One Year Gone, Another On It's Way!

Hey! So I know I didn't post a baby bump post last week. I think you all will forgive me since it was Christmas, right? All of you were probably busy with family that day and the next day, and then you know it's just too far gone to care, right?

So, I just wanted to share this awesome blog with awesome downloads, two of which I think would be a great thing to use for New Years! Simple Mom is a website I honestly haven't browsed through much, but I love the downloads she has. (The link I put in to her website is to her page of downloads) Lots of lists and planning, both things I do constantly, so I love that I could have an organized way of doing it! I am in the process of making a household binder to keep me organized and hopefully on track with the things I tend to forget about (budgeting, anything to do with our cars--who really knows the last time they had their wiper blades replaced? I will soon, and I will know the exact dates!). Anyways, on her blog, she has two downloads for New Years, one for reflecting and one for goal setting. I love it! I plan on our first Family Home Evening of the new year to be focused on reflecting/goal setting for the year.

Right now, though, I'd like to reflect on what has happened this year! Honestly, anything before August seems like it was years ago, so it's going to be hard to remember the highlights of this year!

January - called to be Primary President; I was working at the MTC doing custodial work; I had my evening classes for Special Ed; Jed had school and worked at the BYU Bookstore.

February - I turned 21! We went to Happy Sumo with my wonderful friends to celebrate; we found out the basement apartment was opening where Katie and Mark were living, so we signed a contract to move in July

March - I was hired at Vineyard Elementary to be their intern; Our friends Amy and Brandon got engaged

April - Jed turned 23! We both ended the semester and I started Spring term; BFF Natalie got her mission call to New York (but she decided to get engaged instead....); hosted a bridal shower for Amy where I made my cute butterfly cupcakes

May - I was busy with practicum hours at Vineyard while Jed worked and got to go to California for his BFF Justin's wedding

June - started Summer Practicum; went to Amy and Brandon's wedding (it was so fun and so beautiful); went on a day trip to Manti to go do a temple session; painted our new place

July - Moved to our new place; Harry Potter 7 Part Two - Midnight Showing; Jed left to wash windows in Cailfornia; I continued doing Summer Practicum; went to Yellowstone to visit Wesley at the Dinner Theater he was doing; Had my first inklings I might be pregnant and had the positive pregnancy test!

August - Thought I miscarried, but the ultrasound showed it might still be okay, so was put on moderate bed rest; training for Alpine School District/Special Ed; Dentist appointment - found out I had to get a root canal; went to California to finally join my husband out there; root canal (not terrible but not something I'd like to repeat); Stephenson Family Reunion; ultrasound - still pregnant and due April 5th!; started at Vineyard and got to do beginning of the school year testing and meet my adorable kiddos.

September - got the flu--twice; Jed started classes again; Jed got the flu from me (and possibly one of the colds I had, too); my Freshman reunion was in our backyard; went to Jed's mission reunion

October - continued learning and teaching; Jed continued classes and made some awesome goals to become a better studier; went to/helped host an awesome Murder Mystery Dinner with the married former roommates; Halloween--which I was sick for :(

November - a hard month teaching-wise (Nov. and Dec. are the hardest months emotionally for first year and maybe even all teachers); flew out to California for Thanksgiving with Jed's family, which was awesome

December - this month just flew by! We made it through one whole semester! Yay! Christmas break has been awesome, though I have been sick the whole time (culminating yesterday); Christmas Eve/Day were spent with my family and we had a wonderful time; We've spent some time with friends and it's been just great!

So, I guess those are the highlights of the year! I have no doubt I will suddenly remember something that isn't on the list but is extremely important to mention, so I guess I will just have to come back and edit this post if that's the case.

And what can we look forward to in 2012?

• Baby Stephenson being born!
• Finishing all but one semester to graduation for Jed
• Me graduating (in August)
• Wesley going on a mission (sad but awesome)
• Stephenson Family Reunion over Thanksgiving
• Me finding a new job (what it will be, we have no idea)
• Jed applying to grad schools (or deciding he has to work before grad school--they are all different on what they want!) and hopefully getting into the ones we want!
• Wedding, babies being born, pregnancies being announced--who knows who and when, but I have no doubt many of these are coming our way this year! 

So, there's our year in review. It was a long one, but some pretty awesome things happened. Can't wait for 2012!

Tracking the Baby Bump: Week 24

Here it is, week 24.

Baby Stats:

Length: 8 1/2 in
Weight: 1 1/2 lbs
If he were a veggie, he would be a: corn on the cob (OR not a veggie, he would be a letter)

So this week.... Nothing much has changed. I had my doctor's appointment on Friday, and if I get to choose, I would prefer to have this doctor deliver my baby. I don't know if all OBGYN offices are like this, but this office has like 10 doctors, so there's always a few at the Provo office, a few at the Orem office, and at least 1 at the two hospitals, so that no matter what, you will have someone there to deliver your baby! It's nice to know that I won't be left with some random stranger who I've never met before. So, in order to make sure the doctor's aren't strangers, they try to have you meet with a different doctor for each visit. So far, they have all been nice, but this guy, Dr. Rees, was just so nice, I felt so comfortable talking with him, and Jed liked him, so as the time gets closer, we'll see what we can do!

At the doctor's office, I discovered a couple of things. My next visit, at 28 weeks, I have to take the glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes. Gross. They said it's like tasting McDonald's orange drink after it sat over night. Gross. Another thing I discovered is that in the next four weeks, I should be able to see my stomach move when the baby moves. Crazy! I'm excited for that. Jed finally felt the baby kick this week, so it will be awesome for him to feel him move more and even see him move!

Another lovely little side effect which I think I've talked about is my sciatic nerve freaking out. I've had some days where I get home from work and lay down (because my body is so tired), and then I get up and suddenly I will have a spasm every time I put my weight on my right leg. It starts in my lower back and sometimes goes down into my leg. Ha ha it makes me feel like a little old lady, because seriously sometimes it takes great effort to straighten my back to stand up straight. It hurts, but it's also rather amusing.

So anyways, this week, I was laying on my left side/stomach, and I wanted to get up to go find some food and use the restroom (seriously this happens all the time), and so I started to move, but without moving more than even 1/2 an inch, my sciatic nerve spasmed more than it ever had before. Oh it hurt! Ha ha so there was a long five minute discussion in my brain trying to decide how hungry I was/how full my bladder was and if it was worth it for the pain (which I knew would last only a few seconds, so I ended up bucking up and just doing it). Ha ha so instead of turning over normally, I kept my body as straight and stiff as possible and used my arms to roll my body over, and then I got up and it was totally fine, no pain. Perhaps this story is not as funny as it was at the time, but here be a warning to you all who haven't been pregnant yet: random parts of your body hurt, and you will get creative in avoiding that hurt.

That's really all that's different this week.... I continue craving sausage/breakfast sandwiches (yes, I'm craving that as I write this), I continue loving anything sour, and I feel like I can eat more.

Oh something that is a little different is that every morning this week I've woken up with a stuffy nose, so I blow my nose, and I have a little mini nosebleed. I can't decide if this is due to the fact that it's rather dry or as a pregnancy side effect. Either way I don't like it.

A couple of things I have yet to deal with (for which I am grateful):

• Swelling of the feet, ankles, or hands (hallelujah I am so hoping this will be avoided)
• Varicose veins. I don't know much about these, but I've been careful to check for them. 
• An outie belly button. My belly button is no where near an outie, but I can tell it's getting more shallow. 
• Stretch marks. I hear that if you gain weight at a good, slow, rate, you should be able to avoid these, so I hope that this continues to be the case. I gained 3 pounds in the last four weeks, so let's hope that my body continues to gain weight at this slow rate.

Well, I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! I will probably be updating the blog for week 25 on the 26th of December. I hope you can all forgive me for not getting on my blog on Christmas ha ha.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Break!

Hello friends!

Merry Christmas Break! It feel amazing to know that I have two full weeks of practically nothing to do! So that's a lie, I have a long list of what I'd like to do, but it's exciting! First of all, Jed has no work this entire week, so I think that means some fun activities for us: visit the Draper Temple (since the last TWO times it was either closed or we ran out of time and went to the Provo Temple instead), move around the furniture in the second bedroom, watch lots of TV shows together under a nice cozy blanket on the couch (Lie to Me? White Collar?), wrap Christmas presents and hide our stocking presents until we can put them in our stockings, and probably some other fun things, who knows!

I have my own personal list of things I would like to do. Some are boring, like get my tires rotated, put away laundry, etc. etc, but there are some fun things, too!

Today I was inspired by this blog: IHeart Organizing. You all probably know that I love to organize. I love it to death. I get a little discouraged, though, because you see these beautiful pictures of beautiful homes with big spaces and perfect shelving units to put cute and EXPENSIVE organizers on, and we just don't have the space or money to buy any of those things. But since getting the crib, I have a renewed motivation to organize! For one thing, our crib doesn't fit where we wanted it to. Lies, it does fit. But we can't sit at our desk with it there. I never use the desk except to store things, but Jed always sits at the desk to do things (he's destined to be the person who works for a living, right? I hate sitting at desks....). So, when I saw how terribly small and crowded our 2nd bedroom looked, I knew something much be done. And with that, the nesting instinct kicked in. Have you ever heard of the nesting instinct? It's a side effect not often talked about among pregnant women. Basically, it's like how dogs and cats like to find a perfect cozy spot to deliver their litters in, and other animals I'm sure do it too. Humans are no different. The baby's on the way, and the mom has the natural instinct to get the home ready for it. In my case, that means ORGANIZE!

So back to the IHeart Organizing blog. Pinterest lead me to it, and I will probably look at this blog daily, because there are hundreds of posts on there, every single one interesting and inspiring. Seeing her beautiful home inspired several things for me to do over the break:

1) Organize the dang 2nd bedroom closet. It is not efficient AT ALL.

2) Create my own boxes for organizing. Like I said before, those super cute woven boxes that people organize with are so perfect... and so expensive! Average from what I've seen, $20 a box. I think I could spend well over $400 organizing our home, and we just don't have that money to spend. So that's why I will create my own! We have lots and lots of random cardboard boxes, and I can totally make them cute with wrapping paper! And then I can create my own cute labels on the computer and simply tape them on (they don't have to be sticky on one side to be called a label! Yes, in my head, I truly thought that). On her blog, there are so many other things to use for organizing that become cute and coordinated simply by covering them with paper:

• Kleenex boxes (love this. Use it in your pantry for spice packets or even spice bottles, use in in your office, closet, bathroom--for washcloths!--It's really amazing! I haven't bought Kleenex in a while because why spend money on that when you can just use toilet paper? But now I think I will invest in a few, just so I can have the boxes afterwards ha ha.)
• Empty cans (so save those green bean cans!)
• Really, just any empty container. You can cover anything with cute paper. It's ridiculous how many different containers she uses on there (like an empty parmesan cheese bottle--the plastic ones from the store. She put markers in it. Love it!)

3) Cover the back of the shelves in my bedroom. Remember how I have those cute built in shelves in our bedroom?

Well, I have made no headway in putting cardboard on the back of the few that need it, nor have I put cute wallpaper on it. So, sometime this break I am determined to do both. I'm actually contemplating finding cute wrapping paper to cover it, because it won't be touched much, so no worries about the wrapping paper ripping, and it might be cheaper? I haven't looked around much at wallpaper.

4) Buy new knobs for the dresser in our second bedroom. This dresser was Jed's from when he was a baby, and it is is perfect to set a little changing pad on top and use as storage for baby clothes/a changing table. And I just realized minutes ago, as I sit in our recliner, staring directly at our crib and dresser, that the colors are practically identical! I am so glad we went with the cinnamon colored crib, now! I wasn't originally concerned with the baby furniture not matching, but it's pretty sweet that it does! But the knobs to open the drawer are just not that cute, and I think changing up that one thing will make a big difference.

5) Clean out the other two closets (the on the stairs and under the stairs closets). I have a lot of baking appliances that can't really be helped, but maybe I can find a more efficient way of putting them on the shelves. Oh and the laundry room closet. I think we have to move some things in there in order to fit baby clothes in the dresser.

On a related note, for our wedding we got a cute container full of homemade laundry detergent along with the recipe. We are finally using it, and it has taken a few months to get through even half of it! So, the fact that you use so little for a load and also that it is so cheap to make (I will post how much it costs to get the ingredients.... I think it will be pretty amazing), I think this is our new laundry detergent until Jed starts working full time and making millions (I'm an extremely optimistic person). Another great reason to get these laundry supplies is that on IHeart Organizing, she has a recipe for homemade cleaner. Look here for the recipe. It uses borax, just like the laundry detergent, so I can kill two birds with one stone buying that stuff. So, saving money on laundry detergent and a multipurpose cleaner (which I use daily), how can you pass that up? I will be making this stuff over the break too!

6) Trip to DI! With all this cleaning, there is no way that we won't be getting rid of stuff. We actually are looking into selling some things (we have 3 Rock Bands.... they all work.... we only need one.... But we are actually selling the drums and guitars, too, because the last time we played it was Easter, and so really it's just taking up space), so anyways, we're selling some things, but there are lots of things I want to get rid of that I know we cannot sell. I want to get rid of this little electric globe thing Jed has.... I don't think he will let me, but maybe? But after all the clearing out of closets, I just know that we will have a mandatory trip to DI to get our random knick knacks out of our beautifully clean house!

7) If Jed will just let me, I will start cutting up his old t-shirts to make a quilt! I've brought this up many a time since we've been married, but not too much because in all honesty, I think it could turn into an actual argument. Pick your battles, right? Anyway, Jed was in a lot of plays as a teenager, he did a lot of cool things, and with that comes the cool, free t-shirts. Long ago, I got rid of all of my old, random t-shirts because I just don't get too sentimental about stuff. Jed is soooo the opposite. So, we have probably about 30 old t-shirts that Jed never wears but also will never give up. I think he's finally beginning to accept the idea that something must be done with these t-shirts as they are just taking up space and haven't been used in years, and so maybe I can convince him this week to let me make a quilt. My logic is, he never uses them now, but if I make a quilt, he can look at his fun old t-shirts all the time as he gets cozy on the couch under his own personal blanket. If only Jed and I could see eye to eye on this....

Wow, what a long post! So sorry, I hope it was slightly interesting, but more than that, I hope it inspired you to organize, too! Then we can compare our before and after pictures (because I will be taking some of those) and talk about how adorable our houses and closets look, and we'll have you over for dinner since our house is more than presentable, and you'll have us over for a game night, and we'll just be the best of friends!

Crib = Bought!

Tonight Jed and I were out doing errands and decided to drop by Burlington Coat factory to see what they had for baby stuff. I rarely shop there, but I did know they had a baby section, and it was great! There are a lot of things there we don't need, thanks to Jed's sisters, but one thing we were wondering about was a crib. I knew which one we wanted (Graco Stanton at Walmart on sale for $118), but I wanted to see if Burlington could do any better. Guess what? It did! We found the exact same crib for $99! It was awesome. Another plus was that if you bought a crib, you could get a mattress for 20% off. Sweet, right? So, Jed went off to find someone who worked there to help us out, and while he was gone there was this couple and their parents all looking at the same crib. I knew it shouldn't make me nervous, but it did. But, they wanted a white one, and this one didn't come in white, so I figured we were safe. So the a store worker came back and turns out that the display crib was the last one! The lame part was that they wouldn't take it apart for us because they didn't want to lose any parts (makes sense, I totally understand, but still not fun for us), so we were going to have to come back to either hope that it fits in my mom's car or to take it apart ourselves. It made us stop for a minute to decide if this was really the crib we wanted, but for $99 to get a good crib? You can't pass that up!

Here's where it gets awkward. As we are trying to decide which mattress to get, that couple and their parents come back to look at the crib and ask the woman more about it. They definitely sounded like they wanted to buy it, so it was extremely awkward to be only 10 feet away and have to hear the store worker tell them they JUST sold the crib. They had seen us looking at it, so I'm sure they knew it was us who bought it. We both felt way awkward and really bad, but what can you do? I felt a little better because she said she could check if another store had one and would send it to them, so I hope they got their crib.

Anyways, we are now the proud owners of a crib and mattress (all for $150!) I love getting good deals and saving money. Here's the crib:

I think we both would have liked a darker color, but I like this color a lot too. So, another thing bought and ready! I think we're getting close to having the essentials for the baby! After Christmas, I think we will buy the crib bedding (maybe there will be some after Christmas sales???? I can only hope!).

Oh and one more sweet thing about Burlington: I got two 20% off coupons with my purchase! You can use them from December 26th-January 10th, so I think I will get a Boppy ($20 with the 20% off, normally $30 at other stores) and a diaper bag! From the ones they have there, I like this bag, but at the store they have it in dark brown and light blue, so I will get that one. So, 20% off that means my diaper bag will be less than $30! Man, it's awesome knowing I can get such great deals! It's hard not being able to spend money on whatever you want, but it is so satisfying when you get to buy things for really great prices. I hope that all this posting of me saving money helps you folks out there know what a good deal means in baby stuff! I never knew before, but after all my research of stuff, I think these are some pretty good prices on things. Maybe one day I will do a blog post about average prices on basic baby items. I hope my blog can help some people out there, as well as give some form of entertainment!

By the way, 165 days down, 115 to go!

Tracking the Baby Bump: Week 23

Hey there. Week 23 is here!

Baby Stats:

Length: just over 8 inches
Weight: just over 1 pound
If he were a fruit, he would be a: large mango


So, what has this week brought in my pregnancy.... Well for one thing, the little guy does this kicking thing (maybe it's hiccuping?) where I swear he's against my bladder because I keep having a very strong urge to pee and it happens over and over again in a set amount of time. So maybe that is hiccuping! It's rather uncomfortable, though.

Heartburn has been a huge theme of the week. Dislike. I've woken up in the night because I was so bothered by it. Last night, before bed, we ran to Smith's to get me some Tums, and I didn't wake up once with heartburn! It was great. I was worried, because last night was some of the worst heartburn I'd had, but the Tums really work! The directions for taking it rather worry me, though, because it says to take 2-4 as symptoms occur. What do you do if the symptoms don't really stop occurring??? And 2-4? Too ambiguous. I don't want to take too many, but if I need to take more, I want to do that. I'm glad I'll have my 24 week appointment on Friday so I can ask my doctor what the protocol is. My aunt and several people online have said they lived off of Tums for the last half of their pregnancies, so that may be my future for the next 3 1/2 months. I hope as I take it more and more I start to enjoy them.... I just hate the feeling/texture of eating slightly flavored chalk. Last night one of the ones I took was definitely orange, and that was the best one of them all.

Honestly I don't think I have much else to say! This week has been going as normal. I felt better than I did last week, though I've been much more tired because I've gotten less sleep than I should. It's amazing that this semester is almost over! I only have 3 more months of teaching until the baby, then maternity leave, then another few weeks, then summer break! At least a couple times a week I try to decide what I want to do next year for a job. Working with a baby is a hard thing to cope with. There are so many reasons I don't want to work: I feel bad leaving my baby in day care, the cost of day care, how busy I will be working and cooking and cleaning and taking care of myself oh yeah and taking care of a baby. But, Jed doesn't exactly have a great income from the BYU Bookstore... Insurance is another lovely thing to think about. Thinking about finances lately makes me cry (hormones) so I try not to, but just remember that when we budget correctly and pay our tithing and fast offerings, God will help us make ends meet!

Anyways, hope you have a great week. Good luck to those taking finals this week!

Tracking the Baby Bump: Week 22

So sorry I missed last week! We were traveling for most of last Sunday back from California.

Baby Stats Week 21:

Length: 7 inches
Weight: 11 ounces
If he were a fruit, he would be a: banana

Baby Stats Week 22:

Length: 8 inches
Weight: 1 POUND
If he were a veggie, he would be a: spaghetti squash


Some of the symptoms that have cropped up:

1) I think I have to give in and admit I have acid reflux. Isn't that a terrible thing to develop from being pregnant! I hope it goes away when I give birth..... Mostly it's been at night, but today at church, I had a lovely episode mid sacrament meeting.

2) Another thing I must admit: My urinary frequency has finally gone up. I've been proud for the last 22 weeks to be able to say I don't have to go to the bathroom any more than I had to previous to becoming pregnant, but after the last few days, I don't think I can claim that anymore.

3) My back hurts. Almost every day it hurts. It really killed, though, after walking up the RB stairs this week. Seriously, it's been a long time since I walked up those stairs, and it shows.

4) I feel very pregnant. I had to give up on a lot of my favorite shirts this week because my baby bump kind of seems to have swelled by a lot. I can't believe I'm going to get even bigger. A lot bigger. I hope that as I am getting into some good routines with work, I will be able to finally get back to working out. I've ordered my maternity swim suit so I can swim a couple of times a week at the gym. I also found a yoga video streaming on Netflix, so I can do some yoga! Perhaps I'll even be brave enough to get back to lifting weights, but I will have to be careful that I don't strain myself too much...

4) Have you ever heard the song, "Who Would Imagine a King?"

It's from the movie The Preacher's Wife. I love the soundtrack and listen to it every Christmas. This has always been a favorite of mine, but until the other day, I have never appreciated it so much!

I was driving home from work, singing along to Christmas songs, when this song popped up. I started singing the first line and almost immediately had to stop because I was too choked up to sing! The lyrics start out "Mommies and daddies always believe that their little angels are special indeed." So right there, it starts me off: Jed and I are two of those mommies and daddies, and we have a little special angel on his way! The song continues saying how you don't know what they are going to be when they grow up, but who would ever imagine a king? I thought about what our little boy will be. He could grow up to do anything! How amazing. And we will get him on that path.

The song also made me cry because I have never related to Mary, the mother of Jesus so much. I know our son will not become the Savior of the World, but our son will be special. I'm sure he will make a great difference in many people's lives. I can almost imagine what Mary might have felt. The anticipation of waiting for you baby to come is so fun, crazy, and awe inspiring. How must she have felt, knowing her Son was the Son of God? What an amazing gift to be the one to carry the baby, to give birth to Him, and to raise Him. It is wonderful to be pregnant. With all the crazy things it's doing to my body, it's amazing to be pregnant. To feel this little boy inside of me, moving, is the craziest thing. So this song brought up all these feelings, thoughts, and emotions and I couldn't even sing one line without tears pouring out of my eyes. To top it all off, you must listen to the end, because this little voice says, "Mommy," and to hear that after such a great spiritual song just topped it off and I sobbed a little! When I got home, I made Jed listen to it and I cried all over again. It's a wonderful song, and I have never loved it more.

So, there's the pregnancy in the last week or so. I just realized today that I will be 25 weeks along on Christmas, which as you know is the 25th of December! Fun little coincidence, I think.

"It's that time of year"

Hey folks.

How crazy is it that it's Christmas time??? It snuck up on me, and I think it's only going to continue to come faster. I have two weeks of school, Jed has one week and then finals week, and then it's Christmas break!

Here's the sad thing... I wasn't excited about Christmas decorating! So sad, right? I have to admit, November has been one of the more stressful months of my college experience. It's been a hard, hard month. I sadly didn't feel like I could be a Special Ed teacher. It's extremely difficult, let me tell you. But, I have a renewed sense of motivation, my students continue to improve, I continue to feel more competent, and all of this makes me feel more and more every day that I will be okay! But, back to the topic at hand, I was feeling stressed and did not feel the motivation to decorate. Thank goodness my husband did and thank goodness a few evenings ago he was amazing and helped me do some major cleaning, and so since I was on a roll making the house look good, I actually got down the box with our decorations and made our house look Christmas-y!

Another great thing happened today: we got our first little Christmas tree! It's a whopping 3 feet tall and we love it! I just love doing things by the light of a Christmas tree.

One of our newest decorations/possessions is a beautiful nativity scene from Bethlehem! Jed's parents went to Israel in October and they bought us this as a Christmas present. Here it is. Isn't it beautiful?

Have any of you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? Jed's brother's family gave us our Elf (we named him Thisbee) along with a book about him as a Christmas present last year. Basically, the story tells you that this is one of Santa's elves, and he is assigned to stay at your house to make sure you are not naughty, but nice. Every morning you must find him, because he moves around at night when you are asleep! It seems to be rather popular this year. I see on pinterest lots of posts about what to do with your Elf so that when your kids wake up, you find that the elf was making cookies, and made quite a mess with the flour, or he TP'd your Christmas tree, or he decided to go fishing and you find him fishing for goldfish crackers. It's such a cute idea that I can't wait to use when our little boy is old enough to appreciate it (let alone is not in my womb). Anyways, here is Thisbee:

So, have a good December! I'm so excited for Christmas. I love giving presents and seeing my family's excitement when they open them. This year we will be spending Christmas here in Utah with my family. I missed them last year, but I didn't realize how excited I would be to get to spend Christmas with them!

Anyways, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Gratitude Tree: The End of the Month

Hey there! So remember the post on the gratitude tree? (Click here for a reminder) In case you don't want to look at the link, here's what our gratitude tree looked like at the beginning of the month:

Well, while we didn't do as good of a job as I hoped for, meaning we didn't write what we were grateful for every day. We didn't even do it a few times a week. We did it once a week, so not too bad, right?

Here's the result:

Not too shabby, right? I have to confess, part of the reason this isn't more full is because I ran out of paper. I bought 3 yards of green butcher paper! I totally thought that would be enough.

It was great, though! We both had to stretch a little by the end to think of new things we are grateful for, but it was fun. I definitely want to do this again. Maybe not until we have kids who can participate, but it was fun. It's so nice to spend extra time thinking about all of your blessings. Conclusion from our gratitude tree: we are so blessed. We have blessings from living in a wonderful country, to an amazing church with living prophets, scriptures, personal revelation, the Holy Ghost, to wonderful families and friends, to random things like a warm apartment with a dishwasher and a comfy bed, to a loving Heavenly Father who gave us the gift of His Son, who in turn gave us the gift of the Atonement. We are so blessed! Oh and not to be forgotten, we have a wonderful baby boy on the way. It's incredible to think we we were chosen to live in this time, in our situation. What a wonderful life! I can't say it's not hard (my aching back will attest to that), but it's still been great.

While I'm on my gratitude kick, I have to say how grateful I am for Jed. What an awesome husband! Seriously, this guy is great. I couldn't have a more serving husband. He will do anything for me. How lucky am I? Especially in this time when I am so tired from teaching and being pregnant, he is the reason our house is not the mess it could be, he doesn't complain that my dinners I make are lame stain (because I generally feel too tired to cook), and he will rub my back every time I ask him to, which can be several times a night (granted, sometimes it lasts about 30 seconds, but he still does it!). I hope to goodness that all my friends have as great a husband to support them during their pregnancy as I do. Oh and since he knows I'm tired, he rarely asks me to do things for him.

Anyways, it's so great to have this holiday season to remind us what's important. We start with Thanksgiving to help us remember all of our blessings, and then we get the next month to be grateful for our family and buy them presents, but most importantly to remember the Savior, that he was born, lived on this earth, suffered and died for us, and was resurrected. I hope you all have a great December in this special time!