I hate when a fun week ends. But fun it was!

What a Happy Thanksgiving INDEED! Michael and I were lucky enough to go down toVegas for the 3rd Thanksgiving this year. We are so thankful to them for always welcoming us. And BONUS-- Mom & Dad met us there this year! It was so fun! It was so wonderful to spend a week with family and eat and laugh and just enjoy. I have tons of pictures to share, but first I want to share what I am thankful for and what I loved about our fun week!

I'm Thankful For:

• My husband. He is so kind. I've honestly never met such a kind, giving person.
• Our baby girl. I'm so thankful that she moves all day, everyday to keep me company.
• My family. They bring be SO much happiness!
• My friends. Since a was a child I've been blessed with the best friends. You all know who you are and I love you to pieces.
• The Rogers opening their home to us for the week and entertaining us.
• The Graham's for opening their home to us and feeding us delicious food.
• My apartment, my car, my job, Michael's schooling & job.
• We are tremendously blessed and I could go on forever.

Our Week:

• I must say, my favorite thing was probably Carly's LOVE for Michael. Every couple of minutes I would hear "Where Michael?". They were the best of buddies and it was so adorable!
• I am SOOOO thankful that my sister is pregnant at the same time as me. It feels so good to have someone with my similar personality who understands me so well! We did baby crafts and bought baby clothes and felt our babies move and did a lot of talking about babies and it was awesome!
• My parents rock. My mom even black fridayed with us at midnight! They spoiled us pregnant girls! And there is really never a dull moment with them. We just have so much fun together!
• Emily & Steve took us to the cactus gardens all lit up with Christmas lights and I just LOVE that festiveness!
• It was WARM! SO WARM! We were out on black friday and I was not cold. What a blessing before the terrible Utah winter hits.
• Easton was upset because he wanted to play The Incredibles, but he doesn't have their action figures. SO, we used our imaginations and made our own action figures out of cardboard. It was so fun and so cute! We played with them all day and I'm afraid that now Em & Steve are stuck making lots of guys out of cardboard. I love that boy so much and seeing him at Kindergarden brought tears to my eyes.
• Carly is the most beautiful 2 year old ON. THE. PLANET. I can't count how many times I said it. I love her so much. Her voice and her thoughts and her ideas are so precious.
• I could go on forever. I'm sad it's over and we had so much fun!! Thanks, Rogers!!

BRING ON CHRISTMAS!!!!

The Culpepper Girls

Shellie spoils us! Michael and I have been seriously DYING to meet our new niece Macie Rae Culpepper, baby girl of Michael's sister Shellie and her husband Judd. But they live all the way in Texas and we have been so sad to think that it could be a year before we got to meet her! BUT, her wonderful mommy took pity on us and came to visit us here in Utah! We LOVE when Shellie comes to visit and she is so nice to do so every year. This time was extra fun because she brought this precious beauty.

I was so nervous that she would be nervous about us new people and only want to be with her mom. WRONG! This little girl takes after her mamma, she is friendly! She snuggled me for 4 days straight. Sorry Shellie, that I stole your child all weekend :) She is just so beautiful. She is itty bitty! She is 3.5 months and almost 11 lbs. The size I was when I came OUT! hahaha! So it's really adorable to see such a tiny baby smiling and laughing and responding so well.
This is her awesomest trick. She refuses to lay flat. It's like she cannot relax. If you lay her down. She will be in exercise position, with her head, neck, and legs up. It's HILARIOUS! Even if you try to push her down to relax, she resists! So cute!
We also had lots of fun with this little princess's mommy. Shellie and I went to see Breaking Dawn, we went to a Christmas tree lighting and festival up in SLC, we ate delicious food, played games, and stayed up late chatting. It was so wonderful to have her. We truly feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

Thank you Shellie and Macie for coming to visit us! We miss you guys so much already. What a fun weekend!

Before the festivities began, I took a pregnant picture. This was last Thursday, and I feel like I've doubled in size since then... ok maybe not doubled. But I truly think I get bigger every day. So in this picture I'm 24.5 weeks. Baby girl is trying to BUST ON OUT I'm pretty sure because her movements are huge and non stop. We LOVE watching my tummy move! I realize that she has to grow, but now that she finally is, this whole weight gain thing is interesting and causing mixed emotions.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Our Halloween Celebration

Happy Halloween! I love Halloween! It brings a smile to my face every time I see someone in costume. It's awesome to see people's choices! My neighbor, Virginia, and I decided that we wanted to do Halloween with style this year and throw a 4plex party. It was so fun planning it all and making it all happen. It started with people entering downstairs in Virginia's apartment. There they walked through an AWESOME haunted house that she dreamed up and set up down there. Then, they came up into my apartment for the partay! We had spooky feely boxes, costume contest, guess the pumpkin weight, and lots of delicious food!

I took a bunch of pictures to try to capture the event. So there are a lot here. None of them are great. My camera just doesn't flatter anything really...hint hint Michael Santa :) But I promise, it looked cool and we had a lot of fun!

Steph & Court gave me this great idea for a costume! I had so much fun making it and loved the way it turned out. Michael kept walking around saying to people "what did you have for lunch"? Hoping that they would ask him in return so that he count point to his stomach haha!
Spider Web taco dip! I also made hot dog mummies. They were cute but I didn't get a picture. I got pretty much every single idea from my ladies over at Our Best Bites.
I don't know why this picture is crooked, but they are nutter butter ghosts :)
Witches Wands!

Our little lanterns led the way into the party. Michael used his crafty skills helping me make these. This is a good time to give Michael the credit he deserves. He was SO helpful and wonderful this week. Helping me with everything!

Glow in the dark drinks! I loved them.
These are the Woods. Friends of our neighbors, and now friends of ours. If you came without a costume, we quickly dressed you up :) that is how Todd became a sexy baker and Karen became a hippy. That cute little peter pan won the costume contest.
There's our fellow party throwers! Those little nerdies looked so cute!
I don't know this couple, but I LOVED they're costume! Paper dolls! They got my vote.
It was hard to guess, but once we figured out they were Canadians, it was hilarious :)
My favorite people came :) We had about 26 people come. That's lots of peeps in my apartment. It was very fun to socialize with everyone!
And my baby girl was kicking and wiggling the whole time! Love her. It was a really fun night and thank you so much everyone for coming! Have a fun and safe Halloween!!

The Latest and Greatest Addition to the 4-Plex

First of all, I need to blog about this perfect angel. Evelyn Hope Lance.

Courtenay took these beautiful pictures of her the other day! It was soo fun to watch her be the best model for Aunt Courtenay. Evelyn is so beautiful and perfect in every way. Seriously. I mean SERIOUSLY. I cannot get enough of her. I'm just kind of sitting here at my computer, waiting for words to come, but there are none. I mean- just look at that face. That says it all. I am SO SO SO grateful that she lives just down the stairs. Every time I go outside for any reason, to get in my car, throw something in the dumpster, etc, I just feel the NEEEEEEEED to go see her. I feel that need right now actually, but I'm waiting patiently for Steph & Jarom to finish eating dinner. :) The point is. I miss her when I'm up here! Real bad! I've barely even heard her make a peep. She is just perfect.

Speaking of Steph and Jarom...it is so fun to watch them be parents. They are clearly naturals. Everything seems to come so easily to them. And it is SO obvious to see how much they love that baby girl. The whole thing is surreal. Seeing my best friend have her first baby! I feel like Evelyn is just visiting, but at the same time, I feel like she's always been here! I guess it's because we're the same age, and I know that I'm next. So everything is so real and hits home. It's crazy. And wonderful.

I swear my baby kicks up a STORM when I am holding Evelyn. I like to think she is saying hi :)

We had a really fun Halloween Party last night, where Evelyn was the star of the show! I'll post about that soon!

What a Happy Day!

There aren't words. I have tears rolling down my face as I write this. She is perfect! Yes, SHE!

It's a GIRL!

We went and got pink yogurt to celebrate :) I have been referring to my baby as girl since the beginning. I've always felt it. But I wasn't sure if that was just me wishing. Michael has wanted a girl since we were married. This just feels like a true gift that we don't deserve. She was perfect. The Ultra Sound Tech kept pointing out how she wouldn't stop moving! And I knew it, she is kicking me all day, and I love it! She had her hand open and was waving at us. She was a wiggle worm, I'm afraid she'll be like her mother--kinda crazy :)

She checked her heart and brain and spine and everything was perfection. I could have sat there all day. I started crying the second she said girl. And we've both been teary every since! lol. I can't stop looking at the pictures.

Here I am at 20.5 weeks. I look in the mirror, and I say... ummm- am I too big for 20 weeks? Then I look at these pictures and I say... ummm- am I too small for 20 weeks? This weight gain thing is doing crazy things to my brain! But I feel great and that's all that matters.

We are just so grateful today. Grateful for our baby girl. Her health, and mine.

This must be recorded... and shared.

The night that we got back to Utah it was painfully hot. We rolled into town around 11:30 and stayed up chatting with Steph & Jarom until about 2 AM I think, hoping that it would cool down so we could sleep. Our apartment had been sitting there for 3 months, un-lived in, in the 100 degree weather just festering with heat. ANNND keep in mind for this story, we had JUST arrived home from Hawaii about 2 days earlier. So, once we decided to try and sleep, we threw the covers off of the bed and sprawled out trying to feel a breeze from outside. I drifted to sleep surprisingly quickly and felt ok, until....

I was awoken by Michael climbing over me and getting out of the bed on my side.

Michael (while shaking me): Jenni, Jenni, I'm sorry. It's my fault. We have to go. NOW!

Jenni (feeling very frightened): Babe?! What?! What's the matter?!

Michael: They told me this would happen, and I did it anyway. We have to go.

Jenni: Michael, they told you what? Who told you?!

Michael: They told me that we were sleeping on a hot lava bed and I forgot! We have to go! That's why it's so hot!

Jenni (now realizing Michael is NOT awake): Michael. Who told you that?

Michael (in a VERY harsh tone): THE LOCALS, JENNI!!

Jenni: ohhhh! teehehehehehe! What locals?

Michael(climbing back into bed and getting more and more frustrated): The people who LIVE HERE!

Jenni: Michael, we live here.

Michael: No, we're kind of temporary.

Jenni (realizing Michael thinks we're in Hawaii): mmmmm, what did you guys talk about?

Michael: JENNI! I know you think I'm sleeping but I AM SERIOUS!

Jenni (giggling): Ok, Michael....

Michael: UGHHHHH... rolls over and goes back to sleep.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the greatest EVER! That hot weather was well worth that experience. The next morning, Michael got up early to go get some milk for breakfast.

Michael: Hey babe, I'm gonna go get some breakfast.

Jenni: Okay wait. Before you go, can you tell me more about the hot lava beds?

Michael: Pauses. OHHHHH MYYY GOSHHHH.

hahaha it all came back to him and he remember how very serious the situation seemed at the time! It was such quality.

If you're interested in more HILARIOUS sleep talking stories, I highly recommend THIS BLOG.

I saw him on the Today Show about a year ago and just remembered it last night. So, the Lances and Woodmansees looked it up and LAUGHED OUR TUSHIES off for a good hour. It's totally legit. Check it out. Warning: his wife says that in real life he's a very conservative, well mannered man, but in his sleep talking, he has a foul mouth sometimes.

Our Next Adventure

I figure that since we went to Oregon for an internship (well, that's why Michael went), that I should let you all know the outcome! Not only did we have a LOT of fun in Oregon this summer. But we came away with 2 really awesome things

A JOB... AND A BABY.

Yep :) We'll talk first about the one we all want to talk about. BABY! Michael and I are expecting our first baby on March 8th, 2012. I will be 14 weeks on Tuesday. We are truly THRILLED. We feel so blessed. Really. There aren't words for how truly blessed we feel. We feel like we can't be thankful enough. I had my first prenatal appointment in Oregon and it was wonderful. We had our second prenatal appointment just yesterday here in Utah and all went well. We heard our precious babe's heartbeat and that always makes it feel so very real. Doctor says everything looks good. I am feeling great. I really have nothing to complain about. I've been VERY tired. And I eat all day long. Other than that, I'm very lucky. We are reading and learning and so excited for this experience!

Job. Michael had a great experience at Moss Adams. He enjoyed it there and they enjoyed him. I'm so proud of him and so very, very grateful. They invited him back next summer 2012 for another internship, and then offered him a job for after he graduates with his masters degree in 2013. After a lot of prayer, thought, and research we both feel very good about this decision. We've signed the papers and will be moving to Eugene in 2013 :). We are so excited!

I kind of feel weird sharing all of this, but I just wanted to update you all. Thank you for all of your support, advice, and kind words. We appreciate SO much the support of our loved ones. Like I said, we are so grateful and feel so blessed and we know just where these blessings are coming from.