A Free Weekend

Don't you love it when you get cool stuff for free?  I do, I do!  This weekend was one of those, and oh was it fun.  McKay works with a guy who needed help installing his antenna for his hand held radio.  McKay worked at his Uncle's Radio Communication shop in Orem where he would install two hand held radio's and build radio towers on buildings and mountains.  

Can you image being this person fixing the radio tower on the Empire State Building?

This co-worker had this really nice outdoor patio set and his wife and him decided they wanted to get a nicer one, so he gave it to McKay as a thank you for his help.  McKay called me on his way home from picking up the patio set and said, "You're going to freak when you see this patio set, its so nice."  Yes, I did freak.  It even comes with cushions, we haven't put them out yet because it was suppose to snow that night.  McKay and I wondered how much this set would have cost if we bought it.  We did some research online and it would have cost around $600!    

Ever since I've been pregnant I've been really irritated with salespeople at work.  I deal with a lot of them because I'm the gatekeeper.  some of them are really pushy and especially right now I have no patience for really pushy people who call me everyday trying to sell me their product.  There is this one sales guy from Comcast who doesn't bug me (thank you!) and he's very kind because he invites me to all of these corporate events.  The last one I went to was at the Grand America Hotel (talk about a fun work lunch).  Well he contacted me because Comcast was having another event, but this one was at the Energy Solutions Center and it happens to be the same night as Stars on Ice.  The event that was celebrating the 10 year 2002 Winter Olympics Anniversary.  Well the invitation was to a hot buffet, a private reception where we get to mingle with some Olympians, and afterwards you get to watch the Stars on Ice show.  So we went to it and it was so much fun.  Dinner was beautiful and delicious, it was on the top level of the Energy Solutions Building that overlooks all of Salt Lake.  I even had second helpings of prime rib!  After dinner they had a small reception where Scott Hamilton gave a short speech (I didn't realize this, but he is so small, he's probably around 100 lbs and about 5"0").  The highlight was when all of a sudden Mitt Romney walked into the room and everyone just gasped!  We stood about 10 feet away from him.  He didn't mention anything about the campaign, he thanked everyone for putting on the best Olympics and talked about how excited he was to be here.  He said some other stuff but I don't remember what he said.    

After the reception we were given our tickets to the show.  I was really impressed, our seats were on the 12th row.  We had great seats. It was even better because McKay's cousin Marty has a 9 year old daughter by the name of Isabella who is a rising ice skater and she got to skate during the show.  KSL just recently did a spot on her, she's adorable.  The skating was pretty impressive, especially Gold Medalist pair Jamie Sale and Davis Pelletier.  They're in their mid thirties and was more impressive then the younger skaters.  They're like wine, the older they get the better.  I was reading up on their bio and they got married and had a baby and now divorced and still continue to work with each other.  I think that is so crazy.  Sasha Cohen and Sara Hughes both looked beautiful, I was more impressed with their costumes.  

Sara

    Sasha

Overall, the night was really fun. McKay and I don't get out and see the arts very much, so we both felt really lucky to have the opportunity to go to the show.  I forgot to mention, we even found free parking (thanks Jessica Rasmussen for showing me the spot).  I love free dates and free furniture.  Thanks to everyone who made our free weekend possible.  

No energy, the peach baby, dog time, Valentine's, and a baby in a baby stroller

This week at the Killpack home hasn't been that exciting.  Nobody told me how tired and the lack of energy I would have when you're pregnant.  I feel bad, whenever I would talk to pregnant girls in the past and they would complain to me about how tired they are, I didn't really understand what they meant by that and thought they were just complainers.  Now, I've become one of those complaining pregnant women about having no energy.  This baby is sucking every ounce of energy I have.  

On Friday I had my second OB appointment.  I was able to hear the heartbeat and it was loud and clear.  The part of pregnancy that I don't understand is the "weeks" part of it.  On my "What To Expect When Expecting" App on my iphone, it says that I'm 10 weeks, but when I went to my appointment the nurse told me I was 13 weeks along.  Huh?  Explain that one to me.  Right now the baby is the size of a peach.  Because we don't know the sex of the baby, McKay and I like to call it the "Peach Baby."  A couple weeks ago it was called the "Lime Baby."  

When I got home from work on Friday late afternoon, it was beautiful outside, so I decided to take Winston on a walk.   

On our way home we stopped and made a friend.

Friday night we grabbed something to eat at Noodles & Co.  I really like their Japanese Pan Noodles, it's delicious and has a lot of veggies in it.  We ran a quick trip to Lowe's, came home made some of these delicious devils (we like to eat them with ice cream), and watched Dateline about Josh Powell and how he murdered his two boys.  One thing I love about McKay is how he gets so angry and upset when justice is not being served.  This entails a lot of yelling at the TV because he feels so frustration on how the court system couldn't protect those boys, and how evil Josh was to chop his kids up and burn his house down.    The scones helped McKay calm down a little bit.

Saturday morning was a lazy morning.  Winston and I like to take naps together, right now he loves to put his head on my belly, maybe he knows something is different about me.          

Bless McKay's heart, he's not the best when it comes to surprises and especially Valentine's Day.  Over the years I've scared him when it comes to this love holiday.  Our first years of being together, I admit it, I had high expectations.  When my expectations weren't met, I would get upset.  Therefore, I've made McKay afraid of Valentine's Day where he this holiday with a passion.  I've changed a lot over the years and now my expectations have diminished significantly.  Monday night, I kindly reminded McKay that tomorrow was Valentine's Day, and that I didn't expect a lot, but I did expect something.  This something doesn't have to be a dozen red roses or a extravagant date.  All I wanted was to know that he went out of his way to think of me and do something that shows me he loves me.  That's it.  McKay was acting weird Monday night, I finally asked him what was the matter; he told me he was scared because he hadn't planned anything and how much he hated Valentine's Day because there's so much pressure.  He later told me that night he said a prayer that I wouldn't be upset on Valentine's Day.  

I was surprised, McKay came through.  I was at work when he calls me and asks what I'm doing.  I say I was about to go eat my lunch; he told me not to eat lunch because he was going to get off early and wanted to go out to lunch.  I thought that was sweet and I accepted.  I've been craving some Pho, so we went to this Vietnamese restaurant in Layton called Kim Long's.  I thought it was pretty good.  Having a late lunch on Valentine's Day is the best time to go because no one eats lunch around 3:00 p.m.  I think McKay and I are going to do a tradition of this from now on.  It was so nice to go home early and have McKay be home.  He normally doesn't get off work until 7:30-8:00 p.m., so it's always dark when he gets home.  I took a nice nap on the couch while McKay played with Winston.  Later that night we went over to my parents where we had a couple Papa Murphy's pizzas and watched the sad Jazz game.  It turned out to be a very good Valentine's Day.  Thanks McKay and love you!

Yesterday, we had an arrival!  Our stroller came in the mail!  I was so excited I was able to put it together all by myself!  I wanted to try the stroller out, but it was cold and snowy outside.  So I used the next best thing I had for a baby and pushed him around in it.  By the look on his face he might be pretending he liked it.  

Nursery Ideas

I'm pretty obsessed.  The first week I found out I was pregnant I started to create mood boards for the baby's nursery.  Because we don't know the sex of the baby yet, I had to make two of them.  

The first one is for a little girl named Amelia.  I love this name and its the name of my Great Grandmother on the Craig side of the family.  All of my life I never knew who I looked like.  I do have similar traits of my Mom and Dad, but it was my body shape that always stumped me.  I was not curvy and busty like my Mom and I'm a lot shorter and petite then my sisters.  It wasn't until a couple years ago my Dad came across a picture of my Great Grandma Amelia (they called her Millie) when I realized I had the same body type as her.  She was petite, slender, and had no shape (poor girl), just like me!  I soon grew a love for her because I felt like I had something in common with her. 

     

Anyway, back to the nursery ideas.  If the baby is a girl, I want to name it Amelia.  Amelia means: work, industrious, and fertile.  Not a bad meaning.  The inspiration behind the room was an  Art Nouveau rug I purchased at an antique show up in Ogden last year.  I don't have a picture of it, but it's had beautiful flowers on it.  So the theme of the "Amelia" room is an Art Nouveau garden nursery.  Here is my mood board:

The second mood board I did was for a little boy.  I really want to use a family name for this kid's name.  McKay's mother's grandparents last name was Vance which means "Windmill Dweller".  McKay doesn't like this name, but we can always negotiate later.  The inspiration for this room was a mixture of just recently watching The Big Bang Theory and my Electrical Engineering husband.  The room is Geek Chic themed.  I like the differential equations and periodical table of elements fabric I found on Spoonflower.  

My first baby purchase

I don't think its really hit me that we're having a human being join our family this summer.  Making my first baby purchase has started to get me to that realization.  I have a great co-worker who told me about how her son in-law works for this baby company up in Logan called JJ Cole Collections.  She e-mailed me over the weekend and told me they were having a deal when you order something off their website you can get it half off.  Before this I started to look at strollers a bit and wanted one that was stylish, affordable, and was going to do its job.  Of course, the ones I really liked peaked at around $800-$1,000.  That's ridiculous and I could buy a really nice couch for that price.  So I looked on their website into this stroller and was instantly sold.  I was able to get this stroller for $250!  Too bad the deal is over, but they did send me an e-mail with an e-mail code I can share where if you purchase something off their website you can get 30% off on your first purchase.  

The code is: JJCREPEAT3

A blast from the past

This pains me whenever I think about it.  Three years ago, when McKay and I moved from Provo to Orem, I didn't have enough room in our apartment to store all of my: baby pictures, journals, the baby blessing quilt my Grandma Craig gave me, and everything that meant the world to me.  To make room I put all of these belongings in a box and stored it in my in-laws garage.  When we moved  into our house a year ago, I was really excited to open up this box and to go through it and organize it.  Sniff, sniff, sniff, I was never able to find this box.  I've searched through every box in our house, went through every nook and cranny in my in-laws garage, and even looked at my parents house.  The box is nowhere to be found.  So now, I don't have any pictures of me growing up.  Every night when I go to bed, I say a prayer that I'll be able to find this box.  I have faith I'll find it one day, but dammit, I want to find that box!  

Whenever I come across a picture of me, I've gotten in the habit of scanning it, so I can start a library of me.  I came across this picture and thought it was so cute and funny.  My sisters and I in matching Easter dresses.  I posted this on Facebook and we had a lot of people respond back.  Some of the responses were, "You need to re-create this!"  Melanie was in town and McKay and I were over at my parents on Sunday for Superbowl, we thought, "let's do this!"

I know were not in matching dresses but you can get the gist of it.  I have two very beautiful sisters.  I love their red hair, I was always envious of them because growing up people would come up to them and say, "what beautiful red headed children you have," and never say anything to me :(  I got over it.  I look pregnant in this picture.  Oh well, five more glorious months of great pictures.  

To plan a surprise birthday party

A couple months ago, my older sister Melanie had this great idea of throwing our Mom a surprise birthday party for her 50th birthday.  Melanie lives in sunny Irvine, California, so any chance she has to come home and see the family for a few days, she'll take it.  One of the big surprises would be my Mom wouldn't know Melanie was flying back home for the party.  Whenever us Craig girls plan any party, get together, or anything at all, we go way above and beyond then originally planned and though, I guess that's just how we are, "go big or go home." 

Planning this surprise party was deemed difficult.  My Mom is a little to aware of her surroundings, and my Dad is least sneaky person in the world.  This combination almost doomed us, but we were able to pull it off.

Melanie flew in on Friday afternoon, I told my Dad to tell Mom that he had to go run some errands so he could come with me to pick her up at the airport.  My Dad told my Mom he was going to go over to my Grandparents house to work on some projects.  We picked up Melanie, ran a fury of errands to the Dollar Store, Costco, Grocery Store, the church (where the party was taking place), and a bunch of other places.  My younger sister Caitlin, had to go to a doctors appointment and my Mom went with her to that.  Afterwards they stopped at Dick's to pick up her RX.  With our good luck, Caitlin and my Mom ran into my 93 year old Grandpa shopping for groceries.  My Mom asks Grandpa what my Dad has been doing all day at their house.  My Grandpa replies by saying, "Rushby hasn't been at our house."  

During this time of trying to hurry and run errands, Melanie and I stopped at the house to pick up some supplies.  We took some platters, table cloths, and some picture albums.  Well, when Mom got home she noticed how all of her picture albums were gone and asked my Dad where they had gone.  My Dad told Mom that I had taken them without any explanation, thanks Dad!

The part that was the most difficult was coming up with a reason for her to come over to the church on a Saturday night.  We employed the help of my parents bishop and asked him to call my Mom and have her come in with my Dad to meet with her.  When this happened Mom kept asking my Dad why in the world would the bishop want to meet with me on a Saturday night.  

Melanie and I got to the church around 1:00 p.m.  It took us five hours to set up the tables, chairs, projector, screen, music, decorations, center pieces, buffet table, and put together all of the food.  After we were all done, it looked more like a wedding reception then a surprise birthday party.  I knew right then and there we had outdone ourselves, but the place looked beautiful.  

Friends and family started showing up and we assigned McKay to hide in some bushes in the front of the church, so when he saw Mom and Dad walk in, he could give us the signal to turn off all of the lights.  I kept calling McKay on the phone and asking him, do you see them?  He said that he hadn't seen them come up yet.  Then all of a sudden, the door opens and it's my parents!  Everyone turned around and yelled "surprise!"  Note to self, don't rely on an outside spy hiding in a bush. 

My Mom said she was pretty suspicious and had a faint idea what was going on.  But the biggest surprise was when she saw Melanie.  Yah, we got our surprise!  The party was really fun, we had a way delicious dinner, people got up and shared their favorite Cay moment or memory, she opened up gifts, and to top it off we play Just Dance.          

Not very sneaky Dad and birthday girl

My Mom's step sister Susan and her family

My Uncle Brad's family and Grandma Kathy and Mitt

My parents bestest neighbors the Sappenfield's

A bunch of friends from the ward.  If you look behind you can see the cool 50 we made out of Mom's pictures.  One of my favorite decorations we made.

Mom opening up her presents

Mitt, Grandma, and Mom.  The funniest part of the party was when my Mom opened up her gift from Grandma, it was an apron she embroidery on it, and instead of putting 2012, she put 2011.  Good ole Grandma.    

Dad's side of the family and McKay in the background

A turn around the neighborhood

Now that I'm pregnant and have no energy, my exercise consists of long walks with Winston.  I do this because it gets me off my butt (which I've been sitting on it all day) and plus poor Winston gets to stay in his kennel most of the day.  We were walking around our neighborhood and in front of me it appeared to be a girl walking her very very very large and furry white dog.  As Winston and I caught up with her I realized that this wasn't a dog.  

This girl was walking her pet goat named Buddy.  I thought it was so random and cute I asked her if I could take her picture.  It was funny because a lot of the neighborhood kids were out and about and as soon as they saw Buddy, they ran over and started to pet him. You're only cool if you have a pet goat.