Just a fun little survey

This one is for Brandi!

Here are the rules:

1. post these rules.
2. post a photo of yourself & 11 random facts about you.
3. answer the questions given to you in the tagger’s post.
4. create 11 new questions & tag new people to answer them.
5. go to their blog/twitter & let them know they’ve been tagged.

Eleven Random Facts :
(Those who know me well will not be surprised by any of this...)

1. I label my socks with a number and a "R" for right and "L" for left. Those socks are then soul mates and if one gets lost, the other goes in the trash. They will always be worn as a pair and on the appropriate foot.

2. I have a real hard time putting the aforementioned socks on without putting lotion on my feet first. Something about the cotton and dry skin grosses me out in a real bad way.

3. I dont like plain milk. I like chocolate milk, but only when I make it......with about a 1:3 ratio of chocolate to milk :)

4. I played the drums in high school. As in, I was such a herd core band nerd that I quit cheerleading to stay in band. That being said, it is the thing I miss most about high school. If they had an old person marching band in tulsa, I would be there in two seconds flat.

5. Unlike Brandi, I WISH I loved running. I really really really want to love it, but it doesnt matter how many times I try to learn to love it, I still HATE it. Doesnt mean I have given up on it, though. I still have high hopes for loving to run one day.....

6. I have the most awesome group of friends. I have known a lot of them since jr high/high school and I think it is such a blessing that through all of the changes we have all had in our lives, we have maintained such strong bonds!

7. I could eat ice cream multiple times a day, every day. Yummo.

8. I'm super OCD about some thing in my life and not at all about others. My closet is organized by length of sleeve and then within each of those catagories, they are organized by color, lightest to darkest. But there is clutter on my kitchen cabinet and dining room table 90% of the time.

9. My husband moved his bed into our house last fall. It is so tall that I have to have a step stool to get into it. Even more difficult almost 8 months pregnant. I could be "sexy" getting into bed with him if my life depended on it.

10. I have a small addiction to candles. I just counted and there are 14 out in the house, 18 in a stockpile in the closet, 40 votives that are on standby, and a handful of non-smelley or just random candles that I have ready to burn if the power goes out (so i dont have to burn the good ones and waste them, of course!). On top of all of that, I have 5 scentsy warmers and an entire cloth bin of smells that go with them.

11. H.L. and I just bought a suburban. Its the first vehicle I have owned that had a key fob and I didnt have to actually put a key in and lock or unlock it. I feel like a baller :)


1. what's your favorite season of the year and why?
      I LOVE summer. Its my favorite. There is just so much more you can do when it is lighter later and warm so so hot outside! Camping, water activities, drive-ins, farm fun days. Winter makes me cranky.

2. how did you meet your spouse?
     We met in 2004 through EMSA. According to him, it was in the ambulance bay at St. John, but I honestly dont remember.  What I do remember is that he would suffer through night shifts and then have to go straight to the fire department just so he could spend 12 hours with me :)

3. what's you idea of a perfect date?
     Anything relaxed. Maybe even on a beach.

4. what's your favorite vacation you've been on?
     Either Hawaii or my honeymoon in Puerta Vallarta.

5. what is your favorite hobby?
     If you asked my husband, Im sure he would say pestering him :) I honestly dont know that I do anything that I would call a "hobby" anymore. It used to be sunday night Angry Beaver softball, so now I will just go with hanging out with the friends and laughing a lot.

6. what is your number one favorite food?
    Ice cream, if that counts as "food". Otherwise, maybe italian?

7. if you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
     Right here in Oklahoma. I honestly dont think I want to be anywhere else.

8. what is one of your favorite childhood memories?
     My grandpa sitting on the counter and swinging me on his feet while I drank a chocolate malk made by my granny.

9. what is one of your habits you wish you could break?
     Eating out of boredom! I am so bad about it.

10. what is your favorite pair of shoes?
      My tennies! I am all about the comfort, man.

11. where do you want to be in 5 years?
      I want to be in the country telling my housefull of kids to go play outside! Still working in the nursery, cause its pretty much the best job ever. Still hanging out with the same friends and still making time for all the family.

Alright...I'm tagging Rachel, Lindsi, and Steph. I will fully admit to copying all of the questions from somewhere and not thinking of any of them on my own!!

Your eleven questions:
1. what made you want to start blogging?
2. what is your biggest pet peeve?
3. if you could travel anywhere, where would it be?
4.  if money, schooling, or time wasn't an issue :: what career would you choose?
5. what is your favorite guilty pleasure food?
6. what is your biggest (or just one) regret in life?
7.  favorite vacation ever?
8.  if you won the lottery tomorrow, what is the first thing you would do?
9. what's the one thing you look forward to each day
10.  what is your favorite physical feature?
11. where do you want to be in 5 years?


Alright, girls! Have fun!

I'm doing to end on a picture of the belley. 6 more weeks and we will finally see if its a he or a she!

Oh How I Love Traditions!

Hello All! It has been a busy few days and I have loved every second of it! Sunday we had the 6th Annual Dirty Santa Party. Its crazy to me not only that I have had the same friends that long, but that we have kept the same traditions for that long :) I guess that means I'm growing up. For the last 6 years, we have gotten together and exchanged gifts. This is the picture from the first year (which I'm guessing was 2006 because thats the first documentation I have of it via camera....who knows, it could have actually been a year earlier). Notice the one child........

The next year that I could find a picture of was 2008. Notice there are only 2 children....both belonging to the same parents.

This one is from 2010. A lot more kids in this one and one guy with way too short shorts :)

And this years. The short shorts guy and his wife and 2 kiddos left before picture time.

It is a fun time of socialization and dirty santa-ing. Sometimes the gifts are normal, sometimes you get a huge stuffed replica of a herpes virus......you never know!

Today, we had our dr's appt and the 3D ultrasound. Baby is measuring great- 1 lb 12 oz (average is 1 lb 8 oz at this time). During both the ultrasound at the drs office and the 3d the turkey wouldnt keep its hands away from its face. Looks like we might need to buy stock in pacifiers! Here are a couple of pics where Esther behaved (seriously, there are maybe 10 pictures out of 100 or so without an arm by its head!)

There was actually one picture where a toe is poking an eye. Thats talent and I totally give the credit to H.L. :)

Been a while....?

Well. I wrote a nice long catch up post earlier and managed to delete the whole thing while trying to add pictures, so I'm going to try again, but it will probably be a lot shorter than the original cause it ticked me off :)
One of the reasons that I have never started a blog is because I knew I would be not very good at keeping it up. I let a week go by and think to myself, "I need to write a post.". Then another week goes by and the same thought runs through my mind. Next thing i know, its been 16 weeks and it feels too overwhelming to even try to catch up and I feel like a slacker for letting it get that far behind!! So this is my attempt at catching up.....
A few big things have happened in the last few months, including holidays! I worked Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving night this year, so my family celebrated Thanksgiving on the Friday after. No big deal for my family. Having grown up with a firefighter for a dad who works 24 on 48 off, we are used to celebrating things on our own schedule. Luckily, my husband is on the same shift as my dad, so that leaves 2 out of 3 days to schedule functions on instead of 1 out of 3!
Christmas has also come and gone. I love the simple traditions in my family. They are nothing extravagant, but they are ours and they make me happy. This year, we went to see H.L.'s family on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. We then went to my parents for a little family get together that includes a dirty Santa party. I have never not stayed the night at my parents on Christmas Eve. Luckily, H.L. has roughed it with me on a full sized futon in my old bedroom the past two years so that I can still say that :) Christmas day, we wake up and do the family thing with my parents and brother and sister, then we go to the Box's (my grandparents on my dads side) and have a H.U.G.E. Christmas breakfast and exchange gifts there, and then we go to the Hettwer's (my moms parents) and somehow manage to eat more and exchange gifts there. It makes for a long couple of days (I was in bed by 9pm Christmas day this year), but I wouldn't give it up for nothing!
Another noteworthy happening is that we have added two handsome boys to our circle of kids! Lindsi had Cale on November 18 and Tere had Will on December 25.....talk about a Christmas surprise!
I am now 24 weeks and I don't know how it happened. It seems like the first 12 or so weeks went soooooooooooo slow and since then it has just flown by! Its hard to believe that in about 16 weeks, my world will be rocked! I asked Johnny yesterday as we were working on the nursery what he thought our first night home would be like. His answer? Long :) At least he has realistic expectations!
We has our anatomy scan at the beginning of December and the baby looked great but was so low that they couldn't get all of the shots that they needed. Therefor, we get to have another ultrasound next week...darn the luck ;) We are also having a 3/4D ultrasound that our families are coming to so that they can be included and see the nugget. We are not finding out the gender (*gasp*) so this will be a different way that they can connect with the baby.
Even though we are not finding out the gender, H.L. and I both think it might be a girl. Here is the list of why:
1. The way I'm carrying. My mom and grandma told me I'm carrying high and wide (I'm sure they meant that in the nicest way possible...) and that my mom carried the same way with my sister and I.
2. The ratio of boys to girls in our circle of kids. 2 girls, 7 boys. It has to balance out at some point, right?!?
3. I have noticed, amongst the girls at work at least, that when there are a few pregnant girls all due around the same time, the babies have tended to be the same gender. I have a co-worker and a friend who are both due within a month of me and both are having girls.
4. The ring test. It clearly went in a circle.
5. Karma. This one is all Johnny. He will obviously love the baby the same regardless of the gender, but he is determined that karma will give him a girl first so that he has to worry about boys and dating.
6. Dustin Nolen. He gave this kid the nickname Esther (but pronounced with the "H" very prominent, so more like Essshhthhhher) several weeks ago and it has stuck like glue. Esther is a girl name therefor it is referred to as "she" a lot.
7. Mothers instinct? Although I could be totally off- I have never done this before :)
Clearly none of these are a genetic test or really scientifically backed up, so there is still a 50% chance its a boy! Ha ha.
With the new year in full force, I stole an idea from another blog (that's right....I am a blog stalker, but cant keep up with my own). Instead of having strict resolutions that never seem to happen for me, I am going to have a word that encompasses what I want to accomplish this year. There is wiggle room in that! My One Little Word for 2012 is: balance. There are already things that I need to balance in my life (i.e. more productivity and less couch time) and with a rugrat making an appearance, I'm sure it will become a bigger need. So here is to finding balance in being a good mom, but also being a good friend, wife, daughter, granddaughter, and co-worker. Here is to finding the balance in being busy and being still, living life and loving life, getting things done and doing nothing, and accomplishing big things and enjoying the small things! With that being said I will leave on the statement that I will try (but not promise) the update more frequently. Here are some pics!




14 weeks

17 weeks

 20 weeks

 22 weeks with Tere about 2 days before Will made his debut

 23weeks 4 days- Happy New Year!