Christmas

We had so much fun on Christmas this year. We spent Christmas Eve and half of Christmas day with my family this year, since Thanksgiving was spent with Mike's family. We had Prime Rib for our Christmas dinner (mmmmmmm...) and my mom put on a slide show presentation of the book "A Dress for Ellen" and "The Night Before Christmas" before we sat and opened gifts. She wanted to try something new this year, and it turned out to be a big hit, the kids LOVED it! I've never seen so many little kids being so quiet and good for SO long!! Everyone had so much fun opening their gifts, especially the little kids. I could hear each one of them saying, after they'd opened all their gifts, that these gifts were EXACTLY what they wanted. It's great that they're all so easy to please! My brothers and sisters have done an excellent job of not spoiling their kids.
This year we did a gift exchange in place of playing the White Elephant game like we usually do. I think it's because some of us go overboard in our White Elephant game purchases while others don't, and then we spend the whole night fighting over the best gift...but hey, that's what makes the game fun!!! :) Tim and Ally had Mike and I, and vice versa. They bought us a ton of SUPER CUTE baby stuff, which made us that much more excited and anxious to have our sweet little baby come around soon. (only two more months!)
After a long evening of opening gifts, playing games and sitting around talking, Mike and I went back to our house to open our own gifts. Mike, of course, bought me TONS of awesome, thoughtful gifts, and I was once again reminded how totally lucky I am. He even picked out some baby clothes ALL on his own, and they were SOOO cute! I didn't know my hubby had any baby fashion sense! :) The gift he saved for me for last made me want to cry...it was a picture I've wanted for years and had told him about earlier in the year. He had made a point to remember that I wanted it and searched until he could find it, then went through the work of purchasing the perfect frame for it and framing it himself, and it looks absolutely gorgeous! The picture is titled "Lost and Found", and I think it's by Greg Olson, though I'm not positive. If you go to DeseretBook.com and type in "lost and found", it will bring up the picture. It's an awesome picture, I love it. What a wonderful husband I have! Each gift was SO awesome and much needed, and it went to show me that he's truly the most thoughtful person I've ever known!
Christmas morning we woke up, opened our stockings and watched a movie while playing with Legos (one of my gifts to Mike) and eating the junk food from our stockings. :) We had planned to spend the whole day just the two of us together, and it was a great idea....until we got bored. It's not that we don't like being around just each other, but rather, that sitting in the house all day long with not much to do can get old really fast. So, we got ready and headed over to my parents' house to see what was up over there. We were planning on just going for a drive, getting out of the house and enjoying each other's company, but we ended up staying over at my parents' for the rest of the day, hanging out with all my brothers and sisters. By the end of the night (after we'd been there literally ALL DAY) I was exhausted from being around everyone and wanted to go back home, but my family gave me crap for it because they all love Mike and hate when I take him away. :) SOOOO, I had to sit around and wait for them to finish the game they were playing before we could leave (which took another hour), and when we got home, we were both so tired that we checked our emails, went upstairs, and crashed for the night. All in all, it was a super-fun Christmas; my favorite part of course being spending time with my wonderful sweetheart. What a wonderful man and what a wonderful Christmas. We can't wait until next year when we'll have a sweet daughter to share it with!

Thanksgiving

Mike and I spent the Thanksgiving holiday/weekend up in Utah with Mike's family. I was very sad to be away from my family, since this was the first time in my 23 years of life that I have not spent Thanksgiving with my family (and that's a big deal since Thanksgiving is my family's one big family holiday). :( But, it was ok because Mike and I had fun spending time with his family. Unfortunately though, Mike's extended family seems to want to make everyone fat so we were fed to the brim all weekend long! :) Thank you to everyone who fed us free, yummy food! Thankfully for me, though, after all that food, I only gained my usual one-pound-a-week in pregnancy weight, which technically means I didn't gain any weight, so yay for me!! What's sad is that Mike was so over-fed that he is officially "sugared-out". Now, if you know Mike, you know that that's a HUGE deal, because it is almost physically impossible to get him "sugared-out"; he loves all things sugar WAY too much!
On Saturday Morning, Mike's dad, uncles, a few of his male cousins, Mike and I went out shooting, and it was a LOT of fun! Usually all of Mike's cousins (guys and girls) go shooting every year, but this year the other girls had too many things going on that day, from my baby shower later on that day to the BYU-Utah game, to a large list of other things. Mike's uncle Lee was kind enough to finally teach me how to properly aim out of a gun. My poor dad tried that for years, but I could never hit a target to save my life! Now I can say that I finally know how to! Mike and I were curious as to how our little baby would react to all the gunshot noises from inside the womb, but apparently they didn't bother her one bit! She slept through most of the shooting, even when I shot the guns (and these were 12 and 20 gauge shot guns)! She didn't wake up until the end, when the wind started to blow really hard, making me rather cold which caused my stomach to tighten up (which I'm sure is what woke her up). I just hope she's not deaf, but instead that she's just not bothered by loud noises since she's had to put up with my loud music, loud voice, and all the shrill screams from all my nieces and nephews over the past 7 months. :)
After the shooting, Mike's mom, sister, and grandma put together a baby shower for me and I received a TON of super-cute stuff, including a lot of homemade stuff crafted by Mike's ever-so-talented cousins! I can't wait to put it all to good use!
After that, Mike and I went and bought me some maternity pants....I finally caved after 27 weeks of pregnancy and I bought me some maternity pants. The fact is, my hips have spread soooo much I just can't get anything on past my mid-thighs anymore! I feel like a heifer!! Then, after that, we went back to Mike's brother & sister-in-law's house (where we were staying for the weekend) and we watched the BYU-Utah game with his immediate family, although the only ones who actually WANTED to watch the game were me, Mike's brother and Mike's dad. The other women (yes, I'm including my husband in that phrase) put up the Christmas tree decorations. Since I'm neither a BYU or a Utah fan, I chose to root for the side that Mike's brother was rooting for (BYU), although I learned that when they watch football they're very complacent about the plays...I was the only one screaming and shouting at the TV. Yes, I get very into the games; I get that from my family, we're big football fans. Anyways, it was fun watching the game though, I do love a good football game!!
But, after a long weekend packed full of things to do (yes, we did WAY more than what I listed), it's good to be home relaxing, although I do have to say I really miss the cold weather, clean air, and beautiful scenery of Utah...and I'm going to miss all of Mike's extended family, they're so much fun! They remind me a LOT of my immediate family. And thank you to Mike's brother and sister-in-law that put us up ALL weekend long, you guys are troopers and we always love staying with you two!
So, that was my weekend in a nutshell. My little bump is doing GREAT, she's been nice and active lately, so that's good, and she's settled into a regular daily routine. I'm so excited that I only have 3 months left, and so is Mike. I'm excited to see what she looks like, how's she's going to act, everything. I'm hoping she's going to be a lot like me, and from what I can tell she already is! Anyways, I'll try to get some pictures posted so everyone can be a little more up-to-date. Until next time!

6 months down....

So, I'm six months along and little Diana is doing great! Oh, that's right, we've decided on a name for our little princess, Diana. Anyways, little Di has been moving around so much. I started to feel her tiny kicks at 14 weeks and they slowly got stronger and stronger until it got to the point that she kicks so hard i can see my belly move and jump. It's so much fun! Diana didn't like kicking for her Daddy though. Every time he'd put his hand on my belly to feel her kick she'd stop dead in her tracks or, my personal favorite, she'd start to move around REALLY SLOWLY and kick only very lightly so that he couldn't feel it, RIGHT where his hand was at. It was almost like she was teasing him. Oh man, this kid's gonna be so much fun!! She's a sarcastic little bugger already! :) But, I had a little talk with her about how much her daddy loved her and she finally gave a nice big couple of kicks for him and he was finally able to feel her move. It was an awesome moment for me because it felt like it made it that much more real for him.
Mike's been very supportive and helpful throughout my pregnancy. I've been gaining a little too much weight (Surprise, surprise...I loved to eat even BEFORE I was prego) lately, so Michael has been helping me out by getting me to start going to the gym with him again in the mornings, which I hope will help out. The last thing I want to be is a rollie-pollie new mommy. Ech! He's also been really good about giving me frequent back massages when my hellish heartburn attacks strike. Oh yeah, so, I've always had terrible acid reflux (since the age 16) and I always heard that your heartburn gets worse once you get prego and I was like, "Oh crap, how can it get any worse than it already is? I already get heartburn so bad that it comes all the way up my esophagus and causes severe stomach pain.", but apparently, it can get SO much worse. Now what happens whenever I eat anything tomato or spicy, EVEN IF it only has a trace of tomato on it or a touch of spiciness, my whole chest gets these horrible, surging, crushing pains, to the point where i can't breath and I'm in tears. So, that's where Mike comes in....he gives me hard back rubs until the pain subsides, and it actually helps a lot, since pepcid now does NOTHING to stop or even help it. Thank goodness for a loving husband!!
Other than the over-weight gain and massive heartburn attacks, all has been going well in this pregnancy, *knock on wood*. We'll try to keep everyone better updated as time goes on. Only 16 weeks left to go! :)

IT'S A GIRL!

So, for those of you who voted girl, which was the larger majority, you were correct! Mike and I went in for the ultrasound today at 17 weeks 6 days and were surprised to find out we're having a little girl! I say 'surprised' because honestly I was expecting a boy. You see, every one in my family, with the exception of my oldest brother's wife, have had a boy first, so I automatically assumed a boy. Not so, I guess! Girl it is! We are just as excited though to have a girl, of course. So, in the Downer household of current pregnancies, girls win 3-2! And it's funny too, the two sister-in-laws are having boys and the three of us sisters are having girls. What fun!! We are all very excited and the doctor said that everything looked great on the ultrasound, so baby is happy and healthy and quite an active little child. I believe she will DEFINITELY have my ADD! Poor girl! :) She wouldn't sit still in there and she had her face covered by her arms and hands the whole time! She did NOT want to move them no matter how much the technician tried to coax her. It was actually quite funny. The whole time Mike kept saying, "Yep, that's DEFINITELY my kid". Oh dear, we're gonna have a wild one on our hands! But I guess between Mike and me, with our super active personalities, our poor kids don't have a chance! Hahaha! :) Anyways, all is well and we'll keep everyone updated as time passes. (PS, the 3rd picture is of the baby at 13 weeks, I just posted it because it's a cute profile picture of the baby! :) The rest were from the ultrasound today, so they're of the baby at 18 weeks.)

Preggers

Ok, for those of you out of the loop (which I'm sure is no one at this point), I am prego. Yep. 10 weeks and 5 days today. I'm super stoked, and so is Mike, though he was pretty shocked at first. I felt bad about the circumstances in which I broke the news to him when I found out, but I just HAD to tell my sisters and wanted him to be the very first to know. He was having a REALLY bad day at his "second" job (He did side-work for Powell Litigation Group, for which he now works :) ), trying to get all their many problems resolved over there, when he got a phone call from me shortly after lunch hours, letting him know the news as I sobbed heavily on the other end of the line. He tried to quietly and kindly to process the news while he consoled me and let me know he wasn't angry and that it was ok. I was SO happy but SO scared he would be upset with me, since we weren't planning on having kids for a while still. After a little while to let it sink in, Mike became just as happy as I am, and he talks about the baby from time to time, which is really very sweet and comforting to me. But, in thinking about the future, I realized we could no longer care for the dog and give it a proper home with proper attention, so, we gave it to a woman who could give it the love, attention and companionship from another dog that it needed and I believe she is much happier now.
The pregnancy has been well so far. I've had lots of "all-day" sickness, but am taking medicine that helps subdue it to a point so that I can get housework done and can eat. Yay! At 7 weeks and 4 days, we had the first ultrasound for the baby (the picture at the top) to see it's progress and hear the heartbeat, and I drug Mike along to share in the experience (with the much-needed help of nudging from his coworker and our good friend Alison). At first I could tell he was apprehensive about going, but once he saw the little bean and especially when he heard the heartbeat, his feelings and demeanor changed. I could tell he was so excited, even though he does NOT show his emotions at all, so to the lay person, he would have seemed indifferent. But, I could tell his was amazed and awed by the experience, that the "coolness" of the situation had finally hit him, and since then, he's been very excited about the baby. Well, as excited as Mike can get about anything. :) Again, for those who don't know Mike, he doesn't get mushy, weepy, or anything that has to do with emotion. He's very, VERY subtle with his emotions and you have to know him and study him to pick out when he's excited, upset, etc. But, anyways, he is excited, which makes me even more excited.
I can't wait to get to the point where I start to show, although I'm SURE everyone who's been pregnant will disagree with my happiness at that, saying how uncomfortable I'll be, but for me this has always been one of the most exciting prospects of pregnancy (other than actually having my own baby, of course!). What's also exciting is the fact that my sisters Diana and Debra and my sisters-in-law Stephanie and Ally and I are all due with in a few weeks of each other, starting with Diana in the beginning/middle of December, then a couple of weeks later, Stephanie, then a couple of weeks later, Debra, and then about a month later (in February) me, and then a couple of weeks later, Ally. So, we'll have 5 brand new babies running around the Downer household in the beginning of next year. Oh, our poor husbands!! :) We're all so excited though and everyone thinks we all planned this, but it's quite the opposite. The only people who planned on getting pregnant (but not trying to get pregnant the same time as everyone else), were Deb and Ally. So, it's pure coincidence that we're all pregnant together. And happily so! I can't wait to find out what Mike and I are having, and I'll put it up on here as soon as I find out (which should be about the beginning of October). Anyways, just thought I should update everyone! We'll keep you all updated on everything!

Backyard - Part Deux

Mike didn't give a whole lot of detail about the backyard so I thought I'd give it a shot with a quick summary of Saturday's events. Mike's parents and most of my family that lives here in Vegas came to my house bright and early Saturday morning to work on our backyard. The backyard was teeming with people and I stayed inside and watched all the little ones, which turned out to be a big job in and of itself! Everyone worked so hard from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm, and we're almost there! The only things Mike and I have left to do is lay the concrete (which we're having a good friend do for us) and lay the soil and grass seed, which the seed we won't be doing until October when it's cooler and the seed won't die. But, all the major things are done. They dug out and laid the sprinkler system, sifted the rocks out of the dirt and hauled them away, replaces the faucets out back, and much more. And they all did SUCH a good job!! The backyard looks great and I can't wait to have grass and a patio, although I AM going to have to wait for the grass! It was a lot of fun having everyone here and we're so grateful to everyone who sacrificed their Saturday to come work in our hot, dusty backyard! We owe you all one!!!

Fun Memorial Weekend

Mike and I had a super-fun Memorial Day Weekend. Mike's Friends Landon Johnson & Mike Clark came into town on Saturday and were SUCH good house guests! Mike was so excited to have them come into town and stay with us. Mike and I had a lot of fun hanging out with them, although Mike wished he could have spent more time with them. I was glad they came because not only were they SO much fun but Mike was in such an awesome mood the entire time they were here. It kinda makes me want to move up to Utah so he can be by these guys all the time, that way he'll always be so happy!! Anyways, I want to thank those boys for coming and they're welcome to come back any time! Oh, and Dan and Lexi, Mike was so sad that you guys couldn't come down too, but we are SOOO super-excited to be going up to Utah next weekend!!!
This past Friday we also had our puppy Gaucha spayed. She's doing really well, although she was SUUUUPER drugged on Friday night when I went to pick her up. She was so calm, it was cute, but then her medicine wore off and she's been jumping off the walls. They told us to "keep her calm and make her take it easy"....yeah right, not this dog. I've tried, and she's been pretty good, but after keeping her in a cage for a month because she was infected with Giardia (which she is now cured from) she's now making up for lost time. Yeah, She had Giardia for a month, and I had to thoroughly sanatize my house after we first found out, since it is contagious to humans and it's a nasty parasite, but now there are no worries about catching it and we can finally relax and breathe, and it's good to have her out and running around the house again. :) She also finally learned last night how to roll over and lay down, so now she knows how to do those, plus come, sit, stay, and drop/release her toy on command. I know that's just typical puppy stuff, but I'm excited because it's my puppy. :)
Mike's having fun at work and has now joined Facebook, which he SWORE he'd never do, so hell must have frozen over. Hahaha! His 26th birthday is this Friday and I'm so excited, although it's funny because he couldn't care less. I've got some good surprises planned for him, so we'll see how he feels about birthdays after this one. :) Anyways, that's it for now!!

New puppy

So, Mike and I have been thinking about getting a new puppy for the past few months, and we've been looking around trying to decide what we want. Well, we found this pet store, Silverado Puppies Plus on Silverado Ranch, so we decided to go in and look. We looked at all the totally cute puppies there and talked to the owner about what we wanted so she let us play with a girl cockapoo and a boy miniature schnauzer, which were both cute, and we left to go home and think about it. Well, I really liked the dogs we looked at and thought I wanted one of them, but couldn't decide which one, so the next morning I went to the pet store and looked at the puppies I had looked at the night before. I played with both of them and while I was trying to decide, I spotted a younger, much smaller female schnauzer sitting in another puppy pen and she was really sweet, but I didn't think Mike would be up for getting her, so I didn't give it another thought and left. Later on that night, I drug mike BACK to the pet store and we looked at a little Yorkie/Schnauzer mix that they had sitting out, which was cute, but it howled loudly if someone wasn't paying attention to it. That was annoying, so we took out the miniature schnauzer and played with him again, but he just didn't like me and he was too timid, I just couldn't see myself buying him. So, I showed Mike the baby girl Schnauzer and he had the lady take her out so we could play with her. Well, I loved her. She was sweet and cuddly and playful, all that I wanted, and she would get to a big enough size that would make Mike happy (as he doesn't want a 2 pound dog forever), so after MUCH thought, we bought her that night. She's a totally cute bundle of love and she's PACKED with personality! Mike has named her Gaucha, which is a Brazilian cowgirl. We love her, she's a great pet!! We just wanted to let everyone know about our pet addition and how excited we are.

Project

So our new project for the house is to work on our backyard. We are thinking of doing a garden along the back wall of our yard. A flower garden along the south fence. Grass in the middle and cement or pavers along the wall of the house from the entrance in the backyard to the other side of the house.

We are searching craigslist for free pavers :)

I am digging out the garden and flower garden thing by my own sweat of the brow. Since I have been lazy and getting overweight it is a good source of exercise.

-Mike

New blog!

Well, I didn't think I'd be doing a blog, but, Mike really wanted to, and I love reading everyone else's blogs, so, here we are, doing our own!
I'm sick today and I'm working hard to get over it, considering that I have school tomorrow and I CAN'T miss it, so, everyone keep your fingers crossed! ;)
So, for everyone who doesn't know what's going on with us school-wise, I'm going to school to become a pastry chef and Mike is working full time, taking classes, and getting his computer certifications. I'm learning how to become a better cook along with the classes required for my pastry degree because I want to learn how to cook better, since I love to cook almost as much as I love to bake!
Mike is such a good husband. He's been working hard so that I can afford to go to school and stay at home. Aren't I lucky? :) We're saving up and trying to think of what we should do with our backyard, but are having a hard time deciding. Any ideas?? I don't want to put TOO much work and money into the backyard, seeing as how we most likely won't be living in this home more than a few years. So, if anyone has any simple ideas, let us know!
Other than that, nothing else is new with us right now. We love you all! :)