A Proposal

Last night our good friend Nate proposed to his now fiance Sydney. He brought her to the church where they met and had all of their family and friends come to witness the proposal. Sydney had no clue what was going on, when she first walked through the doors she was like a poor deer caught in the head lights.

Nate brought Sydney to the front of the chapel and told her how much he loved her as he got down on one knee and proposed. I was so nervous for him, and I couldn't tell you why. I've never witnessed a proposal aside from my own, I suppose I got a taste of what it's like from the guys point of view.

My darling friend Jenna Scott took some pictures of the happily engaged couple. This has to be my favorite! Can you see the size of that rock? It is stunning!! Jenna takes such amazing photos follow this link to view her photography blog at Let It Shine.

The married ladies club. It all started with the boys but we all really know it's all about the ladies! (Cortney, Sydney, Jenna & Myself)

Yes, we're ridiculous, but I'm sure you already knew that! At least we know how to have fun. ;)

Jakob, James and Jenna were waiting anxiously for me to finish mingling. This is James pretending to be pregnant so Jakob could take him home. I must say we have a fun group of friends. Congrats once again to Nate and Sydney! We are so happy for you and cannot wait for the wedding next year! 2012 will be a grand adventure for our circle of friends!

An Update

I'm trying not the make this blog a baby blog but I'm finding it difficult. Today Jakob and I went in for our 19 week ultrasound. I was so grateful to have Jakob with me! It was so precious being able to watch his facial expressions as he got to see our baby for the first time. I think I was watching him more than I was watching the ultrasound. He was so excited he even took a couple of pictures to work to show people. He is going to be such an amazing father, I am one lucky girl to be able to take on this adventure with a man like him by my side.

I was told to drink juice before our ultrasound to help wake the baby up and boy, did it work! I felt bad for our ultrasound tech; every time she would get a good angle our little one would move. We have quite the active one on our hands by the looks of it. The heart rate was 147 bpm which is pretty well smack dab in the middle. (No gender predictions there lol.) Our due date has changed AGAIN... it is now back to February 29th, 2012. As I'm sure most of you already know... Jakob's pretty stoked to (hopefully) have a child born on leap year.

We have to go in to see a specialist on Tuesday to ensure that everything is tip top and our baby is alright. During the ultrasound they found a Cyst in the baby's brain. This is an indicator of Downs. Good news is it is small and will more than likely go away on it's own. There are no other indicators of Downs however but they want me to see a specialist just in case. I am anxious but I have a feeling that all will be well. I suppose it's in a mothers nature to worry and I have a life time of it ahead of me! The baby is also small (in the 10th percentile.) The doctor didn't seem so concerned about that which is wonderful! He did say I need to gain weight, and that is something I simply do not know how to do. I eat fast food on a regular basis, I have pasta at least once a day, and I'm getting quite a bit of protein. I suppose I will have to drink more protein shakes and eat more meat. Who would have thought that gaining weight would be a problem?

Here are a few pictures of our little one (above: little feet below: another profile and it's little heart).


(Above: it's little alien face) Only one more week until we get to find out if it's a boy or a girl!! Have you cast your votes yet? I am so excited!!

Blue or Pink?

There are only 15 days until we are having our gender reveal party and what better way to pass the time than with a poll? I can not put into words how excited Jakob and I are. On the right hand side of the blog you can cast your votes. We would love to see what everyone thinks!

A Week In the Life of Jakob

Life is CRAZY right now! Time is flying by. We're planning our party, looking for a new place, packing up for the move, before you know it Christmas will be here and then we'll be into the new year with only two months until the baby arrives!

Today I am posting Jakob's schedule as a small memento. For some of you, you make look at it and say "Well at least he get's to sleep for 7 hours a night." I realize it could be much worse but for us, it's crazy. This isn't including time he takes for homework and Sunday church meetings he has to attend. He works so hard and I never hear him complain. The studying in the morning and on the weekends is for his CFA exam that he will be taking on December 3rd in Boston. He is so excited but has a lot of work to do in order to prepare for it!

For me it's hard having a what seems like a long distance relationship with my husband when we're living in the same house. I can't wait for the days when we look back and can say remember when, but until then I'm cherishing every moment I get to spend with him and am eternally grateful for all of the hard work he puts in every single day.

Craft Day With Jenna!

As of late I have done absolutely nothing crafty aside from:

• Make invitations (which really doesn't count because I had to do that)

• Crochet little hats and diaper covers for our little one (which also doesn't count simply because I do that all of the time)

• & Craft night with the ladies in the ward once a month (which clearly isn't enough!)

I decided that I needed a project activity that was adorable, easy, and I could complete it in one day. After all, idle hands are the devils play things (in other words if I'm not creating I'm shopping online, and even though I'm almost done my Christmas shopping and I find FABULOUS deals online it still doesn't make one's husband very happy to find out while he's been working, you've been spending.)

After explaining this to my dear friend Jenna she agreed and we turned to Pinterest (an uncontrollable addiction I have recently discovered, seriously it's like crack for crafters) for some ideas. Off we went to Joanne's, coupons in hand. (Jenna had never used coupons before *gasp* we saved $5 *cha ching!*) We then had to venture to Home Depot because Joanne's did not carry twine. Mind boggling... a craft store without twine!

We headed back to her place and the creativity began. Originally I had thought this was going to be a quick hour long project, an hour and a half max. Wrong! Let me tell you, it takes some serious time to wrap every inch of your letter in twine. Every 10 minutes or so Jenna would exclaim "I hate "S's!" They are too curvy! It made me smile.

So around and around we went on this never ending spinning craft when all of a sudden I hear this "Uh Oh" come from Jenna. I look up and lo and behold she's run out of twine! Impossible, I still had half of my roll left! How could she have possibly run out?! We decided that she'd use the rest of mine once I had finished and until then she would make pretty flowers for her wreath/ letter (another first for Jenna.) I sent her to the sight for fabric flowers on my side bar to pick out something pretty. She made a flower and let's just say... it wasn't working out. I quickly showed her how to make a flower I use on almost all of my projects. Off she went eager as could be! Until she decided that it looked more like a blob than a flower. Let me tell you burlap flowers are a tricky thing! She ended up stealing mine and I was happy to be able to fix her problem.

Tada! I am now the proud owner of a "T" for my door and a numb pointer finger (don't ask me where the numb finger came from... it started during yesterday's craft and is still numb today. I consulted Dr. Google and it said it's probably a pinched nerve of sorts. What it really is is annoying!)

Here's Jenna's final product hanging on the door. I won't be hanging mine until we move. We're in the midst of packing everything up including my dear door hanger. Thanks for craft day Jenna! It was a lot of fun!

Festival!

Friday night is date night in this Tobler home. Most of the time that doesn't mean anything spectacular, after a long week sometimes it's nice to simply sit at home in our P.J's cuddle up and watch a movie. This weekend however we went to an Italian festival with some dear friends. It was a first for both Jakob and I and we were pretty excited, however having never attend a festival before we didn't realize the amount of cash we needed. We felt silly, but we had a good time!

This is Nate and Sydney, this picture would have been even more adorable had it been day light and I wasn't using a camera phone. They're kissing through the ticket booth. Precious!

We finally got to meet Ryan's new girlfriend Jordan. She is super quiet but I'm sure that will change as time goes by! I really like her! We had a wonderful time! Jakob rode one of the big scary rides... he wasn't doing so well after. Sugary drinks + fast spinning/ flipping ride + dislike for fast spinning / flipping rides = gross tummy afterwards. I got to pull the prego card so I was exempt from all frightening rides :)

Ladies Night

Every month a good friend Mare Nielson hosts a craft night for the ladies in our ward. I love being able to get together with these ladies and laugh as we share our creative abilities. We always have a ball and this months craft night was no exception.

Fall is slowly creeping it's way into Vegas and let's just say I am thrilled!! Don't get me wrong I love the heat and sunshine; I'm just excited for Mom Tobler's chicken noodle soup, fall colours (in the mountains of course because nothing changes in Vegas), and Halloween decorations. I took a stroll through the Halloween section at Michael's and I couldn't stop smiling. In light of the up and coming fall season Mare determined that we should make some sort of Halloween decoration. We all know how I adore Halloween! The original link came from Crazy Domestic. L-O-V-E it!

Mare was kind enough to pick up some jars for me and I raided my cupboards for left over mason jars. Different sizes and shapes totally makes the difference with this project! Add some tissue paper and a whole lot of modge podge and your on your way!

This is Abby, who claims to have zero artistic abilities. I did make her paint her own faces on her jars and I think they turned out rather cute, even if they do have baby teeth. :) I was laughing so hard as she painted I cried.

Did I mention that Mare can bake and her husband Tyler is a culinary art student? AKA there are always delicious gourmet goodies at their home. These cupcakes were super yummy. I loved the frosting!!! Plus, did you notice the different colored batter? So cute!

Voila, my final product! Well almost... since we are moving I didn't add the bolts to Mr. Franks head for fear they'd get knocked off in the move. I'm also going o add some green raffia to the top of my pumpkin. I am very pleased with the result and even more pleased to have finally created something! My hands feel so idle and crocheting baby hats simply doesn't fill that creative void. I am so thankful for fabulous friends who host evenings such as these and the memories we create in the process.

Summer Time

Oh, what do you do in the summer time when all the world is green?

Do you fish in a stream, or lazily dream on the banks as the clouds go by?

Do you swim in a pool to keep yourself cool, or swing in a tree up high?

Do you march in parades, or drink lemonades, or count all the stars in the sky?

Is that what you do? So do I!

4 Months

16 weeks. Looking back it I can't exactly figure out where the time has gone. For my dear far away Canadian family I will post monthly photos of my "progress." It's hard having my mother so far away.

People here are finally starting to see that I have a bump instead of simply looking fat. There is nothing worse that feeling like an elephant and people telling me that "they can't even tell." I don't take that as a compliment... in my hormonal prego eyes I view that as they thought I always looked fat. To me at least I feel huge, when in actuality I no longer look like a scare crow.

I'm feeling wonderful! I'm no longer nauseated at all and I eat on a more regular schedule. Eating every 2 hours was a lot of work. I'm so glad I can go back to 4-5 meals a day instead of my usual 8. I am still super tired all of the time! I'm eagerly awaiting that second trimester boost people often mention but so far no such luck. I havn't had any unusual food cravings. I love fruit, corn flakes, and lots and lots of chicken tenders! The smell of seafood still makes my stomach roll but not nearly as bad as before.

Jakob is so excited and I love it! He kisses the "baby" goodnight all of the time and always wants to put his hand on my stomach. I can hardly wait for our ultrasound on the 29th, not only because shortly there after we will be able to find out the gender of the baby, but I'm most excited for Jakob to "meet" our baby for the first time. I can't wait to see his reaction, I'm pretty sure it'll be adorable!

Have a happy Friday everyone!

Happy Labor Day

While on our way up to Mom and Dad's for our early Labor Day dinner we spotted a field full of flags. Naturally, we had to go and take some pictures!

It's difficult to capture just how many flags there were. Mom and Dad were saying one year they had one for every person who passed away at 9/11.

What an adorable couple.

I love hand photos! Gosh darn it they are cute!

My handsome American boy. If it's one thing you Americans do well it's pay tribute to your country! I felt a sense of pride standing amidst all of those flags. I am very grateful to live in a free country with my husband and his family. We are so blessed with so many freedoms we take for granted everyday. Thank you to those whom fight for our freedom everyday.