Big News!

So Kevin and I are going to be parents! We are expecting a baby and I am due May 23, 2010. We could not be more excited and happy! We told both our families together at our Halloween/Birthday party (for Kevin's birthday) that we threw on Oct 23. We wrapped up a book called "For the Expectant Father" and I gave it to Kevin as a birthday present. He opened it and said, "Thanks Amy! This is awesome!" and then turned it around to show everyone. Some people got it right away, some thought it was a joke (because Kevin was dressed up as a baby), and some just weren't paying attention. My mom's face was the best though. She was sitting across the room and slowly got to her feet with a confused expression. She started to look like she was going to cry as she realized what we were saying. Finally I couldn't handle it and I said, "I'm pregnant!" Then there was lots of hugging and congratulating. It was a fun night! I have been feeling pretty yucky for the past month or so, but there seems to be more good days now than bad, thank goodness! We went in for my week 12 appointment on Monday and we met our doctor. We really like her and she seems awesome! We are way excited about her. We also heard the heartbeat for the first time on monday. We were both excited and knew it would be cool, but I think both Kevin and I were surprised at how much awe we felt sitting there listening to our baby's heart beat away. The doctor said it sounded really good! She kept having to find it because it would go away after a second or two. She said the baby doesn't like the pressure, so they tend to move away when you are listening to it. That made me smile to think that our baby is already so active even though I can't feel it yet.

I'm very excited and nervous for this huge change to come. I know Kevin will be such an absolutely amazing dad and I just can't wait to see him with our baby! (I know, I still have a while, haha)

The excited grandmas!

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Amy with Riley

Riley snuggling up to "cow-a-patch-u-a" (that's how she pronounced Cleopatra)

Chad and my dad

Grandpa, Grandma, and Riles

On Halloween, Kevin and I went down to Orem to see my family and go trick or treating with Riley. She was so cute! Then we watched a movie over at Tyler and Chantelle's that night. It was a lot of fun!

Trick or treating with Grandma.

The cute little Nelson family

Riley is sooo cute!

Payton was a pumpkin :)

Tyler was the "I like turtles" boy.

Look up "i like turtles" on youtube if you dont know what it is.

Colby was a Texas redneck

New Niece!

So she finally came! Tyler and Chantelle had baby girl number 2 tonight at around 7:30 ish. She's 7lbs 2oz. Chantelle went to the hospital this morning at 7 to be induced. Throughout the day, things were moving along slowly. When I talked to Chantelle at around 5:30, she sounded frustrated because she wasn't making much progress at that point... However, things must have started picking up speed after that. The next we heard was a text from tyler at around 8 saying that thebaby girl had arrived kicking and screaming! We were already down at my parent's house so we all rushed over the hospital. They have an annoying rule during flu season that no children under 14 can go in the hospital, so Riley had to wait in the parking lot with my mom :( We went up and got to see Chantelle and the baby, 2 visitors at a time. Chantelle looked great and the baby was just beautiful! She was calm and just happy. She kept sticking her little tongue out, it was so cute! It was so fun to hold her and think what a miracle babies are! I'm definitely sooo excited to be an aunt to another adorable girl! No name as of yet, we'll have to see what they pick...

Grandma with little cross eyed baby girl, haha

Grandma

she's so cute :)

Chantelle with the baby

Uncle Kevin holding the baby

Aunt Amy holding her

Sunbeams

Kevin and I got called to be sunbeam (3-year olds) teachers at church. I swear I'm never going to do anything in life except teach 3 year olds. Just kidding, I really love that age group a TON! I teach the three year old class at work and I was teaching the three year olds in my old ward. I guess it's just meant to be :) Anyways, it was our first week teaching today, and the kids are so cute! There was only two kids (one boy, one girl) there, but they were adorable! Kevin hasn't been around the kids at church since he was one so it will be really different for him, but after today, I can tell he is really going to love it.
This past Friday, Kevin and I had the chance to go to the new Draper Temple and I loved it! I havn't been feeling well and so I wasn't sure about going, but I'm so glad I did! It is such a beautiful place. I'm so thankful for temples and the sacred opportunity we have to go to the Lord's house and learn of him and feel his love and such incredible peace. I had a really great experience and I'm so excited to go back. I might get to go this week with my parents and Logan's friend (my adopted brother pretty much) Wei.
Kevin is finishing up the spring semester this week and he has a ton of work to finish up so he's a little stressed. Thankfully he only has one final to take! It will be nice for two weeks while he doesn't have classes and we can just spend some time together :) I really can't complain though, he is such an incredibly hard worker and does SO well in his classes. He is brilliant! He is the type that I know wont ever slack off and will always work hard to provide for his family, so I feel really lucky for that.
I'm also really looking forward to our Washington DC trip we have coming up in a couple of weeks. It's going to be nice to get away for a little bit. It will especially be nice to hopefully have some warm weather since it can't seem to make it's mind up here in Utah, going from the high 70's to snowing within a matter of days...

I love my Riles!!

So this past Monday, my mom, Chantelle, and Riley came up to go shopping with me since i have been stuck inside recuperating from my surgery. It was really fun and i loved hanging out with everyone. I just have to say that i have the cutest niece EVER. Riley is so funny. We would be walking along through the store and she would pick up a pair of shoes or something and say, "oh cuuuute!" Haha! She was having fun shopping with the "big girls." I love her little attitude and everything about her! She is just adorable! Outside of the store was a couple of water fountains and Riley was amazed at them. We tried to get her to go play with them and at first she was a little apprehensive. Finally i just picked her up and walked her over to the fountain. She LOVED it! She had so much fun splashing and getting me soaked... I'm so lucky to have such an awesome family and a CUTE niece!

A little unsure, she didn't want to get wet...

You could tell she wanted to touch the water.

About to touch it...

She finally plays with the water!

Once she was playing with it, every time i tried to put her down she'd ask me, "more time?" So I'd give her one more turn and then she would ask the same thing, "more time?" ha ha

She loved making big streams with the water

She paused to say, "cheeeeeeeeese" to grandma

My mom emailed these to me. I guess Riley had just barely woken up and had a bad case of bed head! ha ha

Nice hair Riles!

Stretch!

Kisses from Mommy

Cute FREE Fonts!

There is a way cute website my mom told me about where you can download hundreds of cute regular fonts and scrapbooking fonts. Best of all, it's totally free! I loved the fonts so much, I have to admit, I downloaded all of them! haha. Anyways, if you are into that sort of thing, go check it out!

http://www.kevinandamanda.com/fonts/

Thanks to my mom for finding and sharing this site with me :)

Tonsillectomy

I got my tonsils removed yesterday and it went really well. Kevin and I got to the surgical center and I changed into the beautiful hospital gown that everyone loves and then waited while they got everything ready. I was dreading the part where they have to stick the IV needle in me because that sort of thing makes me faint. So the nurse tried on one hand and she got it in, but then apparently they weren't quite ready for the IV, so she pulled it out and I started bleed a TON all over. It went all over my hand and the floor. I was already feeling light headed and that definitely didn't help... So then she came back and said she was going to try it on the other hand now. So she tried and tried and tried and tried.... for about 5 minutes she was digging around with the needle in my hand and I could hardly handle it. It hurt, but more than that it just grossed me out!! It was my worst nightmare coming true ha ha. Everything started to float away and I couldn't hear anything so I knew I was seconds from passing out. I said, "I'm really light headed..." and so she hurried and reclined the chair to I had my legs above my head. That brought me back pretty fast but then we still had to keep trying to get the needle in. Kevin said I was greener than my hospital gown! The nurse was great and sooo nice and calm. It wasn't her fault, my veins were just not cooperating at all! She still couldn't get it in and so at that point she asked the anesthesiologist if he could try. He tried up by my elbow and got it in fairly quickly. That was such a relief to have that over with! The anesthesiologist was sooo awesome. He was joking with Kevin and I and when they wheeled me away to the surgery room, Kevin called out, "I love you" to me and I said it back at the same time the anesthesiologist said, "I love you too!" to Kevin, ha ha! Then the nurse and anesthesiologist were asking me about where I worked and that was the last thing I remember. Next thing I knew, I was waking up with a nurse asking me what pain level I was at. I couldn't talk because I had a mouth full of really thick spit, but I held up four fingers. She brought Kevin back and gave me an otter pop to water down the spit. Kevin's mom, Jeannine, came a couple minutes later. After I finished the otter pop, I felt nauseous and the nurse handed me a bag to throw up into. For me, throwing up is one of the worst feelings, but this actually felt so good. It was such a relief and after that, Kevin said I looked a ton better. I was kinda drifting in and out and at one point Kevin was stroking my face and hair. I turned to him and said, "your hands are so soft" and he was like, "I moisturize" the joke was lost on me, but Jeannine and the nurse thought it was funny :) So when I was awake enough, I changed back into my clothes and then we went home. I loved all the people down at the surgical center, they were all so nice and really made me feel so calm. On the way home, we had to stop at Wal Mart to fill my prescription for liquid Loritab, which I heard is DISGUSTING. We had them flavor it like watermelon though, and so far its been fine :) I slept most of the day yesterday and it was so nice. The pain isn't too bad because I'm on a strict pain med schedule every four hours and using ice packs. My mom and dad came up and visited me last night and it was so nice to sit and visit with them. I love hanging out with them. So far, things have been going very smoothly and I'm not feeling too bad. Kevin has been absolutely amazing. He is constantly asking me if he can get something for me and asking how I'm doing. He is such a sweetheart! I'm so lucky to have him! He took Monday off to spend with me too, so that will be nice. Hopefully the rest of my recovery goes as well as it has so far. I'm just glad to finally have those dang disgusting tonsils OUT! Before... ewww!

After!

(It's brown and black because they have to cauterize the wounds)

Valentines Day

I have to post about Valentines day this year, even though it's almost APRIL, haha. I had no idea if Kevin had plans or anything but i was excited anyways. The night before, when i was getting into bed i saw a paper on my pillow.
On the back it said, "Rise-n-shine, Valentine!!! We're starting the day off right, with a massage for you (@9:00 am sharp. Don't be late!)" I was so excited! I love massages (who doesn't?!) so i was impressed he had booked one for me :) I went and got the massage at 9 and it was so nice! When i got back, this was waiting on the door.

On the card it said, "Welcome home Sunshine! Breakfast awaits inside!" He had made me German pancakes, my absolute favorite! He had decorated the table with little hearts and it was so cute, not to mention the breakfast was way good! Then, under my plate was another card!
On the back of that one it said, "Get your skates out, we're goin to the ice rink!" I hadn't gone ice skating in so long and i was way excited! We went and had sooo much fun. I crashed big time once and really banged up my hip, but i couldn't stop laughing!

Me trying to show how fast i could go,

this is seconds before i crashed. haha

On the way to go ice skating, in the car, Kevin asked me to get something out of the glove box. So i opened it, and there was another card! I kept laughing every time i found another card because i couldn't believe how sweet and creative Kevin had been! On this one was a picture of an old couple having dinner and on the back it said, " A quiet dinner at home for two!" So when we got home from ice skating he made homemade chedder broccoli soup in bread bowls and we had apple-pomegranate sparkling cider. He also bought me a dozen red-orange roses, which are my favorite. The whole dinner was so awesome! Kevin is such a romantic!! :)
On my chair was another card! This one said, "Night on the town- movie starts at 7:00" He wouldn't tell me what movie until we got there, but we saw "He's Just Not That Into You" I loved it :)


I just have to say, this was by far the best Valentines Day i have ever had! He is so incredibly sweet and treats me so much better than i deserve! I feel so lucky to have a guy like him for my eternal sweetheart :)

Kevin wearing the shirt i got him for V-Day.

Me with my class at school for our Valentines party :)

Spring Changes

So it's been a while and things have changed! Kevin and I just moved into the basement at his parents house. It will be nice to save a lot of money in rent and we are glad that they are willing and happy to let us move in! We are pretty much unpacked and settled now. We painted our room light blue on three walls and one wall brown. I think our room turned out so cute! I love it!

One of my favorite parts of our room: the "man lamp" haha!

My brother Logan is doing well in Mexico. I miss him way bad but I'm so proud of him. He is one of my best friends and i seriously hope two years flies by so i can see him again soon!

Colby and me at his birthday dinner, he smashed the chocolate mousse in my face. haha

Chantelle told us this past week that they are expecting baby #2!! I'm sooo excited! I love being an aunt! I love little Riles so much and so i can't wait for another niece or nephew to play with! Of course i think i will like having one of my own more... whenever the time comes :)

Showing us her "gangsta" look haha!

I am getting my tonsils out this coming Friday, April 3. They are so swollen that they literally block my throat; there is no space between them back there! I'm definitely ready to get them out of there, they gross me out SO BAD. I'm not so nervous for the actual surgery (it takes like 20-30 mins), i am, however, VERY nervous for the recovery afterwards... I have heard it is HORRIBLE. My boss even said she would take childbirth over it! So... yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. The doctor told me to take about two weeks off of work to be safe, especially since i work with kids and sickness and infection is ALWAYS around. So hopefully i will recover nicely and not be in too much pain.
Kevin and I are going on a little trip to Washington DC in May. I was born out there and have visited several times, but Kevin has never been. I think it's one of those places you HAVE to visit at least once, so I'm pretty excited to have him see all the historical sites.
In August we are going with my whole family to visit Colby/Kevin's mission in Texas. We will be in Texas for about a week and then fly up to Nauvoo. I have never been to Nauvoo and so i am excited to see the church sites and go to the temple there.
So the summer will be pretty fun, if we can just get through this horrible (so far) Spring! I was right behind an accident the other day going to work and i had to swerve to miss a big truck coming right at me. There ended up being three cars involved and they were all pretty beat up. I was really shaken up because if i had been the car in front of me, i would have been hit. Anyways, so i couldn't move forward because of the accident in front of me and i couldn't back out because the firetruck and ambulance were blocking me in, so i just waited for about half an hour and filled out a witness report. It's scary to think that you could just be driving along and someone can come out of nowhere and hit you! This just reconfirmed that I hate driving in the snow!!! I'm glad that i wasn't hurt, or anyone else.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I seriously love this time of year! Everything about it makes me so happy! I have our apartment all decked out with Christmas decorations and our little tree is so cute. I have been listening to Christmas music nonstop and it kills me to listen to anything non-Christmasy so poor kevin is stuck with FM100 all the time... We just finished all our Christmas shopping today and it's a relief to be done! We're finally getting some snow around here too, so it actually is starting to feel like the holiday season!
Work is going well. I am working full time now and i love the kids in my class. they are so adorable! They are so dang excited for Santa they can hardly stand it. It's so fun to do Christmas crafts with them and talk about what they want for Christmas.
Kevin finished finals up last week and both of us are so happy! He has definitley needed the break and i'm just so happy to get to see him after work now :) He doesn'y go back until Jan 12th, so it's a nice long break.
Last night was the annual Grandma's Cookie Bake at my Grandma and Grandpa Nelson's house. It's such a fun tradition that i look forward to every year. All the grandkids (and a lot of the aunts and uncles) get together and decorate sugar cookies that my grandma makes. It's so fun. It's a ton of work though so i'm glad she works hard every year to do this tradition.
Me and Kevin have been struggling lately with knowing what to do as far as moving to a new apartment or buying a condo/house. Rent just keeps getting higher and higher and it's sooo frustrating throwing our hard earned money away each month. We could probably afford to buy a condo, but then we would have to put off having a baby for a while so i could keep working full time. We have looked at other apartments too, and ours is still one of the best prices for two bedrooms... So we could just stay where we are and barely put anything into our savings, but we have felt like we need to do something else. So we are going to move in with Kevin's parent's around this coming spring. This way we will be able to save a ton of money each month and hopefully by the time Kevin has his associates, he can get a job with an engineering company and maybe get paid a little better when he transfers to the U. It will also allow him to switch to working part time and then take more credits than he is now. Also, i will eventually be able to go part time to have a baby, so i definitely love that. Anyways, we are excited to actually start moving forward with all our plans. We will have a seperate kitchen and a lot of the basement to ourselves at the Briggs' house, so it won't be too bad.
So that's what is new with us. Hope everyone has been having a great holiday season so far!