November, Thanksgiving, & Las Vegas 2018

Having family in town is always wonderful, but it goes without saying there's always much to do after they leave, especially when you leave for a 12 day trip only a week and a half after family's departure. 

Brian and I celebrated 3 years of marriage on the 13th, the night before I left, at our traditional spot, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Hands down always the best filet mignon I've ever had, or probably will ever have. Shoutout to my cousin Julie for always watching Tatum for our special occasions. She's one of the only people in Florida I can leave her with for hours guilt-free because she always insists we take our time and enjoy ourselves. She's pretty much the best.

Aside from the normal hustle and bustle of life and preparing for a trip, I was determined to have all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped for Brian's side of the family before we left for Vegas so I could bring it all and not have to ship it. Somehow I succeeded, but it was a miracle that Kevin and Amanda still had necessities like car seats that fit Tatum so I didn't have to tote that along with the two suitcases and carry-ons I already had for our trip. Did I mention that Brian didn't fly out with us? So somehow I survived a 4 1/2 hour flight with Tatum alone and hung out in Vegas with our nieces and nephews for a week before the other adults returned/arrived. 

Kevin and Amanda took a 6-day Cancun trip so I flew out to watch the kiddos while they were gone and Brian and his parents, brother Steve, and niece and nephew all arrived the day before Thanksgiving. While I was babysitting, Dylan turned 6 so we had a fun, full day of Springs Preserve, McDonalds, and Farmer Boys (those kids can throw down some fast food!!). Because the weather is favorable so much of the year, Vegas has a lot of fun parks for the kids and I think their favorite was Fox Hill Park, a climbing park, in Summerlin. We also went to the trampoline park, Gravady, and Tatum was completely in her element. Kevin also heated the pool to 90 degrees so even though it was sometimes in the 60s, the kids were still in and out of the pool and hot tub!

 We had such a fun Thanksgiving with the whole family there! The next day, Amanda and I took advantage of some Black Friday shopping and that night all the adults went out to see the new Beatles Love Cirque de soleil show at The Mirage, my first Vegas show! Braxton is old enough to babysit and put the kids to bed now so that was a huge plus. Our tickets were Christmas presents from Kevin & Amanda and our seats were incredible! It was so fun. The next day, Brian and I were able to take some time together to go to the Vegas temple and indulge in some Cafe Rio. That night, Kevin & Amanda, and Brian & I went to dinner at Juan's Flaming Fajitas (highlyyy recommend) and then did an escape room. We wound up dying but it was fun haha. 

Brian and I and Tatum flew home the Monday after Thanksgiving and it was back to real life! The day after we got home, we set up our Christmas tree and got the house all decorated! It was fun to be back in a real house that we could decorate outside again this year.

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November & Thanksgiving 2017

Remember how I said I had a nursery calling? Scratch that. That lasted two weeks.

I'm now the Stake Relief Society Secretary.

I'm still hanging out with all the other people who can't believe it.

November was filled with lots of travel, family, and the usual craziness. We have four birthdays on the Baldwin side back to back towards the end of November, our anniversary is in November, and we went home for Thanksgiving. Although we weren't in Utah for all the birthdays, I wanted to be sure I got all the presents mailed before I left for vacation, plus getting Christmas stuff in order. We had family pictures taken for Christmas cards this month, which was nice, but a little late. I'm the queen of slacking off this year it seems...

Our anniversary was spent at Ruth's Chris Steak House, I guess you can call it a tradition since we've done it two years in a row now. Then I flew home. It seemed like I spent all week preparing for the trip, packing, doing laundry, and making Brian freezer meals to eat until he joined us.

I left the Thursday before Thanksgiving with just Tatum on her first flight ever. We flew Southwest, so there's open seating and I'm pretty sure the very last person on the plane was the one who realized he was stuck sitting beside a baby. Luckily there was a super nice lady who had been on the end who volunteered to sit beside us. She was a grandma and understood my anxiety and also didn't mind if Tatum cried the whole way. BUT SHE DIDN'T and all those people who were avoiding her like the plague when we took off were waving and smiling at her when we were getting off because she didn't make a single peep, other than giggling. She loved flying and was jumping up and down on my lap clapping when we landed. The hardest part was trying to pee in an airport bathroom while holding your child. Never doing that again. I'll hold it.

The first weekend was spent with my mom and stepdad and I got to visit with some friends, including a friend from high school and her sweet little boy who's two weeks older than Tatum, my longest best friend Chelsea (since 2nd grade) and my college bestie, Erin. Erin and I lived together two years and Chelsea joined us as our third roomie the last year so it's always a blast hanging out with them. Monday-half of Thanksgiving was spent with my dad and stepmom and we picked Brian up from the airport on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. He hadn't accrued much PTO yet and wanted to save it for Christmas break, so I bought his flight months before I decided to fly up as well instead of trying to make the 14 hour drive with Tatum alone. Good decision for SURE. We got to see my cousin Kimmy, and a ton of other family and friends when we spent the other half of Thanksgiving back at my mom and stepdad's. It was quite the trip, 10 days total, so much fun, and exhausting! We were so happy to have Brian on the flight home with us. 

Below are some photos from our festivities and Tatum on her first Thanksgiving!

XoXo.

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Hold Up, We're in the Third Trimester!?!

Whoever said the last few months of pregnancy takes forever clearly did not enter their third trimester the week of Thanksgiving! Life is crazy busy right now and I can only imagine time will keep flying this quickly for the next month until the new year. Let's hope January goes swiftly too because we cannot wait to meet our little girl!

To back track to where the last post left off, the weekend I got home from my work trip was our one year wedding anniversary! We celebrated the night before it since our anniversary fell on a Sunday and went to Ruth's Chris Steak House in Salt Lake City for dinner. Best filet mignon I've ever had or probably will ever have in the future! Coupled with their creme brulee for dessert and I was a very happy camper. Brian had asked if I wanted to go away for the weekend to Park City or somewhere semi-close, but I told him I thought after being away from home for 9 days for my work trip that I would want to be at home and I am SO glad I decided that before I went because I couldn't wait to relax and sleep in our own bed. There truly is no place like home!

On Monday, November 14th (the first week day post-overindulgent food trip), I had my glucose test and next check up. Don't ask me why but I somehow got myself so psyched up over this test, I was totally geeking out over it. I was afraid I would throw it up or not get to the appointment in time or something would somehow go wrong and I would have to take the 3 hour test. But to all my pregnant friends coming up on this: IT'S NOT EVEN BAD AT ALL. The drink you have to consume in 5 minutes flat tastes like a slightly sweeter version of those gross plastic barrel juice boxes we all drank as kids, and I did it in 2 minutes flat. Luckily they called me the very next day and despite my over eating and high sugar consumption for the previous week and a half, I still passed the test and the only bad news was that I'm slightly anemic and they want me to take iron pills. Lucky me!

The following weekend I had to work Saturday and then Brian and I went out Christmas shopping and got so much done! I was so happy and it's a good thing I was feeling accomplished because the entire following week I got hit with the worst head cold I can ever remember having. Maybe it's just because I'm pregnant so my immune system already hates me or maybe it's because you literally can't take ANYTHING for the stuffiness, sinus headaches, or sore throat except like Mucinex and Tylenol which doesn't help at all. (Don't get sick, preggo friends. You'll hate your life).

But it was Thanksgiving week which means lots of business, family functions, and craziness. We spent this Thanksgiving in Utah since we'll be headed home to the east coast for Christmas but it worked out well because Kevin & Amanda and the kids came up and we got to spend lots of time with them which was awesome. We celebrated Dylan, Jaxton, and Sophie's birthdays all at Chuck-E-Cheese on Wednesday, had the huge Baldwin family Thanksgiving shin-dig on Thursday, and Amanda and Lindy threw me a family baby shower on Saturday morning. Baby girl got lots of fun stuff and we are so blessed for all the family and friends who came out to support us! I have to post pictures of the shower too because Lindy and Amanda decorated so dang cute, it was basically like you stepped into a Pinterest board.

Friday marked 28 weeks with baby girl! I cannot believe we're entering the third trimester! She's grown so much over the last 4 weeks (25- rutabaga,26-eggplant 27- cucumber, 28-head of cauliflower.... These vegetable sequences don't make any sense) and is a moving, grooving fool! She loves the sound of her daddy's voice, especially when he sings to her. We're now only 28 days from Christmas and I cannot wait to go home for the holidays and for the snow!! I'm really loving winter clothes and weather since I'm this pregnant. It's so much more comfortable than summer was! I think that's all for now, but I'll try to be more prompt with the blog since I'm sure I'll fall behind again when baby girl gets here! We are so excited and so blessed to be surrounded by such loving family and friends!!

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1 Month Married

Life has been crazy post honeymoon. We got back and worked three days and then we had off 4 for Thanksgiving break. Our first Thanksgiving was spent in Utah (and Christmas will be as well). 

We woke up on Thanksgiving morning and SURPRISE! White Thanksgiving with the first snow of the season! We made a pumpkin pie to take to Brian’s grandparents house. The two of us, Brian’s parents, his Uncle Mark and Aunt Shar and all their kids all spent Thanksgiving together at Grandma and Grandpa Baldwin’s house. We shot some clay birds with shotguns after dinner and played a few games. It was a great time! 

The next day, Black Friday, Brian and I got the courage to do some shopping (at a sane hour of 10 AM) and surprisingly the stores were pretty empty of shoppers at that point. We got a lot of Christmas shopping done that day and then made our first holiday tradition: getting our Christmas tree and setting it up the day after Thanksgiving!

We went to North Pole Pines in Farr West where you can go and pick out your own tree and cut it down. We picked one out, Brian chopped it down, and we had it set up in our house an hour later! Last year, my grandma in Florida gave me a bunch of ornaments she had saved for me, so we had some beautiful, old ornaments to decorate our tree with mixed with some newer, more generic looking ones. She has saved ornaments and her old antique miniature North Pole village that she used to put up every year and distributed it to myself and all my cousins! We are so lucky to have these treasures and I’m very excited to finally be able to put up my village this year, since we have our home and I’m not in my little old apartment.

That weekend, Brian and his dad built a workbench in the back of our garage for Brian’s tools and it’s already been a great space saver! When my family came out to Utah for our wedding, my stepdad and Brian’s dad cut out and installed a new back door in our garage, so we’re loving that! So many renovations are happening outside now and I’m loving it. I can’t wait to do some landscaping in the spring!

That same Saturday, the 28th, Randy and Sabra and Brian and I went to the Christmas parade and Christmas Village opening and lighting ceremony in Ogden. There are thousands and thousands of Christmas lights and miniature houses that they decorate in a park in Ogden, and they had a Christmas concert and fireworks for the lighting! Afterwards, we cooked dinner at our house and the boys played video games (like usual haha).

Since then, we’ve just been finishing getting ready for Christmas, working hard, and Brian has been finishing his semester of classes and is halfway through his finals. I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked to get incredible grades this semester while renovating our home AND planning the wedding with me. 

Last Friday, Randy, Sabra, Brian and I went to see The Forgotten Carols in Ogden at the Dee Events Center! For those of you that don’t know what that is, it’s a Christmas show/musical that tells the story of a nurse who goes to take care of a man in his home who tells her all these stories and sings her carols from the forgotten characters from the story of the birth of Christ, like the innkeeper, the woman who held Jesus after Mary had him, and others. It was a pretty neat experience!

We put up our outside Christmas lights last week once the last of Thanksgiving’s snow had melted, and just in time because it’s snowing hard again! We woke up this morning and had 4-5 inches and it’s still coming down steadily! It’s supposed to snow constantly through Wednesday night! :) 

Work is busy for both of us, but especially for Brian since he’s the only one in his office that really does healthcare, and since the medicare open enrollment ends soon, he’s been slammed at work and has had to work late most evenings. I’m really happy we’re already married for this part of the year so that even when he does work late and then comes home and starts studying right after dinner, I still get to see him and spend time with him. I feel so blessed to be married to someone who still makes so much time for me with all the other craziness going on in his life!

I think this is the end of my catch-up post, but I’ll include a few photos! I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! :)

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