Baby Update

This isn't that big of a deal because you can be dilated for a long time (like a month) before you even have the baby, but last week I was measured and I was 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced, and I was just measured this morning, and I'm still 2 cm dilated but now 80% effaced so at least something's moving along! I started having contractions last week but they went away, but I guess I'm having contractions when I don't know it because while we were at the doctor's she said I was having a contraction and didn't know it, so the baby's at least coming sometime (sometime being completely relative because he could still not come for another month)!

Christmas with the Keslers

So, being almost 37 weeks pregnant, I can't travel, so my family decided it was worth it for all the family to be together so they came out here to spend Christmas with us in Rexburg! They left Friday afternoon after Dad got off work, and drove until they got to our house at 9:21 am Sunday morning, right before we left for church. It was a fun day of cornbread, bean bake, and Rock Band.

The next couple of days we spent getting ready for Christmas. We went to Porter's like, 15 times (some of the time because my family's obsessed with it and other times because we forgot something to buy). Being from New York there aren't so many LDS stores, so my family went to the BYU-Idaho bookstore, Seagull Book, and Deseret Book. We also went to the BYU-Idaho library special collections to see a First Edition Book of Mormon and a 5 and 10 dollar bill Joseph Smith's bank printed. It was pretty sweet.



Christmas Eve was a blast. We got the regular food together ready. As a Kesler Family tradition, we always eat summer sausage, cheese, crackers, chips, onion dip, a cheese ball, soda, and cookies, all eaten on the floor of our living room with only the Christmas lights on. We eat it for a bit, read Luke 2, and then open pajamas so that when we wake up in the morning we already feel like Christmas!

We usually get a book to read at night, but it's gotten to the point where we just chill together instead of reading in our separate beds, but the boys got books (Will got the Breaking Dawn book).

It was fun this year to have surprises for Jordan. One of his presents was a hard gun case for his deer gun he bought last year. It was too big to fit into the closet where the rest of his presents were, so Katie and Kris Larsen let me hide it in their apartment. Christmas Eve I had to go get it and it was a cooooooold night. It was fun to be able to be sneaky and have fun little secrets.

It used to be a rule in our house that we had to wait until 7 in the morning to wake up my parents, because one year we came in at 5:30 and they said that was too early. This year, I was the first one to wake up, and I woke up at 7:45! I felt bad because everyone else was tired, so I decided to wait until one other person woke up. That happened sometime around 8:10 (I heard Callie go in the bathroom), and then we woke everyone else up! We opened stockings (which were in our room so Dad could put all our presents under the tree), which were filled with candy sent up by Auntie Jan from Provo! It was a big amount of candy!


By 9 we were opening presents! It was a fun time. We had spent the couple of days before so excited to give each other our presents and we finally got to do it! We went through all of our presents that we gave to each other and then went through the other general presents that Mom and Dad were in charge of (or Jordan and me because we forgot to keep ours separate). This picture of Jordan wearing his new coat (bought in St. George from Costco) and playing his ocarina (which is the magical, musical instrument they play in the video game, Zelda) Something Jordan got me was an idea we jacked off the Zamora's where you have a container that keeps the diaper and wipes in the living room but hides it because it's in a pretty container that matches the rest of the living room. here is a picture of that box. The diapers that are in it are the newborn sized diapers we got from Aunt Theresa and one of the containers of wipes we got from the Zamora's for Christmas. It's awesome. It's in the shape of a small trunk, and it's absolutely beautiful. Jordan sure knows my taste! Most of the rest of the day was spent just chillin and eating leftovers from the night before. We played RockBand again (like every other day that week), and the following is a video of Jordan singing. You have to watch it sideways, but it's still fun to watch. We ended the day by playing games in the lounge in the clubhouse in our apartment complex. We played Jordan's new Sudoku game, then ping pong, and pool. Then everyone except for the oldest 4 family members went into the hot tub and had a blast.



Today we went to the Startin's for games where we played Mormon Mad Gab and Rock Band World Tour. It was a good time. We had this great dip that Lee made that he invented while in college. He makes it by taking a tiny bit of onion, and a small amount of milk, throwing it into a blender until the onion's in tiny pieces. Then add a couple deals of cream cheese into the blender until it's pretty smooth. That's all! No seasonings, or salt, or anything like that. It was just sooooo good. I'm going to start making it all the time.

Tomorrow the plan is that we're going to help some people in our ward move, go to the temple, and go to Idaho Falls to go to Old Navy so my siblings can spend their gift certificates they got from Christmas and my dad can go to Idaho's Largest Used Bookstore.

Sunday, Jordan's speaking in church, and I'm in charge of nursery. My family'll leave after church and be on their way to Provo for the next 5 days to be with the Mayfields!

Salmon

We went to Salmon again to visit our friends the Deans last weekend, and it was, as always, super fun. We had to get back for church on Sunday so we couldn't stay very long, but the Friday evening and most of Saturday that we were there was so fun! Friday night...I think we just chilled. Doing nothing is so fun, and it's nice that the Deans are the kind of people who we don't have to worry about having to do something big, but we can all just chill together--super nice.

Saturday we went for a drive (with both Jennie and I being pregnant, we of course brought a lunch), and saw a super lot of rams and sheep! Go to their website to see the pictures of them. We saw just one at the beginning and took a lot of pictures of him, and then a mile or so down the road we saw the whole rest of his clan! It was crazy to be so close to them!

Jennie and I went to her niece's dance recital (Peter and the Wolf), which was super fun! It was super cool to see all the little kids doing all the different parts like "water" and "trees." Super cool--can't wait for our girls to be in dance!

Jennie and I also went to "Nature's Pantry" which is a hippie, nature store where I got Red Raspberry tablet, which helps strengthen the pelvic and uterine muscles so that once labor does start the muscles will be more efficient. I talked to some people about it, and everyone who's taken it's labor hasn't been more than 7 hours (sounds great to me!), so even if it's a huge scam, it only costs $10 for all the pills I'll need so I'm fine with that. The woman at the store also told us about this thing called "Mother's Milk Tea" (it's herbal tea) which could also be a scam, but you're supposed to start drinking it a week before you have the baby to help with milk production, and then you're supposed to drink it the whole time you nurse, but I'll probably just buy two boxes of the tea and then stop drinking it when I run out. It's crazy to be getting ready for stuff like that because it means the baby's coming soon!

All in all, it was a spectacular trip and we're excited for them to come spend this next weekend with us!

Christmas Tree

I already put the pictures of the Christmas tree up on a blog earlier in the month, but I just wanted to talk about it a little. It was super fun. Jordan and I had planned on going out and cutting down our own, but it just didn't happen. So we went to Broulims and picked out a tree! There were a lot of different choices, and the hardest part for me was toning down the size of the tree I wanted! One day I think I might just make sure I have a living room with super high ceilings so I can get as big of a tree as I want. Something I didn't include in the other post is the nest we found in our tree! It was super cool, even though we didn't keep it in there (kinda unsanitary), but it was a fun reminder that these trees are real. We had planned on going with our friends the Larsens (the same people we watched Garfield Thanksgiving with), but they said they didn't have time and would just go buy theirs (which at the beginning I was sad about it), but we ended up just seeing them at Broulims anyway! We also saw the Allens there (Elisa went to my bridal shower). We didn't get any pictures of them, which is too bad because they have beautiful children, but it was fun to be there while they picked out their tree too! It was nice to have a truck so we could help everyone haul their trees to their houses. Yay for helping! This next picture is a picture of Rexburg as you drive down Main street. It's pretty blurry, but you can get the general idea of the Christmas lights. There isn't any snow (we didn't get any snow until this last Saturday), but it was definitely cold out!

Thanksgiving

Well, school's finally over so I have time to update!
Starting from the beginning, Thanksgiving was a blast! Jordan and I drove down to St. George to have a Bodily Thanksgiving! It was great. We got down there Tuesday afternoon and we all just spent some good time together!

Tawna, Theresa, and Grandma Madlyn did most of the cooking (I would say I helped, but I pretty much didn't--they took care of the whole thing!) Here's a picture of Tawna taking a small break from all the hard work! Here's everyone around getting stuff done, and one of Merrill cutting the yummy, yummy turkey!
Here's Kim (somehow even if you're an adult, if you're younger than everyone else you get banished to the kid's table, because that's where Jordan, Garrett, Kim, and I sat!), and then Jordan and Garrett getting their yummy Thanksgiving dinner!

Friday we (Garrett, Kim, Drew and Sarah Calder, and Jordan and I) went out to...actually I have no idea where it was. But it was somewhere up high in St. George to take pictures for Theresa's Christmas card. This would have been a non-awkward picture if Jordan hadn't pulled my sweatshirt back all of a sudden to expose my gynormously, gynormous belly. It was fun to be there all together. We didn't technically have seats for everyone, so we got Jordan and Drew to snuggle up in the back of Theresa's Hybrid. They were superstars at hiding from the cops when we passed them. It was genius.

Also on Friday (and I wish I had gotten pictures of it), Kim and I went out really early to get Black Friday deals, and Tawna and Sarah Calder joined us around 10. It was a great morning. I got 90% of my Christmas shopping done (the rest being finished up the next day when Jordan and I went out), and it was so fun to be with those girls!

It was a great week, which definitely didn't last long enough, and it was great to see everyone.
Yay for the holidays!

What the Baby's Going to Look Like

This is what I've decided the baby's going to look like when he grows up

Let It Snow

This is the last week of school, so I still don't have time to write, but after this week I'll put up our Thanksgiving stuff and more Christmas stuff. For now, this is the adventure of getting our Christmas tree, and the view I had this morning while I was eating breakfast in our living room.







Yay for Christmas!

December

I'll write about our Thanksgiving in St. George in a couple of days when I get the chance, but for now, Happy December!

Harry Potter

No matter what anyone says, I would have much rather watched Harry Potter this weekend than not go see Twilight because I'm not going to pay full theater price for it. A good thing about Twilight coming out, we get a new Harry Potter trailer! Can't wait for July 16th! I might have to start looking for a babysitter now in order to make sure I have one!

FHE with Garfield Thanksgiving

FHE has begun to be much more fun lately since we’ve started doing it every once in a while with the Larsens. Last night was another example of that. We had planned on watching Garfield Halloween (which you can watch in two parts here and here on YouTube) before Halloween but never got to it, but then we just had to watch Garfield Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving, so that’s what we did! They came over, we had these great no-bake cookies, and some pumpkin pie and then we watched both the Halloween and the Thanksgiving one! I don’t think I saw the Halloween one very much growing up, but I’ve definitely seen the Thanksgiving one like, 600 times because as soon as it started I knew the song they were singing and remembered some of the jokes. It’s really funny to watch cartoons you’ve seen as a kid because they are so different in your memory than in real life---a lot more singing. It was great fun, and fun to have the Larsens over! They’re always a riot to be with (we went to a haunted house with them before Halloween), and you’ll be able to see just what kind of people they are if you read their “M.U.D.” post on their blog.
Up next is Garfield Christmas (which even though I haven't cheated yet and watched, I do know you can watch it in two parts here and here on YouTube)!

Super Awesome Baby Shower

This weekend Jennie Dean threw me a baby shower, and let’s be honest, showers (of any kind) have a risk of being the most ridiculous things ever, and not enjoyable at all. This however, was not one of those times---it was sooooooo fun. I had a stake nursery deal I had to go to from 10-11, so I came home to Jennie, Brandon, Brandon’s sister Britt, and Jordan decorating the house with balloons, and a great “It’s a Boy” sign, specially made by Jennie. She brought really really really good food---great pasta salad, and to be honest, I don’t like pasta salad, but this was sooooo good! It was pasta made from a box, but it was the kind where you use oil instead of mayonnaise and it was sooooooooo good! We also had these little chicken deals. I don’t actually know what they were, but they tasted like mini chicken cordon bleu’s. We also had chocolate chip cookies, which of course, no one can turn down.
The people who came to the shower were (from the top left, clockwise) Jennie, Kristi (and her baby Braydon), Jordelle, Elisa, Kaiter, Rebecca, me, and Heidi. It was so great to have everyone there. We started out just chillin and then played some games. Usually I hate games at showers, but the ones we had were fun. We played one where there was a list of physical characteristics the baby could have and whether I would want each characteristic to be from Jordan or from me, and the person who matched the most to my list got a prize. We also all got nametags that had words like “crib, diaper, blanket, etc.” and we had to call each other by that word instead of by our names. Mine was “breast pump.” It was awkward—it was funny though to call each other by the silly names.
We then moved on to painting onesies. It was super fun. Everyone’s onesies were so creative, and I’m super excited to put the baby in them! Jordan’s started praying for the baby to “be straight, be a Republican, and like to kill things,” so that’s what I wrote on the onesie I decorated.

Then we opened presents---of course that was a pretty cool part. Everyone was so generous with their gifts and it was so great of everyone to bring something so nice, and there were so many things I wouldn’t have even though of to buy, but now I’m really glad I have them.
All in all, it was a great baby shower, and I’m so glad everyone came, and so thankful to Jennie for throwing it for me. It sure was fun!

Baby Update

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday, and just an update on the baby--he had a growth spurt! I grew 5 cm in two weeks, so I guess he's growing fast! The doctor also said that he's positioned himself in place to be born! He's in the right position with his back facing outward, so no back labor! (unless he moves around within the next 9 weeks, which is of course, possible) I've had more than one or two strangers talk about how big I am, but the doctor says I'm within the limits of regular (on the larger side, but not huge). I asked a lot of questions about when I should go to the hospital, my options for right after he comes out and what would be most comfortable for me, and about how I'm not going to be pushing for 3 minutes, but that it'll be approximately an hour of pushing. All in all it was a good appointment, and I like that I get to go every two weeks now (every week would be much better, but that'll start in 5 weeks). I brought my friend Heidi with me (she's the girl in the Halloween pictures that isn't dressed up) for this one because she wanted to hear the baby's heartbeat, and it was fun to have her there.

Yay baby!

Weekend in Salmon

I don't have any pictures of our weekend in Salmon, so you're just going to have to go look at Jennie and Brandon's blog to see the pictures. It was a great weekend, filled with relaxation and the wonders of upstate Idaho. The drive was awesome (there are mountains on both sides with snow on top) and Salmon is such an awesome little town. Friday night we got there and chatted it up with Jen's great family, and then Brandon and Jordan argued about politics for like, 3 hours---super fun. The next day, as it says on Jennie's blog, the boys went duck hunting, and Jen, her sister, her mom, and I did crafts. The canvas things they were making were super cool, and Jen painted some huge clothes pins to hang stuff from. I painted some pictures to go in the baby's room. When the boys got home, we shot some clay pigeons outside and then went out on the town. We went to this great restaurant called Bertram's Brewery where we had fish and chips. It was super good. Then we went for a walk around Salmon, and it is a diamond in the rough! It's too bad we couldn't be there more days because it would have been fun to go around Salmon in the daytime when all the little shops were open. Jordan and Brandon fantasized about opening a sporting goods store while Jen and I dreamed about opening a decor (or something...I can't really remember now) store right next door. After an eventful experience at King's (which has really good sales), we went and got a movie called "Run Fat Boy, Run." It was a pretty funny movie. The night ended with a lively game of Catchphrase. The next day was church, a great spaghetti lunch, and an awesome game of "Oh heck" and "Egyptian Rat Race."

We were really glad we went to Salmon and can't wait to go again when it's nicer outside.

Halloween

I don't have time to write about the party itself, but here are the picture from our Halloween party---it was a blast, and I'm really glad we did it.

Jordan was "white trash" and I was an "unemployed geisha."