peanuts (roasted peanuts) Dragon Breath Peanuts (hot and spicy peanuts), Whomping Willow Bark (Beef Jerky) Jelly Slugs (gummy worms), Grindelow Eggs (Pizza Bites). For Drinks we had Butter Beer, Pumpkin Juice and Elixir of Life. I think the absolute best part of the whole party is that I was able to keep it a secret and Elijah was extremely surprised and had no idea what I was doing all month. To help with all of the sneakiness, I banned him from my craft room telling him I was working on something for his birthday. It also helped being pregnant, I had several odd cravings this past month, but really it was all for the party.

 To get him up in the attic I sent him up there to get my decorations for Autumn. Then he was surprised by a lot of his friends, I think he was a little confused at first but I guess it truly was a surprise. I had a Harry Potter Costume all ready for him up there, and I proceeded to put on my Professor Trelawny costume. Then it was food and chatting and spin the bottle for the wands. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures from the actual party like I should have but here are some of the ones I did get, I also had Griffith bring his camera so some of these are his.