2013 Review

With a few days to go, I thought I'd go ahead and post our 2013 review.

Oh, 2013. 

What a year it has been!

In January I chopped 12 inches of my hair off.

We also went on a weekend trip to Coeur d'Alene, having no idea we were be living there before the year was over!

In March I received a promotion at work - to be the Regional Operations Manager.

Kyle turned 27.

In April the company I worked for was forced to shut it's doors, and I was laid off (as was Kyle, since he was working there part-time). This also means that our plans for after graduation completely changed as Kyle was currently interviewing for a full time counseling position there as well when this all happened.

The same week my best friend's husband left her and I drove down to Utah to be with her for a few days.

In May I started two part-time jobs.

Kyle graduated from Idaho State University with his Master of Counseling degree!

My dear cousin Katrina passed away.

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary.

In June we spent a weekend in Utah.

We also went camping with Evan and Holly.

In July we spent a week in Utah over the 4th of July weekend. My dad and Steven were visiting, as were Blaine and Brooke and the kiddos.

Kyle interviewed for and was offered a job in Coeur d'Alene.

He also became a Licensed Professional Counselor (after the Board met).

We spent a few days in Yellowstone.

In August we moved to Post Falls, and Kyle started his new job.

I turned 24. 

We found out we were expecting.

In September we spent a weekend in Seattle with Garyn and Jill.

I also spent a week in California helping out with the kids after Brooke had surgery on her back.

In November we found out our baby is a BOY.

Evan and Holly drove up to spend Thanksgiving with us.

In December we spent a week in California.

We celebrated Christmas, just the two of us, for the first time.

To sum up the biggest events:

I cut 12 inches off my hair.

I was promoted.

I was laid off.

Kyle graduated.

Kyle got a job in Coeur d'Alene.

We moved to Coeur d'Alene and Kyle started his new job.

We found out we were having a baby.

We found out our baby is a boy.

We vacationed in California.

Whew! What a year! 

We're very excited for 2014 - it will bring with it a trip to Utah, and then 3 months later the birth of our babe! 

Christmas 2013

Christmas this year was a little different with no family around, and with Kyle only having Christmas Day off (sure, he could have taken more, but we are saving that up for some big events coming our way in 2014).

Nonetheless, we had a great time.

We've made some great friends up here, and were blessed that they invited us to join them for their Christmas Eve. They are the Hill's and the Messick's (Kelsey Messick being my best friend up here, and the Hill's are her parents, all in our ward). So we went to the Hill's for dinner, and Christmas movies, and pie, and reading the Christmas story and The Night Before Christmas, and opening a few presents. They even had a present for us. They are such nice and thoughtful people, and we are glad they have "adopted" us into their family.

After we left, we came home and watched "It's a Wonderful Life", and opened one present each. I opened up a Snoogle, a pregnancy body pillow from "Santa", and Kyle opened up a package of jerky from my mom, which he promptly enjoyed while watching the movie.

Yesterday was a really nice, relaxing day. 

We woke up around 8 - well, I did. Kyle was apparently up at 6:30. 

We went downstairs, and opened our stockings and presents.

We had a breakfast of french toast and eggs, and then watched Muppet Christmas Carol. 

We skyped with Evan and Holly, skyped with my mom and Charity, ate some lunch, watched Les Miserables, and cooked dinner.

We ate a yummy dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob.

We spent the rest of the evening laying around and talking and I took a bath.

I was so excited about my new camera! Kyle had to take a picture.

Surrounded by loot!

Our living room after opening presents.

Kyle!

Our tree.

It is crazy to think that next year we will have an 8 month old baby boy making this holiday season all the more fun! So exciting and crazy to think about.

We were both pretty spoiled this year. We both got a nice collection of chocolate and other treats. 

I got some maternity clothes (I have never been more excited for clothes in my life! haha), a new camera (a Canon SX170), Beachbody's Rockin' Body for post baby, Bananagrams, and a few movies, and some other nice things.

Kyle got some new professional clothes, and a new pair of jeans, an electric razor, a money clip, some other small things, and of course "Santa" dropped off two kayaks at Evan and Holly's in the fall for him. 

We are lucky and blessed and so grateful for all we have in our lives.

Most importantly, we are thankful for the Savior.

"Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother, and in His name, all oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us praise His holy name"

We hope you all had a happy and merry Christmas!

2013 Christmas Card

23 Weeks

Life at 23 weeks isn't too shabby :)

I had a doctor appointment yesterday, and things are going the way they should. I have officially passed my pre-pregnancy weight now, weighing in at about 147. I'm also measuring right on track for 23 weeks.

I will have one appointment in 4 weeks, and then one the next week, and after that I will start having appointments every 2 weeks! I know I sound like a broken record, but pregnancy has really flown by so far for me. I feel pretty lucky about that.

Kyle officially felt our little guy move on Sunday. We were sitting on the plane, ready to take off and baby started doing some pretty intense movements, and Kyle got to feel him. Speaking of movements... They are becoming more and more pronounced (and I know they will continue to) and it is so fun to feel (and sometimes see!). It is definitely my favorite part of pregnancy thus far.

I've started having some pretty terrible rib pain - which I have researched - and usually that doesn't start up until your 3rd trimester. But I'm nice and short with a short torso so I get that pain early :) My ankles have also started to swell... But that comes with the territory.

Really though, I can't complain. I've really only experienced the regular aches and pains that come along with pregnancy, nothing else major, so I'm blessed in that regard.

We are just getting more and more excited for out little guy to get here. I, for one, can't wait to see what he looks like :)

SoCal 2013

I think I mentioned this a while ago, but last year around this time Kyle decided to register for the Evolution of Psychotherapy conference, that was taking place in December 2013. This is a large conference, where psychologists, social workers, counselors, etc come from around the world to listen to presentations given by some of the biggest names in psychology, and it's only held every 4 years. As Kyle was still a student last year, he was able to get the student rate, which if I remember right got him like $400 off. So we decided it would be a great opportunity for him to go, and we figured we would make a little vacation out of it as well.

I also have a really awesome best friend, named Ayisha, who said she would fly out to spend time with me while Kyle was at his conference. And also, since we have family just 1-2 hours north of LA, we thought we'd visit them as well. So, now you know the background, here's how our days went.

SATURDAY-MONDAY

We left nice and early on a COLD morning, and arrived at LAX around noon. After getting our luggage, rental car, and some lunch (at In N Out, of course) we drove up to Bakersfield to Blaine and Brooke's. We stayed with them through Monday and had a great time being with their little family!

TUESDAY

We got up early and hit the road after eating breakfast and saying our goodbyes. We drove down to Anaheim and checked into our hotel, and then we drove to Ayisha's hotel and picked her up, and we made it to California Adventure around noon.We spent the rest of the day riding rides, eating food, seeing the Aladdin show, and watching World of Color. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of World of Color. It was hard to see (yes, I'm short) and I think I would have like the normal, non Christmasy one better. They were trying really hard to promote Frozen, so that didn't really catch my attention.

WEDNESDAY and THURSDAY

Kyle spent the days in the conference, and Ish and I went to Disneyland! We also both picked up a Disney souvenir - a gray Disneyland sweatshirt for me, and a gray Disneyland shirt for her!

FRIDAY

Kyle spent the day at his conference until about 3:30. Ayisha and I had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, and then did a little shopping in an outdoor mall. We found a great store, and we both walked out with a few fun things - even maternity wearable clothes for me! Once Kyle was back we drove to the beach for a few minutes, got dinner at Chik Fil A, and dropped Ayisha off at the airport.

SATURDAY

Kyle only did a few sessions at the conference, and came back to the hotel about 1. We then headed over to experience Disneyland together! It was SO much busy that day than any other day we had gone that week, but we still had fun. We decided to fork out some money to try (and split) a Monte Cristo sandwich, and some Pomme Frites from Cafe Orleans and we are sure glad! They lived up to the hype :) We stayed late to catch Fantasmic! and the fireworks - except the fireworks were cancelled (we assumed because it was windy). So that was a little disappointing, but we still had a great time!

SUNDAY

Kyle spent the  morning at the conference, and I made sure we had packed up everything and checked us out. We drove to the airport, dropped off our rental car, and got on our flight home. After a brief layover in Oakland, we landed in Spokane. We were really glad that the weather had warmed up to 35-40 degrees, as opposed to the 1 degree it was the morning we left. 

We had a great trip, and we know we are so blessed to be able to have gone. I am really excited to go back one day and take our kids there, and witness the magic in their little faces and bodies when the experience Disney for the first time. I'm grateful Kyle and I could go on this "babymoon" of sorts, and that I have an awesome best friend who will buy a plane ticket and miss work to experience Disneyland with me while Kyle was at his conference!

(I also have to say a public thank you to Kyle and Ish for putting up with me basically stopping to use every bathroom in the park, and stopping to sit down much more often than that! The woes of traveling with a pregnant woman....)

21 Weeks

Feeling pretty good this week.

Also, I feel like I look bigger in pictures than I do in real life. 

19 weeks (or less? or more?) to go!

PS: my hair is getting LONG again!

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a great, if low-key, Thanksgiving this year. It was our first away from "home" (I realized it was my first not at my mom's, which is weird to think about) but it was still great! Kyle's mom and dad braved the 12 hour drive to be with us for the holiday, so it was great to still have family around! They arrived on Tuesday night, and left yesterday after sacrament meeting. We ate lots of good food, spent time together, did a little black Friday shopping, and watched BYU football and basketball (of course). We really enjoyed spending time with Evan and Holly, and having visitors :) 

Kyle and I have a lot to be thankful for this year:

A good, steady job for him, 

a healthy baby boy currently residing in my belly,

a great house to live in,

a great ward family,

a California vacation coming up,

wonderful family and friends,

and most of all,

the Gospel.

19 Weeks and GENDER REVEAL

Yesterday we went in for our anatomy scan and found out that Baby Hanson is a....

BOY!

We were both kind of shocked, to be honest. 

All throughout this pregnancy, I tried really hard not to lean towards one gender or the other. But when people are constantly asking what you want, or what you think it is... It's hard not to think. A few weeks ago Kyle and I talked about it, and admitted to each other that we both thought it was a girl. I figured we couldn't both be wrong, haha. "She" or "her" popped out of my mouth quite a bit. But so did "they" when I was trying not to discriminate. (No, we are not having twins.) 

Like I mentioned, Kyle's brothers all had girls first. And let's be honest, I could just see myself with a girl more, probably because I wasn't brought up with any boys.

So, when the ultrasound tech said, "it's a baby boy" and showed us his goods
I was shocked. 

But not unhappy.

And now that I've had time to process the information, I couldn't be happier.
Or more excited!!

I'm glad that we're having a boy first - and I've always wanted one - just to have the older brother for the other siblings to look up to, and for them to have a protector. 

And how cute is Kyle going to be with a boy? Teaching him sports and
things. So sweet.

We are about 99.9% decided on a name, but I will probably talk about
that in another post.

(We pretty much had one girls name and one boys name picked out before we got pregnant, so we just have to make sure that that is what our child should be called the rest of his life!)

Woah, that got long fast, sorry.

The rest of the scan was great. Baby is healthy and developing normally. He is currently head up, with his head right under my belly button, and facing towards my spine. His little feet are resting on my bladder (that explains a lot!). I think the coolest thing to see was his spine and his heart with 4 distinct chambers. 

Since his head is facing my spine we weren't able to get a good face shot of him. Here is the back of his head, and profile, and you can see his little hand up by his mouth, possibly sucking his little thumb. Melt my heart!

I've been feeling better and better, and am getting more and more excited for this little man(!) to get here. My stomach is steadily growing, and it just amazes me how our bodies can accommodate another little human.

To end, here's the latest belly shot, taken last night.

19 weeks.

November

November has flown by. Well, at least the first half has.

Last weekend Kyle had a 3 day weekend. That's what you get when you work for the state, you get random days off such as Veteran's Day. So what did we do with our weekend? Well, we redboxed Monsters University (see it, it's cute), went grocery shopping, got the oil changed on Lola (Kyle's car), made a trip to the dollar store, and just sat around and stared at each other. Ok, just kidding, but we did enjoy being together an extra day!

Today, Kyle flew out to Utah on a business trip of sorts. He has a client who is in a treatment facility down there, so he flew down there to meet with them and monitor her progress. And bonus! He gets to stay with his mom and dad. He'll be back tomorrow night with all sorts of stories to tell about the kiddos, I am sure.


Here's a list of other things that we are looking forward to, that are going to be keeping us busy the next couple of months:

*finding out the gender of our babe on Tuesday (and seeing his/her cute face!)

*Thanksgiving! And Evan and Holly are joining us! And did you know that Thanksgiving food is my favorite food of ever? Mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey, cranberry, rolls, and pie. The best.

*Flying out California on December 7 for a week long trip of fun that involves loving on a niece and two nephews, Disneyland, time with my love, and seeing my BFF Isha.

*Christmas, of course.

*Probably flying to Utah in the beginning of January. (And did you know, that's in 2014, which is the year Baby Hanson will be born? So. That's exciting.)


Here's to fun things!

Grateful

I'm not one to usually jump on the "grateful" train unless it's actually Thanksgiving Day. But today I have been overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude, and wanted to share the things that I am most grateful for, right now.
*****

I'm grateful for Kyle. He really just makes my day, every day. He is loving and patient, and darn cute, too. I know I say this often, but I honestly don't know what I would do without him.

I'm grateful for this little babe, growing inside of me. There was a period of time I was nervous it might not be in the cards for me, so as uncomfortable as I am getting, not a day goes by that I think about what a blessing and miracle this is.

I'm grateful for all that Kyle and I have been able to do since we've gotten married. We've traveled, we've lived in a few different places, and we've experienced a lot. I know everyone has kids at the time that is right for them, but I wouldn't trade the (what will be FOUR by the time baby comes) years we've had just the two of us for anything.

I'm grateful for friends. And I'm especially grateful that we have already made some good friends here in Post Falls.

I'm grateful for good insurance. Having worked in the billing field, and now being pregnant, I have seen what a difference insurance makes.

I'm grateful for fun weekend plans. Tonight we're going to see Ender's Game, and tomorrow we're going to the Temple. I'm grateful we live close to a Temple, and that we have the means to be able to do fun things together.

Above all, I'm grateful for my Father in Heaven, who in fact is the one who blesses me with all that I am grateful for.

A Short, Bulleted List of an Update

I keep starting blog posts and I can't finish them. So here's hopefully a short, succinct post that will be finished and posted.

+ Kyle and I are loving being in primary. We teach the CTR 5 class (5 turning 6) and they are a hoot! They are fairly well behaved, and always say the cutest and funniest things. We will be sad to lose this class when the year ends!

+ I've been meaning to do a full book review post on these books, but this will have to do. Read The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica. Read them now. Even if you don't think they are something you'd like (because that's what I thought). There are 6 books, with the 7th and final book coming out in November.

+ Also I am realllly excited for Ender's Game. But I am REALLY REALLY REALLY excited for Catching Fire! It was nice to see the new trailer and all, but really the only way I will be appeased is by seeing the whole movie.

+ Even though I haven't been getting out too often, it's been so nice having fall here. It will be interesting to see what winter in northern Idaho is like!

+ We are going to California in December and I am soooooo excited! We will be spending a few days at Blaine and Brooke's and then spending a few more days down in Anaheim. Disneyland? Yes, please!

+ I finally added pictures to our Seattle post. You're welcome.

+ Lastly, we got so many comments when we announced our pregnancy! I was not expecting that at all. Thank you so much, for your kind words. We are so excited and blessed :)

A Rainy Seattle Weekend

A couple of weekend's ago Kyle and I drove over to Seattle to spend a weekend with Garyn and Jill. Kyle was roommates with Garyn for 2 years at BYU, and he and Jill were married the day before us. We love them a lot! They are currently living in Portland, while Garyn attends grad school, so we were excited to move "closer" to them. Seattle is fairly in the middle, so we decided to get together!

We drove down Friday afternoon. Kyle and I got stuck in traffic 80 miles outside of Seattle. It took us 2 hours to go 10 miles. Yuck. But we finally made it. Garyn found a little 2 bedroom rental house, and it ended up being perfect. We went out to dinner that first night, and got settled in.

Saturday morning we got up and explored Pikes Place, the public farmers market. There we found the most delicious French bakery, called Le Panier. That morning K and I split a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), a Jacqueline (basically an open creme puff with strawberries), and a chocolate eclair. It was sooo delicious.

Pikes Place fish market in the background - home of the flying fish!

They have gorgeous flower arrangements for sale all around!

Eating my delicious pastries.

So divine.

A nice blurry picture of me and the gum wall.

We then went and found parking for the game, and headed into the stadium. It was a fun game, and we even got to see a grand slam!

After the game we walked around the mall for a while and then went to get on the list for dinner at The Crab Pot. The Crab Pot is this amazing place where you order crab, shrimp and other sea food and they  just stick in on the table in front of you, and you go at it with a hammer.

Our delicious, steaming pile of crap and other things.

After the damage was done.

This picture kills me... Especially Garyn's face.

Sunday Jill and I went back to Le Panier for breakfast (another pain au chocolat and a raspberry jam filled croissant, and Orangina, yum!) while the boys went elsewhere. We wondered around Pikes Place a little more, than went to the Seattle Art Museum. It had a couple cool pieces but wasn't too amazing.

A Jackson Pollack!

Then we said goodbye, and drove back on home. Like I said before it was really good to see Garyn and Jill, and fun to go on a little weekend trip :)